Taxi Driver Online

I am glad to be back; I’ve missed TDO.

I am flattered & humbled by some of your comments & here is just a short résumé of the last nine months (and more), since my last post on 6th October last year, before returning to post on TDO in the last few days.

To say that 2008 was by far the most shi**iest year that I & Mrs Brummie Cabbie (BC) have had in our lives is putting it very mildly. The fact that we are still together after 2008 & after over 41 years together & will continue to be together TDDUP, is a great testimony to our commitment to each other.

There is too much to tell so I will have to bullet point it, otherwise you will get bored.

I will start in January 2008;

• Mrs BC becoming increasingly immobile due to ever increasing severe back pain.
• Doctor says keep taking the pills.
• Mrs BC becomes increasingly agitated & more difficult to live with due to verbal outburst caused by intolerable levels of back pain.
• I confide in fellow cab driver on rank about Mrs BC’s situation, who advises that Mrs BC should ignore the doctor & go straight to A & E at Selly Oak Hospital.
• Eldest son tells Mr & Mrs BC that they are ‘like two geriatrics bouncing around in a huge 5 bedroom detached house that is now too big’ (now that the offspring have all flown the nest) and advises us to sell the house & downsize.
• Mr & Mrs BC put house up for sale.
• Mrs BC now finding it almost impossible to walk & is on crutches; doctor still says keep taking the pills.
• Mrs BC now unable to drive.
• Mrs BC attends three osteopath sessions at £40 a time, with BC chauffeuring her on all occasions.
• On third occasion Mrs BC emerges from osteopath completely unable to walk, even with two crutches & I carry her into the cab.
• After a cup of tea at home I take Mrs BC to A & E at Selly Oak Hospital.
• After almost 5 hours Mrs BC is examined by a doctor, who then consults with a consultant rheumatologist. Mrs BC is immediately put on tramadol, an opium derivative for pain relief & an appointment to see the consultant rheumatologist is made. Two tickets to see The Russian State Ballet of Siberia in Malvern that evening are wasted, because Mrs BC is in too much pain to go.
• The next day Mrs BC is already benefiting from the pain relief given by tramadol.
• House is sold but sale falls through a few months later due to chain constantly breaking.
• April 2008; Mrs BC sees the consultant rheumatologist, a truly lovely, caring & at times funny lady consultant doctor. After X-rays she informs Mrs BC that she has no hips & needs two new ones yesterday. Hope at last. That is apart from informing Mrs BC that she has rheumatoid arthritis in her feet, fingers, shoulder & for good measure, she also has scoliosis on two planes.
• May 2008; Mrs BC sees consultant rheumatologist again together with orthopaedic surgeon, who schedules her first Total Hip Replacement (THR) for 7th October, with the second one due 8 weeks later.
• Mrs BC absolutely insists on continuing to go to work; Mr BC becomes her permanent chauffeur to & from work. My earning are affected.
• We get an acceptable offer for the house, but because the buyer is again in an unending chain & has no mortgage in place, we refuse to accept the offer. We reduce the asking price by £35K.
• Tramadol & other drugs now controlling Mrs BC’s pain levels to such a degree that a smile returns to Mrs BC’s face; really, really nice!!!
• Friday 3rd October; we accept an offer from a cash buyer (Thank God) for our house which is £52K below original asking price. Now the fun really starts. Monday 6th October, the day before Mrs BC’s first THR operation, we are running around opening building society accounts for the proceeds of the house sale, because we do not trust banks with such a large sum of money.
• 7th October; Mrs BC goes into hospital to have the first THR operation on her left hip & has a reaction to clexane, a blood thinning drug, Her operated leg balloons to three times normal size, caused by a burst blood vessel in her leg & her hospital stay is doubled to 10 days.
• Due to the complication, on discharge from hospital Mrs BC goes to her sister’s £1.1m 5 bedroom bungalow in Four Oaks. Nice for her; lonely for me.
• Mr BC starts packing the house & continues to do so for many weeks. Three skips are filled in the process with those ‘might come in useful one day’ items that never do come in useful.
• Due to the complications following the first operation, Mrs BC’s second THR operation is delayed by two weeks and is re-scheduled for 16th December, just 10 weeks after the first operation.
• Mrs BC complains that her operated leg is now almost 2 inches longer than the other leg, which is still to have the THR operation. That is how much here hips had worn away.
• Mrs BC does not take kindly to being called ‘Hop along’. Mr BC gets left hook followed by right upper-cut. Sore jaw!
• Mrs BC no longer called ‘Hop along’
• Exchange of Contracts for sale of house set for Tuesday 2nd December, with completion two days later on Thursday 4th December. Most of our possessions now in storage & my Mum’s garage & veranda.
• Needed ground floor accommodation for Mrs BC after her operation, so arranged tenancy of ground floor flat in nice private complex in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield at a reduced rent for six months up front payment, starting from 4th December, the day of the house sale completion.
• House sale completed far too early at 9.30am on 4th December. Had to load remaining few items into taxi & skedaddle.
