Wednesday, 3rd August
It was my day off today and we had
invited Per and Lasse for coffee and cake. Ben had helped clean the
apartment on Tuesday. Per had a funny turn when they were doing the
cleaning, he nearly collapsed. It is getting too much for them. Ben
told me this morning and I decided to call it a day. We will let the
flat out. So we talked to P/L today, and they agreed it was getting
too much for them. I assured them I am not going to raise their rent,
and they agreed to still act as caretakers. We told them we want to
offer the flat to Sahid and Mats, and they were pleased to have them
as neighbours.
Tonight we phoned them and have
invited them for dinner on my next day off.
I have sent an e-mail to the
accountant and Mr Allender to inform them we intend to let the flat,
there are legal things to sort out, and I want their advice how to
much to rent it out for. They will most likely quote me a rent which
is higher than what I want to charge. They already tried to convince
me to raise the rent on the other flats after the work we had done.
Monday, 8th August
I had a day off yesterday and we
had S/M here for dinner. They had both been working during the day,
Mats has to make the most of the summer time. We offered them the
flat and they were over the moon. They would like to take it with
most the equipment. I had not considered that, but it is fine with
me. We need to negotiate a price for it. There are some items they do
not want, I might sell them, we might use something at the club. I
had an e-mail from Mr Allender, he said we need to go through quite a
legal process to change the use back to full time residential. So we
are looking at end of September, October. That gives them enough time
to get things sorted their end.
The boy misses his language
lessons, he has spent some more time at the Bhuddist centre the last
few weeks. He also walks Django almost every day. He has managed to
keep himself busy when I was at work. We fell quite quickly back into
a routine, I enjoyed being at work, but am glad that it is a limited
time.
Thursday, 11th August
The boy met me at the gym after
work. We came home and he was going to prepare dinner for me. There
was a message on the answer phone, a colleague wanted to change
shifts tomorrow as his mother-in-law has been taken ill and he needs
to join his wife and the kids. So I am doing a late instead of an
early. I called him back to confirm. Then I went out to water the
plants. It has been very dry and warm lately, and some plants need
watering. I use water from the lake. I lower the watering can from
our jetty, it is quite hard work. We have a wench, which used to hold
a bucket to cool drinks, now I use it to attach the can to it, but I
still need to push the can under the water.
The slave came out to help me. He
laid down on the jetty to push the can down. I thought it would hurt
him, but he says it is better than lugging the full can around the
garden. Lifting like that is hard for him. He then went to cook my
dinner, my favourite. He had cut everything up earlier, and just
needed to fry it. He has his system, and does not like to have help
when cooking. He often prepares all the ingredients, like a TV chef,
in different containers. He does all the washing up later. I came
into the kitchen and he shooed me away. So I laid the table and he
likes it if I make his shake.
Suddenly Django turned up in our
living room. He came through the shrubbery again. I grabbed his
collar and guided him to the front door. When I opened it, Torben was
about to ring the bell. Torben told me they are going on holiday the
next day, so we won't be disturbed. He assured me he would put Django
on the lead when he passes our house in future.
After dinner I noticed the answer
machine was still blinking. I must have forgotten to erase the
message. To erase it, one has to play the message. So I pressed play
and it was a message from Ben's mother! He had just finished clearing
up, and we stood next to the phone, both in disbelief. She had asked
for a call back, and left the number. Ben was shivering, he said
something serious must have happened, why would she phone otherwise?
I was about to play the message again to get the number, but Ben said
he remembered it. Of course. He just needed me to tell him the
country code.
A woman answered, it must have been
a daughter-in-law. Ben just asked to speak to Ruth Farrier, and she
would not get her, unless she knew who was calling. Maybe she thought
it was a cold caller. Ben answered back, he had had a message from
her, and he wants to speak to her. He asked who he was talking to.
The young woman still refused to get Ruth. Finally Ben declared
himself. We could almost hear her jaw drop to the floor. We heard a
terse conversation between the woman and Ruth. We could not make out
what was said, but it gave the impression the young lady was not
happy. Ben was on tender hooks here. Ruth came straight to the point.
Ben's father had had a heart attack the previous evening. He had just
retired at the beginning of the month. He had been to a Rotary
meeting and was driving home. Luckily no one else was harmed. They
got him to hospital quickly, but the doctors said there was nothing
they could do. The eldest sons were able to come and say their
goodbyes. They were asked if they would consider organ donation, but
Ruth was overruled by her sons. The young woman who had answered the
phone was the wife of the would-be-politician. Father Morris was
there as well. Ruth requested that Ben will not contact her, but we
keep going through Father Morris. She will phone us again. Ben told
her we are coming to Canada in November, and we would like to meet
her then, now even more. She sounded very happy about that.
She asked to speak to me, and she
wanted my assurance that I will look after Ben. She then called
Father Morris to the phone, Ben did not want to speak to him. We
exchanged some pleasantries and he assured me he would look after
Ruth and protect her from her family. In the back ground we could
hear raised voices, something about Ben. Father Morris said he better
go and intervene.
I think Ben was more upset that he
finally had a chance to speak to his mother, and then she had to keep
it so short. It has been 10 years!! We were both in shock, we did not
speak for a while. Finally he got up and went to his room, he
immediately returned with the photo of him, his sister and his
mother. She looked so beautiful and happy in the photo. The few
letters we have, she has tried to hide her unhappiness. It seems her
older boys make life difficult for her. I made some tea and we sat on
the patio. Ben told me a few stories from his childhood, mainly about
his father. It is very difficult to grasp someone has died over such
distance. I know it from personal and professional experience. I was
not allowed to my mothers funeral, I was deemed to not understand it.
I think I would have understood death better by going to the funeral.
Ben already missed the funeral of his sister, but he said he does not
need to attend his fathers, in his mind he died many years ago.
.
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