I must resist... I must resist...

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 21 December 2005 13:47:06

One of my students has just given me a parcel which I'm sure consists of some chocolatey item. Just a moment while I put it in my bike bag, I'm slightly less likely to break into it then!

We've spent the last couple of days furthering our Property Empire. As a friend put it "it's a bit too late to be a babe magnet, and I don't want to be a fridge magnet, so I think I'll go for property magnate". When my grandfather died, we came into some money, and although it's taken a while to sort out the transfers from the US, releasing from various places etc., we are now officially Better Off. It seems sensible to do something with it other than buy wool and clothes from Boden (my idea) or a sports car (his idea). The idea of a holiday cottage was suggested, but neither of us can think of anywhere we really want to spend every summer for the next 15 years, nor are we terribly convinced of the benefit of holiday cottages in rural areas where locals can't afford to buy, but we do like visiting London, so we've been looking for a flat. If we can't let it as a holiday flat then people in London always need places to live...

We had a good time charging round London at Estate Agent Pace (very fast) or our pace (slow, with many stops in coffee shops) and found a lovely flat but we, and the agent we were dealing with, were a bit miffed to find the owner had an offer through a different agent that he hadn't told ours about! We saw another one we quite liked so will try and remember to keep you posted. And if anyone needs somewhere to stay in London, we will have very reasonable rates, I'm sure.

Just finished reading (it was, as advertised, a page-turner so I finished it last night after starting it on the train on the way home!): A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Highly recommended, very funny and also quite poignant.