So here I am. I am typing this sitting in Beanscene just behind Byres Road, which is currently also known as my second living room for reasons that will, I hope, soon become apparent.

I was due to move into my new flat last Thursday, which was good, as that was also when I was due to move out of my old plcae. All well so far. Unfortunately, things went less than smoothly.

My movers turned up at 1pm, and packed up all my stuff into two big vans. They were done by 3.30; I still had no word on the money for my place, never mind buying my new one. Finally, at 4.30pm, the money for mine came through. I handed over keys and headed west, hoping to be able to pick up the keys for new place before all solicitors in the country closed at 5.

Big mistake.

The solicitors for the people I was buying from decided that 4.55pm was a good time to inform my solicitors that they hadn't received the cheque to pay for my new flat in the post (apparently these things are sent in advance and then they get the go-ahead to cash them at the appropriate point). No cheque, no keys. I ended up with no flat on Thursday night; this was not fun.

Well, actually, it was more fun than I'd expected, as I went to stay at my friend Cat's and we had large amounts of wine, but still.

Luckily, my wonderful movers took everything away and were able to bring it back the next day, when I finally managed to get my keys at 11. They turned up at about 3.45pm, and everything was in the flat 45 minutes later - hurrah!

So I stayed there for the first time on Friday night, and now I'm at the stage of getting tradesmen around to quote for the (not inconsiderable) amount of work that needs done over the coming weeks. I've got a lekkytrishun booked to come starting next Wednesday to rewire the place; and a joiner showed me the nice hardwood I want for my floor yesterday and told me it would cost around half what I'd expected, which was an added bonus.

Unfortunately, Mr BT man was due to come last Friday morning to hook up my phone line. Owing to my not having a flat at that point, I had to put him off for a week, so I am without phone (and as such, without internet). It's not that much of a trial, though; it gives me an excuse to sling my laptop in my backpack and head for Byres Road every couple of days for an hour or two, sit in the corner in Beanscene and get caught up with stuff.

I also had a heating engineer, who nearly had a fit when he saw the state of the gas fire and instantly stuck a condemned sticker on it. Oh, and my electrician found out that my entire cooker is being run off a 13-amp fuse, instead of the 40 that would be normal. This is not a good thing, frankly. But hey, this is why I'm getting all these things checked and fixed

So yes, it was a stressful end of last week, but I am in now and it's a nice flat, good location and so handy for underground, trains, shops (Sainsbury's is less than 5mins away, and there's a newsagent even closer). I am happy.

For now, I best go. I finished my coffee 20mins ago and I think the Beanscene peeps might start to get upset some time soon. Also, I have to go to banks as the "notify one million people I've moved" fun continues...

Expect regular updates on how the revamp is going. I plan to take some "before" pics in the next couple of days, and I'll get some during and after shots too, just to show how much it's changed.

For now, Dave's top tip: get yourself a good solicitor whenever you're buying somewhere. It might not stop you from being homeless, but they'll certainly fight to get you your money back!

I signed up to try out the BBC's wonderful new iPlayer doofer on Friday. I haven't played with it much, but I thought I'd share my experiences for anyone considering it.

First off, I should say it's really quite swish. The interface looks fantastic, and there seems to already be a fair whack of shows appearing on it - I downloaded last week's Still Game without a hitch, for example (although it took about an hour, which was odd). There's also a few series of things that haven't been on in the past few days, like Doctor Who and suchlike. I just started downloading a second show through the iPlayer, and it tells me an hour's TV is 387MB, which isn't bad, and will take around 1hr 55mins, which is a bit on the slow side but copable with if, I guess, you've missed something.

But there are quite a few bad things. In fact, there are so many that I'm going to use the Read more link thinky for the first time here... click it to read on. Ta.

the software that runs this site - which I coded, incidentally - is up for an award, which is quite cool. It was randomly nominated for the Open Source CMS awards 2007, which is cool enough, but the top prize is $5000, which is much cooler.

I doubt it'll win; last year's top five was full of some big names on the world's geekiest "scene" - but it's a nice thought. Especially as it looks like I'll be on strike from other job from Friday, which somewhat cuts my income.

Anyway, if anyone so cares you can nominate me to win lots of money here - for the best PHP CMS - or here - for the best overall CMS. Overall would be better because that would get me more cash, but I'll settle for either. Or both, if you have the time, thanks awfully.

More chat about flats and such soon, no doubt, I have about a million things to plan and no time to do it in, so I should really go to bed. I'll do that, in fact.

I am moving! My old flat had already sold, and today I had an offer on a new one - the one in the pic, oddly enough, accepted!

It's just around the corner from where I used to live before I moved south of the river, which is cool as it's an area I know and like, handy for shops, the underground, Byres Road and easy to get to work from. And it's really quiet, too. All is good.

The big day is planned for August 9; that is four weeks tomorrow. That's not long, really. Best get a move on, can't sit around here chatting all day... I've got a move to plan!

My flat has sold! Woo. This is good news. Well, it's good on most counts. I still have to actually sign the papers, but assuming that all goes OK, I have to move out by August 9. That is, in fact, five weeks today and does somewhat put the pressure on for finding somewhere new to live - especially if I don't want to be homeless for a few weeks, and I don't really fancy sleeping on the mean streets of Glasgow.

I was amazed at how quickly it sold, actually; when I bought the place, two-and-a-half years ago, it had been on the market for months - at least four, if memory serves. And to be honest, I was expecting it to take at least a couple this time, not the two-and-a-bit weeks it has. I guess it's great news, though!

So I'm hoping to go and see another place in my old Thornwood haunt this evening. I saw one in Partickhill yesterday, which would have been perfect were it not for the fact that the bedroom was about the width of a double bed plus 1ft. That, and the fact it was on the steepest hill in the entire city (pic to the left... yes it is a very old pic, it's the only one I could find), which might have made walking with shopping something of a challenge.

Glasgow is a bit of an odd place to be, all of a sudden. Scotland as a whole has always seemed somewhat detached from the dangers of places down south, particularly London. I guess Saturday's attack at the airport kinda brought a lot of things home.

Luckily, one of them is that Scottish-based terrorists (NOT tourists... don't be silly) are, frankly, rubbish. They drove a car into a big pillar, and were pulled out by mad locals before they got a chance to have another go.

It also reinforced the fantastic black humour of Glaswegians - particularly when it comes to honouring one of those involved, John Smeaton. Briefly famous for appearing on every news channel on Saturday and Sunday, more than 1000 pints have been put behind the bar at Glasgow Airport's Holiday Inn for him. And the video below shows why...