Saturday, January 23

Naa has been saving for an apartment since she was about fourteen. Recently she has been seriously thinking about finding one and moving out, and has started looking at apartments online. Yesterday evening we found a suitable apartment very near to Itis. This morning we arranged to see it.

I went for a pre-breakfast walk because the weather had gone disctinctly warmer and pleasurable walking suddenly seemed possible. Then we did a bit of cleaning, I had a shower, and we left to look at the apartment.

We were the first to view it and Naa fell in love with it immediately. We could see why. The apartment itself was almost perfect, the house was well-maintained and quiet, and the location was ideal. She made an offer and then left to go to the cinema.

We went to Prisma and then went home. The estate agent phoned and there were a few hours of nail-biting doubt.

Now Naa is back from the cinema and the estate agent has just phoned to say that Naa’s offer for the apartment has been accepted. She can move in at the beginning of March. There is a miniature bottle of champagne that has been in the fridge for months, and we are just about to raise a toast.

We will spend the rest of the evening in a state of high excitement. I will offer Naa a couple of recipe books, which makes sense at the time; and she will start planning.

By the time we go to bed we will have come to realise the unlikely speed of this adventure. As we already know to our cost, when things change they can change remarkably quickly.

Surprise am us.