Tete en l’Air’s Feet On The Ground Diary

Dinah93

Stumbled on this this morning Tete. Know its not really relevant right now, but flights for under £700 mean you can go on holiday there a lot more realistically. x

poddle911

Bonjour Tete, how was your weekend?

The most interesting thing about the people we saw this weekend was that they are planning to move to Oz and they applied for their visas last year. Apparently there is a backlog of 140,000 applications and they won't get a decision any time soon and he's one of their 'in demand' professions.

Is your OH in demand over there? If not, or even if so, it doesn't sound like emigrating would be such a rush decision!

Tete_en_l'Air

Hi Dinah and Poddle, long time no update, has been absolutely manic at work and not looking like getting any better til at least July! That's good news about the flights Dinah, it's definitely worth us keeping an eye out next year to try and get in a fortnight in Queensland. Interesting about the backlog Poddle, I thought that they had so many 'places' available each year, and once they hit that number that's it til next year - no waiting lists or backlogs, you just have to apply again and it's first come, first served... Maybe have to look into it again. I wonder how long your 'place' stays open once you have it, so if we apply now, maybe we could defer emigrating for a year? Must read that 'Living in Oz' book I got in the giveaway on here!

Yesterday was a horrible day. It started off so well, OH had seen a villa in a lovely Spanish village which was really good value (not cheap, but good value) which we were looking at for next Friday, and two lovely cottages had come up in the village we love, both with gardens etc etc. I had this little daydream fantasy that we'd go off and have this amazing holiday in our own private villa with its private pool, barbecues every night, driving to nearby towns and villages ... and come home tanned and relaxed and move into our little love nest a week later

Two phonecalls later and it turns out that although the car hire is 'included in the price' of the villa, the insurance is not, and would be an extra £200 - making it about £650 each for a one week holiday, which is just too much. And the landlords of the cottages (two different people) wouldn't even consider us because of the cats. The letting agent said that one of them practically put the phone down on her! They won't even consider children! Can you believe that? On the one hand as my friend says, would you really want to live in someone's house who is that anal, but on the other I really thought this was our time and we'd get one of these properties.

I was so upset last night, I just feel like it never happens for us - just on this site people like Wendz and Flower decide they're going to move and within weeks they've found a place they love, negotiated the price down and moved in! And it just won't happen for me, I was having bit of a 'not fair' fit, and getting annoyed because I find myself bending over backwards all the time to help people in my job and life in general but never seem to get any of the good karma back - just more people wanting stuff! But it's no good thinking like that, as OH says it breeds itself and you just end up depressed and bitter.

I've got a half day today and we're off to Northampton this afternoon. The hotel has a pool and sauna so I'm going to take my cossie and make the most of that. OH has his interview in the mornign so we should be done by about 11. I asked on the UK board what there is to do in northampton and people who live there basically said it's carp so not sure what we're going to do with the day. I'm thinking possibly Lincoln as it's about halfway between here and there, but I'm not sure what's there.

Also need to have a look for a holiday. We only have one week that we can both have (week after next) so we're looking for something cheap and cheerful within about two hours from either Necastle or Leeds. I've lost faith in the 'last-minute deal' myth though - they're all so expensive!

On the plus side, I've lost 4lbs according to the scales this morning! But yesterday they only said 1lb so that's what we'll go with!

Sorry big long moan, I feel like that's all I do lately. I just wish we could get settled I'm sick of waiting

Flower08

Tete - Sorry to hear that your feeling so down in the dumps and things aren't going to plan! I hope you dont feel like im rubbing it in with the house situation at the minute - you will find something when you least expect it. I was starting to lose hope, we had the same problem with the cat, no one wanted to know - despite the fact she is house trained and pretty much just sleeps most of the day.

Have you got other people keeping an eye out for you? The reason I say this is because the house we have now wasnt even advertised on the net, it was a friend who had heard about it and let us know - we probably never would have found it if they hadn't told us!

If it makes you feel any better, our bed is being delivered today and we have been given a 12 hour time slot of when it 'could' arrive - wheres the rolly eyed smilie when you need it!!!

Cant really give any advice with the whole booking holiday thing, I have never booked a last minute holiday, but there is a possibility that we may be changing our plans and trying to get something last minute this summer - I hope you manage to find something! I thought there were supposed to be lots of dirt cheap bargains around!!

Dinah93

Try the teletext website for last minute holidays, I always found them to be cheapest.

If you're now only planning to stay a year before emmigrating surely there is some more wiggle room from your OH in terms of the type of property you move toand you can start looking at things he previously discounted for being too new. Moving somewhere for a year is a lot different to 5 years after all.

