6th February, 2011
Lovely day with the papers made so much better by Chelsea losing to Liverpool.
7th February, 2011
The very final papers to be signed and witnessed have to be sent off this morning. We asked the lady in the Sales Office of the Charles Church development where we are renting this shoe box to witness our signatures and, particularly, the plan illustrating the extra land we have bought outside our Duplex. This will be very important, in our view, when we come to sell. We are going down tomorrow to meet the blind man (or it could be a woman called Hillary).
8th February, 2011
Was it lucky or unlucky? It depends how you view it. We were packing the car prior to setting off to Surrey this morning when the phone went. It was the builders advising us that it would be difficult to get on site for a couple of days. We had to phone the Blind man and cancel the fitting and we cancelled our journey.
It was a pity really because the day was so beautiful. It felt as if Spring had arrived. It could have made for a nice journey. It was also a pity because I had put off meeting Ruth because of our journey. Anyway, we will see her next week. We took advantage of the sun and drove over to Oldham to say goodbye to my friend, Brian. We hoped to see one or two other people but our final trip to Oldham will be on Thursday of this week.
9th February, 2011
You wouldn’t believe how few possessions we have in our shoe box home. Admittedly, it isn’t really possible to walk in to the second bedroom because it is stacked from floor to ceiling in packing cases and stacks of framed pictures. The lounge has three arm chairs, a coffee table and a television. The kitchen has a round dining table and four chairs. We have a huge bed, bedside cabinets and dressing table and chair, two filing cabinets and a hall table. This is the sum total of our things which have to be moved to Surrey. We have asked three removal firms to give us a rough quote and each one is about £1000.00. Now we have asked two to come and quote us specifically. One will arrive at 9.00 am tomorrow.
We have deliberately chosen smaller, family firms with good reputations. Tomorrow it is Jack & Jill Removals from Holmfirth.
10th February, 2011
Two removal firms came today to quote. Jack & Jill featured above – They said they would need two lorries and two days and cost about £1100.00 and Walsh Transport & Storage who said they would use one lorry with two drivers and cost £700.00 + VAT. We chose them not just on price but because they will call at 6.30 am on Monday, April 4th, load the lorry and drive straight down to Surrey. They will unload, swap drivers and set off back. That is just what I wanted. We will stay with Phyllis & Colin that night and then drive back to Huddersfield on Tuesday.
I have booked three nights in a hotel so that we can tie up our affairs in Huddersfield before we finally leave. We have paid £650.00 deposit on this shoebox and we intend to get every penny back. When we return to the empty flat, we will paint over the scrapes to the walls that inevitably come from six month living and from moving our goods in and out. The painters on the site have given us a huge can of paint that they used to paint the walls in the first place. We will hoover the carpets, clean the kitchen and bathroom and leave the place looking as we found it – a sparkling shoebox.
We will go through a ritual that we have done each year for the last ten – we will take two large boxes of items to the main Post Office in Huddersfield and have them despatched to Greece. They will weigh about 30Kg in total and cost about £100.00. Sending these boxes allows us to have things we can’t get in Greece or which cost such an incredible amount in Greece that we find it hard to justify buying. To give you two examples: it isn’t possible to buy decent tea on Sifnos so we buy six months’ supply and send it; dishwasher tablets cost three times the price on Sifnos so when they are on half price offer in Sainsburys, we buy six months supply and they will be sent. It all makes a huge difference to life on the island and leaves extra space in the car for essentials like Italian wine.
On our last day in Huddersfield, we will walk the flat with our letting agent to establish its condition and the go on line to the property rental deposit scheme to reclaim our deposit. We will drive down to Surrey for three nights before we set off for the Continent.
11th February, 2011
After reading the Daily Telegraph this morning, I immediately contacted my Honda Dealership to complain about adverse publicity for my car.
Strangely, Honda didn’t seem to understand that news of a Tory espousing their car could harm its ‘reliability’ image. Astonishing!
Drove over to Oldham for the very, very last time today. Pauline’s cousin’s husband, Harry, was having problems with Skype so we went over to help out. We said goodbye to Joyce and Harry. They are lovely people. We drove on to meet June, Pauline’s widowed sister-in-law, and spent half an hour with her before saying goodbye. It may not be the absolutely last time we see people but we will have to make a special journey to visit and see them.
12th February, 2011
Beautiful, sunny day today. It really does feel like Spring but we know cold weather is due on Monday so let’s enjoy it. I have spent this morning on one of those scintillating internet searches for a ……mop. I know it is a big idea and hard to get your head round but I need a mop. Me, personally. We spent about £10,000.00 last summer having the outside of our Greek house tiled.
It is my job to keep the tiles clean but I need a mop to do it. The Greeks are weird people and their spades have no handles, their brushes are medieval and their mops are bits of rag.
I ask you, could you use these tools? Of course not! I took my spades and a proper yard brush and now I need a proper mop with a flat head.
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