Completely Exhausted

Completion when it came on Friday was early, very early.  There was no chain so we weren’t expecting it to be late in the day but we certainly didn’t expect it to happen before 10.30am.  Of course we weren’t ready, I was still cleaning and Phil was up in Harriet’s loft when he took the call from the agent.  After that, it was all mad panic stations; I had finished the house and had the remainder of our stuff on the drive but I couldn’t pack it in the car because Phil had my car and the land rover was stuffed to the gunnels.  It was almost midday by the time Phil came back, he was gone ages and I was getting concerned not to mention bored and impatient.   He said he’d tried to ring me to say that he would be a little longer because he had go to Morrison’s to get food fresh for the guinea pig but I’d left my mobile in the caravan and by this time I had dismantled the landline phone.  Phil took meter readings and scribbled these down on a scrap of paper, he took the front door key off my key ring and then promptly lost it.  This sent him into a real tizzy and after a frantic search with no joy, we gave up.  So no emotional goodbye house moment, no tears; there was no time, we simply shut the door for one last time and that was it.

Phil took the one door key and dropped this off at the agents in Newport.  I went to the tip to dump the rubbish and went round to Sue’s house as we’d made arrangements to go to Ikea to have a look at soft furnishings.  Phil came round for some tools which he needed to do jobs at the caravan and then with a loaded car, set off for Overstone.  Sue & I went to Ikea.  We looked around the showroom part first to get some inspiration but nothing really jumped out at us.  There were no must-have moments which is rare for me.  Mind you, that’s probably a good thing for me, there isn’t room to swing a cat in our caravan and I already have a storage unit full of stuff, I don’t need more stuff but Sue does.

Sue brought us lunch in the café, it took ages to get served by some rather reluctant staff but we got there in the end and celebrated my completion with a glass of wine.  And why not, I think it probably did us both good to sit down and take time out.  Of course wine at lunchtime doesn’t bode well for getting things down in the afternoon but we checked out the market place and came away from Ikea with a fab mirror, a chest of drawers, 2 bedside cabinets, a couple of picture frames and an Audrey Hepburn print.  It was a bit of a challenge getting them all in Sue’s car but we managed just about and get them off loaded with no problems at the other end.  Then for me, it was back to the caravan park. 

Phil was already reclined when I got home; ummm did I say home, it doesn’t feel like home quite yet, more like a base.  I don’t think the reality of our brutal downsizing has sunk in yet, I still feel like it’s all a bad dream.   I had to unload my car and put away some of the stuff that Phil had unpacked and then on Friday night, we drew the curtains, put on every fire and slumped in the front of the telly.

I didn’t impress Phil much because I was up at 4am and managed to wake him up too.  I think he did try to go back to sleep but didn’t succeed and by 6.30am we’d eaten our porridge and were ready to get on the road.  We needed supplies and decided that whilst it was quiet on the roads, we’d drive to Wellingborough to try and find Homebase.  Phil knew there was a Homebase because he’d been there before but the one-way-system in Wellingborough is confusing and in the end we gave up and headed back to Northampton.  We saw a Sainsbury’s so we filled up with fuel and then got some shopping.  I knew that that there was a Homebase on retail park just a few miles from Overstone so we went there.

In the cold light of day (literally) it has become obvious that we have quite a bit of work to do on the van before winter really sets in.  First job is to lag the pipes under the van to try and stop them freezing; Phil got some insulation from Homebase and fitted this around the pipes.  It wasn’t an easy job because he had to lay on his back and ease himself under the van and unfortunately we didn’t have quite enough insulation so he will have to go underneath again.  We also need to try and fit the skirting which is missing at the back of the van but before we can do this we need to fit an electric socket to power the washing machine. Phil wants to get tarmac laid so he can park his car and he also wants to plant a hedge to define our boundary but I can’t think about landscaping for the moment, the inside needs to take priority.

The people that owned the caravan before us smoked inside and the smell of stale smoke hits you as soon as you walk inside, even though the lounge/kitchen area has been painted, the curtains have been washed and new carpets have been fitted.  I think it must be impregnated into the whole fabric of the van.  I’ve painted both of the bedrooms and these now don’t smell of smoke but the bathroom and the dressing room and the inside of the storage cupboards reek of smoke, so these will have to be painted and sooner rather than later.

On Saturday morning Phil sorted out the wiring in the second bedroom which has now turned into an office. The boxing and the wiring of two sockets looked awful and I knew Phil wouldn’t be able to live with it.  He ripped out the boxing, rewired it into a new double socket making it all neat and tidy.  He filled the wall, I painted it and now you’d never know.   Phil also fitted another double socket which I didn’t really think we needed but a boy can never have too many sockets; after all, it’s no good having, an iPhone4, an iPad, an iPad docking station, an iMac and a Windows PC if you have nowhere to plug them in! 

