Christmas cake photos

Herding together some of the ingredients The mix, ready to go in the cake tin Making the top look pretty! The oven working its magic Fresh out of the oven, just waiting to be "fed" calvados

I forgot to say:

All credit (or at least the huge majority of it) goes to David this year; he's gone from recipient of my secret efforts, to willing aider-and-abetter (last year's incident of going to buy a new cake tin because the other one is 'lost in France' [rather than scrapping the idea of making a cake], and trying to find a dried fruit supplier even half as good as Julian Graves) to Head Cook and Bottle Washer.

[OK, no bottles were washed during the making of this cake, so perhaps not that, but you know what I mean!]

The post-surgery shoulder-crapness has lessened, but still persists enough that I couldn't cope with even the idea of mixing the cake, let alone the hours it actually took.  Actually I'm feeling hugely fortunate at the moment: my aunt has had her shoulder problems diagnosed as polymyalgia rheumatica, and she's on steroids...

And that's not the worst of it - she's currently in hospital, recovering from a blood clot and a minor heart attack, and the doctors are fairly sure that she had another minor heart attack about three weeks ago.  It makes me very unhappy to have to write that her visit to A&E, another visit to a local hospital and two visits to her doctor failed to notice that.  At least now she is receiving the care she should be.

So, here's wishing you a speedy recovery Click, and hoping all your ailments respond quickly to treatment!

Delicious Christmassy smells...

The cake has been in the oven for three and three-quarter hours, so I am in the final countdown of trying to determine whether it's cooked enough (or not) yet.  Because it's a fairly liquidy mix, I find it harder to check whether it's done.

On the upside, because it is very moist, I suspect it tolerates over-cooking better than most!

Search agent

We've been looking for a house (so far unfruitfully) for long enough that we've "given in"...

Last Friday we met with Claire and Paul and have signed up with them, finally sending all the bumf to them yesterday.  This morning I received an email from Claire saying they are starting the search for us today.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us that they will be successful on our behalf!

Surgery went fine

I'm recovering nicely from Friday, but one-handed typing is too slow/no kind of fun, so no more posting till I can comfortably use both hands...

Enjoy the weather!

Health (generally)

I've realised I've not had a great few months..

The problem with my wrist [pain, can't take any weight through it, can't dorsi-flex it fully] which is probably from the ganglion, which may have been caused by trying to prevent my face hitting the very sharp/hard insulation when one of those stupid-energy-saving-bulbs went out (as they so often do) before properly lighting up, and may be caused by that fall and there could be a touch of RSI?  And the twisting yank I gave it when we hired the shredder...  And the time I used my hand on the tank of the Gixxer to stop me slamming into David when he did an emergency stop...

And, and, and...

I'm sure you get the picture: wrist hurts and is non-flexible/non-weight-bearing.

Anyway, the problem with my wrist has (I think) exacerbated the problems with both of my shoulders trying to stay in plank (and downward dog, etc) and not putting any weight through my right wrist made my (already weak from an old injury) left shoulder hurt and then trying to protect that shoulder strained the other one [old frozen shoulder left that with slightly limited mobility and, and, and]...

And because I've been trying to get my fitness levels better, I've been "working through it", which I (now) suspect was the wrong thing to do.

What finally caused me to stop, though, was the ear infection.

I was a victim of the "you can't see your doctor for three weeks" thing that seems so popular now with GP surgeries, so after trying (and failing) for three days to get an emergency appointment I went to the hospital.

Yes, I felt very stupid being there.  Yes, I felt like a time waster.  Yes, I didn't want to be clogging up the nurse/doctor's time.  But, the doctor confirmed I had a middle ear infection and gave me antibiotics.

I was apologising to the nurse for being there when I shouldn't have been, and she said it was very common to see people who couldn't get a GP appointment, and they only had two other people in the waiting room, so not to worry about it!

Didn't stop me feeling like a bad person, but did ease up on the guilt somewhat.

I couldn't swim and had dizziness, so cut out the yoga/body balance/pilates as well.

Then I realised just quite how bad my shoulders had got!  The constant discomfort had really disrupted my sleep, which I think contributed to my getting the worst chest infection I've had in ages [which turned into a stinking cold that lasted over six weeks, and has further disrupted my sleep].  The previous time we were in France I couldn't do any more than lie on the sofa; and even that was beyond me for a couple of days.

The enforced rest started to help my shoulders feel better, and I've been seeing an acupuncturist, which has also helped.  I'm just doing light weights, and a lot of walking, so I am getting some exercise, just not as much as I want/like.

