A delightful encounter, and the sun is shining!

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Misty with warm sun later 15 degrees

Spent morning uploading property from earlier in the week.  There are fifteen pages of information for each property, plus writing the advert in French and English.  I also have to trim and improve the photos, cutting out distracting elements and lightening and brightening to give the best impression possible of the house.  I then crop and reduce pixel size.  Each property takes a good hour/hour and a half to load.  The phone is silent for once and I glimpse an array of blue tits and great tits devouring the fat balls on the bird table.  They are currently getting through two a day and are so fat, it is surprising they can take off from the platform.

WF rings to say that he has finally got his new computer up and running and is applying for his CII (insurance institute) membership and will start doing basic exams.  He also says his contract is not going to be extended beyond the three months, and that they are now having very few calls since the television campaign ended.  Yesterday, he spent ten minutes on the phones and the remainder of the eight hours playing board games with an African lady. Games supplied by the employers who are funded by government grant.  This has been a very useful first experience of work for WF who is now getting his CV in order and out to the Employment Agencies whom we found to be the best conduit for finding work.

Late afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky, and the fields are glowing orange, I head north and wait for my clients in a small village.  All of the shutters are closed and the only activity is in the municipal offices.  Birds cheep, a light breeze plays with the dead leaves gathered in the crook of the road, a plane passes overhead.  My phone rings.  It is the seller of the house in my town and she says my would be buyers needn't bother ringing her directly anymore because she has found another buyer and will be signing in the agents office this afternoon.  I think 'Bollocks, that is xxxxx euros up the Swanee'.  I ring the relevant agent and he gives me the name of the buyers and when I tell him the story of my would be buyers, he says Oh la la!

At that point, the clients arrive so we get out of our cars and say hello and then back in and they follow me to the property.  The lady, who is easily in her late 60's, is a slight sprite of a woman, tiny in proportion with wild curling waist length hair, Sybil Trelawny glasses and delicate hands tortured by arthritic joints.  She is wearing an ankle length skirt, overlaid with a camouflage jacket and many bangles.  The ensemble is topped off with a trilby which has been enjoyed by many ravenous moths.  She jumps down from the battered green van and skips over to me.  'My husband is very quiet!' she exclaims, breathily, 'but that is alright because I do the talking'.  She paused very rarely for breath, giving me chance to point things out, during the next two and a half hours.  She was an absolute delight and absolutely adored the property if it were not for the road noise.  The road is quite some distance away, down a track which has terrified previous visitees.  She exclaims that there is not a lot of work to do in the house.  I am thinking I need more French clients like her because the majority of them can find fault in a perfect house, never mind one that needs replastering, rewiring, new kitchen, new bathroom, new windows, new septic tank and decoration throughout.  I don't know what her husband thought of the house because he didn't get a chance to speak.  They left finally, saying they would have to think about it but they weren't in a rush, and I felt rather shell shocked.

Back home and we enjoy the rabbit and chorizo casserole which had been simmering in the oven for the past three and a half hours.  Yum.  Accompanied by a crisp white rioja.  OH is fed up of working in the rental unit.  He says if he was writing a blog, he could copy and paste each day with the same activity.  This is most uncharacteristic.  I suggest he comes with me tomorrow and he agrees.

More perishing footie on the telly.

Hightailing around, hootenannies and shuffling off this mortal coil

Wednesday 21 January 2015

6 degrees, misty with sun later

Insisted yesterday that we start at 9.45 and on time.  Relieved to see them ready to roll when I arrived.  We headed off into a village 15 kms away to a property owned by an English couple.  I have had this house for sale for a number of years and the main reason it hasn't sold is the village in which it finds itself.  There are no shops there, not even a bread shop, and it is an equidistant 15 kms from the two nearby towns.  Having said that, it is a charming property with large open lounge, US style kitchen and good sized bedrooms.  The garden is a particular feature and is set to lawns and beautiful flowering shrubs and trees. The lady decides this is now her favourite - she isn't having financial input and it is the man and his business partner who will decide.  The best option if they want to let out periodically is the town house with swimming pool and parking where you can walk into town.  Apart from mistaking a free standing wardrobe for a toilet 'Jesus, my brain has gone' and thinking that the gypsies leaning out of their windows and smoking fags were traders (they probably are but not in anything she or I would wish to buy), nothing untoward was said.

