And now there's so much

OK, I've now got so much to say I'll have to list it:

1. My tenants were a pain, they have caused all sorts of problems in the house and it needs a total redecoration. It was decorated throughout last August. The tenants will shortly be histiry for afresaid reasons. The house is now For Sale.

2. This hosue is a hive activity, as I write the utility is being plastered, we have a new cloakroom, the porch is being built and the last 3 'extra' kitchen cupboards are in place.

3. Because of note 2 I am daily running out of milk, sugar and tea.

4. Also because of note 2 I have retreated to various county records offices and to meeting with geanealogy friends in coffee shops in order to avoid the noise and dust.

5. I now provide a daily meals on wheels service for Mother in Law. I am rapidly running out of ideas for old fashioned home cooked stodge. Already WH is craving curries and stir fries, if I give in then I have to cook 2 separate meals a day.

6. Our grandkids suddenly want to sleep over, come for meals and spend even more time here. It's no big deal but it requires even more cooking, supervising school projects and keeping tabs on the numerous friends who come to call.

7. I can hardly believe I am writing this but the weather has been gorgeous. Sitting out on the south facing patio has become a must. It's sheltered, sunny and you could almost believe you were by the Med if you didn't have to open your eyes and survey the building site which STILL occupies the back garden. The fig tree is growing leaves though.

8. The majority of my plants are still in pots and tubs so daily watering is imperative in the month long dry spell we ahve had. I have to fight the builders for use of the hosepipe though and I don't always win.

9. An elderly friend is in hospital in the midlands. We have been visiting and it looks like he is in for the long haul. The car is getting used to the weekly treck up the M5 once again.

10. It's only 5 weeks until we go back to Kalamos. The work here should be finished then, just the garden left for our return. It will be wonderful, almost 3 weeks of utter peace. Can't wait.

Blue is the colour

This is the colour of my new worktop. Looks much better in real life. Already I love it. The kitchen is finally taking shape, all those ideas which have been swirling round in my head for the last 18 months are finally coming to life. The depressed painter has almost done and we now have an alcove the exact colour of the worktop with the painting hanging on it from which the whole room took inspiration. It's a gouache of a Greek courtyard with blue and white walls, some steps and a vibrant fuchsia coloured bougainvillea, against a brilliant blue sky. When the sun shines and the whole room fills with light and warmth you can almost smell the thyme. Even in this extremely cold and frosty weather, this south-facing space fills with sun and is going to be a great place to sit.

Most of the cupboards are now in and on Monday the floor-layers come to finally put down the proper flooring after months of walking about on a mix of wood concrete and offcuts of carpet. After that we get the peninsular units in and then it's on to the last lap, tiling and a few decorative bits and pieces. I do hope it all goes smoothly, we have about ten people coming for Christmas day and I need a proper working kitchen, not the building site I've been living in until now!

Going out

I still don't seem to have much time to come here these days. Maybe it has something to do with WH being home all day after his shoulder op, two weeks ago. And then again maybe it has something to do with WH being in the throws of a real bad depression, so much so I'm not really sure how to cope any more. I've ordered loads of reading material from the net but of course it hasn't actually arrived just yet.

He's stopped taking all his meds as well which doesn't help and failed to appraise his GP of that fact at his most recent appointment. The GP is, however, writing a strongly worded letter to the local health authority as he is STILL awaiting a consultant's appointment that he was referred for in late January. Waiting list? They must have fiddled his entry on that one, it's now more like 40 weeks not 13.

Actually the real reason I've not been here is I've been out quite a lot, I need to get out on my own or I'd be going mental too. Today I braved the nearest IKEA, still some 70 miles away, and bought the last of a line of bookcase/dresser type things that will adorn the whole of one wall in the living room. I just have to put it together. I'm quite proud of my living room, all the flat-pack was assembled by my own fair hands. It took me ages and I'm doubtless much slower than a normal person but I quite enjoy doing it. Years ago I did all the bedroom furniture too and I must have a reasonable technique aided by extensive use of woodworking glue which never comes with the stuff but which I always use, but none of it has ever even thought about falling apart.