Phil wanted to take the afternoon off and persuaded me to get in the car and go exploring.  He said he feels that I am putting pressure on him to get jobs done and pushing him too hard.  I suppose he does have a point but I only push him as hard as I push myself and he knows that I won’t rest until I have the caravan as I want it.  Relationships are all about compromise and I suppose that sometimes, enough is enough; so I relented and we went to take a look at the nearby villages. There are some pretty villages surrounding us but we didn’t find any pubs that we liked the looks of so we headed back to The Griffin in Mears Ashby.  We have been here a few times now and the food is excellent. 

It was nearly 3 o’clock by the time we got back to the van and whilst we were unloading the car we got chatting to our next door neighbours, Vikki & Dennis who invited us in for a cup of tea.  Their van seems massive compared to us although Phil says its only 12ft wide like ours.  But I think not, I think they must have a double base.  Vikki & Dennis seem very nice and very kindly answered our 101 caravan questions.  Which is lucky for us, because at the moment, I feel like we are like pigs in shit and need all the help we can get if we are to survive the winter.

I know I am a girl that likes the warm, but I have to say, and Phil will agree that it is cold in the van.   The electric wall mounted fires and the one gas fire are not sufficient.  We brought an oil heated radiator with us and we have this on all the time, day and night.  It’s only October and I am already getting dressed in front of the gas fire.  And I have to force myself to use the shower. Living here reminds of when I used to stay at my gran’s house; she had no central heating and when you took a bath you had to put on the paraffin heater.  If things get really bad, we have a very old and very ugly calor gas heater in the plastic shed outside that we can bring that in the van.  Only trouble is, I don’t know if I could bare to look at this rusty old fire let alone have it living with me and where would I put it?  But I suppose being warm wins over vanity and needs must and all of that.

Yesterday morning I was up early once again but then I did fall asleep on the sofa at 7pm so an early start is not surprising.  Poor Phil wasn’t impressed but realising there was no chance of more sleep he got up and cooked bacon and eggs. Phil says you have always got to a have a fry up when you’re camping.  Trying not to disturb the neighbours so early on a Sunday morning, we locked up and drove to MK in my car. Whilst our bedroom is at the back of the caravan, Vikki & Den’s bedroom is at the front of their van.  So what with me being an early riser, living next to us isn’t going to be so good for them.  Once off the M1, our irst stop was a visit to Sue’s to pick up the saw and then it was over to Steve & Jan’s to feed Norman and the few remaining fish. 

We had our gym bags with us but neither of us felt up to a workout so we had a Jacuzzi and a steam at DW and then went to McDonalds for a coffee and also to waste some time.  I managed to get 26 minutes on the free internet but this was nowhere near long enough to do what I needed to do.  It didn’t matter though as it was 10am by then and the shops were open.  We went to Homebase for more insulation, Paul Simon for blinds and Dunelem’s for bead curtains and Phil also picked up a small heater for the bedroom.  We did hope that we would hook up with Harriet but I knew she was out clubbing the night before and she said that she’d me ring when she was up. We drove down the A5 back to Northampton and when we go on the park, we stopped off at the Launderette to put on the washing.  I hadn’t done any washing for 8 days so I had a bin bag full of dirty clothes.  

Phil was going to cook roast duck with all the trimmings but it was lunchtime and he hadn’t even put on the oven so we decided to eat at the clubhouse.  The bingo was on and the actual main clubhouse was packed out but we were the only ones in the restaurant.  This surprised us because the Sunday roast is only £6.75 per head; we both had the roast lamb which was delicious.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and really we should have got on with jobs but both of us had run of steam, quite literally. After feeding the dryer 50p’s in the tumble dryer, I did manage to bring my laundry home and do all the ironing yesterday afternoon but that was pretty much all I managed to achieve.  Phil sawed a piece of wood but that was it for him; we finished the day with Sunday papers, crap television and ham sandwiches.

I shall look forward to the day when there are no pressing jobs, nothing on the ‘to do’ list and when our time is our own to do as we please.  Will that day ever come I ask myself?  Yes it will Clairabella, you just need to hold on and keep going for a bit longer.

Bye Bye House

I knew moving week would be hard especially because we were moving ourselves but it's been real hard and very, very stressful.  Our week didn’t start out great with Phil discovering that Buster had died in his sleep.  Then went he got to the hire place in Bletchley he went to pay and found that the didn’t have his wallet so he had to come all the way back to Milton Keynes in the rush hour traffic and back again to pick up the small wheel based van so it was gone half nine by the time he got back home.  We filled the van with stuff and I thought we were very careful with our packing but when we got to the Arrows storage unit in west Bletchley and unloaded, a couple of bits had moved in transit; my beautiful Dwell high white gloss unit had a chip on the door and one of the white bedside units had a nick at the back.   It took several lift loads getting it all off and a little bit of planning to utilise the space but we did it. 

After the storage unit we went back home and loaded up for the second time and headed off to Overstone.  We unloaded but of course there was a problem, none of our furniture would fit through the bedroom doors.  We managed to squeeze them through the main caravan door but not the internal rooms. Phil went to unscrew them all but we’d forgotten to bring the electric screwdriver so we couldn’t do it.  It was lunchtime by this time so we popped into Overstone Manor for a soggy carvery.  Phil says he doesn’t mind the carvery here but it’s not great, all the vegetable's including the roast potatoes are frozen, its like eating soggy fresh air.  I am not going to write this place off though before I try something off the main menu, mainly because I like the venue and it’s within walking distance from the van.

