More On Diet

If we needed anymore on diet and the low fat regimen that has poisoned a generation or two then here is yet another blog that throws light on what is going on out there. 

In one place this heart surgeon states:

 "Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine."

It should come as no surprise that we are all trying to eat what we are told is healthy food and yet piling on the pounds.  I disagree with the fruit comment especially if you are trying not to spike your insulin.  Today's fruit is particularly bad for you as it isn't naturally occurring - once again you may worry about genetic modification but breeders have been hard at it for a long time making fruit sweeter and therefore high in Fructose.  Think that glass of Orange juice is good for you?  You may as well have three or four tablespoons of sugar!  Man never had year round fruit, he didn't evolve on carbohydrates and a few thousands years of "progress" is not enough to evolve to eat the food that we conveniently pick up in a store.  Not sure how ancient man got his Pizza and Cola?  I like the fact that a Good English Breakfast is pretty good for you  apart that is from the bread and the milk in your tea or coffee :-)  All the worries about fat and frying (as long as it is in fat or a good oil) can go away.  If you use Sunflower or similar oils then you are introducing the problems there not in the fried food itself :-) 

It seems crazy but 100 years ago there were no cardiologists, no dietitians and nutrition experts, very few allergies etc.  Look elsewhere in the animal kingdom and you don't see many obese animals (except pets).  Yet since these new "healthy eating guidelines" were introduced in the 1970s obesity has rocketed as has Diabetes.  It wouldn't surprise me if other problems related to blood pressure and heart disease, allergies, intolerances and many many ailments are caused through diet.

The World Of High Finance

Well not so high really :-) I've been swapping stuff around and moving funds from one place to the next.  It's good fun but sometimes it can be a bit bizarre as you'd have thought that electronic transfer was a little faster than it sometimes is.  I've had to withdraw funds from one place today and it took a couple of hours.  I moved some money over in case we need to put a deposit down on the house tomorrow and it went across instantly :-)  

I'm quite enjoying all this moving money around but I'm going to enjoy it even more to set up my business and to start getting some cash rolling in.  It's a nightmare at the moment as I really want to get cracking but circumstances preclude me from doing that - it's only really that I can't concentrate on sorting the business out and give it full attention and that's because of the atmosphere here but I am pleased to say that whilst it isn't great, it isn't nasty.  It is business like I think it is fair to say.

I was in two minds whether to go out again tonight but once again, I need to put the brakes on that.  Going out is fine but it defeats two objectives - one is losing weight as beer just piles on the weight - liquid bread.  Additionally of course it also costs money and I'm already going out next Tuesday and I might be out on Saturday.  I just need to be careful that I don't spend half my leisure time down the pub.  I tend to spend most of my days and my evenings here at the computer - I leave the downstairs to Mrs. F and L to watch whatever they watch.  Occasionally I will  watch the idiot box.  

I don't need to rush starting the business either - it will take as long as it takes of course.  What I do need to do is to get in, settled and then to get the plan together and execute it.  I am actually planning and pulling stuff together now albeit in short bursts so that I can document it and be ready.

I think it is also just dawning on me the seriousness of the decision I've taken and I do feel slightly daunted but also quite excited too.  In many ways the adventure can get started and I can begin to rebuild my life and it's a strange feeling in many ways but not one that upsets me.  I think I will be upset in reality when I leave and don't need to keep coming back to this house.  But then again, I think that the break, the physical move away will also be the impetus to change and to live life the way I want to live it and under my rules.  I think perhaps Mrs. F. will also then free up a bit - it must be awful for her too with me in the house even though I try and keep out of the way she has a constant reminder of me in the house.  Once I've gone then we will see what her thoughts might be.

I surely hope that the girls will rally around her.  I feel that things aren't good all around but this has been dragging on for quite a while and now we have got past Christmas and the New Year - perhaps things are beginning to change a fair bit.

Alright - That Was Good

Yes - finally we saw a series of houses that were around the right ball-park and big enough, decorated enough and of the right sort of price for us.

We settled on two out of four we have looked at.  I think the one in the middle is a compromise between the three - it's a bit like Goldilocks :-)  Just hope that we hear that things are signed off for Flocky and we can get started and moving!  It really can't come too soon for me really.  I guess the biggest issue is going to be the Internet and utilities getting those sorted out.

I actually felt quite bullish once we'd seen them all - each was sufficiently different from the other to actually make it difficult to compare like for like.  But we aren't going to be there for a long time and we don't want to have a hugely luxurious place if we aren't going to call it a home. 

