🦞 The Lockdown Gang still chatting 🦞

My house sale has stalled. I heard today that the people buying have had their sale fall through so we are victims of the dreaded chain. They may find another buyer quickly or they may not.

Then ofcourse the house I want could go back on the market... I'm rather depending on their goodwill or urgency.

It's depressing. I'm trying to look for pluses but none are showing up right now 😩

Oh that is such good news about Kaimoana. We couldn't have wished for better for her
Thankyou.

Ixion and Doodle.
Great news from Kaimoana.
Thank you kindly for keeping in touch with her.


(Wish these were real)

Kaimoana said she is happy for people to know that she is in her forever home, nearer to her family who found her happy place for her.
It is, she says, a large place, in a lovely neighbourhood but residents are grouped into households of six rooms with shared kitchen and dining facilities.
Sounds like my DCs' university halls of residence.

She has a sunny room with a deck, dedicated staff within her household and a call bell if she wants to be waited on!

She is also (2 days in!) trying to get hold of the Chef, as she has been signed up for medium meals which are simply huge😆

Grammaretto for a minute I imaged your garden with 700 slides in it lane lots of little children having fun 🤣

Anyone who wants to know where kaimoana is please PM me I won’t put it on public forum.
She has now moved to a rest home. Kind people and nice room. So pleased for her.

That would be good if we could send Kaimoana something nice. She certainly needs that.

She sent me a rose when DH died and I have taken cuttings from it for my next garden. It's peace

All the Lobstars sent me a card which I have kept.

Such a busy day here with a skip arriving, a chap from the Men's shed to collect our old trailer and a potter who wanted my display stands.
Beginning to fill the skip but getting sidetracked with my usual going through drawers and sorting.

I was at my Gaelic class tonight. It's certainly a distraction!

What to do with 700 slides...... I don't even know what they are as they are scenes without people.

Are you home yet Naughtyneine?
Thinking of you too.

Doodle doyou know whete she is? I wonder if we could write to her (in big writing)? or maybe send a card?

Is her housing project maybe sending mail on to her?
Thank uou for your update.

Spent a very pleasant few minutes last night listening to a voice message from our dear friend kaimoana
You will not be surprised to know that her voice is full of laughter and she chuckles a lot. It seems that the paramedics came to check on her and decided she needed to be assessed in hospital. As far as her last message goes she was still in hospital but they have said she will not go home now but go straight to a rest home where they can help her.
I do hope it’s a good one and she gets the care she needs. She’s been coping too long on her own but I know she’s very independent so it might not be what she wants.
Take care all.

Grammaretto our son has four boxes of photos in his loft and I have a bookcase full of those photo holders. Later years they were all digital so it the really old ones I’ve kept. Downsizing is a problem. 2we had a storage unit for three years after we moved here. Gradually cleared it out. Hope he move is progressing well.
Ah Jan I do understand. Yes perhaps not he right trip for you. Do hope your DH improves soon and you can go walking again.
ixion yes art has started again thank goodness. I di miss it.
I love your description of a rotund hedgehog. He sounds cute.

I was told to create a hedgehog feeding station inaccessible to dogs and cats when we were given a couple of rescued hogs from a sanctuary. All it was was a couple of bricks with a piece of wood on top.

We would leave food out - cat food- but we never saw the hedgehogs again. The food went. 😂

I hope you have more success Ixion

No its a chest of drawers I was clearing but I have various cabin trunks so could use one.

All went to plan today but I am exhausted. Bedtime! Night night Lobstars xx

Grammaretto, is your chest (so to speak) a cabin trunk, one with a flat top as opposed to domed?
If so, redolent of student days here, could it not be used with a throw as a bedside table or stand alone piece of furniture in a spare bedroom, thus keeping your home for the photos?

Welcome home, Doodle - that went quickly! Is your art class starting up now?

So sorry for Mr.J, Jan. And how frustrating that your GP can't find a solution.
I hope he is able to extend his walking little by little and you can both enjoy getting out with each other at least before the lousy winter weather sets in.

We are blessed with the reappearance of our? a rotund hedgehog, clearly able to squeeze under the side gate. If not, with a walled garden, I've no idea how they get in.
I hope he - and his little family maybe - stay with us for a while.
Cute, yes, but in addition I have expedited the delivery a large bag of dedicated hog food and an elegant heavy duty feeder.
I have a strong suspicion that the contents are loved by Barney 🐈 on a nightly basis ...

Doodle so pleased you enjoyed your cruise. I didnt mean specifically women cruising should have said anyone and obviously it depends what difficulties they have been left with. For me I can only walk very short distances, have problems with steps and one useless hand. Therefore getting off the ship for a trip out probably impossible and if it was a coach trip definitely impossible. As for getting on a tender no way! And so it goes on! So no thanks cruising is now just so stressful its not worth the stress!!

Welcome home Doodle. Failte.
Glad you enjoyed it. Beautiful and peaceful sounds good and meeting nice people.

I can't believe it's been 7 days. I don't seem to have achieved much in your absence.

My hairdresser has offered to come and help move stuff on Monday. He's very kind .

Tomorrow DD will come and take some more furniture. I hope she has enough space. 😲

I'm starting to go through photos. Without the chest I keep them in I can't think what to do with them.

