[ 00:25 thursday 25 january – springdale road , stoke newington , london ]

together with my friend inaki i shook hands on the lease for a flat about five hours ago . it’s in the east end , a couple of blocks back from shoreditch church , at the northern end of brick lane .

not at all what we were expecting to choose . specifically , the building does not appear to have been employed for heavy industrial uses at any point in its history . i should say that it and the surrounding developments were thrown up by speculative developers some time in the early twentieth century , providing housing close to the city for the rapidly expanding professional class . five storeys of solid red edwardian brick .

our flat is on the top floor , up ten flights of echoey stone stairs with an iron railing . the front door opens onto a long corridor . high ceilings , hardly any traffic noise , trees outside , plenty of light . it is a place in which one can breathe and move . for six months it is my home .

the current decoration is somewhat startling . improbable colours on the walls . stomach-churning carpets . furniture straight from the set of a harold pinter play . so inaki and i have agreed to wreak some kind of transformation on the place in return for the owner accepting sub-market rent . hehe ! inaki suggested the idea and i liked it immediately . this will produce an agreeable environment in which to live and work whilst also forcing me into some good old-fashioned practical work to balance all the computery shenanigans .

it is a relief to have the business of house-hunting wrapped up . we started on saturday but by tuesday my temper was already deteriorating.

contracts will be signed this evening . inaki and i plan to take possession on saturday . so i think we might have a party on saturday night (to which you are all invited) .

then i have a lot of work to do .

: cH