£$€$£€

Stu's been at the flat in T.Wells (the tenants were supposed to move out on Friday but only moved out today!) and it turns out there's a lot of work to be done before we move back... Although it was written in the contract that smoking was not allowed, the entire flat stinks of cigarettes. We'll probably have to totally recarpet the place which Stu is getting a quote for tomorrow, but we're thinking 2 to 3 grant.

Stu looked into renting a 7,5 ton lorry for 48 hours, which came down to £360. Ouch. I then phoned up all the ferry companies to see if I could get my lorry to pass for a mobilehome without windows but they wouldn't have it. Freight it is. Totalling to another £310 for a return. (don't forget to add the petrol costs on top!)

Then there's my lovely sofa (€960 for a 4-seater), with Stu ever so slightly warming to the idea. He would now like to see some pictures of me sitting on it so he can picture the size of the pillows, the depth, the length, the colour and god knows what, after which he will make up his mind. (Sure, I don't have anything to do this week).

Stu also spoke about ripping out the kitchen as it's looking horrible after 3 years of tenants apparently. There's been a leak in the roof, resulting in the ceiling of the main bedroom needing redoing. When we had an electrician in to refit most of the spot lights a year ago (as they were constantly blowing the fuse), he failed to mention, he replaced them with something looking vaguely like, and I'm quoting my father here, 'an elephant's foot sticking 20 cm through the ceiling'. Nice.

It's all doing my head in. The fact that I'm not there. The fact I can't scream to anybody about this shit. The fact I'm not allowed to phone anybody and blame them for it. The fact I want other people to pay for all of this. And the fact I have a lot of others things to do apart from worry.

I did have a man ringing my doorbell today to deliver the biggest bouquet of flowers in the world!! Turns out they came from Stu, with a note saying he was sorry he couldn't be there today, on my birthday. The guy delivered two days early!! Jeeesus.