Tuesday, June 24, 2008

jill cocker/moving house sucks ass

I always thought moving house wasn't as bad as everyone makes out. I've moved house lots of times and bought and sold a flat and a house. Its always been a pain but hardly "one of the most stressful things you'll ever do in your life". That is until now.

Nothing quite prepared me for the extreme stress of the last 2 months trying to sell our house in London and buy one in Devon. The way the housing market/conveyancing system works, seems to me, to be completely knuts. it just creates it's own problems with a lack of communication generally occuring at all levels.

yesterday after 3 months of back and forth, at 4:55pm on the day of exchange (for completion in two days time) our seller decided to to ask for more money. with the market in it's current situation I'm not sure what they were thinking. they were already getting over the odds as we agreed a price before the market started to tumble (down here). anyway we duely told them where they could stick that request and their house (this was the last straw in three months of them dicking us around) and are now left with the uncomfortable situation of having to move out of our house in London on Friday with no where to move to in Devon. added to this we've lost about £10k. thanks Jill Cocker, I look forward to seeing your house back on the market for £70k less than it was when you accepted our offer and led us down the garden path of thinking we might have a house to move into on Friday. just leave it right till the last minute before fcuking it all up - don't worry about the whole chain of peoples lives you have dicked with.


update:
I got carried away with the story, we've now got somewhere to live! it's all karma, fate, whathaveyou. a cottage has come up for rent this week, about 100 yards from where we are staying. we can move in on Friday :D crash housing market, crash!

Monday, May 19, 2008

west is best

let me start by saying, I am not complaining. new job started just over a week ago after a traumatic and slightly crazy long weekend of travel and moving stuff to our temporary home at little bidlake farm. the commute is a "hellish" 30 minutes of traffic free A roads which I would probably describe as "the most relaxing commute i've ever had the pleasure of doing". the work so far is interesting and challenging although to be fair I've yet to really get stuck into it. best of all the team are great, has to be said I'm missing the banter of the uSwitchers but I think I've moved to a very similar environment in terms of humour vs work vs did you see that thing on tv last night? so all good. the biggest problem I have right now is leaving work on time. I seem to be stuck in the london leave at 6/6.30 unless you're busy mentality. I regularly find myself as one of the last to leave and thats at 5:20pm?


like I said I am not complaining. I think this is something companies in London have completely wrong. if you work your 9-5 and work it well there is no reason to work any longer. the added relaxation time helps balance out your life leaving you more motivated and ready to work again the next day.


house purchase/sale is still all going through but man does it take a long time. next weekend is bank holiday surf, then hoping to be back in London weekend of the 30th. also barrett if you're reading this - my accent is back already and within weeks will be rivalling yours!

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

ididntvoteforboris

neither of us did in fact
http://www.ididntvoteforboris.co.uk/

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