The Next Waiting Game

The rollercoaster will soon be coming to an end we hope.  December 15 2015

The final day - AKA the Exchange - was a nightmare (something for which I am not surprised) I thought it would never end. Friday at 6pm we moved from our old home and into a twenty-one foot caravan. The awning was so packed with stuff that needed to go into storage that there was barely enough room to get to the caravan door let alone open it but we made our first night.

The excitement of this new adventure over the months wore off. That first weekend was used to try to pack the rest of the stuff into storage and it fit. we finally had room to move around the awning. I used to complain about my 7 x 9 foot kitchen but after living with a 2x2 foot caravan kitchen I will never complain again about a small kitchen.  I have lived through a micro kitchen to tell this tale.

We finally quit our jobs went on a short anniversary trip to Berlin then we left for the north to find a house. We found one and are now in the midst of experiencing the reverse nightmare of buying rather than selling.

Now the lawyers that were a nightmare in the selling experience I thought was just a one off. The whole sale of our house took 11 weeks from offer to exchange. I really do struggle to understand how a professional body of learned people who are paid to conduct the legal end of a house sale can with a straight face proudly admit they have graduated law school.

Especially with comments like
Us: how is it going?
Them: We are waiting for your signed paperwork
Us: we delivered it two weeks ago.
Them. Oh yes it is here.

Three weeks later -
Us: How is it going?
Them: We are waiting for the paperwork signed by your co-habitator saying she is moving out. and this and this and this.
Us: You have it and you have it and you have it.
Five to six weeks waiting for paperwork they already had - This is a joke - must be!

OMFG You have graduated from law school and you can't even read the paperwork sent before asking insanely ignorant questions and can still proudly take money for which most of the work required is done by the seller and the buyer - not you.

Why is this type of service tolerated by everyone buying or selling (our buying experience seems to be following a similar pattern but final comments will have to wait.

Why do we not ask to see these silly law degrees and when evidence is given ask well how did you get that when you can't read, write, communicate in general or conduct yourself and your business in a professional manner.

I do not have a higher degree from college but I would be absolutely embarrassed to admit I graduated from college and preform the way conveyancing solicitors preform their duties. Cleaning toilets has more pride than the above mentioned career choice seems too.

As my English husband would say - I'll just go to the bottom of the stairs. I can only shake my head and live with it. No choice. The Solicitors/Lawyers write the rules and there is nothing one dumbfounded (by the idioticness of it all) can do about it. We are handcuffed, it is a losing battle when it comes to change and well their is no pride in the world of Conveyancing.

Anyway I am sure we will survive - minus a few years off our lives for added stress for which we will receive no compensation. This haunting time has tainted our holidays with the worry of it all and the anticipation of it being over. this anticipation for it to be over means that I must get through the holidays faster to get it over quicker and we are supposed to enjoy the holidays.

The Waiting Game.

The Waiting Game.

All that pain of having people traipse in and out of my house for almost two years is just slightly more painful than the waiting game. Paperwork, lawyers and no guarantee makes life mildly less painful. The slow pack is much more inconvenient than the pack the whole house in three days.  Too much time to sort, to group, to catalog, to unclutter – when will it end?

Here is a few websites to help you through the pain.

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/moving-tips/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/homes/property/moving_packingtips.shtml

http://moving.about.com/od/packingtipsandtricks/tp/pop_packing_tip.htm

My preferred packing method is up and out in less than a week.  Of course the charity shops love it when I slow pack because I always squeeze in a bit more decluttering (than when I fast pack) along the way (although I could do a lot more – I have a lot of stuff). 

But this is not a straight move.  This is a move into temporary (very small) accommodations while continuing to work and look for a new house a few hundred miles north. It means there will be a lot of tiring weekends to look forward too.

Even more wearing on the nerves, is trying to keep out that which is, may or might be needed during our gypsy days (ahem I mean months) between homes.  It would be so much easier to just move from one house to another but as it is it is not going to happen. So, on we tread into a future that is as full of opportunities as I can stuff it.

