Friday post 14/03/25: Moving house #06: taking a break

Posted on 14/03/2025 by The Librain

Hello and welcome to my blog. At the moment, Friday’s posts are all about the sheer slog of moving house under the English system. Of course, it could be far worse if we were selling and buying at the same time, but we decided very early on to do this a different way. We are very fortunate that we can afford to purchase our new home in advance of selling our present one. When we have moved out we will then hire a cleaner to blitz the mess and will put it up for sale. I really hope that it doesn’t take too long to sell!

This week has been very quiet really. We hadn’t heard from either the estate agent or solicitor until today and their queries were soon sorted out. We have been given a completion date at the beginning of May, so we are working towards that. In the meantime, I am trying to organise lists of things we will need (furniture and equipment) in the new house and also weed out the trash. Last week we got rid of about half of that trash in a skip, but we will definitely need another one before all of this is over. I have also found out that our local council will remove larger unwanted items, for a fee, that are too far gone to sell.

One issue that worries me is my piano. It originally belonged to my Grandpa, who was a piano teacher, but, since I had a stroke, I can no longer play. I have sent a few messages around, but I do have to make more of an effort to find someone who will take it away and, hopefully, give it a good home!

Apologies if I have written a lot of this before!

So, I have been trying to keep myself occupied for most of the week. My issues with depression have been getting seriously difficult to handle. My GP has increased my dose of the antidepressants, but the horrible “black moods” arrive at about 17.30 on most evenings now. I am also logging onto a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course online using my iPad, but am really struggling to see the point or any benefit. 

A more positive thing is that I am now able to read ebooks again. I have decided to return to comfort reading and by that I mean revisiting some of my favourite books as ebooks. I have continued to log these on Goodreads and on my Wednesday Reading Roundup posts.

I did dress up a little on one day and wore a fairly cheap and cheerful scarf…

Outfit of the day 10/03/25

I have forgotten who I purchased this from and will add this information to the post if I remember. Anyway, it looks quite lovely with my silver grey cashmere v neck and the pretty silver and gold heart earrings.

This afternoon I walked to our nearby Post Office with Elder Son and wore the gorgeous Plumes en Fête scarf by Hermès with navy clothing. I was too tired to take a selfie, so I will try to do that next week.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 12/03/25

Posted on 12/03/2025 by The Librain

Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup. I have some good news…

I have finally finished my book!!!!

Yes, I managed to carve out some quiet time to read and I managed to concentrate enough to get to the end of this enormous book. Here it is…

To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams

The book was To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams (#03 Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn). At over 1000 pages this was such a long read, but I am so pleased that I decided to tackle it. This is the blurb…

“In order for the Storm King can cement his power over Osten Ard, he must find and defeat the rebel forces massing against him. But the rebels, led by the exiled Prince Josua, have rallied at the Stone of Farewell and are ready to fight the Storm King with every power they can muster. The key to their victory lies in finding the third sword of legend, Memory – but the sword has been lost for ages.Lost, that is, until Simon Snowlock realises that he knows exactly where the sword is and how to recover it. The only an undead army, bolstered by powerful magic, lies between him and his destination. It will take every ounce of Simon’s courage and intelligence to journey to and then recover the great sword Memory and bring peace to Osten Ard. If Simon’s quest is to have any hope, Josua must move against the Storm King himself – a journey that will take him across endless seas, through ancient forests and into the stronghold of the Storm King himself.TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER is the epic final volume in Tad Williams’ breathtaking, beloved series Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.”

Here is my response on the Goodreads website…

To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow & Thorn, #3)To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodness! This was an amazing and complex book with literally armies of characters and incredible world building. The final book in the trilogy brought everything to a satisfying conclusion after journeys, the forging of friendships, amazing characters and exciting adventures.

My only complaint is that it was far too long! A good editor should have condensed some of the writing down and could have done this without losing the essence of the story. So, I am glad that I read the book, but also rather relieved that I have finally finished it!