So tomorrow I've got a real treat. Assemble the latest cupboard then retrieve the last of my studio pottery collection from the old garage and arrange in said cupboard. Now that I will stay in for.

Reality check - pinch me if I'm dreaming

We finally cleared the new house of tools and rubbish last night prior to the carpet fitter arriving this morning. We now have painted bedrooms, all the light fittings and curtain rails. I am just about to load my car with all the stuff I need to clean windows, wipe down doors and paintwork and hang curtains. After 16 months it barely seems real. My stallwort friend and lifesaver T is arriving later to help. What I would have done this last twelve months without her support I do not know. OK she started as the 'hired help' but as in all the best stories she's now a part of the family and a great friend to boot.

My other 'dream' scenario is my energy level. Over the weekend I moved a lot of bricks and some builders sand which I was sick of seeing. Since then I have cleaned as though my life depended on it. I keep waiting for the crash and it doesn't come. Even 6 months ago I could not have done all this, so now I am testing myself daily to see how much more I can do. The results are amazing not just me but everyone around. For this I have to thank my Lovely Lyme Doc and his faith in my treatment.

And just to put the icing on the cake of this upbeat post, the nightingale has arrived and is singing not 20 metres from my window. What a joy.

To Let

I just knew it was too good to be true. My much longed-for, stress relieving, poorly managed property let has fallen through. In fact I am now told it was a non starter at the outset. So why did it take the agent 4 days to tell me?

Answer being he is hopeless. What to do now, that's the question, leave it with the second, even worse agent or move the agency again? On the one hand it might be third time lucky. On the other it's all so much hassle.

After 23 years I am sick of sight of this house, the sooner I am out the better, at least round the corner I won't have to see it, even if it now remains empty for a while. At least I will be spared the awful cleaning up for viewings I have endured over the last 12 months of letting, selling, then letting again. So I'm still moving folks, but I'll still have the worry (and the bills) of this place.

On the move

It's official, after 12 months of total insecurity, disillusionment with the housing situation and the inability to sell my house, I'm actually moving. In less than 3 weeks.

After having very poor service from my letting agent yesterday I called them up to give them the proverbial rocket. Just as I was about to fire them completely, they actually decided to ring the lady who had viewed last week and get some feedback. Wow, some feedback! She wanted it and had been unable to contact them. So I do have a tenant after all. Really she wanted to move in by July 1st. Given that is only 10 days away I postponed until 14th. So yesterday afternoon finds me buying carpets for a whole house, re-jigging schedules and chasing the depressed painter and the singing plasterer. WH press-ganged his usual support team for the move itself.

This weekend I am away at a show and in 2 weeks time we are both off on a jolly involving those Hayseed Boys, some relatives and meeting a close and much treasured friend in person. That gives me one weekend to pack the house and the other one to move. We have no kitchen and no bathroom at the new place so we'll be camping for a while.

One thing is certain, it's going to be busy round here.

Crush: a temporary infatuation

Nelson is fickle in his infatuations. He hates most people with a vengeance, avoiding all contact with anyone he doesn't know well and running off at the sight of strangers. Children freak him out completely, he can't stand the unpredictable nature of their movements and if they tried to stroke him he would surely die. He does like some men though, WH's weirdo friend, JohnnyB a longtime close friend of us both and the depressed painter to name but three. WH he can take or leave and only makes a fuss of him if he is very hungry and knows he will get short shrift from me, usually because we have tried 4 different meals that day and he has refused them all, much to Misty's delight as he gets to eat the cast -offs. Only for me does he reserve his deep rumbling purr as I give him his bed-time cuddle, tickle his fluffy little tummy and scratch his ears, and of course all this is in the privacy of my bedroom, public affection he can't take at all.