I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the afternoon but I know we were knackered by the time we took the van back and on Monday evening it was early to bed.  And unfortunately it was also early to rise, I was in the wide awake world by 3.30am.  Just after half seven I drove over to Caldecotte to pick up Sue who had an appointment at Central Milton Keynes to get one eye laser surgery.  She was meant to have it about a month ago and they cancelled because the surgeon was sick.  Sue signed the consent form, had an eye check and we went sat patiently in the waiting room when the consultant came up and told us that there was a problem with the laser machine.  He said that the engineer was driving up from Birmingham and that there would be at least an hour’s delay before surgery.  We said okay and went for a wonder around the city centre and ended up having a bacon and sausage roll in BHS café.  Not long afterwards Sue got a call to say that there was a big problem with the laser machine and her operation couldn’t take place.  Actually, that’s not strictly true, they said she could drive to Cambridge which was where the surgeon was going but she declined.

I dropped Sue at Newport and then went back home.  Phil had been over to the caravan to breakdown the furniture and reassemble it inside the bedrooms.  He got back at the same time as me and we then we went over to Westcroft to bury the rabbit.  In the afternoon we took down all the pictures and filled all the holes.  We cleared everything from all the bedrooms all bar our bed.  It was looking rather bare and I was a little anxious because our buyer came round in the evening with another plumber.  She is ripping our bathroom out (I don’t blame her) and apparently the plumber she’d brought round last week had let her down.  I hadn’t really wanted to meet her but she was nice and seemed excited to be moving into our house.

Wednesday was another early wake-up; I was up at 3.30am and managed to rouse Phil at half five.  He ripped out all sound system cables from underneath the skirting in the lounge and together we took down the big TV.  It was really heavy.  Taking down the wall bracket wasn’t easy either but we managed it.  Phil filled in the huge holes and I painted the chimney breast.  Luckily I found the tin of paint in the garage so it was no big deal.  Sue had lent me her white paint try so I rolled over all the holes all over the house.  I ended up touching up skirting boards where last year I had painted around the furniture. We loaded up both cars and drove over to Caldecotte to put stuff in Harriet’s loft.  This took a while, I climbed into the loft and Phil lifted the boxes up the ladder and I hoisted them up from there, some boxes were easier than others.  Last job of the day was a big clean in all the rooms and a hoover up. Phil says I am a paranoid psycho and maybe he is right but I really don’t want our buyer to come into a dirty, unloved, house.  I want her to be as happy as we have been living here.

Yesterday was a big, moving day.    It seemed ages before I could stir Phil but luckily he was up at half six because he needed the loo. When he was dressed he dismantled our bed and also the sofa in the lounge.  Nigel the-bald-man-with van turned up at 8am and loaded up with stuff from the garage and he and Phil went to the storage unit.  I stayed home and did some hovering, cleaning and packing until Phil came back about an hour later.  He said our 40ft storage unit is choc-a-block and we couldn’t fit a single thing in.  It was lucky then that Sue kindly said we could use her garage temporarily to store stuff so we loaded up both cars and went over to Newport.

After Newport we shoved our double mattress in the back of the Land Rover and tipped this at the Newport dump.  Next job was another car load to take to Harriet’s loft and then it was back home to load up both cars with more stuff.  Phil was rushing me as he was eager to get to the caravan and as a result I forgot half the stuff that I needed to take.  Like the toaster, the kettle and all the food stuffs from the fridge.  Really I could have done with another couple of hours packing and cleaning but I don’t suppose it mattered too much because I couldn’t have got anything else in my car.

We arrived at the caravan and unloaded which took some time.  I started to unpack and put away but Phil was hungry and insisted on taking me for lunch.  We went to the village near Earls Barton (for the moment the names escapes me) for lunch which at the moment is our favourite in this area.  The food is all home cooked. I had the liver and bacon with mash and Phil went for the steak.  The only trouble with this pub is that the food portions are massive.  It was cracking on for 3pm by the time we got back to the van.  Poor Phil was knackered so he reclined on the sofa whilst I unpacked the boxes.  This took a while and things had to be changed around so I could find a home for everything.

Last night was ham sandwiches and telly.  We have quite a bit of work to do to make the van comfortable and cosy before the winter sets in.  As we are complete novices with camping and caravans I think we have much to learn.  But I have to say our first night was comfortable; our caravan bed is very comfortable and we both slept like logs.  Maybe this was because we were cream crakered from our removals, I don’t know but I think the pair of us are going to be happy here.  I had brought new PJ’s for our first night and Phil, bless him, and put a hot water bottle on my side before I went to sleep so I wasn’t cold, but I have to say when I woke up this morning.  It was okay when Phil got up and put the heaters on but if you put on to many on the electricity trips and you have to go outside to flick it on. Phil has brought torches to put in every room for when it’s dark, but this is not ideal and we will have to get it sorted.

