Tinkerbell's Pages

On being almost there...

Well, despite the thunderstorms and torrential rain going on outside my window, I am in a positive frame of mind today. Firstly, I have had the day off work (always good on a Monday!) Officially it was an INSET day, but 'unofficially' it was just a day off. Many people in school will have spent the day finishing off their reports, but MINE are already finished *smiles smugly to herself*. Anyway, the day started off like a proper summer's day, so I got up early and took myself off to the high street to do some chores. Then I met up with mum and mum's friend who were babysitting baby niece for a while. I tried to ring the solicitor but couldn't reach her, so emailed instead, pleading for information about the flat, in an attempt to avoid being made homeless in the next few weeks.

Anyway, there is at last good news! If all goes to plan (fingers crossed!), the flat will be ours at the beginning of August, which is when the lease on our current flat runs out. Now I can start planning the summer properly (hadn't even been looking forward to the end of term because it meant one step closer to becoming homeless!) So, boyfriend and I have decided to have his birthday party at the current flat the weekend before we're due to move out and then we've got a couple of weeks to sort the new place out before we're off on our hols. When we get back, we can have my 30th birthday party in the new place. Should all work out perfectly (I hope!)

COUNTDOWN TO THE SUMMER HOLS: 11 and a half school days

On wondering who the f**k stole summer?!!!

Hi, I'm back! Just realised how long it's been since my last blog! I've been busy, busy, busy over the last few weeks and now that my internet connection is finally working again and I have finished all 36 of my reports for school (round of applause please), I can sit back and enjoy the summer a bit. Except I can't, can I? Because the weather is quite frankly crap. Got a school trip tomorrow, so it's bound to rain. Today someone at school said that the weather is going to be like this all summer. That better not be true. I will not be happy if it is. At least I am going away for a week in August... The crappy wet weather is making my body think it's winter (or autumn at least), so instead of eating healthy fruit and salad (which I would be if the weather was hot), I am craving comfort food. I've got bikinis to fit into by August 20th and at this rate I'll look hideous in them!

Anway, here are just some of the exciting 'highlights' of the weeks since I last wrote:

• got absolutely soaked to the skin at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre a couple of weeks ago;
• had to fork out almost 150 quid for a new back windscreen when mine decided to spontaneously shatter into a million pieces for no appparent reason one day after school;
• have been to see several new movies: the new Pirates of the Caribbean, Fantastic Four and Shrek the Third - still to see this summer are: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Movie, Transformers (the boyfriend's choice!) and The Bourne Ultimatum;
• played croquet on the lawn at boyfriend's brother and sister-in-law's one evening (all very civilised) followed by a more uncivilised drunken game of football (me and an over-excited seven-year-old versus two thirty-something-year-old men!);
• have had fun chasing up all the paperwork, but alas we are STILL waiting to move into our lovely new flat...

Can't remember any more at the moment. I don't really know where the time has gone. Will write again soon, I promise. x

On enjoying half term (despite the weather)...

I am officially in a good mood today! OK, so the weather over the Bank Holiday weekend was completely crap (as predicted), but today it is sunny here - well, at the moment anyway - and I am still off work! In fact, I've got the rest of the week off because it's half term (yay!) Big sis has got the same half term as me this time and we have not let the bad weather dampen our spirits so far. On Friday evening we went into London and did a bit of clothes shopping, followed by going to watch The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Duchess Theatre. OH MY GOD - it was brilliant! So funny. I'd highly recommend it if you haven't seen it (and the tickets only cost a tenner each - bargain!)

Was supposed to go to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie on Saturday, but boyfriend had been attacked by a mean flu bug at the end of last week, so he didn't want to venture out of the flat. Big sis and I decided to make Saturday our Brighton day out since it looked as if it was to be the only day not pouring with rain and we made the right decision. In Brighton, although it was grey and miserable, we only had a couple of spots of rain, whereas at home, according to the boyfriend it had been 'p***ing down all day'!

It's all change around here at the moment. Am helping Big sis to move into her new flat next Saturday and it now seems, that despite the complete lack of brain of the woman at the housing association, the boyfriend and I might finally be moving into our very own home sometime in July after all. Just a few more bits of paperwork to sort out and that'll hopefully be it. Very exciting!

On looking forward to a sunny half term...

Have finally re-surfaced from under five days worth of SATS paper marking and at last the sun is shining! I have got 36 reports to think about writing at some point, but at least I've still got a few more weeks to sort that out. Am looking forward to next week - not only is it a bank holiday on Monday, but it's also the start of half term. Yippee! Have got some nice things planned too - going out with big sis in London on Friday night, watching the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie on Saturday and will probably go down to Brighton for the day on Sunday (hopefully the weather will be good.) Must also use this rare opportunity to catch up with at least two or three poor neglected friends sometime over the course of the week. Will also be celebrating  six months (!) since baby neice was born next weekend.