One of the nice things I like about the place in the middle is it is in the country and it is also only about 10 minutes away by car from my place.  It has access to country walks too so that looks good.  Two others are close to each other, near a station and in a quieter road but a bit further out maybe 20 minutes drive but not that bad.  

The other one is local to here but surprisingly we think it is further from the shops and train station than the others :-)

Anyway - I'm really charged up about them and there's good space and a good location - ideal.

A Little Thing To Make You Think

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.” 
― Rumi

My music tastes have altered as I disengage myself from past friendships and disconnect associating certain music with certain events - it sounds strange but I can recollect what each tune means and how I felt is contained in the melody and/or the words.  Some still unsettle me and so I've shifted towards some of my progressive rock albums and I'm really getting back into stuff that I'd left behind years ago.  Also some new stuff  - this is Airbag and All Rights Removed.

It's quite an interesting 50 minutes of Progressive Rock - well more Neo-Progressive really.  I'm listening to this, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree and Steve Wilson at the moment and I'm retuning myself entirely.  I've had to as I was finding sadness in the other tracks.  It is sad to move on.  I was talking to my friend about how I missed reading to the Children - all the books they had, all the fun of bedtime stories and how I miss that but you gradually grow away and the kids grow up and move on - that's the way of life.  We look back nostalgically to those key moments and we feel sad but in reality we shouldn't because that's the way of the world.  We all age and grow up and it's part of this circle of life.  

I felt I was getting somewhere today at last and it may well be just meeting that one person that I may never meet again but you suddenly see something about people.  Generally we are good and kind people.  I spoke to lots of people at the pub and this young lady too.  Everyone was kind and pleasant.  Life's not half as bad as the papers and the media make it, they play on our ability to beat ourselves up.  I think I just had my "faith in humanity" repaid last night.

I haven't heard back from this chap who wants me to pay him loads of money back on eBay and he hasn't responded to my last response which was for him to take his case to Customer Services.  Mind you it could take weeks to sort the damn thing out.   Not that I worry about that apart from it just means there are loose ends floating around as I move.  I'm sure it will all come out in the wash.

So off in the morning to go look at some houses and see where we stand with that.   It is half way through January now and I think that we thought we would have been sorted and in a place by now :-)  Maybe once we know tomorrow or Friday we can actually sort out and get the place and get cracking.  I was playing with some figures earlier and the hit this is going to make on my savings is eye watering - there the flat, bills and all that but of course, setting up a business all costs money and whilst I can slowly bring in some of the stuff - the key equipment is needed from day one!  Well week one perhaps.  

It's all a big adventure, a new start and a new life.  Whatever happens I just need to enjoy it and not forget that.  Quite how you measure your "enjoyment" I'm not sure but I do intend to make sure that I enjoy my freedom and actually do something with it.

Must Have Been A Good Day

There's nothing quite like getting a little boost and I must have because I spent today motoring on with my Operations and Sales and Marketing mind maps.  I have really not been able to tackle them because my heart isn't in it and the creative atmosphere I need just wasn't available.  Today, I guess my ego has been brushed up the right way, and I'm in a good place, really creative and firing on most if not all cylinders.

It is stuff I really needed to get out of my head but I still don't think I will be properly "in the zone" until I move out of here.  There's some maths I was trying to do last night and I really need to be clear of atmosphere to do that.  It's not so much complex as it just needs logic and thought applied and then to test what I've done.  I fear making a mistake at the moment through distraction.

So I was really elevated by that little encounter, made my day and who knows may be the catalyst to get me moving a bit more than I've been able to.

Off in the morning house hunting.  One of the ones we liked has gone we are seeing three which should help us to make up our minds in the next day or two.

Confidence Boost

I have been in a good place all day today.  Just that one meeting and chat this morning means that I can strike up a conversation and it was OK - I dread it but if I've learnt one thing this year it is that I'm not found abhorrent or disliked.   I am different to a lot of blokes so I suppose it may be that that is interesting about me?

Anyway, I certainly feel OK and suddenly the worries that nagged at me about meeting people aren't quite so stuck in my mind.  I should know this anyway! 

Oh well, she remembered me :-)

I wouldn't be much of an IT person if I wasn't able to find someone's name and address and find them based on a number of bits of information I had about them.  A hobby, their road, their name and surname and voila I know her address and then found her on Facebook and dropped her a note to see if she was alright.  I got a lovely note back this morning saying she was OK and that she hoped she hadn't made a fool of herself.  I assured her that she had not and then we proceeded to have a 10 minute exchange of texts so that's nice.

I like that she said that we got on well and so maybe we might get to meeting up - sober this time? :-)

She certainly is a nice lady. 

The Bad Days Are Behind Us Surely?

