Hint: not far at all.
If you’re one of the handful of readers of this blog, you probably noticed that I’ve been awfully quiet for quite literally most of 2025. Unlike the previous time I took a sudden hiatus, the reason this time is a happy one: my wife and I decided to move out of London, and get our own place, given the list of grievances with renting in London at this point in time.
Side note: I’m very happy to have seen the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 being made into law, as it covers a number of the points of my rant last year, particularly the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman, and the application of Awaab’s Law (which effectively defines SLAs on maintenace), both items I have explicitly wished for at the end of said post. Just because we’re no longer renters, doesn’t mean I’m suddenly disinterested in their rights!
This shouldn’t really be a surprise – I have stated so last year that we’ve been considering buying our own house – but what was surprising to us was the chaos that ensued last February, when we had to leave the flat we lived in since the pandemic in a hurry, because the heating was still unrepaired (I believe they might have repaired it by April, at which point the cooling was more important than the heating.)
Now, to dots the is and cross the ts, I should say that despite this being an unplanned rush move to our new city, it wasn’t really for the worst: the new-built house wasn’t ready yet by the time we had to run, so we looked for a cheap(er) rental in the same city, and that was a blessing in disguise as it meant that it became a lot easier (and cheaper) to go back and forth to the house once they released us the keys — because as it turned out, we had a lot of things to take care before we could be living in it.
Which is why I’ve been leaving myself note for topics to write about, but haven’t been able to write anything in a long while. All of my energy has been spread between getting the house ready (it’s still not complete) and work — with an occasional stint on videogames, but rarely for more than an hour in the evening when I’ve been lucky.
More recently, though, I took a long, relaxing trip to Taiwan with my wife, which has definitely helped recharging my ability to do stuff, although it’s still a far cry from last year to this day. My hope is to be able to write up enough drafts over the next few weeks, making the best use of the holiday slumber, that would allow me to fill up enough slots starting 2026, and go back to more regular posting.
And so, while neither Aziraphale nor Crowley would claim responsibility for it, I do find Milton Keynes to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live.
