Hello from Wales

[Welshgirl]

ello peeps n fanks fer all yer replies - no, i can't do it, i just can't type like Dawn

Anyway, yes - tis a bitter-sweet pill, being back in Wales. My heart is torn about being back together with my lads and the rest of my family, and missing everyone and everything in NZ. I feel so complete with my boys at my side again, and yet so incomplete away from my wonderful hubby and my wonderful NZ

Weather is surprisingly nice - cold but generally sunny. People are a mixture of friendly and arrogant. Been without transport since I got here, so haven't done as much visiting and sight-seeing as I'd have liked, but hopefully I'll have a car soon, so I can go and bother all those people I've been meaning to

I check in from time to time but am on a crappy laptop that keeps having mong attacks and is so slow, I could post a letter to NZ before a page opens in internet explorer, so I don't post much - MB, that is my excuse for not playing Scrabulous very often too!

Anyway, off to do stuff now - one of the things I am looking forward to is going to Winter Wonderland, a big area they've set up in Cardiff with a humungus big wheel, ice-skating, fantastic Christmas lights - just what the festive period is all about

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by Welshgirl

ello peeps n fanks fer all yer replies - no, i can't do it, i just can't type like Dawn

Thank God for that!

Good that all's going well for you in Wales and even the weather's being kind. We must make sure next time we go back to the UK that you're there at the same time, as you always seem to get good weather, whereas we get unseasonably bad weather. Last time we went in August, just as you left, having had a scorcher of a summer there. As soon as we arrived it turned very cold and cloudy. We must be baaaad people.

Originally Posted by Welshgirl

I check in from time to time but am on a crappy laptop that keeps having mong attacks and is so slow,

Your laptop experience sounds just like my normal, everyday Internet one.

[selchie]

Actually I am surprised you get on line with us as much as you do. Our Scrabble game is rolling along quite nicely. Keep enjoying your visit!

[Taffy]

I'm still here, don't worry about me! You're right Selchie, MB is the star around here, along with all you other peeps who so kindly offer your time to help others.

WG - I hope you're not blowing your $5 a week budget

[MotherBear]

Thanks, Taffy, but this particular star might be losing some of its shine in the coming months as I become distracted looking for a new home and packing up this one. If we do manage to find one it could mean that it'll take months to get a phone line in (if there isn't one already there) and, therefore, an Internet connection will be non-existent. They're very slow here. It'll have to be back to dialup for me.

If we can't find a house (a very real possibility with what's been going on here lately) hubster and I will be down on the beach with all our worldly goods around us. There definitely won't be an Internet connection then, of any kind.

Am I still young enough to become a beach bum?

[Dawn]

Are you being evicted or something MB? And your bum's never too old to be on a beach!

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by Dawn

Are you being evicted or something MB?

Hit the nail on the head, Dawn. Got our notice to quit yesterday after being model tenants for nearly 4 years. It's all down to a new rent capping law that landlords are doing their darndest to get around. Supposed to be law that they can't evict tenants and then install new ones at a higher rent, but they're still doing it. We are only the latest casualties in what is turning out to be an epidemic of evictions. Hundreds have already been turned out of their homes under one pretext or another, which has caused a severe shortage in reasonably priced housing, hence my bagging a spot on the beach.

Landlady even had the audacity to ring and ask hubster to sign a form which (we think) is to give our permission for her to evict us (covering her bum, in other words). When we get sight of this document and it proves to be what we think it is, you can imagine what we'll tell her to do with her form and it won't be this .

[Taffy]

Hopefully her new tennants will trash the place and she'll wish she wasn't so damn greedy.

Flippin greedy landlords!

[Dawn]

Yeah, flippin leedy grandlords!!!

[MotherBear]

What annoys us the most is the expense and immense hassle she's putting us through because of her greed. We now have the task of packing up a 5 bed house and will probably have to do it ourselves because they don't appear to have removal firms here. The thing to do is hire an open-backed lorry with 2 burly (and usually surly) non-English-speaking Pakistanis, who just hurl your stuff onto the lorry. So that's 2 burly, surly, hurly Pakistanis we're looking for . We frequently see a jumble of furniture piled precariously high on these lorries swaying along the road and we have always shivered and thought 'Thank God that's not our stuff'. But now our turn has arrived whether we like it or not. We might try the shippers who brought our stuff here to see if they'll move us. They are good but they are EXPENSIVE. There again, so is ending up with a pile of damaged furniture .

We'll go through the usual rigmarole of reading meters and cancelling phone lines and Internet etc. Things take forever to get done, which is the annoying part and you have to travel a long way to do them. Once we move into our new place (she says optimistically), we'll start over again with trying to get phone lines and Internet installed - all at great expense, of course, and all in their own time because most of the few places that are available to rent are new. Most things we have to do need to be accompanied by letters of authority from hubster's employer and involve complicated paperchases that can take days or even weeks. Bureaucracy rules. This is house-moving but not as you know it.

I'll apologise here to those I'm heavily involved with on things like Facebook and this forum, as I'm not going to be around so much in the coming weeks with chasing around looking for a vacant sand dune to inhabit and with all the packing. Believe me, it gets harder as you get older and the humidity doesn't help. I'm finding it difficult to focus on things and it would be easy to panic knowing what lies ahead. The way things are it would be easier to pack up and leave the country. The one thing that worries us is 'Will our next landlord/lady try to pull the same stunt next year when our contract comes up for renewal ?' The current trend is to have twin villas built (semi-detached). The landlord inhabits one side and his tenant the other side. This sounds fine because he's close at hand if something goes wrong, but if a dispute arises (which is a frequent occurrence out here) you're left with an 'enemy' as your neighbour. I'm off out to view 3 such places today so don't relish the thought.

Onward, ever onward.