So, we’ve had a really awesome weekend. We were planning to go to Bristol Friday night for a slightly belated birthday meal with Kate (of Nikki and Kate) – but handily, Kathryn got an interview just around lunchtime. This meant that there was no point her going to work (she’d arrive – and need to leave to get to Brizzle, and then if she went back to work after the interview she’d arrive in time to go home).
So instead we piled straight into the car after tidying the house for viewings – and drove down there. A lateish lunch with Nikki and Kate after the interview and then off to look at houses. We revisted our favourite and were disconcerted to learn that other people are ‘seriously considering an offer’; we visited another which – I’m pleased to note – is a good second choice (and has a cellar, which is pretty nifty, although we didn’t get to see it because there’s lino over the entrance (in the floor of the kitchen). Annoyingly it’s not much cheaper than our favourite, it’s only semi-detached instead of detached, and some git has popped around with the magnolia paint doing a quick tart-up job (pushing the price up, but leaving us to still need to do proper decorative work).
It’s also being sold as ‘with a garage’ the only problem being the garage currently backs out onto a lane that’s completely overgrown, the door to it is plated over with a big welded sheet of metal and it’s got an asbestos roof. A few small details to fix there, but otherwise it’s quite interesting.
So, we’ll see. We then had a very nice curry from a very busy curry house with N & K. After sleeping in the hottest hotel known to man, woman or child, we headed with Nikki and Kids down to the Organic Food festival. This was excellent. Lots of yummy food, lots of interesting stalls, we witnessed an explanation of sheep shearing which surprisingly kept the kids entertained and managed to teach those non-farm-girl adults of our group a thing or two.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to make it to Doors Open day, which I’ve still not managed to get to (seriously, I’ve never made it. Shift work != social life). But instead piled back into the car and headed down to see my mum. She’s feeling a lot better than she has been, and on Sunday I got to cuddle a chicken.
That’s not some strange euphemism, my mum keeps chickens and because we put them out to have a bit more space they needed their wings clipped (she’d been keeping them in a chicken-arena made from an old cat run). We’d never done this before – but a local chap came and showed us how it’s done, and wings clipped*, new fence erected (not of the greatest quality, but it’s just to stop them roaming into the upper bit of the garden) and they were let loose. They immediately disproved my theory that the larger area would reduce the damage they did by attempting to dig up one of the plants. Not intentionally mind, I think there were just bugs they wanted in the soil around it… Then, in a job involving vast amounts of chicken shite we moved their coop down to the new area. Despite the poo, the scratching and the hastle it’s made me more keen to keep chikens because, frankly, they’re very cute. When you pick one up and give it a cuddle and it settles into your arms going ‘coo-coo’ it’s quite sweet.
Then we headed home and found that contrary to our hopes there have been no viewings on the house this weekend. We’re contemplating dropping the price and a few other little changes :(
Anyway, I should get on.
* Unfortunately, during this process a bird became a wee bit agitated, and left my mum’s grasp. In doing so it scratched Kathryn’s face with the newly clipped feathers :(
