Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

ZTD wrote: »

Though had you done so, this flat would have been a decent hedge. Different location, different county. Only thing they share is the western banking system.

You probably are in the black market rate of Venezuelan Bol!vars...

All good points, Z though seriously, a terraced house would've been better. They were on for £20k at the time, my brother drove me round, as he knows Liverpool so well (and I, in spite of the remnants of my accent, don't ). Look at this one, even now: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47478297.html and its right by the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth :j

beanielou wrote: »

Hope the shoulder is on the mend soon.

Thanks beanie - its just the physical work of using the saw on the big branches and pulling weeds up

themadvix wrote: »

The wild variation between asking price and actual price seems crazy KC! No wonder it's hard to estimate! Best not to think about the exchange rate....

French incomes in the provinces are much lower than ours - in the north of France, for example, a new teacher earns around E12,000, thats all. Add that in to the distortion caused by Brits with lots of money, the encouragement of tourists by all sorts of tax advantages (which is what I used, lets be fair!) its weird.

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Karmacat

So, today ... my Wilko order should finally be here, its the last day they quoted for delivery (never, never again will I have an ordinary rate delivery from Wilko - four days!!!!). So once again, I have to stay near the front of the house in case they knock the door and run away, as delivery drivers may do ...

I'll be carrying on weeding the front border, I think, it made quite a difference yesterday. Cleaning/disinfecting in the porch and the front windows is also a good idea. And admin. Lots of admin.

And its so sunny :j there's a little plant stall in a local town that I can get to via a direct train, they'll have little pots of herbs - I definitely want useful plants in the front, as well as seedlings from the seeds I just bought :j

Sunshine :j

[Deleted User]

Sorry I haven't been around for a while:o but I've just had a massive catch-up on all my favourite diaries:j.

It's great to see all the energy and positive vibes from your recent and current activites, KC:T. It's so good to see you well again and able to do all that you want to:beer:

Karmacat wrote: »

.... they'll have little pots of herbs - I definitely want useful plants in the front, as well as seedlings from the seeds I just bought :j

Sunshine :j

I agree with that!:T. A friend of ours used to plant all his runner beans in wigwam-style arrangements in one of his front flower beds every year. The profusion of red flowers over several months was a sight to behold:j. It was certainly 'different';). He said cars used to slow down as they went past:rotfl:.

Karmacat

Hi CBC - you sound pretty chirpy yourself thank you for your good wishes

I never thought of beans in the front! I might mix that up with the mint/sorrel etc that I was thinking of, it would be nice to get some height back in there.

I'm been puttering away at reinstalling a very old flatbed scanner of mine - for when I have the laptop downstairs, or even to take up to Merseyside; though we have a printer/scanner in the house, it takes a long time. Amazed I found the lead, quite frankly! And this thing is taking as long, but re-thinking things has got me realising I could use my old laptop, up there, and not cart my own all over the country, I don't think its done it much good

Things are a bit slow this morning compared to yesterday. I looked at mywaitrose (a new Waitrose will be my closest supermarket!!!) I want to decide on the my picks thing, its 20% off after all, and even Waitrose becomes comparable on some basic stuff at that discount.

ZTD

Karmacat wrote: »

All good points, Z though seriously, a terraced house would've been better. They were on for £20k at the time, my brother drove me round, as he knows Liverpool so well (and I, in spite of the remnants of my accent, don't ). Look at this one, even now: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47478297.html and its right by the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth :j

And when would you sell?

earthgirl

How did you come about owning the french place? Forgive me if you have explained before, very poor memory. It does seem a lot of work?

Karmacat

ZTD wrote: »

And when would you sell?

When I've owned it long enough that I'd no longer have to repay the VAT - I bought it VAT free, but you have to own it for a certain length of time (about 20 years, I think ... I don't want to bring myself down again by looking at the papers, to be honest :o:o).

earthgirl wrote: »

How did you come about owning the french place? Forgive me if you have explained before, very poor memory. It does seem a lot of work?

Thats okay! I did very well from my self employment for a long time, and my closest friends were all doing well too, and they bought second properties to rent out. I wanted to do it too, but I wanted to be a "silent partner" type person - I didn't have a car, had no intention then of getting one, so I wanted someone else to do the management. And although I've said I should have bought a Liverpool terrace, Liverpool then was still in a hangover from the riots, whole streets were about to be knocked down. The French apartment promised 4% p.a. (which ignored expenses, only I didn't realise that :o:o) and I'm still paying for that lack of thought and foresight now.

When the mortgage is paid off in September next year, it may finally break even on a month to month basis, but it will never make me a profit. Maybe I *should* be more upfront - its a cautionary tale about the perils of not doing your homework, the disaster trails after you for a long, looong time.

Nuff said. My own responsibility.

Karmacat

The old flatbed scanner isn't as precise as modern scanners when it comes to photos - they only take up part of the screen, which is no good to me nowadays, it can only do documents properly. Giving it house room is a no-no, so its off to recycling.

I was so hyper yesterday for the Wilko delivery I exhausted myself I knew it had be that day, the last of the four. The delivery man, poor guy, was **running** back and forth with my gardening purchases, and he was only parked 20 feet from the gate I'm not happy to see somebody having to run with 100 litres of garden compost on their shoulders

Today: pick and mix of gardening, tidying, and cleaning. Oh, and blogging. Luxurious, no? :rotfl: Only three more days to go, then priorities will change :j:j:j

themadvix

I had no idea that incomes could be so low in parts of France... that's quite shocking! A good cautionary tale though KC, thanks for sharing a bit more about it.

Glad your Wilkos order arrived, but that's not good that the delivery man had to run

Enjoy your jobs today!

edinburgher

I wouldn't worry about the delivery man, those guys are made of stronger stuff. One of the most amazing things I have seen was a young brute of a guy *sprint* up the stairs of a close with a king size bed frame on his shoulder. Once he'd put it in the flat, I could barely drag it along the carpeted hall by myself! :eek: