On this day last year, I found out that I hadn't got the job I'd just applied for.

Exactly one year later, things are looking up.

Today, I got the first of my new job's paychecks. While the salary is still rather sad, it's a lot more than my last job paid, and, more importantly, I'm loving work.

Also today, I picked up the keys for our new house. (Very easy to do, as I walk right past the estate agency on my way home from work.)

Yes, it's finally really and truly ours!

(Side-note on England vs Florida ... when we bought our house in Oviedo, the estate agent gave us a $50 gift certificate to a local restaurant when we got the keys. Here, the estate agent gave us ... a key chain with their logo on it. But I digress.)

I can't wait to move! We went round to the house this evening (of course) and started planning the redecoration. One nice side effect of living in our current quarters is that, this evening, we didn't get that sinking feeling one often gets when one sees the new house without its furniture and so forth for the first time - you know, when you see the faded marks on the carpet and the scuffs on the paintwork, and it all seems a bit smaller and tattier than you remembered it, and you wonder if maybe you made a horrible mistake when you chose the house in the first place. Because compared to this house, the new house, which is really quite ordinary, seems absolutely palatial, old carpets and all.