Who knew?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Well there you go, I, apparently, am a snapdragon. I don't mind this a bit, it is a nice traditional staple in most perennial gardens, that sounds like me. Thanks for this Debra (Us In France ). Gardening is one of my passions, and the garden of my current house is my longest garden so far. I am always starting gardens, staying around possibly a couple of summers, then moving on. This is the first garden where I am about to experience my fourth year. It is lovely to actually see the results of one's labours. I am a haphazard gardener, I love traditional plants, lavender being my absolute favourite, can't have too many different varieties. I love to fill every available space, and I am always rescuing orphans at the garden centre and of course donations from friends are never refused.

Every fall I mean to take photos so that next spring I will be ready to transplant those that have become too big for their boots, and those who have been swallowed by those bigger plants. But as usual I forgot again last year. Another favourite is hostas, all shapes and colours, I think this comes from having had shady gardens and these always do well there. Pots are another obsession, I must currently have around 20 - 30 pots of different sizes and shapes, although these don't do so well here in Canadian summers which are so hot and dry, too much watering required. A garden, or at the very least an outside space to potter amongst my pots, is the one thing I don't think I will ever be able to give up.

A Weekend in the Life of A "Real" Real Estate Agent

Well it has been a very eventful weekend. My head is still spinning. First of all I got my second listing - yay! Again people I met at an open house. So Friday that property went on the market, Friday evening my first listing went firm, all conditions fulfilled. As soon as the clients heard it was firm, we were out looking at properties again. We had missed out on one just before Christmas, and it had been sitting there conditional on the other buyers selling their property all this time, and we were lurking, hoping to bump them when our deal went firm, then Thursday morning the status on that house went firm - bummer - so we had to start our search again. Anyway they looked again at one they had seen before and decided if we could get a deal, that was the one for them. They would sleep on it.
Saturday morning, bright and early, they give me instructions to draw up an offer on the house. So I got that underway, meanwhile sending my son and his friend out with my "Just Sold" flyers for their house. The offer was presented, and went back and forth all day, the sellers finally accepting my clients' final offer at 10pm Saturday evening. So after an afternoon of putting "Just Listed" flyers around my new listing (in frigid temperatures I might add - devoted or what?), I met up with the listing agent in the office parking lot at 10.30 Saturday night to hand over the deposit and collect the documents. It seemed so cloak and dagger.
Come Sunday (my day of rest!!), sorted out all the paperwork, and spent the remainder of the day wrestling the old tiles from my bathroom walls (that is what counts for rest around here!), then out of the blue Sunday around 7pm I get a call from my new sellers who have been out around the Open Houses without me (!) and they want to put in an offer, can they see the house one more time? So I scramble to get all that paperwork together, meanwhile setting up another viewing, make myself presentable and meet them at the house around 8.30pm. Yes it is a very nice house and they sign up. Deal goes back and forth a few times, with me sitting in my car outside in -12 degrees C, making a small hole in the ozone layer until 11.50pm last night. Unfortunately for my clients, the seller wasn't ready negotiate too much so soon after her property hitting the market last week, so we ended up walking away. But we will be lurking again!!
So an amazing weekend for this fledgling agent, lots of excitement, stress and experience under her belt. And as a bonus I can also see some cash at the end of the tunnel. GWE is pretty pumped too as you can imagine. Phew! I am not sure whether to hope for more weekends like that or not. Pretty intense.

More Trivia from Me

Well it has been a few days and I am feeling the pressure to blog, although I really don't have much to say. Anyway I will just bring you all up to date with the events of my life, such as they are.

After getting a scary estimate for the roof for the french house, we spent the Christmas holidays drawing up the plans of the house, particularly the roof trying to pin down the exact requirement for materials so that we can pick through the estimate (which of course is in french) together with Babelfish, trying to see where the contractor was trying to rob us! As GWE does designing for a living it was a bit of a busman's holiday. So now we have two more estimates on the way and we are just praying that they come in slightly lower - fingers crossed. Therefore, things are pretty much on hold in that area of our lives as until the roof is done (hopefully this summer) we cannot proceed with much else.

On the new career front, I have sold my first listing. It is conditional until Friday but it is very exciting, in fact, a bit sad how exciting to a newly fledged real estate agent. And pretty scary too, leading my clients through the minefield of the offer, counter offer etc. but they are very pleased with the result. So now we now have to find them somewhere to buy and I have to get the next listing and so it goes on. It is a roller coaster lifestyle, one minute it feels like you have lots of things simmering under, the next minute it can all disappear - a little overwhelming at times.

