👻🎃👻 Happy Halloween 👻🎃👻!

Well, the Yorkshire house is finally no longer ours (mixed feelings!) which leaves us free to crack on with the purchase of the Scottish house – hurray!

After our brief overnight stop in Yorkshire, we handed the keys to our agent ready for the handover & completion of sale last Friday (24th), and said our final farewells to the Becks next door – although we hope they will keep their promise & visit us next year!

It seems all went to plan as the money was in the bank by mid-afternoon and Paul messaged later with updates of the “carnage” surrounding the newbies moving in 🤣🤣🤣

Although we shall miss Yorkshire, our home for the past 21 years, we feel quite settled here in the Scottish Borders and, despite it not being quite ours just yet, have started making some home improvements to tied us over for the next few months until Pete’s treatment has finished.

George (landlord) reckons it should only take around 4 weeks for our respective solicitors to sort out our purchase of this house, which is a lot different to how things are done in England! For instance, we have had the home and energy reports for months as the seller has to provide this info in order to sell any property whereas in England, the buyer generally commissions the in-depth reports once their offer has been accepted – which is crazy as, if you don’t like what you read, you would pull out of the sale, wasting time for everyone. Also, there’s no fear of being gazzumped at the last minute in Scotland as, once your offer is accepted, it is legally binding for both parties so neither can pull out without incurring a financial penalty and, more importantly, the price cannot change. No wonder the government in England are looking at making their system easier & more like the Scottish model. It gets the thumbs up from us 😊

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Last weekend the clocks went back and we woke to our first proper frosty morning which was great timing and made it feel proper wintery! 🥶 How lovely does everything look with a bit of sparkle? The frost didn’t last long enough for me to get any pics but I guess I will have plenty of time for that in the coming months. Unlike a lot of people, I love this time of year… as long as I can keep warm, whether indoors or out, I’m happy…

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A few days ago I got a parking fine through the post 😣… It was a bit strange as neither of us believe we were in Carlisle on the day our car was captured on camera. It also said that we had been parked up for 2.5 hours in the same place (unlikely given our shopping habits) and that it was between 4pm & 6.30pm which we also thought unlikely as we like to get to the shops and back around mid afternoon for our lunch (I must sound like a right old fogey! 🤣).

The other strange thing was that it said we had been in the “Wickes” car park – a place we have only visited once a couple of weeks ago so not in September when the fine is from? We checked the calendar & our bank accounts to see if we had been there & just forgotten it (very likely 🤣🤣🤣) but we made no purchases anywhere in or near Carlisle that day – only one purchase from our village Spar shop!

The last thing was that it was the day after Pete’s first chemo down in Yorkshire – the one where he hadn’t got out the Ozzy until about 8.30ish, which meant we didn’t get back to Scotland until gone 11pm… we remembered that Pete hadn’t felt so great after his first treatment and the last thing he would have wanted to do was head to Carlisle for a bit of retail therapy… all very strange!

It just all felt a bit dodgy… I wondered if our number plate had been cloned (you hear of that happening..?), so I decided to report it to Police Scotland via a simple online form which then gets sent to your local police (or Polis as they say in these parts!). The internet said I should inform DVLA too, so I did that online too. This meant, when I contacted the company to appeal the fine, I had a police incident number and a case reference number from DVLA that I could include.

I got an automatic acknowledgement email from the parking company about my appeal, but haven’t heard anything else from them yet, although it’s only been a few days… I was however, nicely surprised when, unexpectedly, I got a phone call from our local village bobby just a few hours later especially as, when I completed the form online, the Police Scotland website seemed to suggest that non-urgent issues might take days (or even weeks) to be dealt with!

Anyway, our village bobby basically said not to worry about it and that he will come and see us at the weekend (when he’s back in the village) to discuss it. He seemed to suggest that a lot of these parking firm fines are not legal so we shall see what happens after we meet with him… I found my brief chat with him very reassuring – love this village!

I should add though that the pictures they sent through with the fine definitely looks like our car although you cannot make out anyone driving or in the passenger seat? All very weird!