I find it interesting that Flocky and I both have similar feelings sometimes - he oftens says that as he listens to me or reads this blog it's just like his experiences.  I feel the same as I listen to him too.

So there's a time when you realise it is not a dream and it is actually happening and you look at your life and reflect and I think you feel some disappointment and regret and of course there's this stepping into the unknown.  In 1998 I set up my business and I stepped off into the unknown and it was a leap of faith - a huge leap of faith as I didn't know much about running my own business - I'd ran other people's businesses and been involved at high level in some household name businesses.  But it was different.  I had an 8 year old and a 5 year old daughter and whilst I had been pretty successful up until then I had existed in a corporate wrapper.  Now I was out on my own.  I had to work it out for myself, do my own billing, chasing invoices, timesheets, expenses and VAT and all that good stuff.  Mrs. F. was there doing the accounts (bless her).  I recollect that first day and my overwhelming thoughts were - as I sat on the train - I am probably earning 4 or 5 times what my fellow travellers were!  In a day I'd earn what they earnt in a week!  Now that may not be a good thought but I remember having it and being very worried about it but around that time I finally realised what my true worth was to major corporations and it was worth them paying me that sort of money as I was good at saving or making them millions.

That excitement and trepidation and in many ways being isolated from everyone as I started is kind of how I feel now.  It is like stepping off a dark staircase and not knowing where that next step is and your foot travelling further than you thought it would and you feeling you are going to fall when suddenly it lands with a shuddering bump.  That is how it feels like now.  It's all different, it's all exciting but also it is also very frightening too.  There's actually a fear of the unknown but also something slightly rebellious about this.  By that I mean that there are some 'habits' I've got into that I don't much like and I want to change those.  I want to cut loose of some of the commitments that I've grown used to (in many ways to get out of the house) that I don't need to do anymore.  I can just release myself from these commitments and go and do more rewarding things.  I like the fact that if there are three ages of man and I've done two of them - I ought to make the most of the last one! :-)

It is difficult moving away from the Status Quo and taking on a new life when comfort and normality and habit guided, regulated and monitored your life.  Imagine that we are now given an opportunity to put all that we have learnt in this past 56 years (in my case) into some context.  To use all that knowledge, hard won and we carrying the tattooed scars of our life to date to use all that to live a life less ordinary and to develop relationships that circumvent and erase common problems of jealousy and greed, that are loving and mutually beneficial, to make someone else's life better or more than that more than one person's life better even a tiny little bit.  That would be worth living for and expending your energy to do?  To make someone else's lot that little bit better.  To be a better friend, to be more tolerant.  To not make the same mistakes again and to use the experiences you had to  not repeat those mistakes and to talk and communicate better, to do good to one another to love and be loved in return.  

Surely a better life is out there beyond my mind's eye and current imagination?  I have to remind myself that no matter what emotions I am going through at the moment, how sad I feel for myself but more for Mrs. F. and my daughters A & L, it won't last forever.  It won't actually be as bad as if I stayed here - I still feel I would have just descended into a deeper depression and would have been no use to anyone.  

The key to this is to realise that the future (yes I know the NOW is the real thing) is going to be good because it is totally in my hands to have learnt from my past and to make sure that those lessons are used to make my life better.

It isn't how I imagined it to be, how could it be?  I wanted something different (well my ego did) and the reality struck home - "you can't have what you want!"  You can have whatever comes your way and that's it.  You make the best of what comes along and you do your best.  

I was lucky last year to have someone actually drag me up and talk to me seriously about my terrible lack of confidence (I know you can hardly believe it).  I was finally made to believe in myself in the most wonderful ways and even today they hold me in as high an esteem as I hold them.  I finally believe that I can be attractive, intelligent, funny, kind, affectionate, caring, loving, deep, intellectual, artistic, poetic, creative, musical and so many other things.  All of these things I was when I was younger and they got kicked out of me by a gradual process of erosion of my soul and who I was.  I doubt it was deliberate at all.   It just happened.  I like the story of the married couple and the wife who changed her man over a period of years and moulded him to her desires, clothed him differently, stopped him doing what he used to do and after 10 years he was so changed that she shouted at him one night "You aren't the man I married!" :-)

We all change, we adapt, we soften and we become compliant.  I wanted an easy life and I never wanted to argue or fight.  What was the purpose?  So here I am 40 years into a relationship unable to articulate to the woman I knew all those years ago what the hell happened and how we ended up here.  I hate that we hardly talk anymore but I have a short memory for we haven't talked for years.  I hate that we are here - but here we are - I can't do anything about that.  I like that many people I know are saying that it "isn't me" but I don't want blame and I don't want people to take sides.  I hope that this is a case where we are both equally to blame (if indeed blame is the right word to use - I don't think it is).  We aren't taught how to be good to each other or how to behave, how our lives will pan out and the stresses and strains of modern life are bad enough but no one tells you what you need to do - well not until it is too late.

