Tag Archives: solicitor

Grrrr . . .

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Garden Flowers

I ordered a microwave today. We have been  without one for quite a while but first we couldn’t agree on what we wanted and then we decided we may as well wait until we moved. Then I went ahead and ordered the one I wanted. Julia didn’t see why I wanted a combi with microwave, grill and oven. I know why I want one – they are useful and convenient and avoid heating up an oven that is too large. She forgets there are only two of us now. She wanted an air fryer. They are probably OK, but they are possibly the new bread maker. You may all use these things regularly, but we don’t. I don’t remember the last time we used the bread maker. However, as the new microwave can air fry we now have something for everyone. If it works well, I will be a hero. If it doesn’t . . .

Do you know how difficult it is to get things delivered? They all advertise free delivery, but what they don’t tell you is that if you want anything other than a long wait and a very imprecise date (they won’t always even tell you an exact day) you have to pay. I am paying £9.99 to have the microwave delivered. That’s £5.99 to have it on a certain day, and £4 extra to specify an afternoon delivery. I could leave it to chance, but it’s easier to put some shape in the day. I won’t know when the Dunelm delivery is coming until the day before, but at least I know roughly when the other delivery is arriving.

Garden Flowers

I’m still lurking round the Dunelm website waiting for them to open the window that allows me to order something for Thursday delivery, when I can order the ottoman/footstools. Is the plural of ottoman ottomans or ottomen? It’s a tricky plural. Maybe I should just order one.

Meanwhile, I tried to order a new freezer. I can have one this week, but Wednesday, Friday or Saturday. Neither day is much use as I have things to do and want everything on Thursday.

Meanwhile the solicitor emailed. She has had the money and asks if I am happy with completion on Thursday. Why would I be? The whole mad rush has been to get it done before the Budget on Wednesday, as the new tax rules are likely to add an extra cost to the transaction.  The solicitor, when my sister pointed this out, said that she hadn’t realised this was the intention. I’m seriously concerned that we have used a lawyer with a very poor grasp of current affairs. At least if we can get the sale completed the worrying bit is done. Fingers crossed.

I’m hoping the rest will be easy.

Yellow flowers in need of identification

 

Serenity Lost

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Sunset over Basford, Nottingham

We had a good afternoon yesterday, eating chocolate brownies in our new kitchen and chatting with my sister as I looked out of the window and watched a red kite overhead. I’m still amazed by this. They were almost extinct in Wales when I was a kid, and non-existent in England and Scotland. We also saw magpies. They are less amazing – you never saw them in the eastern counties when I was a kid, but there were plenty in Lancashire when we went north to see family. The same was true of buzzards. Over the last twenty or thirty years both species have managed to spread into parts of the UK where you never used to see them.

In some ways, this is good to see. They are both interesting species and the expansion of the buzzard suggests that nature is restoring itself after the insecticide problems of the 1960s. On the other hand, the magpies are one of the factors in the reduction in garden bird species. Having said that, there are a lot of other reasons for the problems with garden birds, including garden chemicals and viruses. Cats have been blamed too, but we always had plenty of garden birds despite having two cats.

Sunset over Sherwood

It used to be nice to go north. First the magpies would start, then possibly a buzzard, and finally, as we got onto the moors, they cry of the curlew.  Now magpies and buzzards are commonplace, there is no longer any excitement about seeing them, and there is real sadness that the curlew is hardly ever heard these days. Kites, on the other hand, having been reintroduced in parts of Yorkshire, are very common on part of the journey.

Unfortunately, the mood didn’t last. Today I had an email from the solicitor. I had emailed them a few days ago to give them a gentle nudge and was not impressed by the contents of their reply. They now require sight of certified copies of two documents relating the the deaths of my parents. They must have seen these several times already in the work they have done for us (but then they still needed to see ID for me despite having seen it on numerous occasions over the last few years. They had not, at any time, asked to see these documents when we started the transfer, so I’m not sure why they have suddenly become necessary. They also want to see copies of my bank statements. But they have already seen copies of my bank statements, and didn’t query them at the time.

Strange how a feeling of serene well-being can be so abruptly and completely brought to nothing by something as simple as a few words and an injection of high-priced inefficiency.

Sunset over Screveton