Knit Your Square To Give Your Share 2009!

redhead_mum

mrs-moneypenny wrote: »

i think what it is really is that weve become so obsessed with knitting we aren't actually doing anything else around the house and just concentrating on this because we all enjoy it so much:rotfl: .

I'm seriously considering applying for World Heritage Status for my cobwebs - hey, it must be more hygienic to have spiders than flies. Does anyone remember the old film version of Great Expectations, with Miss Haversham surrounded by, if not totally draped in, cobwebs? - well, that's the look I'm going for. Limited time, knitting versus dusting? - no contest!

mioliere

S-Michaels - good to see you on the quiz. Don't worry about the score. We all have different questions so yours may have been harder than some of the others. Mommabear is the best one on there - she gets loads of 10s and is really really fast! Keep trying - I enjoy the challenge whether I score well or not!

Well, Wooligans - it looks like I may be moving to France shortly but possibly only temporarily, and it won't affect this thread, except there may be a couple of weeks disruption while we actually move. My DH is finding it almost impossible to get work; we have a house in France that we have been - very slowly - doing up when time and funds allow. It's all paid for so we are moving into it to finish the work on it, then we shall sell it (it's a huge house and way too big for us, but was a bargain when we bought it), and then we'll decide whether to stay there or come back home. My DH has been offered work there and, back here, the prospects are pretty bleak for him at the moment. I can carry on with my own freelance writing work wherever I am so it doesn't affect me workwise. I don't really want to to go because I will miss the family badly but we will be back in August when my new grandchild is born. I want to come back home when we've sorted things out in France, anyway, and DH says he's happy to let me decide where we eventually end up, so I really am looking at this move as temporary. We have some land out there to sell, too, and there has already been some interest in it. We were lucky that the house came with loads of land - we sold a plot off a year or so ago, and now have two more to sell without compromising on the size of the garden. Our local mayor there is more than happy to encourage new building in his domain, because it's very rural and he wants businesses to invest there. Our eventual plan is to buy a house here and a holiday home in France, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we've got our finances right. We bought the house in France for a very low price and, with the land that came with it, we should be able to achieve enough money. DH has been talking about moving over there for some time to get our overheads down - we sold our last house to buy the house in France and have been renting privately ever since, so it makes sense to move into a house that's paid for. The recession here will do us a favour by making it easier to buy when we return, but I hate thinking that way when the downturn in house prices is affecting so many people badly. My DS2 is now in negative equity but they are not planning to move for a few years, and hope to be able to ride it out until things pick up here.

Anyway, that's the situation at the moment. We are making arrangements now and will probably move within the next two months. There's loads to do but one of the most important things for me is to sort the internet out asap! I see no reason why my being in France should make any difference to this thread; after all, we have Chalky in Spain and Roamin in the Gloamin in France and it's as though they are here anyway! I love this thread and would hate to jeopardise it in any way, so you can rest assured that it will be as though I never left the country!

This was a harder decision for me to make than DH, but he has to be able to work and he's tried very, very hard here and I can see how frustrated he is when he gets nowhere. I have said I will look for full-time work outside the home, but he has great faith in my writing and wants me to carry on with that! I'm very lucky that he puts no pressure on me to earn the money I could possibly earn with a 'proper' job. I can still be OS in France, in fact more so, because the financial pressure won't be so great out there. The cost of living is so much lower - for instance, our 'rates' work out at £400 a year and that includes the TV licence!

Anyway, guys, sorry for the long post - it feels strange to have said all this; it's made it more real, somehow.

Wooligans forever, wherever we all may be!

KathyXX

s_michaels

You will be missed (in the short period of moving over) But we look forward to hearing all about it.

Sometimes we have to do things we don't like or want to do to secure a better future for ourselves.

I hope it all works out for you xx

redhead_mum

......wherever we all may be! Gosh, Kathy, that's a big decision you've had to make, but it's often a relief once something's decided, isn't it, so I really hope that's the case for you and your DH and that everything works out fine - I'm so glad that you'll be back to welcome your new grandbaby.
Of course, you can't fool us, we all know that really you're just trying to evade the employment tribunal re. Maytaurus' terrible working arrangements! Now who was it volunteered to be Maytaurus' union rep?
Seriously, I'll be thinking of you as you make all the arrangements - I'm sure it'll be a very busy time, so hope it all goes as smoothly as possible - make sure you pack your woolly stuff at the top! and at least you can still wield knitting needles on ferries, can't you?
All the best,
Ginny

mioliere

Thanks for all your good wishes, S-Michaels and Redheadmum - I feel a bit stunned at the moment but the decision's been made (unless we win the Lotto, of course!). No doubt, Maytaurus will get Interpol after me so I won't escape the employment tribunal. I'm thinking that maybe I could buy her silence by offering her the sort of pension that we are hearing about in the news at the moment!

Anyway, I am still here now, and I expect the disruption (horrid though it will be at the time) to be short-lived. I shall still be updating until the very last minute and, once the kettle has been unpacked in the French house, the computer will be the next thing to set up! I shall make sure I have a new internet connection ready to go as soon as we unlock the door there!

I'm going to calm down now with some wool and a crochet hook!

KathyXX

s_michaels

Mioliere - By the time you've moved and settled I might have finished my first square hehe

SGT

Mioliere - Good luck in the move.
Don't fall into my trap of trying to declutter all the wool so that you don't have to pack it, it doesn't work, I've been trying to pack since January for my move to Spain!!!! I think I need to actually book the ferry, that will then force me to get things sorted instead of thinking never mind I'll do it tomorrow.
Happy packing :j

shezmit

Good on you Kathy, You have all my love and i hope everything goes well i know it will,

Oh no i just thought my teddies will have to travel across the sea they might get sea sick:rotfl:

dpixie

kathy - very important question ... where abouts in france.

we are hoping to move (we too have a house there that needs finishing) when my husbands current contract is finished. i am hoping that i will find some work that i can transfer, but at the moment things are still in the planning stage.

dpixie

mioliere

Hi DPixie - we will be in S W France, department 79 on the map. The region is called Deux-Sevres and the nearest town is Parthenay, five minutes drive from our house. The nearest airport is Poitiers. Where is your house? If it's nearby, my DH is a buildings renovator (an excellent one!), so maybe he could help you with your house! I wouldn't have taken on the house we bought if I didn't think he could do it! It's sort of half done already, and has a good kitchen and bathroom, which we have put in over the last couple of years. We also had to have a new fosse septique installed; my DH loves to tell people that he dug a hole in the garden and threw £7,000 into it!

Anyway, please tell me where your house is - hope it's not too far. I know Roamin in the Gloamin is in Brittany - a bit too far if we started a knitting group in France! She'll have to move closer!! Then I could show her how to use her knitting machine!

KathyXX