7th October, 2010
A quiet but cold and deliciously sunny day today much improved by confirmation that Woolas is absolutely stuffed. The Labour Party has cut him adrift. We went in to overdrive when we heard the football results:
- Arsenal 0 – Newcastle 1
- Liverpool 2 – Chelsea 1
- West Brom 0 – Man City 2
and all of this after
- Bolton 4 – Spurs 2
- Man.U. 2 – Wolves 1
It was particularly heartening to see the continuing recovery Liverpool in general and Torres in particular.
8th October, 2010
Up early this morning because we have to collect the keys for the flat and pay six months rent plus a month’s rent as a returnable bond – £4000.00 – peanuts really compared with what we paid for a mortgage. Six months mortgage used to be £16,500.00. Having picked up the keys from the agent, we went over to the flat to find builders parked in front, the door to the bathroom still to be put on after the flooring was laid, the white goods had been delivered but not installed. Later, we drove to the bank to close Mum’s account.
We had phone calls from people keen to sell us houses in Sussex this afternoon. We are considering East Sussex, Kent and Surrey at the moment.
9th October, 2010
The gradual move to the new flat begins today. We are taking smaller things in the car over the next couple of days before the removal van brings things out of store on Thursday.
One of the things that we do have to get to grips with is our collection of framed prints. They are all large – 36″ x 24″ approximately and we have about 50 of them. We will probably never again have enough wall space for them. Some may have to go to Greece. The Alma Tademawill be the most likely – the most appropriate. We have quite a lot of them following on from our Pre-Rapaelite and Waterhouse collection. My favourites are below:
There was a fascinating story in The Daily Telegraph this morning about The Lawrence Alma Tadema painting, The Finding of Moses which was sold by the artist in 1904 for £506.00.
That was the equivalent then to twenty years of a teacher’s salary. In 1960 it was bought at auction for just £900.00 or the equivalent of just one year’salary for a teacher. The person who bought it walked out of the auction, took the painting out of the frame, discarded the painting on the street and went home with the frame. The painting was recovered annd sold at auction last week for over £20,000,000.00. (That must be at least a week’s earnings for a teacher!) Such are the changing tastes of the art market.
10th October, 2010
Started to say our goodbyes to people who have cared for Mum over the years. Many we will probably never see again. It is sad. Drove over to the new flat in Huddersfield. The dishwasher has now been plumbed in but the Washer/Dryer still needs attention. We took bags and boxes of our immediate possessions. We phoned the Management company who said they would be over in the morning to make sure it was done.
While we were in Huddersfield, I went for my diabetic foot check. Everything was pronounced fine by the student doctor and then confirmed by the real doctor. I was offered free chiropody service for life which was helpful. Driving back for our last night in sheltered accommodation, I was moaning the fact that I couldn’t watch the Manchester Derby. Ultimately, as the highlights showed, I didn’t miss much.
11th October, 2010
The delivery lorry brings our furniture out of store to our new flat by lunchtime today. We have a week acclimatising ourselves to the new flat and completing a number of appointments before we go down to Surrey to start property searches again. Members of the family should gird their loins. We have seen a nice house in Farnham near Jane BG, and a wonderful house in East Sussex near Catherine. We will stay with Pauline’s sister but we will also have a couple of days in France as well.
When the lorry arrived and disgourged all our stuff into this tiny flat, we were overwhelmed. We will never have enough room. We built our bed, went out for a lovely Italian meal and came back to watch Newsnight. As we tried to sleep in our new bedroom on the windiest night of the year with gales roaring outside, the exhaustion of the day took us away.
12th October, 2010
Although we have managed to use bedroom 2 as a store room and most of the rest of our things are arranged around the flat, we are struggling to come to terms with it. I’ve had to order a BT line and total broadband because our mobile dongle doesn’t work here. You have to move close to the window to get a good signal for our mobiles. All three are Vodafone. It would be hard to say we are happy with the situation but we can’t let that push us in to buying too hastily. We have to see it through and, if that means going back to Greece and putting our stuff back in to store, that’s exactly what we’ll do.
12th October, 2010
We are making our penultimate trip to Mum’s flat. Pauline wants to clean it. I have no idea why but she says her Mum was proud and wouldn’t want to hand over a dirty flat. Actually, she has just found a final stash of lovely, old photos including Pauline in the Dancing Troupe/Marching Band – the Oldham Dinkys and one of her aged about five with her cat:
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