An offer

Wales, September 2025

Nameless Man fixed the plug socket; I managed to clean all the downstairs windows (which I thought would be the best thing to do to improve the look of the place) and there have been five house viewings. Mr Celery, as I suspected, is very prone to error but so far I have corrected the mistakes that I have noticed, none of which have been particularly egregious, but he managed to sneak one into the printed brochure by adding the excited statement "NO ONWWARD CHAIN." 

One offer came in at £75k below the guide price, and now a much more realistic offer has materialised along with one further request for a viewing. I filled in a form and went to the office of a solicitor just in case I needed conveyancing sooner rather than later. They say I must complete a second form stating the source of the funds I used to purchase my house 25 years ago - it's the Law. I continue to range around the house picking out things to get rid of that escaped previous purges.

One such find is a trove of letters hiding under past family calendars that I'd kept, and some more letters in a box in the loft that had travelled with me, unopened, through all house moves since, it turns out, 1975. That was when I seemingly started keeping every single letter I received, initially birthday greetings from faraway relatives and letters from family when I was on school trips and holidays abroad. In later years it included letters from school friends and then university friends when we all dispersed to our various jobs and travel. I'm scanning or reading most of them before putting them into recycling - it's difficult to prioritise this job over more pressing matters but it's intriguing.

In other news - there isn't anything interesting. I went to the funeral of the mother of my longest-standing friend from junior school - two years ago I was there for his father's funeral, and one year ago it was dad's. I went to Maternal Manor where we applied for mum's Blue Badge to be renewed, booked a Bulky Waste Collection with the Council for the sofabed and dismantled wardrobe, and I took lots of measurements of rooms and furniture. I took my new collaborative games to the U3A board games group, and as expected they didn't take to them especially well. I have officially handed over the finances of my Buddhist group, so now I think I'm free of any official responsibility there.

And there has been badminton and Buddhism and cinema and Muscles the Personal Trainer, who is aware of my plans to move away and says that before I leave he is aiming for me to be able to dead-lift my own weight. I started eighteen months ago at 20kg (just the bar without any weights on it) and I'm up to 50kg, so nearly there. And my core strength and balance are great. It's astonishing.

What I've been reading

Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

narrated by Miranda Raison

"Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality."

This is what I'm looking for, a well written story with believable characters who aren't stupid and follow a realistic trajectory through the book. And, as a delightful bonus, I hadn't anticipated the ending and it was wonderful.

Teachers of Enlightenment
by Kulananda

"Out of the depths of a clear blue sky emerges a beautiful tree of white lotus flowers. On it appear many teachers of Enlightenment - historical, mythical and transcendental. Here are explained the significance of the figures on the Refuge Tree of the Triratna Buddhist Order."

This is the required reading for my next big retreat in June, and it's actually a book I've been meaning to read for a while now. In easily digestible form it contains all the background that I need (at the moment) about some of the most important mythical and historical figures within all branches of ancient Buddhism (Indian, Japanese, Tibetan and Chinese), as well as more recent teachers.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by John Le Carré

narrated by Michael Jayston

"The man he knew as Control is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement - especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence."

I don't get on with John Le Carré's spy novels. I knew this before I borrowed this one, but I thought with time maybe things have changed. No, they haven't. I don't understand his plots or characters, and when the reveal of the spy came at the end I didn't have any particular thrill of recognition or interest in how it had come about. He's just not for me.

Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng

narrated by Cassandra Campbell

"When Lydia's body is found in a lake, her father is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path. Her mother, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable. Lydia's brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who may be the only one who knows what really happened."

This was a beautifully constructed story, with the death of sixteen year old Lydia as the central point while we find out piecemeal what led up to her death and the subsequent consequences. The relationships within the family felt so real, and despite the sadness inherent in almost every chapter, somehow it wasn't depressing. Not uplifting either, maybe poignant is the right word.