Burglary a year on

(Wow that photo is a bit dark - it's taken from upstairs looking into the extension, to show the Christmas lights)

This time last year a burglar was settling in for the night somewhere in East London. It's a busy time of year for burglars, with lots of booty up for grabs and merry revellers not being as cautious as they should be. This week we heard of a local policewoman who had her door kicked in at 3pm and had everything taken from her home - presents included. In hindsight we got off lightly as our burglar only took electronic items and cash.

Only yesterday someone asked what the outcome of the burglary was for us - and I had to explain that we didn't get a penny of insurance because MoreThan are an unfair company. According to them, I should have double bolted the doors and slept with the alarm on - even though Rob was still out. Actually he was out til around 4.45am, and I would not have been a happy camper being woken up by him unable to get in. We have switched to a more ethical insurance company who mention that 'reasonable precautions' are made but none of the nonsense that MoreThan say we should have done. It has to be said, if you do happen to double lock your doors and sleep with your alarm on you probably won't need insurance against burglary, or fire for that matter as the chances of escaping in order to claim would be fairly slim. (Ok I am officially in a bad mood about this now - but thinking about losing £2,000+ worth of stuff that we had to replace despite paying premiums for so many years because of a ridiculous clause is irkesome).

Anyway - in other semi-related news: earlier this week the car alarm went off at 4am, repeatedly. It could only be reset by locking the door with a key and Rob gallantly made me do it. The same week one of the sensors in our security system decided it needed a new battery and it took 3 days of waiting for an ADT engineer to come round to replace it. Also in the same week, one of the wires on the garage door wiggled free which meant the entire mechanism wouldn't work (thankfully Rob has fixed it, for now). The theory that things happen in threes seems to hold true here!

Pictured above: Church Street in Stoke Newington, great way to spend a Saturday FYI.

Happy Festivus

Yowser, it's the middle of December yet I still feel in denial about the impending festive season. I blame the weather - this weekend kicked off with slight chill and a massive full moon rising (pictured top) which was visible through the night via our glass roof (yay), or rather it would have been if we were at home instead of raising all kinds of hell at a terrific party (cheers Tubbs! Happy birthday!).

The next night started with an impressive sunset, a dinner for 10 to watch the final of the X Factor and then out to another terrific party, where I DJd for the first time in public since June. Just goes to show that being jaded makes you play better as there was no shortage of lovely people coming to hi-five me mid set (that's never happened before).

And so, onto Sunday, where we hosted some Christmas drinks and mince pies and sat around our fake fire (yes it's a DVD)...

...and marvelled at the Christmas tree which now the kids can decorate by themselves (Result! And that's why you have kids)... so I guess it's time to start feeling festive. If the rumours are true and it snows this weekend then I'll be truly out of denial. Until then, I'm in an extended autumn frame of mind...