Re: Scared of Making Wrong Decision
 

I don't have Koi, but I did inherit 8 goldfish (2 of which I managed to kill within a few weeks, but the rest I've kept alive). Yes, they've successfully hibernated under the ice for 3 winters now.

I really couldn't be bothered with a fishpond but I feel responsible for the 6 remaining souls in there -to the point that I've paid for repairs to the pond pump and all kinds of other baloney. Honestly, I need to be more ruthless, but it's not just one of those ponds I could just give away the fish and turn it into a flower bed (it's a raised pond, and ... oh, it's complicated just like the rest of the House that Jack Built and I ended up being stupid enough to buy). :thumbdown:

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Thanks Fish, I will be following my guts, it's the only way to live :)

Wonderfulperson, my mother, aunts and elder sister all went to the Royal A&A School for a bit, when were you there?

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Out of interest where in Surrey are you thinking of moving to?? I'm just looking at trying to go the other way (hopefully to somewhere in Canada by the end of the year) as things aren't particularly great at the moment in my profession and just generally (bad in a different way to the bad situation in the USA).

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:thumbsup:

Sorry can't keep up with the posts, MBTTUK has gone a bit crazy today!! :lol:

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Well in the general area of Heathrow, don't know really, it would be like you emigrating to Canada, I know nowt about darn sarf!! :ohmy:

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Wow... Henleys nice as I remember...

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hahhaaaaaa Best laugh of the day for me, tell Jack Thanks...

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I know what you mean, if you go somewhere you want to make the right decision rather than just blindly end up somewhere and have to make the best of it as you didn't do the necessary groundwork. So you're thinking of somewhere like Hillingdon?? (that's more like West London :thumbup: - I'm closer to Gatwick).

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:rofl:

:rofl: I had visions of gangs wearing fred perry shirts and talking with a posh accents
I'm told we have a gang and drug problem here where we live and we are rural, I've never seen a one, everyone is nice that we've met and I feel very safe. (apart from the dogs)
But we live in an extremely high use Meth area. Social services has more than twice the number of children in care than the neighboring county, and that county has double the number of people living there.
Now pit bulls are a big problem around our neighborhood, I swear the family at the end of the road are running a puppy mill on a small scale.
In UK I used to complain about Dog doo all over, but I'd rather dodge that that be charged at by a raging pitbull dog.

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Yikes Mummy I love dogs but I dont care for those and a few others, I know some defend them and say they are nice, thats OK for them so say, I just dont trust them, its a gut feeling thing or basic Fear.

Meths seems a like problem everywhere and look at the mess it leaves, I know a guy whos kids got on that, now he's playing Dad to his Grandkids at 65 and in bad health with Diabetes, they had to remove his leg, Drugs are a major problem in this world as they affect others indirectly, and I know the problem will always be here.

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the pitbull thing here is insane.... i love dogs more thana nything but really couldnt care for therm, i know people say "its hwothey are raised" but they are fighting dogs, just last nigt on the new a little girl aged 4 was killed by te 2 pitbulls next door to her, pulled the poor girl about like a rag doll... some apartmens i worked at in florida banned them....

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This is too much of a generalization as it depends where you live. Where I am now is safer than the area of Toronto I lived in. And where I plan to move in the UK is safer than here.

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Love the fact you feel responsible for them, Dunroving. Very few feel that way. That's how I would feel, too, though.

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I found it a bit odd that the seller didn't even mention that he was leaving them behind - but then he was a pretty odd person. Haven't heard a good word said about him in the 4 years I've lived here, and I have found some bizarre things buried in the garden.

He did have some Koi in the pond, apparently, but sold them to a neighbour (I think they are quite expensive).

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Weird things buried in the garden eh! Sounds like you bought the UK version of H.S. house in the US over the in the Lounge section :lol:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=639785 It starts out strange enough and gets worse, he uncovers so many creepy things. and theres pictures. :rofl:

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Oops, I spoke too soon. Got back from a rainy walk with Suzy and thought I'd go up to the pond to see how things are and I could see at least three rather large, gold lollipops. :( It really has been a cold winter and I couldn't do much about it - I had to turn off the pump because there was about a 10-inch layer of ice at the top section of the pond, and the pump would have ended up running dry. The pond is about 20 inches deep.

Bugger it, I thought I was doing so well for a pool amateur. I'll just have to wait until it all thaws to find out if any of them survived. If not, I may turn it into more of a "natural" pond for the local wildlife.

