Liverpool  - UK

We hadn't planned to return to the UK before the end of the year but the unexpected chain of events since Mum had her fall in March meant it was unavoidable. By returning now at least we could see how she was settling into the residential home and move our belongings from her house down to our storage unit in Sussex. Despite suspicions from others it was just pure co-incidence that the British golf Open was being played at nearby Royal Liverpool Golf Club and the World Cup final would be on while we were home!

Our tenants, the Littles, were due to move out on the 20th July but had still not paid all the rent owing since May so it looked like we had a fight on our hands to try and get what we were owed. All was not lost as we had their deposit which would cover some of the arrears but as this is supposed to be used for damages and dilapidations we did not want to rely on that until we could get back into the house to see what state it was in.

Our letting agents, Leaders, only emailed us to tell us the rent was overdue in the middle of June just when we were off the air at Kubo Island so the first we knew about it was the end of June which left us no time to make any decisions before our flight.

Even so this would all have to wait as our top priority was to make sure Mum was ok and move our stuff out of her house. My sister and brother were impatient to put her house on the market and while we were in Africa had virtually cleared it of all her belongings. We would have liked time to see if there was anything we wanted to keep for sentimental reasons but apart from a couple of snatched phone calls to warn my sister to hold some pieces of furniture we had been left with no opportunity to do this.

At first it was upsetting to see Mum in the residential home, my Dad had died suddenly in 1984 while we were in Macau so through half of our years of travelling around the world and during the 16 years since we had returned to live in the UK Mum had always been at home to welcome us and put us up when we were in Liverpool. In fact up to 2005 we had always split our time evenly when in Liverpool between Sue's Mum and Dad's house and my Mums - it was very hard to believe that in less than 18 months this had all gone.

Before leaving for Africa we had stayed with Mum for five months and it became obvious to us that at 94 she could not live on her own for much longer. When I tentatively broached the subject she was adamant she would not leave her house, where she had lived for nearly 50 years, so the fall which forced her to leave the house was fortuitous in a way.

What surprised us all was how well she adapted to being in the home. She is naturally very social able so I knew being with other people 24/7 would not be an issue but I was surprised at how easily she acknowledged she could never go back to her house - clearly the fall had frightened her and I suspect she was now also welcoming the companionship, living on your own for 22 years is hard for anyone.

Apart from clearing Mum's house we still had a lot of stuff from Sue's Mum and Dad (Peggy & Henry) to sort and get rid off. We had not had time to finish this before we left for Cape Town and as most of it was still at Peggy & Henry's house, which was now on the market, it needed doing ASAP.

Any obvious items we didn't wish to keep had either gone to charity shops or been dumped before we left for Africa but there was still some furniture and other items of a sentimental nature which we needed to sort out and take down to Sussex or to Ruth's flat in London.

Everything else we decided with Mike & Liz to take to a car boot sale at the weekend and use the proceeds towards a good meal out,  Peg & Hen would have liked that. Sue loves car boots but it had been sometime since we had been to one and absolute ages since we had done one as a seller.

In Sussex the car boots are pretty mega affairs in farmers fields and the like, here in the great metropolis of Liverpool there are not too many farmers fields anymore. Most of the car boots are smallish affairs in the suburbs, some rough some not so bad. 

One which Mike, Liz and Sue are partial to mooching around is called Carnegie. Held each weekend in the backstreets it's a world away from the ones we have in rural Sussex. At Carnegie there is one big dark hanger type building which seems always freezing and outside the yard is ringed by permanent steel containers like the one Rupert was shipped out in. The street sellers use these to store their stuff in and each week they just toss all assorted debris from hundreds of house clearances out on the floor, no matter what the weather. The punters then clamber in and out of the containers looking for that elusive bargain. It's like something out of Mad Max, ok to mooch around but not one you would choose to sell at.

No we agreed our best option was to try the Aigburth cricket club where Lancashire play some of their county championship games. This is only on for a few weeks in the summer so it is very popular, if you want to get a pitch you need to be there bright and early. There was no way we could get even half the stuff into Mike & Liz's car, so we were volunteered into using our old Citroen XM which with the back seats down holds quite a bit.

Sunday saw Sue and I up at the crack of dawn queuing with the other sellers, every inch of space behind us taken up with assorted bits and bobs.  Mike and Liz would join us later after a leisurely breakfast at home with the papers!

If your selling at a car boot near us in Sussex by the time you are let in and pull up to your assigned spot you are immediately  besieged by punters literally trying to get in your car to see what you've got. At least at the cricket club the buyers are strictly kept outside until all the sellers are in and set up. We had therefore to time it so Mike and Liz would loiter at the entrance and as we drove in we could tell the guys they were with us and let them in early - a bit like getting your mates into a party they have not been invited to.

Now I've always enjoyed a good haggle so I quite enjoy selling at the car boot, whereas Mike's idea of enjoying selling is it allows him to swan off looking around all the other stalls for Beatles and other pop memorabilia! Soon Sue was also agitating to be let out to seek out Rupert the Bear gear so it was left to Liz and I to man the fort - good job neither of us are collectors!

The day went quite well, didn't make a fortune and we would have to do it again before we left but at least we had made a dent in all the stuff we needed to get rid of and whilst not enough to have a slap up dinner we could at least enjoy a good Indian takeaway and a few drinks on the proceeds!