Am helping big sis to move into her new flat on June 9th - alas, still no news on our flat. Got lots of paperwork through from the solicitors today, but still nothing from the housing association. By the end of this week it will be a MONTH since I originally sent off the paperwork to them. Was hoping to be settled in the new flat by the beginning of the summer holidays, but as time goes by that's starting to look less and less likely.

On the art of romance...

I realised the other day that tomorrow (May 19th) is exactly twelve years to the day since the boyfriend and I first met (yup, TWELVE YEARS - count 'em!) We didn't get it together as a couple for another two years after that, but that's another (very long and involved) story. Anyway, thinking about this last night, I said to the boyfriend, "Did you know that on Saturday it's exactly twelve years to the day since we first met? Maybe at the weekend we should do something to celebrate." After a couple of minutes silence, the boyfriend replied, "Actually, I was thinking - I'd really like to go and see 28 Weeks Later this weekend." Typical. What a beautiful way to celebrate and cherish our long-standing relationship. Going to see a movie full of monsters ripping people to shreds and feasting on their brains. That really says a lot about us as a couple... : )

On becoming a little impatient with life...

I am (yet again) not enjoying life much at the moment. Apart from spending yet another joyous week of suffering with an agonizing sore throat (am currently living off a daily mixture of Nurofen, disposable aspirin and antibiotics - YUM!), the house-buying venture is becoming a real nightmare. At present, the vendor is having a go at the estate agents because nothing is happening and the mortgage people are having a go at the mortgage advisor because nothing is happening, so guess who they're both having a go at? Yup, you've got it - little old me! Since none of this standstill is my fault, I decided to have a go at someone else. Except I'm not really like that - I politely phoned the chimps who work at the housing association who are supposed to be sorting out our loan, just to enquire if they had got my paperwork. About three calls later and after being passed from pillar to post and being told everyone was in a meeting or had gone home, I finally got to speak to a charming woman who argued that she had already told me my paperwork had been received (not true) and that I would have a reply in the post by today (not true). Then she hung up on me (great customer service skills.) Anyway, the postman has merrily been on his way and gone again this morning, unsurprisingly leaving nothing from the loans people. Rang them this afternoon to 'politely enquire' once again what was going on, but of course, they had all aready gone home. Again. So now I face receiving phonecalls tomorrow from all those who I promised I would have answers for. But I do not have these answers. Due to the chimps in the office who have sat on my paperwork for the last two weeks and are probably going to make us lose our flat altogether at the rate they're going : (

On playing the waiting game....

We're at that stage in the flat-buying game now where nothing much is happening, After the last couple of frantic weeks, things have gone quiet now. Have filled in all the relevant paperwork (for the moment), got our mortgage agreed (in principal) and appointed a solicitor. So now we're just waiting on the loan people to get back to us. Spend time with little sis, baby niece and other female members of my family on Saturday afternoon and last night with boyfriend's family, so have shown everyone the details of the flat now. Everyone oohh-ed and aahh-ed a bit. The latest (in a long line) of concerns I had was that the boyfriend and I were going to end up homeless because the lease on our current flat runs out in two months time. We have to give two months notice if we want to leave (ie. our notice would have to be handed in the day after tomorrow), but we have no idea when we are likely to be moving. However, the lovely ladies in the letting agency have agreed to renew our contract on a month-to-month basis, so we can leave when we want, which is a big relief. We're hoping to be in the flat by sometime in July. We're keen to get moved in time for the beginning of the summer holidays and in time for boyfriend's birthday (July 26th), so that we can organise a join birthday/moving-in party in our lovely new garden. Also, we're off on holiday on Aug 20th and it's my 30th on August 29th, so we really want everything to be completed sorted and want to be settled in by then. But who knows when we're likely to move? Nothing's definite yet and I don't like it...

On the rollercoaster ride of searching for a new home...

Last week was interesting to say the least. I don't think I've ever felt so many conflicting emotions in such a short space of time. It's a long story, but it goes something like this... Over the last few weeks I have being trying to arrange for the boyfriend and I to see some flats in the local area, several of which were sold before we even got the chance to view them. We went to see a few flats which were just not for us. Suddenly - lo and behold - out of the blue, a flat in the next road to us came onto the market. From the details and photos on the website it looked perfect for us. The right location, loads of space, decorated to our taste. Better than we could ever have imagined. It just stood out a mile from anything else we had seen (or attempted to see!) Even the boyfriend managed to show a little bit of interest in going to see it. So a week ago on Saturday on the off-chance, we walked into the estate agents to see if it was available. By chance, there was actually an agent and some people there viewing it at that precise moment. We went, we both totally fell in love with it (boyfriend showed more excitement about it than I had seen him show for anything in years), we put in an offer. But could we really afford it?! And what about the other people who had viewed it at the same time and also put in an offer...????

