Whoever said that buying a house is one of the most stressfull things you can do was telling the truth. I'm fed up of phoning the solicitors, then phoning the estate agents, then phoning the solicitors again... what's really irritating me is that our solicitors are being very efficient, it's the vendor and his solicitors who are being a bit complicated. Now apparently the vendor is getting annoyed with us 'nit-picking' and is threatening to not sell the house! As far as I can make out all he needs to do is pay 30 pounds for an 'indemnity policy' for a couple of missing building regulations documents. I'd pay it myself if I thought it would speed things up...
Keep evrything crossed for us!
Monday, January 31, 2005
Friday, January 28, 2005
Fame!
Well done Tim for getting a comment published on NCOTAASD (http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/). Much better than any peer reviewed journal! I'm hankering after one of their mugs, and possibly a t-shirt as well...
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
It's all go...
I met up with Jo, Emma and Catriona on Monday to buy some bridesmaids dresses. We made use of the personal shopper in debenhams, tried on every dress in the store and still couldn't find one that fitted/suited all of them! Thankfully, Emma suggested we look in BHS, where we found a very nice dress which is similar in style to mine. Amazingly, we even found shoes to match in the sale, so one more thing is sorted... next up is the flowers, then the mens suits, then a meeting with the hotel to organise the reception - we're getting to the point where we have to make decisions, which is actually very difficult!
Meanwhile, we've been receiving lots of house documentation. We've signed the contract, mortgage deed and land transfer documents, so things are starting to happen. If the extra survey work comes back OK exchange could be imminent... keep everything crossed for us!
Meanwhile, we've been receiving lots of house documentation. We've signed the contract, mortgage deed and land transfer documents, so things are starting to happen. If the extra survey work comes back OK exchange could be imminent... keep everything crossed for us!
Sunday, January 23, 2005
The Done is known!!
We went up to Yorkshire this weekend to visit my parents, so we've seen the first wedding invite replies :-) 16 people are coming so far... more to come, we hope!
We had a very amusing Saturday. It started at breakfast; digging into the marmalade I noticed it was from a jam company based in Wheldrake, nr York - where a certain James Done used to live. James' stories of 'the jam factory', where he used to work, immediately sprang to mind - there couldn't be two jam factories in Wheldrake! Mum and Dad then took us up to the local market in Leyburn, which had a stall from the jam company. We were tempted to buy a jar of lemon curd for James, to remind him of his lemon-peeling days, but got chatting to the people running the stall who told us that there are in fact two jam factories in Wheldrake, and they're from the other one! When I mentioned James' name, though, it turned out they both knew him - Shirley used to work with him at the jam factory, and the other lady (who's name I forget) had children who went to school with him. Apparently this jam making comcern has been set up by a bloke called Neil who used to work at the old jam factory - and they all remember James! 'Oooh, he was always talking about the weather', they said, 'he wanted to be a weather forecaster, but his forecasts were always wrong!' Those of us who have gone walking with James will agree on that last point. Anyway, they were very pleased to hear what he is doing now and said to say hello. They didn't give us a discount on our jam and pickle purchases, though.
The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around and sorting out boxes of belongings stored by my parents, broken up by a trip to the local ice cream parlour. I came across a box of old letters, written by my friends when I was at university. I'd forgotten how often I used to get letters - pretty much all my communication is by e-mail these days! There were letters from people I'm no longer in touch with, but also many from friends I'm still in regular contact with - a good reminder of how long we've been friends and how much shared history we have. It's spurred me on to contact them more regularly - and remind them of some of the embarrassing things I'd forgotten had happened to them!
We had a very amusing Saturday. It started at breakfast; digging into the marmalade I noticed it was from a jam company based in Wheldrake, nr York - where a certain James Done used to live. James' stories of 'the jam factory', where he used to work, immediately sprang to mind - there couldn't be two jam factories in Wheldrake! Mum and Dad then took us up to the local market in Leyburn, which had a stall from the jam company. We were tempted to buy a jar of lemon curd for James, to remind him of his lemon-peeling days, but got chatting to the people running the stall who told us that there are in fact two jam factories in Wheldrake, and they're from the other one! When I mentioned James' name, though, it turned out they both knew him - Shirley used to work with him at the jam factory, and the other lady (who's name I forget) had children who went to school with him. Apparently this jam making comcern has been set up by a bloke called Neil who used to work at the old jam factory - and they all remember James! 'Oooh, he was always talking about the weather', they said, 'he wanted to be a weather forecaster, but his forecasts were always wrong!' Those of us who have gone walking with James will agree on that last point. Anyway, they were very pleased to hear what he is doing now and said to say hello. They didn't give us a discount on our jam and pickle purchases, though.
