Back at the chateau....

Monday 30 November 2015

0 degrees rising to pleasantly sunny

OH's ferry was cancelled last night due to appalling weather.  Roofs were being blown off in the north west of England and by the time he reached Birmingham, the rain was rocking the car.  Brittany Ferries kept on assuring me that there was no problem and the real time ferry information showed boats merrily criss crossing the Channel.  OH rang periodically during the day to say surely the boats weren't running.  I think he was hoping not to have another nightmare crossing.  I must dig out the diary entry I made for that day.  It was very eventful.

The alarm went off when it was pitch black this morning and I had been having a troubled time in my dreams, sorting out a huge ball of wool that had gotten itself into a terrible tangle. Discover that the NZ ladies have sent me an offer on a house in town - the one that reeks of dog pee.  It is dauntingly low.  I will have to wave the magic wand very hard to get this one to materialise.  How can I tell the owners that it is 70k under sale price when the sale price is 170k?  Why on earth do they want all the furniture thrown in?  It needs throwing onto the nearest skip.  Or burning.  Odour makes your eyes water.

It was back to the chateau again, this time with the Australian couple.  The lady had been to see it a while ago.  I think she was hoping that her husband wouldn't like it.  It does have truly terrifying amounts of work to do.  The big scary mushrooms had gone but there were big holes in the wood work where they had been dug out.  Unfortunately for her, he absolutely loved it.  They have a short list of four houses and will pick one and get things underway before he goes back to work in Madagascar.  He has been in the Urals for a year. That will be a bit of a culture shock.  Would love to go to Madagascar.  Imagine tropical forests and exotic birds and palm trees and sand and sparkling blue oceans with foaming white breakers.  And having a half a million euro renovation to supervise from the other side of the World.  Still think this chateau looks like Adams family residence.  Shudder convulsively.

Drive home like maniac in order to have enough time to let the dog out before going to afternoon appointment.  Dog takes the opportunity to run off whilst I am telling OH about my plan to be an estate agent in Ibiza.  He didn't seem as taken with the idea as I would have liked.  He will come around to it.  I have sorted out some Spanish Cd's and will become fluent in one year.  That will be my plan for 2016.  I am just 28 days off having written this blog for a whole year.  The postman tells me where the dog is and I just have time to go and find him, tell him he is bad (he doesn't care) and put him back in the house, before going to a completion.

The buyers are still in the far East and the seller has moved to Brittany so there is just me and the two notaries and they rattle through the sale in 25 minutes, we all sign and I go and insure the house and then back home.  Dog demands to go out.  My back is bad again.  I think I am allergic to that chateau.