Viewing, Reducing and a Cheese-related incident

The Leaning Tower of Boxa

So we went to see this one-bed flat in a great location - minutes from Sainsbury's, 20 minutes' walk to work, not too far to childminder's - and was disappointed. (Despite it being an optimistic blue sky day!).

There was so much promise in the pics, but it had a weird L shaped hallway so the whole place didn't flow so much as judder around tight corners. It did have a good vibe about it, but whoever lived there had tidied themselves away so well I couldn't get a sense of how he enjoyed living there, something that is quite important to me1. I would also go with a different estate agent if I was the owner. For example, as soon as we stepped through the door, she shut it behind us... and shut out all the light, leaving us in darkness while she tried to find the light switch. It was not a good start. Then when I asked about the owners, she didn't know who lived there! She had nothing persuasive to say about the place, had no history to hand, nothing to even begin to convince us even a little bit that this was a good apartment. Tut, tut. I expect much more from someone who is being paid to show (sell) my house. So we will not be making an offer on it.

No more tape shelves & Elvira *Sniff*

As for our own preparations for sale, well, the kitchen slowly being stripped back and we are finding nooks and crannies that shouldn't be there. Bits and pieces are being packed away: today all my recipe books -- bar a handful I use most often -- FBB's collection of lighters, and various misc. We've reduced our eight jars of change to one giant Marmite2 jar and one piggy bank, and did several loads of laundry. Things are moving, albeit through Marmite.

On the baby front, FBB swooped on a bargain bit of dolcelatte from Tesco and we've been yumming it up... until Plate woke up with bright red splotches all over her body the next day. Could it be the delicious blue cheese? Oh no! We just had to find out. She had some more at lunch and by 2pm the splotches had spread up her neck, over one cheek, and down her legs3. No more dolcelatte for baby! Too bad - she was really enjoying it too.

I find myself being amazed at how quickly she's developing: she now tells me when she wants to go to bed, is very confident going up the stairs, is now very good at letting me know when she does/doesn't want something, and is gaining speed with the walking. I expect she will be ready for shoes in about a month4. The great thing is watching her sense of humour developing - she started with teasing us with objects, holding it out then taking it back, now she plays peek-a-boo with us, hide & seek (well, I hide, she "finds") and she thinks biting is hilarious. Go figure.

Anyway, it's not quite two minutes to midnight, but mummy needs to get some shut eye before Plate wakes up at 3.30am. No, I don't know why either.

1. When we first walked into our house, we both felt an immediate sense of warmth, of welcome. And as we meandered through the house, even though it had been stripped down and re-painted, there were still traces of a happy life spent here. Of course, all of it was gut feel - and scientists have recently shown that we do have a second brain in there, so to all you sceptics - please imagine two fingers being merrily flicked your way. More about the second brain here http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-second-brain
(yes, yes, I am oversimplifying but I call it creative licence!)


2.http://www.presentsformen.co.uk/giant-marmite-jar-money-box-prod8365/?src=base&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products



3. She's really been in the wars these last few days: along with the red splotches, her left eye swelled up as well which was a mystery. We didn't remember her falling over and hitting herself there. Did she hit herself on her cot? She does thrash about a lot. Hmm. FBB: Did she roll off our mattress into the radiator? Me (indignantly): I don't think so! Since she would have screamed blue murder and I would have heard! But after we cut her off from the cheese, the swelling went down. Aha! It was a cheese-related black eye. You heard it here first!


4. Which Grandfolk will be pleased to fund! Yay!