Things happened very quickly last week. I agreed to unchain my sale on Monday and was out  of the house on Friday, I'm in temporary accommodation : a flat belonging to my ex husband who wanted a deadline to make him finish renovating it. As expected it's not finished but I can camp out here until my purchase of a flat in Whitehaven goes through. There are good things about being here - he is charging only a nominal rent, no deposit and the tenancy can last as short a time as I need. Most of my belongings are in storage  but I have a few bits with me for entertainment. I've never lived in the centre of a town before (although Egremont is barely big enough to be a town)  and  I'm looking forward to trying the different cafes and takeaways on the street. The only downside is that my cat has found a gap behind the cooker which allows her to access a small space  under the  floorboards which she will only leave when only I am in the flat. It was stressful  creating an exit space for her: son removed two floorboards and all the kickboards before finding the right piece of wood to remove to enable her to exit her hidey hole but she can get in and out effortlessly now. I will get it blocked off as soon as I can but she is faster going back down the hole than I am getting down on my knees to block off the area.She's just living up to her name - Persephone - who was queen of the underworld.

I have dutifully read the third Locked Tomb book and quite liked it: not as much as Gideon the Ninth but much more than Harrow the Ninth. I am spending the rest of my gift voucher on the Rivers of London books which are much more to my taste . I don't think my ordeal is quite over as eldest daughter has informed me that a fourth book will be forthcoming, which I was hoping  she wouldn't have heard.

 Thanks to Amazon, I'm now being sharply reminded of how my life was in the late 1970s in that I'm reading paperbacks rather than e-books and I'm having to stand up and walk to the tv to manually change channels as the remote has decided not to work, even with brand new high quality batteries and all the resets I could find on google.
 For many years, I've attempted to keep the chaos which is my book habit under partial control by only buying books by favoured authors which I'm likely to reread.Kindle Unlimited has replaced visiting the libraryand an increasing number of books  are on various reading aps on my tablet. ( Mainly due to my habit of finishing a book and instantly wanting to start the next in the series and my discovery of hard to get in print authors on book repository sites.) 
Returning to reading 'real' books  is strange. I'm finding them heavy to hold and generally cumbersome, although this is probably due to what I pulled off my shelves: a Sookie Stackhouse trilogy inspired by a Reddit thread of books which were all the rage a few years ago and now aren't mentioned, and a Robert Heinlein.
My Amazon account has disappeared as there was fraudulent activity on it so my account was only recoverable if I put in a one time password then the expiry date of the card associated with the account to change the password. Unfortunately it refuses to recognise the date on the card as the one on the system and I get into a loop of inputting OTPs, the expiry date then my account is blocked due to the number of times I've tried to gain access to it. I've also lost access to online banking as computer didn't like my new PIN number for my new card.  They'll send something by post in the next three days for me to reobtain access.. I've phoned Amazon three times, and each time they have refused to accept the problem  and told me to try again after 24 hours.Google says I have to be logged into my account to contact Amazon via email. I think I'm going to give up today and create a new account which I didn't want to do as I don't want to lose the recommendations on Kindle - it's finally got the hang of accurately notifying me when new books by favoured authors are about to come out and there are a few craft supplies that come up on re-order which saves me hunting for them. I do want to be able to open my Kindle app again, though, as I've lost access to everything within it. I also can't order a new channel changer until I have an active account again.First World problems I know, but frustrating and time wasting all the same.

 It's been a good weekend.
Friends dropped by for a cuppa on Friday to discuss the house hunting. I've sadly come to the conclusion that since the apartment I was interested in fell through due to the builders going into receivership, there isn't a property in the part of the village I want to live in that meets my wants list so I've started looking at apartments in Whitehaven, Whitehaven is a strange town.It's quite rundown now but most of the town centre is Georgian, planned by the local earl when it was becoming the third biggest port in the country. All these old industrial buildings and floors above shops  are converted into apartments. I'd like one overlooking the harbour but the only ones currently available are overpriced new builds with pathetic little plastic balconies. I'd rather have a big old one with large windows. Lowther Castle, originally the Whitehaven home of the Earl of Lonsdale then the local hospital has been converted into apartments too, so I'm looking at one of those on Tuesday. It has a peculiar 75% ownership deal which has to be investigated but I fancy having Lowther Castle as my address.
Middle daughter who lives locally collected me after she finished work on Friday. It was a lovely day and she wanted someone to sit on the edge of Wastwater whilst she went swimming to guard her phone, and her partner being elsewhere-golf- she persuaded me to come with her. I didn't need much persuasion: I'm very fond of Wastwater and I needed camera practice.I had a bridge camera which could be stuffed in a pocket and taken everywhere which I took lovely photos with but now I'm upgraded to a proper dslr I can't seem to get exposure and focus correct. I had a lovely time watching her freeze, anyway. She managed a couple of strokes each time she entered the water but quickly returned to shore after this.
Then to complete Friday's excitement a friend arrived at 11:30 to check I'd seen the Northern Lights . I hadn't so I spent the next while stood outside watching them.They weren't very vivid but the sky was definitely tinted with moving green and pink areas. I think I might have missed the best of the display but I'm glad I've seen some of it. I looked again last night but there was no sign of them. Lots of amazing photos on the village fb group though. Yesterday was a lovely warm day: the first time its been hot enough to sit out in the Queen's beer garden this year. Rain is forecast for today, but currently it's breezy.
I need to think of something to do :I'm going through a phase when I'm utterly uninspired by everything. This is very unlike me. I usually want to do several things simultaneously not none.  I can't find a book I want to engage with, and I don't feel like sewing or messing with my craft stuff. I haven't had an idea for a fic in weeks. I want my mojo back