I dropped them back off in my town and went home to clean as there is a visit upcoming on our house and alas it is still in an unviewable state.  Discovered that the bathroom walls have taken the opportunity to grow some mould.  Bastards.   It did come off quite easily.  I then moved onto the grouting, which was like the 'before' example in bathroom cleaner ads. Unfortunately the tile paint came off too.  We decided to tell the visitors that we were waiting for a man to come and do the bathroom.  We won't tell them that the man is OH...  OH spent hours outside with the Karcher.  Dog enjoyed being squirted too.

A number of notable deaths this week, Anne Kirkbride who played Dierdre Barlow for 44 of her 60 years; Leon Brittan former conservative MP and barrister aged 75 and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia aged 90.

Watched recording of Jules Holland's Hootenanny.   Ruby Turner, Ronnie Specter, Paloma Faith and Paolo Nutini were excellent.  Surprised to find that Boss Scags is not a black guy. OH says I am musical ignoramus.  I challenge him to spell ignoramus.  What a meany I am!

In case you wanted to know more about the origins of the word Hootenanny, and were afraid to ask:

Hootenanny is a Scottish word meaning "celebration" and / or "party", most closely associated with Hogmanay—the Scots New Year celebration which, traditionally, is the biggest celebration on the Scottish calendar.

With the Scots being one of the biggest groups of settlers in the Appalachian region of North America (bringing with them their whisky-making tradition and methods, leading to the area's "moon shining" tradition) it is not surprising that hootenanny became an Appalachian colloquialism, although it became used in early 20th-century America as a placeholder name to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in: "Hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". Nowadays the word most commonly refers to a folk music party with an open mike at which different performers are welcome to get up and play in front of an audience.

"Hootenanny" was also used by the leadership of early firefighting battalions to describe a "meeting of the minds" of higher ups or various department heads. The term has trickled down to working companies and is now used, with some frequency, at working incidents and other circumstances that require a focused discussion between key individuals. Most recently it was adopted for use during the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference.  Logistics professionals for the conference employ the word to call together the required personnel needed to accomplish the prodigious assignments placed on them.   Thank you Wikipedia

Cheaper than Merthyr Tydfil!

Tuesday 20 January 2015

0 degrees

Up and down town early to sort out insurance on rental unit.  Transpires that our town office is closed Monday and Tuesday of each week.  Great.  Waited outside rental unit.  Very cold. Text arrived to say that the lady guest was having trouble 'coming round';  Wondered if man had given in a completely natural urge to knock her out.  Apparently not.  Could I come back in half an hour.  Of course, I have sod all else to do.

Go into the lovely coffee shop and have to insist that I do not want to join in the Tuesday morning cultural exchange group.  People who speak bad French converse with people who speak bad English.  One of my sellers is there and is delighted and promptly uses me as breathing dictionary.  I don't know the word for bed springs.  It is ressort.  So I learn something too.  A French lady is running through a list of English words which came up in last week's conversation, and which she is having trouble pronouncing.   Heaven, hell, urges, commitment, self worth.  Feel I should have been here last week as this one they are discussing wonky springs and bad nights' sleep.

Ten thirty comes around I go to the front door of rental unit building.  No one there.  I go up the 42 stairs and knock on the door.  No reply.  I go back down the 42 stairs and ring them. Man picks up phone and says they are in the flat and he thought he had just heard someone knocking.  I go back up 42 stairs and man is ready and woman is still farting about.  She farts about until 10.50.  I am fuming.  She finally emerges and says hello! brightly and doesnt apologise.  I so deplore bad manners.  

Get them out and into the car and we have to go and see the second house first because we are now running so late.   Man takes pictures of everything.  Woman talks incessantly and trips over steps, carpets, mats, table legs and walls.  We leave and then go to the next house which is their favourite.

