Slow and Steady Progress

The last two weeks have been eventful, on the home buying front, my mortgage has been approved, the valuation came in £5000 under the price I agreed to buy it for, I did have to increase my deposit amount as a result since the loan value could be no more than 60% of the property value. The bank is now waiting on the certificate of title from my solicitors, I gave them a call and it seems like they’ve done little work to date, completion is going to be a long while away, I sent them £225 so they could conduct searches, that’s where we’re at. This is beneficial to me as I am running low on disposable funds. I’ve told some family about the purchase and they are impressed as it borders Pakistani territory, it’s considered a good location.

A guy from work offered me a lift back home while seeing my walk down the road, he spotted me in ASDA a few times so knew we were going the same way. We’ve had a total of 3 trips together and the topic of conversation has always been driving, I still struggle to evolve the topic of conversation, I also wish to show my appreciation for his kindness.

My driving lessons are….continuing, the reverse bay park is 50/50 but I am quite good at parallel parking, I make errors when general driving though. I’m paying for 2 hours a week and my instructor says he’ll make time for me to take additional hours before my test.

A fun little story from work, the guy who supposedly does my job during the day asked if he could take the week of holidays I booked off, as both of us can’t be off at the same time and his kid has half term so he will need to sort child care while he’s at work. It would have been fun to screw around with him a bit and see if he had anything he was willing to trade but it’s unlikely, the last week in October is a good one and I doubt he has anything in November/December that he either has or is willing to give up, it would just make me look bad opening up to trade but then refusing the crap he has to offer. Mostly though, I rebuffed him because he opened up his request by asking if I actually had anything planned for my time off work. I didn’t want to seem rude by telling him to just get lost so I claimed to have a holiday to Pakistan booked, I did think about saying it was either Dubai or the French Riviera that I was headed too but I don’t think that would have been believable.

My sister got a promotion at work, the other one switched careers, seems like a step up. I find it quite puzzling how they were able to move up the ladder given our disadvantages in life, in my opinion we pretty much have all the downsides of both 1st and 4th generation immigrants with none of the upside other than self awareness which in this case is more of a curse.

I’ve finished “Soul Hackers 2”, it’s crap, currently playing “Gravity Rush”, it’s good, still trying to get “Digimon Survive” for a good price but the October PS Plus Extra games lineup should serve me well (Assassin’s Creed 3, GTA Vice City Remastered, Medium, possibly the Dragon Quest Heroes games and the upgraded version of Dragon Quest 11, it’s a shame Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is only playable on the PS4 as the PS5 version is “broken”).

Slumlord

I am pretty anxious right now and not had a good night’s sleep for a while. The house offer was accepted, as my mum said, “of course it was, you went 10k over the listed price”. I’ve got solicitors firm to do the legal part (costing over £1300), I’ve applied for my mortgage, I got in just before the rates changed, fixed at 3.7% for 5 years, 15 year mortgage that I could pay off in 10. Yesterday, the mortgage people did a survey/valuation.

What’s causing the anxiety is the changing market, I should probably ask for a reduction in the price at the very least and what if I just waited, what if the house prices completely crashed, I’d be able to pick up something even better, but it’s unknown how far they’ll fall. I think I’ll wait until the valuation, I’ll then have more of a leg to stand on when asking for 6k off the price, I’m also unsure of how much of a reduction to ask for. I feel like I’m really getting ripped off but I don’t know any better.

I’m still not completely done with the insurance people, I’ve agreed to a £1000 settlement but still need to send over another signed document. Me and my father no longer speak since his return from Pakistan, he tried giving me lifts to work, I refused, threatened to kill him and have been getting the bus back ever since, he also used to ambush me at work and give me a lift home, originally I accepted them but eventually refused, I felt guilt but had to overcome it, I no longer get lifts to and from work from him anymore.

I’m watching the new Lord of the Rings show with my mother, we’re enjoying it. My favourite storylines are the Hobbit girl with the meteor man and the Black Elf in the Southlands. The series gets going at episode 3 and kicks off at episode 6. In terms of video games, I playing Soul Hackers 2, I do not recommend it, it’s a very cheap and interior in every way version of Persona, it is much harder though.

I got caught in heavy rain yesterday and washed my clothes for the first time in around 2 months. I also washed and dried my backpack, this was a mistake, the bag lost its shape. My bed is broken, the wooden planks around the middle have fallen out of their slots, I balance them on the edges but they always end up falling.