But here is a new page.  There's a few chapters beforehand - that's inevitable for I guess I carry baggage with me that needs to be dropped or discussed or something done about it.  The new page is blank waiting for ink and a sentence to start it off.  It is too simple to say "Once upon a time...." but that could be it I suppose.  For now, there's the mitigation of the damage - there's the need to stop talking about 'the wife' and I suppose I call her the 'Ex' there's a point here that I shouldn't appear to be nasty about what's happened for I don't feel that.  I met someone who was really still badly hurt by her breakup.  I see that, I really do, but I don't want that damage on whoever I may meet.  

So many things could happen for me - travel, work away, go to the coast or whatever course may be set for me.  I really don't know yet and somehow I shouldn't worry about it but just do whatever takes my fancy.  Time to dream of the Canal Boat journey, the trip to America, New Zealand and Australia, Thailand and Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai.  I love Paris and Brussels, Milan and Rome - who knows - there's the world out there.  Here I sit in my house of 26 years and whilst I have been blessed and honoured with travel and privilege, why not go and see this wonderful world of ours and just see what life may hold for me from now on.

I don't know if any of that may come true but in 2013 I dreamt of all sorts of lives I might have had.  None came true because the very person I wanted to share it with was unable or unwilling to commit.  That's not a problem either.  The problem I think is that of regret because when and if you are given an opportunity to reflect on your life, how many times would you look back and say "If only......"  I'd like to look back and say - wow what a ride, what a lovely world, what amazing people I've met, what great experiences I've had.   As Hunter S. Thompson said "Buy the ticket, take the ride."  Hell yea....

You only get one life (in this form) so we ought to honour that fact.  The problem being that not many people recognise it for what it is and the gift we have been given is squandered as we don't really appreciate it until our dying throb.  We wander through this life and instead of bringing joy we cause misery and injustice and hurt to others and they do this to us.  Surely there is another way?  Well I think that I will try and explore that in the near future once that page is turned.  I feel that I have brought pain and misery to my family - I very much doubt that it is ALL my fault but again I didn't tackle it earlier but hey we all make mistakes, misread the situation and let things go when perhaps we should have said something.  The same mistake will not be made again.  Well that's my promise to myself.

I will certainly try and be more 'in the now' and forget the past and don't let it haunt me.  You and I know that isn't easy, there's the utter regret of not doing things when I could have.  There's hindsight on decisions made that in those days were the right things and yet looking back aren't :-) and there's those magic moments that promised to lift you out from where I was that never materialised - that promised so much and held so much vision for a bright future that soared and then dropped me to the depths of despair.  That wonderful job, the meeting with my spiritual angel, the opportunities for great things and then the collapse of each one of them into heaps of ruin from sickness, timing, or just plain bad luck.  But I'm alive and despite financial loss, health worries and the despair and depressions that they caused - I'm out the other end and I'm still alive and I'm still breathing and I'm not poor and I have good health and I have lovely friends and so what is my problem?  I'm not in jail, I'm not really ill or anything like that.  I have warmth, food and clothes and shelter.  What the hell is my problem?  :-)  Of course, you and I know, there isn't a problem at all.

I know that the bad days are actually behind me.  I know that I will have to deal with the disappointment of my marriage, leaving this wonderful house and the surrounding countryside and of course my daughters but they are fledging from the nest anyway.  They are independent already - I made them so - they don't need me to be there for them until they want me to be there for them.  I just have to make sure that I am there for them when they want.  It is my covenant with them as their father after all.  There IF and only IF they need me.  As for Mrs. F. well yes - that hurts too but not so much now.  We've had the heavy conversations and it does hurt to discuss breaking up stuff but, do you know, she knew what the problems were and it hurt us both that there wasn't enough common ground to get back together again.  Interestingly, I'd say that may happen but I need the time to make sure it really could.  I won't say no but there's so big a gulf that it would take a miracle but they too can happen.

Blimey this has been a long winded post.  I suppose I needed to get this lot out of my head :-) 

Life and Lemons

Met a lovely lady tonight - full of fun and amusing until she had the glass of wine I bought her which tipped her from tipsy to wobbly drunk.  Lovely lady, lives around the corner from me.  I did what you should do and offered to make sure she got home.  We'd had a lovely 30 minutes although the conversation was somewhat repetitive - but I hadn't tuned in to the drunk bit.

