My dear family & friends
We’ve found a place to stay, and we’re moving this Friday. (Surprised? I thought that might give you a bit of a jolt!) Well, that’s if we can get the lease signed in the next day or two. I’ve just been on the phone to the estate agent who is apparently ill today; the boss is away on holiday and there’s nobody else available to take care of the lettings department. After a couple of phone calls the “Temp” assistant assured that it will all be sorted out tomorrow morning and I’m sure it will be, but I still find the apparent lack of urgency to seal the deal and get the contract signed really rather strange. I come from a different environment.
At least we’ve found a place that we like though. It happened like this: we went around to a couple of estate agents just after New Year and found one place that we quite liked the look of in our price bracket. Originally the agent said we would only be able to view the house in the new week, but we drove past it the next day and noticed that it was empty; moreover, it looked rather nice. So we went back to the agent and asked if we could view it right away. It’s in north Leamington (which is a really nice area), it’s got four bedrooms and is quite a bit larger than the house we’re in now. There is a school sports field next door and the main living areas are directly south facing which means that it’s got lots of light. Even better though is that rental prices have been dropping quite sharply amid the Credit Crisis, and we’ll be paying less rent than we are now. We‘re quite excited and looking forward to the move.Lucia spent most of the weekend packing the kitchen while it was my turn to get ill with a tummy bug.
We intend to do the move ourselves. There really isn’t that much to move; it’s a couple of beds, sofas, tables, chairs, desks and lots of boxes. I’ve found a place to hire a big van here in Leamington Spa, and I’ve arranged to get a burly Portuguese helper through Helder at the Pastelaria Portuguesa. We’ve also received a few offers of help which I may well be calling on. Certainly by this time next week we expect to be firmly ensconced in our new abode although I will have to spend a day or two cleaning carpets and touching up around our current house.
Otherwise, as I noted last week, it’s been really cold. Let me put this in terms that I know that my South African compatriots will understand; the beers were colder outside than they were inside the fridge in the garage. The INSIDE of my car’s windscreen was frozen over with ice. Our neighbour’s car door was frozen closed and needed boiling water to persuade it to open. The more water I poured on my car, the more ice I made. The canal froze over with a layer of ice thick enough to sustain the weight of school children playing chicken with each other. And I have to assume that it was the same schoolchildren who tossed the logs, bricks, flower pots, fencing, shopping trolleys, to let signs, for sale signs, a microwave oven, an old television set, other assorted electronics, the remains of a moped and other crap onto the canal. One of our neighbours tells me that someone inadvertently left a lounge suite behind on the ice under similar conditions a couple of years ago. Fucking heathen.
Pathways became skating rinks. The pond in St Nicholas Park, near the lair of the vicious vermin swans, also froze over. I cautiously followed other footsteps out onto the ice dragging Edgar behind me. He was really, really not keen on the idea; Hazel, on the other hand, thought it was an absolute lark and was happy to chase smells across the ice. I got a really beautiful picture of her on the ice which you can see in the usual spot at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones. The light looks like it’s late afternoon. It’s actually just after lunch.
I also had an unfortunate accident de-icing my car. While I was trying to get the ice off the inside of my windscreen, my knee must have recklessly pressed the button to open the sunroof. I only discovered this after I had thrown six or seven buckets of water at the car. Well, to be honest, I only discovered it when I sat in the water and started the engine. I looked around me in that sort of puzzled way and wondered why trousers felt so wet. It took me a while to look up at the clear blue sky when I should have been looking at a sunroof.
Of course driving in these conditions can get quite interesting, particularly after the lightest dusting of snow; everything turns to ice. You can feel the ABS toggling the brakes every time you touch the brake pedal.
We haven’t had many adventures between illness and looking for a place to stay. We did, however, go down to Broadway in the Cotswolds last weekend specifically because Lucia wanted to see what was on sale at shop there called the Edinburgh Woollen Mill. And it was just as well that we did; Lucia managed to pick up a waterproof winter jacket at a giveaway price. (We really should have bought more winter wear at Cape Union Mart before we left South Africa. I’m sure Lucia has to bite her tongue not to say “I told you so.”) Although it was freezing, the sky was clear and we basked in the sunshine over lunch on the terrace at the Swan Hotel. We took a long, looping drive home through the Cotswolds via Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Norton and Banbury.
