Frenetic

Our house (the English one we called home) 'sold' on the first day it went on the market.

3 January. Who goes house buying on 3 January?

I'm fairly sure Mr B wasn't expecting that. The buyers want completion (I.e. they pay up and move into the emptied house) by the end of February.  That is a tall ask in England, but it is not my problem as seller.  The buyer will have to light a fire under their own solicitors to get them to do their stuff within the alloted time.

It is doable. I transacted my first house purchase in UK in 6 weeks. I did make it a condition of my offer - "settle in 6 weeks or I walk away". It turns out that miracles can be achieved - even by English conveyancing solicitors.

We can't behave like that in NZ - the contract is signed when the offer is accepted, so threatening to pull out because the lawyers are dawdling doesn't achieve anything.

Mr B’s father departed this life on Wednesday evening - just as I was shuffling through 48 pages of law society questionnaires about light fittings and doorhandles, and whether the place has ever flooded or the neighbours incited riots...

We were on opposite sides of the planet.

Mr B and one of his grand-daughters were with him.

Mr B is juggling international furniture moving quotes with paperwork and processes that follow a death in the family.

La Nina is continuing to dump rain on our side of the Southern Alps.

Just as well because the Mayfield Hynds Valetta irrigation scheme has encountered a serious problem opening a valve on a huge pipe that fills one of their storage ponds. How do I know and why should I care? Bro makes a substantial amount of his living engineering stuff for irrigation schemes and hiring out his crane truck so they can lift heavy machinery into and out of tricky places. He was away when the raceman (as in water race man) came to pick up some parts. I got book, bell and candle on the worm drive in the gear box, and the difficulties in effecting repairs...the part was built in England and the manufacturers are determined that no one else is getting the info needed to repair it.  Meanwhile 100s of farms are without irrigation water.

I nodded and made (what were I hope suitably) sympathetic noises.

Thank goodness for La Nina.  Isn't she a lovely and helpful little girl?

While everyone was away I practised backing my caravan around the yard and lining it up backwards with the various bays of the shadehouse.  I have to back it uphill and round a corner to get it onto my land in Marlborough.

I'll move into it in the next day or two and make sure I've sorted out what my lifestyle in 'the boonies' will need until I get electricity onto the site (in March). There are solar panels to wire up and a generator to test.

I'll leave you with this pic of the supervisors checking on my progress making fitted sheets for the caravan bed.