Much tea and many biscuits were consumed - all in the name of business....

Monday 15 June 2015

Blue skies interrupted by torrential rain in the mountains

18 degrees

Woke up at silly o'clock - 6.30 am.  Again.  Feel wrecked.  Am out of my thyroid tablets and my system is grinding to a standstill.  Made myself do some work type work until 9 then dressed and into town to see a lady who I have not seen in ages but whose garden and more particularly, swimming pool popped into my head the other day whilst I was waiting for the dog to finish his interminable peeing on things.

Her house is hidden down a long lane.  A squat property with a delightfully quirky mix of rooms and levels,  Gorgeous pool and half acre garden.  Might do for camping car people? I have a bad history of selling to camping car people. I don't.  The liberty of transport gives them the liberty of looking over hundreds of square kilometres and even if I do find them something they like, they wriggle out of my clutches and go somewhere else inland and cheaper where they no doubt enjoy the opportunity to freeze in the winter and boil in the summer.

Enjoyed a coffee and biscuits and the lady's phone rang and she asked them to ring back as she was with a friend.  Was warmed.

Down town and saw a lady whose mandate had expired.  Her very large cat sat on my knee and roared out a throaty purr.  The french word for purring is ronron.  I love that word. Floralie (flower show) is another good one.

Home to release dog from the front room and see how many slugs and snails had eaten themselves to death on the pellets.  An amazing number.  I wonder how many snails there are in the world.  Think of the Spike Milligan poem

Today I saw a little worm
Wriggling on his belly
Perhaps he'd like to come inside
And see what's on the telly

http://www.snail-world.com/snail_sliding_down_a_leaf/

Yes, there really is a site called Snail World.  I looked for a photo of a snail sliding up a leaf but that was a photo too far for Snail World.


All too soon it was time to go out again and see a house 45 minutes south.  The mountains popped out of the top of the heavy cloud and once again, I was late and had to drive past the chocolate factory in the sure and certain knowledge that I would not be able to find it again on my way out of town.  The lady had to come and get me so I wouldn't get horribly lost.  She took me on a very windy road, followed by many other windy roads and also drove like a maniac so when I arrived, having spent ten minutes swerving around potholes and keeping the car on the road, I had no idea where I was.  

The spot was idyllic and the house had a deep blue wooden balcony, fringed with wisteria. Bell wearing cows clanged around in an adjoining field.  Inside, I have to say, it was rather French.  Gas rings and 1980's gothic. The rain came down in stair roads.  We had tea and biscuits.  I am doing well today.  Chocolate again.  The lady told me about her husband who had divorced her after 44 years of marriage.  She didn't seem too cut up about it.  I was trying to figure out if she had had a face job because she must be ten years older than me and had very smooth skin.  There was a beautiful pond with an impressive stand of Gunnera Manicata

"Gunnera manicata3" by Required attribution is: Photo by Tom Oates.Original uploader was Nabokov at en.wikipedia (a.k.a. Tom Oates) - Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Kafuffle using CommonsHelper.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gunnera_manicata3.JPG#/media/File:Gunnera_manicata3.JPG

Small boys can shelter from the rain under one of the taller leaves.  I left after an hour and a half and got completely lost and only just got back to town to show my colleague on previsit, a house she will be viewing with her client tomorrow.  Then went around to retake a mandate and discovered that I had run out of non exclusive mandates but the owner insisted I came in and gave me orange juice and encouraged me to talk.  I think I have novelty value.  I told her about haunted houses I have known.  I think it was the sudden rush of sugar to my blood stream.  

Back home and I really did not feel like walking the dog but he insisted.  Had pizza. Looked at my emails and discovered - and I was glad I was sitting down when I read it - a quote for painting just TWO of the four floors of the house that the NZ ladies are buying. How much?  24,750 euros for just under 200m2 of plain painted walls......