I finished my one month contract at Cerulean and booked a holiday; One of our timeshare specials to Tenerife. Half way through March we were also allowed back into our caravan and we enjoyed it so much we bought the one next door as well. This would be our guest caravan. By the end of the month we managed to squeeze another holiday in, well long weekend, for Claire, Sue and myself in Malta to celebrate Sue’s birthday and thank her for our stay with her. This was a welcome break for us all as it stretched into April.
It wasn’t long before our guest caravan got some use as mum and dad came to stay for a week and while they were there, Harriet, Georgina and Anushka came over for sunday lunch. Georgina is finishing her first year at the London School of Economics where she is studying International Relations. We also managed to get over to Lowestoft to visit Aunt Daphne prior to her operation in May. Daphne had broken her leg two years earlier and it appears that they bodged her hip replacement and she has been in pain ever since so they have agreed to replace it again. She only had a 50 - 50 chance of survival as she was 88 years old and quite weak. At least mum had a chance to catch up with her again because she is running low on relatives.
By May, we managed to find another cheap holiday in Tenerife, this time for 9 nights. We got back the same day that Daphne went into hospital. To start with she wasn’t doing very well following her operation, but then she perked up again and we started to feel hopeful. We managed to visit Daphne twice in hospital before she died of kidney failure. This turned out to be the turning point in our year.
The funeral was in early June and we arranged a reception with old photos locally. In fact Daphne often took us here for lunch when we visited her. Mum was very upset as, she had lived with Daphne and her parents after her father died prior to the war. By Daphne’s funeral, I had already found out that she didn’t even own her house when she went into hospital. Apparently, her Financial advisor’s wife was looking after it for her. I wonder what would have happened if she had survived the operation? In fact her Financial Advisor denied ever having been her FA but instead he was a close family friend. To start with, this all affected me so much, I must have had a depression because I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about him other than hand it all ver to a solicitor. I just wanted to burry my head in my hands and do other things rather than anything to do with Daphne’s estate. It was only later in the year that I eventually got over my problems and started investigations myself. I think I have now found enough evidence to got to the police early next year. I am only holding off to give my new solicitor a chance to recover as many documents as possible first.
Luckily, I had an excuse to bury my head in the sand as one of our flats in Giffard Park came back to us in a right old state. The tenant had been in it for 12 years so it didn't owe us anything. In fact, I worked out that this flat had earned us twice the amount that I had paid for it just in rent alone. However, we had our work cut out; there was an overgrown garden with a dumped car in it, an attic full of junk and inside it needed a complete refurb. As there was so much work we had the artex ceilings plastered and I knocked the kitchen wall down to make it open plan. We had wood chip wallpaper on the walls and Lino that was harder to get off than floor tiles but we got there in the end. This flat took us all of June and July and we finally moved into it in early August. We did however, have people stay in our guest caravan now and then so it wasn’t seven days a week work. We also had the proms in the park which we enjoyed.
Although we moved into the flat in August, we divided our time between the caravans and the flat but there were still jobs to do around the flat for the rest of the year. In fact it was finally finished in-between Christmas and New Year when the external stairs were replaced. This took some doing, not because it was difficult but because it was so expensive. We had several quotes and they were all around £6500 which I wasn’t prepared to pay. The old ones were so bad that the Post Office refused to deliver to our door so we had to get a post box screwed to the bottom of the steps. I did manage to buy some bolts and brackets and fix the loose steps up temporarily but we finally managed to get a quote for just under £3000 which I was prepared to pay. This was a compromise, as we have had it built in soft wood and reused the metal steps. Once they have dried out and been stained I think they will look fine.
We had a very quiet month in September and didn’t really do anything much. Georgina moved into a flat in South London with two other girls so I took her down with all her bags. We also met James, her new boyfriend at the caravan and he seems a very nice lad. We also had Claire’s step dad John and Marie stop with us in the van as well as Dave and Eva that we had originally met in Tenerife. Having such a quite month and talking to Dave and Eva about holidays prompted me into booking 2 weeks in Fueteventura for October.
We had never been to Fueteventura before and we weren't disappointed as they have the best beaches in the canary islands. We relaxed for a week and had a car for a week but still managed to see the entire coastline. I had planed this holiday so that we were back for Tom and Youngja’s wedding and our annual visit to Rashmi our accountant. Jim and Shirley’s youngest son Tom has married his Korean girlfriend Youngja and they intend to live in Korea where they hope to start a business. It also gave us a chance to meet Billy, Harriets boyfriend who is also very nice.
Our meeting with Rashmi saw the turning point in my attitude towards Daphne’s FA. He had told me that even if all Daphne’s money was spent on solicitors at least he wouldn’t benefit from anything. Strangely this small thing changed my attitude. I couldn’t loose. Loosing was for this crook to benefit and I now had a mechanism to stop this and maybe find something incriminating on the way. I was now full time financial investigator making a note of my time. I already have 3 huge files full of documents and its all taking shape. In fact, her FA has sort of admitted that he was Daphne’s FA but still hasn’t released any documents to me. Whatever happens, this cannot be a good outcome for him anymore.
November was another quiet month with me getting stuck into my new job. The trick this month was sorting it out so I could find and understand things which I think I have now achieved. This month also saw terrible flood water around the country for the second time this year. We have been lucky at the caravan again because both the other two sites near us were evacuated both times. To my knowledge, our site, Overstone lakes have never had to be evacuated. We did however shut down the newer caravan but leave our one open for when the stairs were to be replaced just in case we needed to stay away for a couple of days.
December has seen, my mums birthday, my dad’s birthday, our stairs finally being replaced and we have met Sue’s new boyfriend. As you get older, it gets harder and harder to call our partners boys and girls but there is no better alternative. We have also seen Jim and Shirley’s oldest son Dan, emigrate to Australia. His house, opposite ours, has sold, he’s managed to find himself a job and got his visa. He will be living with Kylie, his Australian girlfriend in St Kilda in Melbourne. I think he managed to get there for Christmas. Tom is off to Korea this Wednesday so very good luck to you all. I guess that Jim and Shirley will be starting to feel a little alone by the New Year as well. Never mind, all the more time to come out with me for a drink. Happy New Year everyone!
We had lots of parties and get togethers over December; some of you might remember Wednesday nights clumsiest member, now my brother in law. Wow, someones been eating too many mince pies! I could always get a job as a truck driver. This will be the last entry for this blog and Claire is starting a new one called, “The Naked Bloggers 2013” which will still be private until our financial differences have been sorted out. Hopefully we will see the end to all this nonsense next year sometime. Also I have booked a weeks holiday in Lanzarote leaving from Luton on Thursday 10th January. We will be staying in the “Los Zocos Club Resort” for an all inclusive holiday in Costa Teguise. Unfortunately, Goa flights were just too expensive. However, I had a travel book for Christmas about Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Looks like the best time to go there is between March and June. Cant wait!
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