It’s just over a week since we left our Air BNB in Goa and headed for the airport – it feels like it was ages ago!

The trip to the airport was OK, although there was a moment when I thought Percy (the taxi driver) was getting a little sleepy! Anyway, we arrived safely and got into the airport no bother… after finding the Qatar Airways check-in, we more-or-less got to offload our cases immediately – however, there was one issue and a bit of a panic when the guy on the desk said that, although Pete’s seat for the return journey had been paid for, mine hadn’t (arrgh!)… not sure how that’s possible with an online booking but, having checked out what we paid on return home, they were right! At the time though, what with it being the early hours of the morning with a long journey ahead of us, I was definitely Mrs Grumpy for a bit – especially as I had to then pay over £100 on my credit card… still, the charge is only because Pete likes to book the extra leg-room seats and, having been cramped up on the short flight from Goa to Doha (around 4.5 hours) we were both glad of having a bit of extra space for the 7.5 hours from Doha to Manchester!

All in all, the journey back was OK with no delays and arriving on time into Manchester. We got picked up by the car parking people fairly quickly and the car started up no problem and was nice and warm with the seat heaters on!

We got back to the house late afternoon last Monday (27th) feeling a bit done-in. The house was in good order (thank you Katie Beck for looking after our post!) and, with the heating on, warmed up quickly… we just kind of crashed out (although Pete managed to make us a roast dinner! Mmm… just what we needed to feel at home again!).

On Tuesday, we didn’t really do much other than go and get a few supplies and a quick walk along the canal – we were still pretty knackered and, to be honest, even a week later, we seem to be suffering a bit with the time difference – waking up extremely early (for us anyway) around 5am… we’ve never really suffered that badly with jet-lag before and can only really put it down to having been in India for 8 weeks… anyway, think it’s started to get a bit better now!

Since our return, we have had regular WhatsApp contact from Kumar at our favourite restaurant (Michette’s) – he has messaged every time India have played England in the T20 bless him, giving us updates on the cricketing action as it happens! We got excited when England won the 3rd match but disappointed when they lost the 4th and, therefore, the whole series with 1 match left to play! Well done India 🇮🇳 – England were pants!

I went to visit Mum on Wednesday (29th) and it was great to see her for a few hours… she enjoyed the goodies I took (millionaire shortbread!). I also received a nice surprise pressie from my brother Andy – see below – to welcome us home and also mark the start of the Six Nations Rugby… It’s a dcuk Duck called Doddie (after Doddie Weir)!

On Thursday, Pete did some ringing around to book some viewings for some of the properties he had picked out online whilst we were away and then we had a nice walk along the canal…

On Friday, we had to get up early so that we could make the 2 hour drive to Cumbria (South Lakeland) to look at a property in Millom. It was a lovely little place with potential but, after viewing other properties, we decided this one was not really for us even though it had the most gorgeous view out the bedroom window of the nearby hills!

Leaving Millom, we carried on up the west side of the Lakes, heading for the M6 as our next viewing was a house in Haltwhistle (the centre of Great Britain).

On arrival in Haltwhistle, we managed to grab a quick coffee in the town, and then thought we would check out the local estate agents window (Estate Agent was called “Pennine Ways” so could be a sign!) – we were glad that we did as we spotted another property which we’d not seen before… having 10 minutes to spare before our viewing, we popped in to see if we could perhaps have a viewing of this new property later in the afternoon – the girl there said she could fit us in at 4pm!

So, we headed off to our previously organised 3.30pm viewing of the first property which was really lovely. The house owner, a very nice chap, showed us around and told us he had lived there for 40 years which was since he had the house built! It was the kind of house that you could move straight into – not very far from the centre of the town but nice and quiet… unfortunately though, no garden (boo) – not a complete deal breaker but after seeing other properties, we decided that we would like to have a garden if we can!

Although the fella liked a bit of a natter (I thought we would never get away), we managed to make it to the “off chance” property that we had literally just seen in the Estate Agent window, just before 4pm and the agent turned up just after. We were told that the house was owned by the same family for around 40 years but sadly, the homeowner passed away some time ago… the house was empty and would need an awful lot of work – e.g., completely gutting and “modernising throughout”! But we liked it – it had a great sized garden (although currently overlooked by others… but we think we could do something with that), garage, & enough parking for 4 cars – we thought that we could, if we went for it, get a caravan on the drive and live there whilst we did the house up… definitely has potential and, at this point on Friday, this new property became our new No. 1 choice!

After Haltwhistle, we headed off to Scotland… just 30 miles away as we had arranged to stay near Gretna Green for the night. The reason we decided to stop here is so we could attend another viewing on Saturday afternoon in a place called Newcastleton which is just 4 miles from the England/Scotland border (but on the Scottish side!)…

As our viewing was not until 2pm, we left the hotel as near to the check out time as we could but this still meant we arrived in the village around 11.30am. Still, it gave us a chance to check out where the property was and have a little walk around the block checking out the area. After our walk, we headed for one of the two cafes – The Olive Tree – for some breakfast/brunch. What a lovely breakfast that was (we don’t have cooked brekkie very often so it was really good!) and what a lovely cafe too – it was very popular and, as it is also the village bakery, had some amazing looking cakes too 😋

After food, we still had about an hour to kill so decided to explore the other side of the main street… As we walked along, knowing that the village is situated along the bank of the river called Liddel Water, we were talking about the potential flood-risk for the property we were going to view… Pete spotted a couple walking along and decided to ask them about this… as it turned out, the couple didn’t live in the village but spent every other weekend there as they had a caravan on the local caravan site (which is actually in the village!)… they suggested that we followed them up to the park where the warden, who we were told had lived in the village all their life, would be able to tell us everything we wanted to know… so off we went, just up the road to meet “Shona” the caravan site warden!

After introductions, the couple headed off to their van and left us to it with Shona… we explained that we were viewing a property in the village and she was able to answer our questions… she then mentioned that her daughter-in-law to be was selling a house in the village! She told us all about it and mentioned that it wasn’t yet on the market – but she couldn’t remember who her daughter-in-law would be selling through so said she would give her a call and find out for us… she did this and I spoke to the lady who said they were just on their way up to the caravan site anyway… so we hung about and met Paula, the owner of the mystery property and, after a brief chat, we had directions to the house so we could take a look from the outside and she had my email so she could send some photos and the homeowner report (they do this in Scotland with the vendor having to provide the homeowner report at the start of the process – instead of the buyer having to get this arranged once they have put an offer in – a much better way to do things I think)! Long story short, we loved what we could see of this bungalow from the outside and also what we could see of the garden at the back through their fence/gate! So much so we have arranged a viewing next Friday (7th) to see the inside – and all of this before the house is actually on the market (it should go up later this coming week!)… another fortuitous meeting which we are really hoping works out as now this house, without us viewing the insides, is our No. 1!

All in all, it was a really useful trip and we have ended up with two houses we are contemplating putting offers in on – one that, on the face of it, we could move straight into; the other, a bit of a doer-upper – neither of which we knew existed before we went on our trip!

Moving is starting to feel like a real possibility now, so much so that I woke this morning thinking I should start sorting through some cupboards… so, alongside a walk from home up Todley Hall Road, that’s what I have done today – one cupboard down, a lot more to go! It’s exciting to be thinking about a move – I just hope that one of these works out for us but know that, even if we have an offer accepted, there is a long process to go through yet! Wish us luck 🍀 🤞