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.

Cranes, Cambridge & Cranfield

Earlier in the week we parked up outside the kebab flat and were making our way to the market when we spotted this massive crane by the Marks & Spencer side of the shopping centre. Phil, true to form, made me get my camera out and take a photograph. We were curious as to what the crane was for and figured it had to be something to do with the renovation of the pond area between Waterstones bookshop and McDonalds but on closer inspection, we weren’t so sure. It was a massive crane, one of the biggest I’ve seen.

Although it has yet to end, this week has limped by. Not much action but lots of more of watching travel DVD’s and eating comfort food. Phil is meant to be in charge of shopping and cooking but one day this week we had nothing in the fridge so had to resort to a lunch of fish fingers with peas and mash. Actually it was quite nice and made a change to the normal stuff we eat. Phil had an attack of the munchies on Tuesday night and ended up ordering an Indian takeaway from up the road. I give up all hope for him ever getting slim, he is a lost cause!

Phil’s travel plans have been advancing at an alarming rate, in fact, I think even Phil is getting anxious can’t quite believe what he has managed to organise. I will leave it to him to blog about our next ‘round the world’ adventure. Suffice to say, he has gone for it ‘big time’ and this winters journey will make our adventures in India look like a walk in the park. As I said, things have moved quickly and it’s too late to pull out now. Exciting times ahead me thinks, but lots to organise and a bungalow to sort before we can fly away.

Yesterday after breakfast, emails and a visit to the gym for me, we grabbed the sat nav, jumped in the car and drove to a village called Milton just outside Cambridge where we met John (stepdad number 2) for lunch. I’d worked out that this was a half way spot for both of us. John had the same journey time as us to travel from Ipswich to Milton so my research on The AA website worked out well. John and Marie are taking their campervan and travelling to Le Manga in Spain where they will be staying on a camp site and not returning to the UK until late March 2010. We had a pleasant lunch and sat outside the pub with a coffee before saying goodbye for the winter and driving back to MK.

Our days of slobbing about, eating and drinking and sitting on our backsides watching TV are about to come to an end. Abdullah, our tenant at the Cranfield bungalow is moving out and we are meeting him this afternoon to pick up the keys and check the inventory. I don’t think we’ll start renovation on the flat apart today but tomorrow we’ll definitely start ripping out the kitchen. The plan is to renovate the whole flat so we’re going to have our work cut out for the next few weeks. I don’t mind the work; I just wonder whether I can put up with Betty, the mad neighbour next door, popping in and out every 2 minutes. She means well but she is completely bonkers. As I may well be when we finish this project!

Le weekend

Big Brother finally ended on Friday night (thank god) and autumn has well and truly got going. I’ve even had to have the heating on one or two evenings which just signifies that it’s all downhill from here on after. We’ve had a few more days of procrastination and not doing much with no major dramas or disasters. Phil has made some pretty impressive progress with his travel plans but I’ll let him share these plans when he is good and ready. To be honest, I’ve haven’t really paid much attention which is perhaps not such a good thing. My immediate focus is getting a sale on the NH house and organising the move back to the GP house.

On Friday I went to the gym and then went upstairs to the beauty salon to have an eyebrow tidy up. Ever since the black eye saga, I do not go anywhere near my face with a pair of tweezers. It only costs 10 quid so is well worth it. Unfortunately I left my jacket in my locker and when I went back to get it some thieving b*****d had nicked it. Okay, it wasn’t very expensive but I loved this jacket and it’s the only one that I possess. It’s not the first time I’ve had stuff taken and in future I must take more care of my belongings.

We went to the gym late on Saturday afternoon and when we got back home we started watching series 3 of The Sopranos on DVD. This is a fantastic series and once we started watching we couldn’t turn it off. Phil rented this box set from the library along with several travel DVD’s. In the evening we ended up ordering a takeaway from the Chinese at Great Linford. This is really naughty especially as we’ve done this now two weeks in a row. I think Phil’s diet has died a death and he has well and truly given up.

