Catching Up

It's been quite a while since I was last here and a lot has happened since then. One important thing didn't happen though. After months of legal wrangling over water rights and environmentally correct drainage we were forced to pull out of the purchase of the cottage. We were disappointed and more than a little bit pissed off about the amount of money we had spent on surveys and legal fees but life goes on and we had to sit down and take stock of our situation and what to do next.

Things had moved on with the treatment plan for my meningioma and we knew that the radiotherapy would be finished well before Christmas. We also new that once it started we would be pretty much trapped were we are for around 6 weeks and since all my family are a 6-7 hour drive away it really brought it home to me how isolated we are here. My original intention was to go back to work full time and maybe see if I could carve a career of sorts but the meningioma got in the way of that and as we'd moved to a new area that meant my opportunity to meet people was gone. I had no support network, just my husband and it's not fair to put the whole burden of my condition (I refuse to accept that it's an illness) on him so I tend to bottle things up because there's no-one to talk to. Add to this my parents aren't in great health and my kids are struggling in the recession and the choices narrowed. The final thing that tipped the balance was location. We have problems with anti-social behaviour were we are and really don't know the local area, or anywhere in Scotland, well enough to make an informed choice.

We decided there was only one thing to do. Move back to England, to the area where we have family, friends and a reasonable knowledge of the localities. Conscious of the start date of my treatment we decided to go down for a long weekend to do some house hunting. Using the internet we made a short list of possibles and set up the appointments, then headed down the motorway for a busy weekend.

No 1 was on a very busy road opposite a big pub, so we politely looked round and then immediately crossed it off our list.

No 3 was OK. I can't describe it as any better than that but it just didn't wow us with any possibilities.

No 4 was a nice house, with definite possibilities but on another very busy road, we struggled to park just to view it, so that one was out as well.

No 5 was very nearly the one. Needed lots of work but had possibilities, then we found out that a fair with a potential for trouble was held in a park behind the house regularly. With the trouble we've had where we are that ruled that one out.

No 6 was another nice house but to make it suit us we would have had to knock down walls and that would have been messy, time consuming and it still wouldn't have been what we really wanted.

That brings me back to No 2. In a quiet village, reasonably near to parents, a little further from the kids but close enough and most importantly, the almost perfect layout for us. It was a house we didn't think existed but here it was - and also substantially over budget! We only booked the viewing as a wild card choice and I'd actually hoped I wouldn't like it, ho hum, more thinking to be done.

Well we thought and we added up and we subtracted and we realised that we really couldn't afford it but could try an offer, which would still be a gamble but sometimes you have to do that.

So we did. We put in a low offer, rejected. A higher offer, acceptable with a but. Then a surprise compromise from the seller, which sent us off in to another round of soul searching and counting the pennies after which we were the ones to accept.

We're now two weeks in to the buying process and so far so good. If luck is on our side this time, and I think we deserve it, we'll be done & dusted by mid December and living in our new (to us) home and asking for paint & wallpaper as Christmas presents.

One last thing, probably the most important but I'm still trying to ignore it. My radiotherapy started last Tuesday. So far it's going well. I still have all my hair, my eyelashes are intact and the only thing making me tired is the silly time I have to get up to go to the hospital. I hope it stays that way.

Sssssnake!

I saw a snake today. Big deal? Yes, because it was the first live snake I've ever seen in the wild. Luckily there were no other cars about, it wouldn't have done my reputation any good for people to know I slowed down to let a snake get safely across the road :-)

High Tension

Cotton wool clouds dotted sparingly in a powder blue sky

Reeds nestle in the brook, whispering softly in a gentle breeze

Tiny rabbits play on the verge, undaunted by the occasional passing car

Even the distant barking of dogs fails to disturb the tranquillity of the day

But it is disturbed!

A creeping menace crosses this land

Heard beneath the whispering reeds, quieter than the babbling brook

But heard, a low hum, sinister and constant

Metallic giants march across this rural land

Cables strung between them, bunting without flags

No fiesta here, just conflict, nature versus progress

Progress to enable, to move forward, to develop

To feed the addictions of modern life

Where rabbits play on our television screens

and our children play with games consoles

and we talk in cyber space

While our real space is slowly, systematically destroyed

By Progress