Shopping delights and vexatious people

Wednesday 27 May 2015

Hot and sunny 26 degrees

Up early for house take on.  The day is already hot and the banks and hedgerows are full of elderflower, cow parsley and dog roses.  Tiny clouds float nimbly in the bright blue skies. The house is one I had on sale many years ago.  A British couple made a full priced offer and the owners were so difficult that they backed out and went and bought elsewhere.  You think there is no such thing as a difficult seller.  Dear reader, I assure you there is - more to follow later on today.  

I arrived and a man was bent double over the water meter and banging it with a spanner. He is obviously a man like OH.  When the kids were little and the heating wasn't working in our house in the UK, our neighbour came out to look at it and RJ instantly ran and got the hammer.  He was very surprised when the neighbour said he wasn't going to use it.  The occasions when OH doesn't use the hammer are still rare.  It turned out to be the neighbour and the friend of the owner appeared from the house and let me in.

It is a wonderful contemporary property with pool and some views of the Pyrenees.  I had it in mind for a British couple (lovely ones and not emmeurdeurs) who had missed out on another property in the locality by hesitating too long.  I took photos and measured up - with difficulty as the rooms are all different shapes and then went down town for a coffee.  

The day was busy and the town was looking rejuvenated after a big rehabilitation programme by the local mairie.  It was just after 12 but I thought I would have a wander along the high street.  I came upon a shop which was chock full of the most ravishing things and managed to spend 30 euros in no time at all.  

Gorgeous hand printed and sewn card

I cant resist beautifully packaged and presented soap

I only wish you could smell this green tea - dates, almonds and flower of osmanthus

Another lovely card with baggage label as note to write on

Got home feeling happy.  A woman with transport and cash doesn't really miss her husband. For quite some time.

Walked dog and spotted some wonderful wild gladioli that are just asking to be repatriated to my garden before they are shorn off by a farmer.  Back home and planted out all the cuttings that I have taken over the past week and then had to lug over 100 litres of water in cans to rehydrate my new plantings and the veg garden.  At least the slugs and snails are having a hard time of it.  I will have muscles like Stallone.

Things started to kick off.  I get an email from the mother of the seller who lives out in the Middle East.  They have started complaining again about things which they already knew about and had forgotten.  Ended up by seller sending me a really nasty email saying they would not extend the period of the sale and the buyers must pay up or shut up.  As it is just a question of transferring funds, they are not being reasonable.  It is not the buyers fault that the bank will not let her transfer all at once.

Also got an email from a nutter who had registered to receive updates and then complained when I had emailed him, saying that I was spamming him and employing lots of capital letters in his email.  He signed his name and put solicitor underneath it.  I don't think he is a solicitor.

Had had enough of vexatious people so turned everything off and had some red wine and cheese and crackers and watched programme about the Plantagenets.  Apparently name came from Henri of Anjou's habit of wearing broom or, to give it its latin name, genista.  Planta genista = plantagenet.  

To bed and read Terry Darlington whose writing I love