Houses, holidays and haikus

Life News:

We've been round a couple of new developments looking at potential new houses today, which has been great fun. We liked one of the houses in the development nearest to Guildford town centre, but we much preferred the ones a little further out. The one we were most interested in won't be built till next year, so we're hoping to do a proper site visit over the next couple of weeks to get a feel for the thing. It will be interesting anyway. In the meantime, we've drafted an official complaint to Mann Countrywide - though I do have to say that the two women in the office, Kirsty & Leigh, were absolutely lovely when I collected my key from them on Saturday, and they apologised profusely and genuinely on behalf of their new manager, who's apparently very appalling to everyone. They also gave me complaint information and encouraged us to go ahead, which was interesting indeed. We're also getting two more estate agents to visit us tomorrow to give us quotes, so we're still keeping all our options open. No harm in doing that for sure.

After all this house consideration, K and I decided to take a quick trip to Wisley for lunch, which was lovely and warm, hurrah. At least inside anyway. Not many people there because of the weather, so it was nice to wander around and have lots of space - though you didn't want to dawdle or one's legs tended to freeze up. In spite of the fact that I was wearing thermals, two pairs of socks, two tee-shirts, a jumper, a fleece and an overcoat. Good Lord, it was astonishing I could move at all really. They were also having a free tree giveaway event, so we have come away with a silver birch sapling. Yes, I know this is ridiculous as we (as yet) have no garden and the beasts grow to about 200 feet tall or something, but how could we resist? We have therefore put it in a pot and put it on the stairs, where it is making a fair bid for the "smallest and spindliest Christmas tree ever" competition. Anyone got a really really small fairy??...

Yesterday, the start of our week's holiday (not going anywhere but having days out and considering house issues, theoretically) got off to a bad beginning as poor K had to work all day sorting out the new phone system at the office. So he left at 8.15am, returned exhausted at 7.45pm and then had to go back to the office as he'd got all the way home and realised he'd left his briefcase in the carpark. Lordy, we were worried, but thank God nothing had happened to it and everything was safe (thank you, thank you - miracles can indeed happen!!), and he got back again at 8.45pm. What a nightmare anyway. And he has to be in work tomorrow too to check the new phone system works so in actual fact our holiday won't start till Tuesday, poor thing. Ah well.

During the latter half of the week, Marian and I played a very cold game of golf, but there was no-one else out there it was so cold, so that was fun too. There was even ice on the tee area so you had to be jolly careful about your swing. As it were. Though, bearing in mind I was as bundled up as I was today, it wasn't much of a swing in the first place. Ooh and on the way back from Guildford later that day, I came upon two young men walking along the central reservation of the A3. The fools!!!! When I got back home, I rang the police so they could check it out and stop them, so I feel I've done my civic duty for the month. But why the hell anyone would walk along the central reservation of the A3 and expect to live long is beyond me ... Men are a mystery, my dears, a complete mystery.

Book News:

I was pleased with this 4-star review on Amazon for gay short story, Give and Take, and even more pleased that Vulpes Libris has been mentioned this weekend in The Guardian as a "top UK literary blog". Now that's class ... We Book Foxes are all smiling hugely indeed.

This week's meditations are:


Meditation 469
The secrets women keep:
hidden in the shadows
and the rooms
where nobody goes,

a flicker at the edge
of an eye, a mystery,
dark corners of life
only a woman knows.


Meditation 470
The temple waits
for destruction

as priests wait
for death,

knowing their completion
lies only in absence.


The Sunday haiku is:

Two mistle thrushes
fill the empty tree with song:
winter symphony.


Anne Brooke