On Sunday we picked up Christine and drove to north London to look at Christine’s daughter, Claudia’s kitchen. I had spent some considerable time downloading new maps for the tom tom in readiness for the trip as it’s been years since we updated our sat nav. Whilst I was messing round I decided to change the voice and swapped ‘Jane’ for ‘Tim’. Phil was most annoyed and insisted that I change back to Jane. Unfortunately I couldn’t change it without the software so he was stuck with ‘Tim’. After a while Phil stopped moaning and was even impressed when we got off the M1 that I’d managed to install the warning for the speed cameras; something we have never been able to get before.

The traffic wasn’t bad and we made it to Claudia & Johnny’s in just under an hour and a quarter. Claudia and Johnny want to put their flat on the market in the New Year and want to smarten up their kitchen to make it more attractive to perspective buyers. Phil took some measurements and made some suggestions. The idea is get them some quotes and get some computer generated designs for them to see what can be done. I’m not certain we can be much help but we’ll see what we can do.

I was surprised their flat was in quite a nice area with views of lakes and a roof terrace just off the bedroom. It was an overcast day so we didn’t sit on the terrace. Actually I’m not sure Phil would have been able to clamber out of the window to get to it! Johnny had to go out to a birthday party but Claudia cooked a veggie lasagne which we had with some lovely bread washed down with some wine. Christine provided the desserts and after coffee we said our goodbyes and got back in the car for the return journey. It was a little congested getting out of London but we were soon on the M1 and it didn’t take us long to get home. Phil did good to drive through central London and he didn’t even swear once which just proves to me that he can control his road rage if he tries!

Conspiracy theory

Claire organised two lads to put stones down outside our patio area last week but, of course, this made the patio inadequate so Claire tried her hand at bricklaying. And not a bad job she made of it too. However, it was still soft and powdery until it rained and made the cement go off. Luckily, we live in England and didn’t have to wait long.

Harriet needs a computer for Christmas but for now she borrows Claire’s.

Carters are doing a good job of advertising Jim and Shirley’s house and seem to be bringing people to view every day. We even have a sign outside now. Yesterday they were to bring 2 people around, one at 2pm and the other at 4.30pm. We went to David Lloyd for the first viewing so as to create an extra parking space for them to park in but we weren’t quite up to working out for 3 hours so had to come back for the last one. We had no sooner got our feet up than the knock at the door exactly at 4.30pm. The knock wasn’t that normal, a little frantic sounding. I jumped up and answered but it wasn’t the agent, it was a lady carrying a little kid. She said, “Do you have a red Ford KA?” I said yes, why? She said because you must have left the handbrake off and it’s run across the road into someone’s hedge. I couldn’t resist getting my camera out while Claire ran across the road to recover it much to the amusement of the neighbours.

It couldn’t have been Claire’s fault as she always leaves the car in gear. She thinks that because she left the passenger door unlocked and that the neighbours hate us because we always get the best parking spaces while they go to work that one of them was responsible.

Boys, Toys & Lethal Weapons!

After a very over indulgent bank holiday weekend, I am ashamed to say that we’ve had a fairly lazy week. It wasn’t meant to turn out that way but for some reason we just haven’t been able to get motivated. I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but we function best when we have a million major things to conquer but when we’ve only got little bits and pieces, we procrastinate. Never mind. On Tuesday Phil spent most of the day working on his TMA which although he managed to finish, he has yet to submit. He spent the whole day in his pyjamas and didn’t even make it to the shower. Stinky boy!

Poor Harriet, still without car, was back to work on Tuesday so I had to pick her up from home and ferry her to work. After I dropped her off, I went to David Lloyd for a fairly pathetic workout. I just had time to jump in the shower and make my way for my appointment with the chiropractor. Eight minutes of spine poking and 35 pounds lighter I just had time to get out and get to the OU to fetch Harriet from work in her lunch hour so she could walk the dog. Unfortunately my back is no better and I have decided that I’m not going back to the chiropractor. I’m not sure what the way forward is - wine, chocolate and painkillers help so maybe I shall carry on with this and hope the discomfort will fade away with time.

