Houses and haikus

Life News:

Well, we've finally made our decision: we've withdrawn our offer on the Woking house because of the general incompetence of our vendors' solicitors who in the last 3.5 months have been amongst the most inefficient people I've ever known. However, our own conveyancer has not been far behind: when we withdrew our offer formally on Friday, we were both annoyed but not at all surprised when the vendors' solicitors and estate agent both asked us what the point was of our decision when we couldn't buy their house anyway without selling ours - as of course we'd told them both about 7 times that the purchase was not at all dependent on the sale of our flat, so we were used to the fact that nobody was listening to us. We were rather more surprised when our own conveyancer emailed us to say she couldn't understand either as surely we "couldn't buy without selling, could we?..." I've never known K be quite so cross and indeed I felt very much like ringing the silly bint up, telling her she was a useless pile of shite and kicking her arse to kingdom come and beyond. But, being the calm and loving person that I am (ha!), I left it to K to send a snippety email saying we'd told her about 5 times that the purchase wasn't in any way dependent on the sale. Oh, and by the way, she was now sacked as our purchase conveyancer, we were making a formal complaint and she'd have to whistle for her fees. Put that in your pipe, love, and smoke it ...

Lordy, what fun we're having right now, eh! Who indeed will rid me of these troublesome conveyancers, and are there any good ones in the whole of Surrey?? Alas, I believe not ... In the meantime, we continue to be utterly bemused that it seems so incredibly difficult for people to accept that we have (a) no chain; (b) savings enough and a decent mortgage to buy a house; and (c) the desperate desire to give vendors money. Why won't the buggers take it?!?

So, back to the house viewing, and we've one lined up to see on Thursday, and 2 more I'm intending to get appointments for this week. Let's hope someone out there starts to take us seriously or I'm going to build my own bloody house in the middle of our former conveyancer's garden. Ha!

However, there is good news! The lovely Brucie finally gets a knighthood and we had a fabulous (and house/publisher crises-free) time wandering round the gardens and enjoying a cream tea at Nymans, and then wandering round yet more gardens at Wakehurst Place - both are definitely recommended.

Today we have got round to visiting our nearest high Anglican church in the area - All Saints Woodham - and, if trying out high church offerings, it's always best to go on Pentecost (today) - ah, the bells, the smells, the ritual, the bling. Bliss. All served (sorry) up with a hint of informality and laughter. We loved it. Plus the coffee they serve is real. Real ground coffee after a church service - we've never had that before! We'll definitely be back ...

And, this afternoon, we have done something we haven't done since our honeymoon nearly 18 years ago (steady, people, steady ...) - we have used the dishwasher that comes with the flat. Gosh! Isn't it lovely. Everything's sooo clean and we didn't have to do it ourselves. How very grown-up we are becoming. Will definitely be doing that again too.

Book News:

NB THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER CONCERNED, AT THEIR REQUEST.

On a happier literary note, The Art of The Delaneys is now available at Amazon UK and Amazon US. And I'm really delighted to say that my Sunday Haiku collection gained a 5-star review at Goodreads, so many thanks to Vicki for that.

This week's meditation poem is:




Meditation 536
It takes 212 men
to guard the temple gates

which just goes to show
women are more dangerous
than you think.


And the Sunday haiku is:

A slow-falling note
soothes this melodious air:
the greenfinch's song.

Anne Brooke