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02/03/2005
Well I'll be damned. It's as if February never happened! I looked back over the blog today...I knew it had been awhile since
I had written an entry...but I didn't know it had been a whole month! Crikey. I suppose things got away from me a bit in
February. I've been so busy, running around like a chicken with my head cut off. You see, we've been house-hunting! Now,
is that news worth waiting for?!
We started early this month. We had a very small area that we were interested in, and we saw just about every house in
it in our price range. We saw one we particularly liked...it just stood out from the rest like crazy. We saw it again a
few days later and then made an offer on it! Wah!!!! It's really scary to be so, like, grown up and stuff! At any rate
the offer was accepted. So, now we begin the long, arduous journey through legal crap and paperwork. At least we've got
our mortgage application done. That was really awful...it's like, 'please lay your whole life on the table for my scrutiny,
and I will judge you and give you a CREDIT RATING.' Jeez. Forgive me, but it's the like the financial equivalent of a gynaecological
exam. Bloody personal.
The house we're getting (if all goes well) it a little 3-bed. It is little...absolutely adorable, though. The current
owners seem to have fairly inoffensive taste, and it was the right size at the right price. Man, we looked at some crapholes
in our search! We looked at one place where the guy was trying to fix it all up himself...it looked like the three stooges
had done it! We looked at one which the brochure described as well-appointed that had carpet that I'm sure was nearly 2000
years old. Ancient Roman weavers made it in 300 BC. It's sort of sad and lonely looking through some of these houses. I
mean, when the people are there, how can you just point and laugh and shake your head disgustedly like you want to!? Or if
there not, it always seems like someone died there and there's all sorts of lost memories floating around the dusty windows
and clinging to the walls.
But, we've got our hopes hung on this house now. We only have to hope that the surveyer doesn't tell us that it's falling
down, and that nobody gazumps us. Gazumping is this word that they have here to describe it when somebody comes around and
offers more for your house and the owner takes that offer. It happens quite a lot...the house prices here jump up so fast
that by the time you finish all the legal crap, your house is worth £2K more! Crikey! So, somebody else could come in and
snatch it away still. We'll see. She's stopped doing viewings, so hopefully that wont happen. And hopefully the lawyers
wont find that they are going to build a highway through our back yard and stuff...
Anyway...what else has happened this month? Hmmmm...I was expecting a slow month at work, but not so much. My office
is odd, being basically a school, as well. When the students are not there, for breaks and stuff, it doesn't just quiet down.
It goes comatose. I sit all on my own, and it's a bit difficult to not just drift off into happy la-la land. But, I have
just a ton to do! It's really hard to get motivated when you see nobody all day long, and sit in silence. Ah, well. There's
a new guy who started who sits right next to me, so my desk isn't so lonely any more. His name is Hugo, and he's lovely.
But he's only part time.
We didn't do much for valentines day, on account of saving for a house and all. We are, however, going to Budapest in
a few weeks! We probably wouldn't be doing it, but we booked the hotel and tickets before we decided to offer on this house.
I'm really excited about it...it's supposed to be 'the Paris of eastern europe.' I'll put pictures up on the page as soon
as we've got them...so if you've not seen the pickies of Cologne, then have a look, because I'll probably have to replace
them.
We've also been enjoying our allotment quite a bit. Well, trying to, as we try to pretend it's a nice day for gardening
when it's sleeting and blowing a northwest wind on us. It's been quite a long cold snap here, which we don't usually get.
We also bought some fruit trees for it...ludicrous, I know. We'll be long gone before they really get big enough to be exciting.
But maybe we'll get a bit off them before we leave.
That's it for now...I'll keep you all posted on how house things go...XOXOXOX
07/03/2005
Well, if the last weekend wasn't nearly as eventful as the entire last MONTH, I don't know what was. Let's see...we kicked
off the weekend with a car break in, which was nice. Some little scrotes smashed one of our windows and tried to hotwire
the poor thing. But, lucky for us, they were total idiots, and only managed to disconnect the windshield wipers. They also
managed to severely bend the gearshift and make the steering wheel a bit wobly...near as we can figure, this was achieved
by a few fierce kicks. I spent the entire day being dramatically jaded, throwing out insults from a thesaurus, claiming that
England could keep it's cynical and wayward youth, and this sort of thing never happens where I come from, and what have you.
Many Grandpa Simpson-esque tales spewed from my lips that all began with, 'when I was growing up...'
So, I went to our allotment to blow off some steam. We just got a really good deal on a PVC greenhouse, and I wanted
to put it up. Unfortunatley, there were hurricane- force winds out there (or something like that), which was also nice.
But, there is one thing to be said for Straws...(or former Straws)...and that is that we refuse to give up, only, and I mean
ONLY, when it actually makes more sense to do so! =0) So, I fought the wind...and when you're holding on to a greenhouse
that's fully put up, and it weighs about 3 ounces and acts like a very powerful sail on a sailboat, and you're trying to stop
it from launching into the stratosphere....well, you might as well take on a herd of rabid hippos with a rusty old trombone.
Through the day, I managed to nearly rip my shoulders from their joints, completely do in my knees, work muscles in my
ass that I didn't know I had, and wish that I never knew, get my stocking cap stuck on some barbed wire, thrust my hands full
on into a budding crop of stinging nettles, fall into a hole that I dug myself and turn my ankle. A success, all and all,
I'd say, and I have it all to owe to stubborness. But the damn greenhouse is up, and anchored down well enough to cope with
that storm, which I figure should keep it in tact in just about anything. =0)
At any rate, while I was away, jonny managed to make some headway with the car, and it is totally drivable at this point,
so long as it isn't raining. And he was able to replace the window from a scrapyard for only a tenner, so that's not so bad.
To make ourselves feel better, we decided to go out for a few beers, which you'd think would be a good idea....
...except when you consider that you're combining beer dehydration with the joy of morning-after allotment soreness.
I seriously thought I was going to die. And, top it all off, it' was Mother's Day here, which just happens to also be Jonny's
Mum's birthday, so, celebrations were planned, which included us going over there to go bird watching with them (nice) and
then they were coming back over here so I could cook them a meal. And to add to the joy, Neil chose that morning to be so
ill-hungover he had to call in sick to work and couldn't join us. He spent the morning puking in his mother's toilet. Happy
Birthday, Mum! She was not amused.
Blimey!!!
Well...it's all looking up from here. Jonny and I have next week off and we're going to Budapest. It's described as
'The Paris of Eastern Europe' in most the tourbooks. So I'm excited. Oh, and just so you all know, I didn't get to put the
pictures of our allotment up yet. I tried them, but it was so dark and small you couldn't tell what you were looking at.
We're going to try to borrow Jonny's parent's digital camera to get some good photos of it up there for you all!
Love and miss you all!
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