View all my reviews

This trilogy was certainly well worth the effort it took me to read the whole thing, but I am now exhausted! My poor brain is struggling with so many issues: the house move, my health, my family. Anyway, I have decided to return to comfort reading again. I am now rereading The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay and after that will read his most recently published two or three books again before his new work arrives in May.

Happy Reading everyone!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 07/03/25: Moving house #05: Skip week…

Posted on 07/03/2025 by The Librain

Well, we have had a lot going on this week with our house moving tale!

Younger Son has been here for a few days and drove back to his home today. We will miss him so much as he brings such cheer with him. He has worked really hard with his brother and we are so proud of them both!

We ordered a skip for a few weeks, but have filled it in only three days. About 12 years ago, there was a massive hail storm in our area. The huge hail stones smashed roof tiles across the region, resulting in expensive repairs. At that time, I suffered from severe respiratory problems, and still do. Lovely Husband was really worried that opening up the loft to see what had happened to our stored items could cause a load of dust to drop down, resulting in serious issues for my health. So, we had kept the loft hatch sealed ever since!

I decided that we didn’t have any choice but to open it up again and bring down any boxes and crates that we had stored up there. Therefore, on Wednesday YS brought up a ladder and broke the seal. We had put down some strong tarpaulin and dust sheets and the resulting mess was not as bad as we had feared.

ES and YS spent all of Wednesday bringing box after box down and out into the front garden. I was totally shocked to see how much “stuff” had been stored up there for all of this time! We managed to completely fill the skip, with piles of boxes still to check over and assess. Another skip will have to be ordered at a later date as YS has to go back to work.

Yesterday, we all went over to the new house and YS helped me measure up so that I could start to assess where our existing furniture will fit. We will also have to purchase quite a lot of new items and I have been busy creating lists of what we will need. Whilst we were at the house LH and ES had a nice chat with the owners. It is so nice to be buying our new home from such lovely people.

When we had finished, YS drove us to a local pub for lunch. LH has not been able to do this since he had a fall almost two years ago, so it was brilliant for the four of us to enjoy a meal together. It really brought back memories of happy times when we all lived together. I must admit that I miss those days, but our grown up children need to fly the nest, however hard that may be for their parents.

I made the most of the opportunity to wear my newest shawl: Hermès’ Sous le Charme d’Orphée …

Outfit of the day 06/03/25 with Hermès’ Sous le Charme d’Orphée shawl
Outfit of the day 06/03/25 with Hermès’ Sous le Charme d’Orphée shawl

The outfit consisted of:

  • grey cashmere v-neck jumper from Marks & Spencer
  • navy cords from Lands’ End
  • pewter shoes from Hotter
  • lapis lazuli earrings from Etsy
  • Ianthe enamel bangle from Liberty of London
  • navy leather handbag from Marco Massaccesi
  • Sous le Charme d’Orphée cashmere/silk 180cm shawl by Hermès.

And this is the image of the full cashmere/silk shawl…

Sous le Charme d’Orphée shawl by Alice Shirley for Hermès

I also wore an old favourite scarf earlier in the week: this silk stole with a gorgeous blue centre and brown leopard print edges. Apologies for the tiny image of the scarf below, but it’s the only one I have. When I feel stronger I will try to take some better ones.

Outfit of the day 03/03/25 with Roberto Cavalli silk scarf
Leopard print scarf by Roberto Cavalli

I am now sitting in bed trying to hold back tears because Younger Son has just left! 😭😭😭

Well, I think that’s all for this week. Wishing you all a great weekend!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 05/03/25

Posted on 05/03/2025 by The Librain

I am sorry to say that this is yet another Reading Roundup post that isn’t about books! I have been able to start reading my latest book over the past few days, but the house is in turmoil with both sons working like mad sorting out decades of “stuff”! So, I still haven’t been able to finish it yet (it does have over 1,000 pages, though). Today my chaps have emptied the loft and there are stacks of boxes on our drive full of old toys. I almost can’t bring myself to open the boxes to see what else they contain!

