Weather heats up but your agent is keeping her cool

Thursday 4 June 2015

Stinking hot 32 degrees and nearly 50 in the sun

It was already over 20 when I poked my nose through the door at 8 am.  People who don't live in hot climates think 'oh great' when they hear of high temperatures.  They are not great - they frizzle the garden, they frizzle your hair and burn off all the expensively applied colour, they burn your skin and give you wrinkles, they make you drip.  To get an authentic heat experience of a hot day in the South, put some wet towels in the tumbler.  Let them tumble on maximum heat for about 20 minutes.  Put your head into the machine and you tell me if that is great.

Agency decides to carry on trying to contact US lady's husband, who is currently not answering his phone or replying to emails.  He is probably tied up in the business of messing up people's lives.  Worryingly, the business manager says that divorce could be considered as a legitimate motif for not continuing with the sale, which means that we would be paid nothing.

Applied much suncream, tied up my hair and found a large sun hat, shaved my appallingly white and hairy legs and found some sandals, put on a pretty dress and headed down town. Felt quite chic under my hat and sunglasses and bright lipstick.  Went to meet a seller and give her the keys as she needs them for a son who is popping over to keep an eye on the house when they are away.  The lady is wearing thick clothing and sunglasses and sitting in the shade.  We have tea and she tells me how she met her second (and current) husband due to their interest in politics and church going.  I tell her about how OH and I got together via a blind date, thirty years ago in August.  

How difficult it must be, starting again in your fifties, as this lady did.  In fact, how difficult it is altogether to find a partner who is good for the long term.  All those dances and discos and the relationships didn't last more than a few months.  And the horror of meeting someone when you were sober and it was daylight and you discovered that they were not at all like you remembered (or hoped).  I am convinced that work or interest groups (or introductions via dear friends like Ms Noddi) are the best places to meet a potential partner.  Mr Noddi came via Ms Noddi's bookshop and was shy and bought many books before stating what was really on his mind.  I suppose marriage and partnerships are on my mind because of the breakdown of the relationship of the American couple.  Lady is still too upset to speak to me.

I go to the fripperie and find a delightful white top with delicate tracing and pleating.  A poster of an exhibition attracts my attention - work done by local amateurs.  It is held in a little exhibition house overlooking the now bone dry river bed.  On the ground floor are drawings - one by a man I know - I am amazed by the discovery of his name at the bottom of the picture and realising he is a very talented pen and ink draughtsman.  

There are some pictures that would give you a start if you came across them on a midnight trip to the loo

I like the manic style of this one

Zombie with a barrel on her head

A further case reveals intricate crewel work by another lady whose house I have for sale.  There is some stuff that is twee (scary doll nightdress cases) and some that is bizarre (Mondrian style but fatter lines) and then on the third floor I find a lady who won't give me her house for sale and she has lots of delightful felt and sewn items and I plump for a pincushion with band that I can attach to my wrist.  She doesn't have a paper bag so I wear it as a bracelet and head back into town.

An Australian couple I have known for years have just arrived and we are delighted to see one another and say hello and they say have a drink and why are you wearing a pin cushion?  So we had a coffee together and it is great to see them again and we say we must do lunch and mean it.  Saw another English couple who haven't been around for ages and I ask after her mother and they says she is dead and that is what they wanted for her. They look very happy and are drinking wine and laughing.  They look like people who are now off the hook and free to enjoy themselves.  Very aged relative.  Being old is very boring.

Back home finally and watch the end of the Jooooooooooooooohn Wayne cowboy film and we are in a complete torpor.  Do some emails and ring up some new prospective houses for sale and unusually most people say no but one man says yes and he is English with a lovely house, two gites and a pool.  Un produit rare as they say over 'ere.

Take dog for a walk in the woods, which afford some shade, and the banks are alive with butterflies, notably one of these, which I haven't seen before (thankyou Wikipedia)

Great banded grayling