I wrote this blog in my new caravan bed first thing this morning but I am actually publishing it from our house.  I tried to hack into networks on the caravan park yesterday but unfortunately they were all secure.  Another 2 hours on the telephone with BT on Wednesday evening and we are not going to be connected at the caravan for another 2 weeks.  I worry that I may have a nervous breakdown without the Internet so today I am going to have to try and buy a dooley dangle thing but not one on contract.  Not sure if there is such a thing but I am going try.

Well I suppose I better sign off from the Internet for one very last time.  I have a few last things to pack, the garage and the kitchen floors to clean and then it’s time to say goodbye house.  God, what am I like, my eyes are filling up as I type this sentence.  I have loved living beside the canal and I shall miss walking down to the pub watching the canal frozen over on a crispy winters day.  I shall miss my neighbours Emma & Jason especially, I will miss my kitchen and my dishwasher and I will miss living in Milton Keynes.  I am sure once with settled in the static I shall feel happier next week; well maybe even later this afternoon when our solicitor to say we’ve completed and the money is our account.  Bye Bye no 11 hello new life.

Oh dear

I am not sure that I have mentioned anything about feeding the animals but Jan & Steve asked us to look after theirs whilst they were in Australia.  We didn’t mind feeding them,  after all, Jan looked after our affairs whilst we were in India for 3 months and Jan very kindly said we could stay at their house any time we liked whilst they were away.  They don’t have many pets, just a tankful of tropical fish in the lounge, 3 normal fish in the kitchen and Buster the rabbit and Norman the guinea pig who both live in the utility room.  Steve said we only needed to feed them every other day but on our first visit after Jan & Steve had left for Oz, we found 3 dead floating on the top of the tropical fish tank, we decided to go every day.  Phil was alarmed straight away because he thought the light in the tank should have been on and he couldn’t see any bubbles.  We decided that the lights had blown so straight away we went to Morrison’s to get new bulbs but when we put these in, the lights still didn’t work.  On further exploration, we found that Steve had the lights on the timer.  Phew, we breathed a sigh of relief, put the old lights back in, scooped out the dead fish and went home, not feeling too concerned.

Phil felt uneasy about the 3 dead fish so he went round the following day, only to find 10 more dead fish.  OMG, now he was really upset.  He remembered that Jimmy had once kept tropical fish so he phoned him for some advice.   Jim said that it was very likely to be a problem with the tank and the fish most probably weren’t getting enough oxygen or heat.  Something like that anyway, I can’t quite remember.  Phil emailed Steve and sometime later he phoned Phil and said it might be a blocked pipe and told him what to twiddle.   Phil went back round to twiddle and whatever Steve told him to do, seemed to work and all was good until Friday, when he discovered another 2 dead fish.  Oh dear.  There was most definitely a problem with the tank and in hindsight we should have called a tropical fish specialist to fix it first thing last week and had we have done, we could have saved the fish.

Now if you think 15 dead fish wasn’t bad enough, think again, the worst was yet to follow.  So concerned about the fish, Phil went round to Jan & Steve’s every day last week but on Sunday, he had a hangover and couldn’t move off the sofa.    We thought missing a day wouldn’t matter, but oh dear, when he went very early on Monday morning to feed the animals before collecting the small wheeled base transit van that we’d hired, he arrived only to find Buster very still in his cage.  He phoned me on the landline in a total panic telling me he thought Buster was dead.  Now I knew that Buster was very old, but even I was shocked, how bad luck to be looking after a good friend’s pets and have nearly all of them die on you!!!!!

After Phil phoned me, I phoned Sue.  She is the only friend that I know that has her mobile switched on permanently and is up any time, day or night.  I’m afraid with all the dramas and misfortune of this week (and more about that another time) that Sue has been my ‘phone a friend’.  Not only have I seen her every day but I have phoned her at least once a day with some or other crisis.  Now the reason for phoning Sue about Buster, was because when she was round for supper last Saturday, she was telling me and Phil, that she once looked after a neighbour’s rabbit and it went and died on her.  When her neighbour got back from holiday she insisted on getting an autopsy.  Phil remembered this tale also and decided to leave Buster in his cage and not do anything until he’d emailed Steve and told him the sad news.

Whereas Sue has been my ‘phone a friend’ this week, Phil’s’ phone a friend’ has been Jimmy.   He phoned him on Monday afternoon, quite forgetting that Jimmy doesn’t work on a Monday and it was Shirley that picked up the phone.  Phil told her about Buster and Shirley, being typical Shirley, burst out laughing.  It wasn’t that she didn’t feel for Buster but I don’t think she could believe our bad luck.  I am sorry but I had to laugh myself when she said to Phil “I bet that poor guinea pig is shitting himself”.   

Steve emailed back in Oz and said that Buster was very old and that it wasn’t Phil’s fault; he told him where the keys were for the patio doors and on Tuesday we buried poor Buster in Jan & Steve's back garden.  I have to say that he looked very content in his cage and both Phil & I think he died peacefully in his sleep.  The rabbit dying on him has really upset Phil.  So much so that on Monday morning he felt physically sick.  He couldn’t think about anything else for the whole day.  Poor Phil; over the last week he had become quite attached with Buster the rabbit and Norman the guinea pig, they had formed a bond.