Do you think you can stick with me through the boring times? Hopefully 2008 will become slightly more exciting. I included this picture to remind myself why we need to spend so much money on the roof!

Seven "Things" About Me - not sure how unique

OK wakeupandsmellthecoffee you asked for it, here goes.... please everyone be polite, no yawning.

1. Never lived in anyone place for very long, my dad was in the RAF and so from a young age my family was moving around, first around the UK and then we spent three years in Germany. Even when we returned to the UK the longest I stayed in any one spot was from the age of 9 to 19 years. Been moving around ever since, and have lived in Israel, United States (CA, GA, WA), Canada (QC, ON), Germany and now back to Canada.

2. Married at 19 to the boy I met when I was 15 and still contentedly married almost 31 years later. That’s fairly unique these days right?

3. Never had an allergy or allergic reaction of any kind. I know, I have jinxed myself now. I am not going to mention my rude good health because you know where that will lead!

4. Never even had a cigarette of any variety (apart from the candy kind – remember those) in my mouth. It never appealed to me in the slightest. Never taken an illegal drug either. I told you I was boring.

5. People say moving house is one of the most stressful things in life, but I love it, I love house hunting and I love re-inventing myself when I get to the next place, OK the bit that involves a lot of boxes and moving the fridge and washer, quite often on my own because GWE is usually on to the next spot ahead of me, I am not so keen on.

6. God this is tough!! I don’t have any tattoos whatsoever, and my only piercings are visible – yes boringly its my ears.

7. I dislike reality shows, Canadian (or whatever) Idol, Strictly Come Dancing (or what it is called), The Apprentice, Big Brother can’t watch them, now if is about real estate, houses, moving to a new country or decorating, you can’t peel me off the couch, much to the dismay of my family.

See I sound soooo boring but honestly I am a fun, bubbly person (Oooh I just thought of one, I hardly ever have a bad mood) now I have definitely jinxed, if not myself, then my loved ones!!! Please keep reading – I will try to keep it interesting.

To Mum's Everywhere

I know you can all relate to this and hopefully it will give you a chuckle as it did me. You KNOW you have uttered 99% of these ........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

Bloggeritis Update

Well I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my bloggeritis is not as bad as previously thought. Only 52% addicted. However, I have a feeling it might become chronic as time goes on. Click on the link if you want to see how you shape up. Thanks for the quiz Queeny (aka chantay).

As you know I am a novice and I couldn't work out how to include the lovely Html (!?) that gave my result. Surprise Surprise

Whoopee!

Thank you so much Aims (and of course The Man) I did it. I've got links to other bloggers - hello everyone. And so easy too once I knew where to go. No holding me back now. A very promising start to 2008.
Now if only I can actually get around to enrolling myself in that dance class (shed those Christmas pounds - well the last 20 Christmases actually!!!) and those French lessons.......mon dieu! And sell my client's house, that's looking more promising as things have picked up since Christmas so fingers crossed, get another listing, whip this business into shape, decorate the main bathroom etc. etc.
Well just getting out of my dressing gown would be a place to start. Good Morning everyone.

Whoops!

As usual pressed the publish button too quickly and when I read my last blog realised I had omitted to add the very three people who got me started on all this in my efforts to live my life vicariously in France, and they are of course, Breezybreakblogs, Us in France and sally's chateau. Sorry ladies, what a faux pas!!

Morning!

Well here I am - it is 7.02 am and I have happily checked in on all my cyber friends, Stinking Billy had some nice words for me, maybe that will drive some more traffic my way as we seem to be a select few at the moment. But I do miss MenopausalOldBag (MOB, I know she is busy writing away at her novel but please can she drop all her fans a few measly lines? Just so you know, MOB, I check everyday in the faint hope. I loved reading aims latest installment and looking forward to the day I can read the whole story, makes my life seem so ordinary, but I guess that is not necessarily a bad thing when you read what some people have been through. wifeinthenorth made my day with her tale of shooting (drinking?) up North but Mean Mom and Manic Mother Of Five have been very quiet as well, I know it has been Christmas and all that but..... Some other favourites are Swearing Mother , wakeupandsmellthecoffee and of course Queeny (sorry Queeny couldn't find a link for you) who is thinking about dumping us all. Anyhoo, I have loved meeting you all and this is my way of including you all in my blog because I still have no idea how to add that wonderful list to the side of my blog like all you clever lot. Now I suppose I should get on with my day.....