Canterbury - 30th November, 2005

Julie is well into her 2nd week of "hamper factory". She is working very hard (physically). It's a man's job really (ok calm down you lot!) but she is pretty tough. She is on her feet all day, sometimes packing as many as 150 to 200 small (8-12 items) hampers. It's pretty certain that her output is at least as good as the regulars there. They have many temporary staff there but most of them (of 12 who started 3 weeks ago only 1 survives) just can't hack it.

She comes home at night with a very stiff back and fingers and hands that are dry and chaffed. She has to endure 8 hours of non-stop Virgin Radio. That alone must be torture. She has conversations that leave her speechless (a girl who was talking about "O" level said; "Well if I had any "O" levels I wouldn't be working here would I?" and "who do you think is going to be the next person to leave Celebrity Get Me Out of Here").

It's quite interesting for me to have her see what I did for 10 years. Now she knows. Someone (mentioning no names CHARLOTTE B!!) had the audacity to remark, that now that I am a house husband, I am at least doing the cooking (for a change) or is it that I am doing the defrosting? Can you imagine? All I can say is that I wish I had been doing what I am doing now for the last 10 years! At least you can do it in a building that is more than a single degree above ambient.

The "I earn it - she spends it" lifestyle we enjoyed so much previously is a little harder to stomach when the shoe is on the other foot. N'est pas? My last expedition to the Stelling Minnis Country Store (our local store 2 and half miles away) cost £27.00 which she dutifully told me she had worked most of a day to earn and why was it that we needed a "bake your own bagette", sweets for the boys, a video, some beer and some batteries (for the computer mouse). I couldn't really answer that.

Normal service will be resumed. I keep reminding the boys of this as I serve them burnt sausages for the 3rd time in a row. Why don't we both stick to what we are good at? The thing is that women (of the age we are) are far more "employable" than men. Mature women are a far better bet for getting on with the job than grumpy old men. As an employer myself (or previously anyway) I can only confirm that in my experience this is the case. This is why I am at home and Julie is in the hamper factory (as we call it in-house).

For some reason (and I blame the Ag family) we are now Archers fans. I guess it has something to do with the fact that the boys have no access to TV. They do latch on to any other media if they can, for instance both of them are a request for radio 4 news in the morning. This seems like a good thing but what with the Archers and the daily news, we spend an awful lot of time explaining things like; gays rights, DNA testing to determine paternity, homosexual bishops, sexual assault, teacher sex with pupils, naked dancing marines and other interesting subjects. Perhaps we should just switch on CBBC.

We have bought our first property. You will see it here: Our First Canterbury Property. It's a property divided into 2 flats with 2 bedrooms each. We have given up on the B&B idea. The only financing you can get for an existing B&B is commercial. This means mortgage rates of 8% (variable) and they must be repayment mortgages. I just don't want to have to go to bed at night wondering what the Monetary Policy Committee is going to do to my life. Fixed rates are more up my street.

Our idea now is to buy a number of properties and set up an accommodation business with these. We hope to be able to do some serviced appartments or at least self-catering units with this first property and then buy some students let houses and (hopefully!) a property where we can live and have some students or a few B&B's.