I held her arm home and then she said she'd be OK and so I said goodnight and she toddled off down the road and landed against the fence three or four times.  I followed her and eventually said that I really wanted to make sure she got back to her house safely but - I suppose - rightly so - she didn't want me to know where she lived so I gave her a direct, in the eyes speaking to about making sure she went straight home and that I was extremely worried about her.

She appeared to be heading in the right direction.  I made absolutely sure but didn't round the corner where she lived - I think the stern talking to may have resolved that.

Oh my word she was lovely :-) Divorced, had kids of 11 and 16 but was so amazingly full of life and really quite good fun.  Anyway, she is home (I really hope she is) and will have a massively thick head in the morning to take to school.  I hope she remembers that I took her home and that all I wanted was for her to be safe and in her front door!

There are times when you really need to be a Gentleman - tonight was that night and nothing would have happened no matter what.  I'm surprised she even got to the pub in that state really and it worries me to see girls/ladies in a state of unbalance shall we say.

Anyway - fingers crossed - she's home and she'll just have the hangover from hell to live with in the morning.

Life is so interesting that you meet these lovely people on your journey.  It gives me hope that I will meet someone right for me - tonight was serendipity - it would be lovely if she were to meet me again but if not our lives crossed for a short while and we had a lovely 30 minutes of laughing and joking and sharing our life stories.  

Ugly Stories

Interesting - I wrote a long long long blog last night and had the wherewithal to save it to draft and not publish it.  I may review it and publish it at a later date - it isn't bad but it is very long and is almost a mandate for the future.

I am doing all sorts of financial stuff today and I've had to set up a new account to pick up that one of my ISAs (A tax free saving vehicle) has just dropped it's interest to less than I get on a taxed (after tax) savings plan!  So as they seem to have shot foot themselves I'm going to move it.  It's a not insignificant sum but what it does do is allows me to access to these funds - we were protecting them but there isn't a vehicle available that paid anything like we needed and so this frees this money up which is very useful for me for the future.  

We are being civilised about this and I want Mrs. F. to know the exact position we are in financially.  It is important when we come to sort out the house and everything else that we know where we are.  I've a need to speculate to accumulate and the investment I am putting in now into the business is a long term investment that I see returning in a year or two but it could be a little bit longer.

You hear of all these really messy convoluted divorces where someone just raids everything and makes off with it.  There's the ugly arguments about money and it is worse when there are children involved too.  I listened to the most distressing case recently where a chap just deserted his wife and kids - left them nothing and wanted 75% of the house and goods!  I think he might find himself struggling with that :-) 

I know it is difficult but I hope that we keep things civilised, like it is now.  It isn't easy for Mrs. F. I can see that - I've stripped her of half of what we had and there's that uncertainty about what life will hold in the future.  I can see that I'm going to be burning capital for the next year or two until we agree what we are going to do with the house and whether we are going for separation or a quicker route to divorce.  Whatever it is - I just hope that it can be done without this reverting to ugly scare type tactics that some people feel is required to further hurt and kill off a relationship.  It isn't necessary and we are injured enough surely.  The need to pour pain down on your ex is hardly a good excuse.  

Stuff To Do

I've got a lot of little things to do this week.  It's going to be one of those weeks where I need to just focus on clearing bills and changing accounts and all sorts of stuff.  My ISA has reverted back to paying me next to bugger all interest so need to change that, tax my car, do the Lodge accounts, do the Chapter accounts, transfer a series of standing orders, resign from some associations I'm in and probably won't use again.  

I've shut down all activity on eBay - and shutting it down entirely is being held up because this guy has a case against me - although he has shut right up now I've told him to take his complaint to the management.  I'm guessing now he's been called out and will have to abide by the Ts & Cs of the site he may not be so bold as he sits behind his keyboard.

I wondered whether it might be an idea to fall off the face of the planet by killing off my various social media accounts?  That would be a complete restart!  No one would know where I was or what I was up to :-) Mind you there would be some people that I'd not want to lose off there as it is the only contact I have with them.

Right - best get on with the cashing up and reconciling the accounts!  

Another Weekend Endured

It's a strain on all systems when we try and work out how we will interact with each other over the weekends.  In many ways it was a lot easier this weekend as I was out house hunting and then at a Lodge meeting and laid in until about 11 this morning.  I tend to make myself move away from the computer or try to over the weekend and I think I may instigate some sort of ruling when I've moved to stop working and go and enjoy some "me time".