 And I will survive this too.

 

 

 

MOOCS, MOOCS, MOOCS, Hurray for MOOCS!

 

Having lived in England for the past ten years my brain has been starved for learning. Oh I have been learning the culture and the new language but I mean real in class learning.  They have excellent education here but nothing affordable for the people interested in a class here or a class there. My job is mind numbingly boring which doesn’t help either.

What I discovered to fill this space is MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses and they are FREE! You can take them free or pay a nominal fee to receive the credits toward your degree if they are applicable to it.  Either way I am learning again and I can not express how delightful it is to be doing that again.

Here are just a few places to find Massive Open Online Courses - Free!

https://iversity.org/

https://www.futurelearn.com/

https://www.edx.org/

https://www.coursera.org/

 

I Survived!!!

Waking Up!

After having the house on the market for two years and twenty eight days it looks as if it has sold. Subject to contract (of course) so I thought I would get blogging again.

I am far from the neatest person and having to constantly Hidy-Tidy my clutter has made life a misery this last year (especially). It is not only the clutter but my eccentric decorations were constantly having to be put away. True they are things I love and/or have made but are really a little out in left field in general acquiescence – most being not for the faint of heart.

All I can say is … I SURVIVED!!! Although there will be some major turmoil in the next few months – moving everything into storage, moving into temporary accommodations, living out of suitcases for a while, leaving my job, packing for a few months in the states before we come back to look for another house – nothing can be as bad as the depressiveness (at least for me) of having strangers traipse in and out of your house.  Yuk!

It is nice now that things are moving forward. Hopefully as the weeks go by I can reminisce back on things from the last year, share what is happening now and ponder some dreams for the not too distant future as well as have a moan about the disturbing state of the world. (runn on sentences – gotta lov ‘em.

I will tell you my dream house is still under a bridge waiting for the goats (goat is great food)… ho hum … but I am afraid that will have to wait a while but until then a nice 3 bedroom semi would do and I will tell the locale in a later blog.

Hello New Year

Dear 2014,

   As this is a blog from a wanna-be living under a bridge type individual I see no reason to fluff up whats on my mind. My hiatus from posting has been part 'where do I start' to 'pure-laziness.'

   Water has been forefront in my mind lately and if you read some of the things happening from lack of rain to flooding to dying seas to killer tidal waves ... water in some way has been big news in the previous 12 months.

I will go out on a limb here and say it will be (and if it is not it should be) in the forefront this year too. Such a silly thing as water yet our very existence is dependant on it yet big businesses and even government bodies are purchasing water rights around the US and the world.

Those that control the water will control life. If you don't believe me Google or Bling 'Nestle water rights' or 'state water rights' as there are states in the US that are making it illegal to collect rain water in varying amounts without a permit.

Who owns the rain anyway?  Water is the new and growing commodity and it is frightening to think how far this could go. Do we really need so desperately to be controlled by big business and government?

The very thought of the possibilities is making feel like a conspiracy theorist with a twist of paranoia.

If you are looking for a good investment you might want to jump on the band wagon and find some water rights of your own to purchase. That might be a life giving inheritance to your kids someday.

All those mind bending water thoughts aside, I am so happy the New Year has arrived. At my age you would think I would be dreading the passing of the years, even a single year but I don't, as any chance to start fresh and do better is special.

I am no good at resolutions so I will make none here but I am making plans. I am taking that sage advice of learning from where I have been, enjoying (the best I can all things considered) where I am at and moving forward toward what is waiting ahead. May the fates take pity on me with all the moaning and groaning I do.

Peace and Love to all for the New Year
Me~

Moving On - A Golden Rule Revival - Of Sorts!

   Strange how we neglect to look inside for what is troubling us. The possible outside forces, which can cause mayhem in our thinking or habits, good or bad right or wrong, are there. We just need to look inside and see. We may not always find an answer to why, who or how, but often just swimming into the quagmire will help us disperse the sludge.