The antibiotics cleared up the ear infection, and the deafness has improved to the level that I can hear about half the volume in that ear, but the tinnitus is constant; I could do without that, but hope it will go, given time.

And, apart from the cold that started yesterday, I'm feeling much better!

I'm hopeful that the surgery will enable me to use my wrist properly, which will then ease my shoulders?

Only time will tell, but I'm going to be so careful with getting back into my classes, and my lovely assistant is going to be doing the bulk of the heavy work until Mr K. is happy with my wrist.

Sorry, David!

MRI scan #2

I had to go for another MRI scan last Wednesday.

Well, I actually had to go for the scan I was supposed to have in the first place!

I think I'm the piggy-in-the-middle in a power struggle between consultant and radiologist, but I'm keeping my head down on that.

Anyway, I was supposed to have an arthrogram followed by a scan, but the first time around the receptionist of the MRI unit called to say I only needed the MRI scan, no arthrogram.  My surgery was scheduled for last Friday, so I was a bit thrown to get a call on Monday scheduling me in for the Wednesday appointment.

That was my fault - we'd got back from France on the Sunday evening, but I didn't get around to listening to the answerphone until Monday evening; the surgery has been put back to this Friday and the Radiology Department had been trying to get hold of me.

The long and the short of it was Mr K. did want me to have the arthrogram, so I was back again last week.

This time I went to the X-ray department first to have gadolinium injected into my wrist.  I was fine with the needle in the wrist, fine with the x-ray dye in the wrist, and then not-so-fine when the Gadoteridol went in.

:-(

I felt like a wuss, and was back to normal within a minute, but because I'd come over all "wobbly" [felt as though I was going to black out, and had sweaty palms/tunnel vision], the poor nurse had to push me up the hill to the MRI building.

Wobbliness < 1 min; embarrassment > 5 min.

Having my should extended for nearly an hour [the machine was malfunctioning at first, so the radiographer restarted the scan, and then it was on a go-slow as it had had a busy day!] has upset the problem I've been having with that shoulder.  It's much better now, but I could do without that!

The scan was successful, so hopefully on Friday I'll be able to see the difference in the image [whether I'll know if it was worth having two scans, I'm more doubtful].

 I look like I've been "Tango-ed", but it came off pretty easily [if the wrist hadn't been tender, I could have scrubbed harder and it wouldn't have been any kind of challenge!].

I've still got a hard, tender lump just "north" of the ganglion, so I'm hoping that will have gone away by the time I have the operation; the bruising has gone - just in time for a new bruise from yesterday where the nurse took blood.

I was thinking "great, end of sharp things being stuck into me", but I'm pretty sure Mr K. is going to use sharp things on Friday.  I have to admit I'm not looking forward to it, but if I can have the nerve block (rather than a general anaesthetic) that would make it easier...

[I was very depressed after the last time I had a general, so am particularly keen to avoid that if at all possible.  I'd much rather be awake while someone is slicing into me!  I won't know until Friday morning which method they are going to use, so I get to fast/only sips of water from midnight just in case.  I'm fine with the fasting, but will miss my bucket of herbal Twinings!]

Now I just have to concentrate on not being nervous about the ganglion excision...

MRI scan

I had an MRI scan on my wrist yesterday, and it's left a bruise.

I kept feeling as though something was touching my wrist, and kept hoping it wasn't me fidgeting [and thus blurring the image] - but I can't have moved about enough to bruise myself.

OK, so it's not an impressive bruise [like the one last week I didn't photograph - I wrote a letter and had a really dark one on the side of my wrist], but it's exactly over where I have the ganglion so I'm feeling a bit weirded out.

I've taken a photo as I don't expect anyone to believe me!

House-hunting update 1

After over five weeks with no hot water [thanks, Helen, hope it happens to you sometime and whoever is in charge of fixing it shows the same sense of "urgency"] in the depths of winter, I can't wait till our house-hunting pays off!

OK, I've owned my own place before, and been without hot water before (and heating in the winter), but the difference is I haven't waited over a month before calling a heating engineer.  I've also raised a complaint with HomeServe because they promise within 24 hour response and were expecting me to wait three days and then pay for the emergency call-out that my cover provided for.  I didn't get the 24 hour response, but my boiler was fixed within 36 hours at no additional charge.

And being a landlord, I've bitten the bullet to pay for emergency call-out fees whereas for myself I could only afford to wait - it's what you do, isn't it?

Anyway, enough of that!


Will and Anita sold the flat at #31 just before Christmas - which was a bit of a shock - they'd been there just over three years, and we're still in "temporary" accommodation.  I think they did what I'd planned to do 24 years ago: buy a first home, trade up within a couple of years, and then buy somewhere bigger.

