You know it is not at all easy to come up with something new, original and/or interesting every week. ‘Meanwhile Back in Reality’ was a great idea when I had a lot of time on my hands but these days I am pretty busy all the time, leaving me little time to sit down, ponder the subject of a ‘meanwhile’ then write the article. More often than not I end up writing it in the blurry hours of the morning with just the annoying bleeps and beeps of my American spell check program to keep me from falling into a deep comatose state!

This week is much the same as every other week. It has just gone midnight and here I am sitting in front of my trusty old Mac pondering on what I can tell you all about this time.

I could tell you about how confusing I find my all new central heating system to be, having somehow managed to mess it up to the point where my changes to it have now made it cease from working at all, leaving me sitting here in the attic room quite literally shivering as I write this.

Or maybe I should tell you all about the ceiling caving in at the flat below my old place in Birkenhead. But then, no, thinking about it, that might not be the wisest of ideas. “Anything you say maybe used as evidence” and all that.

Truth is I haven’t gotten a clue what to write about this week. I guess I have a case of what they call ‘writers block’. I’d write about writers block, but then that’s an extremely over used cliche isn’t it.

Instead I think I’ll just sit here in the cold and gripe about something that really gets up my nose, so to speak.

Companies that don’t return your calls or email. Yeah I know, this is a really lame excuse of a ‘Meanwhile‘ subject, but for weeks now I have wanted to moan about the fact that companies don’t appear to care about customer service once they have gotten your cash.

For example; Microsoft. Has anyone in the world ever gotten a reply from someone at the ‘Outlook Express’ or ‘Internet Explorer’ help email address? Or what about… [Click here to continue reading this article at 'Meanwhile']

This afternoon I took a few minutes out of unpacking boxes to sit down, have a cold root beer and catch my breath. Around me bedlam, my life in boxes and bags waiting to be redeposited in the new surroundings of an apartment in a two hundred year old building next to a thatched cottage and opposite a pub.

Over the weekend, helped by Will and Sarah, I packed my life into boxes to bring it here. I have to say I am shocked at the amount of stuff I have managed to accumulate over time. I remember the day I moved to Park Road South in Birkenhead, it took little more than an hour to move in. Most of that time was spent trying to fathom how to get my heavy old metal framed sofa bed into the studio flat!

This time it took the best part of the whole weekend. A seemingly never ending quantity of boxes had to be packed, put into the van, then bought here to be unloaded. I have come from what was essentially a bedsit (one room) to an apartment with five rooms and plenty of hall space, and yet I seemed to have already filled up all the available room!

It’s quite strange having different rooms. Simply making a cup of tea can now involves a hike down two sets of stairs! As I walked around the place trying to get things into order I thought about what a new feeling this was. Part of me was/is quite excited about this new place because I have never had so many rooms available exclusively for my own use!

One of the best things about my new abode is… [Click here to continue reading this article at 'Meanwhile']