Today has been a not getting very far with things sort of day. This morning I tried to sort out redirecting post to our new address – except it doesn’t exist. So I’ve emailed Royal Mail to try and sort that out (The Yurt, Isle of Rum is listed so I suspect Croft 3 will be accepted, no idea how long that process might take though) and just done the redirect to my parents again. I had planned on changing our address on driving licences, bank account etc but suspect I may hit the same problem if it is not on the royal mail database and I don’t have proof of address either. So that is on my deferred list!
Further insurance woe – they need copy of No Claims Discount and driving licences too, clearly addresses will all be different again but fingers crossed scanned versions (I have paper copies so worst case scenario will have to go to library and take copies and post them) will suffice.
Ady rang the letting agent who said that Saturdays viewing would like the property please. Can they have it for £950? (it’s on at £975, with a planned £25 drop built in so yes), can we replace the bathroom carpet with vinyl and can we rehang a gate. Yes to £950, yes to carpet and no to gate (it was never hung, just fixed rigid to a gap). Rang carpet man for quote for bathroom (he still had measurements) and arranged to go in tomorrow and pay and choose flooring to be fitted on Friday. Agent never rang back though so won’t spend £200 on new flooring if they don’t take the property anyway. Argh. Another thing to chase again tomorrow.
Ady rang SNH office to get the permit for the lorry delivering the static. He had a little chat with Lesley who is the other crofter as well as a ranger. He said she sounds really nice. He also said he thought she’d got the registration number wrong. I got copied into the email to Calmac and she has. So another email. Argh.
Ady this evening suddenly said he wasn’t sure the static is actually being sited by the company, maybe just delivered. Cue frantic googling to see what siting a static involves. Phonecall required tomorrow to static people. Ady also having a quadruple check on generator spec before we order it. Flea in Ady’s ear from me about last minute-itis and not being thourough enough with things. Cue tears from Scarlett about Ady and I being cross with each other. Argh.
At Bruce’s we got the heater fixed on the Pajero and the radio swapped over. We also managed to get the rear door jammed shut – it did get reopened with use of a screwdriver and liberal coating of WD40 (yes, the stuff I am probably allergic to – it didn’t feel like the right time to mention so I just stood back). It also turns out the fancy tyres have locking wheel nuts and no one knows where the key is. So Bruce will take them off for us on Sunday and replace them with non locking ones which are now on our job list to find before then. More cash, more running around. More argh really.
All very minor stuff but just added phonecalls and trips out and spending we could do without now.
This evening I had an earbashing from my parents for not ringing over the last week – my Mum said ‘we didn’t know where you were’. I clarified that actually they did because we’d said we were off to Glastonbury and then either home if we had a puppy or to Marcus and Michelle’s if we didn’t. If we had come home we would have called in so they could meet the puppy. She agreed she did know that and therefore if we’d not called in so she could meet the puppy then we must have gone to Marcus and Michelle’s. I then pointed out that if she’d been concerned she could have rung us!!! Best not to get too stroppy, particularly when we are about to ask for a huge wodge of money this week for the static balance, the generator and the initial costs of travelling to Rum, doing a big food shop on the way and money for a puppy, chicken shed and chickens.
Everyone is edgy, tetchy and ready to go. Being at Bruce’s today was very strange – our sharan is on the drive, Willow is in the barn and our bantams are scratching around the yard. It’s like some sort of museum of the life we used to have.
Seven more sleeps.
I hate it when mothers do that. Mine gets all mopey if I don’t phone her for a few days. I have on occasion not been able to resist saying “I didn’t know your phone was broken for outgoing calls…”
Comment by Jan — 11 April 2012 @ 9:55 pm