It’s all happening here

“For some time no one had heard our clock, any more than if it had not existed. But for these last few days the living-room was quiet, and then I heard that it was still ticking away. It never let itself get flurried. Slowly, slowly went the seconds in my grandfather’s timepiece, and said as of old: et-ERN-it-Y, et-ERN-it-Y. And if you listened hard enough you could make out the sort of singing note in its workings; and the clear silver bell struck. How good it was to hear once again the note of this clock in which there lived a strange creature! And to have been allowed to stay here in Brekkukot, in this little cottage which was the justification of all other houses on earth, in the house that gave other houses purpose.”

The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness

Have you noticed how many people you speak to, have just, or are about to make, some big change in their lives? 

People are about to change jobs or looking for work, have moved house, bought land on a bird migration peninsula in the north of Europe, are changing cities, countries, schools, have published a book or launched a podcast.

So it is with great excitement that I can now tell you – we are selling our flat!

A young couple viewed it at the end of July. It was their first flat viewing, and in their words, they ‘fell in love with it’. They offered us almost the asking price (the asking price had come down by £100,000 from the rather inflated over-valuation in March).

We accepted!

The surveyors have been around, their mortgage has been approved and we are due to exchange contracts in 2.5 weeks. 

Please pray that the evil sorceress doesn’t cause any problems for our sale.

We then made an offer on a house we’d liked for some time. There was, however, another buyer (a family friend of the seller) who’d also just offered. When we offered, the other party raised their offer and we could not compete! Funny thing is that we weren’t all THAT disappointed – even though it was the only house (out of +-23 we viewed) which fit what we were looking for (albeit rather too expensive). So we’ve returned to our original plan, to find a ‘fixer-upper’ at a not-so-frightening price.

All of this happened in early August.

I’ve been trawling through the property websites and there’s been nothing new for weeks and weeks. Then, two weeks ago, out of the blue, a fixer-upper appeared online. 

We contacted the agent right away, but we were told it’s actually off the market. It wasn’t supposed to go live, but the agency had just changed their CMS and a computer glitch has been blamed. Hubby and I are hoping we were the only ones to see it for the few hours it was online. 

Apparently the seller is ‘thinking’ – she had an almost-sale in June that fell through. Long story, but we’ve been promised a viewing this week. 

Hold fingers, toes and thumbs and please pray. Otherwise, as of the end of October 2021, Hubby and I will be a little bit homeless.

Meanwhile, if you are planning some big (or small) changes that excite you and freak you out at the same time, that’s okay – I encourage you to DO IT AFRAID!

My sister’s podcast

Our friend’s book

SMALL PRINT:
P.s. My sister is the one who has launched a new true crime podcast. She’s on episode 11 (or 11.5) now and getting wonderful reviews. I encourage you to check out It Happened Here. I’m hooked. You can listen on all sorts of platforms – I listen on Spotify.
P.p.s. Our friend MMM wrote a book over lockdown, it was published last month and she is now signing copies in all the bookshops in Notting Hill. I look forward to my own copy.