As I suffer from multiple lung conditions, I am having to stay in our bedroom to try to avoid the dust. To be honest, I am sad because I can’t help in this process, as I would have done a few years ago.

When we have a quiet spell I will open my ebook again. I am really enjoying it again and my reading mojo appears to have returned 😊.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 28/02/25: Moving house #04: a quiet week with weeding

Posted on 28/02/2025 by The Librain

Welcome to this week’s update about our house move. We have now almost reached the end of Week #04 and things have been pretty quiet. I had to send a couple of documents to our solicitor at the beginning of the week, but, since then I have been using my time to organise things at this end.

So, there has been a lot of very tiring photo scanning and Elder Son has helped me to clean and tidy one bookcase. I have also continued to go through my bedroom storage. We are rapidly building up piles of  “stuff” that we will need to re-home in some way, perhaps in the rubbish bin!

Younger Son is coming over next week for a few days and we have hired a skip. He and his brother will be helping us to throw out any unwanted items that are not fit to give away. I am sure that there will be some family disputes about such items, but I am not sentimental about such “stuff” and I really don’t want to have to find homes for unneeded things in our new home.

Now is the time to sift out the cr@p! We librarians call it “weeding”!

I must admit that I have spent most of the week in my pyjamas and only managed to wear one nice outfit. My lovely Hermès cashmere/silk shawl, Plumes en Fête, is set off beautifully by this purple cashmere jumper (Pure Collection) and amethyst earrings (Blue Nile)…

Outfit of the day 24/02/25 with Hermès’ Plumes en Fête shawl

OK, I think that is all I have to say for this week. I am hoping that we will all have a productive time next week and that Lovely Husband can be persuaded to go out with his family for lunch in a local pub. It would do us all so much good.

Happy weekend to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 26/02/25

Posted on 26/02/2025 by The Librain

Welcome to this week’s Reading Roundup post, dear friends and visitors. If you are new to my blog, I have been posting every Wednesday about the books I am reading for many years. At the moment, my family is in the process of moving house. As you can imagine, I am very excited about this, particularly since we have been living in this house for over twenty years!

As I am having to take the lead, my brain is full to the brim with “house stuff” and I am finding it very difficult to concentrate. We are now in the fourth week since we put in an offer on the bungalow and the first flurry of work has eased off a little, for the time being at least. At the moment, I am busy every afternoon scanning old photos into my laptop and the Cloud. But more about that in Friday’s post.

All of this is leading up to the fact that I haven’t much head space for reading my usual ebooks. My concentration levels are awful! I have managed to read for a couple of hours during the last two days and I am going to see if I can keep this going. I miss my books!

To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams

So, I am about 40% through To Green Angel Tower by Tad Williams and have just managed to remind myself of the plot, after such a long break.

Happy Reading everyone!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 21/02/25: Moving house #03: trundling along…🎶🎵🎶

Posted on 21/02/2025 by The Librain

The days and weeks are whizzing past and so it’s Friday again! Welcome to my blog friends and visitors from near and far.

So, we have come to the end of the third week in our house moving story. Everything appears to be going well and moving forward. The brain ache about my identification documents seems to be almost at an end. Just this morning, I had a call from our doctor’s surgery to say that she has written and signed a letter for me and I will pick that up on Monday with Elder Son and will then put it in the post to the solicitor’s head office. They have also accepted my expired driving licence as proof of my identity.

I exist!

Well, that is a relief!

We have also been sent other documents about the house and I have been dealing with all of it using my iPad. Alongside all of this I have continued to develop my long list of furniture and equipment that we need for the new house. Much of our existing stuff is very tired and tatty. We spent a lot in the first ten years here to upgrade this house, but that is a long time ago and we definitely need a lot of new furniture and fittings to make our new place a comfortable home for us, as we age, and also ES.