Latterly he was in love with a bag. Now he's fallen out of love with that and transferred his affections to something else, a really naf, shell-suit-type body-warmer which WH's mother insists on buying him annually to keep him warm in the winter. This one had been worn for plastering and was abandoned on the floor in front of the heater. No particular reason, but you know what men are, never, ever, put anything away for at least 3 days unless under extreme sufferance, so I just leave stuff and if it still remains after 48 hours or so, it then gets washed and put in it's rightful place, prior to this time it's quite likely to be retrieved for a further wearing in which case I'm accused of hiding "all his stuff". This time though Nelson had collared it so to speak and made a nest in the centre, his face peeping out of the armhole whilst he luxuriated in it's nylon warmth and softly padded surface.

Of course for the house viewings and other estate agent related visits the body-warmer is removed and hidden in a cupboard as are all the cat related accoutrements of this house. Never let a prospective vendor know that you have an animal in residence let alone three, the property must be bright, shiny, clutter and most importantly, animal free. The last viewing was cancelled, just at the point the house had been restored to show-home squeaky-cleanness. I swore silently at the estate agent on the other end of the phone and out loud to my vision of the unknown prospective purchaser who had caused me 3 hours housework for no good reason at all. Life returned to normal except for one unhappy, permanently shrieking cat. It's taken me 4 days to realise that his latest love was still in the cupboard. Now he's pawing his love object with wild abandon and telling it he loves it. Until the next time he finds something else he loves more.

Sod's law

Damn, bugger and blast.

I did a lot of packing for the move last week and sorting out WH's house prior to No 1 daughter and family moving in and I thought I pulled something in my stomach as WH handed down some boxes from my loft. The next day there was a distinct ache. A timely visit to the GP confirmed it, my hernia is back. I'm really mad, things were going so well and now I'm back to not exerting myself, no lifting or carrying and being generally careful. Dancing for 2 hours at the Hayseed gig probably didn't help either.

I see the surgeon again on Wednesday and this time I will be begging him to do the 'proper' final stuff with the mesh. After all it's not the NHS and surely if I am paying I can have what I want? Last time I went with his considered opinion that it was not necessary the first time. No of course not, that way you get to pay for 2 operations when the first doesn't hold. Usually I'm moaning about the NHS, this surely makes a change.

I'm going 'Private' again for the same two reasons I did before, far less risk of catching anything with my lack of a decent immune system and the much greater nursing care given as I didn't know exactly how, as a Lymie, I was going to react to surgery. This time there is a third reason, my window of opportunity to have surgery is minuscule, restricted to one convenient week only. So another operation is looming again, hopefully as soon as I can fix it after we return from Denmark in 4 week's time. That would give me 4-5 weeks recovery before the great Corfu Holiday. I need all my strength for that.

Afterwards I had planned a fairly active summer, festivals, craft fairs and the like until August when WH is due to have his shoulder operated on again. He had this done before in 2002 and it wasn't too successful so they're doing something more radical so he can continue to use it. If that works he is scheduled for the second one a few months later. In the intervening time we will most likely decamp to Greece where there will be no temptation for him to use it to any great degree. In any case he has been told he will be off work 3-4 months, not the 6 weeks he managed last time.

Quite where this puts the house move in the scheme of things I'm not sure, I will be out of action for 3-4 months as far as that goes so it looks like WH will be doing it all himself; that's when he's finished the house which for the last 4 months has been a single handed job as it is. We did get rid of the semi-permanent skip last week so that's a start, just a kitchen roof to get on and a kitchen to fit and we might be half-way there.

The arrival in 4 weeks of WH's nephew back from his annual 6 month sojourn in the Far East will give a second pair of experienced and lightening-quick hands. He generally works for us for the other 6 months of each year but has been so busy with other things for 18 months we had to do without our Main Man. His return is eagerly anticipated, not least by me, so WH will no longer feel he is doing the whole kit and caboodle himself.

Sometimes I am really sick of being sick, after 16 years I should have learned it's always two steps forward and one step back.

