My Kind of Town
Hello from Chicago!
I arrived yesterday afternoon, after an uneventful eight hour flight, to be picked up by Rob in his Soccer Mom-bile. A light dusting of snow covered the ground -- an exciting sight as we came into land. Unfortunately we had rain overnight and all the snowmen have been washed away.
A glass of champagne and a couple of beers also washed my jetlag away. Last night we ordered pizza in and played some boardgames with Mark, Dave and Kate. An easy first night. The guys were a little surprised to see me still up at ten -- it was a 23 hour for me -- but whereas in the past I might have been a mess, India has trained me to survive on a lot less sleep than before.
In flight movies were:
The Bourne Supremacy -- pretty good.
Dodgeball -- really funny.
After a good night's sleep -- I only woke up once at six (just like home!) -- I cooked breakfast and we headed out to Gameworks for some video game acton and then a movie; National Treasure -- it's mediocre and anti-British (as usual these days with Hollywood).
Tonight is Tapas in Arlington Heights -- the original plan had been La Baton (go search on google) or the KitKat Club but they were booked up (my Gay Night out will have to wait until midweek) -- followed by drinks at the local sports bar.
It's not a holiday though...
Other notes:
Rob's apartment is very cool. Lots of floorspace and nicely decorated. Certainly might steal an idea or two for our new home.
I'm missing my wife and baby already.
Big kisses from the Windy City.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
House News
We've accepted an offer on our house -- £202,500, a little below our "minimum acceptable" -- but only because we have offered (and had accepted) an offer on a large four bed detached house on the modern part of Thame's estate. Our purchase is a bargain and will set us up for a long time: the house represents 2 steps up on the property ladder for us. We are excited, and it ticks all of our boxes and more.
Mum is helping us with the Stamp Duty and moving costs -- the only reason we can afford this leap up.
The ball is now rolling and if everything goes smoothly, then with luck we may well complete the sale mid January: the chain is our cash buyer, us, our vendor who is going into rented -- i.e. a good short chain.
Fingers crossed.
We've accepted an offer on our house -- £202,500, a little below our "minimum acceptable" -- but only because we have offered (and had accepted) an offer on a large four bed detached house on the modern part of Thame's estate. Our purchase is a bargain and will set us up for a long time: the house represents 2 steps up on the property ladder for us. We are excited, and it ticks all of our boxes and more.
Mum is helping us with the Stamp Duty and moving costs -- the only reason we can afford this leap up.
The ball is now rolling and if everything goes smoothly, then with luck we may well complete the sale mid January: the chain is our cash buyer, us, our vendor who is going into rented -- i.e. a good short chain.
Fingers crossed.
Black Friday
I was going to update this last Thursday, but thanks to a nasty little virus passed on by India (she was poorly for 2 weeks), I was off work again with ANOTHER chest infection. Hardly the best preparation for my exam tomorrow.
But it was to get worse on Friday.
We had been looking forward to receiving news of Sara and Stashers new arrival: Sara was booked in for a cesaer.
Instead I got news that my grandad had dropped dead.
Seven weeks after his wife had died, my gramp seems to have died of a broken heart. You hear of these things all the time when elderly people suddenly lose their life-long loves and partners, but having seen gramp doing so well over the last week -- he seemed to be back to his normal self according to my mum -- the fact he's gone is a real shock. I can't believe it really. No chance to say goodbye. No chance to help me get over gran's loss by talking things through with him. Quite simply a terrible blow.
We await the Coroner's post-mortem report tomorrow: As gramp hadn't seen a Doctor since gran's death, and his collapse was so sudden (he had spoken to his neighbour five minutes before he was found dead), a post-mortem is required.
Frankly, this year has been dreadful, with all three of my surviving grandparents dying. The only consolidation I can take from gramp's death is that he is now where he wanted to be.
The silver-lining of the day was the good news from Sara and Stasher that tempered our tragedy suffered:
Rory Edward Neville was born fit and healthy. 5 lbs, 12 oz
Congratulations Mum and Dad!
Edward was my gramps name...
I was going to update this last Thursday, but thanks to a nasty little virus passed on by India (she was poorly for 2 weeks), I was off work again with ANOTHER chest infection. Hardly the best preparation for my exam tomorrow.
But it was to get worse on Friday.
We had been looking forward to receiving news of Sara and Stashers new arrival: Sara was booked in for a cesaer.
Instead I got news that my grandad had dropped dead.
Seven weeks after his wife had died, my gramp seems to have died of a broken heart. You hear of these things all the time when elderly people suddenly lose their life-long loves and partners, but having seen gramp doing so well over the last week -- he seemed to be back to his normal self according to my mum -- the fact he's gone is a real shock. I can't believe it really. No chance to say goodbye. No chance to help me get over gran's loss by talking things through with him. Quite simply a terrible blow.
We await the Coroner's post-mortem report tomorrow: As gramp hadn't seen a Doctor since gran's death, and his collapse was so sudden (he had spoken to his neighbour five minutes before he was found dead), a post-mortem is required.
Frankly, this year has been dreadful, with all three of my surviving grandparents dying. The only consolidation I can take from gramp's death is that he is now where he wanted to be.
The silver-lining of the day was the good news from Sara and Stasher that tempered our tragedy suffered:
Rory Edward Neville was born fit and healthy. 5 lbs, 12 oz
Congratulations Mum and Dad!
Edward was my gramps name...
