Property, Property, Property

The house we thought we'd be buying is back on the market and the sellers have told us- in a friendly communication- that they've got an elderly couple interested- so that chapter seems to be closing.

The neighbours came round yesterday- and he explained at length (just as he did before) why he'd like to buy the farm but we wanted too much for it. I told him we weren't desperate to move and couldn't afford to take less than the asking price. They went away to think.

It was enough to get me back on the property porn. We've been concentrating on the East Sussex coast but Romney Marsh is so much cheaper. There's a 16th century house in New Romney we could afford...

No News Today

My mother kept asking who the couple on the front page of her Sunday Telegraph were so I took it off her and started turning pages to find something that wasn't about the Royal Wedding. And I turned the page and I turned the page and it wasn't until I reached page 24 that I found what I was looking for.

"Clearly nothing happened in the world yesterday," says Ailz. "So thank goodness for the Royal Wedding. Without it the journalists would have had nothing to write about."

Special Relationship

The Special Relationship no longer exists (if it ever did): Washington doesn't give a toss about Westminster (however much Westminster wishes it did.)

And yet the Special Relationship is in rude health: Just look at the Royal Wedding. Just look at the people who turned up.

The Special Relationship was never really political; it's cultural. It rests on a shared history (to a certain extent), a shared language- and the constant to-ing and fro-ing of cultural memes and personnel.

The political relationship is entirely one-sided; the U.S. says "jump" and the UK either jumps or sulks. The cultural relationship is much more evenly balanced. Disney nicks the work of British writers like Travers and Kipling and Milne and turns out a stream of classic movies; the Rolling Stones nick rhythm and blues and become "the greatest Rock and Roll band in the world". One could go on like this for pages and pages. Which country owns Charlie Chaplin? Which country owns T.S. Eliot? Which country owns John Boyega and Thandie Newton?

No Deal

The chap next door emailed us. Yesterday's meeting hasn't caused him to shift his ground- and his offer remains what it was- £100,000 less than we're asking. So that's it. No deal and no dealing.

And we'll be staying put, proceeding with the scheduled home improvements and waiting to see what happens next.