Bricks and Mortar

Go figure. It's a beautiful day outside and I'm stuck inside with a sick little infant sleeping off the effects of probably too much Calpol (administered earlier by a somewhat heavy-handed Dada...). Egg came home with a cold yesterday and has passed it on to the Baby Dumps it would seem, but he still ran off merrily to school this morning with Dada, despite being awarded an ominous 'late mark' by his stern teacher yesterday. (Dada did fess up on email when he got to work and promised it wouldn't happen again).
On another note, Auntie Mo picked up Egg from nursery yesterday and treated him to lunch out and his favourite 'lemon poppyseed muffin' from Cafe Nero. Apparently she overheard the teacher telling one of the other parents that they were going to make fruit salad the next day and requested that the child bring in a fruit. Now i shouldn't take it personally that Egg was excluded from this info, so we sent him in with two big shiny red apples this morning - plus an assortment of odd tinned goods for the disadvantaged (they are having a collection - I am not merely trying to rid my shelves of unwanted foodstuffs)

On another note, I think we found a lovely tenant for our rental flat. He is a friendly young brazilain named 'Fernando' and that alone makes him a top contender! He appears genuine, sweet and claims to be a neat freak - that's all i need to know. He and his Lithuanian wife want to move in asap but of course nothing runs smoothly and our current tenants are being shady about when they want to move out and keep pushing back the deadline. (As Jay and I noted last night, we're a bit too soft to be 'landlords'...not cut-throat enough).

Potential renovations on the kitchen next door aren't faring so well either. We had two different quotes. The first was from two Polish brothers who said they'd do the whole job for a hefty cash sum. One was the wise-cracking brains of the outfit - short, stocky and shifty-eyed. The other, Bart, was the tallest person Jay and I have ever seen in real life....maybe 7 feet? A HUGE, lumbering giant, he was sweet, and aside from being distracted by his sheer mountain of a frame, he had nice eyes and a gentle spirit. Whether this translates into us ending up with a good kitchen is anyones guess, but we're a wee bit wary. The second quote was from a cheeky chappie East End builder who hasn't returned our calls and is clearly not interested in our terms (I guess calling him on some outrageous costs on the quote didn't go down so well...).

I'm realising that this property business is a huge headache. Yes, there is potential to earn some real money someday...but given that our properties are metres away from the river, there is every chance that in some not so distant future, all our savings will be underneath the water, and Jay and I shall recieve this news with calm, fated breath as we recline in our sun loungers in Goa (where we have retired for the past several years).

It will simply mean that Jay must begin a new career as a motorcycle repairman and I as a fine gem trader. Or by then the boys will be big enough to trawl the beaches selling cashew nuts to tourist and practising their Hindi. See, it will all work out one way or another. In the words of the 'cottaging' George Michael, "you gotta have faith".