Wednesday October 30th 2024

 At last - this is the one! The seventh house that my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I have seen in the Liphook/Grayshott /Haslemere area of Hampshire/Surrey. We make an offer through the estate agent and it gets accepted, so fingers crossed it will all go smoothly, and we can go back to leading our normal lives, which will be relief. Our daughter Alison, who lives only 5 miles from here, has done sterling work driving us around to look at properties and giving us her opinions - also valuable, to put it mildly.

we approach our chosen new house - the one straight 

ahead with the carport and the car on the driveway

James, a nice young lad from the estate agency, shows the three of us round.

The house is detached with four bedrooms and a garage plus car-port, in Liphook, near to a nice park. and only about half a mile's walk, on the level, if we want to leave the car at home and make our way to the town centre shops. And we'll have plenty of room for all our "stuff", and also it'll be no problem putting up guests, or putting up our daughter Sarah and family every time they visit the UK from their new home 9000 miles away, in Perth, Australia, so - in a word - "problem sorted". Phew!

our twin granddaughters Jessica and Lily, in Perth, Australia,

getting ready for Halloween tomorrow evening

It's a really modern house, in mine and Lois's old eyes at least (!), with even an extractor fan that emerges like a alien monster from the middle of the kitchen's island worktop: what madness! 

There's a lovely big living-room, fifty shades of grey like the rest of the house.

Upstairs, there are massive mirrors at the end of where our double bed would go, which is not what we'd choose, but at least the mirror is broken up a bit into sections, which is a help - but what madness (again) !!!! 

And there's a nice long garage where we can store a bunch of things, including excess kitchen appliances etc.

There's a nice garden just the right size, mainly just lawn, so low maintenance.

So not much more to do now - just do all the legal stuff, move our stuff from Malvern the 120 miles or so to Liphook, and then - oh I nearly forgot - we've got to sell our old house in Malvern too, haven't we (!).

Then maybe we can get back to our normal lives, do you think????

What a crazy world we live in !!!!

At least Lois and I can relax in the evening today in Ali and Ed's crumbling Victorian mansion in Headley, and watch a bit of "telly" with our daughter Alison, seen here on one of the family's many sofas, in the company of the latest addition to the family's menagerie of dog, 2 cats and a tank of tropical fish: yes, it's Bjørn, a young spaniel only a few months old, and "puppyish" like nobody's business.

Awwww !!!!!

Poor Bjørn !!!!!!

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

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

Tuesday October 29th 2024

Another four houses seen today by me and medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois in our plan to move from our new-build home in Malvern, Worcestershire to Headley, Hampshire to be near our daughter Alison as Lois and I get steadily more old-codger-like: yikes!!!!

a typical scene from another day's house-hunting: at the side main

entrance, our daughter Alison chats to a local estate-agent

as he opens up the property for our viewing this morning

And double yikes, because I'm getting seriously confused as the number of houses-for-sale that we've seen rises inexorably. 

The "takeaway" from today's house-hunting jaunt is that all the ones we've seen so far may be too small anyway. Our daughter Alison's husband Ed thinks we'll need a biggish house to accommodate our daughter Sarah and family on their anticipated frequent visits back to the UK from their new home in Australia. Lois and I, and Alison also, had been assuming that Sarah and family could stay with Alison and Ed, but Ed's plans to renovate their own crumbling Victorian mansion may rule that out, Ed thinks.

What a madness it all is !!!!

Here's what we're calling "the pink house", you know - the one with the in-your-face pink chimney-breast in the living-room and the scary big mirrors in the bedroom.

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

Monday October 28th 2024

For Lois and me our first full day of house-hunting in the Liphook/Grayshott area of Hampshire/Surrey, and already I'm totally confused - and we've only seen 2 houses. What madness !!! And we've got a further 4 to see tomorrow, all in Liphook - what madness !!!! [That's enough madness !!!!!]

our house-hunting area; Liphook and Grayshott,

only 5 miles or so from our daughter Alison's house in Headley

At least I don't have to do the driving today. Luckily, our daughter Alison (49) agrees to drive my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and me to see a couple of houses, one in Grayshott, and one in Liphook, where Ali and Ed's 14-year-old son Isaac goes to school.

Firstly, here's the Grayshott house - in the middle of the town, our favourite town in the area, and really really close to the shops for when we're too frail to drive. Yikes !!!!

Verdict: the perfect house if it weren't for its narrow, shallow staircase, which isn't ideal for anybody with monster-style feet like what I've got [sic]:

The house has a rather narrow steep staircase, however, with narrow treads (not shown): see my feet for comparison. I can hardly get on our own dear bathroom scales, my feet are so wide. And boots-manufacturers please note: I've got wide feet, not wide calves, so stop sending me those adverts for wide-calf boots, if you don't mind !!!!

