by Six cancellations last week – pretty frustrating, but withstandable: I still racked up a reasonable 26 hours of teaching. I might soon be needing some new students, however. On Friday I got long, and bizarre, text from the woman I played tennis with last month. She seems to like me. “This is a delicate situation. We’ll talk about it when you’re ready.” I’m not ready. I’ll never be ready. But I am ready to stop having lessons with her, a married woman in her early forties whose twelve-year-old son I also teach. I think I’ll have to pull the plug on the lessons with the boy too, and that’s certainly a shame because we’ve been making good progress. Despite the money, it isn’t worth the risk. Her husband seems quite an aggressive man, and things could get ugly for me if I carry on. On Wednesday I’ll see her for one last time, explain the situation as nicely as I can, and that (I hope) will be that.
Committee members of my body corporate in Wellington are badgering me to sign the collective agreement to sell our apartment block. They’ve imposed a deadline of this Friday. I simply don’t want to sign. Maybe I’m just stupid, but none of the arguments I’ve seen so far convince me that now is a good time to sell the only property I’m ever likely to own, while I’m receiving over NZ$2000 a month (net) in rent. (If I ever do buy another place to live, it’ll almost certainly be in Romania. In either of the other two countries I have connections with, property will be far beyond me.) I had a Skype chat with one of the owners (she’s lived there since 1997) and she’s not keen on selling either. If she sells and I’m the only hold-out, perhaps I’ll be forced to.
My sister-in-law recently invited me to have Christmas at her parents’. That was a nice gesture, but it’s a non-starter. Getting down there would be an enormous hassle at any time of year, let alone over the festive season. Dad asked my aunt whether she’d be interested in having me over, but she apparently she’s going through one of her “black dog” periods and doesn’t want to see anybody. So it looks like I’ll be on my own. I’m sure I’ll manage.