Phil did manage to get dressed on Wednesday because he had to go and let the man in from Stony Stratfield aerials in to the OB flat so he could put up the digital aerial and get connections in the lounge and the bedroom. The tenant was still at home when he arrived so it gave Phil an opportunity to introduce himself as the landlord. Our new tenant is all the way from Texas and Phil said he seemed very nice. Unfortunately his microwave had blown up that same morning so Phil had to go to Curry’s and buy him a new one. I made a Thai green curry early in the morning and even managed to get to the gym. On Wednesday Phil spent the entire afternoon watching travel DVD’s that he’d got out from the library. Don’t even ask!!!!!!! On Wednesday night Jim picked up Phil and they went to meet up with the usual ‘Wednesday night’ crew and I went to supper with Christine. It was a miserable, wet evening and Christine served up cottage pie and green veggies, real comfort food. It went well with the wine and the evening was soon gone, catching up and having a general moan and a groan about life. (As you do).

Yesterday was a little more productive even though we got up later than usual. After breakfast we got stuck into the paperwork in readiness for our move to the GP house at the end of the month. Phil sorted out the house insurance; we have to cancel our contents insurance here at the NH house and change our Buy-to-Let insurance at the GP house back to a domestic policy. The lady from Legal & General asked Phil if we had a smoke alarm, to which Phil replied "yes we have two fitted but we don't smoke". Silly boy but made me lol though! I phoned BT to change over the broadband, landline and BT Vision package. Both calls were well over half an hour long and makes you wonder why it can’t be done on line. Life is never simple. We also had to send off our Vehicle Registration Forms and the Driving Licences to the DVLA to put both vehicles back at the GP house. We have a post redirection already in place from the GP house going to the PO Box so it helps being able to change some things over now rather than having to do everything on move-out day.

After lunch (left over curry and rice) we went to pick up the PO box post from Kiln Farm and then went on to Stony Stratford so Phil could choose a new ruck-sack from The Outdoor Shop. He had a good look round, picking up every single gadget in the shop and eventually came away with a brand new ruck-sack which luckily was reduced in the sale. He was in a very excitable state; what is it with boys and toys??? We drove to the centre and picked up his watch which had been in for repair. Phil has been waiting for his watch for well over a month and has been getting most impatient.

Phil was itching to go and buy some miniature travel toiletries so he could put in his new ruck-sack but I said “slow down cowboy, we’ve got plenty of time for that”. It’s nowhere certain that we’re going anywhere! We got some other bits and pieces at the city centre and eventually made our way back to the car which we’d parked outside the kebab flat because we still have our resident’s permits which are valid until October. As we approached our car we noticed that a washing machine along with several shopping trolleys had been tipped by the side of the entrance of the block. On closer inspection we saw that it wasn’t any old washing machine, it was in fact, only the old decrepit machine from our flat!!! We were surprised that it has taken the new owner 4 months to find out that the machine was crap and needed replacing. Phil said it served her right and hoped that it had given her a lot of hassle. I still feel a bit guilty that we swapped the new machine for an old one but at the end of the day,reducing her offer on exchange day is downright dirty dealing. What goes round, comes round as they say.

The last excitement of the day was a courier turning up late yesterday afternoon with my delivery that I’d been waiting for from Lakeland. It was a special ceramic blade and cleaner that I’d ordered ages ago. I placed the order on line and the following day I had a call on my mobile from a customer service representative from Lakeland asking some security questions. They had to get evidence that I was on the electoral role (which I am at the kebab flat) as the ceramic blade cleaner was considered a dangerous item and had been flagged under their ‘terrorist’ rules and regulations. I ask you, how ridiculous!!!!!! I nearly told them where to go on the phone but I’ve been dying to get hold one of these special blades ever since we got the new glass hob so I bit my tongue. Unfortunately, Phil wanted was eager to open my package before me and no sooner had he got it out of the packet, he’d cut himself on the blade! I had to laugh but maybe I shall let him do the first scrape of the hob just in case; maybe this is a lethal weapon after all!

