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Little Steps

Let me in!
This week I feel like we have made some progress on the house, albeit nothing ever seems to progress rapidly, and there's always a drama if it has anything to do with the muppet developer. I've been chasing him for a couple of weeks after he failed to turn up to do the replacement guttering, despite all the usual promises. After multiple texts and voicemails I finally switched to the nuclear option and sent him a text message to say if I didn't hear from him then I would have no choice but to contact his mother again. It is ludicrous that I find myself threatening a 47 year old man with a call to his parents, but this is the way he rolls it seems. Sure enough, about 30 secs after the message showed as read, I get a message back to say he is coming Thursday and that he'd already told me this! Utter rubbish of course, not least it is hardly a  coincidence that it tied in to the threat of a parental phone call - he is such a child. All this was after some excuse that the reason he hadn't been in touch previously was that one of the work crew had been badly beaten up, ending up in hospital having a piece of his skull removed from his brain.... either he is dreadfully unlucky or it's more tall stories. I neither know or care.  I thanked him for his call and informed him that regardless I would be following up with an email to his mother to set out the situation and the fact that if he doesn't complete the work next week and pay the remaining money for remedial works I will have no choice but to proceed to small claims. Who knew buying a new house would be so much fun?!

Alongside this we also heard from our solicitor that the Pattemores have finally instructed their solicitor, and apparently already signed all the paperwork for the land purchase! We are being stuck for their legal fees which are about double what they should be, and they are insisting on an overage clause (which I was expecting), but they have us over a barrel so we have to keep pushing on. It will all be worth it - I hope! 

We also had Brad come back and finish off the windows, with Lloyd due tomorrow to finish the cladding so that's enough piece of the jigsaw in place. The bi-folds look great and came into their own this week in very windy conditions - it was nice not to have the whole of the front of the house flexing back and forwards while plaster falls out of the ceiling due to the movement!

Finally we had WCDS back to dig in a proper drain to take our rain water away, rather than it just backing up the downpipes when it rains heavily because there's nowhere for it to go. These small things are actually quite meaningful as we head into winter - we are quite looking forward to the next time it rains now!

While we have been pushing through all of this, Abi is getting used to the change of daylight hours and how she fits her horse into everyday life. Basically, it's now dark by the time she gets there so the only choice she really has is to go in the arena on a weekday, and then make the most of the weekend. At least she can see everyone else is in the same boat, and the arrangement with Gabby is working well where she makes sure Nula is sorted and out in the morning so we don't need to worry about that. 

Izzy on the other hand loves staying on at school on a Saturday to play matches, particularly if it involves a trip out to another school. This weekend she was captaining the hockey team playing against Millfield, a match they thought they'd lose, and they won 2-1 and she got player of the match! She is loving the sport and making the most of the opportunities. She was back in school today, if only to meet up with friends, then off into town for the afternoon. I can see a time quite soon when we will barely see either of them all weekend.  If only it weren't for the fact we still seem to be ferrying them around everywhere we'd have quite a lot of free time!

Lucky for me I have my third baby, Betty, who is currently snoring happily on her bed after another busy day. Abi and Laurie rode together this morning so Amanda and I went on a nice long walk with Betty flying around having the best of times. We didn't meet any other dogs, but we did meet lots of people and she was able to say hello to them all which pleased her greatly. If she's missing Bertie it's not too obvious which is good, I'm very much enjoying just having the one right now.

This week's early morning city run
London's Hyde Park


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