Some you win, some you lose... At the end of the day it means next to nothing

This week I returned to my new abode "up North" having had rather limited success with the estate agent about the cleanliness of my flat. Luckily, I can happily update you, my faithful readers, that just one of my complaints was attended to. I had numerous conversations with the office last week as a result of a letter of complaint - that was simultaneously a disclaimer for any damage they might try stinging me for at the end of my contract -, where I was told that the maintenance manager had inspected my flat and that it was clean and up to standard - my objective opinion is that he doesn't do much cleaning; my subjective opinion is that he didn't go there at all. So as it was so clean, how come I ruined three cloths cleaning the kitchen alone on Wednesday morning? Note that just cleaning the outside of the fridge (I couldn't bring myself to do the inside just yet) took one of those three...

Needless to say, the place is looking rather homely and relatively clean (although I'd like to give it the once over again when I move in permanently in the middle of next week) in comparison to what it was. Making me a lot more smiley than I was when I last posted, you'll be pleased to hear (read?).

So onto more pressing matters. Yesterday saw the first day of my PGCE course - the induction day. As induction days go, it was pretty painless. Menial introductions, reluctance to talk to one person for too long and forgetting names as quickly as they'd been introduced was pretty much the agenda for the day. As for the organisation, well it was pretty well managed I'd say. I've seen a lot worse and most of the problems were for the people who'd made late applications for the course. The only thing that affected almost everybody was that everyone had to print out their registration certificate they could get their student card and suchlike - which, of course, many hadn't as it didn't say at the time that we would need a print-out. So those who generally obsess about printing everything just in case, myself included, were OK and got through the process quickly enough with enough time left for a coffee before the next session.

Then the wonderful habitual repetition so commonly associated with inductions began. As you can imagine, it got rather tedious at times but as the staff and we all very well know, there'll be at least one person who still won't quite be up to speed after being told a gazillion times. I hope to God that person isn't me.