The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around and sorting out boxes of belongings stored by my parents, broken up by a trip to the local ice cream parlour. I came across a box of old letters, written by my friends when I was at university. I'd forgotten how often I used to get letters - pretty much all my communication is by e-mail these days! There were letters from people I'm no longer in touch with, but also many from friends I'm still in regular contact with - a good reminder of how long we've been friends and how much shared history we have. It's spurred me on to contact them more regularly - and remind them of some of the embarrassing things I'd forgotten had happened to them!
Thursday, January 20, 2005
How's your Russian?
Choir practice again last night - we're rehearsing Rachmaninov's vespers, which are in Russian, not a language I know well! The copies have 'transliteration' which is supposed to help you with pronunciation, but I do feel I'm making it up as I go along. Hope there are no Russians in the audience...
The music is lovely, though - very Russian sounding with lots of very deep bass notes and long mournful tunes which move between the various voices. I've just bought the CD for extra listening practice!
I've also bought the CD for Domenico Scarlatti's Stabat Mater, which I'm rehearsing with the chamber choir. That's even more yummy - my favourite sort of music with interwoven voice parts which all depend on each other all the time. It does mean all my singing is pretty hard work at the moment, though!
Latest house news: we've got an official mortgage offer now (hooray!), including a vlauation survey which was fine. The life assurance is all sorted, and the solicitors have applied for the searches and want proof of our identities. So things seem to be moving along... still not sure if we'll manage to move by the end of February, though. Any ideas?
The music is lovely, though - very Russian sounding with lots of very deep bass notes and long mournful tunes which move between the various voices. I've just bought the CD for extra listening practice!
I've also bought the CD for Domenico Scarlatti's Stabat Mater, which I'm rehearsing with the chamber choir. That's even more yummy - my favourite sort of music with interwoven voice parts which all depend on each other all the time. It does mean all my singing is pretty hard work at the moment, though!
Latest house news: we've got an official mortgage offer now (hooray!), including a vlauation survey which was fine. The life assurance is all sorted, and the solicitors have applied for the searches and want proof of our identities. So things seem to be moving along... still not sure if we'll manage to move by the end of February, though. Any ideas?
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
It's all happening...
The first batch of ivitations were sent out at the end of last week, so Mum and Dad will (hopefully) soon be swamped with replies! The envelopes were thankfully peel and stick, but I had to lick all the stamps - yuck. Having used the sticky ones for so long I'd forgotten quite how horrid stamp glue tastes.
On the house front, the surveyors should be surveying it some time this week and the solicitors have applied for the searches, so it's all go. Ideally, we'd like to give notice on the flat at the end of this month and move by the end of February. In reality, that might be cutting it a bit fine, especially as our weekends are starting to book up in February so we might not have time to move!
On a news front, lots of exciting coverage of the Airbus A380 yesterday - it's huge, isn't it? I've seen bits of it being built on the various Airbus sites and it really does seem too big to fly. However, the UK has responsibility for the wing and I know lots of people who have worked on it so trust me, the physics will work!
On the house front, the surveyors should be surveying it some time this week and the solicitors have applied for the searches, so it's all go. Ideally, we'd like to give notice on the flat at the end of this month and move by the end of February. In reality, that might be cutting it a bit fine, especially as our weekends are starting to book up in February so we might not have time to move!
On a news front, lots of exciting coverage of the Airbus A380 yesterday - it's huge, isn't it? I've seen bits of it being built on the various Airbus sites and it really does seem too big to fly. However, the UK has responsibility for the wing and I know lots of people who have worked on it so trust me, the physics will work!
Friday, January 14, 2005
It was only a dream...
I had a rather horrible dream last night - Tim and I turned up at the hotel we were going to stay at after the wedding which turned out to be awful - it took us ages to find our room, and when we did it was basically an attic the size of a broom cupboard, with gaps between the floor boards and no furniture whatsoever. It was reached by climbing up a really narrow staircase, walking past a hospital ward and then through a dormitory crammed with bunk beds and loads of people. And there was no furniture whatsoever - Tim had to find some spare cushions to make a mattress and he scrounged a couple of sleeping bags from the dormitory.
When I went to complain to the receptionist, she was rude and unhelpful and told me that was all the accommodation they had and the fact that we'd booked a suite made no difference!
By the way, I dreamt everyone else was staying there as well - and you lot were in the dormitory/hospital ward!
I suspect I'll have more nights like this before May... actually, it has reminded me that we need to sort out the rest of our honeymoon and book the hotel.
