Catching up on the week's happenings

Goodness me, more new followers, and they've arrived when there's not much to post about too. Welcome Annette and Carol - I used to be more interesting - Honest!!

We've had some really cold weather this week because a biting east wind has been coming straight in off the sea. I know further west in the country there has been sunshine and warmth but the first half of the week was mainly grey and any excursion outside was teeth-numbingly cold.  Amy at Love Made My Home had a walk with her camera and found many signs of spring, so when the sun came out on Thursday I went up and down the road and round the field to see the signs of spring here on the East coast...........Almost Nothing! We have daffodils that have been in bud for weeks without opening and  no buds or leaves anywhere except for the apricot trees. Just shows what a difference it makes living un-sheltered from the East winds and it's back to really grey and damp again today.

The only sign of blossom - I shall miss the apricot trees even though we only got apricots 3 times in 10 years.

Up at the top of the field we've left the green man to watch over everything, he's been there many years now, I wonder if the new owners will find him.

2 months ago Col filled in all the forms to claim benefit because of the cancer and they were sent off  but nothing has gone into the bank yet. So he rang to find out what was happening and got told "yes we have your details, don't know why you've not had anything, ring this number" So he rang the new number only to be told "No we have no details of you, you need to ring this number" (The number he had first rung!) Seems he has been lost in the system - Oh bother now we have to start all over again - with the added complication of change of address. Thank Goodness we are not counting on this money to live on. Thank Goodness we saved all the money we made from car boots, my pension and  yard sale etc last year. Thank Goodness the bungalow we have bought was less than half the price of the smallholding.

 We went up Tuesday for Col's pre-chemo blood test and  check with the consultant and all was well, they were pleased with progress. He was due in for the 4th session  yesterday- Thursday but they had no bed for him, so he rang again today - No, still full up but he needed a blood test so we trekked up to Ipswich anyway, again all OK. He has been told to call Sunday morning in the hope that they can get him in Sunday night ready for an early start Monday which means he will be stuck in hospital when we move because...................... ............................................................................................Contracts were exchanged at 4.30pm on Tuesday with completion confirmed for next Tuesday 22nd so I've been doing more tidying and packing but also un-packing boxes - yes - UN-packing to find things we wouldn't have needed if we'd moved on the 9th or 16th! Very annoying it is too. I undid two labelled "craft stuff"  to find the 'Sister'  and 'Son in Law ' peel off stickers for up-coming birthdays and one of the kitchen boxes to find the coffee. Thankfully I have plenty of helpers signed up for Tuesday so everything will be fine - fingers crossed. I just hope the carpet fitters will be able to get the carpets laid before Tuesday - that could be a nightmare if they can't.

I  spent most of Wednesday morning on the phone to various utility companies trying to get everything organised - that was no fun at all, you need the patience of a saint just to get through. Then the estate agent through which we are buying rang to offer me chocolates or wine as a 'welcome to your new home' gift  which rather cheered me up! ( Chocs ........ obviously!)

We had some unexpected exciting news last weekend - our youngest will be producing a grandchild for us in the autumn ☺You wait 26 years for a new addition to the family (that's the age of our youngest niece) and then 2 come along at once. ☺ I shall have to make two "Babies First Christmas" cards ☺ It's Extra special news in a way as she had only half the chance of getting pregnant compared to other girls because of the ovarian cancer when she was 18. Eldest daughter due June so the cousins will be 4 months apart (but many counties - sadly) and I've started a new column in the accounts book - Grandchildren☺ I refuse to be like my mum who rarely bought anything for the children unless it was their birthday or Christmas, she wasn't mean but it just wasn't done. I'm planning to haunt charity shops and car-boot sales for clothes, toys and books as soon as we move.☺
Talking of Christmas, I'm now worried.................there is no way we can fit all the expanding family into the teeny Ipswich bungalow, so we might have to move again sooner than we thought!!! Jolly Good Fun?? At least we wouldn't be selling as we are intending to stick to our original plan to keep the bungalow and rent it out for an income, the only difference is that instead of travelling round the country for the summer we will be stuck with hospital visits! Hey Ho - such is life.

Back after moving
Sue





 

So are we moving this Wednesday?.................

NO!

Honestly, this whole business has been very silly .................BIG Understatement!
Our buyers late application for a mortgage from Barclays has caused all the problems, and Barclays being exceedingly s...l...o...w   to sort it out.  The new date is March 22nd, although I'm not holding my breath.  Had to ring 5 removal companies before I could find someone to shift us and they are costing £200 more than the ones we had booked for the 16th. Then of course because we still haven't actually exchanged contracts this can't be a definite booking either. It was getting me down but there seemed to be no point in fretting so I'm now just going with the flow and doing a Gallic shrug " whatever".