What did you do with photos when you downsized?

Evening all. I’m back.
Had a really nice time. A few sad moments but overall very lovely. Norway has been a favourite for a long time. So beautiful and peaceful.
Met some really nice people too.
Ixion is Barney back? Last I remembered he wears missing for ages. I do hope you now know where he is.
Grmmaretto sorry to hear about your friend. You sound exhausted. So many trips here and there. Hope you still got a lot to sort out?
Jan good your Dh has been checked over. Hope he starts to feel better after cutting out some of the meds. I too was surprised you said a cruise was no place for a women who’d had a stroke. Why is that?
Notspaghetti good advice about moving and making sure things are put back together again.
NN lovely post from you. Seems like you’re having a good trip. You’re still busy with spreadsheets, a laptop will be a big help.
Notspaghetti i wish I could lose weight but I seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Mind you I suppose if I stopped stuffing myself with chocolate that might help !
Night night all. Very tired still. Sleep well x

Poor you Jan. As if your own health problems aren't enough without DH joining in. He's not a hypochondriac is he?

My friend has had a stroke while away on holiday. I phoned to see if he was coming to supper only to find he has been in hospital on the South coast and will not be back for a while.

Luckily he got to hospital within 4 hours which is so important to avoid long term damage.

I hope Doodle is enjoying her cruise.
Thinking of absent friends.

Hello Everyone. Yes I too hope Doodle is having a relaxing and enjoyable cruise with great weather. Its been a glorious day here and we have enjoyed a very long and delicious lunch with friends at our local hostelry and then back to our house to carry in putting the world to rights!
Hope Grammaretto is getting sorted. Moving is a big undertaking so hoping all goes well and her new house becomes her forever home.
Thank you to all who enquired about DH. Its proving to be a rather long recovery with really no answers. He has been to our local hospital, Papworth heart hospital and also Norwich hospital! All have said there are no problems except he has probably been over medicated. As at one time he was taking 12 steroids a day I can quite believe that! He is feeling better now he has stopped some pills but is a bit breathless when walking even short distances. Also a very bad dose of mouth thrush certainly didnt help! All 3 hospitals told him to see his GP which as the good boy he is he did. Result - GP after examining him and checking blood tests said “I cant find anything wrong with you!” What can you say?!!

I've booked a further quote for tomorrow. The one I have is fixed price and includes packing.
I've also booked a house clearance company who do charge by the hour.

My friends came again and moved books and took carloads to the tip.

I still have an auction company collecting things and the book man will come again.

I've sold my wonderful solid wood pottery table and I think a futon will sell too.

I'm exhausted now and could only manage half my yoga class.

Thanks for your advice and cautionary tales.

Is it a "Fixed Quote" or are they quoting an hourly rate?
We had a local move and chose a small operator who although we chose to go with a fixed price, did offer by the hour. I would be wary of that.

They came to the house and did a pre-move survey with us.

​Do you have anything needing dismantling/ reassembly?
We didn't think of this and it was chaos for days. We did insist they put the enormous dresser and linen cupboard parts back on top of each other and where we wanted them but slept on a mattress for weeks days until we made space to rebuild our bed.
Dining tables or garden furniture may need to be dismantled?

Just check whether the mover includes taking them down and rebuilding them in the quote.

​If you are concerned idalso ask if they supply carpet runners, door-frame protectors, and mattress covers as standard equipment. Some do.

We have dealt with only a few moves in the last little while but I found I needed to be quite bossy "directing the traffic" at the unpacking end.
I labelled everything "bed1" "kitchen" "front room" or whatever and still initally found stuff dumped where convenient. I asked them to relocate things to where they were labelled after I'd checked.
The second load was placed more carefully!

I was SO pleased I'd done this as ip and down 3 floors with boxes is no joke.
"Can I just leave this (box of books) here please?" - "I think that one is going to the study at the top of the house please" ...

We got 3 or 4 quotes.
One company leant out the boxes (almost any number) but billed you if you kept them more than x days.... too soon really.

When we did my mother-in-law's removal with her she paid (a lot) for a fill service including packing.
It was SO easy!
...but of course she had very little "stuff"!

Now that you are decluttering, Grammaretto, perhaps a new round of quotes might be more realistic now, anyway?

Fresh eyes 'n' all that.

Yes yes yes!

Mid October so not long at all.
The removals acceptance form was delivered on Tuesday on to my doorstep as whoever deposited it couldn't find my letter box and didn't think to let me know.
I was out all day, I didn't find the letter till morning by which time it had rained heavily in n the night.
I dried it out in yesterday's sunshine and maybe after I have ironed it I can fill in the 5 pages.
It doesn't bode well for that company does it. First they didn't turn up for the quote and then the wet letter after I had told them I couldn't fill it in online nor print it.
😲 Thirdly it's very expensive.
Should I get another quote?

Have upu got a date Grammaretto?
😱😬😱😬😱😬

Great to hear your news Naughtyneine. Having your friends with you sounds perfect.

I'm counting down to moving now and realise I won't get everything done.

3 potter friends have been helping me clear and pack up the pottery. More to go but a start has been made. I am so tired 😩