History of our house

Today was an exciting day. A big bundle arrived through the post containing the deeds to our house. After nearly 25 years we've finally paid off the mortgage- hurray! Apparently deeds aren't really essential these days as all the records are kept electronically which in some ways is a shame. It was fascinating to look through the bundle and basically see the history of our house. It was built in 1897 which is about what we thought and originally had a different number (which is why I'd never been able to find it on the 1901 census).
The first buyer was a Mrs Southam who bought it on a 999 year lease for £213 and sold it on the next year to an Ebenezer Bishop for £236.In 1902 Alfred Howard bought it and in 1910 a Mr Tidswell. In 1918 just after the war it was valued at £350 andFrank King and his wife Beatrice moved in. They stayed for 26 years till Frank died in 1942 and his widow sold the house to a butcher called William Green for £950 in 1944. In 1947 Charles Fitt an insurance manager bought it for £1500 and a year later sold it for £1750 to Garnet Lucket Humphries a teacher from Bexhill. The Humphries were there for 23 years, then it went in 1971 to Mr and Mrs S for £5750.They also got the lease changed to freehold. 10 years later inflation had definitely kicked in. The Rs bought it for £26500 in 1981 and we bought it in 1983 for £29,500. It's currently valued at about £300k.
I tried plotting the costs on a chart and it was really impossible to find any kind of sensible scale for the inflation of the last 30 years. I remember at university living comfortably on £5 a week (not including rent) and I thought somebody who earned £100 a week was incredibly wealthy!

Quiet as a Mouse?

There’s a mouse in the house -
It’s so noisy and nosy
It's driving me crazy!
It scratches and scritches
And nibbles the biscuits
It chews at the chocolate
And boxes and packets
And even the racquets
And pockets of jackets
And bags in the cupboard
Right under the stair-
So annoying just knowing
It’s there! In despair
I give chase, try to waste it and stop it
Decapitate, top it
Keep hoping it’s copped it
Poison, entrapment, containment
All failing, can’t catch it,
Can’t match it -
I tell you it’s driving me mad!
Get me owls get me cats
Get me ferrets and traps
Get me terriers, foxes
Electrical boxes
Glue traps and suction
Explosion combustion
Distraction destruction-
Oh please
somebody
Terminate
Desiccate, desecrate
Flatten and laminate
Step on, exterminate-
Somebody rid me that
Pesky destroying
That wretched
Annoying
That noisy
BLOODY
MOUSE!

5 impossible things

I am lucky enough to have seen at least 5 impossible things happen in my lifetime. Mostly it makes me more hopeful. It reminds me that things do change, no matter how bad a regime it WILL eventually fall. These are all things which seemed impossible and yet they happened. Here's my list oldest first.

1969 Man on the moon

I was in our dining room, watching TV from Houston listening to the live radio broadcast as the lunar module came in to land. 'Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed.' Going out and looking at the moon - they're actually up there. Actually this is one that has grown in my imagination over the years. At the time, being a teenager and growing up on science fiction, it was wonderful but to be expected. Now older and wiser (?)knowing how little they did it with, how difficult it actually was, and thinking of the same feat being attempted today! - it seems almost more impossible now than it did then.

1989 Berlin Wall

I grew up in the cold war when 'what would you do with your 4 minutes warning?' (ie the stated time we would have if the Russians launched a nuclear missile)was a standard school debating topic. It was not so much if as when nuclear war between the west and Russia would start. The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain were present realities. I still remember the sense of amazement about Gorbachov who actually seemed human and reasonable. And I remember sitting in a TV lounge in Barking hospital (having just had Leo) and watching in disbelief as the Berlin wall came down. It seemed impossible but it was happening and I was seeing it.

1991 Terry Waite

Number four is Terry Waite and the other Lebanon hostages finally being freed after five years. No one even knew if they were alive. It seemed imposisble after so long. Then suddenly there he is ...

1995 South Africa

All the protests at uni and years of boycotting oranges. Suddenly everything changes Mandela is free, apartheid is dismantled. Another impossible thing happens. And the abiding image of Nelson Mandela in a team jersey at the World Cup in 95 shaking hands with de Klerk.

2007 Ireland

Number five has been getting there for a few years now... the long haul towards peace in Ireland. But today another impossible day: Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley having a meeting, agreeing (if only about how much they both hate water metering!). I saw the photo, I heard the news. I still hardly believe it.

urgh

I was really looking forward to Thurs and Fri this week, finally a few days off after hopelessly hectic time. Then I god a cold. Gorgeous sunny ponding gardening weather outside and I'm in dabbing at my eyes and sneezing. Have watched about 2 dozen episodes of Buffy that I bought from the charity shop and generally felt miserable. Day 4 now into irritating coughing phase. Colds make me so depressed. Especially when it's spring in a big way outside.

lunar eclipse

This was an attempt at impromtu digiscoping. I set my telescope up in the street and then just held dad's camera to it! Some much better shots around on the web. I hadn't seen a lunar eclipse for years and it was fascinating to look through the scope and see the red light on the hidden bit, the curve of the earth gradually moving across. At full eclipse it looked really weird, kind of greenish at the pole and the rest a dull pinky red.

late Christmas pic

Ready and waiting. The tray near Clare contains Leo's edible patchwork quilt, an interesting design of sausage meat and different stuffings, bordered with sausages and er - things

I put a few up from our norfolk trip too see dec