Hectoring and Bullying

The letting industry is a service industry and that means being of service. It also sadly means being on the sharp end of many a tongue when people are not happy.
This is fine, it is part of the deal. But some people can try the patience of a saint with their demands, boorishness, arrogance and criticisms. One such delightful customer does not live in the country so we communicate by phone sometimes and email a lot. He is nothing but rude and bossy. I have just managed to get a legal case against him dismissed and today's email was to tell me that he WILL NOT accept the payment of utility bills while the house is empty. What does one say? The house was cleaned between tenancies, water was used, he pays. He is going to SORT THIS OUT when he gets back to England. The amount of time I spend calling the water board, appealing, writing letters and reporting back to him costs me and the company FAR more than the bill itself. Wouldn't it be loverly....to say...take a hike mate!

Japanese summer

The girls' father has written saying he would like to fly them home for a few weeks over the summer. They will be delighted. They miss Japan and look forward to their visits. Their grandfather is turning 80 this year and he in particular wants to see them.
It saddens me that the girls live so far from their dad and grandparents now, but at least they do get to spend some time together.

Productive tortoise

How do some people do it? I am still getting up early to work on my crochet but have not listed anything since last week because I haven't finished anything!! I have got a few bits ready to sew and a piece of cake that needs decorating, so it can be listed soon, but despite efforts I am far from prolific. But I am not going to give up. I will be like the tortoise...no choice really.
The other big hassle is that the ideas come from my head (arguably a good thing). At first I looked for patterns to work from, but can no longer follow a pattern as I always end up working my own ideas. The down side is that being a newbie to the art, my technical level is a bit limited!
Ho Hum. Not really a big issue, but I am chomping at the bit here!

Dreams

We all have them, big and small. One of mine is to have a property portfolio! Reality, we have a mortgage, although, by Easter, we may own a two bedroom flat in North Shields! John and I saw two and chose one that we think we can rent out quickly. It needs very little doing to it (the survey has not been done yet though) and is likely to have reasonable resale potential...pending market developments etc etc etc! It is all a risk, but exciting.
The trip up North was busy, apart from house-hunting, we went to lunch with John's parents and then a drive to St Mary's Lighthouse where we had an icecream. The weather was so cold I could barely open my mouth to eat it!
Unfortunately we could not catch up with friends Chris and Judy as Judy was ill, but John and I caught the Metro to Newcastle, which is a lovely town. We had lunch, he bought me a beautiful piece of antique jewellry and then he headed off to watch Newcastle United play at St James Park. (They won 6-1!!). I browsed through the shops and had a great time.
John's sister is in real estate, and it was through her we got our wonderful flat, so we celebrated with her, her husband and J's parents. Champagne all round.
The sun was shining on Sunday and I wanted to stay and do a walk somewhere in the area, but we had a 5 hour drive to do to get home to our girls and Adam. A good weekend.

Away Days

John and I head up north to see his parents around lunch time tomorrow. Adam is in charge on Thursday night and there is excitement as the local Pizza House, a hot favourite with our lot, has now got a DELIVERY service which they plan to test!!
For the rest of the weekend, my brother and his girlfriend are due...they are on holiday at present so let's hope they have not forgotten.
I am not good at leaving my children full stop. Separation anxiety is the name for it, and anxious I get. They of course do not get anything other than excited!
We plan to see family, see some friends, and to look at two properties as we are in the market for an investment. More on this later...big steps for us and we have long been used to getting by and we budget and save. If it works out, it will be nice.

Norwegian Connection

A Norwegian high school student is coming to stay with us for a few days this month.
It is all fairly short notice,and was only confirmed today, but is part of an cultural exchange between the school and its counter-part in Norway. It means Hannah gets to go to Norway next year. LUCKY GIRL...wish it was me!
We are still waiting for details, but I am looking forward to it. We had such a lovely girl from Holland stay last year, and we have two Japanese students due at the end of May. United Nations in the 'burbs!

New Tack

Lots of good food this weekend... We had dinner with friends in Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, in a pub called The George. Drinks at their house before that and it was a great evening. Stormy weather was forecast, but it held off till Sunday morning. John and I ventured up to Croydon where we popped in to Wing Yip for a few goodies from the bakery. Curry bread, red bean cake, steamed pork buns and a sesame and coconut ball....the pork buns and curry bread made for two very happy girls. Then we had lunch at An Nam, the Vietnamese restaurant in the complex. Fabulous food, and lots of it, so much that we had to ask for doggy bags.
We dropped into Furniture Village to see John's sister and collect two bags of hand me downs from her daughter and again trailed around looking for sofas and not finding anything that we both like!!
We did both agree though, that we do not utilise our time as well as we could, so from this morning we have decided to get up an hour earlier every day, for me to crochet and to listen to the news in Japanese and for John to walk to the newsagents for the paper and to watch the business news.
I got one of my projects finished and it will be on the Flickr Photostream later in the day.
Finally, the weather is glorious this morning.