Tete_en_l'Air

No not at all Flower, I'm pleased for you I just wish it would happen for us I never know what answers to give when they're asking about cats - is it better to say they're indoor cats (ie, have a litter tray inside, more opportunity to wee on the floors etc) or outdoor ones (where they might use the garden - and the neighbours' gardens - as a toilet and might train mud/dead animals in the house)?? They're 7 years old so that has to be a good thing, and they're cats rather than dogs, surely dogs are more destructive? It just makes you laugh that they'll discount two professional people who'll really look after the places on the grounds that we have pets, but they would happily get someone in like one of my good friends who doesn't smoke or have children or pets, but who will break something every day of her life for the rest of her life, spills red wine over everything, burns holes in kitchen tops etc. Sigh.

Yeah I looked at Teletext and they do seem to have some bargains but I've seen on here that the price unexplicably shoots up between you seeing it on the internet and ringing the number!

Flower08

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

No not at all Flower, I'm pleased for you I just wish it would happen for us I never know what answers to give when they're asking about cats - is it better to say they're indoor cats (ie, have a litter tray inside, more opportunity to wee on the floors etc) or outdoor ones (where they might use the garden - and the neighbours' gardens - as a toilet and might train mud/dead animals in the house)??

There doesnt seem to be a right answer there - but hopefully you will find a landlord who doesnt really care either way! When we asked ours he just said 'yep no problem, as long as she doesnt wee on the floor' - no questions asked.
The thing we found to be a problem is people asking how old ours is, as soon as we say 12 people would think that was old and automatically assume her bladder would just give way whenever, wherever :rotfl:

Cinny91

Tete_en_l'Air wrote: »

I'm thinking possibly Lincoln as it's about halfway between here and there, but I'm not sure what's there.

*puts on tour guide hat* Lincoln is AMAZING! I'd say park in the Castle Car park if you can, it's right at the top of Steep Hill - which is my favourite park of Lincoln! - and most likely the most Touristy part. There's the castle which is fab, you walk around the walls which are worth the entery fee alone - amazing views of Lincoln and the country side. You get to go inside the little towers on the walls too, one was a dungeon with loads of scribbles on the walls so quite spooky, one that I'm sure was used for Astronomy and the prison graveyard. There's a Victorian Prision inside the grounds too, which they did up and have little 'ghosts' randomly pop up and tell you there little story which is fun, but also completely scary when you're not ready for it so you scream a little and get laughed at by tourists.. Then there's the Cathedral that was used in the DaVinci Code, and only about a 5 minute walk from the Castle. Steep Hill is great in itself though, lots of little cafes and shops selling handmade stuff, or little boutiques. And a whole lot of second hand shops, there is one amazing second hand bookshop that I can't remember the name of.. but they have everything. Even books on Mary Pickford! If you walk straight down Steep Hill you're straight into the rest of the City, there are a couple other Museums and the shops! .. I'll shush now, if you have any questions though, I'll try my best to help out!

Sorry to hear you're feeling so blue though Tete I know the feeling of constantly being kind of pushed down and seeming like nothing ever goes right, and it's hard to keep the happy side up but things will get better. I'm going to sound like a card now, but at some point they will. So just focus on that!

Tete_en_l'Air

Flower08 wrote: »

The thing we found to be a problem is people asking how old ours is, as soon as we say 12 people would think that was old and automatically assume her bladder would just give way whenever, wherever :rotfl:

I was thinking that, I actually think my cats are at a 'good' sounding age - not kittens but not old and incontinent! That said my beloved Tinker lived to 17 and even after he had a stroke () he still didn't wee all over!

Ah thanks Cinny! That's really useful, it sounds like a lovely York-esque place, it's about halfway home so I think I'm going to petition to go there! So the main things to see are the Castle and Cathedral, then Steep Hill for tea and cake and shopping? Sounds a lot better than boring old Northampton! :T

Birdie85

Ditto Tour Guide Cinny! I went to Lincoln a few times with the evil ex and it's lovely. Steep Hill is fab but tiring, it really is very steep! The castle is a good one too!

Sorry the house hunting is still falling flat, I think that things happen for a reason and the right place is yet to pop up, when it does you'll know why you had to wait so long!

On a happier note, have you seen this month's Glamour magazine? They're giving away free Benefit pencils, a choice of 3. Eye Bright, It Stick and Bad Gal Eye Liner! I had to go all over town but I managed to get all 3! I needed a new Eye Bright and wanted to try the liner anyway so £6 for 3 instead of £14 each is all good!