I am feeling very conflicted about one piece. We have a very old piano which once belonged to my grandfather. I used to enjoy playing it very much, but found that I couldn’t carry on after the stroke in 2019. As it has not been played for such a long time, I am wondering if it is still in a good enough condition. Would anyone want it? My grandfather was an excellent pianist and actually taught piano, so it was probably a reasonable instrument. I think that it is possibly over 100 years old! Anyway, one of my tasks over the weekend will be to see what it sounds like now and then think about what to do with it. Perhaps we can give it to someone who wou,d make good use of it? I hope so.

The other task that I need to tackle is going through our old photos. We have a collection of albums from when our chaps were small. I couldn’t bring myself to throw out any photo, however distorted, awful, or badly posed they might be. This week, I found a local company who could scan them all onto a DVD or memory stick, but the cost is too high for the poor quality of the originals. Simply not worth the price. So, I have decided to pay the company to digitise important or precious photos, such as our wedding album, then I will scan selected family snaps myself, using our printer’s scanning function. I will focus on photos of people and a few selected ones of scenery and places. It may take a long time…

Right, that is definitely enough waffle for this week. I will leave you with a few recent scarf photos. These are more of the lovely new Hermès’ Le Caroussel du Tigre Royal, plus a quick snap of an outfit I put together the other day…

Le Caroussel du Tigre Royal – Hermès
Le Caroussel du Tigre Royal – Hermès
Le Caroussel du Tigre Royal – Hermès
Outfit of the day 07/02/25

Well, that’s all for this week…

Happy weekend to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Reading roundup 19/02/25

Posted on 19/02/2025 by The Librain

Well, Wednesday has arrived swiftly once again and it’s time for me to write this week’s Reading Roundup post. Yet again I have to admit that I haven’t been able to read my ebook! My brain is simply too overloaded and I cannot concentrate enough to immerse myself in the story. I do hope that, by the time I am able to resume reading, I haven’t forgotten the plot!

I definitely feel like I have “lost the plot” at times!

What I have been doing, when I am not sorting out house moving, is re-watching one of my favourite TV shows, based on one of my favourite book series: The Expanse. I was really sad when the final series ended before covering the last books. Anyway, I saw some great news this week: the authors of The Expanse, pen name James S A Corey, have published a new book:

The Mercy of Gods by James S A Corey

I am so excited to see this! The book is The Mercy of Gods, #01 The Captive’s War. I have ordered the ebook from Amazon and this is the blurb…

“From the New York Times bestselling author of the Expanse comes a spectacular new space opera that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself. Invasion is only the beginning . . .

The Carryx – part empire, part hive – has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy.

When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered and put in chains. The best and brightest are abducted, taken to the Carryx world-palace to join prisoners from a thousand other species.

Dafyd Alkhor, assistant to a prestigious scientist, is captured along with his team. Even he doesn’t suspect that his peculiar insight and skills will be the key to seeing past their captors ‘ terrifying agenda.

Swept up in a conflict beyond his control and vaster than his imagination, Dafyd is poised to become humanity’s champion – and its betrayer.

This is where his story begins.”

I can’t wait to read it!  Let’s hope that my ability to concentrate returns very soon. I have such a huge collection of ebooks waiting for me and I really need to get my brain working again.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Friday post 14/02/25: Moving house #02 – I 💕💗💖💗💕 this house!

Posted on 14/02/2025 by The Librain

See what I did there? Welcome to my Valentine’s Day post! As I wrote last week, I am using these Friday posts to document the stages of England’s house purchase and moving processes. Let’s hope that it all goes smoothly. This family could do with a break!

1) Identification

So where are we towards the end of Week 2? I seem to have spent a large part of the week trying to identify myself in the eyes of the law! Seriously! Our solicitor has asked for proof of identity for both me and Lovely Husband, in the form of a driving licence or passport, plus a utilities bill in each name (or joint). This was perfectly straightforward for LH – he has retained his driving licence even though he cannot drive at the moment, and all of the household bills are in his name (for very good reasons which I won’t expand on here). But my situation is not straightforward at all. Let me explain…

I have written quite often that I had a stroke back in 2019. This left me with issues affecting my vision. In addition, I also suffer with chronic cough. This is not a normal type of cough, but a frightening and uncontrolled coughing attack that can come on with no warning and result in choking, inability to manage movement and total collapse. These attacks can also affect bladder control and cause vomiting. Imagine trying to drive a car in this condition!

