Friday, December 04, 2009

THERE IS SOME STRESS CHOCOLATE DOESN'T HELP NO MATTER WHAT PROF. LUPIN SAYS

Saturday night brought in four good offers, well above the starting price but Monday, the agent had one of those offers go up another 5 thousand.
It was a curious thing that while she was telling me the story, she doodled on the offer sheet without thinking and had written "dad came to help". A 'curious thing' as it was the day before the anniversary of my father's death. So the buyer's father had come up with more cash than everybody else and I was happy because she intended to renovate and live in the house.
Then the waiting game begins. The deposit was supposed to be paid December lst with the financial arrangements done by December 4th but they've asked for an extension until next Friday.
No problem says the agent as they're probably going through a broker looking for the best deal in light of the interest rate rise.
Ring solicitor and give permission.
Have monumental panic attack in Lincraft. All those shiny baubles and lights and people and fecking Christmas carols shortcircuited the brain so I went and hid in the curtains until I got some control back. Yes, I was the dill with my head in a paper bag hyperventilating behind the shantung curtains down the back of Lincraft.
To round off yesterday I have a monumental fight with stupid 'let's throw everything in a skip' sister. I know why I hate mobile phones, she got to hang up on me before I could bash mine down.
Really stressed now.
How stressed? I was up at 4 a.m. eating chocolate and reading Harry Potter. Neither worked.
But staggering to the bus stop, tensed to the max, I was offered a lift by a lady who's seen me at Southland (not with my head in a paper bag, I hope). Lovely, I could get the bus from there. Another lady on the bus recognised me from Dingley Market and remembered all the craft we used to make.
An old friend of Dad's was visiting Mum and we really had a laugh about the old days when being a pool playing layabout was almost respectable. This was all good as she couldn't see the bags and dark shadows under my eyes until later. I distracted her with giant seed bells for the freeloading feathered blackmailers she loves but she doesn't miss much these days.
My brain was still in freefall when I decided to bypass sister and go to the BrickOutHouse.
Good move, he's picking me up Sunday and we're going through the house and deciding what comes here, what he wants me to keep, what to throw out and what date I ring the Diabetes collection people to pick it up. Then we'll decide on a day to hire a van and do the lot in one day, a suggestion I'd made 2 months ago to the "Skip Queen".
Stress-0-meter is now slowly sliding to manageable.
Probably won't speak to sister for a week or January.

15 comments:

JahTeh said...

And something else to brighten an ugly day, The Blonde was sighted by my spy at the RSL where they both like to gamble and she was drunk, loud, obnoxious, in fact utterly legless. Probably the pain of her knee replacements, her pacemaker, her arthritis and living with him. No sighting of him in a pissed condition.

R.H. said...

If it all goes to Diabetes it'll end up in Savers because that's where they get most of their stuff from. I'll be looking out for mother's famous phone, the one she rang you up on to find out where you'd hidden it.

Jayne said...

J, take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're an intelligent, successful and talented lady. Your sister may be quite simply intimidated by your organisational skills and chooses the easiest path of no thinking (chucking everything out without having to make any decisions).

JahTeh said...

Jayne, unlike me, she's a cleaner and that's what she was doing but to me, cleaning is what comes last after all the stuff is organised and gone. She's a nurse and used to snap decisions whereas I'm a planner so we don't work on the same plane.

Robbert, no clothes but there'll be a leather lounge suite, slightly worse for wear but comfortable. Everything should be going but I can never chuck out a bookcase. The ladies at the home were very happy with the unchipped cups and saucers I took down for visitors. Thanks for reminding me that there are two phones, a heater and a tv stashed in a cupboard.

River said...

Yay for the Brick Outhouse helping with your Mum's stuff. Toss your sister in the skip.....
Curtains are great for hiding in, no matter where they are, and Lincraft has a lovely selection.
I have to admit if I had your level of stress Harry Potter and chocolate wouldn't help me either. I think you're holding up really strongly, I hope things continue to get better for you. I REALLY hope the house sale goes through.
Still waiting for my internet to run out....maybe I'll get lucky and it will hold on long enough to read all my favourite bloggers.

JahTeh said...

River, now you know the hidden evil of pre-paid broadband. You can top-up on line but you need a credit card that has credit which is never around this neck of the woods.

Middle Child said...

I'll trade you two of my sisters for your one please please please....

River said...

My credit card has credit, (witness me being here today), but I didn't recharge on line. I went to the optus shop this morning to find out all the different options and prices, then dug into my christmas savings, which is okay because I've already bought most of the pressies. As soon as the landline is fixed I'll be going back to the oh-so-slow dialup.

Kath Lockett said...

If you were going to have a panic attack in a shop, at least Lincraft is full of soft stuff and curtains to hide behind....

My fingers will be crossed for the 'cooling off' date to pass and have that deposit done and dusted. We were 'there' last year and know exactly how stressful it is.

And keep up with the chocolate - surely you deserve it!

JahTeh said...

Kath, don't encourage me. I've already gone through a Whitman's huge block of white choc and a Coles peppermint since Thursday and I'm trying to ignore the Whitman's coconut hiding in the pantry.

River, it might be slow but it's only a phone call and keep calling the phone company, remember the trouble I had at the beginning of this year. They finally did maintenance on all the telephone poles in the street.

Therese, you have scary sisters, I think I'll keep the devil I know. She'll stop sulking soon, curiosity will get the better of her and she'll have to know what's going on.

River said...

JT, the Telstra guy has been out and done the testing etc and determined that the fault is somewhere up in the roof. Up in the roof cavity all the units are separated by firewalls so he can't get in to see where exactly the fault is. Apparently there's some new OHS laws about that. So they've recommended an electician be contacted to run an external line from the front of the units down to me at the back. So the owner and the strata got involved....the electrician is due tomorrow.

JahTeh said...

River, I hope all this isn't going to cost you anything and Telstra loves to blame anybody but themselves. They'll probably find a thriving colony of possums up there.

River said...

Since none of my equipment caused the fault (they tested), there will be no charge for me. They won't be finding anything in the roof since no-one's going up there. It'll be nice to have the landline back, L doesn't seem to be able to cope very well with a mobile and he needs to stay in touch with his case managers.

R.H. said...

Sweetiepies.

JahTeh said...

River, mobiles are okay for emergency use for us oldies who like to use a phone in comfort. It took me 10 minutes the other day to send a text message because I don't textspeak.

Robbert, make that mince pies and you have me forever.