On a completely different note, I am very proud of myself for managing to cook some chicken for Tim last night. Having been vegetarian since I was 12, I've never really tackled cooking meat so worry I won't cook it properly. He's still alive and healthy this morning, so it all went OK!
When I went to complain to the receptionist, she was rude and unhelpful and told me that was all the accommodation they had and the fact that we'd booked a suite made no difference!
By the way, I dreamt everyone else was staying there as well - and you lot were in the dormitory/hospital ward!
I suspect I'll have more nights like this before May... actually, it has reminded me that we need to sort out the rest of our honeymoon and book the hotel.
On a completely different note, I am very proud of myself for managing to cook some chicken for Tim last night. Having been vegetarian since I was 12, I've never really tackled cooking meat so worry I won't cook it properly. He's still alive and healthy this morning, so it all went OK!
Monday, January 10, 2005
House update update
It's unusual for me to get in with some news before Elspeth, but here it is. We've just had an offer accepted on a different house, which is both cheaper and closer to the station than the other one, although a bit smaller. We went round it for the second time yesterday and still really liked it, and we spent most of the evening looking through catalogues and planning furniture arrangements - possibly rather prematurely given our recent experience, but I've got a good feeling about this one.
I've also just spent my morning commute thinking about all the things that I'm trying to fit into my time outside of work - house buying, wedding planning, CFA studying, paper revising, as well as standard things like tuba playing, dancing, badminton playing, etc. and I wish I could spend some of the oodles of free time I have at work doing any of those things, but unfortunately I have to account for all of my time here. So that's 5 minutes I've just spent on 'personal development' then...
I've also just spent my morning commute thinking about all the things that I'm trying to fit into my time outside of work - house buying, wedding planning, CFA studying, paper revising, as well as standard things like tuba playing, dancing, badminton playing, etc. and I wish I could spend some of the oodles of free time I have at work doing any of those things, but unfortunately I have to account for all of my time here. So that's 5 minutes I've just spent on 'personal development' then...
Thursday, January 06, 2005
House update
We've just heard that the vendor of the house we wanted to buy has pulled out, deciding not to sell after all. Thankfully, we haven't lost any money as no surverys/searches had been carried out yet, but obviously we're both a bit upset. I'm really not looking forward to house hunting again! Wish us luck...
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
New year new me
I'm back at work, with the wind howling round the building and the rain lashing at the window. We had a great new year visiting Chris ans Sian in Huddersfield, managing a very squelchy walk along part of the Pennine Way on new year's eve - I managed to walk straight into a very boggy bit of peat so my beige walking trousers changed colour to black! Lots of game playing as well - Tim and I have turned Ian into a Fluxx addict too...
I've decided it's time for some resolutions. After all, we've got lots going on in the next year so it would be good to put some improvements in place - I'll let you know how long they last! So in no particular order, here are my aims for improvement for the year ahead:
1. I'm going to try talking a bit less and listening a bit more. I know I'm a complete chatterbox, and sometimes I talk over other people, usually about myself! So a little pausing would be good.
2. I will walk/cycle to work more often, and start jive dancing again - both easy ways to increase the amount of exercise I do.
3. I will make time to write/e-mail/phone my friends more often - I'm too reliant on people contacting me!
4. I will go walking more - we spend a lot of time at the weekends lazing around, and we should be able to fit in some more walking quite easily. First task for this is to find a book of walks near to Bedford!
5. I will be sensible about what I eat without stressing about it, and work on losing half a stone then staying at that weight.
6. I will have a good think about my career, look at possible job options, but also learn some more aerodynamics so I'm more productive in my current job!
Phew. I think that's enough to be getting on with. It's good to have tome ambition, don't you think? ;-)
I've decided it's time for some resolutions. After all, we've got lots going on in the next year so it would be good to put some improvements in place - I'll let you know how long they last! So in no particular order, here are my aims for improvement for the year ahead:
1. I'm going to try talking a bit less and listening a bit more. I know I'm a complete chatterbox, and sometimes I talk over other people, usually about myself! So a little pausing would be good.
2. I will walk/cycle to work more often, and start jive dancing again - both easy ways to increase the amount of exercise I do.
3. I will make time to write/e-mail/phone my friends more often - I'm too reliant on people contacting me!
4. I will go walking more - we spend a lot of time at the weekends lazing around, and we should be able to fit in some more walking quite easily. First task for this is to find a book of walks near to Bedford!
5. I will be sensible about what I eat without stressing about it, and work on losing half a stone then staying at that weight.
6. I will have a good think about my career, look at possible job options, but also learn some more aerodynamics so I'm more productive in my current job!
Phew. I think that's enough to be getting on with. It's good to have tome ambition, don't you think? ;-)
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