The difference is, the property market in Brixton is still thriving (it's having it's own little bubble, from what I read) whereas I bought at the peak in 1989 and the market promptly crashed and the flat reduced in value by nearly 30%.  Took ten years till it was valued at the level of the mortgage [and that meant nowhere near as much as I paid, as in those days the 95% or 110% mortgage hadn't been invented (how lucky was that for me?)].  In all the time I couldn't sell, I was still grateful as anything to be able to afford to live in such a lovely home, and (eventually) there was some equity, and that virtually paid for our house in France.

Diversion over.  The market in Kent is still depressed, and vendors still haven't got the memo!  We have seen some absolute dumps and about five properties that would pass the Ann Maurice test.  We visited one home that hasn't been decorated since the 1980's (remember Coloroll?) and in a falling market had magically increased in value price by 27%.  Bizarrely, that place is still for sale [after over a year], and may be joining some of the Zoopla offerings that haven't shifted in over four years, unless the vendors suddenly 'get real' (we've seen one that's been sitting there for since 2008).

I know not everyone wants to decorate before selling or cannot afford to make necessary changes, but that's why the market has two prices: lovely house = top dollar; crappy house = fixer-upper price. What we are seeing is a lot of crappy house = top dollar, and it just doesn't add up!

I don't mind people having all sorts of unrealistic expectations about their homes, but I do mind them wasting our time - offering something for sale at a totally unachievable price wastes everyone's time, but the difference is that estate agents choose to let vendors do that whereas we know there are buyers out there just looking for a right-priced house.  We (well, I) want a fixer-upper, but there's no way we are paying top whack for something that we couldn't sell in a hurry should we need to because we've overpaid by an enormous amount.

We saw one property that if we could have got it for (what even the agent admitted was) a reasonable price, we would be installed in our new home by now.  Sadly, the vendors overpaid three years ago and have spent £65k doing it up [where that money went, there's no visible evidence - we could see about £20,000 worth of work, if you pay the "Everest price" for windows (rather than getting the half-that deal from a smaller firm), but again décor from the 1980's gives the game away that nothing other than that has changed.  And now their asking price seems even more unlikely in the wake of the news that Chilmington Green is going to be the centre of an Ashford new town that will finish [for now, at least] a couple of hundred yards away from the house.

We're now regarding that house as a lucky escape.

I could tell stories like that all day.  We have seen a few places that have sold - a couple were priced exactly right, and in really nice condition, and another one that came down in price by £200,000 over the last two years!

What I would like to offer is some advice to vendors: if you can't afford to decorate, at least go an buy some cleaning products and USE them.

If you can't afford to hit Superdrug or Sainsbury's, sell one of your flat-screen TVs [they go for at least £20 on eBay], and get to a pound shop - bleach, cream cleaner, Flash-alike, scourer, and rubber gloves will set you back £5, and may net you tens of thousands of pounds.  At the very least it will dramatically increase your chances of a sale!

I know starving artists might live in conditions stinking of mold & dog p!ss [I remember a Lucian Freud exhibition that left me with that impression], but there's no need to try and sell a house in that condition unless it's a probate sale and you don't want much money for it.  I'm fully prepared to go in there myself with the rubber gloves [and would welcome a place that needs work], but we won't pay the price for a "done" house if there's a danger that the urine we can smell has rotted/penetrated all the floorboards and we'll have to replace the floor.  Some people, you get the feeling, live like that quite happily [we've seen three houses where the smell made me gag, so we know there are families like that out there], but make an effort, eh?

Oh, and artist [the only reason we know you are an artist is that the agent repeated it several time (as an excuse for the teenager-inspired colour schemes, we think?), so you must have emphasised it enough to them that it 'stuck'] at "April Cottage": air freshener doesn't mask the smell of canine incontinence - it only makes your reception room smell like a portaloo!  And throw out that "doggy" rug!

And while we're at it: why on earth would you build an extension to create a dining room and laundry room and a) only has access to the laundry from outside, and b) place the dining room facing the car park and have the laundry as the only room in the downstairs of the house with a view of the formal garden and the sea?  A tiny bit of thought could have had a dining room off a short hall (with a door to the laundry) from the kitchen and French windows onto the lovely knot garden [and the car park too, if you insist]?  To fix it now would involve moving the French windows, installing a new opening and knocking down and rebuilding the internal walls, so a massive expense that could have been avoided.  Where were your artistic sensitivities?

And why would you block up the old front door, so that the sunny terrace at the front of the house can only be accessed by going out and walking half way round the house, rather than being straight off the reception room?

OK, enough already!