Fast forward to last Monday, when I received about a thousand voicemail messages on my mobile from the estate agents (for the first time, I really missed having a desk job with a phone!) Not only had some evil person put in a larger offer than ours, but there was also a case of a lot of improvements which had been planned for the property which could cost up to another eight thousand pounds! Then was the case of the mortgage advisor who I was beginning to lose confidence in. Could we afford all this anyway?! By Tuesday night I was on the verge of some kind of nervous breakdown and just about to give up altogether. However, later in the week, with the original mortgage advisor duly sacked by me and by talking to another who knew exactly what he was talking about and talking to the estate agents, we came to an agreement about a price and we found out that we could afford it. In theory.

Anyway, to cut a very long story short, the vendor had to decide between us and someone else who had put in exactly the same offer once the cost of the improvements planned came to light. After another three nights of not sleeping and three days of constant phonecalls, we finally found out on Friday that our offer has been accepted! Except that poor commitment-phobic boyfriend was by this time having a major case of cold feet and about to pull the plug on the whole thing. Luckily, a very emotional chat later and a further viewing of the flat that evening (where the vendor offered to throw in about 90% of the furniture for free) made him see the error of his ways. It really is too good an opportunity for us to miss.

But apparently, all of that was the easy part. We still have to sort out the mortgage and key worker loan (which we are again now going to need). Fingers crossed! The saga continues...

On juggling different aspects of my life...

I am knackered. Had a lovely day out in Brighton with big sis yesterday as a treat since I finally finished tidying the flat AND did some work for school on Wednesday. Today I've had one of those days where you just don't stop. And I haven't even been at work. I'm juggling my life at the moment. Didn't particularly want to be in the flat when the woman from the estate agents came round to nose around first thing this morning, so I escaped until she had gone. Walked over to see little sis and baby niece. Baby niece was promptly sick over my leg. Walked home again and changed out of my jeans and put a load of washing on. Went out again and walked to the Post Office to post five VERY HEAVY parcels (boyfriend and I have been selling stuff on ebay). Took myself off and walked to find the flat we were supposed to be viewing tomorrow morning (although was informed this afternoon that it has now been sold). Walked into town to drop off mortgage paperwork at another estate agents and did a bit of shopping. Walked home and had some lunch. Rang another estate agent about new flats on the market. Walked over to view one which he highly recommended and disappointedly walked home again (I was somewhat unimpressed with over-hyped flat). I have therefore done a lot of walking in the sun today (even got a little bit sunburnt on my nose!)

Going to have a quiet night in with a DVD tonight and then it's off tomorrow to see the one remaining flat which appears to be on the market in this area at the moment (it's only in the next road to us, so not so much walking to do!) Then tomorrow night it's time for our first BBQ of the year - my friend Miss M does like to be the first to host a BBQ once the weather starts to get nice... : )

On spring-cleaning my life...

Well, it seems like Spring has really arrived at last! What great weather we've been having. Had quite a family-orientated Easter weekend with tea and cakes at mum's with rest of the family on Friday afternoon, birthday lunch with whole family for big sis's birthday on Saturday and dinner on Sunday night with the boyfriend's family. Now I am fully recovered from my horrible lurgy, have finally got my appetite back and am making up for it now and eating too much again... Yesterday afternoon the boyfriend and I did some food shopping followed by a spot of spring-cleaning because the flat was a complete tip and the lovely lady from the estate agents is coming round again to check up on us on Friday morning! Am supposed to be finishing off the flat today, but am not getting on too well at the moment *blush*.

Went to see my new best friend the friendly local Mortgage Advisor this morning. He has offered to lend me a lot more money than the stingy Key Worker Housing scheme have, so the search for our new home is officially on again. It also means that I don't have to sell my soul to the education system (ie. sign up to being a teacher until I finally retire in about 40 years time!), so we're going to go for a normal mortgage instead. Really must stop searching for properties on the internet and get on with some serious cleaning and tidying up now. I'm hoping to get all the boring jobs (eg. flat cleaning and work for school) done over the next couple of days, so I can enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend before I have to go back to school on Monday. Might even take a nice jaunt down to Brighton with big sis before normality of working too hard sets in again... : )