10 YEARS ON

Ten years ago today I moved 300 miles from Surrey to sunny Hartlepool.
It was the same weather (perhaps a bit warmer). We set off early, me
in the car, C. on his motorbike, with periodic stops to call the
estate agent to find out when the keys would be available. We'd nearly
arrived before we got through, and they said they hadn't yet heard
from Mr & Mrs Previous Owner, but just to turn up at the house anyway.
When we got here Mrs P. Owner was in floods of tears having just heard
from Mr P. Owner that he wasn't working offshore all this time,
as she'd thought, but was shacked up with another lady in another
seaside town and wanted his share of the house price to start a new
life. She said she'd been too upset to get the house properly clean
for us, and we said there, there, of course we understand, don't
worry, leave it to us, etc. etc. Then she disappeared with no
forwarding address and we realised she'd been too upset to clean the
house at all - ever. Mind you, Master P. Owner, we discovered, had
been an addict and a thug so cleaning would probably have been a waste
of time. We found this out when the police came to the door on our
first night in the house, looking for him, and also when we found part
of a stash hidden in the back of a cupboard - oh, and smashed door
hinges, and airgun pellets in the walls and windows - things like
that. Miss P. Owner had understandably upped sticks and moved to
London several years previously. Ten years on and we no longer get
threatening letters and final demands addressed to Mr P. Owner, though
they still arrived for many years afterwards, as well as occasional
police visits to see if we knew the whereabouts..... Despite all that
the house lived up to the potential we'd seen in it, and just less
than a year and a half later we'd nearly got it right when life turned upside down and went in a different direction. But that's another story.