Poor Buster; R.I.P. my furry friend.

Packing up & saying goodbye to No 11

It’s been a fairly busy but quite pleasant few days and the sunshine over the weekend certainly helped the soul.  Phil took Harriet and 3 of their friends to Luton airport on Friday where they were headed off to Tenerife for a week.  I was a little worried that 4 girls and all their luggage would fit in the land rover but it was fine.   I spent most of the day on the phone and after nearly 2 hours on the phone with BT; I had almost lost the will to live.  And the trouble is, I am likely to have to do the same today because it still isn’t sorted.  The problem is we don’t have an individual postcode for our caravan plot and the BT postcode office needs a postcode before they can allocate a line.  I said to them why can’t you just use the Overstone office postcode but they were adamant that they couldn’t do this.  I phoned the Overstone Sales office and they said the BT engineer just needs to come to the office and they will direct them to our plot. 

The other complication is that I can’t quite remember whether there is a telephone box in the van so can’t be sure that the previous owner had a landline, so today I need to go over, find the box, plug in a code and dial a special number which SHOULD give me the previous telephone number.  If BT have this number then apparently then they can set us up with a telephone line, broadband and BT Vision with a postcode.   If there was no previous line and there is no box, then god only knows.   I already know in my bones that it is going to be some before we get communications.

On Saturday we went over to Newport to give Sue a hand with a few jobs at her house.   Phil fitted a roller blind and a shelf and put up a curtain rail; jobs which entailed lots of deep sighing and seemed to take him quite some time.  Sue & I cleaned walls and windows and I helped her clean the top of her conservatory which wasn’t easy.  First up, Sue uncoiled her hose then I went up to her en-suite window and threw down a ball of string.  Sue tied this o the hose and I pulled the string and brought the hose up throw the en-suite and then hung it out the bedroom window whilst Sue turned on the water.  I hosed whilst Sue scrubbed the conservatory roof with a yard brush.  It took a while and we must have looked quite comical but it worked. 

Phil cooked on Saturday and we invited Sue over for a sort of ‘goodbye house’ supper. Phil brought champagne and we had this before eating his homemade mackerel with Melba toast.  And very nice it was but there was just far too much of it.  We had spaghetti carbonara for main and a cheesecake with a homemade red currant jus which Phil was very proud of.  Sue came round with 2 bottles of some very nice red wine and we drunk this and some more!  Our last drunken night at number 11 and I think we went out in style.  Well judging by our hung-overs the following morning, I am certain we did!  I had a number of jobs that I wanted to do on Sunday morning and really needed Phil’s help but there no chance because he was really suffering (hangover) and couldn’t move off the sofa.  I managed to clear the second bedroom and then shot off to go shopping with Sue.  She wanted me to go with her to look at blinds and bedding.  We found blinds in Paul Simon and discovered that they offer a cutting service which costs 15 quid per blind which we didn’t think was too bad.  Unfortunately the cutting service takes 2 weeks so we decided against this and just brought the cutting tool.  They had the same blinds in Dunelme’s next door and they were much cheaper, but unfortunately they didn’t have the the size Sue wanted so she’s had to order them.   Our shopping trip was quite successful, Sue got a fabulous art-deco style mirror and some gorgeous bedding and a blind from B&Q for her blue bedroom.   We did talk about going to IKEA but I couldn’t face a trip on a weekend and I’m not sure either of was really in the mood.

I really felt like slobbing on the sofa with Phil when I got back home but first I had to get the bed which Phil had dismantled and our bedroom furniture down stairs and into the garage.  I then started on clearing the lounge and the kitchen. The washing machine was going non-stop yesterday and I washed anything and everything because I am not sure how long it will be before my washing machine at the caravan will be up and running.  Of course this meant hours of ironing and this was how I spent my Sunday evening.  Phil was in bed before 6pm so I suppose the ironing get me occupied.

Our house is looking and sounding like an empty shell and already we are echoing.  I think Phil was a little surprised this morning when he came down to find the lounge had been stripped and all that is left is the sofa and the television.  There is much to do this week and we have a particularly busy day planned today as we have our first van booked.  Phil is going over to collect it from Bletchley, and then we will load it up and drive over to the caravan.  We are moving ourselves and the plan is to come back to MK at lunchtime, load the van up again and off load at our storage unit.  I am fretting that we are not going to have enough space for all of our stuff but by the end of today we should be able to tell if we need a bigger unit. It’s all go, go, go, the joys of moving house.  Time to stop moaning now and get this show on the road.

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!

Official 'man flu' and dead fish

Well at least we got an official diagnosis.  Fed up with Phil being in bed for days and twinned with a little worry, I phoned the doctors first thing on Monday morning and got him an appointment for half nine. He moaned and groaned, but reluctantly he showered and shaved and went to see Dr Roque.  She checked him over and said that he had flu and because of his weakened immune system said that he had a slight chest infection.  Dr Roque said that if he wasn’t feeling better in another week then he was to go back for blood tests.  He came away with a prescription or antibiotics. I did point out to Phil that in fact, I’d had the flu bug for 3 weeks and it was only went I took the drugs that I began to feel better.  But girlie flu is insignificant, MAN FLU is far, far worse!

