I Quit

One of our customers has been going through an upgrade this week. They're one of the last to do so and as you might imagine we've ironed out most of the kinks and got pretty slick at it. Not with this joker we haven''t. We've had 5 days of whining which culminated in him dealing with the pressure he's under by attempting to push it my way. It didn't work. Tempted as I was to tell him his fortune, I simply hung up the phone and resigned. Huzzah! I'm free at last.

Boss man was remarkably cool and understood why I'd done it. Reluctant to see me just vanish, he's suggested I continue to do background development and support the bloke who's going to take over my role, to help him ease in to it. Having mulled this over, it seems like a plan, and more to the point, the little tw*t who wound me up isn't going to deprive me of another 3 months salary, so I think I'll go for that.

We had our first bank statement from Westpac - all the way from NZ. Surprisingly we've got $0.00. However I note that their online saver pays 3% interest if you have over $100,000 so when we have some money to transfer, it looks a reasonable place to put it.

We've exchanged contracts on the house, and will be complete on the 13th May.

We've also found out that the conservatory at our rented house leaks and that there is no key for the up/over garage door. This was a pain to say the least, because the back door of the garage has a really dicky lock and I managed to break the key off trying to lock it up. I was just about to bolt it from the inside and close the front, when something made me think to check that there was a key. Our new Landlord's reaction to all of this was to stick a bowl under the leak and "I've never had a key for the garage". So basically he's going to do SFA about it. Nice.

What Does "BT" Stand For?

Bandit Tw*ts, that's what. Although our new house has a phone line, it's not active. To activate it costs £122.50. Ouch. All they'd have to do is plug it in I expect, so this seems like banditry to me. Not only that, because we're not going to be there for 12 months, there's, going to be a £70 cancellation charge. What a rip off. So much for having been a loyal trouble free customer over the last 12 years.

I was going to get a VOIP phone for work and run that off the broadband, but as broadband itself is looking dodgy, then I guess work might have to pay for a business line. The other alternative is to try Orange Mobile broadband. They seem to be allowing a month's contract and a 10GB per month capacity for £24.47. The downside is it's Windoze or Mac, neither of which I really want to use. Just have to hope connection sharing works properly.

So Long, Daisy Duck

Following on from Hughie's demise, we thought we ought to ship Daisy out to the farm ASAP, if Foxy Loxy is on the prowl. I duly delivered her and she spent the day in the hen house with her remaining offspring who didn't seem overly pleased to see her, but then they're ducks, and a bit stoopid like that. In some ways it's good that Hughie didn't go to the farm, otherwise he'd have had to face some argy-bargy from this male offspring, which would most probably have been worse than any bitching poor old Daisy is getting.

House wise we have definitely managed to rent some where, at least the £5K I just parted with would suggest so. We will be getting £500 back assuming we don't destroy the place. The only downside to this renting lark is that we're now liable for council tax on two properties until we actually complete, but at least we can argue for a reduction because it's unoccupied until completion. The other pain is that the new place is band(it) E.

Having picked up the keys and signed the contract this lunchtime, we can now start getting stuff moved in. I also need to discover what the phone number is, so that I can order broadband well in advance, otherwise I'm going to feel like an arm has been severed.

RIP Hughie

We thought we heard something rustling in the undergrowth at the back of the garden, but put it down to a cat. It's more likely it was actually a fox. Hughie, our drake is missing from the garden. It's that time of year when foxes are having pups and get rather bold in the search for food, even coming out in broad daylight. Various attempts to locate him had failed miserably and it looks like the poor boy is fox dinner. Daisy duck doesn't seem to be too bothered, but it's a shame as he was a pretty inoffensive creature and one of the girls in particular was very fond of him and is devastated.

While out looking, we encountered three families walking down our street. Not one of them spoke English. This seems to be an increasingly common occurrence in this neck of the woods, which can't but have a detrimental effect on the education the kids receive. Nothing to do with the kids themselves, but with finite resources available schools simply can't do as much for the indigenous population when they have to teach half the class to speak the local lingo. It is one of the reasons we want to get out of the UK. This recent report merely reminds us that our decision to leave although a wrench, is the right thing long term.

Housing wise it seems we've actually managed to find somewhere to live for the next four months. Our first house fell through because someone else got in there with another agent an hour before us. This place will do - although it's smaller than ours and on a busy main road. Annoyingly it's a band E property which will be a nasty shock since our place is currently D. I'd never realised what a rip it is getting a rented property. Not only is the rent a total rip off, but you get lumbered with a deposit (only fair I suppose), a "reference fee" per person, a "guarantor fee" per person, "deposit protection fee", an ouchy "tenancy administration fee" and not forgetting the £200 "credit check"! FFS. . All of these are naturally excluding VAT. Add to that the requirement to have the carpets steam cleaned when you leave (by their approved contractor at vast expense, naturally) whether they need it or not just goes to show what an absolute rip it really is. However, as we're in the position of being able to pay cash up front, we are actually able to cut a deal which bypasses most if not all of these. We almost feel sorry for all those Polish folks now, having to deal with all this banditry.

I've also maybe found a home for the Benelli. This is a fine handling but hopelessly underpowered 350cc Italian motorcycle that I've owned for 25 years. I'm only getting peanuts for it, but at least there's a chance that the guy who's taking it on will manage to do something with it eventually and it's not going to get scrapped. While talking to him, he mentioned the Real Classic web site, where I've placed an ad for the FZ. Not sure whether anyone will bite, but we never know and I've convinced myself that I can always Freecycle it as it's not worth much, especially as it insists on running on two cylinders - no it's not ignition related - 1+3 are not firing and a duff coil would result in 2+3 or 1+4 . It's carburettor related - those two were filthy when cleaned out.

Unplugged

Ooh 'eck. It appears I've gone and landed myself a gig! A local cafe is holding a Spanish evening and wants someone to play in the background. Having tried to offload this task onto someone else I've been rather unsuccessful, so I'm having a stab at it, in conjunction with one of the club's younger members, a very talented lad who will go a long way if he learns to stop being quite so "witty". This is all set to happen at the end of June, so plenty of time to expand the repertoire and polish up some of the pieces I've not played for a while. I'm sure panic will set in closer to the time.

On the house front, we had a visit from our buyers yesterday complete with their parents. They're still keen as anything on moving in as quickly as possible. We've had the contract back from the solicitor, and have duly signed it and returned it whence it came. The green light appears to be on.

We've also found a home for the ducks. A local organic farm where we rehomed the duck's progeny to has agreed to take them. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually going to miss them. They're remarkably cute and inoffensive without being soft and cuddly, although that doesn't stop the girls petting them incessantly.

Shiny New Visas

We received our passports back in the post and the nice blue sticker is rather pretty. We wasted no time showing it off to those we're leaving behind. Naughty, but there you go.

We went up to London on Saturday to visit the place in the sun expo - bit of a waste of time - there wasn't really much that was of interest to us would-be Kiwis, as it was mostly about buying time shares in Turkey or Spain. We spoke to the ASB bank, but we' reprobably going to go with Westpac. Also arranged for PSS to give us a quote for moving, along with Anglo Pacific. Getting to the expo was a challenge, since some tw*t had dropped something on the railway line so they had to turn the power off to remove it and the train we were on ended up being cancelled at Gatwick. It took 4 hours to get to Victoria. Having done the expo, we wandered off into the Ideal Home Exhibition (free entry from the expo) - not really my cup of tea, but while we were there. The upstairs bit was selling all sorts of stuff - we picked up some really nice Supreme Sausages. It was nice to be without the kids for a day, but good to get home.