27th September, 2015
Blue sky and strong sun all day although the temperature is beginning to drop this evening. Pauline is enthralled by the night sky, stars, planets and the moon. Harvest moon tonight appeals to me because of the poetry and romance associated with it. For Pauline, it is a scientific occurrence that is fascinating.
It is reported that:
The Moon will turn a rusty hue in the early hours of Monday and may seem larger in the sky. The event is caused by a total lunar eclipse coinciding with another astronomical event called a ‘supermoon’.
We are also told that Surrey will be cloudless at 3.00 am when the eclipse is likely to be viewable. I have a feeling that I may be tired all day tomorrow.
28th September, 2015
Tired this morning. I was in bed at midnight last night and then woken to get up and view the night sky at 3.30 am. It was worth it though and we didn’t even have to leave the bedroom to be able to watch the moon turn red.
We woke again to another beautiful day of blue sky and strong but obviously lower sunshine. The day reached 20C/68F. We continued to tick the jobs off for our move in ten days time. Pauline also produced questions we want to ask about our new house build when we drive down there tomorrow morning.
29th September, 2015
The gorgeous weather continues. We are about to enter our final week here and we are driving down to Sussex this morning to see the progress on our house. The temperature is 20C/68F once again with strong sunshine. The journey is really enjoyable and the South Downs look wonderful in the sunshine. We arrive in about an hour and discuss the minutiae of kitchen fittings – units, flooring, taps, etc.. We discuss fitted wardrobes, Hall flooring until I can take no more and we fix a follow up meeting before we leave for our month in Tenerife.
We drove down to the village which was bathed in sunshine. There are a couple of pubs – although we never use pubs at all – a Post Office, a Co-Op, a Butchers, Bakers and Odds & Ends shop. There are a couple of restaurants and a church. It is a stereotypical English village with a cross on a triangular green in the centre. All is as it should be. The locals seemed very friendly. Some even spoke to us.
30th September, 2015
Already the end of September. We are in our last week in Woking as citizens. It doesn’t feel as momentous as some house moves we’ve made. After all, we’ve only lived here for two of the four years we’ve owned it. It will be about twenty weeks until our new house is ready to move in to but we will be abroad for about half of that time. In our tradition, I ordered a framed picture of the property to put up in the next Study. It arrived today, only cost me £50.00 and took five days from ordering.
The sun has shone all day again and the temperature reached 23C/73F. We sat outside for an hour or so and Pauline griddled sweet-fleshed sea bass in the garden. We ate it with salad. What a wonderful meal!
1st October, 2015
Happy October!
It’s a glorious morning here in Surrey but I suspect it is across Britain. My old stomping ground of Ripon in North Yorkshire is featured in a lovely photo on the front of The Times this morning.
This is Studley royal park. When Jeremy Corbyn comes to power, it will be renamed Studley Park.
2nd October, 2015
Needed some financial advice. Phoned our private banking manager. Asked a couple of salient questions. Met with a blustering response. Found I knew more about the situation than the banking manager. A bit disconcerting.
Last time we sold a property, we had to split the proceeds between four, separate banks. Each bank guarantee of deposit covers £85,000 per person or £170,000 for our joint accounts. Because it is a Europe-wide guarantee, it is expressed in Euros (€100,000) and then converted to Pounds Sterling. With the declining strength of the Pound, this guarantee will reduce in January to £75,000 per person or £150,000 for a joint account. The one caveat to this is that the FSCS will provide a £1 million protection limit for temporary high balances held with your bank. Proceeds resulting from the life events such as Real Estate transactions (property purchase, sale proceeds, equity release) are categorised as temporary high balances.
One would have thought that a personal banking manager, providing a service we pay highly for and supposedly an expert in exactly this sort of transaction, would have this information at her finger tips. When I read the details out to her directly from the Financial Compensation Services Scheme website, she expressed surprise and pledged to instruct the rest of her colleagues at the bank. Good luck with that! If she applies, she could pass her GCSE Oral with that speech.
3rd October, 2015
The end is nigh. We leave our apartment in five days but the Study has to be dismantled TODAY! I’ve been putting it off. I can do it no longer. Normal Service is going to be disrupted.
The broadband router will remain active until minutes before we leave so I can use Wi-Fi on my laptop and iPad but it’s not the same.
The trees around us are turning to glorious, autumnal colours. The lawns were striped by the gardener yesterday. Why does it always look so nice when one is leaving? But leave we must. The next stage of our journey is beckoning.
RIP Denis Healey – a boyhood hero of mine -who has died at the age of 98. The world of politics will miss your strength.
