June 08 - 118 (and counting) sleeps till Chistmas, but don't tell Deb!

[EddieIzzardismyhero]

Welcome to our new, cosy thread. Log fires, big jumpers and Christmas shopping .

What do you mean it's still August?!

Knitting I was just going to make do with nice stripey stockings but today my mum has turned up with all the sequins/beads that she inherited from my grandma and suggested that a bit of tasteful sparkle on them may be acceptable. Lets just say that I was easily persuaded...

That's crappy about your bank, Neenz I would change asap if I were you.

Poppy that does not surprise me in the slightest that Santander are worst for customer service! I spent an hour on hold last night and gave up in the end. Spoke to complaints this monrn, they were useless too. I have heard FD are good - will swap to them. Switching was (just about) worth the hassle for the £150 Santander have given me (so far)!

Abdn, why do you delay the start on the washing machine? Do you get cheaper electric at certain times?

My current account is with smile and I've always been really happy with them.

I use the time delay on my washing machine if I'm putting something on overnight or before I'm going to work - I don't like wet clothes sitting in the machine for too long.

neenz exactly what DGT said.

We bank with HSBC and they're decent, they've a free premier banking service that you'd be eligible for I expect neenz (they're not as strict with the rules as it says either) and we always get to talk to someone quickly. That being said, it's a pain as they don't have a full office up here in Aberdeen so it takes ages to get appointments for financial stuff.

Book club tonight at mine, I should clean the house or do my hair or something (caught in torrential rain multiple times today, including the school run with 4 kids in the van so I look a bit bedraggled) but I can't be bothered.... I need to sort out the nanny's PAYE tax payment too and that sounds easier and I can sit down.

Our buyers are driving us to distraction, you all know how long this has been going on for, well at the moment they are saying that they expect to exchange on their property next week and complete at the end of the month. At this stage would you know the date of exchange or not? We just end up feeling like they are keeping us in the dark regarding their sale and we can't get on with anything until we know for definite that it's all going through.

So, for those of you who moved recently did you know beforehand which date you would be exchanging?

We are so scared of packing up, booking removals etc, etc just in case their chain collapses. Having said that we have prebooked our currency when there was a dip the other week, now it's gone down even more and we've lost 10,000 so far Dh is ill with it all, and neither of us are sleeping.We have no house organised to go to, no school for the boys and no job!!

No advice, I'm afraid, the house buying system is so different in Scotland. Really sorry to hear how miserable and stressful it all is though. for you.

Oh Deb - that's awful for you especially with it being an overseas move and the currency etc. I know that Knitting was going mental with exchange dates shifting around and people further down the chain not being straightforward about things. I am sure it isn't your buyers intentionally trying to mess you around, they are probably as uncertain of the situation themselves. When we exchanged on this house our vendor announced the next day that he wouldn't complete for another month because he had his kids staying with him for a holiday. We were so annoyed as he would have known all along, and we had given notice to our landlord. It all worked out in the end though. Nil desperandum (as my Dad is fond of saying)

Deb I feel your pain it is awful! Yes it's quite usual to be mucked around on dates. I was going out of my mind thinking we were going to be homeless, our buyer needed to move in fast and our sellers weren't finding anywhere .... A colleague of mine eventually said she could rent us her house short-term at no notice if we needed it and I am eternally grateful to her - we didn't in the end but it wasn't till about the week before when we knew we were definitely moving. Bloody ridiculous system!!!

I'd think about what things you can do now which wouldn't be irrevocable if it fell through, like starting to pack, maybe booking removals if there isn't too much of a cost to cancel them - or at least getting provisional dates for that? - and remember everyone always says 'it all worked out in the end' but the process is so stressful. I found it far worse than childbirth!!

Debs Hope you get your dates soon. When we last bought/sold our we didn't excahnge on the day we had planeed to due to our buyers deciding they wanyed another £2000 off our property. Exchanged a fews days later on a monday and completed the friday after which was awful as we hadn't even started packing as we really didn't think we were going to move that soon!

