Putting my flat on the market

I only planned to pop up the road to get a newspaper, and ended up selling my flat.

OK not quite but that's about what happened on Saturday morning. I have to pass two estate agents on my way to the newsagents and so I thought I would pop in to see if any of them had anything good for sale.

With the first agent I went to look at an OK property on the other side of the island and mentioned on the way back that I was just about to put my property on the market with another agent. I had planned on going to the other agent and sorting it out, that afternoon. So the agent, being a salesmen, offered me a deal. 1.5% fee rather than 1.95% they had offered when they valued my flat the other week. The other agent was offering 1.85% so I accepted the deal and will let them market the flat.

So the process has started hopefully it won't be too much of a roller coaster ride.

Protecting the Stormtroopers

Last week was the 8Th London Sci-Fi festival, which we are regular visitors too. Well regular visitors to the Sci-Fi pub quiz which is held on the last day and is a slightly alcoholic but fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

This year I decided to give a little back and volunteered to help out. Most of my duties were things like tidying up and manning the front desk, but there were a couple of stand out tasks.

One was helping out in the projector room, the festival which is mostly movies is held in a cinema in central London, seeing all the bits of equipment and reels of film.

The other top task was to be bodyguard to some Star wars Stormtroopers, who were helping to promote the festival. They may have ruled the empire and fought their way across the galaxy but they needed guarding from the general public so their armour didn't get damaged!

Decision in principle

Went to see the Mortgage advisor yesterday to give me a firm figure of how much they are will to give me.

They couldn't quote me much in the way of valid rates as it was the last day of the month and apparently they all change on the start of the month (they could have told me before hand) still I'm still 3 months until my old mortgage switches to the expensive standard variable rate so should be able to sort something out nearer the time.

I checked their rates this morning and the 3yr tracker has dropped 0.5% from yesterday.

So in theory the money is sorted, the next step is to get a HIP (home information pack).

Birthday treat and advice

We (Russ, Nick and Myself) had a great little birthday trip to Thorpe park adventure park.

We raced around with priority tickets, tried out most of the rides and got a bit sun burnt (it rained all week and was sunny, just long enough for our trip, which was nice!).

The best ride was Nemesis, with lots of lovely looping and a real feeling or whooshing back and forwards.

A word of warning, we did a ride called the Samurai which rotates on three axis and really screwed up our balance for several hours. fortunately we did that ride after all the other, as the park was closing, and so we could wimp out of doing any more because they wouldn't let us.

I still get the odd 'body memory' of flipping over backwards now after 5 days.

And now a word from our sponsors

Well I survived the talk
It took about 10 minutes in front of about 100 people. People laughed and asked questions, and nicely for me said afterwards that they enjoyed it. I drank three beers straight down afterwards and I'm quite glad I don't have to do anything like that again for a while.

First Thursday

Oh my one of the drawbacks of working for a funky media agency is that once in a while you have to do some funky media agency stuff.

I've been picked to give a presentation about myself in the big company wide meeting in a section called Knowing me Knowing you.

I have to give a quick talk about myself with slides.

Two people get picked per month and I was unlucky enough to be picked last month while I was away skiing.

30minutes to go wish me luck...

The Knives were out

Well I missed it the big board cull at my old company has happened. I found out last night that the Americans did what we were all predicted and got rid of most of the board, only Alan, Richard(who most still blame), Susie and Nick and the lawyer bloke are left.

The board after selling the company to the Americans presided over the downturn in the companies fortune, making a load of us redundant and the watching as most of the rest of the company resigned, due to them having ripped the heart out of the company.The morale has been really bad and they must have been having leaving dos every week.

The people who were forced out and nearly all in much better positions (except for Rob who's still at leisure) and now most of rest of the company (or at least IT) are in better positions as well.

Valuation Weekend

As part of my plan for selling my flat and moving to some thing bigger (2 bedrooms) I needed to get the flat valued.So on Saturday I had a day sitting around waiting for estate agents to call and value the flat.

I picked three agents partly because they were local and partly because the were on the bigger property websites (primelocation.com, propertyfinder.com) and in the case of the last one because they have just sold a flat in my block and the sold board is nailed to the front.

First up at 10am (and me with a hangover from a pretty good works night out) was a lady from Rubicon. They are the nearest agent, at about 10 doors down the road. She had a good look around, made notes and quoted a price of 215K.

Next Up at 1pm was a chap from Alex Neil, the company I used as a managing agent while I was letting the flat out, they quoted 220-225K partly based on a load on flats nearby on for 230K which were a bit smaller but had water views (a big thing in docklands where I live if you can see the river Thames or a bit of one of the dock the price goes up) and partly on other units they had sold in my block.

Finally at 2:30pm just as a huge rain storm started was the posh lady from Franklin James. She completely turned me around by say I shouldn't try and market the property above 250K (I hadn't planned on it after the first two estimates) but the flat was a good size and she quoted 245K.

They all said the market is still quite good and that a flat like mine would sell in 4-6 weeks. They also all explained about getting a HIPS pack and about sole agent agreements.

It was all very interested and quite fun once the hangover had gone. I'll now have to sit down and think my options through.

Clocks go forward

It's so nice to go home from work while the sun is still out.

It makes you all positive and thinking all is right with the world even when you have to travel home using London public transport.

Back from Skiing and still walking

I did take it easy. In the end I did 5ish days of skiing and only fell over the once.

I found it quite tricky to turn right as my left leg would drag slightly behind me. However I do think some of the technique I learnt last year help so I didn't just try and turn using my knee joint.