But I have to say Mrs. F. was OK with me this weekend and I think having L back from Uni is good as she is lively and she is getting out and doing things more.  I'm pleased as I do still feel very sorry for her.  Of course whilst I mention that she is taking it badly I also noticed that I was today.  I think because it is getting nearer and nearer and we are close to getting fixed and me moving out of here and the waiting will be over and I will miss this house as it holds so many memories from us setting up here and having the kids and them growing up etc.  

It is only very recently that things have been bad and it's also not been a horrible time we've had or anything like it.  But I've noticed that I've been pretty awful for a couple of years and I also notice that whilst I still don't know what the hell goes on around here, who is in the house where people disappear off to etc   So not a lot has changed and I'm still in the dark about most things.  At least I won't have to worry about it when I've moved apart from keeping in touch of course!

A LONG Lie In

I have been going to bed late mainly it's avoiding tactics so that Mrs. F. and I don't keep bumping into each other.  The problem is that it catched up with you so I have a super long lie in bed this morning and feel better for it but, of course, half the day has gone by now!

It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining and the frost is melted from where the sun has reached but remains elsewhere.  I managed to gain a large blister on my foot from the walk there and back yesterday!  So I'm slightly hobbling around :-)  

I have to say that I'm in a good and cheerful place today.  I really could do with getting things happening and moving and spending some time organising my life and then seeing where we go from there.  

I had a good day though yesterday and enjoyed a night out with the lads.  A good long walk home with fireworks accompanying me home for part of it was also nice too.  I enjoy walking in this cold weather - I had my wooly hat on and was listening to music all the way home.

A lazy day today and I can get started again tomorrow - I do hope that we will be able to get the process started this coming week.

Mmmmm - not a peep

I really ought to go with my gut instinct sometimes.  Since I suggested to this rogue buyer that he ought to take up his grievance with the management, my guess is this chap is a bully and gets his way a lot.  The hassle factor is, for him., that he'd have to argue the basics of a contract and I think he isn't that stupid to go to war over 99p - at least I don't think he is. What I like?  Not a peep, none of his hyperbole and rhetoric and none of this start off nasty and slowly change your story nonsense to make it seem like he is a good guy.  

He did get me going though but I think that I've pushed the button and suggested he go and argue out the site's terms and conditions with the people that wrote them, he may have drawn breath and re-thought his strategy. I feel chilled about it now.  I was pretty steamed up about it a day or two ago = I just need to realise that it doesn't matter anyway in the big scheme of things.

We had a look at the two properties today and I have to say that they were both good but Flocky and I have slightly different tastes and so we ended up liking a different house but, the main thing here is that one is OK for his needs and I don't actually have specific requirements and so one actually is much better than the other in terms of fit.  Maybe on Monday we can review it and see what we want to do.

Either one fits my needs anyway and so that's fine.  We have also found that the places we saw on Thursday may also now be more "available" to us after a quick exchange of correspondence.

Well the main thing here is that both places suit the basic needs but one stands out and fits all the needs and isn't too far away and is reasonably priced.  It also looks as if the landlord is interested and is local and takes an interest which is also good!

It's been a long day  - I did walk there and back to the meeting listening to my music.  I'm pretty cold at the moment - the moon and stars are out there's a good frost and freezing fog coming in :-)  But a nice night to clear the head for sure.
  

This morning is better - thank goodness

I hate being down in the dumps and I hate idiots (I still can't deal with them even though I should just smile and move on).  I find stupidity (for the sake of it) extremely irritating but that's because I don't get it, like I don't get a lot of things like reality shows and the manipulation of the press to dumb down everything.  The inability for people to think and rationalise and then act rather than acting first - stupid as that can sometimes be.  

So it was nice to see today's moment in my inbox:  

“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. As soon as you honor the present moment, unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love - even the most simple action.”


- Eckhart Tolle

Easily said but quite hard to execute.  I always feel good in the morning because I haven't had time to let my computer of a brain loose on all the "problems" of the day.  My fault is that I see problems where there are none and I find that I don't ignore and move on fast enough.  I can actually do it but like yesterday, this idiot got under my skin.  Because he's a poor lonely Internet Troll, I should just ignore him and move on.  I didn't do that - he made me angry - or rather my brain told me to be angry and of course what on earth is there to be angry about?  Nothing at all, he's made up his mind that he is going to take a course of action and rather than me saying straight away - please take it to arbitration I tried to reason with him.  I suppose there is that in my favour when they come to adjudicate it.  I'm sure this will all be giving him a thrill up to the point where I said enough go take it to customer services who will explain what the word "used" means in context to his purchase (and he knows it and so did I!!!) 

