Still waiting . . .

We had a tense weekend, hence the lack of posts.  By Monday morning we were both a bit stressed out and headed off to the estate agents again.  Things had moved on, more bids were on the table, and the upshot was that we, along with another interested party were invited to make a 'full and final' offer which was submitted to the vendor for his decision.  And so we are waiting yet again, trying very hard not to get ahead of ourselves.  The property has, we feel, such potential, although that comes with a huge amount of grafting which thankfully doesn't faze us at all.  In fact we both agree it is exactly what we need.  We hope to hear one way or another in the next 48 hours.

After the somewhat tense morning, we were really glad to have the distraction of another shift volunteering at the distribution centre.  I think it has been a real surprise to us, just how much we enjoy it there.  It certainly took our minds off houses, and in a way gave us some much-needed perspective again.  I met up with someone I used to work with many years ago - she has been a volunteer for 15 years and still enjoys the work.  We got stuck in, ripping open black bin bags and sorting the goods.  We got a little way-laid with a wonderful collection of old books, some over 100 years old - N and I are both book-lovers, and these really were quite lovely.  However, alongside these little gems was a lot of, well, rather tatty offerings - some people seem to think charity shops are a way of getting rid of their junk.  We had several bags where it seemed someone had simply emptied a toy box into them; broken toys, chewed and grubby soft toys, half-used activity games, bits missing.  Then again, we came across some really nice items which will hopefully sell well.

Yesterday evening we had the 'flat mates' over for dinner.  We thoroughly enjoyed the company, and again it was a welcome distraction.

Today N has defragged the laptop in the hopes of prolonging it's life.  We've also spent quite a bit of time downloading photos onto the hard-drive - now all I need to do is find out how to transfer them from the hard-drive onto the blog!  

The quilt is making good progress.  Two of the borders are on (the wadding and backing need to be stitched as part of the 'quilt-as-you-go' method) and I'm getting excited that the end is finally in sight.  I've decided to press on with this project and finish it before starting/finishing off another project.  Trying to juggle several things at once wasn't working, so for the present it's simply one thing at a time.

Tomorrow we are expecting guests again - son and soon-to-be DIL are staying for a couple of days, bringing with them some new curtains that need shortening.  It's nice to feel useful :-)

Weather news - more rain, more wind.  Torrential hailstorm, thunder and lightening this morning (quite exciting!).  Not so great for those poor people whose homes have flooded, and who are without power.  Lots of flooding along the south and west coasts of England where the sea has done it's worse.   And across the Atlantic, America seems to be firmly in the grip of extremely cold weather - snow, ice and incredibly low temperatures.  Rather hoping that doesn't head over in our direction.