 If anyone wants more Biggles AI, there's a' recognise the AI version of a Biggles title' game going on at the moment in the RPG section of the forum. It has produced some stunning cover art under the guidance of Schroedinger's Dog.

 I've had a lovely few days away with family but home now and it's time to unpack. This will take ages as all the family packed up my stuff in the interests of getting me home in a timely manner so now, of course, I have no idea where anything is and am finding the things I need most quite randomly. Didn't make it out of bed yesterday which is a vanishingly rare occurance for me: bed to chair in the living room is reasonable frequent ( bless you chronic fatigue)  but to stay in bed all day is unusual.  Nothing really wrong with me bar tiredness, I think. Despite a luxuriously large bed and a sufficiency of pillows, I slept very badly at the holiday house to the point I was too tired to eat and my system just needed a day to reset itself. I've slept about 18 hours over the last couple of days and am  officially recovered. 
Ex husband arrived yesterday bearing car key and MOIT certificate so today I walked to the Post Office to get my road tax. Post office computer said'no' and the help line was unable to live up to its name. I've left all my documents there so the Post Master(who was on a day off today) can have another go in the morning. I have a reference number so I can prove to the DVLA that it's not my fault if my car is spotted parked up without road tax.
Today was the return of the pram race. A wheeled vehicle of some variety, themed with its pushers, leaves the top of the village and races the other entrants to a pub at the bottom of the village with seven shot stops on the way( it used to be half pints but shots have a less catastrophic effect on the racers). My favourite ever entry was from a precovid race where  a team were in inflatable dinosaur costumes. They looked wonderful running through the village. Entries incorporating bubble machines are also good. Today's highlight was watching whoever was dressed as a pantomime horse trying to get their shot to their mouth - a rule is that all participants must drink which is why there is an over 18 age restriction. Needless to say, the road is not closed for this event so dodging traffic is part of it.
Time to stop procrastinating and write my Airdrop entry in Word rather than my head.
Hop everyone has had a very Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year.

 What a lovely couple of days I've had.Middle daughter took me Christmas shopping where I picked up essentials such as a new Christmas jumper to replace the lovely pure wool one I had which turned into felt during a 40C wash. I'll make it into a seasonal cushion cover one day.. Sadly couldn't see anything for oldest daughter who will receive her present late this year as I'm probably past the parcel posting date for Japan, her current abode. Son, who buys what he wants as soon as he conceives the desire, has requested latte spoons and a window bird feeder. I'm not quite used to having three fully adult children who want sensible presents.
As well as pushing me around the shops, daughter took me home and fed me Sunday dinner. She's an excellent cook so this was a real treat.It was also nice to play with her naughty but gorgeous dog- children will be effortless after him, although sadly, he wanted to eat the jumper I was wearing more than play with toys and to drop the salivated over chew things of unknown animal origin into the shopping bags.
And then the fiab reveals : I had four, all stupendous:

of dubious scientific merit by Anonymous for wateroverstone

Fandoms:Biggles Series - W. E. Johns  

sex pollen is always a favourite trope for me, and this one didn't disappoint

qui est iste qui venit? by Anonymous for wateroverstone

Fandoms:Biggles Series - W. E. Johns  

A lovely little spine chilling horror storyof the oldfashioned type which spooks but doesn't flail around to provide an explanation

ddraig fach by Anonymous for wateroverstone

Fandoms:Biggles Series - W. E. Johns  

An Ivor the Engine crossover. It's delightful

window shopping by Anonymous for wateroverstone

Fandoms:Biggles Series - W. E. Johns  

Biggles isn't easy to buy for but Algy succeeds.A lovely moment in their lives.

