The Real Estate Blues

This is our beautiful hallway painted expertly by my dear husband with hand crafted quilts on the wall from my friend Marilyn in Ohio. Special quilt hangers that fit on the picture rail in animal shapes also hand carved and painted by my multi-talented husband. I didn't know he was artistic until this year.

So far 2 lookers for the house and no offers. Not really surprised as winter does seem to deter house hunting for some. Plus it seems that half of Cowra is on the market so prices are low and buyers are thin on the ground. We did drop the price a tad after a similar house in the next street sold at auction last weekend for $145k. Shocked! We are getting impatient to move north. Might have something to do with the weather - brrrrr.....

Nevertheless, our hopes are high for a timely sale and we have our lifestyle change to look forward to once the money is available. The house is a unique place with so many things going for it and that special person who will fall in love with the place on first glance has yet to materialise, but they will, dear reader, they will. Bwahahahah - *wrings hands with glee* - Oh well, you have to be positive or you may as well cut your throat.

Keep on Smiling........

For sale - one federation style house in Cowra

We finally have the house on the market and have had our first inspection last weekend. I was so excited to see the house on the web (http://www.realestate.com.au/ and search Cowra then look for the house with the heading "easy walk to town"). The photos turned out really well and the old place looks great. The first inspection was by a young couple with 3 girls. Unfortunately for us they have their house for sale as well and naturally, must sell before they can buy. They seemed keen as the second bedroom and sleepouts would make a great girls bed and playrooms.

The sign is on the fence and we are willing a buyer with a fat wallet to materialise and take the house off our hands. The orange tree is laden with sweet, juicy fruit and thanks to the recent rain, the garden is looking wonderful.

So if you have been thinking about a "tree change" now is the time. Come to Cowra and for a measily $220,000.00 you can have this beauty on a 1011sqm block only 2 blocks from Woolworths.

Any takers???

The Foot Saga

It continues....... after a visit to the surgeon a couple of weeks ago, I have decided NOT to go under the knife. He said 5% of them don't work, 5% chance of bone infection, by fusing one joint the surrounding joints get extra strain and will eventually break down. It is 8 weeks in plaster with no guarantee of success. The waiting list for surgery is 12 months minimum. So, I am going to have a couple more cortisone injections on 15 June and see how they go. It can only be an improvement on what I have now.

The pain is mentally and physically draining and I am fondly reminiscing about the days when I used to be able to walk around the park with the dogs. I am flat out doing a circuit of Woolworths these days before I start limping. My foot wear consists of slippers and one pair of sturdy laceup shoes from the Athlete's Foot. The rest are unwearable.

Well, no more complaining about the bloody foot. I am stuck with it and I will try my best to just live with it. "What can't be cured, must be endured".

Shit!

My $500 foot

Regular readers of my blog will recall that I have a crook left foot. Well, it is worse now as I have osteoarthritis in the TMT joints. I can't walk very well and am limited to 2 pairs of shoes. All my fashion ones are gathering dust in the wardrobe. I am almost at the point where I need a stick to get around. Anyway, I have bitten the bullet and made another appointment with the orthopedic surgeon in 2 weeks time so my $500 foot will be increasing in value. *sigh* he said last time that unless the injection improved it, the only thing left was surgical fixation. If that is the case, it will be worth it if I can get rid of the pain and be able to walk properly again.

To be continued...........

Eagle Boys Pizzas

I have been a big fan of Eagle Boys Belissimo pizza since I first tried one 5 years ago and to tell the truth, I have only ever tried one other sort so whenever we ordered pizza on "cheap Tuesday" (coz it is only $6.95 for a large pizza) it had to be the Belissimo. Lovely Italian flavours, plenty of veg, not too many meats, juicy kalamata olive slices and with a sprinkling of parmesan to finish off, quite delicious really.

Recently Eagle Boys have added new Premium pizzas to their menu and to my shock and horror, they have deleted the Belissimo pizza. I was told by one of the staff at our local outlet that the Tuscan (one of the new premium pizzas) had the same flavours as the Belissimo but, of course, Premium pizzas cost MORE than the regular ones and are not included in "cheap Tuesday's" menu. That night we ate Chinese instead.

Now get this - their TV ad that is introduced by comedian Dave Hughes, states that "we have added 11 new pizzas to all your old favourites..." which, my friends, is fundamentally incorrect as there is now no Belissimo on the "old favourites" menu. I am a stickler for truth in advertising so I emailed Eagle Boys and complained that there was no Belissimo on the menu any more which happened to be the only pizza I liked and then politely pointed out that their ad was incorrect and when were they going to fix it.

Quick as a flash I received a response from the National Opperations Assistant to say that the new Tuscan premium pizza was different to the Belissimo whilst still retaining the same flavours and they would send me a voucher for a free one. Instead of sliced olives they now had olive halves and instead of diced tomato, they had sliced tomato and instead of grated parmesan, they had shaved parmesan thus pushing it into the premium range. They failed to address the matter of the misleading TV ad entirely.

Not to be deterred, I emailed back and asked when something was going to be done about the ad and was told that she had passed on my email to the marketing department and would get back to me ASAP. A few days rolled by and no response. So I contacted them again and received the following response:

I have just spoken with the Marketing department and they can confirm that as of Monday 11th May our TV ads will no longer mention the ‘old favourites’

So, victory for the little people. I can't help it if I am a bit pedantic but the ad was a blatant lie. If it had been another pizza that they had deleted instead of my good old Belissimo, I probably would not have bothered.

Oh well, I think I'll have Chinese tonight.......... what say you people???

Seachange

*fanfare* We are going to do it! This year we are really going to do it. Lots of people talk about doing it but not many do at our age. Most of them do it when they are a lot older and some wait until they are too old to do it and end up doing the same old same old until they drop off the twig, poor bastards. What am I talking about?

Retirement!!!

I have been semi officially retired since fracturing my T7 vertebra last July (osteo) and Matt's PD is starting to interfere with his ability to do such a physical job so to save him from wearing out too soon, retirement is the only option. What were we going to do we wondered? We don't want to stay here doing the usual old things and wishing we were somewhere else.

No, so we are selling the house, buying a caravan and going to live on his sister Loretta's land at Lismore. She has 11 acres just 5km from Nimbin and offered us space to park the van indefinitely. Just one small catch (there is always a catch isn't there?) Matt will have to potter in the garden, grow some organic veggies, play bowls, and have a good time relaxing. So naturally, WE ARE TAKING IT.

We have had the agent around and signed the agreement, spoken with the solicitor who is getting the contract for sale ready and after a little cosmetic painting and cleaning, the house will be on the market in 2 weeks time.

To be continued, my favourite TV show just came on.............

Byeeee 4 now

Things to do - notes to self........

update blog on: lifestyle change, healthy-ness, size -n-shape stuff, visit to Nimbin, ......... hmmm........what? Oh it's you.........I didn't realise you were reading this - he he he - just a few notes to remind me to get on with it, so...... keep watching this space........

no, not this one :-)

the next one .........


.................. :-D