So, I gave up my driving licence, thinking that I would never need it again…

BIG MISTAKE!!!

Added to this is that I don’t have a passport! LH and I last went on a holiday abroad in 1989. It was absolutely lovely and we planned to have many such vacations and adventures in the future. But Life decided otherwise for us and we ended up taking most of our holidays in the UK and at the same hotel complex. Having a son with Autism meant that we could enjoy holidays at a familiar place, but if we tried to go anywhere else we would “struggle” (that is putting it mildly!).

Anyway, this is why I don’t have a passport.

What about the bills? Well, these are all in LH’s name for personal and historic reasons, which I won’t go into. No, LH is not a controlling spouse. In fact, I manage all of the bills and finances via my trusty (I hope) iPad with various apps and websites, but using his details because he is not at all techie. Now, this situation also “bit me on the bum”: I haven’t got a bill in my name for the solicitor!

So, I was able to use the app as asked by the solicitor for LH, but when it came to doing it for me I was stumped!

ANOTHER BIG MISTAKE!!!

So, where are we now? As I write (11.00 14/02/25) this still has not been resolved. Emails have been flying back and forth between me and the solicitor, and her with her own advisors. It seems pretty daft to me that the whole situation has arisen. I can’t be the only person like this! Can I? I will update either this post or next week’s when we have more news on this issue.

Another Edward VIII Post Box by Simon on Flickr

2) Paperwork

The other issue of the week has been sorting out all of the paperwork from the solicitor. She sent me a huge stack of stuff by email, which was fine by me. But, would it be fine for everyone in this situation?

  • Some people might need a printed version as there are a lot of sections to fill in and signatures needed.
  • I have a printer, so could have simply filled in hard copies the “old fashioned” way.
  • I was also able to work out how to fill in the forms using my iPad.
  • So, what I did was a two way process. I filled in all of the complicated stuff using my iPad, then printed everything and signed the hard copies.

Then, there are two ways of actually returning all of this to the solicitor:

a) Scan everything back into my laptop and then attach to an email and send to the solicitor.
OR
b) Put it all in an envelope, walk to the Post Office (I can just about stagger there with Elder Son’s support), and send it to the solicitor by registered mail.

I am going to do b) this afternoon. I do hope it doesn’t rain!

3) Other new house stuff

Apart from making my poor brain ache with all of this, I have been spending every spare moment obsessing over furniture, curtains, bedding, equipment, storage, tumble dryers, dishwashers, and so on. I remember when I bought my first house back in the 1980s (i.e. before home computers) that I did all of this on paper and by trudging from shop to shop comparing prices. To be honest, I rather enjoy this part! Am I some kind of masochist?

Right, I had better leave this post and get on. There will be another update on the situation next week.

Until then, please wish us good luck and keep your fingers crossed 🤞!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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Image

Another Edward VIII Post Box by Simon on Flickr

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Reading roundup 12/02/25

Posted on 12/02/2025 by The Librain

Hello keen readers! Once more I have to admit that there has been no ebook or any kind of book reading here this week. The shame! The shame! I have been so immersed in the business of moving house that my brain hasn’t any room for reading fiction. I just can’t concentrate at all! My mind hasn’t any room left as it is filled up with room measurements, new furniture, writing emails to solicitors, puzzling about where our stuff will fit, nagging my chaps to sort out their (rubbish) belongings, curtain colours, surveyors, finance…

I do have one thing for you. My favourite author, Guy Gavriel Kay, has announced the cover for his new book. Well, I think it’s the cover for Canada and the USA. I don’t know about the UK version as yet. Anyway, I think it’s really lovely. What do you think?

Cover for Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

I will update this blog if I find out more. Now, wouldn’t it be the icing on the cake if we could move into our new home, get reasonably settled, and then I could rest with this new book! Fabulous!

Happy Reading to you all!

Anne

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