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England Win!

Ironing fashion accessory
Sat Nov 6th

The sale of Eastcourt House progresses and we are about to exchange, or were until until our solicitor ran in to a little problemette with Barclays, who used to hold the mortgage.  The deeds were not receipted when released when the mortgage was cleared and six weeks after raising it with Barclays, they have still not done their bit!

I start with their 'Chat' service.  After waiting for fifteen minutes, explaining I am in Canada and can't hold on to the 'extremely busy' mortgage line, I am given a useless UK freephone number and the chat is ended by Barclays.  Grrrrr.

Next I try their UK international number, hold for five minutes.  Three people and 15 minutes later, I'm told they wrote to our solicitor a month ago (letter never received), but have not responded to any of the other entreaties.  I do extract an undertaking to prioritise it, once they receive more paperwork from our solicitor!  They call it customer service!

An easy England win today, they played well, Tonga not so well.  Wales seem to be holding their own against SA, which is great to see.   

Strange light on Gambier Island
That makes it three different sports networks we have had to join for the tennis, F1, Gallagher Premiership and Autumn Internationals/Six Nations.  

The weather in Canada (I promise not to talk about it) and COP 26 coverage has focussed my mind on what I do with my Discovery Sport.  After much thought I've decided not to upgrade to a gas-guzzling pick-up but have put my name down for the Rivian R1S due for delivery in early 2022.  The reviews have been really positive and I have been really impressed by Fred's Nissan Leaf.  I like the technology around that and design thought that has gone in to the Rivian which is designed from scratch rather than adding batteries and electric motors to and existing chassis design. 
Vancouver double rainbow

The weather systems that have passed through have produced some interesting light scenes on Gambier Island and surrounding mountains.  In Vancouver, Nick captured a double rainbow from his deck.

Although we've not seen the bears in person recently the Black Tailed deer have been out in force.  On Wednesday we had three groups in the road grazing in gardens and along the road side.

They have big ears!

We had our first North American Pumpkin Pie this week when invited in to neighbour's for pie (technically a tart) and coffee.  The MacKenzies live up behind us on the hill and they invited their other neighbours, also the unrelated MacKenzies along as well (originally from the UK).

The third MacKenzie family (also unrelated) who live below us, were not there.  With only thirty or so houses in Smith Road and the area above us 10% are occupied by MacKenzies... anybody good at working out probability?

And the ironing? Doesn't everyone do the ironing in ski boots?  A good way of breaking them in.  I still have to pop back to Van to pick mine up so no ironing for a week or two.

Talking of ski boots the snow in Whistler is slowly creeping down the mountain and has started to cover the lower slopes of Blackcomb.  Not quite made it to the bottom of the run, but not far.  
 


Not sure if this is left-over from halloween or trying to promote green credentials.  I'm not sure that securing a lump of wood to the front really hits the mark! 



The interesting news this last week is that we have discovered 'A Little Brit of Heaven' food shop in Sechelt that does UK Heinz baked beans rather than the North American variety (not quite the same) and Marmite, though temporarily out of stock!  At least we won't have to trek over to a similar shop in Vancouver for essential supplies!




Comments

  1. LizNovember 7, 2021 at 1:51 AM

    Our family have also had trouble with Barclays not releasing paperwork for business concluded months/years before. An official complaint worked!

    ReplyDelete
  2. BobNovember 8, 2021 at 1:45 PM

    Ah yes complaints - not sure they achieve much though.....

    ReplyDelete

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