   I filled with sludge shortly after taking a leap of faith and sharing a selection of interesting personal articles I had hoped to publish.  Shortly after I had sent it and began the waiting-game I lost my ability to write in length. My thoughts of writing and stories floated about almost constantly but could not draw myself out to put finger to keys. It was painfully.
   This dilly dally crap went on for weeks and I am talking weeks. The editor I chose seemed to be knee deep in his own busy life and I was merely an afterthought … well that is how I felt. 
   Three, four and five weeks passed between communications and all those ‘oh I am enjoying the reading,' 'it is comical' (as it was meant to be) etc., said lots but his actions and lack of interest in working on it showed me his words were empty.
   The money I am paying did little to guarantee communication and forward movement in this endeavor and I am paying almost three times my hourly wage for this. When he did do something, he did it professionally but honestly you would think he was a spoilt top paid movie star.  Oh you know I am good so you will put up with it. Actually I am talking your word on that and it is #$%^&!
   Several weeks ago I threw my hands up and decided to start bugging – previously he would say next week and it would be three to five weeks. Nothing in between, no email saying sorry busy time or it is going to be delayed, nothing. If there are delays, people are much more understanding if you let them know than expecting them to just suck it all up when it is done. The situation has not improved but I have freed myself.
   Four months it took me to look inside me and realize that I had mistakenly prepared to put my life aside to work on this with him. As my mind tormented itself with waiting and the calling of my stories to give them attention and still I could seem to stop waiting.  My expectations were weekly or fortnightly were not daily - I am a reasonable person.

   When I finally cleared my toys from the pram, I felt desperate to get back what I felt I had lost. I started in on a YA, which needed its last couple chapters. Once I had finished rereading the first 25k words I sat and finished the ending in two days (5-6k). I have done some correcting and it is ready for a couple beta readers and their comments. I threw off my mental bindings and dove in.

   I would not leave all the fault with my editor in fact most of the fault shall be mine and the choices I made. I waited rather than pressed the issue. I trusted people to follow through with what they said they were going to do and give heed to our communications. I assumed! I made an ass out of him and me by not following through with the issues I was having. Not every choice we make is a good one but how often we allow one bad choice the time to reproduce more bad choices.

   When it comes to business where there is an exchange of funds for work, acquaintances or not, keep it business and keep the personal stuff out of it. Treat your customer as you would want to be treated as a customer.

Sounds so simple.
Sounds so stupidly simple.                  
It is still up in the air but I have moved it to a back burner.

From the Ashes ...

I know I have been away for a bit. Massive amounts of things going on but from the ashes of what has burned through these last few months there is a seed breaking open and life emerging.  All my rants about waste and recycling – well probably not enough of them – has propelled me to with several others create a group called UpcycleWild.  This brainchild has been on a slow emergence and is not all to my credit - rather the results of months of discussions on how best to move forward.

One lady creates the most wonder bags from old pants called Mim Bags. These are wild, funky, sometimes outlandish purses/handbags with fantastic utility.  Another shop will be recreating (aka Upcycling) retro furniture into funky new looks. I am currently sporting a bedroom set she did and I love it.  I have a slightly unusual item I Upcycle.  Bones, antlers skins, and more upcycled into into interesting pieces of art, curios and some more useful items. 

Our husbands love working with wood and is playing with ways to recycle pallets and old pieces of broken furniture into everything from useful pieces form model railroad layouts to Christmas decorations.  We girls will also have a range of unique clothing and accessories called B.U.G.s – Beautiful Upcycled Garments. This is the brainchild of our Jo but is so much fun we all cannot resist putting our hands and minds to the task. 

Although we will each have our own representative shops, most of what we do will be linked through our labor of and love for recycling old and unwanted into new and treasured.  Our most important rule is everything offered will be 70% or more recycled.  Things people have found useless or thrown away or sold on for pennies to the pound, as the saying goes.
 
All of this is still six months in the future and the future looks promising.