February 2004 Archives
I finally remembered that I'd heard a trailer for this on Radio 4 late last night... and had drifted off to sleep drumming the need to remember it into my weary brain....
"This" it" is a programme about Ted Dick and Myles Rudge who are the comedy* song-writing team responsible for A Windmill in Old Amsterdam, aka A Little Mouse with Clogs On. Woo Hoo!!!!
So, where and when is it on?
BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 02 March 2004
11.30am-12noon
* I'm sure Phil would disagree!
Snezana and Voja are currently planning Teodora's christening and last week Snezana emailed me to say that they have decided to have a small do, just immediate families and closest friends. And that includes me, and Phil, which makes me very happy!
Today I got an update from Snezana telling me that they've now booked the ceremony for Sunday 18th April, which is My Birthday!!! So I've been looking at flights to Beograd....
- JAT Airways (Yugoslav Airlines)
- JAT Airways (London)
- Visa requirements as specifed by the Consular Affairs section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro
... not without significant hyperventialation on my part.... I'd not spotted that Alan's email on Friday had actually included the fact that someone had made an offer at the asking price, which made the emails he sent yesterday read rather oddly, and it wasn't until he emailed saying the offerer had been chasing him for my response that I knew that I had an offer. gulp.
Sent an email formally accepting the offer, and headed off to Phil's on an adrenaline high. It takes things (i.e. selling, buying, moving in together) one stage further, which makes things all the much more real.... especially as getting my flat on the market and having all the viewings has mainly taken place whilst Phil's been away in the States. But we had a lovely evening last night, which reminds me that all the stress (and it's been remarkably stress free so far!) is worthwhile.
James from Curzon Wilson made me laugh when he asked if I actually lived in my flat, as it was always so spectacularly neat and tidy!
Phil alerted me to Douwe Osinga's Visited Countries, which has been doing the rounds of EtCon bloggers.
I created a map of all the countries I've visited ..... 42 so far:
Americas
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Canada
United States
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Russia
Serbia and Montenegro
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Vatican City
Asia
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
China
India
Australasia
Australia
New Zealand
Fiji
Cook Islands
On the Simmons & Simmons website home page, and with the public-friendly url http://www.simmons-simmons.com/takeovers/.
We had 2 requests from Numiscorp/Numis Securities Limited for copies of the Code Index within minutes of the links from the home page going live.... don't ask me how they were so quick off the mark, but it's quite satisfying to get real people responding at this early stage!
I've just looked back over my analysis and project records, and see that it's kept me occupied for the past 217 days... the initial request came in on 10 July 2003 and the TCR launched (one day early!) on 11 February 2004. And Mark's already asking about scope for future development.... this one's just going to run and run.
Seeing your home on sale online makes it seem all the more real....
Had plenty of viewing and interest (and low offer), but CW are advising holding out for the asking price. The agent from JH (who I've realised really reminds me of Anthony Bott) phoned to query the asking price... reckoning that their higher valuation was definitely achievable. I'm not enjoying this.
... as in I've finally got them all up on http://photos.sparklytrainers.com (aka the fantastic fotopic).
The main reason for the delay (unusual for me I know!) is that I had to resize some of the larger ones I took in Chile. Over-enthusiastic use of all the Ixus' maxumum settings for dimensions and resolution/smoothing meant that I had pictures that were 1+MB in size.... waaaaaaaaay too big to do anything useful with. So I used a batch process in Phil's Photoshop to scale down all the ones taken after 21 November, and then had to file them in amongst the full scale photos, and then select the ones to upload to fotopic. Except that I wimped out on that last step and just uploaded everything! As you will see if you look at the El Chalten / Fitz Roy collection ..............
Cor, it's Go! Go! Go!
After meeting with all three contending estate agents, I decided to use Curzon Wilson to sell my flat (sniff) last night and telephoned all concerned to let them know this morning. Main reasons for picking CW were that (1) I'd bought through them and get on well with Alan Wilson; (2) the valuation was consistent with another of the agencies (although not the highest); (3) their fee was the lowest, by a couple of points of a percent.
... and the first viewing is arranged for 10:45 tomorrow!
I also instructed solicitors on the sale of the flat: Chandresh Bhatt of Bishop & Sewell, as recommended by Phil and Master Cronin.
Chandresh ran through some of the preliminary steps involved in selling a share of freehold flat with a mortgage:
1. Seller's solicitor requests deeds from the mortgage lender. eta c 1 week.
2. S's sol. sends out Seller's Property Information Request to Seller. eta up to me!
3. S's sol. sends out Freehold Management Questionnaire to Freehold Mgmt Company. eta up to Mr Turner (!)
4. S's sol. prepares contract based on details in deeds, SPIR and FMQ
5. S's sol. sends contract, copy of lease and freehold flat management particulars to Buyer's solicitor.
6. B's sol review contract and negotiate as required
I'm not 100% sure of that being the correct order, but I think they are the key steps for the start of the process. Progress reports and update will follow in due course.
Next stop: moneyextra to sort out a mortgage....