• Our a**ehole solicitor ‘looses’ proceeds of house sale in the banking system. Sends the money to the building society’s bank account at the right bank, but forgets to send all the customer reference number for our building society account.
• Cannot complete the tenancy agreement on the flat on 4th December at the reduced six month up front rental. Now in limbo until Friday 5th December.
• Mr BC has to slum it & kip at sister-in-laws £1.1m bungalow overnight.
• Money located at building society on the morning of 5th December & tenancy agreement completed before lunch. We move into flat & start fetching our possession from storage & unpacking at the flat.
• Mrs BC becomes frustrated at not being able to do much unpacking & around the flat. Mr BC enjoys cooking & looking after Mrs BC, while she recuperates from her operations.
• Mrs BC has her second THR operation on her right hip on 16th December & this time there are no complications. She returns home on Saturday 21st December, just in time for Christmas.
• Due to our circumstances, no Christmas cards were sent to anybody.
• Mrs BC now complains that her newly operated right leg is now half an inch longer than her 10 week old THR of her left leg & insists on lying on the bed and instructs Mr BC to measure the difference.
• Result; right leg is approximately ¾ of an inch longer than left leg.
• Mrs BC depressed. Mr BC avoids calling her ‘Hop along’; does not want sore jaw again.
• In time the right & left leg settled to the same length & during the post operation six week check-up MOT in late January this year, the X-ray shows that the two new hips are TOTALLY AND PERFECTLY IN LINE ON ALL PLANES AND AT THE SAME HEIGHT. How the surgeons did it so perfectly is truly amazing.
• Mrs BC continues to make progress in her recovery, but it will be 12 months before she is fully over the operations.
• After 5 months off Mrs BC returned to work on 5th March and is now able to drive again.
• In the meantime we have been living in the flat & watching the house prices tumble.
• Then in mid-April we made an offer for a repossessed property, which was eventually accepted by the Mortgagees in Possession. We paid about £38K below the price that an identical house on the same road sold for just 3 weeks before we completed our purchase on 30th April.
• As the house was a repo, all the services were switched off & everything was drained down. So, the house alarm, water, electric, gas central heating etc had to be reactivated, re-filled, radiators bled etc and after some decorating, we eventually started to move in on 22nd May.
• We terminated the tenancy on the flat on 3rd June & had to ‘spick and span’ that to make sure we had our deposit refunded.
• During the past 15 month or so, I have not worked fully, because of what has been going on in my life. But I really started in anger again on 4th June.
• So, with the discount we had on our new home and the price drop on properties in general over the 6 months that we rented the flat, we have probably recouped more than the £52K reduction on our old house.
• We now live in a small, eight-year old, 4 bedroom detached house, with en suite & a medium sized garden with a stream at the bottom of the garden, beyond the back fence. The house is outside Birmingham, (thank God), between Walsall & Lichfield in a semi-rural location. And we both like it here.
• The downside is that we only have about 35% of the floor area of our old house & there are boxes everywhere. We will have to sell many item, so car boot sales here we come!
• The roof needs £2,300 worth of repairs, but even that is covered by the 10 year NHBC warranty & NHBC have already agreed to fund the repairs, which will be done in July.
• Repossessed properties are an emotive subject. But in our case the owner of the property had never lived in it & reportedly lives in the Brighton area. He always rented the property to tenants, but was unable to rent it from January 2008 and the house was eventually repossessed in August 2008.
• The house was very tidy for a repo, as the previous owner had cleaned & tidied it thoroughly before trying to let it to tenants again, which was unsuccessful & eventually resulted in repossession.
• We had broadband connected on 9th July and I am now back on TDO, but will probably not be so active until all the little things that need doing around our new home are done.
• The house is very basic and has never had the TLC that you give your home, because the previous owner, who bought it from new 8 years ago, never lived in it.
• Things like the garden, which is the same patch of grass & nothing else since the day it was built. No plants, trees or flower beds, no patio etc.
• No towel rails or loo roll holders in the bathrooms & loos. The house is just the basic same house as it was built 8 years ago.

So in the last 9 months, Mrs BC has had two serious operations & we have moved home twice, so there was very little time for TDO.

But I am now back on TDO & will log on regularly.

And that is where I have been for the past 9 months or so.

I am glad to be back; I’ve missed TDO.

PS. I keep telling Mrs BC that the 10 inch scars on both her hips look like suspenders & that she should go to a tattooist who could enhance them with black and red tattoos with bows in them to look like real suspenders. Mrs BC thinks Mr BC is a kinky bar steward!!!

I'm glad she's diong well BC, my mum had both her hips done a few years ago, she's now running about like a spring chicken. Time is a healer when it comes to issues like this. for your takings