A rolling stone gathers no moss

After weeks of uncertainty I finally completed the sale of my flat on Friday, and what a relief that is. My furniture has been given away and my goods and chattels put into storage at my mates place in Galloway. All that's left to go is my car, which will be going to Galloway too in three weeks.

I drove past the flat on Saturday after a day of hitting the shops for a few of the things I need for my journey. It was a strange feeling to think "there's my flat" and not be able to go in anymore, while also being hopeful about what the future will bring.

My plans have changed somewhat since I wrote of my intended route across Siberia some weeks ago. I have managed to find someone with a yacht who is sailing from Gran Canaria to Trinidad & Tobago at the end of November. The sun wins out over snow and hypothermia every time I'm afraid!

I should be daunted by the prospect of sailing a 32ft yacht across the Atlantic but the thrill of the adventure means that everyone's well meaning cautions get lost in my head. Of course I'm concerned for my safety, but I could as easily be hit by a bus on Princes Street tomorrow as fall off the back of a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

There is only one thing I am certain of; my life will never be the same again...

Necessity is the mother of all invention

I cannot believe how stupid I have been. For the last three years I've believed my dishwasher to be broken. As it's just me I've never bothered to replace it or get it fixed.

It's taken the sale of my flat and a request from the purchaser to be shown how everything works to actually investigate why the damn thing doesn't work. I feel quite foolish not to have worked it out before.

After pressing various buttons, which all light up, closing the door and listening to the water pump churn to no effect I thought about looking behind the machine. After removing the kick board and pulling the thing out from it's home under the bench I found the water pipe had a kink which was preventing water getting through.

It seems when my washing machine was plumbed in that the handyman put a kink in the pipe preventing water getting through and the machine from working.

Three years it's not worked, three years I a simple look under the sink would have sorted it out. It took selling the flat for me to do something about it.