Depression, or rather "Post Depression"

I've been down that awful "wormhole" of depression, but at the moment life is feeling possible.

I've been sorting out photos, and checking log-ins still work, so here I am: checking that I can still access Blogger.

I intend to get back to blogging, so let's hope that's not a "road to Hell" scenario!

How times change

According to Alice B Toklas in her Cook Book, a "little known French dish suitable for the American and British Kitchen" is Frogs' Legs à la Parisienne...

I can't imagine Jamie Oliver getting away with suggesting that now.

Nor two different ways of cooking oysters, and a brace of squab offerings.

But I suspect where I used to live in south London cookery classes would find more pupils interested if they tried a "recipe from friends" and made Brian Guysen's Haschich Fudge ("which anyone could whip up on a rainy day")?

Impeccable timing...

David, having left the Huge American Bank [HAB] and settled in nicely with the Dancing Bears, has told me that the subsidiary of HAB where he used to work ["Tarpaulin"] is being sold off/dismantled because off immense losses.  I wondered if it was because they made the profitable bits redundant [like the Ringmaster and his team] and kept on the much more expensive/loss-causing bits [metals, anyone?] that the new régime had recruited once they bought Tarpaulin from its previous owners.


I think that was part of the problem, but a major client going belly up leaving a monster debt hasn't helped.

And the losses don't sound as though they all 'legitimately' belong to the subsidiary, but the parent bank is now in profit, so it's all good?

As I say, impeccable timing.

At least it's made concerns about whether he did the right thing in jumping ship seem less pressing.  Now all we need is the Ringmaster to crack his whip and make some more deals.

Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy (and profitable) New Year!

BTMail [warning: major rant]

Or: "Why life has felt unduly stressful for the last couple of months".

[And not just through buying a house and trying to get it liveable!]

Some of the things that have been irritating:

• BT gave no warning that it was going to switch from BTYahoo! to BTMail; the last communication I had from them about the mail service was some time in the spring, asking if I wanted to switch to the new mail format.  I didn't; I hate transferring to new platforms [is that the right word?], especially when I'm pretty sure they're still going to be in Beta - and every other time BT has messed with the mail service, it's most definitely been still in Beta, so I don't think I was making an unfair assumption this time...  Leading on to:

Snippets

• I've stopped the carbamazepine, and remain pain free, and now my nausea and dizziness/confusion have gone, so life is way better!  I am so glad to be able to eat/drink citrus again; I really felt like I needed the boost in Vitamin C.  I know it only said to avoid grapefruit, but eating oranges & clementines gave me rampant nausea, so I was having to cut out all citrus fruit.
• I put the central heating on today.  It's only the second time this autumn [and today I've had it on since lunch], but it's making me really keen to get our woodburning stove organised and move into our English house!  I know loads of people have been using their heating since as early as August, but I haven't needed to use it as long as the weather was sunny.  I'm sitting in the little snug we set up last winter, because we could never get the sitting room even approaching warm, and an enclosed, smaller space that doesn't let all the heat escape upstairs is a brilliant idea.  May well have a "winter sitting room" upstairs when we do move?
• The lovely people at the Huge American Bank bought David a fire pit as a leaving present; it's a really thoughtful idea, and it would be marvellous if we could set it up to roast the chestnuts I've collected.  But we're keeping it in the box until we can move; looking forward to next year - just need to find some chestnuts locally!
• Manston Airport in Kent closed, and the residents are protesting to have it re-opened.  It just seems really odd, given all the complaints about Heathrow, that people want an airport?!  Logically, I totally understand: a huge housing development doesn't provide any employment opportunities and probably places a bigger burden on local roads than a small airport, and I have got used to aircraft noise quite quickly when I have lived near airports.  But it stills seems a rarity to campaign for runways.
• Metal vacuum flasks my be unbreakable, but they don't work!  We bought one when I dropped the old flash as we were moving house, but even heading from Maidstone to the Channel Tunnel we don't have very hot tea.  And coming from the house in France we're lucky to have tepid tea.  So I bought another glass-lined Thermos flask.  One day we forgot to bring the new one home from the house, so took our tea in the metal one; the tea in the (not full) glass flask from the day before was slightly warmer than the full metal flask that had been made about four hours earlier!  So when David dropped this one, the first thing we thought was "buy new Thermos" rather than "we have that metal flask".  Luckily, I found one in a charity shop!
• And finally... Quote [not once, but twice] from David: "what's our phone number?"  I almost understand being unable to recall our new postcode [it's a 3, not a 4] or his new work telephone number, but we've lived here since July 2011!

Small rant

Two problems I have with CPP:

1. They take money from me for Identity Protection, but of all the unsolicited mail I received, the majority of the companies said they had purchased the mailing list from...  Experian [who CPP use to monitor my details]!  I think it's pretty shabby to charge me for selling on my identity whilst "protecting" me from identity theft?
2. They monitor my credit report, and mail me to let me know any changes/searches to my credit file; so how come none of our three mortgage applications showed up?  Nor remortgaging the flats when we did that at the start of our house hunt?