So today, move on, look at some houses, a Lodge meeting to attend and in many ways, I should start to enjoy myself a bit more :-) I'll be away from the computer, amongst some friends and also will have seen a couple of houses that may be suitable.  We have only seen one place that was really suitable which didn't have a garage but there is a cunning plan to get over that.  I've dropped the Agent a note to see if it is an acceptable plan.

Today's houses both look to be exactly what we need but again one doesn't have a garage but we have a plan b for that too.  I hope that either of them are suitable - the second one looks nice and large and is in a very good location, so near to the High Street that you can be there in a few seconds.  It is next door to a club but hopefully it shouldn't be that noisy....  Famous last words.

So it's the morning, it is sunny so I will probably get myself out this afternoon and walk to the meeting (and back if it is nice).  A good walk there and back in the chilly air is just right.  It was funny because when I walked back on Thursday night there was hardly any traffic about.  It might be different tonight but let's see.  I like that after a few drinks, I can wander home and be relatively sober when I arrive :-) 

Is It Worth Worrying About

Gee this guy's persistent so I've told him to go and speak to eBay customer services if he feels he has a case.  He's asking for the postage and packaging back which is a bit rich.  I've told him I'm not doing that.  I've also told him to re-read the condition and review the photographs provided - he's now sent his own.  For the few pence that I may have made out of the deal I've left it for him to go through the eBay process which will deliver a sort of arbitration on this.  

Let's see what they come up with if the guy, who seems determined enough, wants to go ahead with this utter nonsense!  I've just called his bluff and won't answer anymore of his emails as they are very poor attempts to lay blame and frankly for a few pence is it really worth it.  Mind you the Internet makes you big and brave when you are sat at your keyboard.  Frankly if it were me I'd put it down to experience and move on.  

But there you go must be some saddo stuck in his office with nothing else to do but compose long meaningless dribble and send it out.  I don't suppose he likes my one line responses too much.  

It's been one of those bad days anyway - not helped by this saddo interrupting every hour or so with a stooopid email.  Off to see two houses tomorrow and then off to a Lodge meeting in the afternoon which will be nice.  Looking forward to that greatly.  At least I'll be out and amongst some friends.  Still have to be careful as some people know my situation and some don't and my Father-In-Law is there and some other that don't know and of course some do!  Apart from that I suppose it will be fun.

In a few weeks time I'll have to leave it to Carole to tell them that I'm no longer here and to give them my new number(s)!  Crazy times indeed.  I'm a bit annoyed with myself about this idiot upsetting me tonight I can feel my hackles up but I don't like being questioned about my integrity - it's the one thing I hold high above many others, I'm not the sort of person who does this - well not deliberately.  I could just have rolled over and done what he said but actually - you know what - it's a principle thing now.  Hence I've asked him to go direct to the Customer Services people if he feels he really has a case.  It's flimsy and it clearly states "Used" and there are plenty of photos with the item and it also says "no returns"  so in many ways - I think it is Caveat Emptor.  It isn't as if the record isn't playable and "in a certain light at a low angle" you can see this scuff.  FFS!  I wonder if this guy gets a lot of people to send him the P&P back I came across one of these some time ago who really chanced his arm with lost postage.  Interestingly he didn't keep good records so rang a few rings around him.

I have decided though that I'm not interested in doing this anymore - it is just full of hassle and people who want something for nothing.  The number of people who tell you what they are willing to pay for P&P despite the fact that you quote it.  

Oh well - let's see what happens and let's drop it and move on.  I have bigger fish to fry in my business - I'm sure I'll get some toss pots with that too but at least I will have the say about reparation and it's in my Ts & Cs.  It's late again - I don't like going to bed early here - it will be different at the new place - I will get back to business hours and that will bring its own discipline.

My eBay Buyer....

This guy that has a problem with a record I sold him has now come back and suggested that this "mark" on the record - which was originally a big graunch and across the whole surface is now hardly noticeable unless under a certain light.  I've not played this lot back to him as of yet.

I'll wait until both sides of the story are played out and then show how the big problem, is a little problem and is now not much of a problem.  for 99p purchase is taking up a lot of his time he wants the postage back - I don't think so.  Will be interesting to see where it goes - I'll just shut the bloody thing down I get fed up of dealing with people like this.  

The Ups & Downs Of Splitting Up

It's a real roller coaster of emotions and reactions.  Yesterday was a case in point.  We looked at a number of potential houses to rent.  That's OK?  Sure it is.  But your mind races on to what will it be like and how will it work out.  Not that worrying about it will help but it just makes things any easier.  