Last of the Summer Wine (& wasps)

Unfortunately the dinner menu for Steve B & Jan was unsuccessful; despite all Phil’s careful planning and preparation all didn’t go to plan which was a shame because he’d worked so hard. Phil’s starter of stuffed sliced avocado stuffed with avocado, blue cheese and slices of garlic with a side extra of lightly fried prawns didn’t taste that great. The prawns were okay because you can’t really go wrong with them but the combination of the avocado and blue cheese didn’t really work. His main course of ‘beef on croute’ a fillet of beet stuffed with pate and mustard and coated with mustard and puff pastry should have been fabulous but unfortunately the joint of meat was so massive that it came out pink and hadn’t quite cooked through.
Poor Phil ended up stripping off the tasty coating and pan frying the fillet; it was tender and tasted great but lacked the ‘wow’ factor because he’d had to strip away all the flavouring stuff. Worst luck for Phil that he’d picked the most expensive chocolate for the dessert which ended up making his homemade chocolate mousse really rich and almost too rich to eat. Never mind, the wine flowed, we had cheese and biscuits and port to fill all the holes. Steve B and Jan were uncomplaining and were the most perfect guests and at best went home merry if not a little hungry.

On Sunday morning, I woke up with bleary sticky mascara stuck eyes because I was too drunk to take my makeup off and knew without a doubt that we’d be having a ‘duvet day’. Luckily a tired jaded Phil felt in the same mode so at least we were in zinc. Phil did drag me out of bed at 10 o’clock to walk to the shops for the papers; I was reluctant but agreed to follow. We got back, read the Sunday papers then settled down with a beer to watch the Gran d Prix. After it finished we stuffed our faces with steak pie and left over potatoes and vegetables from the night previous night. Later on Phil fell asleep, I stuffed my face with chocolate flakes and we ended up having a fairly early night.

Today, we did at least make it to the health club. Phil wanted a walk to The Giffard but instead we decided to drive out to the country and discover an undiscovered food and watering hole. Our final destination was the Black Horse at Woburn which turned out, not to be the best of choices. The food and wine were expensive and it was haunted by drunken wasps. I spent most of my time hiding in the toilet or running in to the servant’s quarters, not the best dining experience for Phil or me. A pretentious diner, full of snobs and we certainly won’t be returning. Worst of all, thirty quid later, one drink and one course and we came out hungry. Crap and thank goodness we could feast on leftover cheese and biscuits when we got back home.

Other than that, you can tell life has been dull. In total we have had 4 viewings on the NH house, not bad going but we hope for much, much more. The down side about having your house on the market is that you have to be anally tidy 24/7; I am tidy and clean 23/7 but it does turn into an obsession. Flowers carefully set on the dining table, coffee brewing in the kitchen, dishwasher going full spin washing the dishes and the electronic air freshener belting fall blast in the hallway; not to mention the right papers lying in the paper rack as well as bread baking in the new bread maker machine. It’s all hard work but hopefully it wall pay off in the end.

Today spells the official end of the summer. What summer I ask you?? Never mind, I look forward to the dying off of the wasps and to the onset of the autumn, which is always my favourite season. A new season, a new life and hopefully a new house sale – bring it on is what I say. Lets got on with next chapter of our lives.

Catchup !

It’s always a pain when I don’t do a blog for a few days as my senile mind tends to forget what I’ve done. But here I am so I’ll have a go at filling in the last few days. Tina Derry came out on Wednesday to do the HIP survey which I think stands for ‘House Information Survey’ but I’m not too sure. Tina and her husband have done quite a few house renovations so we always have quite a bit to talk about when we meet up with her. Anyway, she did her job and I don’t think she had any major concerns but not 100% certain because we haven’t received a copy of the full report. I seem to remember that it was a fairly miserable afternoon on Wednesday? Early evening I met up with Christine at The Odeon to see ‘The Time Travellers Wife’; it was a pleasant enough film but didn’t bear much resemblance to the book. While I was out, Jim picked up Phil (again) and they went to meet up with George, Alfie and Chris.

