Breaking Barbie's legs

We had a little party yesterday for the girls, partly a leaving party and partly a birthday party for Georgia.  So I made a birthday cake for Georgia; she likes pink, so I made a pink doll cake like the yellow one I made for Isabella a couple of years ago (on here somewhere).  Last time I made it, as I recall, I managed to use one of those 'fake' Barbie dolls, whose legs come off easily, however, this time, I only had real barbies left as I had been sorting things out to pack and the fake ones didn't quite make it.  I tried to put Barbie in the cake whole, but she was too tall, so I had no choice but to pull her legs off.  I managed to get one off alright, but the other broke (the hip joint, to be precise).  Anyway, she managed to get through the whole 'cake-display' event, poor thing, always smiling through the pain.  But now I can't fix her.  I've packed the superglue and can only find uhu, but it hasn't worked.  Adrian says to tell the girls that it's a 'Limited Edition Heather Mills Barbie'.  Either that or 'Limited Edition Hip Replacement this is what happens if you don't drink your milk Barbie'.

Hopefully, here is a picture of the cake.  But I have problems with the photos on here so it could come out above the text.

Oh it worked!  Fancy that!

So, on Friday morning, the second estate agent came around.  First of all I thought he'd only just got out of bed and not had time for his very small but very strong french coffee, he was clearly half-asleep. Very difficult to talk to, definately had a sense-of-humour bypass, but more thorough than the previous guy, so that was a positive.  Again no commitment on value, he's going to have to calculate it and get back to us at the begginning of the week.  Bracing myself for the typical estate agents sales speak I also asked this guy if they had any nice little local houses we and my parents might be interested in.  'Um, I think we might have one or two nearby, I'm not really sure'.  Not really a good advert for tempting us to go with them to sell our place.

In the afternoon, the third estate agent came over.  Much nicer guy.  Thorough and pleasant to talk to.  Although he also asked us what price we wanted.  Gave up this time and told him.  He promptly added 50,000 euros on to it and said he'd be happy to market it at that price.

Anyway, it's nice to get back to living in a tip again after a few days doing the 'show home at home' look, which really isn't us.  To be honest though, I don't think it made any difference.  House value over here seems to be calulated on square metreage of the property and that's that.  Hence the second agent has had to go away and 'calculate' the value.

Just a little foot-note on the bees, I'm sure you're deserate to know, they seem to have eaten the remainder of the honey and then disappeared again. Cheeky little things.

More bees! Estate Agents!

Well, the beehive mentioned in the previous post has at last been attracting the bees.  Late this morning we noticed lots of them flying around and going in and out of the hive, obviously moving in.  Unfortunately, they're not from round here  - ie not the ones from under the eaves nearby, nor from any of the other eave-bee-hide-outs we have.  They appear to be honey bees and actually I find it all very fascinating.  I'm hoping I'll be able to wangle a visit to see them in situ in the summer.  Here are a few pics:

I must explain the paint job on the front of the house - we are currently in the process of fixing it up a bit and it will look better soon!

The first of the estate agents came this afternoon.  What an arsehole he was.  Typical estate agent mind.  Met him when we went into the agents to make the appointment and didn't really take to him then.  Wouldn't commit to a price.  Kept asking us what we wanted for it, what did we think it was worth.  Well, that was exactly why we are asking the estate agents around, we wanted to know what they thought.  Kept telling me about other houses he's sold and trying to remember the owners names as though I would know them all (local area population somewhere around 50,000 people).  I half expected him to be one of those foreigners who ask you 'how's the queen these days and have you seen her lately?'.   He hardly spent anytime in anywhere, in fact, didn't look at everything (although he did say it looked nice and had been decorated 'with taste'), didn't ask a thing about the business which is part of the sale, or even why we are selling up.  Then I asked him if he had any nice places going in the local area (in case we stay) and he said that he did but he was 'going on holiday on Saturday' 'Are you really?' I respond, slightly confused as to why he felt the need to tell me that. 'Yes, for the whole week, I'm taking the plane'.  'Would you like to borrow my phone, you could call someone who cares?'.  'No thanks' he said 'What I mean is, you won't be able to see any properties in this area'.  'Oh, the agency is closing for everyone to take their holidays is it?' I innocently enquire.  'No, it's only me who's going away, the agency will still be open, but I do your area, so you wan't be able to see any property'  'And no-one else can show us around in your absence?' 'No'.

Bloody hell!  Sometimes I am such an eejit.  Cooked some chook for lunch and boiled up a bit extra to have cold in a salad the following day.  Had a few scrappy bits of chook left over that we wouldn't eat, so I also boiled them up as a treat for the cat.  Drained chook, but too hot to put into fridge, so I covered it with a bit of kitchen paper to keep off flies whilst it cooled.  Returned to kitchen later to find peice of kitchen roll on the floor, one entire piece of chicken breast missing, the other two nibbled at and the little bits I cooked for the cat - entirely untouched.  So she's had some expensive meals of late finishing it up.  My own fault.  But now she wants more and keeps pestering me whenever I go in the kitchen. 

The estate agents are coming in tomorrow and Friday so I have been trying to tidy up the house.  Just got the kitchen and the lounge left to do.  I can barely even get into the garage at the mo, so I'm not even going to bother with that.  One of them (estate agents) rang and cancelled today because they have gone bust.  (Didn't really know what to say to the obviously emotional young guy who called who had presumably just been informed that he had lost his job.  Don't think I'd have bloody called if it was me!!!).  They were due to come tomorrow morning so at least that gives me a bit more time to finish cleaning.  Not sure what they'll make of the beehive currently perched precariously above our front door.  Someone is trying to collect the bees that have set up home under the eaves above our kitchen window.  All it seems to be doing is providing a free meal for the bees who land on the edge of it, eat the honey and then bugger off.  Also the honey is dripping onto the ground in front of the door so we'll probably have an ant infestation by the morning.  But hey, that's living in the countryside for you!

Big Announcement

Ah, well here goes - end of 'the dream' and we are selling up. Adrian and I and the girls will move back to the uk and my folks will stay here. Before you all panic and start calling the estate agents to try to get away, fear not - we won't be going back to the west country, can't afford it! Not exactly sure where we'll be yet, although we do have an idea in mind. And anyway, it won't be for a long time, bit of a limited market for our kind of place, we think maybe a couple of years (hopefully not any longer).

Apologies for announcing like this, but there are so many of you to tell (well, a few anyway), it's the easiest way. And besides, I get to find out who's reading the blog or not! I won't go into reasons why here, but if you really want to know the ins and outs, please feel free to pm me and I'll explain.