A bit of a sad day in our cul-de-sac on Monday because this was the day Sandy’s house was being repossessed. Sandy and the kids actually have actually moved out but they were still scurrying around in the house on Monday sorting stuff and selling their good stuff on eBay.  As I type, I have their dining room table and chairs in my garage and I hope their buyer comes to collect it soon because our house sale looks imminent.  Yes, okay I have been saying this for weeks now, but we had a call late on Monday from Simon at Michael Graham to say the buyer had signed contracts and it look likely that exchange will happen today.  Our buyer is coming to view the house this evening with a kitchen/bathroom specialist; god knows what that’s about.  If it was me, I would replace my bathroom but I can’t see that anything needs changing in our kitchen.   But why I should I care what she changes? It would be a boring old world if we all had the same taste.   I can’t decide whether to be here or not when our buyer comes to view, the nosey side of me wants to meet her and see whether she will fit into our cul-de-sac but the other side of me wants to be totally removed from the whole thing.  I shall decide later today.

Thankfully the pills started to work almost immediately and Phil did seem a little better on Monday afternoon.  He did talk about going for a walk but instead we went over to Jan & Steve’s to see to their animals.   Phil freaked when we went in the lounge to feed the tropical fish because the light in the tank was off Phil said it should be on.  We fiddled with the wires and in the end, we decided that the bulbs had blown so we took them out and went to Morrison’s to get some replacements.  It was only when we replaced the bulbs that we realised the lights were on a timer.  The reason we panicked because there was a dead fish floating at the top of the tank and we thought, great the first day of animal feeding duty, and we are one fish down.  And Steve by the way, I have sent you a message on FB regarding this, so be grateful if you could advise when you are able to read your mail.

On Tuesday morning,   I went over to Sue to pick up some tools; poor Sue was having a bad day.  She received court papers from her ex tenant saying he was suing her to the sum of £3,000.  We both find this unbelievable.  Not only is the b***d not content with stealing all of her furniture, he wants paying for the privilege.  This is another battle that Sue will have to fight and a battle I’m sure she could well do without on top of all of the other shit.  Still, I am certain justice will prevail and these evil people will be sorry they took her on.  After Newport, I popped home to handover some flu drugs to Harriet.  She’d phoned me at 7am to say she felt unwell.  She’s already on a course of antibiotics for a slight case of tonsillitis.  Trouble is, she is going on holiday on Friday so she needed to take some action.  The doctor gave her some more penicillin and hopefully with some bed rest she will by Friday.

Ill health seems to be domineering our lives at the moment.  What with me and Phil and then Harriet and even Sue has been coughing and spluttering.  Also Phil’s dad has not been well for the last week.  He went to the doctors and ended up at the hospital having a lung x-ray.  The results revealed that he does have water on his lungs and his heart is enlarged which would explain why is struggling to breath.  Next week he is back at the hospital for an ECG and they have taken him off his angina pills.  Lets just hope next week there is some improvement and he starts to feel a little better.

Yesterday we loaded the car and went to Overstone to lay the carpet in the new shed.  We’ve been carrying this carpet around in the boot of my car for weeks so it was about time it was laid.  Silly thing is that Sue has just tipped two perfectly good carpets from her house and either of these would have been perfect for our 6 x 4 shed.  Never mind, hindsight as I always say is invaluable.  Poor Phil really wasn’t well and fitting the carpet in the shed and drilling two holes in it to secure it to the ground pretty much took it out of him.   I felt bad for making him get dressed and leave his bed and the sofa.   I felt a little depressed being back at the caravan and spending time at Sue’s large house and at home, our little caravan seems tiny.  So, so tiny and I wonder how we will cope living in such a small space 24/7 without killing each other?

After carpet fitting, we went for a carvery at Overstone Manor, it was okay, cheap but the veggies had been slaughtered to death. It’s not the best carvery that I have tasted and next text I think we should try something else off the menu.  We drove back on the motorway and once back in MK we stopped off at Westcroft to feed Jan & Steve’s animals.   Unfortunately there was another dead tropical fish floating in the tank which has made us really worried.  Steve, if you dip in to our blog can you ring or email Phil.  I know you’re en route to Adelaide and don’t want to spoil your trip but we could do with some advice.  Phil phoned Daniel yesterday but he couldn’t help and we have no previous with tropical fish.

