Also in the news:-

• Holidays and other travel
• Animal rescue
• New fence

2003 was dominated by one thing - the sale of Thelma's house

After she moved from Greenoak Drive in Sept 2002, we waited until the end of the year before putting the house on the market. With hindsight, we should have accepted the first offer we got (within a week of it going on sale), but we didn't, on the basis that it was £9K down on the asking price and we might do better. So we waited, and whilst the war in Iraq caused a general slowdown in house buying, we did get more offers, some worse (which we rejected), and some better (which we accepted). By July we had accepted two offers from buyers who subsequently had second thoughts, and had accepted a third which appeared to look more promising. Meanwhile we were making regular trips to the house most weeks to sort and remove items and/or to do some cleaning & garden maintenance to try to keep the house looking presentable.

However, by the end of August that third buyer had withdrawn but immediately we had another offer which appeared to be making good progress until the survey on the house they were selling revealed unexpected concerns, so they pulled out. By now, we were not so bothered about the selling price as getting it sold before Christmas. Enter buyer number five, more negotiations and surveys, but finally it all went through and we completed the sale right at the end of November. Even then, we hadn't cleared absolutely everything out. Not wanting the place to look too empty and unoccupied, we had left much of the furniture in place throughout the summer and only started its clearance once it looked like a sale was definite. Suddenly we had a last minute rush of clearing van-loads of stuff, some given away, a little bit sold, and the rest clogging up our house once more (in the places we'd only just cleared from when Martin used to work from home). Holidays - not The net result of all this is that we've not been away for a proper holiday all year, and although we thought about it for Christmas, as we have done in previous years, it seemed like too much trouble to organise on top of everything else, so instead we're having a very quiet and lazy week at home. The only overnight trips we did make together were to a housewarming party and an awards ceremony.

John & Sheila's Housewarming Party

Back in May we were invited over to Yorkshire by our old friend John (aka Agraman, once again in the News, literally) and his new partner Sheila, who were preparing to move into their new house a few miles from the historic market town of Beverley in East Yorkshire. We stayed at the Dog & Duck, a pub in the centre of Beverley with a new and very comfortable annexe at the rear - highly recommended if you're staying in the area and looking for reasonably priced accommodation. The party was well attended and brought together many of John's old friends and acquaintances, and we were pleased to catch up with John's sister Jane and Kathie's ex-husband Mike. For full picture collection, click here.

A taste of Finland

Our other overnight trip this year was at the end of September when we were invited to accompany Kathie's mum Joyce to receive the Cross of Merit (not unlike an MBE, awarded by the President of Finland), to be presented by the Finnish Ambassador at their official residence in London. We travelled down by train, stayed in a hotel to the north of Hyde Park, and attended the ceremony the following morning. Pictures & story

Animal rescue

Much as we like animals in general, we don't go out of our way to have any personal involvement beyond looking after our cat, but it's different when something happens on your own doorstep. One Saturday morning in November we were returning from our weekly food shopping trip and turned the corner down our driveway to find a grey bird sitting in our path in front of the garage. A very big grey bird, a heron in fact. As it tried to run/hop/fly away it was obvious it was wounded in some way, as it only managed to open its wings and hobble a few feet onto the grass.

Our next door neighbours had already phoned the RSPCA, who only have emergency cover at weekends, and who said they would only come out if it was contained. They suggested putting a laundry basket over it, but the only one we had between us was clearly too small for a bird with a wingspan of several feet and an aggressive ten inch beak on the end of a long and flexible neck. At first it was difficult to see what was wrong with it, as its feathers looked unruffled, which thankfully ruled out an attack from our cat (who was asleep indoors throughout the whole incident). However, when it moved and opened its wings there were signs of bleeding. We guessed it had probably been shot and had the initial strength to fly away, but then landed here exhausted.

Our task was to get it into a suitable container, without getting any nasty "peck wounds" in the process. It might not have been strong enough to fly, but, as we discovered on our initial approach, it was still able to defend itself, and it wasn't going to go without a fight. Clearly, thought Martin, the key to capturing it was controlling the beak. And the key to that was to treat it like a snake. So whilst Kathie tried to control next door's curious kids, Martin quickly improvised a noose on the end of a pole. We had an old cardboard pet transit box (with breathing holes) which looked big enough, so with this to hand and wearing our thickest gardening gloves we approached once more.

The plan was for Martin to control it with the pole whilst Kathie lifted it into the box. Getting the noose over the beak wasn't too difficult, but controlling it after that was a little harder. After being a little too gentle the first time, it pulled free before Kathie could pick it up. Second attempt worked fine, and together we carefully transferred it into the transit box, like a miniature version of manhandling a crocodile with its jaws bound shut. Then we unpacked the shopping. Sadly we can't report on its fate. A man from a bird sanctuary in Warrington turned up about an hour later and took it away, and that's the last we saw of it. Changing the subject slightly, anyone who knows our house and looks at the picture above might be thinking "I don't remember it looking like that down the side". Well, that was October's big job, the new fence.