Waiting in vain

You're not going to believe this but we still haven't completed on the house purchase... I know, I know, it couldn't happen to anyone else! I'm really starting to believe Jeff (the worlds worst pessimist) when he says if something can go wrong it will go wrong!  Of our dilemma, I asked our solicitor "does this happen often" to which he replied no, it's very rare... Well, he's making a blinking fortune out of us. 3rd Time lucky thought I but it's starting to look increasingly unlikely to go through again.  For one reason or another the vendor cannot complete so I've given them a deadline of Friday to sign or we're pulling-out!

I naively thought the UK house buying process was going to be straight forward but no, the first property that we had an offer accepted on we were strung along by the vendor for about 10 days only for them to 'change their mind' about selling and remove it from sale without even telling us or with any explanation.   The next we got a little further along in the process, 3 months  to be precise when we pulled out after the vendor tried to pull a fast one.  We were about 7 or 8 weeks down the line with this house purchase when I discovered  that the seller no longer has to provide the HIPs here in the UK, I thought this was still the law but apparently it was suspended in May 2010 and now generally considered scrapped.  No wonder then that people can just put their property for sale on a whim only to 'change their mind' when serious buyers come along! The financial costs are really starting to mount-up now with solicitors fees (over £1500 so far) and storage costs (at £55 per week.  Which is where I ask myself again...Why have we got 2 containers worth of crap when I thought I'd sold everything in France?).  I'll add it all up eventually but don't even want to go there at the moment. So, here we are 3rd time (not) lucky and it's all starting to go Pete Tong again. Oh well, Friday is crunch day!!!

Pointless sitting around twiddling our thumbs so to try to take the pressure off a little we've taken some time out and gone for a short cruise to Fazeley this last week. The weather's been dry and sunny but with a bitter wind blowing just to take the shine off.

All quiet on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

Working boat with tug

Not surprisingly therefore the waterways were fairly quiet with just a few passing boaters and most of those were 'working boats'.

At Fazeley Junction, a fellow moorer and CC'er (nb Elaine) who we got chatting to was singing the praises of these 'fuel boats'.  It got me thinking 'how do boaters keep track and locate these boats' so I got digging I've discovered a useful site listing quite a number of them... http://lock13.co.uk/boats/coaldiesel.htm it's good to see some of them are taking advantage of Social Networking sites: FaceBook and Twitter.  What would be even better is if they could all use a GPS tracking system like that on WaterExplorer so that they can be tracked in real time! The guy on nb Elaine (should have got his name) was happy to hang around for a week waiting for a fuel boat but I can't imagine everyone doing that. Talking of Twitter I've created a list of Tweeters uniquely for #LifeOnTheCanals that you may like to follow for all things boaty!

Oh, whilst on our return journey I snapped a few shots of the latest marina being built of our local canals at Huddlesford. Still early days but progress is definitely being made on the '130 berth marina' although I'm not sure what the proposed opening date will be. Contact number for information is 01865 873900!

 


We arrived at Fradley Junction late Wednesday afternoon and moored up for the night before heading back to Barton Marina tomorrow!

Fradley Junction Swing Bridge

Fradley Junction

Life goes on...

I don't want to tempt fate but I think we should be completing on our house purchase in a week or two.   Well, we've done everything our end so I'm hoping it's only now a matter of days.  It's been lovely living on the boat even with all the other horrible stuff that's been happening in our lives but I will definitely be looking forward to having our own pied-a-terre again. What I'm not looking forward to is emptying the storage units!

On the boat front: we're absolutely itching to 'get-going' but reluctant to go too far with the house about to go-through.  The licence has just been renewed (12 months for £769.21) so we're all legal and Jeff has booked The Cat into the dry dock at Barton Marina to have a new stern gland fitted along with a few other jobs. The weather has been lovely the last few days and we managed to get out last weekend for a short cruise up to Shobnall.  Just to say a quick hello to passing boaters or exchanging pleasantries with folks at the locks was lovely!

I seem to have spent hours following other boaters blogs and their journeys so it was great to be out in the real world rather than the virtual world. Although I have picked-up loads of info from these boaty blogs.  One of the things I have been noticing is that a lot of these savvy boaters seem to have an on-line tracking system for their boats and being a gadget sort of person thought I'd like one for The Cat.  I discovered the website waterexplorer and ordered the GPS receiver as recommended and downloaded the Navvygator software. It was a bit tricky to set-up but I managed and it is now working. I have put a link on the front page of the blog so that anyone can now see and track The Cat's Whiskers progress on the 'interactive waterways map' - useful for our family and friends maybe! 

Well, we're back in the marina for now but many of our narrow boat neighbours are leaving the marina now that March is here.  We are starting to feel a little left behind. I'm praying the house sale does go through quickly and smoothly now and then we will be joining in all the fun with the wonderful boating community!

Just a quick note to say that I have found a couple of great websites for all things narrow boats including http://www.canalworld.net/ and http://www.justcanals.co.uk/