Rantings from a Tired & Grumpy Old Woman

It’s fair to say that I’ve been a tired grumpy old woman this week. Mind you, so has Phil. Where once he was the most patient man I’d ever met, this last year, he has turned into Victor Meldrew. The reason for this week’s grumpiness I guess is down to post holiday blues. The weather hasn’t helped though; it’s been a shit summer so far. Sunshine definitely does help the soul!

It has been a flat week with only a few highlights. The first one was when Julia and Jack turned up on Monday night as arranged. Phil spent most of Monday shopping and cooking up a chilli con carne and a lasagne, a baked potato, a nice salad and some tasty garlic bread. Harriet came round for a drink after work to see Aunty Julia and cousin Jack but she didn’t stay for dinner. We had a nice evening and even managed to sit outside in the garden for a bit.

In spite of the weather we managed to cut the grass at the NH house and the OB flat. I pulled up the weeds and popped them into the green bin. Phil got the PAYE done and the VAT return sorted and in the post. He also managed to get started on his OU TMA which is due in a couple of weeks. It won’t be an easy TMA because most of his work is stored on the water logged laptop, which as I type, is sitting in the airing cupboard. Steve B suggested that we try and gently dry it out, but so far there is no life in it. Phil phoned Rashmi and he is kindly digging out the receipt from the 2008 / 2009 accounts and is putting it in the post. Once we receive this, Phil can take it back to Staples and try and get a repair done under the guarantee. He is not going to tell them about the water spillage which I think is a mistake. From what I’ve read on the internet, it’s a specific kind of specialist for water damage and I think he would do best to come clean in the first place, if he has any chance of recovering his hard drive. But still, it’s his call.

The Friday before we left for Kalkan we managed to finish off the OB flat just in time for Adam from Morgan’s to come and give us a valuation. He valued it at a rental value of £725 pcm which for unfurnished or at least part furnished at best, was a bit on the high side. Phil said we’d give it a go for a few weeks and handed over the keys. We had a call whilst we were on holiday to see if we would accept £675pcm and we said we would but nothing came of it. I got Phil to phone Morgan’s on Tuesday to see whether they had found a tenant and they told Phil that no one so far and that it was quiet because of the holidays.

I said to Phil “Huston we have a problem” as normally when we view a refurbished flat, everyone that views wants to take it. We came to the conclusion that we need to dress it up some more with some furniture so on Monday we are going to take the double bed from the spare room at the NH house and the brown leather 2 seater sofa from the main bedroom and ship these over to OB flat. It’s a shame really because it may detract from when we come to market the NH house but we can always take the bed from the Cranfield bungalow when it becomes vacant on the 10th September. Perhaps Phil and I should go the whole hog and buy a white van and go into furniture removals. We could have a big sign on the side of it that reads “Man and Wife with Van”. Just a thought, albeit a silly one at this time of the morning!

Aside from cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, gardening, housework and cooking, it's been a fairly uneventful week. Phil’s diving Padi certificate and card arrived in the post yesterday and he was feeling very proud of himself. Thank god his bottom is better, I couldn’t stand all the moaning and groaning. Now he is back to his old self, passing wind and sitting on the loo all the time. Joy!

Phil has been scouring the property paper and arranged for us to do a couple of viewings on Wednesday. The first house was a 3 bed mid terrace in Wolverton where a little old lady had lived for the past 56 years. Her husband has died and she is looking to go into sheltered accommodation. I felt sorry for her but the house had no central heating and the area wasn’t good for either rental or re-sale. The second house was a 2 bed mid terrace on the Riverside estate in Bletchley which came complete with polystyrene tiles on all the ceilings. Complete wreck inside and everything needed changing. It didn’t do anything for me, parking was a problem and I don’t like Bletchley so it’s a no no from me.

Phil has his eye on another house in Downs Barn. The agent has given him the address and we are going to suss it out today. Phil says he may knock on the door because the vendor is pissed off with the agent as his last 2 sales have fallen through. I don’t blame him, I would be annoyed but I’m not sure that knocking on the door is such a good idea. Phil likes to drive around his favourite estates looking for ‘For Sale’ boards. It was whilst we were on our way back from an estate drive that as we drove over a sleeping policeman on Tower Drive, there was a loud crunching sound from underneath the car and we were forced to stop.

Phil got out of the car to see if anything had dropped off but nothing had so he got me running alongside the car as he drove slowly to see if anything was hanging down. There wasn’t so we limped home and phoned http://www.rescuemycar.com/ The rescue man came out within the hour and put it straight on the truck and drove it to the Land Rover garage in Whaddon. Yesterday we picked up the courtesy car, another Freelander and we have yet to hear what the damage is and when we’ll get Phil’s car back.

Today I am going to the healthclub, I’ve got Vanessa coming round for a coffee late morning and after lunch we’re going shopping for supplies. We have got Jill and Tony coming tomorrow night so we can handover their villa keys. Phil’s going to organise an Indian meal cooked by his friend Dolly and no doubt the talk around the dinner table will be all about Kalkan. Oh I wish I was still there.