This weekend was also lovely; this time I cycled to the coast, then up to Beddlington, across toward Morpeth. By the time I got to the Morpeth road I was exhausted. I guess 12 miles up hill, against a wind will do this to you. So I cut out Morpeth and just came home.

42 miles in total. Too far, I fear. A bit disappointing as it should have be fine; less than last week and with a lot of road involved. Went at about the same speed too. I have some way to go before I can get to the 100 it appears.

I decided that I was going to try and cycle to Hexham to do. It was a perfect day for it, but then I haven't been out for a long bike ride for a while. I've been a lot of the way before, but forgot my map; not normally a problem on the road, cause you can follow the signs.

This time, it was more of a problem. I got as far as Corbridge and then decided to come back; when I got home I found I was only 3, maybe 4, miles short of Hexham; if I'd had a map, I'd probably have known. Flip side is, I was pretty popped when I got back; the extra 9 miles might not have been a good idea. As it was, I managed to do 45 miles, which was not too bad.

Well, things have improved somewhat. We have notice from the bank that the hearing will now no longer go ahead, which suggests that the landlord has paid. Also, British Gas came and fixed our heating; it took a long time to work out, but this consisted of turning a valve that the first plumber had switched off, back on again.

It's all pretty tiresome.

I've never been here before. but I like it. The Scandinavian countries all seem lovely. They are understated, quiet and have an effortless beauty about them. It's a wonderful place; the sort of place that I would love to spend some time in, even if all the road signs are incomprehensible. If I could afford to spend more time here, then I probably would.

Now it's late, so time to sleep.

Several months ago, I moved house. I should say now, that main reason for doing this was to move in with the other half; I only mention this because she was irritated that she got so few mentions when I was talking about our holiday. My explanation was this blog is called "An exercise in irrelevance" because it has nothing important in it and that she has her own blog so why should she want to appear on mine. Impeccable logic I thought; she didn't.

Anyway, coming back from the social melodrama, a few months ago, we moved house. It's quite a nice place; it's unfurnished so has required a lot of work buying furniture, screwing it to together and standing it upright (having, of course, carefully hoovered underneath first). Although it's left me tired and drained, I've enjoyed it. The flat, however, it turning out to be a bit of a disaster.

The letting agents, Countrywide Residential, have been fairly poor from the start. Obviously, this is all my misunderstanding, and is not what happened at all, but they appeared to phone me up the day before the lease at 4pm, say we were required to have contents insurance and then offer to sell us the same for 3 time the market average. My mistake, but it appeared to be a filibuster. Obviously, this is not what they did say, because the lease does not require insurance; probably, they were just trying to be kind and help us with some organising. No doubt, their deal was different from the ones we found on the internet and were no way comparable, hence the price.

We've now had the plumbers out three times to the heating system; once because the timer has broken, once because it was leaking and now, it's no longer leaking but it ain't working either. So, no hot water. Not too much of a disaster for me as I am going to Stockholm for a conference, but a pain for my other half (two mentions in one post!).

Still, this seems to be getting sorted now. But we got home last night to find that the Royal Bank of Scotland (my bank incidentally) is taking the landlord to court for repossession. For foreign readers of this blog of whom there are none, in most sane countries tenants have pretty strong rights; if you pay the rent, you stay in the property. In the UK, we have very few rights; you can get kicked out for little reason. One of the few rights we do have is an initial 6 month rental period; in that time, it's hard to get rid of a tenant. Unless the landlord doesn't pay his mortgage and gets repossessed. Under these circumstances, you are out. So, potentially in a months time, having not quite moved in yet, we'll be putting everything into boxes and moving again; in the middle of teaching term also.

As a society, I think that we have to learn that rising house prices does not constitute a boom and that falling house prices a recession. Both of them are a disaster. Steady, reasonably priced, affordable houses are the only way forward. It's about time that we grew up from our free market childishness and realised that a house is not an investment, it's something to live in.

For us, the worst case outcome is not a disaster; it's an inconvienience, a cost and a lot of hassle, so I'm not depressed, just irritated. I know for many others, the situation is much, much worse.

I managed to get our on my bike at the weekend; I travelled up the north side of the Tyne. I've done this before, but went further, through Wylam and out the other end; it's a really nice ride, although not that fast as the surfaces are a little rough. In the end, I decided to come back on the south bank, as I've not done this before. Took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, but I mostly came down Keelmans Way. The Gateshead side of the Tyne is more industrial than the North, and Keelmans Way reflects this; instead of fields, pubs and villages, you cycle over steel bridges, peers and through industrial estates. It's still quiet, though, and great fun. I have to admit, though, as I came into Gateshead, that I was gob-smacked when I cycled through a gap in a hedgerow and found myself on the ring road of the metrocentre. I had no idea it was so close to the river, and that I was so close to it.

Only managed 30 miles, but this was mostly because I had other things to do. I want to try and up this. If I can keep going over winter, with any luck, I should be able to do the 100 mile in next years cyclone.