I think I may just disappear off the radar for a short while and close down stuff that I don't use.  eBay being one that just p1sses me off.  You do get some stupid things on eBay and everyone wants "something for nothing" which appears to be a disease of the Internet connected world.  I find that these sorts of people drain your energy and bring you down.  So that can go now, it served its purpose and so that's fine.  I have some other similar accounts which I intend to go through and cull.  My email address will be changing too soon and so that will also help as if I miss any to shut down, the email will bounce too.

I really cannot get going on the business planning - I need space, time and inclination and to be in the "right mood" to do it.  The atmosphere here can easily be cut with a knife :-) The place is also cluttered full of packing boxes, bubble wrap and is untidy which doesn't suit my organised mind one bit :-) I think the move will resolve that as I will be in a space that's peaceful and tranquil without the dread of bumping into Mrs. F.  It's painful to both of us to be in each others presence.  So sad really that it's come to this, I feel sad writing this because I think it's a shame that as I know look back I did try a number of times to repair and change all this and it never succeeded.  How I hope that she gets over it and gets to the other side and moves on.  

Getting out of here will free her up as well as me I have no doubt.  To me it is one of those things that has been coming down the line like a slow motion train wreck - it was inevitable and the nearer it got the greater the feelings of dread, the depression and the angst and I realise now that so much of the problems I had after my brush with Cancer were additionally caused through, I suppose, the realisation that this would be the end point.  It was certainly in my mind that things had changed and that life wasn't going to be the same and that collateral damage had and would be a result of it all.  I had to be at home more often, I couldn't get away with working away or working all sorts of long hours.  It truly is, in hindsight, amazing the lengths I went to not to tackle the problem. 

It's all day by day stuff as people say it is and that time will heal and all these things are true but there also a point where it's a matter of, if you are changing your life, then you might as well go and change lots of things at the same time.  I can't be doing with lots of the things that I have in the past that now feel like baggage and so I'm sort of thinking that I may as well cut these loose too and move on.  It's a funny thing to say but I've wasted a lot of time avoiding the issues by signing up to internet sites and distracting myself.  They are time wasters and drains on me so they've got to go as has anything that doesn't actually do anything for my quality of life..

People?

Sometimes you can't get people.  So I've received a complaint about a record I've sold which was sold "as is" and Caveat Emptor.  The guy got it for 99 pence plus P&P and wants his P&P back because he tells me the record is ropey and scratched.  I have suggested that it wasn't and that he had adequate opportunity to ask before bidding and that the photos show the condition.  Frankly I don't give a toss and so I decided to shut down all my accounts with the company as they really think that it is worthwhile pursuing this line of enquiry.  

From my point of view - everything will be locked down tomorrow - all bids have been taken off, all items taken off and they can go sing for their money.  I will shut down that and all accounts after being a customer for 10 or more years.  I don't really give a toss over 99p anyway but what it did was just say to me - why bother...  You get all these money for nothing types and low lifes on there.  Frankly for the price the guy paid he may as well have gone down the road and bought a pint of beer.  Dick!

I'm actually thinking of really limiting my internet exposure and all my social media stuff soon anyway.  Just use what I need to use and be done with the rest of it.  It's just too much hassle and I'm sure it will be easier to simplify my life than make it complex - or any more complex than it ought to be.

Viewing - Such Diverse Places

Having not gone house hunting for years and years.  You tend to forget that you see all sorts of houses in all sorts of states.

Funnily enough Mrs. F. chose this present house - I was working away and came to see it with her after she had seen it first.  It really is a nice place and I will be sorry to leave it.  At one time I thought that I'd live the rest of my natural here :-)  

I recollect us seeing some pretty appalling places when looking for our first house but being put off buying a lovely old Victorian Town House which today is worth millions :-)  Such are the cards we are dealt.  I'd have had to do it up but I was "in the trade" at the time so no real problems...

This wind and rain is certainly sorting out the properties though.  The damp patches we have seen must be due to the rain being blown under flashings and I'm guessing it's three or four houses we have seen like that.   

The very first place we saw was great but no garage.  The next place we saw was way out in the country but very cold, old and didn't quite fit our needs.  The next place was quite nice but couldn't quite work out what was wrong with it - it didn't seem right although the place was pretty nice inside and out.  On a busy road but again it wasn't too noisy.  A real nightmare to get out of the drive though.  The next place was nice, but difficult to get our heads around because it was fully furnished.  It was an interesting property nonetheless and could work for us.  So of the 4 we saw only the last one fitted our needs.  The First one if it had a garage would have been perfect!  What a shame.  We are meant to be viewing one tomorrow although I've not heard back on it and 2 on Saturday.  

It's difficult - as with all of these things - to get precisely what you need of course but hey ho a few more to see and then we may need to make our minds up fast.