Monday, 7th May, 2007

"How's the House-Hunting Going?"

house

Truth is, it's not.

I had a little thought on the way to work the other day, about what it is that's really getting in the way (apart from my eternal procrastination) of me finding somewhere new to live. See, for the past few weeks or so, the idea of moving hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. I've been so wrapped up in other things that I just ahven't had the time to get much done to my place, and without it in a perfect (or near-to-perfect) state, I don't feel that I'm ready to shove it on the market.

But it struck me that one of the reasons why I'm just not excited about the idea at the moment, is because I haven't seen anywhere nice to live in Leeds so far.

I'm sure that there are nice places, it's just that I haven't had the time to go wandering around looking at things — making appointments to view is always fraught with difficulty, seeing as I seem to be permanently on-call at work at the moment, and doing anything after work means that I don't get home until Stupid O'Clock™

"What you need, Curran", I said to myself, "is to be house-hunting in Leeds while you're living in Leeds".

Renting!

Of course. Why not?

Why don't I rent somewhere temporarily — for about a year or so — and use that time to find a more permanent base?

Genius.

I mean, I realise I still need to sort here out — probably a bit more, truth be told, than just for selling. But for some reason the idea seems to sit nicer in my head — it's a transitional thing, rather than the full-on, feet-first, Let's Buy A House In Leeds™ bucket of dauntingness that I currently have.

...

I've been flicking through some renting sites online this evening, and there are some seriously nice places to be had for well within my budget. I just have one two little sticky issues that I'm not sure how to deal with, and I'm hoping someone might know the answer to.

(1) Biscuit. (2) Tish.

If I didn't have the kittens, it would be easy — I'd just cram my Mac Empire™ into a van (or two) and install myself in bachelor-pad heaven. But I need somewhere where I can take the kids as well — somewhere where they're going to be able to come and go as they please, somewhere where they're lifestyle isn't going to be much different from what it is now.

(OK, so technically all Biscuit needs is a bed and a window to look out of. It's Tish that needs to roam, and to have a cat flap)

The thing is you see, I want to be able to walk into some kind of shop, and say "Hello, I'd like to rent a flat for me and my kittens", and someone would pull a bundle on properties out of a filing cabinet (marked "Cats a priority") for me to choose from.

But I don't know if such a place exists

If I was a student, I'd nip across the road from work into the big student letting place, and I'm guessing they'd be able to do just that.

Does anywhere do that for lecturers?

Ex Position

photo kisa secondlife leeds

You know, interestingly, it doesn't feel very 'right' when I waltz around that build in a big dress. You'd think, perhaps, that it would be a perfect opportunity to live out the ultimate tranny fantasy, of parading around in the biggest dress possible in situations where you normally couldn't, but I find I feel a lot more comfortable wiggling my arse about the place in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

I was thinking, maybe, that this is because I'm still in the process of building it, and it's much more practical to be flinging huge blocks of primmage about in something less 'flouncy' — but that's ridiculous. In a virtual space it doesn't matter what I'm 'wearing' — it hardly impinges on my ability to scrub a mouse around a desk.

(Although you could, perhaps, argue that big floaty lacey bits that spin around every time you turn don't exactly help the building process )

What I do think though, is that there's a transference of the Real into the Virtual — I don't for one second actually want to run around our corridors in a frock, and even though I do wear women's clothes to work sometimes, it's only because they fit me better than their male versions — but there's a self-regulating sense of what feels comfortable in that environment.

And perhaps, in the same way that I go out of my way to make sure that my students don't find this blog — and keep my transvestism a very personal and seperate part of me, well away from that space — I dont feel comfortable invading that space with that which is very personable to me.

Although, having said that, they've pretty-much all found my blog recently...

Would it be silly to ask if you really have taffeta growing out of your armpits?

I'm going to ignore that, and put it down to an odd animation-glitch

it sounds like you're highlighting the difference between fantasy and reality... or something

Pretty-much. I think it's something to do with having complete freedom, and not really knowing what to do with it.

There's a twitter-comment buried in yesterday somewhere:

Siobhan: Have you ever really wanted to do something at times, and yet, when you CAN do it, you don't want to?

It's that peculiar mix of realities — theVirtual, the Fantastical, the Real — those moments of overlap between imaginary and actual — that I find particularly interesting. Like yesterday, when I revisited a cat-poo moment that I'd dreamt I'd dealt with — that confusions between what 'is' and what 'isn't' — its things like that that keep my brain on its toes.

Have you had any feed-back?

Well, when I say "all", I mean "all the ones who I figured would be OK in the first place". It's all OK