I stuck to Green and Blue runs and was going fine not staying out until I got tired until, on Wednesday I fell over while almost stationary. Just one of those over balances that happen on skis some times. I fell on my right side and just ever so slightly twisted my left knee (basically just the weight of the ski and the boot). At first it felt quite sore and I couldn't get enough
power through it (tried to push but nothing happened until I push down with my hand) to clip back into the binding. So I quit for the day.

Oddly enough walking around on it didn't hurt so I guess it's a slight pull on a muscle that you don't normally use for walking! I figure the general weakness of the knee made the twist worse than normal.

So I took it easy for the rest of the week, just a three hours on the Thursday on some green runs (actually bloody scared due to all the out of control beginners rocketing around) and took the Friday off to be a tourist and do some site seeing.

It was a good holiday and I glad to say that being able to ski properly again looks good.

Just have to wait until next year to give it another try...

Personal Trainer

Yeah I'm trying out a personal trainer at the gym. he says I need to do lot of work on my core muscles.

He had me doing planks (which I'm quite good at) things with the gym ball (for stability as the things go all over the place when you try to do sit ups on them) and press ups (again using the gym ball to make it harder which I'm really rubbish at). I'm not sure how long I want to do this as its a bit on the expensive side but from the grumpy signals coming from my stomach muscles today it should do some good.

It's all getting a bit Yuppie isn't it! Next thing you know I'll have a flat in Docklands and a pair of red braces...Oh hang on a minute...

Back in the flat

Sort of moved back in this week, well just for a couple of days, before I go off skiing for a week.

The place is in pretty good nick and clean. Except for a few bits of wear and tear (as the management company called it) and something tells me I didn't stipulate that he had to be a non-smoker (the sofa got a good Febrezing).

It's very empty and tidy at the moment I have to see how I can keep it that way.

Off to the snow

Yes I'll be careful

A gentle week in Les Deux Alpes. Just trying to get my nerve back.Actually I'm more worried about moving around the town when not on skis, watch the ice!I've been packed really to go from over a week and I've been to the shops and brought the Bourne identity books to have something to read on the trip


I can't wait

Ivy's party and a Sleeping Dougie

At the weekend Ivy had her birthday party all based around a teddy bears picnic. there was small people and teddy bears everywhere.

I now understand that a childrens birthday party is a compleate bedlam!

Fortunately a very large pot of Tea was available for the adults and it was fun to see my sister in teacher mode controlling the chaos.

Dougie slept straight through most of the noise and attention.

Brecon Beacons

So we had a good time in the Brecon Beacons and my leg more or less managed to get through it.

We stayed at a lovely little cottage in Talybont-on-Usk (SO119216)

http://www.breconcottages.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=CM.cottage&Propref=BANK&startmonth=0

which looks like the owner had been watching grand design et al.

We did two days of walking including a huge 9 hours and 12 miles walk around the Pen-Y-Fan horseshoe and on to Fan Y Big and a Wellington bomber crash site. We ended in the dark with our head touches by the time we got to the bomber and a couple of more hours afterwards back down to road.

Techincally it was still a bit beyond me and using polls to help your balance is very tiring when you have to pull them out of mud and long grass. So by the time we got back I was dead on my feet and could hardily move, but to be fair Colin and Mark wheren't in much of a better state.

As a result we made sure saturday was an easier day with a just couple of small sunny hills to a pub lunch and very long flat walk back in the rain to cottage. The saturday walk was a full outing with the girls and baby Abi, as well.

Sunday was an easy day, as we were all a bit tired. A lessurely breakfast and then a slow train home.

Discharged

It was a very quick 10 minute meeting. Nipun, the Physio had me stand-up, sit-down and jog up and down the room.

Then he said 'is ok?' and I said 'yes'.
He said 'are you jogging?' ('yes' I said), I mentioned that I did some walking at the weekend just said I went for a bit of a walk.
'and cycling?' ('yes' I said)
'and have you joined a gym?' ('yes').

'Good' he said and that he'll discharge me.

I told him its pretty good now mostly just klicking when I bend it. to which his reply was don't klick it!

He told me to keep focus on the straight leg lift (sitting straight up on a high backed chair and lifting your leg locked straight out in front of you) and to keep good posture

I asked him about skiing and he said don't ski for a least 6 months, and to get a second opion from Mr Parmar, my surgeon (not likely at 145 quid a go)

So I didn't tell him about the trip in march and said 'thank you' and 'good bye'.

A firm hand shake and I was out the door.

Douglas Daniel and a long walk around Pen-Y-Fan

some more good news...

I'm an uncle again.

Douglas Daniel Waring (7lb 15oz) arrived very early on friday morning and is doing very well. As is very nearly a family tradition I was away doing something vaguely adventurous, this time walking in the Brecons.

He managed to arrive in time for his sisters birthday on the Monday.

Friday a conversation in the Pub

'Your beard has got really long the last couple of days.'

'Er I've had my hair cut....'

Interviews

It's really bizzare but I've been asked to do a couple of interviews. That's interview people for a position here rather than the other way around. It's a fairly odd experience as I start by explaining a bit about the company and the position, both of switch I'd don't really know about yet...

Feb 18th

It's sorted my tenant will be moving out on the 18th Feb. Not quite sure what notice he actually got in the end as the management company got a bit confused (not good in a management company!) but it was meant to be two months.

Oh well, its sorted now, and I'll move in just after, its a Monday so slightly odd.

And I can have a sit down and decide if anything needs fixing up before I move a load of stuff back in. Most of it is just twenty metres down the road at the storage unit, so that's not a problem.

The flat still has the same kitchen and bathroom (more or less) since it was built (around 1993) so may be its a good time for some new stuff.

Anyway the Lads will be happy with hotel Dunhill will be open again for London visits, or at the very least, the sofa...