Forms, Floors & Fifties

This week Ann-Marie is driving round with a big grin ‘cos she’s back in a 2CV. Yes, the blue one – “Blue” - passed his MOT like a good little soldier, now she’s just got to get used to not having power steering or servo brakes again!

Dave’s attention has been transfered to the Kon-tiki; the horrible old brown shag-pile has bitten the dust (lots of dust!) and we’ve got some lovely new lino to fit instead. There’s a new awning on the side, and the bed over the cab now lifts up and stows for travelling, which means we can leave it made up and it gives us a lot more headroom.

The postie lady brought a wad of forms from our solicitors for us (ie. Ann-Marie) to fill in. There is an endless string of questions about what we are leaving in the house. Who the heck takes window handles with them?

At the weekend we went to Dave’s cousin’s 50th birthday party. It was in Exeter and due to us chatting and not paying proper attention we went the pretty way, the very pretty way! We got back this afternoon in record time after a four and a half blast up the motorway. We’re looking forward to a time when we can take a week to get from one part of the country to the other without touching a motorway. It was a fantasic party, and despite us thinning out early we had a great night. We love being part of such a brilliant family.

Of course being lightweights meant that this moning we were up and wide awake long before the people who went to bed at six, so we went for a walk around the Canal Baisin at the end of the Exeter Ship Canal. Exeter flourished through the woollen trade and the wharfs and warehouses round the baisin were the centre of commerce at one time. There was a lot of activity there this morning too, It was a beautiful sunny morning wtith spring flowers out all over the place. People were rowing, running, cycling and walking dogs every where we looked. Roll on Summer!

Happy Birthday for Wednesday Linda

It's cheaper by the yard.

As you can imagine life has got a trifle hectic since Wednesday, the couple that our buying our house are cash buyers and want to move in under 8 weeks so the pressure is on.

We’d planned a yard sale for Easter Sunday so it was handy that there was a 2CV Easter rally at a pub just a few miles away, not only could we have a great weekend camping with friends but they also came along and rummaged through the garage thinning it out considerably.

On Saturday we popped home from the camp, Dave and a couple of mates spent the day clearing the garage and spreading stuff out on tables while Ann-Marie went dancing in Downham Market with Pig Dyke Molly.

Home again on Sunday, feeling like yo-yo’s, we laid out all the household stuff that won’t fit on the boat. Our neighbours joined in too so it was like a mini car boot sale with a steady trickle of punters from 9 till 4. We were really pleased with the amount we sold, including most of the furniture in the house (looks like we’ll be sleeping on airbeds in a couple of weeks then!). Thank you to everyone who helped, we could never have done it without you, and thank you to everyone who came along and bought all our stuff, we had a great day and we hope you did too. If anyone has any photos could you please let us know, we were a bit busy! There are still enough tools and household items to do a car boot or two, anything left over will go to charity shops or jumble sales.

The people that are buying our house are just the sort of people we want to sell it to. We’ve loved our time here, building our world within this little community, and we get the feeling that they’ll fit in and be happy here too. They get it. They can see the effort that has gone into creating what we have here; the workshop, veg beds, fruit beds, ponds and gardens, and we know that they’ll carry on using it as we intended it to be used.

Would we have sold it to people we didn’t like? We’d like to think not, but there is a clause in every estate agent contract that says the seller can’t refuse a reasonable offer. Thankfully they’re lovely and we don’t have to answer the question.

A lot of things got added to our lists this week, and only a few got ticked off. To be honest we have no idea where we are and we really need to start a new list. Our heads are spinning. Everything from mail redirection to the logistics of getting the stuff that we’re keeping to the people that are keeping it for us, to deciding which way we’re going to stay connected. It’s a bit like juggling custard.

Right, we must get on.

April the first - I kid you not.

This is all getting rather spooky.

We said we'd probably put the house on the market some time around Valentine's Day 2010, and like clockwork, that's what happened. Since then, despite really trying not to have a plan, we've often found ourselves musing about possible scenarios. The most hopeful ones begin with "If we sell by the end of March....", and end "...but of course that's never going to happen."

You guessed it. Yesterday we accepted an offer.

What was that whooshing noise? That, Dear Reader, was the point of no return.

Dave and Ann-Marie are now desperately trying to avoid eye contact in an effort to cut down on all the inane giggling.

Postcard from Cyprus

Dear All, hello from sunny Cyprus!

Right now we are sitting in Chloe's living room, It's about 19 degrees outside, the chillietst day of the week!
This week's diary: Sunday - really good flight, pilot did a stand-up turn then caught up 20 minutes flying time. Booked into hotel at Lemesos then had a fantastic pizza 'cos we'd missed dinner.

Monday - Walked along the prom at Lemesos, saw an octopus swimming under the jetty, went to Pissouri and went swimming in the sea (well one of us did!) Got sunburt then lost the plot in Carrefore before going back to the hotel for dinner.

Tuesday - Went to the Germasogeia dam, which is a nature reserve and very peaceful, then up the Troodos Mountain. We found a 9km nature trail that we thought was within our capabilities. It was - just - but then we found it was another 3km down the road back to the car park. We slept well that night.

Wednesday - Had a terrific morning at Governor's Beach - lots of little sandy coves, crystal clear water, big underwater rocks covered in feathery seaweed. We swam and snorkled, even though the water isn't really warm enough yet. Went back for a dip in the hotel pool, then out to Akrotiri for a meal with Chloe. Mezze. Yum!

Thursday - Drove along the coast road to pafos, then over to Polis and had a look at the "Baths of Aphrodite" which is a cave with a rock pool in front of it. Then we took our hired Renault Clio off-roading across the penninsula and back down to the turtle egg-laying beach at Lara. We had an ice-cream and watched the sun set in Pafos before heading back.

