Jak's blog
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For once I am finding it a bit difficult to work out what I want to say. You may (or may not) have noticed I missed posting on Thursday last.

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That was because I received my first blogging task from blogsvertise and decided to do it on that day. It meant that I had to post it in my other blog.

I had intended to post here on Friday instead, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t post anywhere on Friday. And I found that I couldn’t even finish the article I was writing abut a Chinese island, which does have a deadline, but I can’t remember when it is. Everything I did slowed down to a crawl till I was more or less on strike.

I was thinking instead. Thinking about whether I had my current priorities right. And I decide that I hadn’t. Not sure why this should be of interest to anyone else, but I will try to explain, if only to clarify it all for myself.

Because I have a dream of ending my days living by the sea, I’ve had my house on the market since July 2007. There have been quite a few viewings but no offers. I told myself the timing was wrong. But the last couple who came to see it recently have made me take a good look around. After they had viewed this one, and another which is just a few doors away, they told the estate agent that the other is much more ‘modernised’ than mine and they were surprised that my price was higher. Of course, I have to reduce the price. But I already knew that.

I looked around my house and thought about what we had done in the meantime to make it more attractive for buyers and more comfortable for us while we waited. The biggest thing was changing the central heating from hot air to a gas combi-boiler and radiators. After that we’d had the hot air vents to seal and wall painting to do, plus a couple of cupboards to transform for other use. This was all done by George.

Then I wanted to change all the internal doors, but they were 2 inches over the current standard size and the number I wanted was impossible to find. George valiantly offered to paint over all our varnished doors and turn them white. They’ve all had an undercoat and one gloss coat. But then he gave up. All the door frames are left undone and skirting boards need to match and so on. This is going to be down to me.

And I need to do something about the bathroom, where pipes are on view. The washbasin just has a plastic skirt around it and the bath has an unpainted board for a side panel.

Then there are the front and back gardens which desperately need some attention. If I get stuck in, G just might be motivated to help. We might get back our attractive landscaped back that I had thought would be a great selling point.

So instead of all these hours at the computer which I enjoy but are draining my energy, I have to do things differently. If I get all these things sorted, even if I still can’t find a buyer, I think it could restore my energies and zest for life here. I could regain a social life in this place and fulfil my yen for the seaside by driving there on my own a couple of times a month.

I’ve written so many articles about how to live life to the full, it’s about time I started to practise more of what I preach. And I remember how my dream of moving out of London to a house in the country finally came true 12 years ago. So I’ll keep my next dream alive, alongside making a good life here in the meantime.

So there you have it. I may not be so active in here for a while. Just as I may not be so active elsewhere on the web. I’ll just have to see where all this goes.