mixed news

More bad news on the car front as the garage phoned to say the BSI unit (controls all the electrics) is completely knackered and that i will need a new one, so the cost has now gone up. Mind you its better that this is replaced now rather than when we move to Shetland. Hopefully the car should be ready Friday, a good job because the car I have borrowed is rubbish on fuel, only 19 mpg a Renault Scenic

With the move we have now received a number of detailed questions from our solicitor which have to be answered before the next stage can begin. Our problem is that they are asking for certificates for the boiler that was installed 12 years ago and the FENSA certificates for all the replacement double glazing, neither of which we can find.

A reply back from the solicitors indicate that this can all be covered by issuing an indemnity insurance certificate. Relief as it would be a problem.

Good news came the way of my certificate for the recent PTTL's  , distance learning course I have just passed, this is a level 4 qualification award in preparing to teach in lifelong learning sector (Adult education). I am already delivering four photography courses in Sheffield.

Looks like spring might have arrived with all the birds singing and displaying, the sun has at last come out after a very long period of wet weather, Saying this may be bad news as winter can come back with a bit.

We are just licking our lips with the anticipation of moving to Shetland next month

looking forward

The weather stills seems to be a problem in Shetland with the worse gales since 1993, making it very difficult to travel by ferry. These South easterly gales are a bit unusual, but it seems the Outer Hebrides are getting even worse winds as it circles around the isles. In Sheffield the wind does not really affect us alot, but occasionally we do get flooded. You have to feel sorry for those people in Somerset, cut off for weeks and little hope of something happening to lift the gloom. Several years ago I was cut off near Meadowhall when the river rose and broke its banks, I had to stop at work until the small hours. During its height the water was flowing up to 6 feet down the road, destroying cars etc, it was unbelievable really, Diane was sat at home unaffected as we live high up on a hill , watching the flooding on the TV. Several day later after the clean up it was hard to imagine that it had happened, our minds cut it out, and the same will happen in Shetland as the winds will drop back to normal, the birds start singing and the flowers slowly begin to grow. We might even be able to witness this.

This week has carried on from last week which proved expensive. No let up with the weather with 90 mph winds hitting Sheffield on Wednesday which caused roof damage to our house. The ridge tiles blown off, two landed on the garden next to the car while a third stuck in the gutter directly over the doorway. Our friend came out to sort out the dangerous one but could not actually repair the damage until yesterday.A roof was blown off one care home near us so we cannot complain.

More cost though as things still went wrong and added to this the car went on the blink, it looks like the BSI unit controlling all the electrics has gone. I took it into the local citeron garage on Wednesday and he ran a full check which seem to clear the faults - constantly running wipers, lights and warnings about brakes, seat belts, anti pollution filter and other things. No problem bringing it home then i looked out of the window to find the wipers going as well as the light being on, this is without the key being in the ignition.I disconnected the battery rather than having a flat.

                                                                                            Rain and more rain

Contacting the garage once more they put me onto an electrical specialist who said straight away that it has become a problem with all French cars. They said they could have the unit repaired and then reprogram the radio etc but it would be out of action a week. They may have a car I can borrow sometime next week . More expense that we could do without.Last night this all changed, I was out doing some portraits when the car started to make a odd sound, so I stopped it and took the key out only to find the engine was still running and there was a burning smell. I quickly disconnected the battery and it stopped. I then had to wait over an hour for a recovery truck which took me down to Aughton to the electrical specialist who waited for me. I then managed to get a lift home from Ron, who was good enough to come out in the wind and rain. It would have taken me about 2 hours by bus and would have to change buses three times.Looks like the car will be off the road for about a week.

                                                                                Could have done with some hot food

Back to the move well that's been on and off all week with no one being able to contact the buyers and their solicitors have only just been in contact today after being chased for three days by the estate agents. Fingers crossed and all that.

Bad week

Sometime things never go right and this week we have had several things go wrong. It started last weekend when the drier packed up needing a new belt, so we got that back yesterday. The gas cooker stopped working and we have just found out the the top needs replacing, so a few hundred pounds of work. Then our car suffered damaged to the rear when a car reversed into it and drove off without stopping, fortunately some one managed to get his registration number and this has been reported to the police.

We will have to look at our insurance to see what the excess is before reporting it. Then in addition the central heating boiler packed up, lucky we had some insurance on it so they have just been and repaired it. On top of this we had a water leak with water coming through the kitchen ceiling from the bathroom, still got to have this repaired.This morning we found out that one of our friends died in hospital after a long illness, so we wait for the funeral date, which should be next week

Diane  is having problems with her blood pressure tablets which are changing again as its too high. We know its finding the right balance but she is getting fed up with the whole thing and wants a break. She has been under the hospital and doctors for all her life so you can understand the concern. Test after test is just increasing her blood pressure

                                                                           Sumburgh a good place to lower your blood pressure

 Just as you think nothing else could happen the car starts acting up, not sure whether this is connected with the bump or not, but the wipers keep coming on , the lights have blown on the front passenger side and the display flashes up with warnings about the brakes, seat belts, anti pollution filter and other things.
All in all a very demanding week. This is nothing compared to the problems people are having down south with the flooding, so we have to be positive

Still not received any feedback from the house survey that was conducted two weeks ago, so that could be good news as it means the move date may be mid march instead of the start of the month.