Friday - A day of ancient culture. Went to the sanctuay of Aphrodite at Kouklia, then to Petra Tou Romiou, which is Aphrodite's birth place, then lastly to the Temple of Apollo Ylatis before heading to Kourion beach.

We met Chloe at the Blue Beach Cafe, which is about a dozen steps from the sea and serves the best seafood salad ever!

This afternoon we've had a tour of the base with Chloe and tomorrow we plan to visit the Turkish occupied part of the island. We'll tell you all about that next time.

Wish you were here, love D&AMx

Sun & Daughter

You may or may not have noticed but we have settled into a routine of blogging on Sunday nights, this week we’re writing on Saturday because tomorrow we’ll be in Cyprus! We are going to see Chloe, Dave’s eldest daughter, for her birthday. She ‘Passed Out’ from RAF basic training just over a year ago and her first posting was Akrotiri in Cyprus. At the moment it’s about 10 degrees and raining outside so we’re looking forward to a spot of sunshine in the Med. No doubt there will be the odd photo or two next week.

As for things at home, Dave is still busy getting the 2CV on the road and Ann-Marie’s week has been spent packing and getting ready for the holiday. We have left the keys with the estate agents in the hope that the recent sunshine may entice a viewing while we’re away.

The Matiz was sold on E-bay, however, for one reason or another we are going to have to relist it, this time with ‘Spares or Repair’ and ‘Lincolnshire’ translated into as many different languages as possible.

We’re at Ann-Marie’s parents this evening as it’s just a short hop to Gatwick in the morning. We’re looking forward to going out for a family meal later, the perfect start to any holiday. It’s been great to see Digs and Bailey again too, they are really happy and settled now and they have been out and come back in on their own without getting lost.

As for lists – who cares, we’re on holiday!

Happy Mother’s Day Mum.

The people who came to view last week decided the garden’s the wrong shape for what they want to do with it, but the feedback from the estate agent was that they liked the house and there’s nothing we need to change.

We’ve both been busier at work now that spring is here. Dave brings in cut flowers from Holland; Mother’s Day makes this their busiest week, 17 trailers a night as opposed to the usual 5. As for Ann-Marie, the new lettuce season is getting underway; the field teams have started planting so she is busy helping to get the new payroll system up and running.

On the payroll subject, our numbers finally came up on the Freshlinc pay lottery; Dave got his 36 hours that have been missing since Christmas, yippee! However ...

As part of our seemingly endless vehicle saga, Dave returned to the Kontiki to find a lump of wood sticking out of the wheel arch, attached to the tyre by a 2” nail. A trip to the tyre place on the way home means it’s all patched up but his pocket money took a hit, another ten quid into the black hole, easy come easy go.

A friend of ours joined the over 50’s club on Tuesday, to celebrate she had a ceilidh on Saturday night with performances from her singing group and the dance sides that she and Ann-Marie are both members of: Slapdash Appalachian and Bourne Borderers. It was a brilliant evening, and involved 4 costume changes for some, one of which was for a special dance done in wellies and raincoats – fab!

We had friends stay over Saturday night; they are in the process of buying a house so we had lots to chat about and had a fairly lazy Sunday morning. In the afternoon we made up for it by clearing out the kitchen cupboards, how many bun trays does one girl need? There’s now a whole stack of stuff in the caravan waiting for the garage sale at Easter.

This week’s numbers: Added to lists = 1, ticked off = 3, definately winning.

Spring Sticking? Ring Recovery!

Sometimes we just don’t seem to get the timing right, we waved goodbye to Frankie’s Panda on Sunday and on Monday night the Matiz died. Again. Ann-Marie spent a rather chilly couple of hours in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere waiting to be recovered. How’s this for a small world; the very, very nice man who picked her up used to go racing with the guy we bought our house off and once sold a 2CV to Dave!

Anyway, that left us with just one working car so Dave is using the Kontiki for the time being. It very nearly got to meltdown point on Wednesday when the Kontiki gear linkage unlinked but, being Dave, he went mad with a welder and managed to get it fixed in time.

So, the Matiz is on e-bay and Dave is busy in the workshop getting the 2CV back on the road. In a way it’s forced our hand, all the cars have to go sooner or later.

We had our first viewing on Friday, some people came, viewed and went, it was all a bit of an anti-climax really. Now we know what to expect, we probably won’t be running around like headless chickens before the next one.

It’s been a gorgeous week, bright sunny spring days that make you feel alive. The crocuses have joined the snowdrops and aconites in bloom and the daffodils aren’t too far behind. We made the most of it by getting out in the garden as much as we could this weekend.

A big part of our life we haven’t mentioned so far is morris dancing. Ann-Marie dances with Pig Dyke Molly and Bourne Borderers, two very diverse traditional English dance sides, Molly originating in the Fens and Border in the English counties bordering Wales. Both sides practice on a weekday evening when Dave’s at work so at events he normally takes on the role of baggage handler rather than dancer. On Saturday afternoon we had a Bourne Borderers workshop, an opportunity for Dave to join in and whack things with a big stick. We had a brilliant time, followed by good company in the pub afterwards.

2 or 3 years ago Ann-Marie lost Dave’s Mum’s ruby ring while weeding the veg beds, despite searching for it and digging the beds over every year since, it was never found. Today, whilst digging them over for what is probably the last time, she found it! We are truely blessed.

It all got a bit silly with the lists this week but we think the figures are as follows:  Added to list = 3, ticked off list = 4, statistically we're winning, it just doesn't feel like it.