Bored of...

I got bored of being spiderman.

In fact, I am bored of lots of things...

I am bored of being tired. I am exceptionally tired at the moment - stress over house-buying, lack of sleep, not enough vegetables.

I am also getting bored of house-buying now. It is just taking forever. However, I suspect we might suddenly have a conveyancing explosion and find ourselves living in a new house one day. It's just a case of waiting for lots of bits of paper from lots of people.

That's it really. Not too much excitement.

Apart from realising my best friend is leaving the country FOREVER (well, 3 years) in two weeks rather than the... um... few months it's been in my head for the past few months. I'm really pleased that she is going to do something really exciting that she wants to do. I just wish she was doing it in the same country as me. Sob sob.

Guess I'll get sued to it...

I Am Spiderman!

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Superman 65% Supergirl 62% Wonder Woman 62% Iron Man 55% Robin 52% Batman 50% The Flash 35% Green Lantern 35% Hulk 30% Catwoman 10%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

She shoots! She scores! Or something...

I have been playing netball. Not as cheerfully as these people, I have to admit.




I did want to play football again but I haven't really managed to find a team and some people at work play netball so I've joined it.

It does seem to be more fun fifteen years on. But I can tell you, it's not football. Or cricket, for that matter.

1. It's a non-contact sport. Really. If you just bump into the person who has the ball, someone blows a whistle at you. This is bad. It wasn't my fault she fell over...

2. Everyone has their own little bit of the pitch to play in. No all chasing after the ball.

3. When someone has the ball, you have to be 3' away from them. Seriously. Or someone blows a whistle at you.

4. The minute you have the ball, you can't move the first foot that touches the ground. If you do, guess what? Someone blows a whistle at you.

5. People don't shout for the ball. Or talk to each other. At all. So I'm running round shouting "behind you! behind you! Pass it back". Everyone else is doing little hand-signals and mind-communication.

I think I'll get the hang of it one day. Maybe.


I can also tell you that the vendors have accepted our lower offer and we're getting some house reports done, so it looks like we might just be buying a house. Maybe, just maybe...

TRAUMA!!!!!!!

(For those of you thinking 'when will she shut up? Everyone buys a house, it's not such a big deal', it's probably best to look away now - and come back in about 6 months)

The survey said that there was some bulging and cracking of the masonry due to old settlement of the building and thermal or moisture problems, which is not considered to be significant. Apparently a lot of insurance companies do consider this to be significant. Which means we get driected to the 'special risk' departments. One insurance company also said we're in a 'moderate subsidence' area. This could mean higher premiums, expensive work to do and difficulty selling in the future.

The surveyor also said that the rear wall had been rebuilt in cavity brick. My dad said that you don't just rebuild a wall in cavity brick for the sake of cavity brick, so it seems a bit suspicious. My parents think that we should walk away, as we don't have any money to chuck at a house.

I think I love the house.

I feel traumatised.

Decisions, decisions and... more decisions!

We got our survey back yesterday. It made me feel quite anxious - a big list of urgent things and things which could cause problems and things which we should get investigated further... I am repeatedly assured by most people that surveyors have to tell you everything that could possibly go wrong, to avoid us suing their ass later. I don't find this helpful - I'd rather know what is a real issue and what I should worry about, and what is just pretty normal.

The main issue (apart from the whole house needing repointing and the absolute necessity of a building contractor taking up all the floorboard. Apparently) is that the valuation of the house is about £6000 less than our offer. I assume the mortgage company will only lend us the valuation. So either the vendor will have to accept the lower offer, or we'll have to find a new house and they'll have to find a new buyer. I can't imagine they'll be that keen to go through all the viewings and offer stage again, especially as the next surveyor will presumably say the same thing.

As long as I'm right, it means we'll save money on our mortgage...

Decisions, decisions

This house-buying malarkey seems to require a lot of decision-making. And I mean beyond "how much can we afford?" and "shall we buy this house?".

Choosing a solicitor was frightening enough. Then the solicitor asked us to decide whether we wanted to own the house completely jointly or own a specific share. Not too tricky as our relationship is fairly straightforward - no children from previous marriages or different amounts of capital.

And now we have to think about mortgage protection - should we pay a reasonably large amount of money for peace of mind, or face being evicted on the off-chance that something terrible happens?

This whole business seems to be about looking for the worst possible situation and assuming it could happen.

Cheerful, eh?

Skyelanders

We went to the Isle of Skye to visit my in-laws, who run Luib House bed and breakfast. Apart from taking 10 hours to get to (and a small 'crying in a car park' incident because I got a bit tired to drive) it's lovely. Look at the view!



We went to the beach:



And saw beach sea-life!


And there's a forest too!


But we're glad to be home...

And getting excited about house-buying - this week we've instructed the surveyor to go and check out our house!