Friday 4 February 2011

What a difference a day makes.

What a difference a day makes.
This time yesterday was a completely different story and this is how it went.
We are house hunting and trying to by me a car.
I had two issues to deal with yesterday....rental agents weren’t returning my calls, several viewings I had made were inappropriate to what I’d requested and no one seems to have the ability to be flexible. I ask for 3 bed min, 2.5 bathrooms, separate annexe/flatlette and pool....’No, we don’t have anything’...so Ok what do you have in that price bracket?....’nothing like that’....try again and this time ask...’how about a 4 bed, pool, garden and servants quarters’ ‘oh yes we have those, when would you like to view?’ slightly frustrating these calls, I have a pay as you go mobile, in someone elses name, so only they can top it up for me...doh!!!! how do I contact them to say I need more credit......? I had 2 appointments where the rental agent didn’t turn up, I had 1 appointment where the current tenants didn’t know we were coming, the house was a mess and there were 2 small dogs licking me and generally getting in the way, four times I asked the agent to do something about the dogs as I don’t like them (not afraid, just don’t like dogs) and four times I was ignored.
Peter is sorted he is getting a shiny Toyota Fortuna, it does everything except drive itself, special safety glass with a film layer so if anyone smashes the window they can’t reach inside the car, panic buttons near the seat belt clip which automatically activates the tracking device, built in sat nav, blue tooth for phone, DVD player and camera parking. It will be ‘our’ car but mainly driven by Peter for work in the week. So what am I getting? Well yesterday it was suggested I look for a small run around while we wait for my car to sell in the UK. So off I go armed with no local knowledge to find a car for approximately £5000. Some of the areas I pulled into had me refusing to get out the car and I turned round and drove off. Where I did find cars in the price range they were over 13 yrs old, full of rust and no guarantee they wouldn’t keep breaking down and here in South Africa that is not something I want to do. I can’t get finance as I don’t have an income and if Peter takes out finance it has to be completed within 2 yrs as that is the length of our initial visa.
So there I am yesterday, driving around some dodgy areas, getting hassle with the rental agents, no credit on my phone, 3rd trip to the school.
So I had a hissy fit and Peter faced it full throttle......he called me while I was still out and started by telling me he’d skyped Andrew in the office and another colleague from the UK, he’d made and received phone calls with ex colleagues, tying up loose ends and arranged a trip to Europe in March.
’you have a decent car. You’re not the one going 3 times a day on the school run, where do you suggest I put a week’s shopping in Golf or similar? Are you happy with me sitting on the side of the road in South Africa with the kids?....etc etc etc’ ‘Great!!!! You’ve got a mobile phone and the internet, you’ve got people around you helping you out with everything you need doing, you’ve had contact with familiar people, I’m struggling to understand the language, the accent, driving around areas I’m sure I shouldn’t be in and apart from the rental agants I’ve not spoken to anyone today, about anything else other than try to buy a car, rent a house and pay for the food shopping.’
And I can’t even do that properly as HSBC froze my bank card for unusual activity, i.e. we are in South Africa, we only set the account up because we were moving to South Africa. I keep running out of credit and can only access the internet for short periods of time. I’m still trying to sell the car in the UK and rent the house out. I’ve sent post cards and letters home, been keeping in touch with the UK via one very heavily pregnant sister who is sorting out some UK stuff for us, dealing with the kids and trying to sort out for us via face book and she seems to have a problem with her caps look and it looks like she’s shouting at me....lol
So Peter brought HR home with him tonight, she is very similar to me..i.e. forceful and I explained to her...I can so these things, I just need a bump start and the tools to do the job, so she topped my phone up for me, gave me access to the internet and ........
24hrs later, I have viewed 5 properties, going back to one this evening with Peter and the boys as I really like it and off to view vehicles at Toyota after collecting the children from school.
*Smiles and pats self on back*

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