It's all gone a bit pear shaped.

The move is still scheduled for mid January but it's all gone a bit tits up.

It would seem that our landlord [ the council] is a bit of...Well a t***. I rang them the other day enquiring about the procedures in giving our 4 week notice. I didn't really like what they told me.

Apparently after giving a four week notice the council then visit the property to see if it's re lettable.

The flat is in NO condition to be re let.

As you may recall, I mentioned that our bedroom is infested with mould. It's disgusting. The mould has been here since way before we moved in. The guy that lived here before us was blind so he couldn't even see the mould... I wonder if he smelt it and that caused him to move.

Anyway.

The council need to come round and make sure the garden is tidy and free from crap. There's a decaying work surface acting as a fence between our garden and the sl** upstairs [she looks like the grandmother from the TV series "Benidorm", only dates men with red "sports" cars; She recently moved one of them in and they play the panpipes version of Bryan Adam's "everything I do..."all the time Which is HORRENDOUS].

The only thing we could afford to do was throw a bit of paint on the walls in the front room, put up some nice curtains in there to stop "blob and large" the walking heart attacks, next door looking in and pain on our bedroom walls. All other remaining rooms have never been touched. All the original manky curtains are still up [some covered in poly filler from the workman's naff renovation before we moved in]. There's not even flooring down and we're practically walking on the foundations.

So the council have said that if the place isn't in a re lettable condition they're going to charge us for any repairs they have to do. I for one am not being charged for conditions in which I was not to blame for.

So... I'm crapping myself. We have enough for the move and a few months rent and I can't have any charges which aren't my fault going against me.

We're going to get some Dettol Mould Remover at the weekend and scrub the mould off and repaint before they have the chance to charge us. I'm going to leave the decaying work surface because as much as I'd like my dog to shit all over sl**s garden I don't want him running off.

Also managed to get a load of boxes and packing is well and truly underway.

Phil's had a bit of a go at me saying that he really doesn't want me to be involved in the move anymore. You see in his little head he has expectations and precise planning of finding a place.

If I get involved like I did a few blog posts ago Phil said that we'd end up on the road to divorce rather than the road to Devon.

To be honest I'm glad. I don't have a clue when it comes to finding a place. I can just chill out and spend more time on photography.

Speaking of which I did some HDR shots today. They're not great. I'm only a novice when it comes to production but I had a couple of helping hands and they were eager to see what I'd done today. If you'd like to have a look go to: http://tokyobutterfly.deviantart.com/gallery/#HDR-attempts

Another worry is Phil's love for Internet Service Provider giant "Virgin Media" Yes, Dicko Branson's company. Apparently most areas in Devon don't have fibre optic, unlimited download Internet, which leaves us to either go with another ISP or get ten meg download capacity through the phone.

We download a hell of a lot and I'm always uploading crap. Being the "Provider, Alpha male" of the household has suddenly given him a little power trip.

Instead of going with another ISP like, BT who are famed for slow speeds at 6pm when, "the whole world's online" [I think they mean all of London] we won't have the Internet at all. Or the NICE TV bundle we get with Virgin. No. We are going to revert to freeview TV and no Internet for the foreseeable future.

Fan-F***ING-tastic.

Now, I can live without twitter. I can live without facebook which I recently deleted due to Internet drama that I'm too old for, reducing 23 year old women to 13 year old idiots. Seriously;

But what I cannot live without is losing £18 to deviantART for a whole years subscription.

"You should probably cancel that before we leave." Says the god almighty provider.
"...It's a non refundable years subscription. That I took out two months ago." Says I.
"....Incoherent mumbling" Says the Almighty provider.

Also, I have this blog to upkeep so I can document my life in Devon [sort of like memories from me to...Me. Happy Birthday Claire, go read the blog you spent months writing that will now not go to plan].

F*** you Phil, F*** you. You can't take my inturnetz away.

I think he's taking it out on me you know. He found out his 16 year old niece stopped being a Jehovah's Witness [Witless, as I like to call them]. He's fine with that however he is not fine with her dating this 18 or 19 year old chav. He thinks she's going to get knocked up. He wants to pay the guy a visit with Shadow in tow. Poor Shadow. The niece is like a little sister to Phil, they're only ten years apart in age difference and she and her mum [she's forty in case you're wondering] lived still lived at home for a long time.

I really hope we don't have daughters. If this is what he's like over his niece. I should probably get a hysterectomy booked next week.

In other news we we put our Christmas lights up towards the back end of November. I thought why not? it's our last Christmas here.

I'm very traditional when it comes to Christmas especially since Phil's only been celebrating it three years. Everything has to be put up on the 12th and taken down by the 6th, dinner has to be served at 3pm and I have to start drinking at 8am [it's the only acceptable day to do this and I ONLY drink on Christmas day].

Oh yeah we went out for Tapas on Saturday. Got turned away from one for being fully booked so we ended up in "La Tasca". Apparently it's the "Spanish McDonald's" because of how fast the food come out. But damn they did good food. Think we're going again next month as a farewell Manchester/celebrating 4 years of being an item which has nothing to do with our wedding anniversary.