Saturday, January 4, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
99% of real estate agents give the rest a bad name
So far, three bids for the parrot, none for the property, so I'm changing tack and listing with www.realprivate.com.au which gives me a listing on Australia's premier real estate site www.realestate.com.au.
As property owner, I cannot list directly on www.realestate.com.au but must go through a real estate agent who does little more than do the listing for me. If it comes to a sale, I then pay the agent several tens of thousands of dollars in commission.
www.realprivate.com.au are real estate agents who facilitate the listing on www.realestate.com.au for a small placement fee (in my case $499). If it comes to a sale, I owe them nothing!
I'm surprised people still pay agents those high commissions!
Whatever gets you through the night
The story of my life reads like a fairy tale - GRIMM! And there was no grimmer time than my years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Being paid extremely well and living in a five-star hotel was small compensation for living in the world's largest sandbox.
The Four Pillars of Prohibition in Saudi Arabia are No Piss, No Pork, No Pornography and No Prostitution but it was the sheer loneliness of the place that reduced even the most hardened men to tears. Some of us resident expats would meet at lunchtime around the swimming pool of the Al-Harithy Hotel on Medina Road in Jeddah for a swim and a game of chess.
Then came the long night and the lack of entertainment and the lack of companionship until perhaps some time after midnight, just when one had conquered the insomnia, there was a hesitant tap on the door. Outside stood one of the expats one had met at the swimming pool at lunchtime, with a chess-board under his arm, asking in a timid voice, "Feel like a game of chess?"
FEEL LIKE A GAME OF CHESS??? AT 1 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING???
But, of course, one didn't say that. Instead, one switched on the coffee kettle, set up the chess-board, and made the appropriate moves. Literally! Because it wasn't about chess at all but about the choking isolation, or about a "Dear John" letter from home, or, worse, no letter at all.
And so one played the game because it might be one's turn next to stand outside someone's door and ask, "Feel like a game of chess?"
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
It's been a hard day's night and I've been sleeping with the dogs
I must admit I am not the most sociable person and I don't entertain much. In fact, the only people we ‘have over’ are the postman, the garbage collector and the meter reader. For the rest of the time, the front gate is firmly locked.
However, last night we had some good friends over for a quiet Mr-Bean Night, not so much to drink in the new year but to drink out the old.
It was very low-key which suited at least one guest who commented next day, "Thank you both so much for a wonderful New Year's Eve party, one of the best: good company, good conversation, plenty of laughs and home by 11.30! No slobbering kisses from sleazy strangers or husbands of friends ready to have one last squeeze before they embark on another year of marital bliss (?), or anti-climatic fire crackers and that horrid Auld Lang thingy...".
Phew! Just as well I had left my button accordion in the cupboard despite having practised all week to squeeze out Auld Lang Syne!
It's now 7 o'clock on the morning-after and I've just opened my left eye to look out on the river to see what sort of day it is. Brilliant sunshine! What a great start to a new day and a new year!
As soon as I've opened the other eye and woken up the dogs, the new year can begin. Let's see what it has in store for us! All I know about the future is that it will be different. "Everything will be alright in the end. So if it's not alright, it is not yet the end."
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