Sunday July 31st 2022

For Lois and me, our week of pet-sitting for our daughter Alison and her family is over as of today. Alison, Ed and their 3 children are coming back today from their holiday on the Isle of Wight, but Lois and I won't see them - they're arriving back this evening, but Lois and I have to drive back from Hampshire to Cheltenham today, so that we can get on with the planning of our house move. 

Damn!!!!

this morning Lois and I have to bid farewell to our daughter

Alison's crumbling Victorian mansion, at least 65% of which 

lies concealed behind trees and bushes, in case you're thinking that

it looks small behind me in this picture haha!

08:30 We take the drive home, and arrive after about 2.5 hours. It's only 100 miles or so, perhaps a bit longer because we like to go "the quiet way". However I'm just not used to doing drives of this kind any more - 5 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but now it's "a big deal". It's the sustained concentration that I find so tiring now, especially when we don't stop anywhere halfway. 

Oh dear!!!!

In the old days we would have stopped off at Membury Services just before Swindon and had a nice cup of coffee and a piece of cake, but who wants to risk catching a virus, even in these admittedly hopefully post-pandemic times? 

Why risk it? Just keep driving haha!!!!

Membury Services on the M4 just before Swindon,

seen here in happier times - those times when Lois and I would think nothing

of stopping for a cup of coffee and a slice of  cake sob sob!!!

11:00 We get home to Cheltenham and relax with a cup of tea on the sofa. I look at my smartphone and I see that Sarah, our daughter in Perth, Australia, has sent us two charming pictures of our twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica at their 9th birthday party on Saturday.

our daughter Sarah with our twin granddaughters

Lily and Jessica at their 9th birthday party on Saturday,

when they celebrated with 5 of their schoolfriends [not shown]

15:00 In the afternoon we get out our "new home" notebook. We've got to drive over to Malvern tomorrow for an appointment in the builders' so-called marketing suite, to tell them what "options" we want to take up with regard to the brand-new home we've signed up for. Things like colour of tiles, type of flooring, where we want our fitted wardrobes in the master bedroom, that kind of thing.

It seems that it's not a good idea to mount a TV above a modern electric fire, because the heat interferes with the electrics. Also you don't want to have to watch the TV at an angle, and it shouldn't be too high up - the bottom third of the TV should ideally be at eye-level, I read on the web.

Decisions decisions!

And this afternoon we find ourselves pacing up and down our back garden, measuring our current patio and garden shed etc, so we know what to ask them to construct at the new house. 

We make the mistake of measuring everything in imperial, i.e. feet and inches, but then we realise that the builders will be talking their measurements in metric, so we decide we'd better convert ours to metric now using my phone, otherwise there'll be a lot of kerfuffle tomorrow. 

Oh dear what a nuisance!

And it's beginning to dawn us how much of our current furniture just won't fit into the new house, so there'll be a whole lot of expense buying new stuff.

classic rookie error no.1: trying to fit too much

furniture into a room that's not built for it - oh dear!

What a madness it all is  !!!!!!

19:00 After dinner Lois and I spend another 2 hours discussing options for our new house, but we put all the papers and brochures away and wind down with an old episode of "Third Rock From The Sun" from 1996.

And it's nice in this episode to see physics professor, Dr Dick Solomon, finally getting somewhere in his pursuit of his university colleague Dr Mary Albright on a date at a Japanese restaurant.

The scene begins with a characteristically exhibitionist display by Dick, where he dances on the restaurant table and accidentally sets fire to himself, finally dowsing the flames with a jug of water. 

It's at this point that Mary's heart begins to melt, and Dick finds that she's got her hand on his knee

Such fun !!!!!!

Well, things are going to be getting really busy now with our house move, so regretfully I'm going to have to stop doing my blog temporarily and take it  up again when things quieten down.

YIKESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!

Or, as Boris said, "Hasta la vista, baby!"

Or, maybe not! Well, we'll see !

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!