House hunting disaster
Yesterday I did a tour of all the local estate agents. I gave them my details after ascertaining that there was nothing in my price range currently but they would contact me if anything came up. Apart from two of them.
One estate agent was insanely rude, firstly about the fact that I could not give a daytime landline number (as is the nature of my job I can be in up to one of 8 places a day, and couldn’t say which one of those places at any given time I could be in) and secondly that I had my own independent mortgage adviser and did not need assistance from them.
The other said that he had two properties within my price range. The first had just come on the market (I saw it online several months ago so…) and he thought I would really like it. The whole place could fit into one room of my house, the previous owner had left but had left behind anything he didn’t want to take, it didn’t have central heating and it had a rotor fan on the ceiling that came on each time the lights came on. Needless to say I was not impressed.
The second place didn’t have a lock on the main front door, which put me off almost straight away, confirmed by the overwhelming smell of paraffin as I went through to the communal hallway. The carpet was torn and fraying so goodness only knows what the £900 a year service charge from the 15 tenants was going towards. The inside of the flat was ok but horrendously dated. And again, it was tiny. And right by a very busy main road and each window in the place overlooked the road and not much else.
I came home feeling very deflated. But on the other hand, it was good in a way, as it was the first time I’d seen anywhere since I started looking in earnest and if I’d seen a nicer place I may have been tempted just because it was there, but it’s made me realise that I am under no pressure and can afford to wait for a place that is just right.
I just hope things are slightly more successful next time around.
The moving out box
Anyone who knows Vic well will know that she is obsessed by shoes. In fact you don’t even have to know her well to know that she is obsessed with shoes. In fact, to meet her once would probably give you the impression very quickly. She is obsessed. She has about a hundred and forty seven thousand pairs of shoes. Most of them represent a broken neck waiting to happen but I’m not really in a position to judge this obsession, as I have one of my own. I have an obsession with home wares.
I can go into the supermarket for a bottle of milk and spend ages in there (bearing in mind our local supermarket has all of about two short aisles of homewares, one of which is dedicated entirely to candles) just drooling over cushions, photo frames and coffee machines. Of course the only saving grace from the point of view of my bank balance is that I am essentially living out of one room at mum and dads so really have no need for kettles and clocks etc. But all that could be changing soon.
I left my last job in the New Forest to take on a temporary position significantly closer to home. It was a risk but the risk paid off and yesterday my contract was made permanent. Now that I know I don’t have to find a new job at the end of October (when the contract was due to run out) and potentially relocate to the other end of the country depending on where I could find a job, I can now move forward with what I have been planning to do for the last nine months.
I have been saving like crazy and hoping that a new contract was going to materialise, and now it has I can buy my own place to live.
I’m looking at flats under the shared ownership scheme so I would buy 25-75% of a flat and then pay rent on the rest and buy more shares as and when I can afford it until I own it outright. My decor is as good as planned and I’ve picked out most of the furniture that I’m choosing based on aesthetics. Things like washing machines and fridges are not nearly as much fun to choose so I’ve budgeted for them but will Mum and Dad choose them cos I really don’t know what to look for in a washing machine.
The plan for tomorrow is to head to all the estate agents in Farnham and register my interest and potentially get some viewings, although the hours I’ve spent on rightmove over the past 24 hours haven’t yielded all that much. I’m prepared to be patient but I can see myself getting frustrated if it does take too long.
But this really does bring me to the part of the plan that I am most excited about. Drooling over homewares with a purpose.
Before I went to uni Mum started a ‘uni box’ and each time she went shopping she bought some food and some essential kitchen stuff to put in the box to spread the cost out. I now have a ‘moving out box,’ although it’s overflown and has now become a ‘moving out cupboard.’
So far I have…
- Two duvet covers with coordinating sheets, pillow cases and cushions
- Mattress and pillow protectors
- Cath Kidston dusters and rubber gloves (Christmas presents – I wouldn’t have bothered with either of those otherwise)
- Tea towels
- Oven gloves
- Chopping boards
- Kitchen knives
- A whisk
- Various mugs that Mum has requested I remove from the overflowing mug cupboard
- A few cookery books
- A bluebell canvas print
- A print of a ballet dance that everyone is convinced looks like me
The best thing though, is the hippo salt and pepper shakers
I have sooooooo much to buy and quite a tight budget based on the fact that I don’t want to splurge every last penny that I have although how long that will last I’m not sure.
