Having babies or house-hunting: they're both tasks that the 'womenfolk' do best, aren't they, or should I say, in these PC times, left to "the people that have babies"! That's what my wife Lois and I say, at least once a day (!), here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire.
But, at the same time, it can be frustrating for us 'menfolk' sometimes, to be just sitting on the sidelines all the time, like this poor guy, not a million miles away from us, over in nearby Bedlam Bottom.
Poor Grant! And don't you just feel the poor guy's frustration? It's almost palpable, which is saying something!!!!
But if there's anything worse than finding a house to buy, it's trying to sell your own house, as Lois and I have found recently, and to our cost !!!! Let me put my cards on the table at this point!
[I do wish you'd stop doing that, Colin! - Ed]
us in our kitchen here in Liphook, a recent picture
We bought our current home in Liphook, Hampshire just 7 months ago, but still haven't managed to sell our previous home in Malvern, Worcestershire........ that is, "haven't sold it until today", when (fingers crossed) our potential buyers Sophie and current "squeeze" George have a last made an offer on our old house that we can accept.
Hurrah - celebration ("subject to contract") !!!!
The news came through to us today in a call on my Samsung from Lee, our estate-agent back in Malvern, when Lois and I were doing what we do best - spending the afternoon in bed, as per usual, which is when people most like to call us, we've discovered !!! But if there's one call we don't mind interrupting our "idyll" (!), it's a call to say that our old house is sold (subject to contract (!)).
(left and centre) our old house in Malvern, Worcestershire,
and (right) our current home in Liphook, Hampshire
(left) my Samsung starts "diddling", when Lois and I are doing what we do best (!),
and (right) our estate agent back in Malvern, with news of an offer we can accept at last !!!!
It's an offer we can accept, although it's less than what we asked for back in January when we first put the Malvern house on the market. Sophie and George, our buyers, are a young couple, and it's their first ever house, with both sets of parents agreeing to finance some of the cost, which is sweet.
Awwww!!!!
excerpt from our estate agent's brochure on our old house in Malvern
And getting it slightly cheaper than advertised is something we're sure that Sophie and George will be relishing. We know that, because it's what Lois and I did ourselves, back in 1974, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, when we bought our first house, offering a figure that the house's elderly Scottish owner called, rather grudgingly "the rock bottom figure she could possibly accept" (!).
flashback to 1973: us, one year married, but still without a house of our own,
living in rented accommodation in Cheltenham: here pictured on two of our summer
holidays from work that year: (left) at Clifton, Bristol, and (right) in Edinburgh, at the Castle
So now Lois and I are getting our 'come-uppance' for that somewhat shabby "manoeuvre", 51 years later, that's for sure!
I remember, we were so happy back then in 1974, because, having our own house at last (and at a satisfying discount !!!!), we could begin on trying to start a family, and I know exactly what that date was - almost exactly 51 years ago, because it's was July 4th 1974, because I remember quipping to Lois that it was our "Independence Day".
flashback to 1975: (left) Lois in our own very first back-yard, reading up about breast-feeding
and (right) in our very first-ever living-room, watching our first-ever baby, Alison starting to teethe
Happy days !!!!!
19:00 We settle down to watch a bit of "telly" this evening, happy that our house in Malvern is (fingers crossed) sold subject to contract, and tired from another day of cleaning, dusting, hoovering etc our new house "to within an inch of its life" (!).
We're getting ready for the visit in a week's time of our other daughter Sarah (48), and her family - husband Francis and 12-year-old twins Lily and Jessica, who'll be flying from Perth, Australia into London's Heathrow Airport at 5 am a week from today, to stay with us for a couple of weeks.
our daughter Sarah (48), plus husband Francis and twins Lily and Jessica,
who'll be flying from Perth, Australia into London's Heathrow Airport in 7 days' time:
(above) with their boat at Perth's Nedlands Sailing Club on the Swan River back in 2022
and setting sail across the river estuary, with the Perth skyline in the background
Busy busy busy !!!!
So we watch a bit of "telly", but while Lois is watching a bit of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, I drop off to sleep every half-hour or so, and wake up not remembering who all the characters are, as per usual (!!!). Unlike Lois, who's already guessed who the murderer is, and we've only seen the first two episodes - what a woman I married !!!!
I'm more interested in the cast list than in the murder and "who dunnit" (!), again as per usual (!). Not shown in the Radio Times listing (above) is the actor who plays George Somebody, one of the suspects, because he was the last person to dance with murder victim Ruby Somebody before she was found dead.
The (uncredited) actor playing murder suspect George Somebody - his face looks so weirdly familiar, but neither of us can remember where we've seen him before, until the penny finally drops.
Yes, of course! It's Arthur Bostrom, who memorably played Officer Crabtree in 'Allo 'Allo, the undercover British agent who's pretending to be a French gendarme (not very convincingly, to put it mildly!) in occupied France during World War II.
(left) Arthur Bostrom, playing an Englishman pretending to be a French gendarme
in occupied France, Officer Crabtree, and (right), without moustache, as murder suspect
George Somebody talking to detectives in Agatha Christie's "The Body in the Library"
Actor Arthur Bosttrom's best-selling "French Phrose Berk"
And did you spot, also, early 1960's minor pop-star Jess Conrad, playing Raymond Somebody, also one of Miss Marple's suspects, because he also danced with murder victim Ruby Somebody on the night she was murdered? Bet you did !!!! [We're not all as old as you, Colin. Just saying!!! - Ed]
Back in the 1960's, Jess Conrad was one of my dear later sister Kathy's "heartthrobs" in her early teenage days - it was before the Beatles, during "the age of the Bobbies" - Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, Bobby Darin etc, but Jess Conrad insisted on remaining a "Jess", which was probably why he didn't have a lot of hits, maybe ????
I wonder.... !!!
Jess Conrad (left) as a minor pop-star in the early 1960's, and (right) as an actor
playing murder suspect Raymond Somebody, seen here with Agatha Christie's
amateur detective Miss Marple (Joan Hickson)
flashback to 1961: my dear late sister Kathy (13) with my other dear sister Jill (3) in the
back garden of our home in Redland, Bristol, and (right) a typical copy of "Marty Magazine",
which Kathy used to read from cover to cover - amazing value at only 5 old pence!
What madness !!!!
On the cover of the mag, "Kookie" language was a reference to Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, an actor in TV's "77 Sunset Strip" who was always combing his hair - Kookie was another of Kathy's early heart-throbs.
Memories, memories !!!
Will this do?
[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!!
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