Tuesday July 5th 2022

Another day dominated by "moving house" issues. Lois and I know that the so-called "mortgage inspector" is paying us a visit between 1pm and 2pm according to his office in Chippenham, so we spend the morning doing trivial little things designed to show off the house at its best. However, we don't really know what he's going to be looking at.

Example trivial task - to push the TV back into the corner of the room "because it makes the room look bigger". We like to keep the TV normally about 4 ft from the corner towards the centre of the room, so it's nearer the sofa. This makes it easier to hear the dialogue and read the subtitles. 

See? Simples!!!

But what madness!

the TV pushed into the corner of the room,

"because it makes the room look bigger",

but what's Barbara Stanwyck  and Kirk Douglas saying? Oh dear,

we can't see the subtitles haha!

The "mortgage inspector" eventually arrives at 2pm just when we're starting to think we've misunderstood the plan. He then goes off on his own, taking a lot of pictures outside the house, photographing up and down the street, then he comes back into the house and wanders about the rooms, even venturing into the attic - I've helpfully put the loft ladder down for him.

I guess he's doing a valuation essentially - luckily we correct the error in his notes: he's been told we're selling the house for £90,000 more than we actually are. How did the bank get a crucial fact like that wrong? It's just crazy!

15:00 He's actually a very nice guy, but we're so relieved when he goes, saying he "sees no problem with the house from his viewpoint", that Lois and I suddenly feel exhausted, probably from the sudden relief of tension, so we collapse into bed for a couple of hours.

While we're there, our idyll is a little bit disturbed by all the noise of the builders at Nikki's house next door. 

Yesterday we were uncertain what they were doing, but it became clear earlier today that they're totally demolishing Nikki's existing extension at the back of her house, so that they can put up a new and bigger one. But they're saving all the roof tiles and windows to re-use again, which is nice, and also very "sustainable", if that's the right word. And it's also cheaper of course haha!

over the fence can be seen the partial ruins of Nikki's old extension -

the roof tiles and rafters, and now the windows have already been removed

16:30 We tumble out of bed, and not a moment too early - we had forgotten that Mark the Gardener was due to arrive at 4:30 pm for an end-of-day stint working on our garden, which would have been embarrassing. My god!!!!

17:00 A quick phone-call with Alison, our elder daughter, who lives in Headley, Hampshire, with Ed and their 3 children, Josie (15), Rosalind (14) and Isaac (11). 

Josie's doing work experience this week, two days at a firm that's a provider of so-called "behavioural finance software", followed by two days at a law firm. My god, sounds impressive, to put it mildly. 

Ali and Ed are going to be away with a friend in Kent at the weekend - it's the friend's 50th birthday. As I always say, you're know you're really getting old when your children become middle-aged.

[It's time you stopped saying that - final warning!!!!! - Ed]

On Saturday Isaac will be spending the whole day at the theatre in Petersfield, rehearsing his singing part in Shrek the Musical.

Those kids! Their schooldays are in a different class from mine and Lois's schooldays in the 1960's, that's for sure. I myself wasn't allowed to do any after-school activities, because my mother said she'd just sit and worry until I got home. What a crazy world we lived in, back in those far-off days haha!!!

18:00 We have dinner and afterwards I take a peek at the state of Nikki's old extension. I think it's safe to say the old extension is now "history". And there's some sort of barrier behind where it used to stand, to give security to the rest of the house, which is nice.

19:30 Evening falls. Now Lois and I just need to keep the house in its new reasonably tidy state, till the second "inspector" calls, at 9 am tomorrow. 

What can possibly go wrong?

Lois disappears into the dining-room to take part in her sect's weekly Bible Seminar on zoom, but there are technical difficulties. After about 2 minutes all the participants are thrown out of zoom, and when they try to get back in, they're told that "the host has another meeting in progress" or some such nonsense. 

What madness!!!!

As Lois's incompetent and out-of-date "IT guy" I try to help out, and eventually I get her back into the seminar but using her smartphone instead of the laptop. But what a nightmare!!!!! 

20:30 The zoom session is over, and Lois and I settle back down on the couch and watch the start of a new thriller drama series on Channel 4, "The Undeclared War".

How authentic is this drama? I think we should be told! 

Well, it certainly looks authentic as young Asian intern Saara approaches the entrance security checkpoints for the first time - she's on secondment from her university course.

young intern Saara approaches the entrance security checkpoint

for the first time - yes, that's the Department's familiar

big round building ahead, no question about that!

Saara has been assigned to a more experienced guy who shows her round the place and gets her settled in. And as they walk round the so-called "Street", the guy "confesses" to Saara about the Department's supposed bias towards being male, white and generally older.

At this point Saara begins to worry that that the reason why she's been selected for an internship is because she's got a brown face. The guy, however, - his name is Max, I think, or something like that - tries to reassure her.

I suspect that this alleged "bias towards employing older white males" isn't authentic, and that the bias, if anything, remains towards being young and female, as it has been since way back during World War II. And I'd be very surprised if there wasn't a healthy contingent of non-white faces there.

Maybe the writer felt a promising theme of "young Asian female versus the older white male establishment" begin to arouse exciting ideas in the plot-creating segment of his brain. But let's hope not!

flashback to World War II: staff at Bletchley Park

And just how authentic-looking is "The Street" that we see Saara being escorted down by Max? 

Well, it sort of has the right feel, without exactly being the way it really is. Do you know what I mean? It's sort of like it and not like it at the same time.

"The Street" as it really is....

However, I don't think Lois and I will be spending much time watching this drama series. Thwarting Russian cyber attacks may be enthralling as a job, but who wants to spend their evenings watching other people doing it haha!

Plus, it's always so annoying to read that "the full series will be available" on the internet "from today". Why can't people be patient and just wait a week to see the next episode on proper TV? After all, it's the wait that builds up the anticipation, isn't it?

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!

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