I shall ring to change the delivery date of the cooker and the mail re-direction. I've given up phoning about water and phone so maybe the new owners are paying for what we use this week. Tough!

I've just finished reading Bill Bryson's latest book - The Road to Little Dribbling. I read Notes from a Small Island years ago and this is a sort of update, a new look at the quirkyness of  Great Britain. I smiled a lot through this book, just as I did through 'Notes', but why does he need to use the F word quite so much? It's usually when he is imagining what he would say to some idiot he has come across on his travels, so he isn't actually saying it, just thinking it, so why write it? That makes me sound like a prudish old person which I now know I am!


Back soon
Sue

Review of a Very Large Book + A.N Other

Because of our extra long and frustrating wait to move house, and with most of my possessions packed in boxes I've had plenty of time for reading, both at home and when sitting around in the hospital waiting for Col.

This is the biggest book I've read for a while - 712 pages!

Simon Garfield first came across Jean Lucey Pratt via the Mass Observation Archives He used her MO diaries for his books We Are at War, Private Battles and Our Hidden Lives with her name being changed to Maggie Joy Blunt. Through this he heard of her niece who had a collection of Jean's diaries written between 1925 and 1986. Eventually he was able to use them for this book.

712 pages

Born in 1909, Jean's mother died when she was 13 and from that time she longed for love. The book is the very frank writings of a single woman who is never really happy, searching for fulfillment, living at a time when life for a spinster is difficult.She begins qualification as an architect, works in the office of  an aluminium manufacturing factory during the war but really wants to write and does indeed eventually have one book published. She wants companionship but longs to be on her own. As other reviewers on Amazon say - you want to give her a shake, get really cross with her but also sympathise, and you just have to keep reading. The men she falls for are always married/ rotten, her friends seem to drag her down. She laments the fact that she is among the surplus woman due to so many men being killed during the two wars. Her brother is abroad for most of the years of the diary but she does become a school holiday guardian for her niece although I wasn't really sure that she enjoyed this. Wee Cottage is the home she rents  in Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire  where she cares for cats, gardens and writes. Needing an income she starts to run a small bookshop and specialises in books about cats becoming the leading expert on this subject. One thing I discovered from this book is that artificial "e" cigarettes are nothing new. They were around in the 50s under a trade name when Jean tried desperately to give up her expensive smoking addiction. They didn't work for her and it was only many years later when ill health forced her to give up her 30 a day habit.
I would have liked to go back to Garfield's books listed above to re-read which parts of her diary he used, especially the wartime entries which are much shortened for this new book. Unfortunately they are all packed in boxes so that will have to wait, but I will add this book to my wish list because it's one to keep and read again.
By coincidence the next book I picked to read from my library haul was "Superfluous Women" by Carola Dunn. This is the 22nd in her series of historical crime mysteries featuring The Hon. Daisy Dalrymple. In this book the superfluous women of the title are 3 single friends -one a friend of Daisy,- who move into a house and find a dead body in the locked cellar (as you do!) Like Jean the women are on their own because of the men/women in-balance after WW1. These books are light crime fiction, they don't take long to read but seem to be well researched. At the back of the book the author acknowledges and thanks Virginia Nicholson for the information she gleaned from her book "Singled Out -  the story of the 2 million women who never became wives".
Another book for me to order from the library.

I see there are 2 new followers, so welcome  to 'Elsie May and Bertha' and 'Kenneth and Kaye'.


I will be back soon with moving/not moving news
Sue

Quick update

Thank you to everyone for kind wishes on my last post.
We are still here and STILL waiting for exchange and a completion date!
All due to our buyers and their late application for a mortgage. IF poss. moving should be next Wednesday, if not I have no idea what will happen.
We have a removal company for the 16th but if it's later I shall be ringing every removal company in the county to find someone.
We have almost everything packed and waiting.
Wish we had done what we originally planned and rented for 6 months, even if it meant moving twice in a year it would still have been less stressful than what we are going through at the moment,
Colin was very poorly after his 3rd chemo session but  is feeling a bit better now after 12 days. He is next due in on 17th. We are still backwards and forwards to hospital 2 or 3 times a week for blood tests, X ray and a CT scan.

Back in a week or so I hope
Sue

Life in limbo

How exciting it is to find £1 on the driveway near the garage......................only to realise that it must be mine anyway...........the one I keep for trolleys, which disappeared from my coat pocket the other day!

We are still in limbo with moving although we know it won't be on the 9th after all.

I think I will return to posting once we have moved and settled, all I'm doing at the moment is reading this huge book and waiting, cooking meals and waiting, labeling boxes and waiting, lighting fires and waiting and waiting..........................



