Wednesday 14th March - eventful day

So gaz and i agreed we would settle for the house in corlette close to the beach. We had another look at it today but unfortunately the previous tenant (i call her the mad cat lady because she hd a cat in the house when we went to see it first time and because she looked kinda insane) had not done a very good job at cleaning the house. Saying the house was dirty is an understatement. I expressed my disgust to the landlady. There was faecal matter still clinging to the toilet bowl, a cockroach in the dishwasher, oven that had more grease than a chip fat fryer and overall everything was just dirty. She didn't even have the carpets cleaned so i told the landlady i would like the carpets cleaned before move in and i was told they would as she wasn't meant to have had a cat in there!

We felt it would be courteous of us to go into the other property place to let them know we would be turning down the offer of number 52 achilles street, however nice the house was. If i had it my way we would have made a cowardly phone call but gaz felt it more polite we went in and spoke face to face - he was right. The lady that dealt with us yesterday wasn't in so we spoke to a very nice lady who understood but we did explain we will be coming back out in january and we would deffinately begetting back in touch with them for another property similar to achilles street. I didn't feel so bad leaving. We left and handed in our forms for the other house...the landlady (crazy sam) who is helping us with the house hunting said she had rung a professional cleaner and said unfortunately the cleaning job is going to be big so we can't move in until after the weekend :( but we are going to work on her tomorrow and see if she will let us move in before the weekend...even if we go halves on the cleaning, it will be cheaper than extending our accommodation in the holiday cabin! plus we are both getting very fed up of living out of suitcases.

We had a pie in our new favourite local bakery before heading on a half hour drive to 'sky wood equestrian centre' to check out the riding lessons there. Didn't know what to expect but we drove up and a lady came towards us. I started explaining i was after lessons and at first she seemed very quiet and i found myself just talking at her....trying to fill the silence between each breath as she wasn't saying anything or showing much emotion....but then she smiled. she had a nice smile. she asked me what kind of riding i wanted and became a little more chatty. gaz wondered up from out of the car and agreed she was actually a very nice lady. She has a menage (outdoor school) that i can ride around in and she will teach me dressage, show jumping...anything i want really. which is great as although i loved galloping around on buddy, i do want to improve my technique. She said she had the perfect horse for me so my first lesson is on monday! As we were leaving she went into a little paddock to fetch a little filly...she neighed and trotted up to the lady who stroked her head which she bent down into the ladies chest. Very cute! She had a lot of stables...she even has an 'asignment' here which i worked out is the equivalent of a livery yard back home. You can keep your horse here and she will help look after it...she would even give you lessons on your own horse...i can see potential here for when we come back out in january!

Gaz and i were lying on the bed watching the last episode of 'House' when the phone rang. It was the lady who introduced us to the achilles house yesterday who wasn't in when we went to decline the offer this morning. i was surprised to hear from her, but even more surprised that she was shouting at me! "why did you not look at our other properties?" she shouted. "umm because we already found a house after we viewed the achilles street house with you, it was more because we could move in straight away that we chose is." i replied.
"well i have lots of houses here you could have moved in to straight away." she kept on going! i was trying to explain that we were very grateful for her help yesterday but something else came up and we would still be interested in using them for a house in january. gaz was listening on the phone as he could hear her shouting and was looking horrified!
"ok well I'm going to go and shout at the lady who served you this morning for not shooing you our other properties!"
i said "woah hang on, i don't want people getting into trouble for us choosing the other house. She was very nice to us and just because you have more properties, doesn't mean we would have taken them. we really like the house we have gone for."
"well i have houses if you wanted houses!!! iv got 9 here now ready to take!"
i didn't really know how to respond. "ok well we have a house now, thank you, bye."

so gaz and i have decided....theres no way in hell we are going through them to get a house in january!!! we like crazy sam...shes up front and you know where you stand with her.

Gaz and i have been for a chinese...it was rubbish You know its going to be crap when the chinese restaurant doesn't even offer chopsticks! they burnt the chow main yet still served it...the noodles were crisp and parts were black...the beef and black been sauce was served with celery...not green peppers....weird.

we are going to watch some tv in bed. i have an early start to the morning as the car is going in to be serviced.