After having had a very lovely visit from my brother Klaus, Sabine and their friends just before Christmas in 2010, nothing much else happened for quite some time.
The clients around the world shrouded themselves in deep silence and the little company went more or less broke, more, to be true than less. Living for one year on borrowed money from loving friends and family around the world was, what saved the day. Not to forget the occasional large letter with four to five packs of my favorite tobacco.
Our health conscious government likes to get us off the smoke (good on them) and thus levying taxes on tobacco like there is no tomorrow (bad on them) which makes 50 grams of brown leaf of the Mac Baren variety 5 times more expensive than in the still smoker friendly Germany.
I started writing/updating my CV and apply for local jobs. However, as my sister pointed out, we are on the wrong side of 60 and Auslaufmodelle (run out models)
Got serious with selling the house. Ads on all relevant websites including faceboink through an agent called for sale for lease. Good service and good concept.
But even the best advertising (My ad gets a good hit rate) does not lead to a lot of traffic in real life. Have open day almost every Saturday. But most days are lonely planet events. Have a person, around March, who indicates interest, but ends up tire kicker. Same happened 3 months later.
Even got a spam event which leads me to responding in somewhat unusual fashion. The beautiful Delia (yes I even have a picture of hers, she sent me the copy of some drivers license or something like that)
Start to develop a funny system of putting out all the signs showing the way from Avoca Drive to my house. Once you can start sticking those signs in the same little holes over and over again, you know something is wrong!
The frustrating thing is that almost all people who come, find the house wonderful and unique and excellent - BUT no driveway.
Quote from a Heckler sent to the Sydney Morning Herald
These Romans are crazy (Asterix, authorRené Goscinny 1926–1977)
Imagine the following. A number of Australians come to inspect a house for sale. An unusual one at that.
It’s actually three houses, pavilions if you so wish. And the comments are like this.
Oh what a wonderful location. Almost feels like a tree house.
Those recycled hardwood beams really have character. What a beautiful view over Brisbane Waters.
Oh look, this third pavilion, it’s really like a granny flat, all on its own with bathroom and so.
And so much storage space in the kitchen, so nicely hidden behind the timber panels.
Well that’s what I call a kitchen. And look that beautiful louver wall between dining and living space.
It’s really like an artist retreat (yes, but show me the artist who has the money)
BUT you can’t drive up to the front door!!
Well, never mind the inclinator which brings you from the bottom all the 30 meters up the hill as close to the front door as you would wish.
Why would you want your car standing at the front door, being mirrored in the large glass sliding doors and wondering to itself ....does my bonnet look fat in this?.....
Australians and their concrete driveways. No wonder only the select few have attempted climbing Mount Kosciusko, there is no concrete drive up there!
Those Australians, there 4WD is part of the family. And if it’s not parked smack bang in front of the door, it’s a disaster.
When I first came to Australia 30 years ago, I always felt that if new cars would have no rear vision mirror, the new owner would only realise the absence once he/she could not find anything to hang their little air freshener in the car.
Now I found a new thing – concrete driveways. You can’t live in a house without it. Never mind the piece and quiet of a house in the bush, in unison with nature as much as you can have a house, but no concrete driveway up to it.
Yes Mr Johann (that’s the closest most people get to pronouncing Jochen) I understand the thermic conditions are excellent, no aircon needed, mother nature does it all and helps saving a bucket on electricity, But no concrete driveway!
Ah is that right? 3000 litre does the rain water tank hold, which looks after the water needs in the garden all year – for free – But no concrete driveway!
Yes I can imagine it must be lovely to see the lights at night across the water, on the other side of Brisbane Waters. And all those cute little birds around here, how lovely. But no concrete driveway!
These Australians must be crazy.
In all this I develop some kind of growing interest for landscape photography. And the Central Coast is becoming my ‘studio’.
around Brisbane Waters
As many of you will know, I have always had some sort of fondness for sunsets and many of my photos from around the world involve the sun disappearing over the horizon. This time around I try to focus a bit more on trees, water and flowers during the daytime. Some of my exploits here from driving/walking around various places on the Central Coast.
one way of changing your cloths
The year drags on but with a pleasant surprise party for my birthday. Early in June for a long weekend, Ute and Tony announce their coming for a delayed birthday party. I assume/know Gary is coming as well. On the day then, we are also joined by Thomas and Kate, Olaf and Illona, Ken and for dinner the neighbors as well. Lovely long weekend with most staying in GPP
Second part of year very set and not much happened. Its the first year in my life in Australia that I don’t travel overseas. The only trip comes as a surprise invitation by Ute for a Christmas NYE visit in FFP.
In November I swallow my pride and some of my prejudices against real estate agents, stop my own advertising and engage Wiseberry to sell the house.
some flowers in my garden
At this point in time of writing, nothing different has happened to what I did. Except for a double sign standing in front of the block on street level, to be marveled at by the Garbo who comes once a week on Mondays. (remember the house is in a dead end street, second last house!) But it advertises the real estate agent wonderfully but to whom? Well yesterday I saw a wallaby jumping by. I am sure it will consider Wiseberry next time it looks for a burrow.
Ads in the papers and on the net. First open day was as eventless as many of mine. But since real estate agents are professional optimists, Andrew is very optimistic. We shall see.
Funny enough, during my first house selling exercise in 2002 when Australia Street went on the market, I contemplated in a somewhat similar vain about open days and real estate agents. At the time I wrote this
Quote:
Had my first open day for selling the house. It is somehow a weird experience.
First you go through all the rigmarole to get the house ready, painted, cleaned, spotless, presentable, alluring, tempting, look a million Dollar.