They absolutely love this.  The woman, who is parsimonious to put it mildly, is thrilled with the price.  You couldn't buy at that price - even in Merthyr! She exclaims.  She asks if the 1920's wooden floors are real and mistakes a wooden infil in a bedroom fireplace for a rug. I need coffee or I am going to start shrieking.  Go back to lovely coffee shop and the class have gone and woman goes to the loo and the man and I enjoy the silence.  The woman comes back and attempts to find a postcard for a price she is willing to pay.  I take the opportunity to talk the man through the buying process.  

We leave the café and I point out the local restaurants.  They decide to go back and have a ham sandwich with the lovely bleached white bread she had found in the supermarket yesterday.  Called, disparagingly, industrial bread by the locals.

I go back and eat a banana and a pear and head for the dentist.  My dentist is so beautiful and has the most wonderful teeth.  The prognosis is not good - my crown is very fragile and can't be repaired.and I have an infection above a fortunately devitalised tooth on the other side.  900 euro quote.  Thank heavens for 30% state contribution plus top up health insurance.  Have a McChicken sandwich as feel quite faint.

Back home.  The man rings twice to say he is lost and can't find the flat.   Our town only has four main streets.  Are they fuck wits enquires OH?  I tell him about quote from dentist and he suggests I get dentures.  I don't think he was joking either.

Supermarket sweep and airhead alert

Monday 19 January 2015

Nippy and wet


Down the rental unit to do final clean before guests arrive.  Substantial amounts of dust everywhere and two brand new shelves.  Discover one of the window blinds is off its runners and a small window won't shut.  Icy wind rattles through.  We restrain it with some wire and pull down the blind to hide it.   I didn't imagine coming out here would involve so much cleaning.  In the UK it wasn't OH who had a secret woman - it was me and she was my cleaner.  The joy of going into a pristine room that I havent had to do myself is something well worth paying for.

Back home and wrestle with paperwork and phone calls.  Busy for January!  Back down town again to meet the guests.  Five o'clock.  Five thirty.  They ring our home and say they have just arrived at the supermarket at the other end of town and are just doing a little shopping.

I get to the supermarket and do a quick sweep to see if I can spot them.  They are in matching Bargain Hunt red parkas and are dithering over which water to buy.  The man keeps on putting large sizes of things into the basket and the woman keeps taking them out. Every time I get them to the check out, they remember something else.  An hour goes by. I finally get them through the door, down to the rental unit and up the stairs.  They coo in a very Welsh way when they see the flat and I give them quick instruction on how to use the hot plate and put down the fold out bed.  The woman looks confused - is this the only toilet?The flat is 26m2 and has separate kitchen, living room, bedroom, shower room and loo. Resist urge to reply I have hidden extra toilet behind the door.

OH rings me at 7.30 to find out if I am still alive.   I inform him that I have aged more than the passage of two and a half hours and that I will need wine at the ready when I arrive back home.

Watch Notorious.  Glorious costumes.  Cary Grant is as wooden as ever.  Ingrid Bergman so classy.

Somewhat shaken with good news later

Friday 16 January 2015

Misty 4 degrees cold and rain later

Took the dog out early to clear my head.  Really stuffed up and had slept very badly. Glorious morning with tiny wreaths of cloud wrapped around the highest tree branches.  Dog delighted to be out early and ran around happily.  We descended the hill from our house and suddenly, across a large field, two dogs appeared and streaked towards us with alarming speed.  The larger one resembled a Doberman and the slightly smaller one, a mongrel. They halted at the stream, fortunately full from the recent rainfall, and barked aggressively. They have started doing this recently but we ignore them and they stay on their side of the stream. 

I walked the dog on, quickly, but they followed us the length of the stream and their barking became louder and louder.  To my horror, they then crossed the stream and ran across the maize stalks and onto the road.  The dog was pleased and wagged his tail.  He is a moron of some order.  The dogs surrounded him and growled.  The dog smiled and started sniffing their bottoms.  I got to a safe distance and bellowed for the dog to join me and eventually he did, with the other dogs growling and following him.  They must have followed us for a good 200 metres so I arrived home in quite a shaken state.  Would they have been so interested if I had been on my own?  I rang the local police and reported the incident and they promised to go around and see the owner.