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We have started doing a bit of decorating in the house – just a bit of painting for now as three of the rooms (hallways & main bedroom) are currently country cream or magnolia – I can’t decide which but cannot abide either colour which brings back memories of when, in “close down” working for the Winged Fellowship Trust, we staff had to redecorate the whole respite centre which usually involved painting it country cream or magnolia! Although we always had a good laugh during those closedown periods, thoughts of or seeing those colours still makes me shudder 😂. For now, the walls are gradually turning white – a nice blank canvas for us to build on & add colour to later!

Once it’s properly ours, we will look to make some bigger changes like ripping out & replacing the multi-fuel burner (which the chimney sweep described as ancient!) in the lounge which will involve a redesign on the chimney breast and fixing the floor after a new hearth is put in etc.

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Talking of breasts, the results from my recent breast screening have come back clear – woohoo! 😅

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This week, Pete has been prepped and received chemo #3. Blood tests on Monday at the health centre were followed up by a phone call, pre-treatment check up by the cancer team in Melrose on Tuesday… during this call, the nurse told Pete that his PSA score has now dropped to 4.6! At the beginning of October when we saw the Oncologist in Edinburgh, it was 7.2 and before treatment started, 50+ so this is very welcomed news and Pete is chuffed! I am sure getting this result gave him a boost and made us both feel positive about the treatment (and side effects!) he is having – even all the pills he’s having to take!

Apart from feeling extremely tired most of the time, a little nauseous every now and then, and a few other things, Pete still thinks he has gotten off lightly so far. He is trying to rest more – the problem being he then goes off at a million miles an hour in between rests! But there’s no talking to him – he knows what he needs to do and so I leave it up to him to do what he will! When he does sleep / rest, I just try to be as quiet as possible and leave him to it!

The actual Chemo #3 was yesterday (30th October) at the Borders General. We got there a little early as, after visiting the GP the other week for the hip/back pain I am still experiencing (despite all that money spent on the chiropractor in Yorkshire… Although, he did fix my neck pain for which I am very thankful!), the doc thought it would be a good idea. The doc prescribed me some stronger painkillers and the pain has not really bothered me since… which made me feel like a bit of a fraud going to X-ray! I don’t know why I get this anxiety about wasting the NHS’ time but apparently it’s quite common. There’s obviously something wrong with my hip/lower back for me to experience debilitating pain on a regular basis – I wouldn’t have gone to the chiropractor for nothing and, when the back/hip “goes” it really blumming hurts! I know the GP’s job is to help me find out what the problem is so hopefully, the x-Ray will provide some answers as to whether it’s bone related or not – 🤞 – should have the results through in a few weeks…

Pete’s chemo went ahead as scheduled although it took slightly longer due to some sort of emergency with another patient… it meant I had to drive back in darkness and, my God, it’s blumming dark out there at night! There’s also the added danger of animals being on the road – sheep like to sleep on the tarmac because it retains the heat of the day – nightmare!

We did, of course, make it back safe & sound and, fortunately, the next appointment (at Pete’s request) is mid-morning which should mean we can get home in daylight!

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Finally, today is Halloween and we have no idea whether they do much in the village for this although we have seen a few pumpkins, ghouls, cobwebs, spiders, witches and ghosts dotted about the place for well over a week now… No massive pumpkin for me to carve this year as we left them all on the allotment in Yorkshire. Hopefully, Sam (the unofficial caretaker of the allotment) has made use of them as he has with all the other produce we left behind… he emailed a few weeks ago to confirm the allotment committee had agreed to donate our produce to the Salvation Army which we were very happy to hear!

Despite being pumpkin-less, we do have some pumpkin / bat lights and our trusty ghost that Pete picked up from somewhere years ago… oh, and two tubs of chocs which are going to prove disastrous to my diet if no kids turn up trick or treating! 😂🤣

So, in closing, I be-WITCHing you all a BOO-tiful weekend whatever you might be up to! Have a FANG-tastic time and remember, GHOULS just wanna have fun so be nice to them when they knock on your door! 🤣🤣🤣