Oh dear! I’m starting a lot later than usual, but that’s because we’ve just come back from having yet another look at Vermont South, which was Open For Inspection between 5.00 and 5.30pm. Of course, as soon as we got back, I shed my shoes and fled to the Fire Escape for my evening Stair Walk – and because I’ve only just sat down and started to write, I don’t expect to finish this before… er… very late tonight. 🙂
As you know, we had an appointment with the delightful Carmen at 10.00am this morning, and as I predicted, it was largely a waste of time – more to her benefit than ours. Never mind, at least she managed to confirm our Auction strategies, in a somewhat convoluted and round-about manner. We seemed to be there for hours, but in reality it was only about 40 minutes – I think it’s just the way she keeps talking all the time. Anyway, when we left her office, we went on to have a look at another place in Doncaster East, in Applegum Grove (isn’t that a lovely name for a street? 🙂 ) It was a very nice little house – 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, etc… Charmingly furnished, it had a lovely “feel” to it, you know what I mean? Some houses can feel distant and cold to you, and some, like this one, make you feel warm and welcomed. I felt that the rooms were a little on the small side, though that could have been due to the fact that there was quite a lot of furniture everywhere, and that the bedrooms all had big, bulky, high-standing beds in them. There were what looked like “reasonable” stairs going down to the garage/storage area, which Julian said was quite big. There was also a third toilet and a small kitchenette down there, which Julian wondered about, but I pointed out to him that there was a swimming pool right outside, so it was probably sensible to have a toilet close by, as well as somewhere to make snacks and a cup of coffee (or tea) I should, perhaps, have tried the stairs, but I couldn’t be bothered this time – they looked easy enough to negotiate, with only a small “turn” in them, right at the top, so I left it at that. There was a beautiful veranda-deck around three sides of the house – lovely and wide, with lots of shade for the summer months. The bathrooms left a lot to be desired though, and the showers were teeny-weeny and coffin-y, with little or no room to enlarge them without knocking down walls, which was a shame. However, it was nice enough for us to put it on our current “short list” of three – with Vermont South being at the top of the list, followed by “The ‘C’ House”, and then this one, Applegum, third. While we were there the Valuer we’d sent out to Vermont South rang us with his report, which pleased Julian because it was pretty much spot on with what he’d thought that the house was worth. Then we came home, had some lunch, and Julian went off to pick up his orthotics, which he now has to wear in his shoes for ever and ever, if he doesn’t want to injure his ankle again.
I frittered the afternoon away fiddling with a graphics “problem” frame – it’s a nice enough frame, but not all that great – actually it started out as a “corner” dingbat/decoration, but I wanted to make it into a three sided frame, which meant that I had to devise a means of chopping out a section of the top “bar” and making it repeat seamlessly. That was the easy bit! *sigh* It has sort-of gaps between parts of it, and the lines weren’t straight, so I set out to straighten them out… but I must have been tired, or something, because I kept getting “lost” in the detail – it’s quite a big frame, and has different shades of the same colour along all the lines, and when you’re zoomed in as far as you can, well, as I said, I kept getting “lost”. I’ll try again tomorrow..
Now, however, it’s that time of the evening again… 😉 Back soon…
+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+
Right, back again! 🙂 We did end up going to see Vermont South again this evening. It was freezing cold – the poor little Agent standing guard outside was almost frozen stiff, and for a while there I thought that we were going to be the only ones turning up! I wish! The place was open between 5.00 and 5.30pm – we turned up at around 2 minutes to 5, and we had the house to ourselves until about 5.20pm or so when a couple with what seemed like about 50 million children turned up 😦 I hope they’re not too interested in the place…. Still, we had a look at things like bathroom taps (very important items, bathroom taps!) and whether we’d make the little front room Julian’s office, and which room we’d make the computer room/Den… *sigh* Julian is very optimistic about our chances on Saturday – I’ve very pessimistic. I don’t really think we stand much of a chance – but still, there’s always “The ‘C’ House”, if we do miss out (which I think we will) I hate waiting… 😦
Weigh-in this morning. “Too much! too much!”, she cried! I went down 3 points, from 86.9kg to 86.6kg. Three points… I’ll probably re-bound tomorrow morning… You know, I should have clambered down those ruddy stairs at Applegum this morning… I wish I had, now!
I’m not sure what’s happening tomorrow – I know Julian will be very busy number crunching and constructing money flow-charts and things – I suppose that I’ll be busy trying to sort out that frame – which to tell you the honest truth, isn’t really worth all the work I’m putting into it – as I said earlier, it’s nice enough, but it’s not that nice! I know I can make better… but that’s me. I start on a project and I’ll stick with it and get it done, if it kills me – whether it’s worth it or not. Speaking of sticking with things whether they’re worth it or not, I must get back to my writing blog thingy wot I started a few days ago. I knew that if I left it too long, I’d get cold feet and not want to continue with it, but this time I’m determined. The story of my life will be told – one way or another – it’s far too strange and incredible not to! 😉 We’ll see what happens tomorrow… I may spend some time with the frame and some writing, or Rifting. I did try a pattern on the header here today – just experimentally – no text on it, just to see how it would turn out “magnified”. I was quite pleasantly surprised! I made the squiggly-swirls as small as I possibly could, then I sharpened it, and tried it out. Yes, the squiggly-swirls got quite a lot bigger, but I didn’t think they looked too big, and the colours miraculously didn’t get muddied! Next time I’ll try a pattern without so much contrast in the two colours I use – I think that might turn out even betterer! (I’ve just had a “Eureka!” moment – I’ve suddenly thought of a way I can “cheat” with the frame I’m in the middle of modifying and make it work! 🙂 ) (well, it’s not really a “cheat”, it’s a “short-cut“! 😛 ) Looks like I’ll be trying both of those ideas out tomorrow! 🙂 Anything to stop me fretting about Saturday morning…
Anyway, that’s about it from me for tonight – wish me luck with my two graphical adventures – who knows? You might be looking at both of them tomorrow night! 🙂 And I will try to get a bit of writing done, too – I promise! Hopefully all the numbers will crunch in the right direction – we were talking about how much this move is going to cost us after dinner, and there’s an amazing amount of financial things to take into consideration, from Sales Tax to Capital Appreciation, domestic utilities and internet re-connections, removals, Agent fees (when we sell this place) – the list seems endless! But we’ll be our own bosses, our own king and queen in our own castle, no more Body Corporate to kowtow to! And also no more just walking over the road to drop off the Dry Cleaning, or picking up a litre of milk that didn’t get added to the shopping list.. swings and roundabouts, advantages and disadvantages… 
So… drop by again tomorrow night and find out all the latest – will my weight swing back wildly after a massive drop of three whole points? Will Julian have crunched the numbers into tasty byte size pieces? And will I have tamed the recalcitrant frame and pattern, or been carted off with a nervous breakdown due to the impending Auction? The answers will all be here waiting for you tomorrow night 😉 But until then, I trust that you’ll all continue to bee good, remember that a happy loser is far better than an arrogant winner, and don’t forget to wear clean, dry socks, drive carefully, and to take good care of yourselves… but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 