Where do they manufacture estate agents?

Well, a non boating sort of post this time. We picked up our hire car, managed to load it up and get ready to leave just before the heavens opened in Cardiff. Amazing timing. The Vauxhall Astra diesel estate isn't terribly amazing as cars go but it is a diesel, has lots of space for stuff inside and so is ideal for what we need whilst sorting out the Norfolk bungalow. It is also very very red and uses more fuel than a BMW 520d. Not impressed.

We headed for Harlow (Crew's parents) and Norfolk via Anne's house - she who came for the weekend and left us her coat as a present. We also excavated some stuff from the marina lock-up in Hythe that we needed, bumping into Stephen and Alison there. (Stephen is the previously mentioned trolley shopper expert, who is also a hunting shooting and fishing expert, BMW car aficionado and general all round good egg. Alison is, of course, a significantly better egg..)

We started the dinghy clean up and varnishing job - some of the bits, like the rudder and tiller, got varnished indoors as the weather changed and it got a bit rainy. There is nothing quite as beautiful as varnished 65 year old mahogany. Well, you would also think so if you'd done all the work to get it to this stage:

The captain now is ready for a little house breaking / safe cracking as he has no fingerprints left. Sandpaper is wonderful stuff - who needs hand cream to soften the skin, just wear it away...

We also went flat hunting in Norwich. Idea is to buy something we would want to use as a second pad when we have to come ashore but to rent it out in the meanwhile - cash in the bank isn't terribly useful right now of course.... Where do estate agents get manufactured? It must be a very strange factory. They all come out with the ability to say lots of words with minimal meaning or content. They also have the same deathly pallor of the face and total inability to relate to normal human beings or follow basic instructions like "it needs 2 bedrooms and an en-suite". We found one lady who is in the wrong job though - she works for House Revolution (pretty grim name) in Norwich and was sensible and helpful to talk to. We reckon she will find a real job soon to escape from the army of clones that she must be working with.

Some OK places:

With lovely views across Norwich to the cathedral from the penthouse balcony:

We will rent the flat out initially so the fact that there are sitting tenants in this particular flat - two female Chinese students who clearly don't use the cupboards - should be enticing. Walking around the place and finding their underwear hanging in most unexpected paces was a surprise. Not a nice one, just a surprise. Got to decide if we like it enough to empty the bank account now....

About to head for Harlow and the dentist - the retired life doesn't mean you can't avoid such fun sadly. Then off to Edinburgh for a couple of days. This trip was booked as a late 80th birthday celebration for the crew's dad but owing to tablet changes he cannot travel now. Means we now have two rooms in a cheapo hotel in Edinburgh booked . We will check in to both and see which one we prefer / steal the toiletries from both.... More news anon.