Upping Sticks

[Nungali]

Ha! I watched 'Global Village' last night ; the barnacle gatherers of Galicia ; they have this long handled chisel thing and ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and you thought rock fishing was dangerous !

[GrandmasterP]

I'll stick with the chicken.

Much easier to 'catch'.

Never eaten a barnacle, I expect you'd need a lot of them per serving to make a meal.

 

Edited August 18, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Nungali]

Seems crazy ... doing this :

 

 

 

 

to be able to eat this ... blerk!

 

 

[GrandmasterP]

Yep, you'd need to be pretty hungry.

Chips ( fries) do the trick for me.

No climbing necessary.

Edited August 19, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[GrandmasterP]

Finally got my retirement date confirmation from work.

19th September.

FREE

free I tells ya!

We're moving on or just before 30th.

Living amongst packing cases right now.

It seems ages since we started out towards 'Upping Sticks' but looking back it was only June 8th when we decided so really we've done pretty well time-wise so far.

Edited September 3, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Apech]

Congrats.

[silent thunder]

Outstanding!

[Nungali]

[GrandmasterP]

Hey ho.

Last day today at work as I have seven days leave to take prior to my official end date on 19th September.

Pretty good haul of cards and goodies with more to come.

Managed to hornswoggle a union colleague into being pro tem rep until branch elections can be held.

There's a seat that tends to be uncontested and I suspect my hornswoggled colleague may well find that he has the rep's job for life.

I await a summons to Buckingham Palace for enoblement ( or at very least my long service British Empire Medal).

Still no news of a moving date though so we continue to live surrounded by packing cases.

Edited September 10, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Apech]

Hope your pets are ok with the move. Just took my cat to the vets. She's feeling a bit sorry for herself. The vets were very nice but the only thing I can't get my head round is that they look far too young to have fought in Vietnam.

[Nungali]

I just learnt a new word (never heard that one before) ... our union reps down here can have a tough reputation too. I hope your hornswoggle colleague can do as a good a job as you did (that move at 1;20 should silence any complaints about transition of office).

 

Edited September 10, 2014 by Nungali

[GrandmasterP]

Hope your pets are ok with the move. Just took my cat to the vets. She's feeling a bit sorry for herself. The vets were very nice but the only thing I can't get my head round is that they look far too young to have fought in Vietnam.

 

Calpol 6+ ( made for kids) seems to cure just about anything that ails our dogs.

2 to 3 mls before bed time and they're good to go.

Vet recommended it.

Only thing is when buying it ( in UK) you must not tell the chemist it's for a dog or they're not allowed to sell it to you.

[GrandmasterP]

So this morning the Postie delivers a fat envelope from our solicitors.

First page has '2nd letter' handwritten above the ( three paragraphs) text and tells us...

" You're moving on October 6th."

Next page, another letter says ( after five paragraphs...)

" You're moving on October 7th."

Off I pop to the solicitors office which is in the nearby village to us ( being retired rocks!).

Solicitor's lass tells me.. " well 'they' want the sixth."

I come back...

" Well they told us the seventh and we've booked the removal guys for then."

Solicitor's lass says..

" leave it with me and I'll sort it and 'phone you."

That was all before noon

3pm 'phone rings and it's our Estate Agent...

"Good news Dr GMP you are moving on the third of October."

"Well fancy that." say I and refer Estate Agent to solicitor's lass with a suggestion that they sort it out PDQ and please can we still have the seventh cos the removal dudes are booked and raring to go that day but might not be able to do sooner.

Mrs GMP the while is ( very wisely ) away for a farewell bean feast and sleepover with her coven chums.

Hence I am fielding the confusion.

Still and all, apart from that it's been a good day.

Took van to hand car wash. Man those Albanians do a good job. £15 quids and it looks like new.

Shiny shiny.

Washed two loads of washing and hung some out.

( how boring is pegging out washing?)

Most went in tumble drier.

Vacced

Mopped

Mowed all lawns whilst floors dried.

Ironed

 

Very spooky.

At 18-37 I was just folding up the last or the ironing when a big canvas ( unframed) fell off the wall.

It had been fixed on with a two nail picture hook and it all came off with a bit of plaster attached.

Huge bang.