Back in a couple of weeks or so
Sue

Thrifty February? Ha Ha Ha!

Did I say somewhere that I intended not to spend much money in February? Who was I kidding! Of course I hadn't allowed for the small fact that we move house in less than 2 weeks time........ February has been very spendy.
I've picked out the few thrifty things I can think of from the last few weeks............and the small bits of  income.

• We were gifted 2 pheasants which fed 3 for roast, 2 for curry and the cat for a couple of meals too
• Col has lost weight so found a pair of jeans for him one size smaller from charity shop £4.50 (will look out for more)
• £6.50 Tesco loyalty voucher used 
• Used cheaper powdered milk for me as much as possible.
• Free heat and hot water using wood
• £46 income for selling 2 out of the 5 items we took to the auction rooms on the first Monday sale day
• £23 income for selling 2 more out of the 5 things on the second Monday sale day
• £40 into the paypal account for selling the old caravan chassis
• £40 back rent owed to us for boat storage
• £30 income for some bits of metal sold to a neighbour
• Reading free library books
• Avoided buying any snacks/drinks at hospital.
• Craft Creations are stopping their quarterly magazine and as it was the only one I subscribed to, it will save me £12 a year but I will miss all the readers gallery of card ideas.
• Home made bread.........until I packed my bread tins and baking stuff. 
• Avoided buying any Stuff so the only non necessary spending was £1 on a bunch of daffodils and £2 on a bunch of tulips and 2 "necessary" books at £1 each
• Council tax refund - already- from the District Council for the part of March after we move.
• Home grown cooking apples from store, apricots from the freezer and leeks from the garden.

On the other hand still no news on benefit money for Col and the car cost us nearly £600 for cam belt, parts and servicing ( which normally Colin would do) plus of course I had to buy a new cooker for the bungalow = A Lot of money!  Then £40 to the Post Office for mail redirection. £25 extra on car insurance because we will be in town.Extra diesel for all the journeys to and fro and buying some different food to try and find tasty things for Col.

March will be even more expensive. Carpets, removal company, estate agent and solicitors fees and probably loads of other things we will find we need.  Oh dear.

News Flash.........News Flash.............
Possible worst case scenario on horizon - delay with exchange and completion due to our buyers bringing date forward but then not being able to organise the small mortgage they need for the date they said, so heavens know what happens now. Our removal company need a definite date which we can't give until exchange. Have already set up phone, mail redirection, electric, family help etc etc for the date agreed.
Oh heck, nervous breakdown imminent!!

Back Soon
Sue

Eurovision winner.......I think not and other stuff

 I watched the rugby - Wales v France - on TV Friday night then turned over at half time to see how things were going in the 'choosing a song for Eurovision' programme. Just in time to hear which song had won. Oh My Goodness! If that was the best of the six then I can't imagine how bad the other 5 performers were! I've been watching Eurovision (overseas readers can see the history of this song contest here) forever, as it's just a year younger than me, but over the last few years it's turned into a hopeless cause and this year I think will be just as hopeless.

Sometimes getting out of hospital can be as difficult as getting in!
Col phoned Saturday morning to tell me I could pick him up about half past one but because the doctor who saw him in the morning forgot to order his medications and forgot to sign a  form, we thought we were going to be stuck there all afternoon, as it was we broke free at quarter past 3 thanks to the senior nurse who bent some rules and took his meds from the ward, I hope she doesn't get into trouble.
We got home in time to watch the England v Ireland game after stopping to get Col a KFC which was the only thing he fancied eating - weird - chemo really affects taste buds and appetite. I wonder what other things he'll have gone off this time. He tried some tinned mandarins and said they tasted like slimy mustard!!

This morning I've rustled up some scones and sausage rolls as Col's Dad and brother have decided they will come over and see us. I've un-packed some plates so we can offer them a Sunday tea as it's a bit of a trek for just a cuppa! We will see much more of relatives when we get into Ipswich (the hermit side of me is  not sure if this is good or bad!). Apart from Col's dad being able to call in on his way back from hospital visits with whoever has taken him, we will be only be 9 miles from Col's sister, and my sister has also seen the light and is moving from Norfolk back into Suffolk in a few weeks time and will only be about 18 miles away instead of 30+. (She is actually moving into the next village to Col's Dad and brother.) We will be nearer our son in Woolpit too. So it will just be our youngest daughter who will be further away from us and still the same long distance to our eldest and soon-to-be-grandchild in Surrey.

Thank you for lots of comments on the last post and to Dc at Frugal in Norfolk who gave me the link to block unwanted followers. Oana, who is new to commenting, told me the Sara Donati book is the 3rd in a series of 6 and she really enjoyed them.

Back in a day or two
Sue