Random chat NO PROMO

[#1]

Hi guys, I thought it'll be nice to have a thread for just random ramblings so we can all get to know each other!

So, lets start with, what do you all buy on etsy? I just received a soap order, waiting for another 2. Looking for body butter and solid lotion bar, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I love waiting for parcels! 7 more!

[Frecklesoriginals]

OH heck Heather I may have cut my nose of to spite my face. I had a bit of a doo with an estate agent this morning. She was going to bring a client to see the house, on Wednesday and we have a booking with another agent on Monday. we thought it may be the same peeps so asked her the name of hers. She said we don't give out clients names before the visit. ( I know weird) They think you will try and contact them and show them the house without agents fees. Spanish thing, well expat thing really. Anyway I thought it was like she didn't trust us which she didn't so I told her I couldn't work with anyone that didn't trust us and just because the agents all have a trust issue with each other it should not affect the trust they have in a client. Upshot is I told her to take it off their books. They are new to the area came from Zimbabwe. Not sure why they chose here. Sorry can't talk to anyone here about it cos the expats chatter and love any gossip about the agents so I though O know Heather will listen to my rantings. God bet you're glad you're out of it all?

[EvesLittleEarthlings]

In Canada, you sign on with one agent to sell the house. They arrange all the bookings with other agents, then the fee is split between them. I don't think a situation like yours could ever come up. Once an agent takes you on as a client for a certain amount of time, they get their fee if the house sells, no matter who finds the buyer.

The fees are so high! 5-6% is standard around here. We own a student home that our kids have been living in and really, we can't afford to sell it for a few years....any added value that the house has made in the last 4 years will be swallowed up by agent fees unless we try to sell it independently. If my son ever gets a job (currently underemployed and living at home), he says he would buy it, so that would solve things!

[Former_Member]

yes I'm very glad indeed we are done with the selling and buying. it was good to only be buying this time, not selling at the same time, but still hard.

I hate the housing market. my kids will never be able to afford to buy. well, I suppose the daughter might if she stays working abroad and manages to save.

[Frecklesoriginals]

I know Heather so hard for them now. It was hard when we started but much worse now. Eve that sounds like a good idea but the thought of the agents even agreeing on a fee price would be hard. They constantly talk about each other and send gossip round it's horrid. Problem we have is you don't need to do any training here to be an agent you just rock up and you're off. We have to weed out the ones that do know what they are doing. saying that most sales go OK.

The couple that came loved the casa so we shall see fingers crossed for me girls. have a great weekend.

[Former_Member]

did they like it enough, freckles?

in the paper a week or two ago it said the average age of first time house buyers in UK is now an unbelievable 37, after saving for 10 years for the deposit.

In other news, I've decided to reopen my shop so need to get knitting!

[ClosetGothic]

Welcome back to your Etsy shop, Nifty - it looks beautiful, as usual. LOVE the pirate :)

House buying is the same here in NZ - we have a dire shortage and prices have gone through the roof. You now need a 20% deposit so the prices are going up faster than people can save.

[Former_Member]

the pirate won me a competition Janne, the company sent me (and other bloggers) a random box of yarns to make whatever we wished, and he won *preens*

what I find most sad about the uk housing market is the government's daft decision to sell off social housing. what inevitably happens is that they end up in the hands of landlords. one of my sons rents an ex-social housing property. it'd be way cheaper if it was still in the hands of the council, though he would be unlikely to be eligible as he's employed.

[ClosetGothic]

That's fab about the Pirate, Nifty - well done!

A new law has just been passed here making it that investment accommodation buyers (landlords) have to have a 30% deposit to buy. I suspect all it will do is make a dire shortage of rental properties. What a mess!

They are selling off State Houses here too.

[Former_Member]

Welcome back Nifty! Nice to see the shop open again!

Sorry I've been MIA for a while but the COPD has been getting to be again. BUT great news is that my health insurance company has finally agreed to cover the complete cost of transplant testing and possible transplant at the the local hospital.

Unlike most of you with Socialized Medicine, here each insurance company has contracts with specific hospitals for reduced rates and my insurance company didn't have a reduced rate ("in network" rate) for the transplant team located here in the city. The nearest 'in network' team was over 2,500 miles away and that is where I would have had to go for testing and transplant.

But the team here at the hospital worked with my insurance company to get them under contract so that i can now have everything done right here in town. The hospital is less than an hour away.

There have been many times when I wish I were back in Canada where medicine was so much easier to deal with. For this transplant, all I would have had to do is to be referred to the University of Toronto Hospital and everything would have been covered with no questions asked. (And I actually thought about moving back to Canada just for that reason!)

[sockysocks]

Gosh, being ill is stressful enough without having to worry about how it is going to be paid for. That must lessen your load a bit crochetgal. People moan about the National Health Service here but is is always there when you need it.
Good luck with your treatment.

[KnitsByNat]

Crochetgal, I'm glad the hospital was able to work things out with your insurance company. It's things like this that make me glad I'm in Canada.

[Frecklesoriginals]

Health care is a nightmare all over. We have been looking at the Ausie one. Scarily expensive. Mum's in hospital in the UK now the one she is in sucks I wouldn't send a hamster there to be cared for. But it's all we have. They have no idea how to look after people with dementia.
Can't wait for her to get back into the lovely nursing home £800 a week but at least they look after her. On a totally different subject is anyone else having crazy weather. I've got my jumper on. Oh welcome back Heather shop looks fab.

