“And tomorrow it’s back to the house hunt, and can’t wait to find out if that money transfer has gone through, or is going to” ….
Don’t be silly! Of course it hadn’t. That was Sunday evening, 15th July. The battle went on for another two and a half days – eight days in total! On Monday morning I began to log the calls I made and the names of the people I spoke to …
(The next three paragraphs have been removed because, Carol says, they were just too boring!)
Finally, while having lunch in that lovely lay-by with the English-run snack truck just before the narrow bit with the overhangs and the rock arch, we heard that the transfer had been made! Carol almost burst into tears! Not only had the transfer been made, but they were waiving the £25 fee AND compensating us to the tune of £100 …. It wasn’t worth it, and I don’t know yet how much of the £125 was actually spent on phone calls, but it doesn’t make up for the asthma attack, the two missed beakfasts and the 8 days of stress.
So how about the house-hunt? It’s nearly over! We have a short list of three. We’re not going to live in Quillan because it has higher rates and taxes and we don’t want the ‘extras’ (night-life, festivals, concerts ..) that they are supposed to cover. The first house we saw with a pool already in place, whose photo I’ve posted twice, is still a runner, along with this one:
This is in Sournia, the same little town where we found the house we wanted two years ago! And by pure coincidence the owner (English) was sitting next to us in the plane as we flew to Carcassonne back in May for ‘A Place In The Sun’! We visited yesterday. We still like the location and the house is lovely, though a bit small. But access for Harry will be very difficult. Then today we saw this:
But we shall be here for the rest of summer, no doubt. Harry’s new home has space for at least one tent within the pitch, so that wouldn’t cost anything:
There would be a cost per person, of course, but if anyone wants to visit while we’re here, we can easily meet at Carcassonne (Ryanair) or Perpignan (a bit more choice). There’s the little lake with pedalos and supervised swimming just beside us, a castle just over the road and croaking frogs (amphibeans, not Gauls) to keep you awake, or send you to sleep …. And what’s more, the sun shines most days!
Stephen's space 
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{page:WordSection1;} –></style><!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" /> </xml><![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext="edit"> <o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" /> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]–></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#EB7400" vlink="#EB7400"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>Hope you get the one you decide becomes your first choice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>Banking inefficiency – as you say the compemsation does not make up for appalling service – but we are asked to believe that the private sector is always ‘more efficient’ than public! Bah Humbug to that….<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>love and best wishes from us: thanks for the (implied) invitation but I think we will wait until you are settled – not being into camping (or equipped for it).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>Bro<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>Phil Thompson<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>020 3583 0638<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’>07866 541 890<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D’></span></p><div><div style=’border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm’><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style=’font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"’>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style=’font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"’> SoKoTo’s Posterous [mailto:post@sokoto.posterous.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> 20 July 2012 07:58<br><b>To:</b> phil.cpt3@tiscali.co.uk<br><b>Subject:</b> [sokoto] THE EIGHT-DAY BATTLE COMES TO AN END, MAYBE THE HOUSE HUNT WILL SOON, TOO<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal></p><p align=center style=’text-align:center’><span style=’font-size:8.5pt;color:#999999′>This is a private email. Please do not forward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div align=center><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=650 style=’width:390.0pt’><tr style=’height:12.0pt’><td colspan=3 style=’background:#EAEAEA;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:12.0pt;border-top-left-radius:5px;border-top-right-radius:5px’></td></tr><tr><td width=20 style=’width:12.0pt;background:#EAEAEA;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’></td><td style=’padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’><div align=center><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=610 style=’width:366.0pt’><tr style=’height:36.0pt’ id=header><td width=610 style=’width:366.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:36.0pt’><div id="logo_container"><p class=MsoNormal><span style=’font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333;border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm’><img width=610 height=610 id=logo src="cid:image001.jpg@01CD6799.C9EFB700" alt="Image removed by sender. Posterous Spaces"></span><span style=’font-size:14.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333′><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></td></tr><tr><td style=’padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=610 style=’width:366.0pt;background:white’><tr style=’height:12.0pt’><td style=’padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:12.0pt’></td><td style=’border:none;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’ width=594 colspan=2><p class=’MsoNormal’> </p></td></tr><tr><td width=16 style=’width:9.6pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’></td><td width=578 style=’width:346.8pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=578 style=’width:346.8pt’ id="first_section"><tr><td style=’padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm’><p><span style=’font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333′></span></p></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div></div></body></html>