Had two emails from Lizzie Dripping today:
John
R u ok ,no e mail this weekend ?
I am off to Istanbul in the am for a week
Hope all is ok with you and Pauline and house sales
Miss your Sunday message and hope all is well
Coalition Crew will be wreaking havoc on public services when I get back already lost 1.5m from admin via david and nickThe other thing is what do you think about academies and the coalition approach to schools
I have to be a trustee on co op academy for the council ,just starting this sept.
Best wishes Liz
She always writes in this sophisticated style.
14th June, 2010
Spoke to Ruth and we agreed to meet on Tuesday. I am running out of days so this will be our last meeting of the Summer. Ruth’s just come back from a holiday in YORKSHIRE and given me some photos:
Spent the day packing up and cataloguing our pictures.
15th June, 2010
Meeting Ruth this morning in Sainsburys in Huddersfield. She is going on to have lunch with a friend. It is a glorious morning. Ruth looked beautiful. We had our picture taken together but Ruth is so slim and made me look so fat that I couldn’t include it.
Badly presented I know, this is a catalogue of most of the paintings on our walls that are now being taken down and wrapped. The house was beginning to resemble an art gallery and we will have to rethink it if we buy an apartment.
|
1. |
William Callow | Venice The Grand Canal | 1854 |
| 2. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Prosperine (Persephone) | 1874 |
| 3. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | La Ghirlandata | 1871 |
| 4. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Study – Jane Morris | 1872 |
| 5. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | Whispering Noon | 1896 |
| 6. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Study – Mary Morris | 1906 |
| 7. | Ancient Map of Sifnos | ||
| 8. | 1. Frederic Lord Leighton | The Bath of Psyche | 1890 |
| 9. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | A Coign of Vantage | 1895 |
| 10. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | Silver favourites | 1910 |
| 11. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | ||
| 12. | Unknown | ||
| 13. | JW Waterhouse | Miranda The Tempest | 1916 |
| 14. | Sir William Reynolds-Stephens | Interlude | 1862 |
| 15. | Charles Edward Perugini | Girl Reading | 1878 |
| 16. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | Detail from The Girl in Lemon Tulle | 1899 |
| 17. | James Whistler | Symphony in White no 2 | 1864 |
| 18. | Above in situ | ||
| 19. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | The Bower Meadow | 1872 |
| 20. | |||
| 21. | JW Waterhouse | My Sweet Rose from poem by Thomas Campion | 1908 |
| 22. | William Holman Hunt | Isabella and the Pot of Basil | 1867 |
| 23. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | ‘Roman Widow’ (‘Ds Manibus’) | 1874 |
| 24. | James Durden | Summer in Cumberland | 1925 |
| 25. | Arthur Hughes | April Love | 1856 |
| 26. | |||
| 27. | JW Waterhouse | Hylas and the Nymphs – Greek myth, Jason and the Argonauts, as told by William Morris in The Life and Death of Jason | 1896 |
| 28. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Beata Beatrix | 1888 |
| 29. | JW Waterhouse | The Lady of Shallot from 1833 poem by Tennyson | |
| 30. | Canaletto | The Palace Ducal, Venice | 1735 |
| 31. | Lawrence Alma-Tadema | A Favourite Custom | 1909 |
| 32. | JW Waterhouse | St Eulelia | 1885 |
16th June, 2010
It is pleasing to read articles in The Times today and The Sunday Times last week saying that Greek island house prices have hardly been touched by the recession. To add to this, the Greek government have just announced a new law making it harder to build on islands like ours and, thus, adding to the upward price pressure. Read the whole article here:
We have been negotiating with a building developer in Surrey over a 3-bedroomed, gated apartment. It is a little larger than we wanted and, although we have got them down by £45,000.00, it is still £10,000.00 over what we want to pay. I don’t think we will get them there. At least, not until we are out of the country. I think the double dip recession is a near certainty now the Lib Dems are sleeping with the Conservatives. House prices will come down some more and interest rates will rise. There’s no rush.
17th June, 2010
The estate agents for Rosemount Point is a company called Gascoigne Pees. We had deliberately tried an aggressive offer by going in at 20% under the asking price for a brand new build. Gascoigne Pees just as aggressively tried to con us in to thinking this would never be accepted. At one point, we even heard an office colleague whispering to the negotiator to see if they could get us up a bit. We said point blank that we wouldn’t budge and left it in their court. Eventually, they phoned back to say that, if we could just go up by two or three thousand, they thought the builders, Banner Homes, would crack and accept.
18th June, 2010
The phone went and Gascoigne Pees said they had done really well and got the builders, Banner Homes, to agree to our ridiculously low price. However, they said we were in danger of losing this ‘absolute bargain’ because another couple were going to view it this afternoon. In order to block them and secure it, they said we would need to put down a holding deposit immediately. They were shocked to hear we weren’t prepared to. For one thing, I didn’t believe their phantom new viewer nor do I put deposits down until I’ve made up my mind. We left them to sell it to their phantoms.
I watched but, literally, could not believe the England performance. Rooney, in particular, was abjectly awful. Why has there been all this adulation of Capello? How is it possible to take eleven talented players and blend them in to a pub team? That really does take talent!
19th June, 2010
Against my better judgement, Pauline advertised a string of items that we didn’t want in the Huddersfield Evening Examiner. These items included two double beds that had never been used. The adverts were put in a week ago but only appeared today and I had forgotten. I soon regretted it. The phone never stopped ringing – Has the ladders gone yet? What model is your Karcher Pressure Washer? – What model? What model? It’s a pressure washer that you use on the car and I only want £20.00 for it. I’ll give you £20.00 to take it away. I don’t know what model it is! The worst was the beds. We had not thought that the University landlords would kill for new beds. Everybody wanted them. Eventually, we sold one to a lady who was setting her trainee hairdresser daughter up in her first house on virtually no money. Because she was so nice and we felt sorry for her, we gave her the second bed free plus two bedside cabinets. We felt so much better after that.
And then, can you believe it, Gascoigne Pees phoned to tell us that their phantom buyers were not in a position to purchase (although they were desperate to do so) and asked if we would still be interested because the builders could meet us tomorrow morning. We are not opposed to doing things properly so we will drive down early tomorrow morning to meet the builders’ representative at 9.30 tomorrow morning but, if I see that duplicitous git from Gascoigne Pees, I’ll punch him in the mouth (just as a deposit).
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