Following a lengthy hiatus, we are finally moving to our new address on 25 November. When I temporarily closed the business in August, I expected the process of preparing the new house for occupancy to take no more than a few weeks, but in fact it has taken an incredible three months. The situation was not helped by the fact I tore a tendon in my right hand (while simply cleaning a carpet stain with a cloth, of all things) on 4 October, which resulted in my finger being in a splint 24/7 for six weeks. Moreover, the building survey overlooked several issues at the property, and we have ended up replacing windows and getting a new roof fitted over the utility room. My hand injury made heavy going of the installation of a new kitchen sink (the old one being rotten and unusable), which I had to do myself when the tradesman I had enlisted to help failed to show up. The water was shut off at the property for ten days while I labouriously replaced all the copper pipe fittings, installed isolating valves, hoses, fitted a new sink cabinet and rescued the worktop, whose underside had started to rot owing to water ingress. Not only this, but a local timber merchant required two attempts to cut one piece of melamine chipboard to order, and Wickes’ kitchen department managed to deliver a wall cabinet instead of the expensive appliance door I had ordered a week earlier. Of course, the whole process has also been overshadowed by the loss of Deborah’s mother, who died at the end of August.

So: a difficult and stressful time, not that stress was unexpected in itself. Naturally I now have a backlog of work to catch up on, and urgently so given the enormous expense incurred by various unforeseen issues at the new property. I hope to be fully back up and running at the end of November, anyway, and producing videos at a fairly regular rate (I have a few Ataris ready to unbox and commence work on as soon as my new office is fit for use).

Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding.