Birthday Celebrations

A few things to get off my chest today but first things first this morning and I must start by wishing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Janet. Jan will be celebrating her special day in Adelaide, Australia with Steve and her daughter Charlotte; she emailed me yesterday to say that Charlie had booked her in for a facial today and I hope the rest of her day involves lots of pampering.  I almost must wish ‘Happy Birthday’ to my friend Jane.  We had hoped to have lunch this week but it just never happened; Jane said that she was probably going away for her birthday so I hope Ian is taking her somewhere hot and romantic.

It’s been a long and somewhat frustrating week tinged with a little worry about Steve’s fish and stress about exchanging.  At the end of the week I wish I could report that Phil, after 5 days of being on antibiotics, is feeling much better, but actually he isn’t.  He is feeling a little better but not drastically, he’s still coughing and sneezing and appears to have no energy or no desire to do anything bar siting on the sofa and watching the big screen.  He made arrangements for us to go down to London on Wednesday to see Georgina in her halls of residence and I was a little surprised and concerned that he wasn’t well enough to make the trip but I figured there would be no time to visit next week with the move and perhaps some fresh air might do the trick.

Phil was aghast at the price of day return tickets which cost us £52 for two.  Okay these tickets allowed us to travel on the Virgin trains and included a travel card which actually we didn’t use in the end.  It also cost us £8.50 to park in the multi-storey.  Phil had lots to moan about on the journey down to London, thank god it only took us 30 minutes!  We caught the northern line and met Georgina at Tottenham Court Road.  Before we came, I was worried we might pass on our cold bugs but I needn’t have worried because when she turned up she was full of cold. 

Georgina, who is studying at the London School of Economics, is 2 weeks into her course and is staying in halls of residence just off Holborn tube station.  She took us to her room and it was atypical of a student; an unmade bed, clothes and makeup everywhere and a just a medley of mess.  But it appears that she has everything she needs which is the main thing.  We inspected the shower room; the kitchen and the common room which we thought were quite good.   We went for lunch at a nearby Chinese which turned out to be expensive and crap.  Phil & Georgina had soup to start and managed to eat their main courses but mine was so disgusting that I only managed to eat 2 mouthfuls. After lunch we took G too Sainsbury’s and got her stocked up with student food, cider and chocolate!   We spotted Curry’s next door so we went in and ordered a mini fridge for her room.  Wednesday turned out to be an expensive day!

Our buyer came round on Wednesday evening with a kitchen and bathroom specialist.  I decided not to be home when she came and popped over to see Sue but Phil said our buyer was nice enough.  Seems that one of the first things that she’s going to do when she moves in, is rip out the bathroom.  Luckily I got back home 3 minutes after the buyer left. Steve Pem popped round after work and I chatted to after Phil left to walk to the pub.   The Wednesday Night crew were very thin on the ground on Wednesday; George is away in Spain, Steve is in Oz, poor Alfie is not well so that just left Jim & Phil.   I am not sure where Chris got to.

Yesterday I went to the gym for a workout which is the first time in years.  Okay I exaggerate slightly but I really can’t remember the last time I worked out.  I got there just before 8am and the place was deserted.  I was a little pathetic and only managed 10 minutes rowing and 20 minutes on the cross trainer.   The pool was fairly empty also so I did 10 lengths and finished up in the steam room.  I was very tired afterwards and I wondered if my poor fitness levels were because of not going to the gym for a couple of month or as a result of my cold bug and I think that it is most probably down to the latter.  Still, I shall get back there eventually; it will just take a bit of time.

Phil didn’t feel like doing much yesterday but after lunch I coaxed him to driving over to have a look at the storage unit.  We’ve provisionally booked a 40ft unit with Arrows in west Bletchley and I wanted to actually see it, to check if it was going to be big enough.  It was.  Of course, we couldn’t actually confirm the booking because we hadn’t exchanged contracts and thought handing over money would be tempting fate.  But actually the good news, is that yesterday just after 4pm, the call came from Sally our solicitor to say that she had received the deposit funds and we had exchanged contracts.  Our completion date is the 21^st which is one week today so that only gives us 7 days.  We are pleased that we have exchanged because we can now pay off our debts but we are more than a little sad to be leaving Giffard Park. But it has to be done.  Phil wants to try and make money by flipping houses so best get flipping. There are 10 million things to organise and I must make a start right away.  Oh dear, I can feel the stress already!