Always good to see a variety of ships in Shetland

Moving closer

The survey was conducted  just over a week ago and we are still awaiting the results

We now have met again with  Specialised movers, they are very professional and would recommend them to anyone. My sister in law has used them twice already with no problem. The other good news is that they are not increasing the cost. Also they have moved two people from Sheffield to Shetland in the past few years, including one of the ex Sheffield Wednesday groundsmen.

We thought that we had sorted out bungalow in the Sandwick but as it turns out they have increased the cost of the rent considerably since last year, this has become a problem because the Sullom Voe construction workers cannot find enough accommodation so are looking further south than Lerwick and are pushing the costs up. We were told that accommodation north of Lerwick is fetching between £1000-£5000 per week. One thing in our favor though is that alot of people have had problem with construction workers renting,  causing damage and even stealing things At least we can come with recommendations. Also if we relied on the estate agents we would be struggling as well as they only have one up for rent.

People are also keeping an ear open for any houses due to come up for sale. Only two we would be looking at so far which have both  been up for sale for about a year.

Our solicitors are moving the sale on and we have just reviewed the items to be left and confirmed some details about ground rent etc. Although the buyers are pushing for a move by the end of February we would prefer at least the fend of the first week in March as i have three WEA adult education photography courses to finish off and three other photography jobs taking place at the end of February and need time to process them.

 In Sheffield we seemed to be swamped with students with numbers increasing year by year. They too look for houses to rent but find the rate about £300- £450 per month

Phase One : sell house and move out to another property in Sheffield short term until we arrange the ferry
Phase two: move into the short term accommodation with all our belongings going into storage
Phase three travel up to Shetland and stay in rented bungalow
Phase four; Buy a house asap and request that our belonging are sent up from Sheffield
Phase five: get things sorted with the house

Well that's the plan, but the travel to Shetland will be dependent on the weather.

Minor fireworks

Things have started to hot up this week after 5 viewing last week. We then got two people bidding, one only offered once which was too low, but the others started low and increased four times, the last one we accepted which was lower than we wanted but we are taking a chance.

The big news is that they want to move in by the end of February, alot sooner than we wanted. I have three courses i want to finish delivering, all these end at the start of March so hope we can stay for these. We are hoping that we can stop in Diane's mother in laws empty house for a few days so we can arrange the ferry.

We have meetings planned this week with the movers,Surveyors and our solicitors. Most of our things will go into storage, it depends what we can fit into the car, which has got to last us until we buy a house and have our things shipped up.

Our friends Beryl and Maurice are helping to sort out some rented accommodation in Shetland, we know of one property so far so that will help. Cannot believe how quickly its moving, we expected to have around 10-12 weeks but it never goes to plan.

Round the corner a house which had been sold for the third time is back up for sale again, must have bee down to the survey. Another house a bit further away is also having these problems, lets hope ours goes through smoothly. They are first time buyers and have today confirmed their mortgage details and details have been passed to both solicitors.

However you can never count your chickens, things cannot be taken for granted so for now we are not getting too excited. Just hope the survey comes back ok for them.

Strange week

Since Christmas things have been picking up on the viewing front. Suddenly we have had four viewings booked for this week, three have taken place already. One first time buyer arrived and didn't look that interested really but came back the next day with a low bid.(Monday) which we rejected.

The following day nothing, then Wednesday another bid came in a bit better but still less than we could afford to accept, so rejected that one as well. Thursday morning came and the estate agents said two people were now bidding, one who came three weeks ago, again with a low bid and then followed by another revised bid from the first couple , falling just short of what we could accept.  We decided that if we changed a few things we could now come down slightly more than first thought so that left a £2000 short of the very lowest we could accept.

Just to remind us, if we needed that, i also gave an illustrated talk on Shetland Thursday night to stir up a few memories so it would appear this might be our year

                                                                                     Sunset over Quendale Bay

This week has been very busy as well with trying to get all my course work and presentation ready for the micro teaching session and assessment next Wednesday. Not very happy that i will have to travel to Leeds for this when i had originally booked to do this in Sheffield. Will be glad when this is completed as next week I will be delivering three different photography courses at different levels, so alot of preparation

Need to relax doing some photography after next week

2014 dreams

Happy new year  -Well I hope you got the Christmas presents you were looking for. We decided to hold off for our main present and look forward to receiving it early in 2014. The sale of our house !!

On the 1 February it will be  year since we put our house up for sale, sometimes its seems longer. We are not getting disillusioned yet, we still have hope and as we may have mentioned, we still have the option to reduce the price again .

We saw some friends last week we hadn't seen for a while, they informed us that they will be moving to Orkney by June, so we could have close neighbors when we eventually move up to Shetland.Christmas would have been a bad time to move anyway  as Shetland had several snowy days and a run of more than 10 days of gales.

One thing we will miss is visiting Diane's sister and husband and the rest of our friends, its never the same on the phone, that's when its working. We still want to visit Sheffield each year if we can afford it, but we have Skype so at least we can see them as we speak.

There is so much to look forward to, these far out weigh the negatives, no one can move and not feel some regret yet moving becomes a new adventure, a new chapter in our lives and we are keen to explore the islands, see the wildlife, meet the people and see the northern lights and other night sky delights

In the meantime I am taking my PTTL's qualification later this month which allows me to teach adult education courses, so that might be one avenue to go down once we have moved. I really enjoy delivering courses- both photographic and wildlife , meeting people and even building the content. We will see what happens, any way for now we will wait and see who comes to see our house and continue our dream in Sheffield until it happens then we can fulfill our dream.