Battersea

The electrician, R, came back today to complete the replacement of the distribution board. He asked me a couple of simple questions which left me grasping for answers. He wanted to know about the doorbell. Did I want to leave the circuit in as a temporary circuit, and then what I was planning to do long term with the doorbell. I don’t know I have even thought about the doorbell until he asked.

Second, he pointed out there was another circuit which was for something else in the house, and he asked how I wanted to approach that. Then I asked him a couple of general questions about ring mains and capacity of the domestic circuits, and one of the things he said is there’s really no upper limit on how many sockets you put on a ring main. The likelihood of drawing so much power through a ring main that it trips something is just very, very small.

I will say I getting the electrical work done has cost a lot more money than I wanted it to, but then what isn’t that true of in 2026? I think the general feeling is we’ve got less money and everything costs more too. Should we always feel wealthier each year? What is it that should guarantee every year we are more and more wealthy rather than less? So I can’t complain. I’m able to feed myself, to have a nice house to live in, and I’ve got plenty to do. Perhaps a little too much to do!

Because he was replacing the distribution board, there was no electricity in the house and so I asked D if I could go and spend the afternoon at his house. Fortunately he said I could and so I drove over picking up sandwiches from Tesco and we had lunch together and then I spent the afternoon in his house.

In the evening I came back to the house, got my black tie outfit on, drove into London, dropped the car off at M’s flat in Canary Wharf and then took first the DLR to Bank and then the Northern Line to Battersea Station. At Battersea Evolution I joined my former colleagues for the UK IT industry Awards. That was a lively evening. A relatively small group from Heathrow, about 10 people, and we won our category, which is really great. So we got to celebrate and be on stage rather than just eating a costly dinner. I suppose the other part of that is being out until the early hours of the morning, which isn’t something I do very often.

I did see a lady in a red dress who looked really cute and interesting and B offered to help me. So he sort of wingmanned and we went over and introduced ourselves and asked if they’d won any awards and got chatting. But I noticed that she was wearing a wedding ring and so didn’t make any effort to chat her up or start any conversation. I was quite impressed by B’s willingness to act as a wingman. Later he introduced me to his boss and colleague and so. I just continue to try to set myself up for some opportunities with them in the future.

I’ve got this interview tomorrow and I hope that that goes well. This is day three of unemployment, but at the same time, it’s weird not to have a job. And to be spending my money so rapidly. So yeah, quite keen to get another job and begin that process of earning money rather than only spending it.

Also really grateful to M and R for letting me stay in their flat. It’s a huge privilege to be able to have a place to stay so that the things like this, I mean, when I, when I got back, it was really late and I was exhausted and I was able to just climb into a clean fresh bed, sleep and with no alarm sleep through to until about 8:00 and then drove back home.