Phil spent all of Thursday morning watching travel DVD’s on his laptop and refused to come to the gym with me. He had a couple of interruptions, one was a call from the agent asking for us to install a digital aerial at the OB flat so the tenants can pick up Freeview channels, which is fair enough. We knew we should have had this done before we went away but ever frugal, we thought we’d try and save ourselves some pennies. As is always the case, if you try to cut corners with rentals it always come back to bite you on the bum. The second interruption was a phone call from Georgina to say that she got all ‘A*s’ in her GSCEs all bar PE which she got an ‘A’ in. You can’t get better results than this, so well done to her. Phil did stop watching DVD’s in the afternoon and went food shopping, I can’t remember what I did. We had a viewing on the house accompanied by the agent at 5pm. Two lovely charming ladies who said lots of nice things but we have yet to receive feedback. Other than that, the evening was uneventful – the usual, TV, wine and early to bed. Boring.

On Friday morning I went back to the chiropractor for some more manipulation. Gabrielle says I’m still very stiff so will need a few more treatments. My back is slightly easier so she must be doing something right. Phil went to Northampton to pick up Georgina and they went to see a film at the cinema. After David Lloyd and a quick snack from the market I drove to the OU to meet up with Jan for a walk. Just as Janet put on her walking shoes and got out umbrellas from the boot of her car, the heavens opened and it pissed it down. Then a wasp started to attack me under my umbrella so we decided to abandon the walk and jumped in J’s car and headed for shelter at The Plough in Simpson. There was a rowdy crowd at the bar when we first arrived but luckily they disappeared into the back restaurant and we were able to have a drink and a catch up. We were going to stay for a second drink but then I suddenly remembered I had to be at Oldbrook to pick up Harriet at half past one. Luckily I remembered in the nick of time.

Poor Harriet’s car failed its MOT big time and will be in the garage until after the bank holiday. She’d asked me to pick her up and take her to her dad’s to pick up some duty free fags that he’d brought her. Whilst we were there Chris asked me to type up an invoice for him. Cheeky but I didn’t mind much really. It never ceases to amaze me that in spite of having a top of the range computer and teaching for the last 40 years, Chris doesn’t understand the concept of windows. Anyway after we’d drafted up the invoice, I dropped HH back at the OB flat and headed for home. It was gone 3 by this time and when I checked my ‘to do’ list I saw that I’d tasked myself to paint the bathroom ceiling. To be honest, I didn’t feel luck it much as the air had turned really humid but still I got on my painting clothes and got stuck in. It didn’t really need doing but it didn’t take long to paint and looked much better when I was finished. After I’d put the paints away I gave the bathroom a really good scrub and now it looks really shiny and almost new.

Phil got up at some unearthly hour this morning and we were at Kingston Tesco’s at seven thirty am. We have Steve and Jan coming for dinner this evening so Phil needed to get some fresh ingredients. Phil got cooking some of his recipes when we got home; I cleaned up after him and we just managed to get out of the house before the agent turned up for the first house viewing at 11.00am. Normally we like to be around to suss out any potential buyer but we think its better to get at least one of the cars out of the way to ease the parking congestion which has the potential to put off buyers. We went to Kiln Farm to pick up the PO Box post and went to David Lloyd for a work out. We spotted the second viewer of the day with the agent as we pulled into the cul-de-sac but there was nowhere to park so we quickly reversed and drove from the block. Phil watched the qualifying but the chef spent the rest of the afternoon cooking in the kitchen. More about his menu and our evening later; for now I need to clean up the kitchen and then try and make myself presentable. No easy feat these days.

Life, Death & Shingle

Michael from Harpers Landscaping came along on Monday morning accompanied by his girlfriend’s 14 year old brother who was helping him in his summer holidays. A lorry arrived shortly after with 4 massive bags of stones. Some 5 hours later, Michael and his helper had laid down the membrane in the front and back and between the pair of them they had shoveled all the stones over the black plastic. Me and Phil watched how they did it, it was straight forward bar the manual labour and when we get our next house project we shall do it ourselves.

Shingle is not to everyone’s taste but this has been a ‘quick fix’ to tidy things up and has done the job nicely. We have left a considerable area of grass to the left of the patio so any perspective buyer can do what they wish with this bit. I was loading my car outside Pip’s house and he came out for a chat. He said that he could see we were having stones laid (nosey or what) but he also made a comment that he thought that we ought to get the conifers lopped as they were close to John’s house. John is the neighbour that keeps putting nasty notes on our cars so I’m not inclined to get the trees snipped but the conifers are a bit over-powering so I may give in and get out Will Tricks, the tree surgeon. This is a well kept, tidy little cul-de-sac but the neighbours' are seriously weird!