Everything & Nothing

I am all too well aware that this blog has been a little flat and without fizz since we got back from Malaysia.  I can only blame this on jet lag and then the cold flu like virus that has dogged us now for 3 weeks.   Our heads have been all clogged up with cotton wool like stuff and it’s been difficult to think straight let alone put a sentence together. Yes, we have felt rather sorry for ourselves but you know what, there is always someone worse off than you even if you don’t think there is at the time.   Self-pity is rather self-indulgent and I am not a fan or a frequent follower.  Things always have a way of bringing you down to earth though and this happened to me just the other day, funnily enough while I was surfing the net. Well actually, I wasn’t surfing as such; I was catching up with all the blogs that I follow via a link on our blog site which lists the titles of any new postings.  I was straight away drawn to a recent posting by Lisa Lynch, author of the most brilliant blog site, ‘Alright Tit’.  http://alrighttit.blogspot.com/

Lisa Lynch is a 30 year old journalist who blogged about her battle with breast cancer, a blog which was later turned into a published book. She is a balsey chick who has a certain way with words and I love to follow her even if the subject matter is sometimes sad.  Anyway, the title of her last posting, which straight away drew my attention, was ‘The post I never wanted to write’.  As I soon as I read this title I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and I hesitated slightly before I clicked on the link.  Only one paragraph into reading Lisa’s post and my worst fears were confirmed and I learnt that her cancer had returned.   She’s got secondary cancer in her bones, Stage 4 and as everyone knows, there is no Stage 5.   It was a sad posting and not without traces of her honesty and humour. Lisa is trying to stay positive and there is talk of maybe life expectancy of 8 years with pain relief.  I wish Lisa all the time on this earth that she wants and hope that her pain is minimal and manageable.   Trouble is, I had a friend who had secondary cancer in the bones and she lasted 6 months after diagnosis. This bloody disease, it has so much to answer for.

Of course cancer and colds are worlds apart but reverting back to the subject of the cold virus, I am pleased to report that I have finished my course of antibiotics and am feeling a lot better; not 100% but not far off.  Phil, on the other hand, is still poorly.  He has virtually been in bed since last Thursday which is the last day that he had a shower.  Yesterday I thought things were looking up because he got out of bed and spent the day on the sofa but this morning we have decided that he needs to visit the doctor because he is now into the 4^th week of being ill.  I am not sure whether the doctor will give him antibiotics, I know the course certainly helped me, but I am sure that getting washed and dressed (and shaved) and a bit of fresh air will make me feel brighter.  It’s funny though, although Phil has been ill, his appetite hasn’t been affected, he says he has no taste but he has been eating for England. Funny that!  Most people, lose weight when they’re sick but not Phil.

As you would expect, with a house-bound husband, my weekend wasn’t that exciting.  For want of something to do, I pitched up at Sue’s house to help out with a bit of painting and decorating.  It was a hive of activity at Sue’s, Tom was round wall papering the second bedroom, Sammy was outside clearing the block-paving and Sue and me painted.   Sue’s been working tirelessly in her house since getting the keys back 3 weeks ago.  In fact she’s been in there working every single day without fail.   There is now not a single room that hasn’t either been cleaned, painted, glossed or wallpapered.  At least when she does eventually move-in, she won’t be living with anyone else’s dirt.

To end on something positive, I went on to Steve & Jan’s blog this morning and I read that they have finally arrived in Brisbane after flying out from Heathrow on Saturday via Singapore.  Steve said they the flight was okay but they weren’t able to get any sleep which is a bummer on such a long journey but I shall look forward to following them for the next 3 weeks as they explore Australia.  http://janandsteve.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/australia/

Now that reminds me, Phil & I are looking after their house and their animals whilst they away so we must go round today to feed them.

Still suffering

It’s been a fairly unremarkable week so nothing much to write home about on this grey Friday morning.  I suppose the highlight of our week was a dinner party on Tuesday evening hosted by Sue. Sue invited us over along with her friends who were staying, Jim & Anne.  We met Jim & Anne through Alan & Sue at Cosgrove last summer and although we saw them at Alan’s funeral in May, we haven’t seen them since.  They have been working the summer at a caravan park in Kings Lynn, they’ve finished the season and next week will be heading off in their caravan to spend the winter in Spain.  We had a great evening, delicious food, great company, plenty of wine and even singing and dancing.  It was gone 2am by the time we got home and needless to say we were a little delicate the next day.  I wasn’t as bad as Phil who told me that he was “proper dying” on Wednesday morning.  

Actually, Phil was in bed for most of the day and what we thought was a, too-hard-partying-hangover, actually turned back into the cold bug.  This is the cold bug that Phil has just shaken off.   He got up and had a shower and went over to fetch Steve and they walked down to the pub but Phil was home by 9 o’clock.  This is unheard of for Phil so he must have been feeling poorly.   I promised Sue we would go round on Thursday morning and help out with some jobs but Phil was still feeling unwell so although we got round to her at 9am we only stayed for a couple of hours because Phil just wasn’t up to it.  When he got home he changed into his dressing gown and flopped on the sofa which is where he pretty much stayed all day.

Our lives have pretty much been dominated  by this horrible bug which we have now been suffering ever since we got back from Malaysia, which is nearly 3 weeks now.  I am fed up of it.  Sue gave me a course of antibiotics which she was prescribed for tonsillitis, I started taking these on Wednesday and actually I did feel a little better yesterday. Not 100%, still snuffling and coughing but my head is beginning to clear.  I’m not sure about Phil though, I do worry that the radiotherapy has weakened his immune system leaving him unable to fight off infections.  He seemed to be getting better and I can only think that I had a different cold bug to him and have re-infected him.   I think I may have to make an appointment for him to see the doctor today.