I have seldom seen the dogs move so fast and I jumped pretty high too.

That painting has been up on the wall in that room since 2006.

 

Has to be an omen to begin taking down all the pictures.

 

Edited September 16, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Nungali]

solicitors .... imagine what I think after dealing with them for 3rd year (now) on the level of a Supreme court case.

 

Solicitor: " Make sure you read everything 3 times and cross every t and dot every i ."

 

Gets a letter from solicitor in which the grammar and tenses are confused, " Your letter seems confusing, exactly what do you mean?"

 

- "Please refer all questions to my secretary."

 

My fav was ; coming out of court after he did a bad job ... but he is feeling pleased with himself, we pause on the steps coming out from the Supreme Court, he looks over the city like an Emperor . "You know, before I got married, I used to be a playboy in this town."

 

I look down at him and laugh "What you ? "

 

<indignant> "What! .... You ... you .... you shouldnt talk to your solicitor like that .... people are supposed to be respectful of their solicitor!"

 

 

<slaps him on the back> " I'm joking ! Lets go and get a coffee."

 

"Yes, and we can talk about the $40,000 you owe me!"

 

"Oh that ... you know we haven't got that ! You will have to win the case to get that back."

 

< goes purple >

 

- usually the solicitor is supposed to have the client over the barrel .... they hate it when they are bums up

[Nungali]

[Nungali]

I like this one:

 

" How can you tell me I'm wrong when you don't even know who my attorney is? "

[GrandmasterP]

They do make their money for sure do country solicitors.

This firm is almost as old as God.

The senior partner is umpteenth generation in that same office we've some really old covenants for the land here and those were ( hand) written by that same firm.

I suspect the solicitors themselves do next to sod all and it's that solicitor's lass who sorts everything out.

She's the only one I ever get to see.

Edited September 17, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[GrandmasterP]

YES!

Contracts successfully exchanged at 4pm GMT today.

We move on Tuesday 7th October.

Edited September 19, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[GreytoWhite]

I suspect the solicitors themselves do next to sod all and it's that solicitor's lass who sorts everything out.

She's the only one I ever get to see.

 

That's about how almost all lawyers are the world over.

[GrandmasterP]

Kudos to work.

" Up to 21 days from leaving date before severance cheque issued."

HR lass said they like to hang on to the money for as long as possible so they pay out on day 21 after the last employment date and don't factor in any leave taken.

Promised she'd do what she could as she knew I was moving out of the area 3-hours drive away.

You have to attend in person to receive the cheque and sign for it

Hence I was expecting to have to drive back from the new house to collect my cheque sometime in October.

'Phone goes this morning and it's the HR lass..

" Your cheques here ready for collection."

 

Took her in a box of fancy biscuits .

Bless her little cotton socks.

Cheque banked and notionally already spent .

Mrs GMP is having a new car.

 

Edited September 24, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[GrandmasterP]

Penultimate van run up to the new house and back today.

Lawn mowers and garden tools.

That's it now until I follow the removal van up there next Tuesday.

Packing case central round here right now.

Edited October 2, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[GrandmasterP]

I may be off TTB for a while after this evening.

We move tomorrow.

There's no broadband yet at the new place and mobile phones don't work in that area.

Landline or marine radio only and there's no landline installed as yet.

The old fisherman we've bought off said...

"I've never needed a telephone. Anybody wants to tell me something they can knock on the door."

It's 1957 still around those parts and no bad thing.

Will be speaking to BT about getting online somehow.

Otherwise expect my owl or pigeon bearing messages.

Edited October 6, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[thelerner]

Hope you have you have a good move, they can be trying.

 

I'll keep a look out for messenger owls and keep a light on here for your return.

[GrandmasterP]

Utterly cream crackered ( knackered).

BT said Broadband due on 16th but it seems to be working now.

Kudos to BT for that.

Move went smoothly and we've been at it ever since unpacking, cleaning and such.

Plenty more to be done, the outgoing folks left it in a right old mess.

Time enough and more to do it.

Have put in a dog proof fence around the inside of the property.

More later.

Edited October 13, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Nungali]

 

Have put in a dog proof fence around the inside of the property.

 

 

Yeah ...

 

we had to put one of those up;