I feet are so wide, I struggle to stand on the bathroom scales

without slipping off the edges - what madness!!!

[nb part of the picture has been "redacted" for

the benefit of readers of a nervous disposition - just saying haha!

Secondly, here's the other house, at Liphook. Verdict; nice house, perfect position for shops, with Sainsbury's only about 200 yards away, but house probably too small. Lois and I have already downsized once, almost exactly 2 years ago, on Halloween 2022, so we don't what to go through all that again, giving to charity, selling, taking to the dump: all that malarkey. 

"It's a kind of madness", isn't it, as Freddie Mercury once sang. [Shome mishtake, shurely?! - Ed]

It's a relief after all that to relax in the evening with Alison and the kids: Ed has had to go down to Dorset to be with his mum, as she's worried about Ed's father Stephen, who's been very unwell recently. Later Ed phones to say all is well now, which is a relief.

And introducing the latest addition to the household, who arrive a couple of weeks ago, to join the family's menagerie of one dog (Sika), two cats (Dumbledore and Otto) and several tropical fish (unnamed as far as I know). Yes, it's new little puppy Bjørn, the young spaniel, seen here having a nap in his little "house" in the kitchen-diner:

Poor Bjørn !!!!!!!!

Sunday October 27th 2024

My medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I get up at 3:30 am by mistake - in a typical "old codger" error, we had forgotten that the clocks went back an hour last night. We had intended to get up at 4:30am - a fairly "civilised" hour, as I expect you'll agree (!). But what madness!!!! 

I drive the 124 miles to Headley, Hampshire, where our daughter Alison (49) lives with husband Ed and their 2 teenage offspring: Josie (18), Rosalind (16) and Isaac (14). The distance of 124 miles - and I can't stress this enough - is a big deal for me these days. I used to do distances like that without thinking about it, but no more, sad to say!

our 124-mile drive this morning to see our daughter Alison (49), 

plus husband Ed, plus Josie (18), Rosalind (16), Isaac (14)

We get there for lunch but are exhausted. We have time to read Ed's latest missive on rail transport. Then I check suitability of our temporary bedroom for our afternoon naps, and that we've got a nice view to look at at the same time, and that's all we need. Sorted!

Later we have our evening meal all together in the kitchen-diner.

Saturday October 26th 2024 "Are YOU feeling a bit 'crinkly round the edges' today? A lot of us are, aren't we!"

Just a quick post today, because Lois and I are packing to go away for a few days, so it's just "a wee postie" as the might say in Scotland.

Oh dearie me !!!! 

Yes, we're going to be spending a few days in Hampshire, looking at houses. We're both "old codgers", and a bit "crinkly round the edges", not to mention somewhat "crumbly on the insides", a little like two pieces of Lois's critically-acclaimed fruit cake, so it's definitely time now for us to be nearer the support of our daughter Alison (49) and her family. [You're certainly 'fruit cakes' all right, no question about that! - Ed]

We do manage to squeeze in a whatsapp video call this morning with our other daughter Sarah (47) who left this area - Worcestershire - also leaving the UK last month, to start a new life in Australia (again!) with husband Francis and their 11-year-old twins Lily and Jessica. That's some of the twins' ex-toys in the picture above. 

Sarah started a new job in Perth last month, but it'll be a while before the family can buy their own house. They're only renting at the moment, and only gradually getting the furniture they will need. They haven't even got a sofa yet, so we tend to see Sarah and the twins lying down on their beds when we call them, and today is no exception.

Lily and Jessica won't be starting school down there till February, which, weirdly, is the start of the new school year. 

It's nice to know, however, that the twins are getting excited about Halloween coming up next week, and this morning they showcase for us the pumpkin they're going to be carving. It's weird to think of celebrating Halloween in the summer, but I guess they're stuck with that.

Poor Aussies !!!

And what a crazy planet we live on !!!!!

the twins showcase for us the pumpkin they'll be carving next week

The twins have certain beloved stuffed toys that they couldn't manage to fit into their hand-luggage when they jetted off from London's Heathrow Airport at the beginning of September, so Lois and I are looking after them on the twins' behalf.

And no whatsapp video call is complete without the twins giving a wave to Buckles the Unicorn and Rover the Dog-faced Pony, plus Black-and-White-Cat, and there's much tear-brushing-away on both sides of the planet at that point.

Awwwww !!!!! 

Poor Buckles!!!! And poor Rover!!! And poor Black-and-White Cat !!!!!

That's all I've got time for today, so byeeeeeeeee!!!!

Oh, and see you tomorrow !!!!!!!

Will this do???

[Oh go back to your packing, Colin!!!!]

18:00 We go back to our packing.....