The Red Mist - like anyone actually cares…

If it wasn’t for Mrs. Gddik’s illness, and our present life-style was a permanent one (i.e. both of us retired, just doing what pleased us, with sufficient money to enable us to do what we wanted - we don’t have extravagant tastes) then life would be, well, excellent actually.

Yesterday was a good example.

Although TV doesn’t play a huge part in my life (less than Mrs. G.’s, anyway) we got around to sorting out the frankly apalling set up that we have tolerated in the house since we moved in last year. We had a real mish-mash of aerial and satellite feeds, with SCART transmitters and signal boosters, trying to get a decent level of watchability in the various rooms, but without actually achieving anything like it.

So, we had Sky multi-room installed, which has improved the quality and coverage of signal immensely. We also went into Bangor and bought ourselves one of these new-fangled 32″ LCD HD-ready TV’s with built-in Freeview and chilled water dispenser (OK, I made the last bit up), to replace the unnecessarily enormous 28″ thing that was dominating our living room. It just sort of squatted there, like some grumpy looking toad. So, picture quality and living room layout also considerably improved at a stroke.

I’ll be taking Sky up on their offer of Sky Movies for £1 a month for three months, too. I’ll drop it again at the end of the offer, of course, as there is only so much money that I want to give to Rupert Murdoch.

Huge boost also received yesterday by the (probable) sale of our old house.

It’s been on the market and empty for about 9 months, and we were beginning to despair slightly of it ever selling. We’ve had lots of viewings, and everyone says what a lovely house it is, and that we’ll have no trouble selling it - but no-one was actually buying.

Until recently.

We had an offer £12,000 less than the asking price from a lovely couple who really wanted the house. They were in a chain of three, excluding us, and we heard a couple of days ago that the first people in the chain had dropped out. Not a disaster, as the chain could be resurrected at almost any time, but not conducive to a quick sale.

Then, on Tuesday, just before we were due to set off for a hospital consultation in Liverpool, I got a call from the estate agent asking if I could do a viewing in 15 minutes. It was pushing it a bit, but I managed it, but it turned out to be THE ONE - cash buyers, no chain, who want to complete within 8 weeks. And they’ve agreed a price only £7,500 below the asking price.

Result.

So, the sale will hopefully go through very quickly, and it’s one less thing to have to worry about. We’re having to pay Council Tax, insurance (punitive, as the property is empty), electricity and gas bills on the place, so we’ll save some cash too.

Fingers crossed that it goes through smoothly.