Brrrrr. This house doesn't have double glazing or central heating, so we are really feeling the current cold snap. There's a gas heater in the living room, so it's toasty down here, but as one progresses up through the house it gets colder and colder until your get to the attic bedroom where Bobby and I sleep, which is positively arctic. There is an electric wall heater there, but, even though it is very expensive to run, it's also not much good at providing any actual heat. This house has prepayment meters for gas and electricity - you have these little key thingies that you have to take to the post office, put money on (like a pay-as-you-go phone card, sort of), and then insert into the meter when you get home again to get light and heat. It's an irritating system, in that one has to be organised or run the risk of being in the cold and dark, and it's also the most expensive way to pay for your gas and electricity. And,the meters are in the scary cellar, which adds to the bother of the whole thing. However, it does make one very careful about switching lights and so on off - it is quite sobering seeing the amount of money on the meter ticking down.

The good news is, though, that it seems as though we may yet be able to move into the house we've been trying to buy for the past six months. Our seller has found another house to buy, and her seller doesn't need to find anywhere to buy (she's moving into a caravan, apparently, which sounds absolutely deranged to me but hopefully she won't come to her senses till it's too late to back out of the deal), so there's no onward chain. According to our estate agent, we could be in by January. So with any luck we may not have to spend the whole winter here.

Even better news is that those blood tests I had last week came back "fine", according to the doctor's receptionist. I'm quite relieved; when you type my symptoms - unexplained bruising, fatigue and muscle weakness - into Google (I know, I know, one should never do that) you get a bunch of dread diseases. So while I still have the rather unpleasant symptoms at least I can stop worrying that I'm going to die of them.