Run Away!

FSHubby has the bit between his teeth and a spring in his step. And I must confess, as I begin hypnotherapy to help me deal with the (for me) unbearable noise that summer in the FauxCountry brings (screaming kids (and sometimes adults!); the unending footballs thudding against the fence; the ear splitting shrieks of pool parties; the boing boing of the trampoline; the smoke & stink of BBQ's) I am also rather pleased and can see a light at the end of my "I hate summer" tunnel.

Now before anyone gets the wrong idea we live in a lovely, for 99.9% of people very peaceful, semi rural location. However for me it is not peaceful. If I see the weather forecast is for sunshine I gird my loins & stress. Sunshine means NOISE. I LOVE silence. Silence is golden. Peace is perfect. Sunshine = windows open, people in their gardens, 100's of small people with no volume control haring about outside and I know it's MY problem. Heavens I've moved house so many times because of (for me) unbearable noise it's not true. So time to do something about it hence hypnotherapy!

Anyway why are we so jolly? Well we couldn't agree on the next phase of "bring this house kicking & screaming into the 21st century". So we thought we'd give the decision to an impartial yet expert witness - a local estate agent. Not wishing to sell just wondering if the investment we were planning would give us the return. Now we have already agreed that the bathrooms need doing (am going to the bathroom showroom this very day) but there was a big (and expensive) renovation we wanted a view on.

So along popped the nice man and took a look. And astounded us. We had a "this house is probably worth £xxx" number in our heads; a number we really hoped we could achieve which would allow us to swap to a decent mortgage free northern property in 5 years or so. The nice estate agent man without prompting gave us a number 30% (yes THIRTY) higher then we had imagined in our wildest dreams. Without doing ANY work!! And this in his expert view was a realistic number right NOW... meaning we could run away tomorrow and buy not simply a decent but a FABULOUS northern house mortgage free!! And not work & still live well. The garden shown here is something we could now have - in a beautiful village on the Lancs / Yorks borders, with no near neighbours & just fields as the view...

FSHubby has now been amusing himself looking at big houses with big gardens and in lovely locations - all firmly now IN budget. Blimey.

BUT despite the fact we can (which is such a lovely feeling) we aren't going anywhere for a while. The FSTeens are still at school and still need us close by. But come 2018 - at the latest - we are turning right at that sign ...

25 years caring for Epsom, Ewell & Districts' cats

In May 1988 George Michael was famous for topping the charts with “Faith”, (not falling out of cars...) the GCSE was first introduced, Jackson Pollock's "Search" sold for $4,800,000, Graeme Hick made English cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match and the Cats Protection Epsom, Ewell & District Branch was established!   

Since then CP Epsom Ewell & District Branch have gone on to help save and care for over 7,000 local cats & kittens. And as volunteer PR & Comms officer it is my job to let as many people know about this as possible!.

We thought that 25 years & 7000+ cats & kittens were pretty impressive numbers and so decided to celebrate with a bit of a ‘do’ with a cat / 80’s theme. The invites went out & the cake was organised and when the day came the sun actually shone! Around 40 of our members & volunteers plus some NCC folk (thanks to Nick Edmans, Lewis Coghlin and Claire Mitchell as well as Heather McCann the Chair of Trustees, from our neighbouring branch of Croydon) backcombed their hair or climbed into leopard print and came together to celebrate 25 years & enjoy the sunshine. 

The conversation & cold drinks flowed & we talked about cats & caring in the beautiful garden of Pat Taylor (our key Fundraising volunteer) and alongside having fun, the event was an opportunity to thank a bunch of people without whom the work our branch does would not be possible; Helen Fisher our coordinator did not get a certificate but certainly deserves one!

Heather McCann handed out certificates to Rosemary Cook & Yvonne Wood our amazing & dedicated full time fosterers who go more than the extra mile to look after the cats who end up in our care; and to Renee Long who has been our treasurer since the day we started – thanks Rosemary, Yvonne & Renee! 

 

 

We also thanked fundraisers extraordinaire, Kim Thompson for swimming non-stop for an hour and to Jen Wilkinson for running the London Marathon for us. All in all a great day was had!