Let me leave it there
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
We’ve found a place to stay, and we’re moving this Friday. (Surprised? I thought that might give you a bit of a jolt!) Well, that’s if we can get the lease signed in the next day or two. I’ve just been on the phone to the estate agent who is apparently ill today; the boss is away on holiday and there’s nobody else available to take care of the lettings department. After a couple of phone calls the “Temp” assistant assured that it will all be sorted out tomorrow morning and I’m sure it will be, but I still find the apparent lack of urgency to seal the deal and get the contract signed really rather strange. I come from a different environment.
At least we’ve found a place that we like though. It happened like this: we went around to a couple of estate agents just after New Year and found one place that we quite liked the look of in our price bracket. Originally the agent said we would only be able to view the house in the new week, but we drove past it the next day and noticed that it was empty; moreover, it looked rather nice. So we went back to the agent and asked if we could view it right away. It’s in north Leamington (which is a really nice area), it’s got four bedrooms and is quite a bit larger than the house we’re in now. There is a school sports field next door and the main living areas are directly south facing which means that it’s got lots of light. Even better though is that rental prices have been dropping quite sharply amid the Credit Crisis, and we’ll be paying less rent than we are now. We‘re quite excited and looking forward to the move.Lucia spent most of the weekend packing the kitchen while it was my turn to get ill with a tummy bug.
We intend to do the move ourselves. There really isn’t that much to move; it’s a couple of beds, sofas, tables, chairs, desks and lots of boxes. I’ve found a place to hire a big van here in Leamington Spa, and I’ve arranged to get a burly Portuguese helper through Helder at the Pastelaria Portuguesa. We’ve also received a few offers of help which I may well be calling on. Certainly by this time next week we expect to be firmly ensconced in our new abode although I will have to spend a day or two cleaning carpets and touching up around our current house.
Otherwise, as I noted last week, it’s been really cold. Let me put this in terms that I know that my South African compatriots will understand; the beers were colder outside than they were inside the fridge in the garage. The INSIDE of my car’s windscreen was frozen over with ice. Our neighbour’s car door was frozen closed and needed boiling water to persuade it to open. The more water I poured on my car, the more ice I made. The canal froze over with a layer of ice thick enough to sustain the weight of school children playing chicken with each other. And I have to assume that it was the same schoolchildren who tossed the logs, bricks, flower pots, fencing, shopping trolleys, to let signs, for sale signs, a microwave oven, an old television set, other assorted electronics, the remains of a moped and other crap onto the canal. One of our neighbours tells me that someone inadvertently left a lounge suite behind on the ice under similar conditions a couple of years ago. Fucking heathen.
Pathways became skating rinks. The pond in St Nicholas Park, near the lair of the vicious vermin swans, also froze over. I cautiously followed other footsteps out onto the ice dragging Edgar behind me. He was really, really not keen on the idea; Hazel, on the other hand, thought it was an absolute lark and was happy to chase smells across the ice. I got a really beautiful picture of her on the ice which you can see in the usual spot at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/llewellynijones. The light looks like it’s late afternoon. It’s actually just after lunch.
I also had an unfortunate accident de-icing my car. While I was trying to get the ice off the inside of my windscreen, my knee must have recklessly pressed the button to open the sunroof. I only discovered this after I had thrown six or seven buckets of water at the car. Well, to be honest, I only discovered it when I sat in the water and started the engine. I looked around me in that sort of puzzled way and wondered why trousers felt so wet. It took me a while to look up at the clear blue sky when I should have been looking at a sunroof.
Of course driving in these conditions can get quite interesting, particularly after the lightest dusting of snow; everything turns to ice. You can feel the ABS toggling the brakes every time you touch the brake pedal.
We haven’t had many adventures between illness and looking for a place to stay. We did, however, go down to Broadway in the Cotswolds last weekend specifically because Lucia wanted to see what was on sale at shop there called the Edinburgh Woollen Mill. And it was just as well that we did; Lucia managed to pick up a waterproof winter jacket at a giveaway price. (We really should have bought more winter wear at Cape Union Mart before we left South Africa. I’m sure Lucia has to bite her tongue not to say “I told you so.”) Although it was freezing, the sky was clear and we basked in the sunshine over lunch on the terrace at the Swan Hotel. We took a long, looping drive home through the Cotswolds via Stow-on-the-Wold, Chipping Norton and Banbury.
Let me leave it there
Love, light & peace
Llewellyn