[sockysocks]

The weather is South East England is very un-summery. Lots of cloud and oh so windy - actually strong winds have been a feature here all year. Hoping summer will arrive soon!

[Former_Member]

oh crochetgal - it must be so hard.

weather in SE is indeed crazy. went off to brighton this morning with thick sweater to meet son#2 for lunch, ended up carrying sweater and wishing I'd taken my sunhat!

[Former_Member]

I'm willing to trade weather with any of you right now. Temps today reached 108F by noon with not a breeze in sight. And the house is like ice because the A/C is turned on to 85F!

Can I have my wonderful winter back?? lol!

[EvesLittleEarthlings]

Nothing but rain here the last week....small flood in the basement again, but it doesn't matter much because I am still down to bare concrete in my studio from the last disaster when the renovators overflowed the heating system and ruined my flooring back in early May (only 3 yrs old).

Crochet Gal, 108 sounds terrible, even 85 with the AC is bad. 2 crappy years of weather here, too much cold and snow and rain. I had the heat on in my studio on Saturday.

[Frecklesoriginals]

I feel like the world has done a tilt or missed a beat somewhere. It been so cold here this week,but has now gone warm again. I'm feeling pretty grim mum is still in hospital well that's what the building is called. She went in with dehydration, and managed to get, pneumonia, Septicemia, a blood infection and E Coli all within a week. They were going to send her back to the home but neglected to tell them she had E Coli. If my sister had not told them the whole home would of been at risk. The home staff are fuming . I can't believe they lied to the home telling them she was OK to leave. The treatment she has had has been awful, ie; drink where she can't reach it, wet bed. I could go on. It's so bad. If you live near the Wirral don't send your hamster,goldfish or anyone else you love to Arrow Park NHS.

[ClosetGothic]

Very crisp, frosty mornings here this week - seems like the cold has hit a month early - the seasons are a bit all over the place!

Pamela - the treatment of oldies in hospitals is a worry isn't it? I went through the same thing with my Dad years ago; he went in to hospital to be checked out after a fall (induced by a bit much vodka :) and came out with God knows what sorts of infections including a bad UTI and like your Mum, a blood infection.

Not good and it makes me shudder just thinking about it :(

[Former_Member]

yup, geriatric care in hospitals is notorious everywhere. if it wasn't for relatives...

in other news - we changed internet provider when we moved, which meant changing emails. I thought we'd changed it everywhere but no. I'd changed it in paypal, I'd changed it for contact here, but didn't realise there was a separate place to change it here for which email my paypal directs to. oops. so having made a sale, I discover that the payment is lost in the ether at an email addy that no longer exists! lucky it was just a card.

[EvesLittleEarthlings]

So many electronic tendrils that need to be redirected when anything changes.

I must say that my mother-in-law is a frequent hospital goer and receives very good care, except for one instance when nobody noticed she had fluid on the lungs for 2 months and she spent all that time in ICU in a strange state of semi-coma. we thought she was a goner that time, but she finally got the lungs drained and snapped back to life. She has also survived a brain tumor.
My own mom (91) has many health practitioners....all of them are young enough to be my own children and every one is as delightful and polite as you can imagine...much less surly than the middle aged folks who look after me. On Tuesday, I took her to a young sikh who specializes in only doing root canals. I thought she might be a bit adverse to the turban and beard, but she was very happy with his kind attention and explanations. She forked over the $150 for the exam without complaint. (We don't get government dental in Canada).
3 very old elders in the family now, all over 90.....combined they have so many health issues. I do say that mobility seems to be the #1 problem, so keep moving everybody!! Do strength exercises and yoga and your chances will be better if you get very old.

[sockysocks]

That sounds like good advice Eve, and keep walking too.

What a pain about your email address nifty, I hope there is some way the money will filter down to you.

I'm just back from my mother-in-laws funeral in the north west of England. She was 80 and had been ill for a couple of years so it wasn't unexpected.
It was flipping cold up there though!

[Former_Member]

I don't know if money will filter, I emailed etsy and paypal but no response from either. asked etsy to cancel transaction cos currently I can't refund (tho I've sent the card) as the payment is pending. it isn't pending, it's lost. I can't access the email it went to because that email doesn't exist -but it's gone from buyer's account. I'm just really pleased it was a cheap card and not an expensive kat!

I know what you mean about temp. differences Mandy, DiL who is expecting beginning of august is a scot as are all her family. they're telling her she'll need lots of clothes to keep her august baby warm, forgetting the temp on south coast is quite different! I'm telling her she'll more likely have trouble keeping her cool enough, not warm!

(and yes, it's going to be a granddaughter)

which reminds me, I had a mad dream they were going to name their babies after the XMen, and this one is Mystique. they say not.

[Former_Member]

All this talk about the miserable care in hospitals is making me nervous. I just spent a week in the transplant hospital having more tests done and I was really impressed with the staff and the care. But I still don't appreciate the blood draws at 3:00am.

And my news for today is that I just got the approval for the transplant.

Now I'm waiting on paperwork to be completed and then I will be put on the transplant list.

The physiotherapists that I saw were amazed at the regular routine that I was keeping despite not being able to breathe very well.

[cindylouwho2]

congratulations on getting approval! I hope that they can get the paperwork completed quickly so that you get put on the waiting list ASAP

[sockysocks]

Fingers crossed for you crochetgirl for a short wait for the transplant.

I'm off to Cornwall tomorrow for a week so I have a day of sorting out, packing, cleaning the house (I like coming back to it being lovely and tidy) and giving the dog a bath so he doesn't stink out the car. See you later!