Phil chose to go to the Thai Modern restaurant in the city centre for his birthday meal. Unfortunately I didn’t have the hindsight to book a table in advance and when we got there we’d already sat down and ordered a drink before being told that the usual ‘eat-all-you-can’ buffet was not on the menu. This was a shame because if we’d have known we would have gone for the 2 course lunch restaurant near Westcroft. Never mind we still enjoyed a very tasty Thai green curry and very nice it was too.

Although it was his birthday, Phil wasn’t much in the mood for a party so we lounged on the sofas and caught up with some episodes of ‘Homes under the Hammer’. Late afternoon I remembered I had brought a tub of cement to lay in the gaps on the patio so I shoveled this in the holes and swept off the surplus. Harriet popped round after work to drop off a card and a present for Phil and Steve Pem also dropped by with a card. We hadn’t seen him or Mads for ages so it was an opportunity to catch up with ‘Pemberton’ news.

Yesterday morning saw me up at 5.00 am and Phil came downstairs just after 6am. He is meant to be finishing off his TMA but instead he spent ages on the internet planning an around the world trip. Phil is getting very excited but I am slightly apprehensive as we have many things to consider before we can just fly away. I also worry about the money aspect; with no income aside from the rental and a hefty lump going out for school fees, we are spending our savings like water. I worry that we won't have much left for when we fully retire but then I reason that with the amount that we drink, its very unlikely we'll live to an old age so we may as well spend it now, you can't take it with you after all.

I have learnt with Phil, that rather than object to his latest plan, its better to listen without objection and generally the idea goes away nearly as soon as it came. If I start arguing in the very first instance, this makes him more determined! I’m not sure if my strategy has worked with his latest plan, and god only knows what country or continent I shall find myself in this winter!

We had a good clean and tidy up ready for the agent to come and carry out a valuation on Jim and Shirley’s house. We’d already discussed what we thought to be a fair price and turns out that the agent agreed. We are trying out Carters because we have used these before in the past and they have been the most helpful in Phil’s latest property hunts. The guy that came round said he recognized our style from the kebab flat which he came out to value. I’m not sure this is such a good thing because our rental agent said the same thing about the OB flat when he came out to value. I emailed the girl we use to carry out the HIP report and it’s a good thing I did because she is £65 cheaper than the agent’s valuation. Just shows you’ve got to shop around. Anyway the agent came back out after lunch to take the photographs and the ball now is well and truly rolling. Rock and roll! Fingers crossed for a good offer with no chain.

Yesterday afternoon I went for my appointment with Gabrielle, the chiropractor that I used a few years ago. Phil said I was cheeky because on the phone I asked to be let off the consultation fee of 50 quid and just pay for the treatment of £35.00. The receptionist said she would check and phoned back to yes that was fine. Okay I may have played the poverty line a bit, but hey, if you don’t ask, you don’t get! My luck was in and she able to see me almost straight away. Gabrielle examined me and said that I had tightness in the lumbar area; apparently this area is connected to the adrenal gland and is an indication of stress! I told Phil I was stressed but he didn’t believe me. Living with Phil is one big stress!! Anyway she did a number of maneuvers and I did feel much looser when I got off the couch. I am going back on Friday and I’m hoping that a handful of sessions will cure me completely.

This morning we’re off to the gym, this will be the first time in months that Phil has been so I can imagine it’s going to be painful for him. Later Phil needs to go food shopping and also he needs to cook a chicken casserole with rice for our lunch. We are also having the HIP inspection today, so there is much to do on this very miserable wet Wednesday.

