Sporadic update
Yes, it's been ages again but enough about that.
So, things that've happened- well, life has been carrying on- the big event recently (as more astute readers will already know- thanks for the card Rosie!) is that after months of not much happening things suddenly came together and I now own my flat. It's been held up for ages by the fact that the land the flats were built on was used as a garage in the '70's and the property search company that my solicitors happened to use couldn't quite prove that the land wasn't contaminated (despite us pointing out that it was over 30 years ago and no-one else has found any problems, including everyone who's bought the flat since it was first built, or anyone else in the building finding anything).Just as everyone involved was thinking it was all going to fall apart (ie- a few weeks before the expiration of my mortgage offer, which given the current state of the world I had no chance of getting again) I had a phone call saying it was all going ahead.
The actual sale was a bit of an anticlimax as I've been living there for the last year and a half- all that happened was that my current account looked very happy for a couple of hours while deposits went in and out, followed by a phone call a few days later from my solicitors saying 'It's all done, we'll send you the docs in a few weeks'.
So, I'm now back to being 2/3 grown up again (reminder- according to Ed's laws to be grown up you have to have a pension, a mortgage and a car- anything less and you can still claim youth), and I feel I should be getting some sort of grant for single-handedly keeping the housing market alive given the way that everything is going at the moment. Even so, it's good to be paying every month and actually getting something at the end of it rather than just giving cash to someone else (even if the someone else is you, boblink and tsdt), and one of the good things about the flat is that it's in walking distance of the centre of Oxford- unless things get so broken that everything falls apart it'll always be sellable/ rentable.
Aside from that things have been fairly quiet recently, due partly to the fact that Cat has to work a lot of weekend nights and partly because staying in is so much cheaper than going out and I've been needing to save all the cash I can. The thing I seem to be doing the most that's worth reporting is picking slugs off my precious pepper plants.
Quick catch-up here- a few months ago Cat got me some pepper seeds, and she's probably regretted it ever since- In hindsight I probably shouldn't have planted them all, but I was worried that they wouldn't germinate. They started out in a trough on my windowsill, and then they all came up and ever since I've been moving them to bigger pots- currently my patio is pretty much full of plants, with just enough space for me to get out and inspect them/ remove rampaging molluscs, but aside from the 6 I've given to my parents I can't bear to get rid of any of them. This may become a problem when they get close to full size, need a foot-wide pot each, and have to come inside for the winter, but I'm not thinking about that.
Especially for Bob- garden update: Roses having black spot issues- yours still has leaves, but mine (which I think I got after you left) is looking very sad. Mr Yukka is doing well, the spider plant is attempting to plant offshoots in any pot within reach, and the Jasmine is flowering and making everything smell good. Stephen and his Dad are both fine, discovered some wild strawberry a while back, and I keep on finding things that I thought were weeds have suddenly gone and flowered on me.
On to important matters- today is the first day that I thought maybe we have a chance in the Ashes next year, and also the day I wondered whether I should be worried that I'm looking forward to it already. According to the county news Harmy's doing well, but I'm not sure I trust him not to go wrong again in an England side, and it seems like Freddie'll be making an appearance in the England side again soon, but from the way things stand right now I think if they came back they'd both really need to prove themselves again- it's only the first test but we seem to be walloping South Africa at the moment, and they're not a side to be sniffed at. While we're here- how gutted would you be to be caught out on 199? According to TMS Bell yesterday was only the 7th person ever to manage that.
Anyhow, that's enough for now, as I'm in the mood I'm going to go watch the highlights of Edgebaston in 2005...
So, things that've happened- well, life has been carrying on- the big event recently (as more astute readers will already know- thanks for the card Rosie!) is that after months of not much happening things suddenly came together and I now own my flat. It's been held up for ages by the fact that the land the flats were built on was used as a garage in the '70's and the property search company that my solicitors happened to use couldn't quite prove that the land wasn't contaminated (despite us pointing out that it was over 30 years ago and no-one else has found any problems, including everyone who's bought the flat since it was first built, or anyone else in the building finding anything).Just as everyone involved was thinking it was all going to fall apart (ie- a few weeks before the expiration of my mortgage offer, which given the current state of the world I had no chance of getting again) I had a phone call saying it was all going ahead.
The actual sale was a bit of an anticlimax as I've been living there for the last year and a half- all that happened was that my current account looked very happy for a couple of hours while deposits went in and out, followed by a phone call a few days later from my solicitors saying 'It's all done, we'll send you the docs in a few weeks'.
So, I'm now back to being 2/3 grown up again (reminder- according to Ed's laws to be grown up you have to have a pension, a mortgage and a car- anything less and you can still claim youth), and I feel I should be getting some sort of grant for single-handedly keeping the housing market alive given the way that everything is going at the moment. Even so, it's good to be paying every month and actually getting something at the end of it rather than just giving cash to someone else (even if the someone else is you, boblink and tsdt), and one of the good things about the flat is that it's in walking distance of the centre of Oxford- unless things get so broken that everything falls apart it'll always be sellable/ rentable.
Aside from that things have been fairly quiet recently, due partly to the fact that Cat has to work a lot of weekend nights and partly because staying in is so much cheaper than going out and I've been needing to save all the cash I can. The thing I seem to be doing the most that's worth reporting is picking slugs off my precious pepper plants.
Quick catch-up here- a few months ago Cat got me some pepper seeds, and she's probably regretted it ever since- In hindsight I probably shouldn't have planted them all, but I was worried that they wouldn't germinate. They started out in a trough on my windowsill, and then they all came up and ever since I've been moving them to bigger pots- currently my patio is pretty much full of plants, with just enough space for me to get out and inspect them/ remove rampaging molluscs, but aside from the 6 I've given to my parents I can't bear to get rid of any of them. This may become a problem when they get close to full size, need a foot-wide pot each, and have to come inside for the winter, but I'm not thinking about that.
Especially for Bob- garden update: Roses having black spot issues- yours still has leaves, but mine (which I think I got after you left) is looking very sad. Mr Yukka is doing well, the spider plant is attempting to plant offshoots in any pot within reach, and the Jasmine is flowering and making everything smell good. Stephen and his Dad are both fine, discovered some wild strawberry a while back, and I keep on finding things that I thought were weeds have suddenly gone and flowered on me.
On to important matters- today is the first day that I thought maybe we have a chance in the Ashes next year, and also the day I wondered whether I should be worried that I'm looking forward to it already. According to the county news Harmy's doing well, but I'm not sure I trust him not to go wrong again in an England side, and it seems like Freddie'll be making an appearance in the England side again soon, but from the way things stand right now I think if they came back they'd both really need to prove themselves again- it's only the first test but we seem to be walloping South Africa at the moment, and they're not a side to be sniffed at. While we're here- how gutted would you be to be caught out on 199? According to TMS Bell yesterday was only the 7th person ever to manage that.
Anyhow, that's enough for now, as I'm in the mood I'm going to go watch the highlights of Edgebaston in 2005...