And so the spending begins

Been a day of sorting out stuff for the flat purchase today. Who to get to do the conveyancing? The cheapest (who are in The Wirral and I know nothing about)? The closest (so I can go down and shout at them if it takes too long)? The one who's been recommended (who is a bit on the pricey side)? Well, I went for a bit of a compromise. I went for one who is nearby to the property, been recommended by the estate agent and isn't TOO pricey although not the cheapest either. I'm hoping that the additional £200 or thereabouts gets me a fast and efficient service: hahaha. We are talking about solicitors here, after all...

Oh and I totally forgot about the additional costs on the mortgage - arrangement fee and of course the survey (going for a Homebuyer's) so that's another £660 pounds to find from, oh, I don't know, somewhere. Brilliant. I have to hold true to the thought that it will be worth it in the end.

Then I called the bank and had a heart-stopping moment as they discovered that the last quote I had (the one where I asked them to lend me a laughingly large amount of money and they, to my amazement, said yes) had not been 'put on the system'. This meant they had to go back to the person who decides about whether to lend laughingly large amounts of money to poor midwives and make the decision all over again. After answering a series of increasingly personal questions, they decided that I COULD have the laughingly large amount of money after all, which was very very nice of them indeed, thank you. Phew.

So, large amounts of additional cash to find notwithstanding, it looks like it's all go on the flat front, which is great news.

Birthday wise, I did very well again this year, so thanks to all my friends and family who chose so well. For example, I got a new stethoscope from my sister Toni, which I've been using today and is jolly nice indeed:


Yes! You ARE alive!

From David I got the most gorgeous bracelet (about which I'd dropped some unsubtle hints, like "that's really nice, that would make an ideal birthday present") and a fantastic canvas print from Habitat that I've had my eye on for ages, which will look really lovely on the wall of my new flat I reckon. On the day, we visited St Paul's Cathedral - fantastic, if you've never been, make the effort and go right to the top where it looks like this:


Londinium: 2005

Then we went to the Tate Modern, followed by a lovely meal on the Southbank, where a passing saxophonist was bribed by David to play Happy Birthday to me. Aaahhh.

Breaking news...

It's my birthday today! And, even more excitingly, I just spoke to the estate agent who told me that my offer on the flat has officially been accepted!

I'm moving back home...

Yippee!

I think I've got it...

I'm - very tentatively - celebrating this weekend as it looks like my offer's been accepted on the flat. Should know for definite on Monday as the people I'm buying from are looking at couple of places but the estate agent says it looks - very cautiously - as though we're full steam ahead. So I would like to take this opportunity to invite you - very hesitantly - to have dinner at mine whenever you fancy it... [looks to the sky and asks that nothing bad happens, particularly seeing as it's my birthday on Monday and it can't go wrong, just can't, wouldn't be fair, I love this flat so much, please please let it be mine]

YAY! I can hear the start of the thunder and I LOVE thunderstorms, particularly when the weather is hot and sticky.

I love the Japanese.

Nice/nasty continuum

Twiglets are great. They really are, I can't eat enough of them at the moment. Oven baked too, so don't feel too bad about it.

Have a nasty habit of bursting into tears at the moment, quite without warning. Happens to me in the car rather a lot, particularly when songs on the radio remind me of my current situation, and, embarrassingly, today it happened at a conference, where I nigh on drenched my trousers during one of the lectures. Thanks goes out to those friends seated next to me who discreetly passed me tissues.

The weather is LOVELY. I love hot weather, so shut up everyone who insists on moaning about how 'sticky' it is. For Christ's sake, we only get a hot day once every 10,000 years in England so when we do, stop your bloomin' moaning. As far as I'm concerned, there is no bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.

Had my first offer on the flat rejected, as I suspected I would, so have upped it slightly and am waiting to hear back. Can't really afford to go any higher so hope they'll see sense and let me have the flat which is, by rights, mine already I reckon.

Small child turns 18 and scary stuff happens

Afro Ben hits 18

Spent the weekend in Yorkshire as it was my nephew Benj's 18th birthday. 18?!?!?! My God, I remember him as a tiny tiny baby...oh well, that's not exactly true as he was nearly 10lbs at birth so in fact he was huge even then. Anyway, we had a nice meal at my sister Jenny's house in order to celebrate his coming-of-age. He's learning to drive and I made him drive me to my sister's house, which was surprisingly unscary.

Tudor and I met up on Monday and I'm very sad to say we've decided to go ahead with divorce proceedings. Can't really think of anything else to say about it, you can probably imagine what I'm feeling about it all.

Slightly nervous about even typing this, as it all seems a bit unreal and grown up, but in the name of 'moving on', I've just put an offer on a flat that I saw a while back and absolutely loved. I thought it would have long gone, but apparently they had a buyer which fell through so it's back on the market and I didn't want to let it go again. It's in Weybridge/Walton borders and in excellent decorative order which is good, because if I get it I won't have enough money to do anything with it! In fact, even getting a bed or a fridge or something to sit on will probably be impossible at first, but I reckon it's worth it. I'll just camp for the first few months...! I know what you're thinking - it's a bit far for work isn't it? - but I certainly can't afford anything in London and it's really not that far. I'm not often travelling in the rush hour so I can do the journey to work in about 30/40 mins if the road is clear, not much further than getting to Battersea! And I have a bit of an urge to go home, with all that's happened. So now we just wait to see if they accept my offer, which is a bit below the asking price and if not...well I'm not sure what I'll do. So fingers crossed for me please. If I get it, I'll invite you for a housewarming do. You might just have to come one at a time though, as it's only lickle...

Good luck to my sister Jen, who after SIX long years is doing her final exam today which will complete her law degree. Trying to do a degree at the same time as working, being a single mum and moving - not only to a new house but from the Surrey to Yorkshire - must have been damn tough and I haven't envied her a bit! But Jen: it's nearly all over...

I know I've sent you here before but go on, humour me, have another look, it really is my favourite website. Obviously if you have an objection to laughing at foreigners...well, then you won't be my friend.

Problems with my comments

I've recently been having a strange problem with my comments server. For some reason I can't fathom, I can't open the comments box from my home laptop. I emailed those nice people at enetation (who run the comments server) to see if they could help and received an email response from a nice bloke called Jonathan (Hi Jonathan!) who, in addition to trying to sort out my comments problem, has also been advising me on the best way to get over a broken relationship. Bless him. Alcohol and action/comedy films are the way to go apparently...

Work-wise things are going well, I've got a new partner called Emma - who was very nearly poached from us by the private midwifery scheme at work until we all kicked up a fuss and Emma chose to stay with us (hurrah!) - and on Friday morning two of my women had lovely waterbirths within a few hours of each other. Sadly I missed the second one due to being asleep after my all-nighter with the first woman (don't worry, my colleague Mel was there instead!), but it's nice to keep my stats in exemplary order...

I must go and remove the box of Fudge's Cheese Straws from beside me, before I eat them all. Probably too late actually, there are only four left. To be honest, I do prefer the Chedder Wafers, and only yesterday found out how gorgeous the Stilton Wafers are too. I can't recommend them highly enough, so if you have yet to discover these delightful crumbly cheesy treats then off you go to Waitrose/Sainsbury's this very afternoon to rectify this... Mmm mmm mmmmmmmmm...............