Going, going, gone......

I started this blog in May 2007 to chart the path I would follow as i put my house on the market. little did I know it would be two and a half years later that I would be reporting the conclusion of the journey.

Yes, I have finally exchanged on the sale and vacate the property on 6th November. I will be leaving London to live away for the first time in nearly 40 years, and will need to locate the nearest source of London Pride or Youngs Ordinary to avoid my liver going into shutdown.

Thanks goodness for the internet which will allow me to follow the local issues and sporting prowess of the team which i have followed for much of that time.

A lot of things have happened in the time the house has been on the market. Maxine and I have become grandparents, our oldest son, Tim has married, and our oldest daughter is engaged. A few friends have passed away, and we have mourned their loss.

We have travelled a fair bit it has to be said. Peru, Brazil, Egypt, Portugal, Chicago, Edinburgh, Rome. Paris and Cyprus have been on our schedule, as well as a cruise around the islands of the Mediterranean. At that should stand us in good stead now that my Company has cast me adrift by making draconian changes to its final salary pension scheme.

I met the CEO yesterday and asked him outright why I should stay in his Company. His reply was hopeless, and as a colleague of mine once said, 'when the lunatics start running the asylum, its time to leave' . I think they are, and I am. ETD is scheduled for 5th February at the moment which will make the England v Wales game at Twickenham the next day a bit of a blinder.

So the blog has fulfilled one role, and now it takes on a new one as it tracks my progress through early retirement, life in Scouserland and potentially a few entrepreneurial projects. Watch this space one may come to a road near you........

Call that a half Simon?

Now a week is a long time in politics, and I think I have said that on here before, but just imagine that one weekend you are attending the Patterdale Show in the Lake District, and then paddling a raft in a race, dressed as a viking.

The next week you are teeing it up with the greatest golfer of modern times, Tiger Woods, in the BMW Championship at Cog Hill near Chicago.

Next week its Brentford v Bristol Rovers, but hey ho!!!

So first the show. Well my mucker 'Off the record' Dick has reported the events at the show and on the river here in his blog of 31st August, and a fine summary it is too. There were sheep and dogs, and shepherds and shepherdesses, if one is allowed to call them such these days. To my mind thought the best Sheep were the Black ones I consumed throughout the evening!!

I was excused duties on the raft to be honest as it was unclear whether our new design would take the weight of five of us. As Dick points out in the end it would only carry three such. Still we took part and by all accounts have kept the race alive following our pirate escapades last year.

So myself and SWMBO arrived home on the Monday to be presented with (almost) the trip of a lifetime. I got a call from the BMW golf office in London telling me there was a space at the pro-am prior to the third leg of the FedEx Cup and could I get there?

Well a quick call on Tuesday to the boss, then Virgin Atlantic and finally to Octagon in Chicago and we are both on our way. We arrived to be greeted with a chauffeur and a logo'd BMW and so it went on for the week....shopping madam? we'll drop you off, just call when you need a pickup.....off to the course sir, let us take you....and for three days BMW did us proud.

The highlight arrived on the Wednesday when I got to play the pro-am. The previous night my German colleagues and I attended the partner party where we got to choose who to play with. They fancied a European, but by the time our number came out of the hat they had all gone.

I suggested we went for Lucas Glover. That would sandwich us between Tiger and his team and Sergio Garcia. It would also give us a first tee start and Lucas is after all the US Open Champion. They went with it and that's how we got to be in reception inthe hotel at 5am with the Tiger man himself. He signed a few autographs and drove himself to the course (in a Buick!!).

We followed his group all the way round, and beat them by 4 shots, coming a creditable 4th out of 52 teams, but sadly just outside the prizes. All in all though, a great day, which I shared with Lucas Glover, my caddie Joe, a Chuck Evans Scholar, and a few hundred other people who were gracious enough on the 18th green to applaud my approach putt.

As I mentioned in my blog only a few days ago, golf is one of those games where you can tread the boards on which perform your hero's. On this occasion I was able to do it at the same time

....but I couldn't eat a whole one!