I am utterly delighted by all of them. Thank you very much for them. I'm slowly re-reading and commenting on more of the wonderful stories in the exchange

And the icing on the cake is that I finally managed to get a doctor's appointment and have been cleared to drive. He wants only short distances for the first month and for me to be accompanied so I haven't quite got full freedom of the roads again but its a start. Need to get my car MOT'd and road taxed and to sort out how I'm getting to Lancashire for Christmas but life is moving in the right direction.

 I try to take my mother away for a week in October: overpayment to my energy company usually results in a surplus big enough to pay for a caravan for a week. She's bad with heat and cold and crowds so October is a good bet for some pleasant autumnal weather. Two of my children (the third lives in Japan ) like to come along to Mum's random holidays in towns they've never heard of so it's a three generation outing. 
My inability to get a doctor's appointment to establish my fitness to drive meant that middle daughter had to do all the driving so we set off in my ex-husband's car- loaned so we could all fit into one vehicle with luggage-to collect my mother before driving to the opposite coast. Middle daughter insists on using a sat nav voiced by Snoop Dog for even short journeys I think she really ought to know without help. so as usual our outing started with me disagreeing with the sat nav: we don't want to go south. We want to go north to Harrowgate. Snoop Dog insisted on the M62, though and did get us there.
We've explored around Whitby and Hornsea/Hull previous holidays so I chose a place near Bridlington this time so we could tick off the places in the middle of Yorkshire's East coast.
Bridlington had a promenade about two miles long and a land train which went from one end to the other which was great fun. It had lots of booths selling coffee and ice creams, shells and seafood. It was definitely an up market seaside town as coffee from the booth we selected came in a large china mug. We liked it very much.
 Our first visit was to Sewersby Hall, now council owned so it concentrated on how the servants' lived with an Amy Johnson exhibit upstairs. Some of the grounds were given over to a small 'zoo': mainly aviaries including penguins, they had the oldest Humboldt penguin in captivity and farm animals. We obediently stood in front of each information board and spotted what was in each enclosure then explored the gardens which I loved. The walled garden was full of topiary and they  had planted the old kitchen beds with single colour, single species  which gave a very dramatic effect. It was full of butterflies too. The paving was rough so the kids allowed me out of my wheelchair to walk as there were plenty of benches to rest on. A smaller walled garden was an old-fashioned rose garden, past its best in October but still full of colour and scent. One of the nicest gardens I've ever visited. The woodland walk was good, too, with lots of carved wooden things to spot
Flamborough Head was next. Nice light house but no signposted walks. Son borrowed my camera and made it down the steep paths to the beach to photograph the seals. I sat on a bench with Mum and watched the waves. An excellent café with above average cakes.

Burton Agnes, a stately home dating from the Elizabethan era. Lots of large intricately carved wooden mantelpieces and panelling and the obligatory Chinese room. It was less accessible than Sewersby, but I ditched the wheelchair and made it up the grand wooden (polished ) staircase, although coming down was fun(not). I did it backwards, clinging to the ornate spindles- the hand rail was too wide for my hand to grip- as I have no shame. There were great gardens here, too. The walled garden was still a working kitchen garden, presumably supplying the cafe and gourds for Halloween decorations. Halloween  was obviously going to be a big thing as they already had large furry spiders placed in trees. Behind the kitchen garden were a series of small courtyard gardens, each containing a different outdoor game. We played draughts (badly as I couldn't remember the moves allowed), quoits, skipped the chess, noughts and crosses then - my favourite- snakes and ladders with the board painted onto flags and the players the pieces. I span the moves and took great pleasure in watching son and daughter climb the ladders and move down the snakes. They were really well laid out and I can imagine they would be a great attraction for geeky kids like mine were and a good way of getting the year round visitors and repeat visitors these places need to survive.
Back to Bridlington for the last couple of days to look at the old town, the jail in the gatehouse to the Priory and the Priory itself as we wanted to compare it to the Priory in my village which was almost exactly the same age. The windows were much more impressive but it was about the same size and similar architecture- although ours has fewer memorials and a greater Norse influence. There was also a small museum concentrating on sailing and the local lifeboats which inexplicably fascinated daughter. I think her new boss might be in my village lifeboat crew and she will discuss East vs West coast with him.
A great holiday. I am very lucky that everyone in my family likes to be busy and to visit new places so the discussions are more in which order we will visit things and how far we will walk before we stop at a cafe for Mum: she was probably walking a couple of miles a day with us which is good for her  but we didn't want her to over do it. The offspring liked me safely contained in a wheelchair although they would usually let me out if I wanted to do something, the exception being to go down the harbour steps to get aboard the pirate ship offering short sails up and down the bay.
Our last night was enlivened by Storm Babette but the weather was much better outside than it sounded inside. Snoop Dog took us home the way I thought he should apart from taking every ratrun short cut available. We had no problems until we were nearly at Mum's when the main road was closed and he refused to calculate a new route avoiding it. We followed the diversion signs until we reached the triumphant ' diversion ends' notice  at a small crossroads reached through flooded roads, signposted only to small villages with Snoop Dog shouting at us to turn round and go back to the closed road. We consulted Google Maps and worked out how to get to a place I knew the way to Mum's from. We had to drive through more flooded roads but reached it and Snoop Dog finally reset himself when no longer needed. We dropped Mum off, preventing her from rummaging through boxes to find and give us things we didn't want and fled up the road to Cumbria..
All in all an excellent break.