Then, 18.00 hours, two guys in dark suits move in. They look like high end used car sales men, tell you how wonderful the house came up and how many people already indicated interest.
And then the show starts and you go away, not to be seen. You are spoiling the picture, you are a disgrace, to be hidden from the prospective buyers (and all the neighbours who use the opportunity to look at your house)
And after one hour, you are allowed to come back - into your own house. Everybody has gone.
From a distant vantage point you try to gauge the potential buyers. How do they look, what car do they drive. A single, just a couple, family with small kids?
It feels like those girls in Amsterdam sitting in the window, presenting themselves to potential customers. No contact, no word, no exchange. And the pimps stand around and try to arrange deals, coerce people into thinking that they really should consider the proposition. A proposition never to be repeated, the best buy you can ever make, expensive yes, but look what you get.
Start dreaming, start imagining yourself in the lap of this creature, how it will hold you, house you, love you, be there for you, nothing to spend (just forget about the $800,000 plus you have to spend to enjoy all this) nothing to spend! Everything done for you (by painting cowboys!!)
This is probably the closest I have ever gotten to prostitution.
I think if I get through this over the next four weeks, then have the auction….. Auction of what?
A dream for a living, a dream of a cosy place to rest your tired limbs.
Big shoulders to lean on when the ravages of competitive life have worn you down.
A comfy lounge in front of the fire place, with a good book (suggestively placed on the table) or a glass of wine in the backyard on a balmy summer night.
A pseudo- tropical paradise in the middle of the city, closed off from all the hustle and bustle and the rat race of the city.
All this with nothing to spend (except for signing your life away for $800,000 plus)….
I think I am learning a lesson. Don't know whether it will be enough of a lesson for me to feel comfortable to sell myself at the Green Park Wall or William Street or the Cross.
I think I would opt for the Cross in the first place, it's less competitive body wise!
Don’t' know whether I would ever apply the lessons I am learning right now, but I know something,
I don't want to do this too often in my life.
Yes and now I am at it again. Though selling Green Point Palace proves to be much more difficult than Australia Street. Australians are city people (and crazy – see above)
Close to the end of the year, one client decides, its time to do something. Jochen gets all excited. Well it has a bit of a sting in the tail, this contract, which compels me to interview doctors, nurses and patients who suffer (the patients) from two of the rarest conditions known to mankind. The total number of patients in Australia is estimated to be about 800.
Now my most trusted interviewer and I have to find Doctors and Nurses who deal with these patients and the patients themselves. And they all have to undergo a 50 minutes Interview. And all this during the summer holiday season in Australia. (and those Aussies take their holiday very serious indeed!!) Talk about needles in haystacks!!!
Right now (just before Christmas) I enjoy the tropical north with Ute, Tony and a few other friends/visitors who pop in every now and than.
When Ute and Tony where in GPP/Sydney mid year, they bought a 2nd hand beemer (BMW) very flash and electronic as far as the eye can see. This gleaming vehicle, as well as a solidly clapped out Ford combi, serve us now as means of transport for outings into the mountain regions.
at Josephine Falls
Little BBQ with Friends in Etty Bay
A magnificent tree in the bush in Atherton Tablelands
Its a wonderful thing to leave the humid and hot coastal area and to get into the table lands where temps and vegetation change into the more moderate variety.
Millaa Millaa, one of the many waterfalls
Though, I must say, I don’t mind the heat and humidity in particular given the fact that at Ute’s place its easy to roll out of bed and directly into the wonderful pool.
Today Ute has left for Woolies (she works almost every day, the poor girl) and Tony is seeking distraction in Cairns. Hence Jochen has been promoted to the role of chef de maison and prepares the classic potato salad for the Heiligabend feasting of the masses.
A visitor in Flying Fish Point
Its going to be an evenly mixed Aussie/German affair. In culinary terms this will find its expression in a slab of smoked salmon (very yummy) and my potato salad. Well our cousins from across the ditch (also called Kiwis) will contribute the Sauvignon Blanc!!
Josephine Falls
Given my state of finances, I did not get a chance to see my boys in Kampala. Somewhat sad but cant be helped.
When I arrived in FFP, the internet connection had decided to join the holiday folks and had gone fishing. You realise in those cases, how dependant we are these days on being able to log in and keep in touch with the world. After various trials of ‘repairs’ (the modem still showed lots of little blinky lights) the decision was made that a new modem needs to be bought in order to get us all on-line again. And yes, that worked. Strange enough, this wireless connectionless interlude should become a precursor to my fate immediately upon return to GPP on the 1st January, 2012. My Connection did not work either!!
The days in the far north were filled with lots of visits of the Tablelands, its lakes and waterfalls.
Jospephine falls
A different kind of sunset
Before we ended up on New Years Eve in Cairns. One of Tony’s friends has an apartment smack bang on the Esplanade in Cairns (the street along the waterfront) which is currently under repair/reconstruction. (the apartment that is)
However, it is equipped enough to shelter four people for 24 hours. Even the fridge works!! And there is a bed for everyone. The rest is BYO (bring your own) which we did.
The practical aspect of this is the fact that Ute and I only need 15 minutes to get to the airport on New Year, instead of 1.5 hours. With the flight scheduled for a 9.30 departure and arrival for check in requiring 1 hour buffer at least, this makes a pleasant difference to our first day in the year.
Now I have started the year with no concrete plans – still drifting in the air hoping that somehow the house question, the work situation etc will somehow change in my favour in the not too distant future. Some plans are lurking in the background, but still wrapped up like Christmas gifts for the kiddies. However, in this case, nobody knows when they will be unwrapped.
Which leaves me with wishing you all a happy and healthy 2012
somehow a fitting picture. I am sure this plant will make it
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