Today The Controller had decided we were going to (re)start house-hunting. Since she has been convinced by television property programmes, it was more a case of Location Hunting. As we've already tried (in chronological order) Bishops Stortford, Billericay, Brentwood and Shenfield without finding anything we both liked and could afford (even if we had sold our present house) and decided to give it a rest until the spring, January was an obvious spring day to begin again. This was partly prompted by The Controller discovering that I was not intending to go to today's cup game.
My willingness to spend even the much reduced ticket prices to watch our rubbish team struggle and eventually win unconvincingly against a lower division team was non-existant. Had I known the alternative was house-hunting, I might have reconsidered, but it was not to be.
So today was scouting out Saffron Walden and Royston. I rather put the damper on Royston by giving my opinion (based on very limited acquaintance) that it was a bit of a tip. However, Saffron Walden proved to be a hit, so, for the immediate future, the location is sorted. But as The Controller had arranged to view two houses in Royston, we drove there. It was a bit of a tip, with apologies to all of the very nice people who live in the no doubt very nice bits of Royston and its environs, so the viewings were cancelled and we came home.
Now begins the round of looking for somewhere we both like and can afford, while trying to sell our own house in a difficult time to sell, and a house that is large and well-suited to us but not apparently to the taste of the likely purchasers in our area.
We shall see, and we assume there is truth in the view that, if the price is right (i.e. low enough), we shall find a buyer.
But what has that to do with the Romance of the Cup ((c) lazy sports hacks on every back page) in January with its famous transfer window?
Well, we are in the transfer window (can you be in a window, rather than behind it or through it?) when we are trying to buy and, firstly, sell players. We want players that will fit with us, that don't need too much doing to them and which will hold their price. For those we have to sell first, we need to price them right to sell and to convince would-be purchasers that they are right to buy for them and value for money. So not much chnace with many of our 'fringe' players.
Meanwhile we are encountering a cup team that's unfamiliar to us in Barnsley, so we're having a look round it and think what we like about this team and what we don't like (while secretly hoping we never have to play them on a regular basis as we don't want to travel there as it's not a location we like).
One of the criteria for our choice of house location is travelling distance to West Ham, but it's getting less and less of an important criterion as this season progresses. As well as the seeming inevitability of relegation, given the one step forward, two steps back nature of the team's performances, there's the matter of The Pornographers' choice of Manager to inspire, the Vice-Chairman's failure in her task to secure new players already announced (Sidwell) that would have had her fired by Lord Sugar, and the Olympic Stadium that nobody except The Pornographers and Karren B wants.
Still at least we managed to beat Barnsley - just. Which probably means that Avram can postpone his house hunting a little longer. But as Hughton, Allardyce and now Hodgson are all in the market for new clubs, he might be advised to keep his own house on the market. After all, the housing market, unlke the transfer market, will be open after the end of January and if he's still in a job then, he surely won't be after he does what he showed he's good at last year - managing relegation.
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