Well, its early Christmas present time, but I did not realise how naughty I have been this year. Number two daughter has just announced she is with child, and I am much too young to be a grandfather!!

So come July, the house will be echoing to the sound of baby stuff, Maxine will be delighted as she likes babies, and it gives me an excuse for a barbecue. So she is the boss for the first three or four years, then I can take over when 'it' gets interesting.

We actually knew before Emma did, as Maxines mate Donna, the spook, sent Maxine a text asking how Emma was. Maxine replied in true clairvoyant speak, 'you tell me' when back came the answer 'pregnant with twins'. Well the scan has so far only shown one, unless the terrors were playing hide and seek with each other already.

Lee, the international vocalist, is already working on a new set, I can imagine songs like A Child is Born, Baby Driver, Hey Baby, and Wild Child will be included, although Baby What a Big Surprise by Chicago should slot into the playlist somewhere.

I am not sure what I am going to do with all the stuff I store in the Wendy House though, maybe its a good excuse to get another shed!

Gone with the Wind

Chicago was a very interesting place. I don't know the middle of the States well at all so it was interesting to have a chance to visit. My work colleagues and most of the people i met spoke with a fairly light accent which was unexpected, and contrasts strongly with the y'all accents of the deep South.

The city itself is dominated by the Sears building and the nearly completed trump tower, which will relegate the Hancock into third place in the high rise stakes. otherwise to the North is the vast stretch of Lake Michigan, and elsewhere the endlessly flat plains of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Its called the Windy City, because, many think, its so exposed to the weather that it is always blowy. Not true, its called the Windy City because everybody talks bull!!!

Nowhere is this more profound than at the junction of Rush and Diversity, an area of bars, restaurants and blues clubs, known locally as the Viagra Triangle. Its where silicone implants meets the grey pound. The police patrol the area in a low key style which our man on the beat could learn from, and everybody is there for a good time, but engage somebody of either sex in conversation and its spot the brain cell time!!

The work progressed pretty well but I managed to find time for a bit of sightseeing and added to my expansive collection of golf clubs while on a shopping trip. I was hugely disappointed with Macy's, but Filenes basement continues to throw up some bargains in a way which puts TK Maxx to shame.

I used to collect Monopoly sets from various country's, and have the original USA version based on Atlantic City, but I noticed in a games shop i visited that there is now a baseball version, an American Football version and popular TV shows like Cheers, Friends and The Simpsons all have their own. Its definitely a case of brand dilution for the benefit of capitalism. Pity,I can't see myself passing Go with any of those versions.

Wherever I hang my hat......

My alter ego, Scoop, aka Dick, has written an interesting article on the housing market, on his blog, here. I feel I am a prime example of the blinkered house seller who thinks the whole price crash will pass him by. Yes I put it on at a lumpy price, but I expected people to be willing to haggle, but in London that does not seem to be the case.

I started the blog 18 months ago as a chronicle of my house move, and unfortunately the whole experience has been blighted by the worldwide economic disaster which commenced with the collapse of the US subprime housing market, embraced the failure of Northern Rock and well, the rest is history.

I can relate to the fact offers are few and far between, and yes, I turned down an offer which I would jump at accepting now, but, hindsight, and all that....... so I still have a house to sell, and await the chance to negotiate a price with somebody willing to at least make an offer.

I am currently in Chicago, and it is interesting to get the natives view of the world. First they don't see a housing problem, and second, they don't see the world economic challenges as anything they have contributed to, but then the man on Main Street USA has always had a narrow view of the world.

I was surprised, however, that the rescue package put together by the smoking gun, George Bush, was initially rejected by the Senate and has only today been passed by the House of Representatives. I suspect they are afraid that they may become a third world country themselves if they are not careful. Their reluctance to protect the rank and file American citizens though was something I thought they would jump at the chance to do.

Still its all sorted now, lets just hope our Gordon has made sure we get a fair percentage of the $700bn to regenerate some interest in Chiswick real estate. Fingers crossed.