Next and Debenhams are going to be receiving a lot of money from me in the next few months I am convinced. I am so excited!!!
Tracks of my years
Reading a post of Vics got me thinking about the music that holds a lot of memories for me.
As Vic said, The Eagles (she said ‘one of these nights’ but I think it was ‘the very best of’) was our magic car music. We used to fight like crazy in the car (every year we went to Scotland for our holidays, 3 small kids in the car for upwards of 10 hours, the fighting was inevitable) but then dad would put that tape on and within about 3 notes we’d be calm, the tension would leave the atmosphere and the elbow that one of us would have buried in the ribs of the one next to us would be removed. I’ve got that cd in the car at the moment. I can remember one journey on the way to Scotland (I think we’d made it as far as Manchester) before Vic had driven me mad. I took her teddy bear from her and gave it to Barney who promptly wound his window down, put it’s head out the window and wound the window up. It’s head from that point was slightly more wobbly than it was earlier in the journey!
Over the past few years music has become increasingly important to me, and I have certain songs that hold very strong associations. Some songs that remind me of summer evenings, songs that make me think of holidays, songs where I can almost hear the rain beating against the windows. Watching the sun set from my window at uni – counting crows, Anna begins. Sarah Mclachlan, surfacing reminds me of summer evenings in Kefalonia. Jack McNeill, Breakwaters makes me think of being sad at s time when the rain was so heavy it brought the UK to a standstill.
Vic said that she has learnt never to be embarrassed about the music that she listens to, and to a certain extent I would agree. I’m not ashamed of my music choices, but I can appreciate that not everyone likes the same music as me. That said, a certain family member should be embarrassed about their choice of music, and living in an environment where The Enid (or dads whistled variations of The Enid) is playing almost constantly is enough to make me enjoy the silence!
I think I missed my calling as…
There are times when I think that maybe I missed my calling for a certain career path. Not so often now that I’m doing a job that I love, but every so often I wonder what would have happened if…There are certain career paths that I would have loved, professional circus acrobat and contortionist (very short lived) ballerina (I have dodgy feet) doctor (not smart enough although I blag it well when the family ask me for medical advice which I duly give) dentist (the disinfectant smell makes me gag) and interior designer (hard to get into, hard to make money at and everyone thinks they can do it – it’s like wedding planning. I take my hat off to mum cos she does an amazing job but it’s a lot harder than making sure the flowers are pretty and handing the bride a glass of champagne after the ceremony) But thinking about career options made me think what could have been if I’d taken a different route in life.
In 2008 I went to New York with a friend, and we visited the Guggenheim museum. I made a bet with the friend I was with that I could give plausible interpretations of every piece of art in that museum. There was a trip to Starbucks riding on this so obviously I had to put some effort in. I gave a synopsis for each piece of art, what it signified, how the artist felt when they got their inspiration and through the creation process, and what they were trying to convey. By the time we got to the top of the spiral walkway we had a group of tourists following us, pausing at each piece to listen to what I had to say. I can only guess that they thought I was leading some sort of tour. Goodness only knows how and why they believed the rubbish I was spinning, it got more and more mysterious and ridiculous as the tour went on.
I think I missed my calling as an art critic and tour guide. With correct facts and knowledge of the subject maybe it wouldn’t be quite as fun. I might go to another art museum and give it another go and see how I get on.
What career would you have liked? Is this very different to what you do now? What were your reasons for taking the path that you did and has it worked out well for you?
Getting adventurous with coffee
My cousin has a tassimo coffee machine. I have been beyond jealous since I tasted my first carte noir caramel latte macchiato when I went to see her in March. I have been a black coffee drinker ever since I started drinking coffee so it was a bit of a leap of faith. Seeing as though I don’t have a tassimo coffe machine (although I would love one and it’s something to think long and hard about for my birthday Glowstars) and the craving for caramel latte macchiatos isn’t lessening despite the fact that it’s been nearly 3 months I had to find something to alleviate it.
Trawling through the local supermarket I came across Nescafe cafe menu caramel cappuccino instant sachets. Had to be worth a shot. £2.55 for 8 sachets seemed like a reasonable price based on the fact that most coffee shops would charge upwards of that for one drink of a similar size.