Aarhus here we come

As if one Spring holiday and a recent long weekend in the smoke wasn't enough, another trip away has leapt up and bitten us on the proverbial. Ms A, our zany Danish friend and ex-neighbour, is throwing a party to celebrate her son's confirmation in April, the invite arrived on WH's birthday and of course we are going.

What a logistical nightmare. The most convenient flights are from Stansted, a 4 hour drive from here at least, we take off very early in the morning and arrive back at midnight. So that involves a hotel either side. Then we have to get from Aarhus to the family's home much further south, so we have to hire a car. We could get away with a small one but somehow Denmark doesn't do small ones to rent as WH found out last time he went (alone), so big car it is then. Having discovered all this I tried to make all the relevant bookings. For some reason last night all the relevant web sites were either down or running like treacle on ice, not worth waiting for. So this morning I was up with the lark and maxing out the credit card.

All I left have to do now is confirm the car hire, I put this off as it seems so horrendously expensive and I sort of thought that maybe later on it would be cheaper or perhaps I wouldn't notice the huge amount, either way I've postponed this until last. Last time WH went to Denmark we had an argument with the car hire people that went on for months as they insisted he had returned the car empty of petrol and had charged him £70 for the privilege, in reality he had filled it to overflowing 5km from the drop off precisely so he didn't get charged very much.

So now we have 5 days in Denmark to look forward to, only 5 weeks before the big Greek trip, somehow I think the house move will be on hold for even longer.

Up to the roof

We have finally reached roof height on our extension. The bricklayer had 4 days left to do at the beginning of December and the weather has been so awful ever since it has taken until this week to get those 4 days of work done. Now the timbers are on and we are just waiting for the roofer to add the final layers. Then we can start on the inside, only 11 months since I first set foot in the house. WH is off for a much needed break this weekend, his annual skiing trip. I'm staying in the relative warm here.

Meanwhile this house is for sale and has been advertised once, with 2 viewings. It's being advertised again shortly but it looks like the weather is set to stay wet and floods surround our village. Sadly, not the sort of weather I would go house-hunting in.

Playing catch up

The last week has been a whirlwind, a funeral, a flower show, a lot of hammering and banging and I seem to have been shopping almost every day, either for birthday presents (6 birthdays THIS week) or electrical stuff for the new house. Oh and I bought the living room curtains TWICE. I didn't realise I had the first pair until I put the second pair away. DUH.

Anyway life should get a little more calm now, before the storm of a trip to Denmark, Hayseed Dixie AND Status Quo on the same bill at Dudley Castle, a trip to Cornwall, a possible trip to Greece and moving house. All before the end of September. Whew.

No more time to type tonight, but I have some interesting news tomorrow, it's connected with Diane Shipley. Can you guess?

Key of the door

We finally got the key to the new place yesterday. Even that didn't go according to plan, we should have been all sorted by 12 noon but the solicitors for the vendors didn't let anyone know that they had received the money and that we could fetch the key so we were hanging round for 3 hours.

Then my car started making a very loud noise again and I decided not to drive it. So tomorrow we have to go and get another one, in a hurry, which is not always such a good idea. The current one had only just been serviced and had it's MOT, sailing through with flying colours. Now it needs 4 new tyres, the radiator has sprung a leak, an oil pump is leaking and the steering has gone. In 5 years I have never had any trouble with this car, now it has decided to repay me big-time. Even WH who likes to keep a car until months after anyone else would have given up said he's not spending all that money on it and it has to go.

Stressed right out

Haven't posted for over 2 weeks, a record of a sort for me. I wasn't even on holiday.

The last fortnight has been almost a nightmare, they say house moving is stressful, well my solicitor has been conveyancing for over 30 years and she has never had a conveyance like it. After numerous false starts, a withdrawal, a re-market, several rows with estate agents, a complaint to the Law Society and numerous other set backs, we *might* exchange contracts tomorrow. I feel like I have taken up residence in the solicitors office and have wasted so much other precious time in the process. 16 weeks since I first viewed and we're still messing about.

Keep your fingers crossed it goes through OK. We need it to. What the heck, keep everything crossed, please.