Two hours later the phone rang and it was the policeman who was at the owners house.  He passed the phone to me - no client confidentiality here obviously - and the owner told me that her dogs were adorable and not bad at all and I must have made a mistake.  I told her that the dogs were not at all adorable, no I didn't want to come to her house to see how adorable they were, and that I would report her if they did it again.

OH went to local city to obtain building materials and I had peaceful day putting on new properties.  Peace somewhat disturbed when I get an email from the agency saying do I know anything about the collapsed wall.   I ring the notary who updates me to the effect that the buyer has refused to pull out and is insisting that the seller puts the property back into the condition as seen on the last visit.   Later on in the day, I am sent photos.  It is a retaining wall down in the garden - fortunately not part of the house as we would then have had issues with the surveyor as well.  I ring the owner and tell him he needs to get a quote.  He of course doesn't want to get a quote as this amount will then be retained by the notary against the works.  I ring the notary back and ask him to write in no uncertain terms to the seller and tell him what he must do.  Notary confirms that the seller cant back out without having to pay indemnities which are considerably in excess of the value of the wall repairs.

Have cup of tea in garden and smile and say HA!!!  Thank fate for having my back.

Make fire and OH arrives back at the end of five hours shopping and driving.  Update him and then appraise him of my insight, obtained whilst weeding the other day.  When I think of making a sale, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach - a 'here we go again' feeling. Subconsciously I may be blocking making sales because they are so much stress and worry.  OH regards me over the top of his tea cup and says I had better stop it, we need the money.   I give myself permission to make trouble free sales and have help from all quarters from loving people.

Go to bed early and spend night waking up with bone dry mouth.  Don't feel as ill as I used to do when I attraped a non UK cold.  French and Spanish colds used to knock me for six for at least a week.

Ice sparkle and advances!

Monday 12 January 2015

-2 breathy curly weather

Up and dressed early and find that the sun has melted just enough ice off the windscreen to be able to leave immediately.   It is a great morning to be alive.  The fields sparkle ice and green and the Pyrénées are a jagged, deep mauve on the horizon.   

Arrive at the house for the revisit before signature of the purchase contract.  The buyers are there already.  Both the owner and I are on pins because the buyers only had one visit before making an offer and they haven't seen the property since last April.   The man looks really ill and the lady tells me that they have had dengue fever (but not before I have kissed them hello).  This apparently involves a very high fever with rash and in the recovery period, joint pains.  The poor man can hardly climb the stairs - he is in his 70's to start with.   Am relieved to feel that the owner has put the heating on.  The last time I was here, the chill went straight to my bones.  I am less pleased to see that when she has taken the light fittings off the wall in the living room, hallway and two bedrooms, she has not even left a light bulb.  The purchasers don't say anything.   She has also repaired the superficial cracking that would have freaked them out. 

Two hours pass, we have a coffee in the local bar and a trio of people from a rival agency come in.  One of them sees me and looks as if she has swallowed a prune.  We had a bit of a set to over three years ago and it looks like she is still bearing a grudge.

Back home for quick lunch then pick up the purchasers and take them into town for the signature of the purchase document.  Technology has arrived in our little town!  The notary had the document up on a television screen, controlled from a tablet, and all the annexes were easily accessed and reviewed.  Big improvement on her technique for the last eleven years, which was to spend most of the time shuffling around the vast amounts of paper involved.  Hurrah for trees!!  Signature was electronic so we must have saved about half an hour and at least 200 pieces of paper.

On arriving back home, look at WF's emails and discover he has secured some work. What a great day this is turning out to be.  Three months work for a national youth helpline and starting on Monday.  This is news to WF as he has not yet got into the habit of opening his emails at the start of the day (and often not by the end either, sigh).   He will be able to buy a new laptop as his current one whirrs like a supersonic heading down the runway.

Find some good new houses to contact whilst prospecting on the private web ads.   Must clean the house for Friday visit.  OH has been out clearing up rubbish and putting gravel in the dips in the courtyard.