Happy Birthday to Phil!

Just a few things to blog about today but first up, I must say ‘Happy Birthday’ to Phil. He is 54 young today and as I tell him, “you’re only as old as the woman you feel”!!! He’s still asleep in bed at the moment and I’m dying to wake him up and make him open his pressies but I don’t think this is fair on his special day so I’ve come downstairs to resist the temptation to poke him into the land of the living.

I enjoyed our mini trip away but I am pleased to report that we won’t be putting any offers in on the properties we viewed. Margate didn’t really do it for me, I thought it was very much a has been town, full of weary looking B&B’s, boarded up houses and fish and chip shops. Both Phil and I liked Broadstairs but the traffic in the summer months would drive me bonkers. We wrote off Ramsgate as soon as we drove in but to be fair we didn’t venture down to the harbour so perhaps we didn’t see it at is full potential. I glad we went and we a scout round but my gut feeling is that you’ve got to stick to the areas that you know. The journey down and back was a complete nightmare, 4 hours with Phil huffing and puffing and swearing every 30 seconds is not a nice experience.

We’ve had a very lazy weekend, Grand Prix weekends always are very chilled ones for us. Phil watched the qualifying on Saturday and afterwards Harriet and Shane came and picked us up and we went to The Giffard for a very late afternoon lunch. It was quiet and there were not very many wasps to pester us and we had a pleasant enough meal. The plan was that we were going to walk home but Phil was feeling very tired because he hadn’t slept so well the night before so Harriet gave us a lift back home. Saturday night was spent in front of the telly watching the X-Factor. How exciting are we?

Unfortunately for me I woke up in absolute agony yesterday morning with my back. It has been playing me up for the last 6 weeks but I woke up in the early hours and was so uncomfortable I had to get the spare duvet and go and sleep on the sofa so as not to disturb Phil. It was a nightmare - I could hardly get down the stairs. Later in the morning I got dressed and got in the car having decided to try and do a little exercise at the gym to try and loosen up my back. However, I got out of the drive and the pain was so bad when I changed gear that I had to give up and come home. Phil had arranged a viewing on a one bed flat in Downs Barn at 11.45am but before that we drove to Boots on Bradwell Common to get me some painkillers. Phil made us a chilli for lunch and we spent the afternoon watching the Grand Prix. I did the ironing whilst watching it because it was less painful standing up than sitting down. After the Grand Prix Harriet popped round, I think she was bored and had nowhere else to go. She was just about to leave when she had a call from Shane to say that he had locked himself out and so had the tenants next door. It was just as well she was here really because I was able to give her spare keys for both houses.

The phone call from the agent on Saturday took me by surprise and I was taken aback to hear that our tenant was going to vacate at the end of September. It didn’t surprise Phil because he had laid awake one night thinking about this and had come to the conclusion that our tenant would leave. It’s funny really, 9 months in the kebab flat and I was dying to return home but we’re fairly comfortable in the NH house and it’s just as comfortable as home. In a way it has scuppered our plans but everything happens for a reason and we are hoping to secure a sale on the Jim & Shirley’s house quite quickly and will need somewhere to live. We have much to organise. After taking it easy for the last 2 months it is time to get going again. Thankfully my back is much easier today; not sure it’s down to all the pills I swallowed yesterday or taking it easy, I dunno but I’ve got so much to do this week that I can’t afford to be disabled. Must go and get this published, I have got Michael the landscape gardener coming to lay a membrane and cover it with shingle in the front garden and by the patio in the back. Time now for this Sheila to go and wake up the birthday boy and see if we can find a house exchange in Australia!