Bank Holiday Again...

      Well here we are at the last Bank Holiday of this extraordinary Summer.  And I really don't know where the time has gone. Big Grandson has been staying with me for the long weekend because everyone else is away! His Mum is on a weekend break with her Bloke and a couple of friends, and Granddaughter is away with her Dad and his parents for the Bank Hols too. Weirdly though, it turns out that they are all staying at the same Caravan and Camping park near Chichester! I don't imagine that they are actually socializing though - although  I gather from Grandson that they are close enough to see each other. Oh the joy! I can just imagine it and feel quite glad to be here.

      Big Grandson and I went out to the local Car Boot sale this morning, while it was still sunny, and he found two real bargains: one was a tripod for his new camera, for only £1! and the other was a large  canvas of the Avengers, which is just up his street, for only £2. Bargains all round, and then we went on to my favourite Garden Centre (Rushfields on the way to Henfield) where we enjoyed coffee (me) ginger beer (him) and a light lunch. What was so lovely about it was that we mostly felt quite normal, and only had to put on our masks  when we went in to browse the Farm Shop. Home again now and it's grey and  cloudy so we had the best of the day really.

      I'm in a quandary again because my possible house sale has reappeared. I have been thinking about it of course, so I shouldn't be surprised - but the local agent phoned out of the blue to say that he had a possible cash buyer for my house if I was interested. It seems my house has increased in value since last year and that would help hugely. What do I do?  Son says I need a plan (and he is right) but he doesn't really help by sending me details of lovely houses near them in Sitges, which I can't afford unless I win the Lottery, or unless we join forces and live together in something with enough space to live separately (if you  see what I mean). Oh it's all a conundrum. And Daughter doesn't want me to  move abroad, understandably. But finding somewhere here that I can  afford isn't so easy either. Here we go again! Son's other suggestion was that I could sell up and then put everything in store and go out there for a couple of months. This is a good idea, because I would then have a bit of time and space to decide what I really want. And the money would be ready and waiting. That's if we have the luxury of choosing where we want to live after bloody Brexit. Oh dear, I feel stuck in indecision and that's a fact. Help!

Sitting Pretty...

      I'm still sitting  here. but not sure for how long. I have actually been to look at an apartment that's for sale in Hove, well West Hove actually, and on the border of Portslade. Despite the dodgy address (at least as far as Hove purists will think)  it's rather nice and I am tempted. It is smaller than this, but  has some character and possibilities. Anyway I'm going for a second viewing this afternoon (with my trusty tape measure and notebook) and with Daughter, who can be relied on to take a practical view.

      Well, the practical view was that it's too small and also on the corner of a pretty busy road, so the garden made it a bit vulnerable. Also, it had a burglar alarm, which is always a stumbling block for me. (The only time I have ever felt insecure was when Son was a baby and we lived in the middle of nowhere, in a beautiful farmhouse. It had a burglar alarm which would go off regularly in the middle of the night and made us totally paranoid. Usually it was set off by an owl swooping past or something similar, but it was horrible.) Of course, being on the ground floor anywhere makes one vulnerable, sadly, in this day and age. And I could see the point that it wouldn't be a good idea to "lock up and leave" on my trips to Spain. So there it was.

      Never mind, none of us  knows what is going to happen lockdownwise and viruswise, not to mention Brexit, which I dread more with every passing day. It's all such a a mess, and the mess is actually worldwide it seems to me. 

       Part of the family have decamped from Sitges to Poland for a couple of weeks, mostly to escape from the extreme heat there, though Son has stayed in Sitges and is working from home. Warsaw is  apparently a bit cooler, but not much. (And in fact it's about as hot here!)

       Daughter and family are fine, in and out of the paddling pool in the garden, and Granddaughter is dividing her time between Daughter and  her Dad. Big Grandson is spending part of each week with me, just to relieve the monotony really (for him not me) and continues to eat me out of house and home. It has become the new 'normal' which is actually far from normal if I'm honest. 

      The big news is that we won the Virtual Pub Quiz last week (among our teams that is). My theory is that our team of two had the oldest (me) and the youngest (Big Grandson), so were able to cover a wider range of questions. BG knows all the pop culture answers and I know most of the 'historical' ones. It's a system that works, and I think we'll do it next week too. We scored 41 out of 50 questions. 

      Time to go,  I've been wittering on for long enough.