Last couple of weeks of May

On the 12th of May we were privileged to attend Sally and her family and Lesley and her families citizenship ceremony. It was a lovely couple of hours, very informal and interesting.

The 13th was my first team meeting at work, it was interesting, and I think that’s that only way to describe it. 15th I had a haircut, first one for 12 months, well apart from when I have cut my fringe so I could see. The lovely Maria had to cut quite a chunk off it was in such bad condition, but she gave me a lovely shiny colour and a great cut, quite a lot shorter than it was. Friday night we went out with Eddy and Kerrie, we had Chinese first which was DELICIOUS, we will be taking everyone who comes to visit it is so nice, then a wander down Main Street to Brass Razu, Jason and Ed were on the red wine and Kerrie and I on the tea pots, full of Long island Iced Tea. Fab at the time, not so fab when I tried to stand up, bearing in mind the bottle of white I’d had at the Chinese.

We were somewhat annoyed on Friday, Thursday evening we had received an email from a good friend and neighbour from the UK, it was a lovely long email, with lots of updates from them and what they had been doing. Half way through Marie mentioned that it was good to see a sold sign on no 23! Now I know that there are no other houses for sale, I look at right move weekly to see any new or sold homes and where we are price wise. But I had to ask Jason what number our old house was, we were somewhat surprised that we had sold and knew nothing about it. We asked Andrew to go and have a look at the sign and sure enough it was sold. Jason spoke to the estate agent who said it was someone who wanted to change the sign and must have been studying it as the “for Sale” bit screws off and when you turn it over it says “sold”. So who ever changed it did so without being noticed and just happened to have a screwdriver in their pocket ...... hum wonder which vindictive nasty person that could be. We do have our own suspicions and what these people need to remember is what goes around, comes around!

I had such a hangover on Saturday, but it’s been a while since I was that drunk. During the day we were busy at open houses, ever here when a house is for sale it has an open house, usually on a weekend, where it is open for 30 minutes, the vendors are not about and you get to have a good look and any questions are directed to the Estate Agent.

We have decided that we are sick of renting and paying someone else’s mortgage, that we are not likely to sell our house anytime soon, even though some highly imaginative person seems fit to want to change our sale sign to sold, so we are going to buy ourselves a little house that we can call home. Then when we do sell we can decide to move again, or build. I would love to build a new house and it is something we are looking at, but as we are working towards a very tight budget until we sell, we don’t have that many options.

Saturday night, I cooked and took the food to Peppa and Owens, we had a lovely evening with them and were able to go through the pro’s and con’s of the houses we had seen.

Then it was back to work, I had an easy week with only 16.5 hours scheduled, I did an extra hour to cover someone’s cancellation, but that was OK. We have also booked our medicals for our visa and will be having those on the 18th June, better think about cutting down on the alcohol.

Friday we had been invited to Hayley and Pauls for takeaway curry from Mt Eliza, it was delicious as always, we had a good laugh with them, and weren’t late home, we always have fun with them and its nice and easy as they are within walking distance.

Saturday was a Spanish night at Peppa and Owen’s with another couple we haven’t met before Claire and Chris. I did the starter and we had chilli prawns, garlic mushrooms, chorizo in red wine and potatoes in spicy tomato sauce, olives and olive bread, Peppa then did a huge Paella which was lovely, but I am not that keen on all seafood’s, but had filled up on the starters, then onto chocolate mousse for dessert. Again we had a lovely night, it was just so easy and relaxing. We have agreed to do it again soon.

Friday 29th was boys poker night at ours, we had Justine, Kieran, Ryan and Mitchal, Julie and Mark, Audrey and Paul, Kerrie, Ed and Scarlett, Lesley, Paul and Charlie. I had taken inspiration from Peppa and decided to cook tapas, I just did ciabatta pizza for the kids and they were happy with that. Adults, we had chilli prawns, chorizo in red wine, los of potatoes in spicy tomato sauce, chilli olives, garlic mushrooms, lots of different breads and dips and Spanish chicken cooked with peppers and olives, it was all lovely even if I do say so myself, the plates were cleared in no time. After we had eaten the women got settled with wine while the blokes played poker. It was a good night, not too late, but good company and good food.

Saturday Mollie was at Poppy’s birthday party, so we had to drop her off, before setting off to view more houses, then back to pick her up, and home to make dessert before going to Lesley’s for a curry night, Lesley and Kerrie were doing curry and I was dessert. Again we had a lovely night, really relaxing and a good laugh.

And that’s it for May, this year is flying by, we are saving for our Medicals at the moment and of course to move when we see a house we want, over here you can complete within 30 days, so we need to be financially ready. June is the first day of winter, still not worn a coat yet, but I am sure that will come, its cooler but not that cold, well not as cold as the UK. We are still house hunting as we haven’t found anything as yet which quite fits what we want. We may need to compromise on what we really want, but that will come when we eventually sell, what I need to remember is that this is to put us on until we sell and if we buy properly will hopefully make us some money to go towards the next one. We have seen a couple we like, one the house was perfect inside, size wise and layout but it really was in the wrong location backing onto a busy road, we did wonder if we could get past that but we couldn’t. There was also a lovely federation style which was prefect in size and location, but it was 9 years old and in need of some work, we are watching that house and if it reduces in price then we may think about making an offer, but at the moment it is quite expensive for what it is.