I was pleasantly surprised by the result. It was nice (not quite up to the tassimo standard I was hoping for but not a million miles from it) I think my biggest issue was the fact that it didn’t seem to have an even flavour all the way through, and it seemed to get much sweeter towards the bottom despite vigiourous stirring. There was a decent amount of foam at the top without using my battery operate hot drink whisk, in fact the whisk didn’t make a whole load of difference. I would probably buy these again – they have worked like a dream when it gets to 3:30-4 at work and I’m craving something sweet that regular coffee just can’t fix.
The next time I went to the supermarket (this time a much bigger one – I went after work to drool over homewares which are my biggest weakness) I found the Nescafe cafe menu skinny mochas. Again, £2.55 for 8 sachets and I had my first one today.
I didn’t mix the powder particularly well – there were no teaspoons in the staffroom so I had to make do with a fork handle so I ended up witha few powdery globules and a lot of gunk at the bottom, which may have been the reason that the taste wasn’t particularly even. The smell was lovely and again there was a resonable amount of foam despite the fact that it wasn’t well stirred. It was very chocolately though, which did impact on the coffee flavour until I got about two thirds of the way through it. Not sure if I’d buy these again – I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve had a few more. I wasn’t entirely convinced about the caramel ones until I’d tried a few.
I like the fact that I can get interesting coffees without having to go to a proper coffee shop, and cost wise these instant sachets are of a similar value to the tassimo pods (depending on where you get them) I’m still certain that I’d like a tassimo machine. I’ll give it some thought after I’ve got a mortgage, a sofa, a fridge, a washing machine, a hoover and all that other important stuff that really should come first but you don’t get nearly as much enjoyment from.
Bitterly disappointed
I have been given an iPad. Well when I say given I mean I signed it out from work to set up an app for one of the kids I work with. I had one for a different kid last week. I’m getting quicker at using the app/software, and have found some good shortcuts within it, but it is more limited than the windows equivalent.
But what disappoints me most of all is that once I’d gotten over the initial ‘I’ve got an ipad’ stage the novelty wore off very quickly and I realised that there was nothing the iPad could do for me that my iPhone couldn’t. And the iPad can’t make calls. Admittedly some of the apps (angrybirds especially) ate better on a bigger screen, but even the novelty of that wore off after ten minutes.
I for one was bitterly disappointed. I thought I was going to love the iPad, and I just didn’t.
Beth on the internet…Obviously
I have been coerced, coaxed and cajoled into blogging again, and as of about a month ago was convinced. I blogged a little back in 2005. In all honesty it can’t have been for more than about a month or so. I was at uni, got everything set up in the holidays and then when I got back to uni tried to upload the changes I’d made in the car on the way up only to find that my uni halls network data point prevented my ftp uploader from connecting. I guess this was all part of their security ploy to stop people illegally downloading music, which also stopped my antivirus software from picking up any updates and left me with a load of notifications telling me that my computer was not adequately protected. I sent a couple of pages back to the soon to be ex brother in law and asked him to upload them, but true to form he didn’t do it for a week or so and it didn’t take long for me to lose the will to live and lose interest in blogging. It was only ever him and my sister that read the blog anyway, and I spoke to them on the phone quite regularly anyways.
So I got convinced to give it another go. There may be more of an incentive this time now that I’m actually paying for a domain and hosting and a bunch of other stuff that glowstars set up for me that I don’t really understand. (I also don’t understand half/any of the stuff on my sidebar and I’m hoping that someone will either explain it all to me or do something with it so that it all does what I need it to do or get rid of what is irrelevant or will just confuse me.) So probably the hardest part of starting a blog for me was actually choosing a name. I went onto wordpress and tapped in my usual screen name and it was already taken, as was every other combination of words I could come up with. Methemanandthebaby searched online using some name generators and came up with some obscene and downright pornographic combinations of words but none of them really seemed appropriate somehow. I trawled through itunes looking for inspiration on any of my playlists and came up with nothing. In the end it was fairly simple. Glowstars and I discussed it and I decided to go for the same name that I had used back when I blogged before (all of about 6 posts).
So welcome to bethontheinter.net. Home of Beth on the internet…Obviously. I do hope somebody other than me reads this, because I don’t need to pay however much it is a year for hosting and domain registration to read my own thoughts that I could be writing down using a pen for free! All I need now is some ideas for stuff to write about and I’m good to go.