My weekend (and other stories)

[annwfyn]

So, this weekend started extra early for me this weekend when I had a mini-breakdown on Wednesday night and ended up not sleeping and taking Thursday off work. Bless them, they were quite nice. I just called and asked if I could take it as last minute holiday as I'd had a domestic crisis which meant I hadn't got to bed until 6 am. As I had nothing much to do at work, they were fine with this.

And as a result I've had a quite nice long couple of days so far.

I've had lovely milkshakes with pierot. I've seen Fast & Furious 5 (which bizarrely counts as one of the more feminist films I've seen this year. OK, so it didn't pass the Bechdel test but it had tough independent female characters who made their own decisions, who drove fast cars, who got to be cool and who drove the plot forwards. Oh, and it also had a sexy male Asian major character who got the girl, which means it got points for avoiding the 'sexless Asian man' stereotype as well), I've done a load of work on a Lost tabletop game I want to run at some point (a sort of weird Neverwhere 'baronies of London' kind of game, and a bit of a Maltese Falcon theme to it as well) and today I am burning meat and being sociable with pleasant people.

And this is all good.

I now need to work out what I'm doing for the rest of the weekend. I think at least one of my goals should be to get the house a bit more sorted as part of my 'get it on the market at the end of May'.

And this ties neatly into another decision I've made.

There are significant parts of my life which are not working. And therefore I am going to change them. I am, in fact, setting myself three goals for the next year.

Goal One: Get the house on the market at the end of May, and get it sold by Christmas.

Goal Two: Get out to Seattle to visit people by the end of January.

Goal Three: Get the money and time to go backpacking by the end of next year. I'd like to go to Rio and travel through Brazil and Argentina, but I am flexible. One thing that is sort of tempting is to get two months clear, then look at where has cheap flights in the week before I want to leave.

And these thoughts make me happy. If anyone has any recommendations for backpacking destinations then those are also gratefully received. And for now, I am going to go and eat good food, with 'Sweet Caroline' playing in the background, and people I like very much chatting about me. And this, in and of itself, will make all things good.

Comments

[adze.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully one of your weekend goals is the one you e-mailed me about yesterday :-p

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

That is one of my weekend goals! Thor on Monday is something I'm being all bright and perky about.

[suave-steve.livejournal.com]

The tabletop game sounds interesting yes. As does the backpacking. One day I will be funded and motivated enough to do something similar.

I have plans to see Thor on Monday also otherwise I have a very quiet weekend ahead.

[eniel]

Good luck with the sale !
Had this been six to twelve months later, I might have done more than just look at it wistfully ;)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

But where will Ginnie live?!

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

She may have to move into a shoebox, under a bridge and feed on those who dare to walk by.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm willing to store her books while she does :)

[melsner.livejournal.com]

"Goal Two: Get out to Seattle to visit people by the end of January."

Sigh. Well, there goes the neighborhood. :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It's OK. I'll make sure to avoid Portland and thus dodge seeing you.

[melsner.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, I forgot the Northwest is much bigger than the UK...

Still, I wouldn't declare that accidentally running into you would be altogether objectionable.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It would mean we could go to Red Robin.

If we take other people with us, would that still count as infidelity? Or just some kind of metaphorical orgy?

[melsner.livejournal.com]

Strawberry Shake Slut. :)

[omentide.livejournal.com]

We've been reliably told that it's currently taking around 3 months from accepting an offer on a property and actually getting the money for it. I'm finding the whole process extremely stressful though it does help a lot that my solicitor is a personal friend and very lovely.

If I could go backpacking anywhere it would be Central and/or South America. Those are the parts of the world containing the most places that I am sad that I am unlikely to ever get to see. I am, however, still hoping to do the Silk Road on the back of a motorcycle - if that proves impractical we shall backpack it.

I think a lot of the silk road is doable. A lot of the route of Alexander, sadly, isn't. But I do want to

I would highly recommend Guatemala. We had an incredible three weeks there last year (with side trips to bits of Mexico and, I think it was Honduras).

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right from the other side - we had our offer accepted in early August, exchange contracts in early November & completed mid-November.

We felt that our bank was playing silly buggers and holding everything up - but from having talked to people who work in the mortgage sector, it wasn't atypical (and it may only have felt like the banl was dragging their feet because the estate agent & our solicitors were so prompt with their bits)

NB: There's often a month between the date the contract are signed & completion, so it could have been even longer (there's lots of stuff like booking removal men that you shouldn't do UNTIL you've signed, so some turnaround time is needed) - but both we & the sellers were getting itchy so we only had a fortnight.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I've kinda been giving myself four months as a minimum and I suspect it'll take us a while to get an offer on the place. Hence the six month window, which I'm hoping is reasonable.

[omentide.livejournal.com]

It depends how you price it. We had to drop before we got significant numbers of viewings but, once we did that, we got an acceptable offer very quickly. Our neighbours sold quite recently for a great deal more but they are a house (they have neighbours to the right and the left), we are a flat (we have neighbours to the right and above). Also theirs was perfectly presented and ours is eccentrically decorated (we like colours) and 'needs some work' - we only have fitted carpets on the stairs and in the hallways - the rest is painted floorboard with kilims. Also they waited a long time.

But, having been here over 12 years we were bound to get more than we paid for the place. We paid just over 62K.

I am horribly twitchy now whilst we wait for the purchasers to secure their finance. I've been assured that there is no real problem here - estate agents and solicitors have been very efficient...

I would recommend my estate agent and solicitor but the estate agents are local (they have five offices in Northwest London) and my solicitor is based in Watford. She worked at our place in a break between conveyancing jobs and she is really, really lovely.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

I had a great time in Santiago but I know you've been to S. America before so maybe you've already been there?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I adore Santiago and Chile in general. The southern coast of Chile is one of my favourite places in the world. I'm sort of having to fight the urge to go back there as I feel I should be going somewhere new, and not just retreading old ground. Only time will tell if I stick to this resolution!