November 2015

Early morning traffic heading to the beach

After a 2 month break I decided I had better update my blog with all the news on the house move!! It has been a stressful time since I wrote August's blogpost as things did not go according to plan. Everything seemed to be progressing nicely with the chain until the end of September. Our buyer had a survey done on our house which all went well and she was apparently discussing her plans for an extension with the surveyor so you can imagine our shock when we discovered the next day that our buyer had actually viewed another property a few days before and made an offer on it which had been accepted. Why she paid all that money to have the survey done on our house and was discussing her plans for an extension when she had already had an offer accepted on another property I do not know. I wonder when she planned on telling us as we only found out when the new agent phoned our agent for details of the chain. It didn't just impact on us as the owners of the house we were buying had just had an offer accepted on a property on the basis of our chain being near to completion so now they faced losing it unless we could get the chain back on track. It doesn't seem right that it is so easy to string people along and then just back out of the agreement without penalty. We had all incurred solicitors costs and now faced losing the houses we were after. It was a really upsetting time. We put our house back on the market but with the best of the summer weather now past I figured we may not sell until at least springtime next year so I resigned myself to losing the house we had made an offer on. Two weeks later we received a marketing brochure from an estate agent advising us they had recently sold a house in our village and were keen to market our property. The picture of the property they had sold was the one our buyer had made the offer on whilst stringing us along!! I must admit it did make me chuckle at the irony of it all and I was tempted to phone the agent and point out to them that we wouldn't need a buyer if ours hadn't dropped us to buy the property they had been marketing. At least I was able to find something humorous in the situation.
We focused our energies on getting the habitation check and service done on Herman and getting ready for our forthcoming trip to Goa. Herman passed all his checks with flying colours so that was good news. We applied for our Indian visas and they arrived back within a week so all we had to do now was pack. The rest of the time went quite quickly and on the 7th November my son Darryl dropped us at a hotel near Heathrow ready for our early flight the next day. We had a very smooth journey to Doha and then on to Dabolim and we were soon settling in to our apartment in Benaulim. 
We'd had a message from our estate agent to say she had arranged a viewing on our house the day we arrived in Goa and then we received even better news.... The couple loved the house and wanted to buy it. All of a sudden we were back on track as luckily the house we had originally wanted was still available and the owners were also still able to get the property they had offered on. What a great way to start our trip to Goa. I am trying not to get too excited as it could easily all fall through again but I can't help feeling a little bit excited. With our searches already carried out the chain could move quite quickly but you'll have to wait until December's blogpost to see what happened!!
Within a couple of days of being back in Benaulim it was like we hadn't been away. Because everything is so familiar to us we settled straight in. Our apartment this year is right in the centre of Benaulim so we haven't been and bought bikes this time. Those of you who read last year's blog on Goa will remember the lovely steel framed, plastic seated bikes that cost us £40 in Margao and we then sold them for £20 each after using them for the 3 months we were here. Just the sheer effort of riding the bikes kept us fit!! 

Waiting for the sunset with Irvine and julia

A lot of the friends that we meet here every year have now arrived and we have enjoyed some lovely evenings dining at some of the many restaurants in Benaulim while catching up on what everyone has been up to since last year. We spend most of our days chilling on the beach, swimming in the lovely warm sea or reading our Kindles. I also have my Spanish language course on my Ipod so I normally listen to it after lunch. I'm not sure how much of it is sinking in as I keep falling asleep so it will be interesting to see how well I can converse when we head back to Spain next year. Occasionally we stay on the beach to watch the sunset and enjoy an early dinner. 


I couldn't resist taking a picture when a boat passed directly in front of the sun as it was sinking below the horizon. As well as spending days on the beach a group of us also enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the Riverview restaurant on the edge of the river Sal at Cavelossim but there were no Kingfishers to be seen on this occasion. Glynn and Clive (Clive and Mary from Burnley) have been to Margao stadium twice to watch Goa play in the Indian Super League, the first game of which resulted in a 7-0 win against Mumbai. As poor Mary currently has a broken ankle we enjoyed the games on TV from the comfort of her sofa whilst trying to spot Glynn and Clive in the crowds. As the final will be held in Margao in December they are hoping to get tickets, the bonus will be if Goa make it to the final. 

In Brilliant Bar with Hilary, Ray, Irvine and Julia

December should prove to be an eventful month one way or the other. We have booked to do a Golden Triangle tour with Hilary, Ray, Irvine and Julia who we met in Goa last year. We will be flying from Dabolim to Delhi and spending 5 days/4 nights visiting Delhi, Agra and Jaipur including a sunrise tour of the Taj Mahal. We are also keeping our fingers crossed that we get to exchange contracts on the house!!

It is fascinating watching the local fisherman haul in their heavy nets using nothing other than synchronised team work and their own strength. No motorised winches to do the hard work!!

Not a bad catch.
Gathering up the fish.