Sometimes, the sundries, the necessities and the luxuries all combine to cost more than you would ever have thought possible. My refrain this month has been ‘Money, money money- it’s a rich man’s world!’ Or woman’s world. However bothered you are by equal gender representation in your blog, the point is that the last month and a bit have been pretty pressing on the budget. Things that are taking up money are as follows:

1. Djurgarden. We love- and curse- him in equal measure. He has brought so much happiness to us. He has seen us through the winter. He has made carrying groceries in the rain much more pleasurable. He has also had a service that cost 2/3 of his book value, followed by a blown head gasket, currently priced to cost 4/3 of his book value. Yes- the estimated cost of fixing the broken part is indeed a quarter more than the car costs. Djurgarden has ended up being an extremely expensive lesson in the law of diminishing returns, and I am not convinced that the lesson is over yet. We are currently looking at new cars to replace him with.
2. Travel. Travelling is one of the main reasons we have come overseas, and it is very enthralling to have the opportunity to travel so extensively.However, as Kyle so clearly explained in a graph last year, when you plan holidays, we are generally paying for them several months ahead of time. Being more savvy than last year, we are generally paying for our holidays many, many months ahead of time to get cheaper rates. This means that February and March have been extremely lean months as we have absorbed the costs for Stockholm, Birmingham, Alicante, Venice, Milan, Verona, a trip home for me, Prage and a trip to Croatia in August. That is a lot of flights, and a lot of accommodation. However, as I mentioned before I am also extremely lucky to be in the position of being able to travel to all these wonderful places, so I’ll understand if the sympathy is a bit thin on the ground.
3. General. You know how it is- some food, some clothing, internet and central heating bills and the next thing you know money is tighter than is generally agreeable.

However, money or no money, life is continuing as it is wont to do. Last weekend we headed down to Leamington Spa to chillax with Louise and Rob, which was fantastic. We all honed our card skills, maximised on the human potential to eat lasagne and even rode bikes. It was great. I arrived back to a hectic week of re-launching my site, so check it out if you care. The manic-ness seems to have subsided, and we seem to be getting back into the flow of things. This weekend’s upcoming highlights are, in no particular order:
· Ice cream
· Dexter
· Tracksuit pants.

What can I say? Sometimes you have to live wild.

Ps: For no particular reason, I have re-discovered Meatloaf and Roxette. I mean, no particular reason other than that they are *awesome*. I've been listening to 'Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through' all morning. If you haven't done this in a while, you should.