I think the "service" is probably not worth anything, and should be cancelled?

Happy Hallowe'en!

Basking

All change

a.k.a. Start of a new era...

David today left the Huge American Bank for the final time.  On Monday he starts work for the Eastern Backed Dancing Bears [EBDB or "Dancing Bears"]; watch this space for shenanigans?

And we're hoping that soon we will be moving house.

Fingers crossed the future is as good as the past has been for us.

Meeting Tom

We met half of our landlords, yesterday...

The house we are renting was inherited by the children of the builder who did the conversion, and now the sister [whose name I have long since forgotten, sorry] wants her share of the value of the house.  Tom, the brother, would like to keep the house.  Knowing how I felt about my flat in Brixton after my dad died, I can totally understand that.  It's also a really nice property, and very convenient for both train lines and the town centre, and on a great road; if it were mine, I would try to hold on to it.  So he came along yesterday with his girlfriend, Amy, and an estate agent to get the place valued.  We are hoping that the agent points out how lucky they are to have tenants who treat the place so nicely!

We are keeping our fingers crossed that if he buys out his sister, or even if the place has to be sold, we have enough time to make "Brookside" habitable before we are served notice.  If he needs a mortgage, the odds could be in our favour?

Especially if he chooses HSBC.
Or even better: we get everything done and give notice ourselves.  That way Tom would either have vacant possession if he is moving in, or the place could be shown without needing to book appointments through me, and we wouldn't have to hire another storage unit.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!

Ten years of driving-to-garden...

Wednesday was the tenth anniversary of buying our house in France, and we are still driving to our garden; just at the moment, it's two gardens...

It will feel great when we're actually living right next to our outdoors space, but I'm not too worried - we manage to keep a garden 310 miles away a lot tidier than many people do when it's just the other side of their front door!

I would like to be able to get up on crisp autumn mornings and just hack away at brambles and leave David to sleep in, though.

Trompe l'oeil?

The Dancing Bears did their first trade!

Well, two actually.

Great news; long may it continue.  David referred to the Bear Garden as his real work, today, and the HAB has been relegated to just his 'old job'.  He seems really happy, and as long the Ringmaster can 'walk the walk', all will be great.  [We know he can 'talk the talk'!]

Good vibes.

I really like my new camera...

...BUT, I'm not convinced the low light shots are all that great, and boy is it memory hungry!

Still, it zooms really well, and the fast shutter mode is very entertaining; I watched in 'stop motion' the spider by the front door building a web - great fun.

Right, after all that, I'm going fishing!

HH24 - 12.09.14 - One last rant!

If I tried to insure a car, and told them it would cost me £15,000 to replace a 20-year-old Fiesta, the insurance company would likely tell me I'm 'having a laugh' and (maybe) provide a quote for £500, and that would be Third Party cover only.

If I wanted to know the replacement value before calling the insurers I could look up in Glass's Guide how much  the hypothetical Fiesta would be worth...

HH23 - finale! - 03.09.14 - Re-posting: Happy Birthday, Dad!

Well, it would be if you were still with us...

A bitter-sweet day (in some ways): I (still) miss my adored father, but we did splash out and buy ourselves the biggest present ever!  I'm sure he would be fantastically happy for us - I've finally become a second-time buyer after 20 years in the first-time home, and it's a house, too.  There's going to be more sadness, too, as he can't come and do the building work for me, but I think he would be pleased I've returned to the countryside and already feel "settled".

HH22 - 02.09.14 - Ready to complete...

Helle has received the mortgage money from Barclays and is happy with the (finally forthcoming) insurance, so we are all "good to go"...

So why haven't we 'done the deed' today?

HH21 - 29.08.14 - Helle has exchanged this afternoon...

In the space of writing a post saying "I hope we will exchange contracts this afternoon", Helle had done that very thing.

And from her car at the side of a road; most impressive!

HH20 - 29.08.14 - Still waiting on the corrected offer...

Apparently, it has been issued [although as no-one has yet seen it, and the "Follow Your Application" link we have been given doesn't let you look at any documents (why?)] - Ashley noticed the error on the 15th, and today is the 29th; it's all just adding to the stretched-out/stressed-out feeling of life at the moment...

HH19 - 21.08.14 - Health issues - Spoiler Alert: contains pictures of dental treatment!

I'm (pretty) sure most/all my health problems have been caused (directly or indirectly) by trying to feel less stressed/stuck by the whole (nearly two-and-a-half-year) house-hunting process...  And the stress of house-hunting [practically every weekend, with only a little 'time off for good behaviour'!] for as long as we did has to have had a knock-on effect on my health [stress has an inflammatory effect, so I'm hoping all will be well now]?

We've been mostly in England, so no stays in France for me and gardening/country walking for exercise - there are nine schools around us that all use the same bus stop, so I've felt desperately curtailed when I can walk from home; the pavements are dangerous, and I've been shoved into the path of cars more than a few times (as have much smaller schoolkids, which makes me mad).