Well, apart from a fairly uneventful week which has been dogged by colds, we are in limbo land because we still haven’t exchanged contracts on the house.  We had a call on Tuesday from the agent to say that our buyer had received the mortgage offer.  We had a call on Wednesday to say that all she had to do was go in and sign contracts.  Phil phoned our solicitor yesterday and she said she would call us back if there was any news.  We have heard nothing.  To say I am more than fed up is an understatement.  I am really pissed off.  I just want to know one way or another.  There is only so much time that a girl can put her life on hold and that time is running out.

Camping, Colds & Homemade Soup

  Not having posted for a few days, this blog will be a bit of a catch-up one, short and sweet and to the point, no messing around and not too many words.  On Friday we went round to help Sue at her Green Park house.   Phil stayed for an hour or so then went off to do other jobs whilst Sue and I set about cleaning the roof of her conservatory.   The plan was that I would get up on the ladder with the squirty brush whilst Sue held the bottom of the ladder.  However even with braving the top rung I couldn’t quite reach the end of the roof so we swapped and Sue went up the ladder because she’s taller than me.  

It took a couple of hours and we got quite wet but that didn’t matter because it was such a lovely day, we soon dried.  On Friday evening Jan picked us up and we walked from her house to what used to be the Thai restaurant in Oxley Park and which is now an Indian.  We all like Indian food so that was fine but the service was slow, the food was sweet and it was a little disappointing.  I finished the night off in style by falling asleep on Jan & Steve’s sofa, legs and dress askew and snoring like a trooper.  Sorry guys, wine and flu drugs got the better of me, just hope I haven’t passed on my germs.

I didn’t feel too great on Saturday morning and neither did Phil and as such, we had a slow start to the morning.  We packed the car and drove over to the caravan but it was nearly midday when we got there.  We unpacked our bits and pieces, tried a different pub for lunch, got some supplies from Sainsbury’s on the outskirts of Wellingborough and then went back to the caravan.  It was such a glorious, sunny day and Phil wanted to have a walk around the lakes but I didn’t feel well enough so we flopped on the sofas and watched TV.  Such a waste of a day and I know that I’m sick when I choose to be inside rather than sunning myself and topping up the tan.

It was baking in the caravan on Saturday afternoon and so we were a little surprised to wake up freezing cold on Sunday morning.  Phil was first out of a bed for a wee so he put on the heaters then jumped back in bed to warm up on me.  With a couple of heaters on, the place soon warmed up but it did make me wonder how we are going to fare in the winter, with no proper central heating and no double glazing?  The bed, which came with the caravan, was very comfortable especially with the new fur mattress protector.   We were also very pleased with the shower in the caravan; I said to Phil that the shower head looked naff and would probably need changing but in actual fact, it’s more powerful than our shower at home.

Phil really wanted to have bacon and eggs for breakfast on Sunday morning but we had no frying pan and no oil so he had to make do with Weetabix.  We had breakfast, showered and changed and then walked to the on-site shop to get papers. Again, it was a lovely sunny day and everyone we met on our walk seemed friendly and said good morning.  We’d invited Step-dad John & Marie to come down for the day and they arrived promptly at half past ten.  It was a last minute invitation but it worked out well because they are off in their campervan to La Manga on Saturday for 6 months and it was our last opportunity to see them before they go.

They both loved the caravan and they loved the site and the lakes.  We walked to the clubhouse for lunch, which we were able to eat outside.  I am not too sure how I feel about the ‘community’ atmosphere at Overstone, for now, it feels a little intrusive and I’m sure I want to be part of the club.  But its early days, give it time, and I’m not even living there yet.  After lunch, it was back to the caravan for coffee and cakes and at tea-time J&M said goodbye and headed back to Suffolk.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in the van on Sunday night, 24 hours with no internet access and I was getting withdrawal symptoms. But Phil was keen to stay in our new home and so I agreed.  It was nearly 6pm by this time and this is the time of the day where I start to go downhill.  My nose, after streaming all day, becomes blocked, my sinuses and head begin to ache and the coughing fits start when I lie down.  Phil isn’t much better although he has lost the snotty, streaming nose.

We locked up and got back to MK yesterday shortly before 10am.  Just time to open the post, have a cup of coffee and some toast then shoot round to Sue’s to help her with a few more jobs.   We were both amazed at how much progress she’d made; obviously she’d worked hard all over the weekend.  I think, give it the end of this week and the major works will be complete.  Phil wallpapered a feature wall in her lounge and I grouted the tiles in the bathroom.  Not major works but I suppose it all helps. 

Yesterday afternoon it was back home for a shower and then I was in my dressing gown by 3pm.  It’s been over 2 weeks since we came down with this cold virus and I have decided to stop taking the drugs because they just make me feel like a zombie. My head feels like it’s full of cotton wool and I just can’t think straight.  No definite plans for today, still no exchange and so we are taking each day as it comes.  However, I think a trip to the gym this morning and then a visit to Asda to buy some ingredients to make soup. Homemade soup maybe just what we need.