Good morning [bold]Erastus[/bold] and the [bold]family[/bold] Well I am tucking in first as I am feeling a fine fettle today. Firstly, I have to let you all know I am leaving this job on Friday, yippee! and although I do not have another job to go to I am not being despondent because whilst I am here it is dragging me backwards and I believe that will reflect on any future interviews I will have. So you may not see me for a while, is what I am really trying to say. Life is too short, we spend a lot of our time in our day/night time jobs and I find it extremely disappointing when you end up working with very negative people. As you know I am a bright sunny button and I enjoy working hard, being extremely loyal and bubbly but my bubble has nearly burst whilst working for this guy – and there was me thinking as he is a family man he would be very pleasant – I could not have been more wrong. At least I will have been here for a whole 8 months and 3 days of misery and [bold]HUNG[/bold] in there for personal reasons. I am skipping today, full of beans and happiness. Everyone have a lovely day – and that includes our lovely [bold]Simon Bull[/bold] – without him none of this would be happening. Sunny girl x x

Okay, spotted a mistake [italic]'in fine fettle'[/italic] would help if I read before pressing the 'add comment' button willynilley Sigh!!

Hi all. Wow Sunny good luck with everything! I know you are doing the right thing. x

Hi Lizzielooloo, Thank you so much!! mwah! An agent has just phoned so it could still be a car journey away from home rather than the trudge into town by train . Watch this space!! Sunny x x p.s. have a lovely day sweetie!

hey hey Sunny, bosses are strange creatures...mine has been behaving like a...... errrrr.... ok what do ships do when they park..drop anchor ..one of them. wish i could leave but i love the hours too much

Hi [bold]MT[/bold] Good to hear from you! How are doing today? Lucky you with the right hours. Unfortunately life doesn't sail in the way we want - always something to bugg****er it up for us. Gone to ground Take care honey and have a lovely day. Hopefully our delightful [bold]Erastus[/bold] will touch base later in the day and tell us some good news! Stay happy everyone. Sunny x

Good morning all. Hows the arm Sunny ? Jobs are a pain in the butt, they do pay the bills though. I spent almost thirty years in one place. Not so sure if I had the time over I would do that again. You are selling your labor, so play the field and get the best money / conditions you can. Its only a job, not the be all and end all of life. One door shuts, and another will open. Provided you have a good work record.

Hello Everyone, Good luck to you Sunny follow your heart as they say. Life is too short to be unhappy! When you are around miserable people it does have an impact on you! I am in negotiations with a new job myself at first they offered me the job but the hours were longer so I politely declined. Now they are offering to meet up again and are offering me the hours that I want! I thought when I turned it down that would be the end of it but I was surprised when they contacted me again! It's always a hard decision to make, my job is good but it is not challenging enough for me. The people I work with are lovely but as you can tell I have too much time on my hands! Good luck Sunny and try not to be absent for too long we will miss you too much! Love Kitten x

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you Sunny but I know something good will turn up. I don't think I could go back to getting a train to work every day. Well have a great day one and all, wish I was out in the garden with a nice cool one right now with this gorgeous weather. Off househunting later.... what is it they say at the moment "It's a Buyer's market" just wish someone would tell the vendors that! xx

Hi Lizzie, you need to be very wary about buying at the moment. I have a son looking and I have told him to sit tight. In my view property prices are going to come down a lot further. Property out here has plunged in price, and I think its just starting to happen over there. The economy here is in a bad way, and the UK normally follows the US. Perhaps if City reads this, he would give us his thoughts. Things a very bad out here, lots of homes in foreclosure. Things only look as if they are going to get worse. Home prices have plunged. Employers are laying off staff. Lots of the airlines are shedding staff, and the motor industries.

Hi Locked Thanks for the advice, don’t worry I am definitely playing “the long game”. I am waiting for the ex to sort out the money side, so not in a rush at the moment. There is a lovely estate near where I live, built 1930’s, very green and lovely (when you are up there you really do not feel like you are in London) and I would love to live up there, but still they think they can charge you a premium for being up there, and the houses are not much bigger than my own house (which is in a little lane with fab views), so as much as I would like to be up there it’s all a waiting game. I have also seen a lovely house again near where I am now, which I know I could probably make a good offer on, so I am not worried as there seems to be lots around. The worse thing about all this is, that I would say we have met about 7o% of the vendors whilst looking, and to be honest for us it has put us off making an offer of any sorts at the moment, as they all love their houses and most are so house proud you just don’t want to offend anyone! So if you are selling - point to note unless you have to, go out and let the estate agents do the viewings (after all you are paying them!). You can also tell how it is effecting the agents I don’t think I have ever had so many feedback calls and also calls advising me of new properties, gone are the days of you chasing them. Anyway it’s exciting, but I am sitting sight and seeing how things go, no need to make rash offers at the moment. X PS looking forward to hearing City's view of the current market situation

Hi Lizzie, sounds like you are on the ball. I just know that things follow the US economy, and to say things are bad out here is an understatement. People are just handing the keys to their homes back to the banks. Some of the biggest mortgage lenders are on the brink of going under.

yep - it's horrible Locked, eps when you see these lovely people who have worked all their lives selling their family homes to go off into retirement. One house we looked at which we loved, they had actually sold it last year for about 30 grand more than it is on at the moment. There is no way we would even offer close to asking price on it at the moment. Heyho we all had it before in the 80's and struggled through. I just hope most vendors can see what is going on (they would have to be blind not to) and just be sensible.

