Dear Chris,

I can’t claim to “know” you, after all I was just another reader.

Your site was one of the most undesigned and visually unremarkable blogs I have ever read, and yet I always looked forward to hearing what you had to say.

You single-handedly got me interested in politics again, educated me on ID cards, speed cameras, the database state, terrorism, and your occasional holiday snaps.

You wrote infrequently, but every post was researched to meticulous detail and always worth reading.

You encouraged me to participate and to be a little bit more cynical.

You’ll be missed.

Pewari.

(An excellent tribute here)

This is a fascinating video doing the rounds at the moment – how the Web developed and what it can become.

Truly mind-blowing and incredibly cleverly put together. We’ve come a long way in the last decade or so, haven’t we?

… and we have a month’s grace to get ours on the market and sold. We were fortunate that we asked before they’d signed contracts with the estate agent, making life cheaper and more straight-forward.

By going round it we’ve confirmed that the house is lovely – a few minor niggles (but nothing is ever perfect, is it?) and a lot of huge bonuses. Akra Jr has gone from being really negative about the idea of leaving this house to being excited about the room he has chosen in the new one.

Of course, it still might not come to pass. We might not sell this one in time.

We have an agreement with the owners that if for any reason it doesn’t work out that there’s no hard feelings but have promised to keep communication lines open at all times. We still love the house we’re in, so if the end result is that we’re staying here after all we won’t really feel like we’ve lost out.

Now all we have to do next is run the gauntlet of the estate agents…

We hadn’t planned to move for a while yet. The horrors of the last move are still well remembered. We’d intended to be in this house until Li’l Bhaji was at least school age and finances were a little more fluid.

The only thing is, life is rarely that simple.

There’s a house nearby. One we’ve always gone past and said that if it ever came up on the market, we’d love to live there. We’d have a spare bedroom again. Decent amount of parking space outside (no more scrabbling to find space on the road because the camper is taking up the garage). Lots of scope to do things with later on. We know the neighbours and know we would get on. We know the neighbourhood, the facilities available, what the traffic is like, what it’s like at night.

The time it’s come on the market is now.

Bugger.

We’ve done the sums and phoned around. Mortgage lenders don’t fall about laughing. The increase in monthly payments are possible but it would be very tight for a while.

Are we being foolish even considering it? Probably. Will we regret it if we don’t try? Probably. Do I really want to go through all the hassle of putting this house on the market and keeping it immaculate for months on end? Do I have to answer that?

We’re going for a viewing this weekend.

Urk.