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Well, the slightly scary thing is that the year before he sold the house, he poured about a 12-inch layer of concrete out the back of the house (supposedly to support his giant hot-tub - honestly :rolleyes:). He did an absolutely rubbish job of mixing the concrete as it "shatters" (turns into dust every season, because of extreme temperatures, water ingress, etc.)

The concrete was so thick that it bridged the damp proof course in the external house wall. I ended up paying someone to grind away a 6-inch trench right against the house, to free up the air bricks and damp proof course, but it would have cost a fortune to get rid of all of it so I got a joiner to put some decking on it. I dread to think what/who might be encased in that thick layer of concrete. :scaredhair:

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:rofl: Did he have a wife? :eek:

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OMG, I spent almost an hour reading page 1, then realised the whole thing is a bloody epic!

I think that guy is a hero, and my house stories pale in comparison. I won't complain ever again about my house (well, at least not for a day or two).

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HS is the best storyteller LOL!! Bit worried about your concrete to be honest, thinking Scottish Mafia........:eek:

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I don't feel sorry for him. Seems a bit arrogant to me. He knew what he bought when he bought it. Plus he bought in the U.S., not the UK.

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He's a very good writer, and could keep us all checking back for more. I didn't feel sorry for him, I think they had a pretty good time doing up the house, the after pictures are lovely. He also has some strange neighbors at this house. Maybe it's the area it sends them all mad eventually.

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I love his writing, very witty.

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I don't think he wants anyone to feel sorry for him. Why do you find him arrogant? He has a very amusing way to tell a story and it was fun to read and it was great that he chose to share the experiences with us all.

Buying a house and renovating it are very stressful times, writing about it all probably helped to relieve his stress.

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H.S. is unreal, I read every word about the remodel of his home some months ago, it was brilliant...

Have any of you read about his job at the call center, OMG his desricptions are awesome, Monkey Fudge was the one that made me laugh more than any, Id never heard that term before.

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Quik vent.....

Get me out of this god forsaken,,,,, materialstic.. fake, plastic .. B.S filled country.... thank you rant over and Happy Sunday.... the end of summer and my retunr home could not come soon enough......

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Having a bad day love? :lol:

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:rofl: (((hugs))) hope your day gets better.

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thanks ladies .... ya know just one of those frustrating days ... where you wanna be back already..... ;)

Re: Scared of Making Wrong Decision
 

thanks ladies .... ya know just one of those frustrating days ... where you wanna be back already..... ;)

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Stop repeating yaself our Hayley. :rofl:

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I love Herpes stories, he is a wonderful entertaining writer. I dont think he is arrogant at all, just a very good and humorous story teller. That house was a nightmare, and some of the freaky things he found in it would have had me running for the hills..lol. His "Day one in a low wage job" thread is hilarious too.
Jackie

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:D

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I've only ever spotted a few of his posts on other people's threads and never knew he was so funny until I was pointed towards his house thread. He should write some of this stuff for publication. He reminds me a lot of Walter Jowers, who writes for the Nashville Scene.

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Go and find the one about the low paid job, it is hysterical and the way he paints a picture of his colleagues is priceless, it's like The Office only much much worse ha ha!! :rofl:

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have you read his " Day one in a low wage job" thread, I literally had tears running down my face from laughing so hard at his descriptions. The Brussel sprout nipple lady..omg, I thought I was gonna bust my stitches..lol

Jackie

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Now, where's that Advanced Search button?

[It'll have to wait until tomorrow, unfortunately - and I'm sure I'll have some very weird dreams tonight now I've read that]

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Its great..take an hour or two and just read the entire thread..its worth it..;)

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We all tell him to write a book, I'd read it :thumbup:

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well guys I finally got my date booked to head home..... Luckily room opened up in the kennels for my little dog on the Queen Mary 2 for Oct 7th of this year..... So crazy how once you book that ticket how kind of surreal it still all is..... I have had a few "what if" momments... but i just tell myself it must be the right thing for me right now because I have planned so much and wanted it so bad for so long..... and besides I am very lucky in having dual citizenship so i can always come back to the states should my mind every change... Over all I am happy and excited and even more thrilled that I don't have to put my poor little dog under the plane as that was my bigest fear.... I try to avoid the "ney sayers' and the "anti-uk" people now as i remember many of them have never left England so things everywhere else must seem Rosey to them.....They don't know what its like to miss home and ache with that feeling of needing to feel like you belong somewhere again............. SO the countdown is on, lots to do, find housing and a job.......Happy, nervous and excited.... Here I come! :rofl: