Hurrah! First dead mouse.
I know, not the thing you expect to hear of a Monday morning but it is a bit of a relief. Finally. They’ve been chewing on that bait for days now and there didn’t seem to be any signs of activity getting less.
Yesterday Ian and I spent quite a while hoovering, disinfecting, checking and prodding various nooks and cupboards and kept on finding more and more mouse leavings. It turns out the Littles is eagle-eyed and is an excellent Mouse Poo spotter. Particularly enjoys yelling out ‘MOUSE POO!’ in decibels sufficient to overcome the roar of the Dyson busy sucking up said debris. Sounds like Frau Farbissina from Austin Powers. We took down the bookcases in the study and sure enough underneath one of them there was a mouse nest. Thankfully no mouse of any description inside it. Turns out it’s a very girly mouse: seems to have chosen red and pink ribbon as favourite building material, with shredded paper as a back-up.
Despite all of this, they were still in action last night and we still had visions of the Dick Whittington scenario where mice run all over his bed at night so he has to get a cat. (The Mr didn’t seem too put off by the theory but even he realises that at the moment this isn’t a viable option). So, dead mouse in the garage of a Monday morning is one of the best ways I could think of to start the week.
We went to see this house on Sunday morning. Very nice, and two doors up from Lillian’s but overpriced. Not that there was a price actually on it (they were trying to sound out the market surreptitiously) but they were thinking of between 700-750 for it. We said it won’t go for anything over 700 when they asked us our opinion. However, it seems that since then someone has put a bid in already – don’t know what it was for but Anna says “close to what they were asking for.” Blimey.
In the meantime, we’re seriously re-considering this one. I think I’ll make another appointment to see it today. We need to start getting money over in a serious way. It’s awful to finally have to bite the bullet and say goodbye to all those exchange rate losses, however one must think of the rent one won’t have to pay.
There was also, of course, Lillian’s party in the afternoon so that took care of quite a bit of the day. They had great fun and, being designated the photographer, I took over 300 pictures so there should be a few coming in a while.
Meanwhile Lara’s voice ticks are driving me absolutely crazy. The variety and continual application are mind-blowing. The Mr tells me to chill but he goes bananas too when she grinds her teeth, it just depends what sets you off. The last straw was when she started constantly running her fingers along her lips to make a brr brr sound, like the archetypal village idiot in a cartoon. Won’t stop. She is now banned from eating with us and I ignore everything she says if it’s said with an unnecessary addendum, is squeaked, growled, yelled, whispered, directed to the other side of the room, or generally misdelivered. I think we won’t be communicating for a while. Luckily I think she knows she’s finally pushed it too far and this morning she was trying to be good. All this hassle and nonsense for absolutely no reason. Ours not to reason why. Ours merely to be consigned to a mental asylum in the next couple of years. Two months of this and your hair starts to fall out.
Looking at the details of 23, I see that 35 went for $540,000 on 9 February - http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-merewether+heights-107019184 . It has a smaller plot - 513 sq m v 721, but what appear to be much bigger rooms, with a/cond lounge/dining area (only?). Looks like you could use this and more to negotiate the price down if you really like it.
ReplyDeleteHave fun beating the agent down,
Love,
Whale
Watching the 23 Hatfield st one, it's amazing what a cool round-about Cul-de-sac it is, no fear of racing cars and whatnots, so surrounded in greenery. It's funny how it (or it says) is right next to the waste water treatment works it is just like our apartment in Japan, I remember there was this park we always used to go to that was made on top of it and on a right day (it was for some reason usually a Wednesday) there was a general strong whiff of poo around the place. I quite like it although the street seems to be right in front of the window, still on a quiet street I guess it doesn't matter, the rest seems more or less great, I love the bath and outside patio, I actually went to calculate how much 500thousand was in JPY and ended up seeing that it is roughly the amount (just a tad more) than that small 75 square place we bought- cough, sorry, that is, we will be buying for the next 30 years more. Grr. Of course the other one is bigger and seems a good lot newer and roomier, but then that one is huge, whether one needs it with a 3 person family... if it was as you say a bit cheaper, one would want to invest.. hmmm... it's difficult when one has to wait for something just around the school I guess.
ReplyDeleteTalking about ticks, lord 6 years old was worst for Leo, there was a never ending supply of them- seemed that one has just got rid of one that the next one came up- clearing throat, coughing, sneezing, biting lips (that was recent actually, I said it was fine to have bloody lips if he wanted but just be careful because small maggots come up after a while and it hurts quite a lot so it's your decision- that one stopped that very night) tearing skin off toes, urm, I can't even remember anymore. It seems that at 7 at least for him, after an exasperating at times period of almost a whole year these things seem to have dwindled, well, down to a couple in 6 months or so. I can't even decide whether it was stress related or mummy related or not, since his days now are more stressing than 1st grade still, I think he just got used to the stress and understood why they were the way they were. Enough crap psychology, I know one should stay really calm and wait for them to pass but certainly when someone is clearing their throat some 10 times a minute one can't but NOT comment in some way or other. Sometimes it drove him crazy when I just copied him; silently I started just copying all the noises he made and it made him aware of just HOW irritating it was, said BUT MUMMY STOP COPYING me and then stopped doing it. THis was a good attitude but I only thought of it later on. ALl depends on the kid I guess.
Good news on the first dead mouse, lord I know about those from my 10 year living in Markusevec; but still there it was so cluttered up anyway and stinky of every possible excrement that mouse droppings in every larder somehow got unnoticed, and as you said, a cat later on changed all that, very effective, they were.
Hi I love the pictures How wonderful to let the kids be OUTSIDE. It's so cold in England (well I know Canada's colder but still!)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the house
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