by When I spoke to my parents this morning, they were showing their age. Mum had just about gone blind in one eye overnight, while Dad had a sciatica-like jabbing pain in his right leg. I’m 11,000 miles away and I can’t do a damn thing. Last weekend I spoke to Dad, pre-leg pain. Mum had gone to church. They’d just had a “friend” to stay; Dad said that Mum was stressed to the max the whole time and could have erupted at any second. Since I left New Zealand, I’ve missed out on Mum’s volcanic (and irrational) side.
Yesterday I got pretty close to buying that flat I mentioned in my previous post, but after making an offer and receiving a counter-offer of €8000 more, I backed away. This is a minefield, isn’t it? I may still end up buying the place. The owner is in Mexico (why there?) and won’t be back in Timișoara for another three weeks, so there’s no way I can sign anything before then. I want to do this and start running a proper business, but right now I’m stumbling in the dark, at the mercy of a highly uncertain economy. My only saving grace is that this time I’m only putting half my eggs (or hopefully fewer) in one basket.
I got the new fridge-freezer delivered, but god, installing it was a performance. This flat has a funny V-shaped laundry “corner” which meant I couldn’t remove the old appliance without disconnecting the washing machine, and shitshitshit how do I turn off the cold tap? I’ll be knee-deep in water if I’m not careful. Then after sorting that out, I had to remove the doors of the new fridge-freezer because it wouldn’t fit otherwise. That’s about as close as I want to get to actual DIY, but in my new place (if I get that far) I might be forced into doing some. It was lucky that the fridge broke down in March and not August.
On Monday my sister-in-law sent me her latest scan. It looks amazingly human now. A human that will have the same last name as me. The due date is 20th September.
Tomorrow I’m getting my first haircut in nine months.
Here are some before-and-after petrol prices at the same forecourt. Unlike some stations which are in danger of running out of digits on their signs, this one can handle 10-lei-plus petrol.