House swap Australia

The trouble with Birthdays when you get a bit older is that you are getting closer and closer to death and disablement with every new one. Not a very positive start but hopefully it should get lighter as we get going. Claire and I don’t normally get each other a birthday or Christmas present for each other, preferring to take a holiday together. For the first time, I bought myself a birthday present on Monday; I subscribed to a website that deals with exchanging homes for a holiday around the world. It wasn’t expensive at about £16 for 3 months registration and I have yet to find out if it rolls over and almost impossible to get out of without deleting your credit card. There are lots of them but the website that I used is http://www.homexchangevacation.com/ . You can choose any destination around the world to swap with. You can register free and view everywhere you like but you can’t contact anyone until you pay for full registration.

It’s quite exciting looking at all the properties that are trying to do the same. You can make the search easier by entering dates and more details to narrow down the results. Once registered I emailed about 20 people that wanted to swap for a property in England. I had 3 come back when I read my emails this morning, 2 saying thanks but no thanks and one that is very interested in swapping between December 2009 and February 2010. They live in Queensland at a place called Townsville right by the coast and the Great Barrier Reef in a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom executive house with its own grounds and massive pool. Wow, they will be disappointed if they swap with us, especially over winter. They also want to swap cars as they have 2 for us to choose from a 2004 Mercedes and a 2006 Subaru Liberty GT wagon (whatever one of those is). I hope they like Claire’s KA.

I have already started to look at flights and it’s looking like at least £600 return so it might be worth getting a “round the world” ticket with 6 or 7 stop over’s for a few hundred pounds more. I’m so excited but Claire says she feels stressed. How can a round the world holiday with 3 months in Australia make you stressed? I couldn’t think of anything more un-stressing. Anyway, we are getting no younger and it makes sense to take some time out to enjoy yourselves while you can sometimes. We all work hard enough, so we can all play hard as well.

We have just had Carters Estate Agents around to value Jim and Shirley’s house. Strangely his estimation was the same as we had already discussed with Jim, and he thinks it should sell quite easily as there are more people looking than selling at the moment. It is perfectly suited to a young family and he thinks that it would appeal to a young family so that’s good. He is coming back this afternoon to take some photos. I said that the owner has agreed to replace the wall between the two bedrooms if the purchaser wanted. Hope that’s ok Jim?

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!

Bang goes Bangkok Sheila

Although we have been really trying to find a rundown property to develop in both Milton Keynes and elsewhere we have been unsuccessful so far. We were going to put Jim and Shirley’s house on the market at the end of the summer holidays as that’s when the markets normally pick up but having talked about it in Kent we agreed to set the ball rolling next week as there are so few on the market at the moment. Normally the market is flat over the summer holidays as we found out last year being unable to sell the Two Mile Ash flat and having to let it out again. Whilst away in Kent I took loads of books and DVD’s about Thailand, Vietnam and the areas around so we could plan this year’s winter break. Bangkok seemed the ideal starting point as I found a return fare for £275 which is amazing. From Bangkok it is easy to fly anywhere else in that area so would be an easy base to visit the other surrounding countries from. The more I looked at the books the more excited I was getting but also realized that Laos and Cambodia wouldn’t suit us as much as Vietnam and Thailand. We had almost decided to tour around the whole coast of Vietnam on a motor bike which would have been a real adventure. The other spot that would be easy to get to is the Andaman Islands, little known from England but well visited from India; I would love to go there as well if time permitted.

While we were away we had a phone call from our agent about our Giffard Park house as it is up for rental renewal in October. The tenant wanted us to drop the price, quoting several other properties that looked better than ours which were cheaper than ours. I told the agent that he spent a long time trying to get us to drop the price before he moved in and we weren’t dropping it now either. If he had seen better properties cheaper than ours why was he trying to negotiate with us? We would love to move back into our lovely renovated house again anyway. Having slept on it one night that I didn’t sleep too well, I said to Claire that I thought he wouldn’t renew the contract because he doesn’t like not getting his own way. The agent thought that he would still stay regardless but I just had a feeling, I have met him several times in the last year. The phone call came from Morgan’s last night that he will be moving out at the end of September. A bit of a shame that he didn’t keep it for another 6 months as it would have given us a chance to buy and renovate at least one more flat before looking for work again but never mind. The other thing it will screw up is our holiday to Bangkok.

We can’t really justify leaving such a big house empty for several months at a time. Maybe our option might now be a house exchange in Australia. How would you feel about that Sheila?