I passed my exams! Hooray, no more written exams left, just a big clinical exams that I can't sit for about 2 years. The relief is fantastic!

Deb Exchange dates generally are not set in stone, they just 'happen' when the lawyers have everything ready. It is at this point that the completion date gets set and you have as much say in that as anyone else, so decide how much time you need after exchange and tell your solicitors. They should have a 'good' idea of when Exchange will happen, although our's kept slipping this summer due to the chain.

Biscuits fantastic news about your exams. Well Done!

Thanks everyone, I've had a head in the sand day today and I've been baking instead, never mind selling the house, I'll be the size of one before this sale goes through.

Will get some more boxes out tomorrow and maybe even pack some things like Systems said. I did get rid of 100 paperbacks today to an English bookshop in Salzburg.

Biscuits -CONGRATULATIONS on your exams I'll have a drink for you tomorrow to celebrate, can't believe that it's taken me 5 years to discover "Sturm", it's partly fermented wine, fizzy and delicious but apparently very strong!!!

Well done Biscuits!

Bleary eyed here, Caitlin has been poorly the past few days, I think a cold; thought it was passing but was up in the night with her watching sodding Justin Fletcher for 2 hours while the paracetamol and ibuprofen got h er temp down enough to go back to sleep. I am reluctant to bother with after-hours GP for what I think is just a nasty cold and they would just say to do what we're already doing; but it has been hanging around for ages and her temperature keeps going up again ... see how she is today I guess.

Sorry to hear about the house hassles Deb.

Biscuits - Well done on the exams!

System - Hope C much better today. I know what you mean re: drs. My SIL is at the GP pretty much every week, whereas I never go! Does that make us negligent? Just off to google Justin Fletcher - realised you mean Mr Tumble. How did you stand it?

Wonderful, wonderful weekend here. Pure sunshine - and I mean a good mid of UK summer kind of day - lovely, lovely, lovely. Although I must paint my toenails, even R keep pointing to my naked toes in my flip flops. And I better do it before the bump gets any bigger....or I could just do it in the morning, I wake up bumpless and go to bed with a watermelon sized one, what's that about?

Neenz - Satander sound awful. Pls can you remind me which sling you liked using with Daniel? I know you told me before but I can't find it in old threads.

Think I may be spending a lot of tonight on the internet, DH is watching Wild Hogs.

deb hugs re moving - it sounds very stressful. It's a different system here in Scotland and we don't have this uncertainty - I don't know how you're coping. With the exchange rate, we got hit by that when we moved here too, once it's done it's best not to think about it at all.

congrats biscuits!

hope C's better systems...

thanks abdn, just seen out-of-hours as she got worse this morning, bacterial tonsillitis and mouth ulcers - this is what hospitalised ds just after C was born if anyone remembers - but she doesn't seem as bad ss he was and hopefully the anti-b's will kick in in the next day or so.

fingers crossed sybil you must be glad you took her in right away!

oh the poor thing, hope she picks up soon.

She woke up in screaming agony after her nap but a couple of ice pops and some ibuprofen later and she is now running round with water spray and a cloth cleaning the house [bemused slattern emoticon]. If she carries on like this I will have a two-tone house, clean up to about 3 foot high everywhere ... So I think, although we're in for another rough couple of days, she is going to be OK.

I had horrible flashbacks when she started screaming about her mouth this morning though. Her brother was really really ill when he had it (didn't eat or drink for 48 hours, hence hospital, IV, morphine, horrid) and it does bring it all back. Just the same age as well.

I need to pay more attention while posting, she has just sprayed and wiped my trousers as I'm in the way of her cleaning systematically around the kitchen, I'm soaked!

Aw, bless her! Must be so hard relieving those memories though .

System when she's better perhaps you could send her round to my house? Hope she doesn't suffer too much.

LOL at all the requests for some cleaning help - we could use it around here too.