 A slightly mixed twenty four hours. I spent the afternoon at the Maritime Festival: it has a different name now but locals are fond of the old one.  This consists of fairground rides on the verges, a street market mainly food based running along the harbourside and live music. Friday night and Saturday night were Jake Bugg, The Vaccines, Sophie Ellis- Bexter Tint Tempuh et al but we were there for the Abba tribute band BJorn Again and Boney M.We'd taken my wheelchair as that made more sense than me limping on sticks whilst someone carried a fold up chair for me so we were all booked into the disabled area, a raised dais giving a good view of the stage. For some reason, despite being wris-tbanded, there were no passouts. Once you were in , that was it. Luckily there was a large beer counter and (unusually) more than sufficient portaloos..
It was warm and overcast as Boney M opened  at lunch time. I wasn't quite word perfect for every song but close. They chose Brown Girl in the Ring for the big audience sing a long then somehow managed to get a respectable mosh pit going to Rasputin. They should really have been the headliners.
It was raining by the time The Real Thing came on stage and it was obvious that their songs weren't as well known to the audience but they worked hard to get an atmosphere going.
Bjorn Again were very rehearsed with fake Swedish accents.  They belted out the hits nicely but it wasn't really like watching a live band interact naturally with the audience. It was all scripted. A fun sing along, though and it was nice seeing audience members who had dressed up in seventies clothing .
All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon and I'm very lucky to live in a place where volunteers organise an event of this scale.  The Harbour Commissioners carpark is just the right size for live music once they'e built the stage at one end and put the beer tent/ food stalls in and its nice to be right by the sea. A shame that it was the day the weather broke but probably better wet than burnt.
Wet was what I was this morning when I woke at 6am because water was dripping though my bedroom ceiling onto my face investigation showed that this was because the workmen who had been installing insulation for the past few days as part of a government sustainable warmth scheme had left all the attic bedroom windows open - velux ones in the roof. The carpets are sodden: real bucket of water spilled sodden. They'll have to send a man round to close the window they opened at the top of the stairs as that's only accessible with a ladder I've not opened it for the 14 years I've lived here.

 I've signed up for fiab too.  I've only requested Biggles and not put many details in of what I want as I go blank thinking of scenarios. It's more about how a subject is treated than the actual content for me.

 Well, I sadly didn't make it down to London to meet the rest of the gang - which was probably a wise thing: my mind is willing but my body is much weaker )but the fabulous Tiffinata( Andrea) came up to visit for the final day of her holiday this side of the world.
It was a glorious day yesterday so she pushed me a mile to the beach in my wheel chair so we could have coffee at the Beach cafe and her son could throw pebbles into the sea and have a play on the play park.It was wonderful to sit in the sunshine with Mr Whippy icecreams - the weather has been awful lately. 
The rest of the afternoon , she spent pulling four bin bags of weeds from my neglected garden( its been untouched since April as its not safe for me to go up the steps to it alone: too many trip hazards). I 'helped' by identifying what should be in each patch of wilderness so she was just weeding the self sown stuff out and not my 'there should be a heuchara in there and a couple of geums'. to my surprise, most of the wanted plants were still alive under the tangle of thuggish stuff, although I shall have to check what some plants actually are as Andrea (professsional gardener ) disagreed with some of my naming opinions dredged from the depths of my memory.It was delightful to sit out and watch the wilderness become navigable: my cat especially appreciated company outside and the fact that she can once more jump freely from warm paving slab to warm paving slab without hindrance. She was kind enough to pretend that it was a pleasure to pull different weeds to the one she encounters at work.
Despite being pushed to the beach and back, I somehow managed to walk a mile up and down ramps and steps, over non-dropped curbs etc so I'm an achy mess today. It was worth it though. I'm tempted to go back to bed but I think I better find the schedule for the garden show  this week and see what I'm entering.I thought I had another week to mess about getting sorted but no. I'm last minute again.