7 days to go and were off. Last day working to day apart from a minor 'hand over' at one spot I've been looking after the house and garden for the last few years.
Most of my stuff is packed - workshop and outdoor gear. My gosh It's true what they say that equipment increases to fit the space allocated. Most of our stuff is going into storeage. It won't fit into our new temporary home.
We've got parking issues when we get to Whitby - there's no off road parking at 41 Mayfield Rd - our destination - and we only arrive the day before the removal men after a 17 hour night drive. I hope there is enough time to make sure no one is parked in the way of the lorry.
I've sold my car so we're down to one car. The removal men say they can get a canoe in the lorry. But I have two. A kayak and an open canoe. Will they fit both in? Or do I drive all the way to Whitby with one of them on the roof rack?
We've got rid of loads of stuff but we have got so much more than when we had the total load estimated by a local removal company two years ago.
We've still not heard any more about our completion date. We only have a window of a few hours before we have to be on the ferry. Worry, Worry!!
I wrote a letter to The Irish Times clarifying the issue of public access to the countryside in Europe. This is a controversial issue here and we've had regular 'Hillwalkers & Farmers', correspondence in this paper. The evening it was published Richard called. "Dave have you been writing to the papers?". He's the area farmers representative and he's had numerous farmers raise the letter and complaining about my views. "Sorry Richard". That evening I get an angry phone call from the Beara. He's the co-ordinator of 'Greenways Ireland and is trying to convince farmers to open up more walking routes and feels that my letter has made his job harder. He soon calms down and I agree to write a clarification to my letter.
The shower has broken down and I can't fix it. Luckily the plumber, based in Cork City some 60 miles away was nearbye and called by within an hour of my phone call and fixed it. Now I've only got to get our local electritian to fix another minor fault I can't trace.
Our friends and neighbours Richard Connell, Violet and their 3 children came round to see us the other evening. They gave us a wonderful 'Good Bye' card which they had all written personal messages on. They also bought us a Tom Tom sat. nav. & a smashing Camcorder!. These neighbours will be well and truly missed. They have turned out to be our best friends and Richard has taught me loads. Everything from castrating bullocks to building houses!.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Moving to Whitby
Well, another busy week and the pressure to be out by the 22nd of October is on. We've just about completed the packing, Not only did we get an out of the blue offer on the house, I even managed to get a late offer on my old megane. But everything has been breaking down on us.
First the washing machine went bust a couple of weeks ago. Richard our friend and neighbour kindly lent us one of theirs. This too has now broken and leaked all over our office floor which is loaded with packed cardboard boxes. We're now washing by hand. The power shower is also on the blink. It keeps cutting out and takes nearly a minute to turn off. Our PC, a vital form of communications when you live out in the sticks has been on the blink. This morning I got back from Erwin, our Swiss ex microsoft expert, who has pronounced our old PC 'dead'. I'm now bashing the keys with an old second hand machine which you have to wind up first. I've just returned from the local mechanic, Billy Barry who came up trumps and rewelded the broken exhaust on Trish's car for only €20. Now we've just discovered a tap is not working. And all my tools have been packed! On top of all this I've had to deal with our horrible neighbour who owns a strip of land at the bottom of our garden and has just tried to create a new entrance onto the road. Totally without planning and something he said he would not do until the new owners moved in. Luckily George Barratt stopped after my sixth F*****ing B******d!! It's all quite again.
Providing nothing else breaks down we'll be moving on the 22nd of this month.
The financial crisis, which would normally pass me by, is affecting us but Trish has that almost sorted. Because were moving from the euro to the pound we can loose thousands with the poor exchange rates. It may not matter for your holiday money but for the kind of money you buy a reasonable house for, it could leave you several thousands short. However Trish has found a currency broker and we've secured all our pounds at a fixed rate of exchange ahead of actually getting our hands on the cash we'll get from our buyer. In the space of six days we've already prevented two thousand pounds from being lost in devaluation!! Now we just need to worry about where do we stash the cash safely, until we put it into our next house!
Oh, and then there was the worry about getting the removal van parked outside my mother's house in Whitby which has no off road parking and is on a busy road. Luckily I 'phoned Scarborough Borough Council's parking office who came up trumps and offered to drop of a couple of the 'no parking' cones for us.
First the washing machine went bust a couple of weeks ago. Richard our friend and neighbour kindly lent us one of theirs. This too has now broken and leaked all over our office floor which is loaded with packed cardboard boxes. We're now washing by hand. The power shower is also on the blink. It keeps cutting out and takes nearly a minute to turn off. Our PC, a vital form of communications when you live out in the sticks has been on the blink. This morning I got back from Erwin, our Swiss ex microsoft expert, who has pronounced our old PC 'dead'. I'm now bashing the keys with an old second hand machine which you have to wind up first. I've just returned from the local mechanic, Billy Barry who came up trumps and rewelded the broken exhaust on Trish's car for only €20. Now we've just discovered a tap is not working. And all my tools have been packed! On top of all this I've had to deal with our horrible neighbour who owns a strip of land at the bottom of our garden and has just tried to create a new entrance onto the road. Totally without planning and something he said he would not do until the new owners moved in. Luckily George Barratt stopped after my sixth F*****ing B******d!! It's all quite again.
Providing nothing else breaks down we'll be moving on the 22nd of this month.
The financial crisis, which would normally pass me by, is affecting us but Trish has that almost sorted. Because were moving from the euro to the pound we can loose thousands with the poor exchange rates. It may not matter for your holiday money but for the kind of money you buy a reasonable house for, it could leave you several thousands short. However Trish has found a currency broker and we've secured all our pounds at a fixed rate of exchange ahead of actually getting our hands on the cash we'll get from our buyer. In the space of six days we've already prevented two thousand pounds from being lost in devaluation!! Now we just need to worry about where do we stash the cash safely, until we put it into our next house!
Oh, and then there was the worry about getting the removal van parked outside my mother's house in Whitby which has no off road parking and is on a busy road. Luckily I 'phoned Scarborough Borough Council's parking office who came up trumps and offered to drop of a couple of the 'no parking' cones for us.
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