Here we go again

We got the keys back (well key, he had lost the other one) from our tenant in Cranfield yesterday and we had already decided to bite the bullet and renovate it properly. I took a few photos yesterday but it doesn’t look like that anymore. We are having a couple of windows replaced, ceilings and walls re-plastered, new kitchen and bathroom, even new radiators. We had a fairly easy start today and I dismantled the bed and brought it to Jims, ripped the kitchen out and took it to the tip and chiselled the tiles of the walls in the kitchen and took the timber cladding from the walls in the bathroom. I stripped all the mirrors and towel rails from the walls but Betty rescued those before Claire got them to the tip. The old cooker was also to go but Betty had us put it by the side of the road with a notice saying that it was old but still worked. She said that it would be gone before we came back on Saturday, but if not we will tip it. The tenants that have just left are going back to Saudi Arabia now that Abdullah has completed his MSC. His wife got pregnant while they were in the flat and flew back last month as the baby is due in about a month and they don’t like you flying too close to the birth in case they have to deliver it onboard. Which I’m sure complicates the birth certificate as well. Where were you born? Two miles over the Mediterranean. No, what country?
Anyway, congratulations to them both and thank you for being such good tenants and always paying promptly if you ever stumble across this site. Abdullah has promised to email me to let me know how the birth goes and what his results are when he knows. Cranfield is a very good engineering university and people from all over the world come to gain their second or third degrees here. It’s a good place to let out one bed properties for that very reason, I wish we could find another one there.

I must say that I hate throwing things away that work, I was never brought up like that but Claire loves to throw things away. She’s always at the tip, well tips, she has to vary which ones she goes to or they might think she’s a trades woman and start charging her. She was even offered a job at the Newport Pagnell tip. Some of this has rubbed off onto me over the years and now I am a lot better at throwing things away than I used to be. Also it does make sense, if you keep stuff you always end up moving it around all the time and usually end up tipping it in the end anyway. It is cheaper these days to throw things away and buy new anyway, especially when you are letting places out. People have become fussier than they used to be. In my parents generation they used to keep everything and also mend things when they did wear out. When was the last time you had your shoes repaired or your socks darned? It has become a consumer society in the modern world but I somehow don’t think it can't last forever; we will have to go back to being more efficient one day soon.

I had a shock the other day when a comment was put on my entry about the Australian house swap by Geoff, the guy we are to swap houses with in Townsville, Queensland. Just prior to booking his flight tickets he thought he would Google me to find out if I was a real person. First page, he found this blog and even pictures of his house that I had put on to show how nice it was. It’s scary really, someone on the other side of the planet can find out all about us through a search engine. We will have to be a bit more careful, we don’t want the tax man after us.

I am in the final stages of booking our flight ticket; just had the organiser make some small adjustments to dates. I am right on the limit of 25000 miles and when I tried to change our flight back from Brisbane to Townsville, because we would have had to fly via Sydney it took us over the 25000 mile limit so it will be best for us to arrange that internal flight ourselves when we are there. Once it is confirmed and I have paid I will let you know the details. We had our old friend Ian from Ampthill Glass come and measure the windows for a quote yesterday after we had the keys back so it was nice to see him again. Jane and he will also be out in Australia over Christmas and New Year so he wants to try and meet up at some point. I think they will be basing themselves at Sydney and travelling around from there. They will be around Melbourne at some point and we will be at Sydney at some other point so perhaps we can make it happen. Ian and Jane love it there and were on the verge of emigrating a while back but once you are over 45 they don’t want you. Well not unless you have plenty of money to take with you. I feel sure that they will end up there one day they already have plenty of money and with all the orders we keep giving them they should be there in no time.