All Germy!

A by-product of socialising more is being exposed to more germs. I've only been to my new craft club twice and I caught a horrible cold that's had me stuck indoors for nearly a week so I missed my slimming and craft clubs this week. 

I've still got a rough throat, a grumbly chest and lots of mucus. I didn't leave the house at all for 2 days, only popped round the corner to Aldi on a couple of other days and managed a trip there and back to town twice because I was going stir crazy. Today was the first day I really got out for longer than half an hour. We had to go to Argos to collect a new paper shredder; our old one finally gave up the ghost under the onslaught of documents we've been shredding...why on Earth did I think I needed to save bills from 10 years ago, and insurance documents for policies we haven't had since we moved here in 1999? We have honestly shredded sack loads of paperwork. 

DH now also has the cold I kindly passed on to him but isn't quite as bad as I've been, so in between more decluttering and on the way to collecting the shredder we popped into Wetherspoons for breakfast. It was nice to sit down away from the mess of bags, sacks and bits and pieces all over the place, and have a good natter. 

We're doing extremely well with sorting out though, even though we still don't have a moving date and the week we'd hoped to move is looking less likely as our buyer is being a pain in the proverbial. 

He offered on our house weeks before we found the place we're buying and we accepted his offer because, despite receiving several offers around the same price, we were assured he had his finances in order. He's holding things up because his searches aren't back due to his solicitor using an agency to apply for them, whereas our solicitor and our seller's solicitor applied personally. In addition, it turns out he needs a small mortgage because, as a developer, if he buys totally by cash the money laundering laws means he can't then purchase another property for 6 months. Of course, his building society now have a backlog of applications so we've only had their surveyor round on Thursday for his valuation survey.

I want to know why he didn't apply for all this within days of us accepting his offer. Both ourselves and our sellers came to the process several weeks later and yet we're all ready to go, our sale and purchase contracts have all been signed and are waiting with our solicitors to exchange. If we can't complete and move during the week beginning 13th Feb (half term week) it will be difficult for both us and our sellers as we both have teachers in the family. 

Anyway, in the meantime, DH and I are still planning as if we're moving that week. We're working towards getting everything out of the house this week that we won't be taking with us to the new house by either donating, recycling or ditching it. The boys are taking a lot of it to the hospice charity shop around the corner and DD3 will come over again on Saturday to take the masses of paper to the recycling centre, and the bags of rubbish to the tip. 

I'm doing well at reducing the contents of the freezer and have made a casserole tonight using leftover Xmas chicken and gammon and a pack of stew veg. I have a whole chicken and some sausagemeat, and there's also half a bag of frozen roast parsnips so we'll have a roast during this week. I also have a small gammon joint that I'll cook in the slow cooker. It will make a meal with chips and beans, and any leftovers will do for sandwiches. I've packed away some of my kitchen equipment including my soup maker so soup is off the menu for a couple of weeks unless I make it the old fashioned way. 

That's all folks. I've been up since 7am, started clearing and cleaning almost immediately and have probably put in 10 hours graft including making dinner and a microwave jam pud, and doing a load of laundry. Considering I'm still not 100% healthwise I've done well, but now I'm cream-crackered and off to bed shortly. 

Hope you've had a good weekend. Enjoy the remainder of your evening. Love Helen xx