Hi everyone Thank you for your words of encouragement - L&L, Lizzie and Pinkie. Thanks for the update L&L with the update of the housing market. Why oh why are the British such sheep and copy the Yanks, first its the smoking etc. oh well I must start bahhhhhh ing like a sheep as we are all supposed to follow like sheep. How's everyone's day going? Tigs, Sweet leaf, Tarynn, City, Lets Agree - are you out there?? Sunny x

guys and girls, in the absence of City I can maybe step in briefly and say L&L is spot on. The markets are in dissaray, and to be honest have been since June last year. Banks are going bust as we have seen recently, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (who underwrite a large chunk of the US residential mortgage market) are in trouble and house prices everywhere are in free fall.. in normal course of events governments could look to rate cuts to try to steady the ship (as was the case when these troubles began last summer) but now we have inflation soaring up, so there's actually a very strong case to not cut rates but actually put them up. It is all a big mess. And if things persist for much longer us "City" types might have to start making some serious cut backs - I for one have already stopped purchasing the over priced sandwiches on offer at the City sarnie shops.... next step will be to start taking a cut of my kids paper round money! Booty

Hi Booty, I have never seen things so bad out here. People are really struggling to make ends meet. House prices have plunged 30-40%, yes thats right 30- 40%. The cost of living has rocketed. I thought things might change after the election, but its going to be a longer haul than that.

Indeed L&L, it's sad to see.. but gotta remember all through the boom years people were going crazy and spending for fun.. often way more than they should have been allowed to as credit was so easy to get hold of. Bit harsh to say that many people are now having to reap what they sew, but it's wrong to squarely point the finger of blame at either the 'greedy City institutions' or indeed the incompetence of the ruling governments (as tempting as it is with regards the latter!) Booty

Thanks Booty and Locked. It so good to hear all this info, esp as I am in the process of having to buy something. I do think things will get worse before they get better.

Afternoon everyone. Good luck Sunny and Kitten, I hope you both get the ideal job that will blow your minds and better your bank balances :) I love the hours in my job too, I get to work from home for most of the week (I home office), so its cool, I can choose what hours I work so long as all the work is done, then i get to go into the office on a Friday, which isnt great, cause there is always someone who moans about something, and as I am the manager I get to deal with it all. The pay isnt exciting or grand, but the perks more than make up for it. Hope you all have a good afternoon, and don't work too hard. Ruby

Hi Booty you are so right. Everyone got into this refinance thing, taking chunks of equity out of homes. House prices went crazy, Joe Blow was buying homes to flip and make $100k in 3 months. It happened in the UK in the early 90s. You mentioned Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack, also Countrywide almost went belly up a few months back. Last week Indy Mac shut its doors over the weekend. Things are very bad.

L&L - yes indeed, bad and getting worse... from a personal perspective, sitting up here every day watching the carnage on the screens as the markets plumet day after day is acutely depressing and draining. I, like many others are desperately trying to come up with a 'Plan B' to get away from this nonsense... but after 5 years of thinking I am still none the wiser!

Booty it seems all the Western economies are much the same. The price of oil is a key factor. I read somewhere last week the States send $700 billion a year to the camel jockeys for oil. Thats crazy. I wonder how much the UK sends them.

This subject is depressing.............. Im so bored............ Have given up alcohol. Lasted 3 days. Might break tonight. Need drink. Love The Real Me xxxxxxxxxx

Couldn't agree more Real Me. its almost beer thirty. That close enough for me . :))

Enjoy L&L, i think i will join you. Nothing better than a midweek booze, even if you are trying to cut down!!!

Well boys after all this house hunting I'm off for a Pizza and a couple of Peroni's - well it is thirsty work after all!

Lizzielooloo Sounds like a wonderful Wednesday evening - enjoy and happy house hunting!. I am on the wagon and been happily enjoying drinking 2 litres of water every night - tonight will be the same. Can't give up the ciggies just yet but then Rome wasn't born in a day. Take care Sunny x

O Sunny you are so good - I have Zero willpower.......

I mean Rome wasn't born - I meant built!! Maybe I need a drink!!!

Sorry everyone I have been away on work for a while so did not see this blog till now. I think Booty and L&L pretty much summed it up. Prices will fall further in my opinion, we are still yet to really feel the pain in all this and once it does come it will be like a stampede. All those buy to letters whose mortgage’s are higher than their rental return will only sit on a loss for so long before the point of pain for them breaks. However I would say for all the buyers out there to think of their properties as a home first and investment later, don’t over stretch yourself thinking that you will gain more in an up market as the reverse can and will happen in a down market. Anyone interested in a 1.8million mock tudor house in Chislehurst….1.6million……1.2 million…bugger!

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here.