Wednesday, July 4, 2012

House hunting,cats, weddings, time management

B'H

I used to love Realestate.com.au. Not any more. After weeks of trawling through pages and pages of ads for houses that fall into the following categories
1. Those I would love to live in but could never afford on my present income.
2. Those I would like to live in but they have a NO PETS clause.
3. Those I would love to live in but the landlord has chosen someone else to grace his or her abode.
4. Those that the real estate agent would like me to live in but I would not want my corpse to spend time there.
5. Those that very few people could live in for a number of reasons.
6. Those that you wonder how on earth a real estate agent would even feel comfortable having such a building (residence is too good word) on their books and would think that someone would actually be able to consider living there, unless of course they were homeless and it was free. One of these looked ok on the net, but when I walked in the smell of cat urine kicked me in the face. I raced over to the double glass sliding doors and slid them open quickly and gasped for air. The agent was waiting just outside the door with a demure little smile on her face.
   'The last tenents had animals. Cats, I think.' She stood at the door not venturing further into the foul air of the house. 'It has been shampooed three times, but we think it is in the underfelt and the owner will have to change that.'
I stood in the fresh air of the backyard porch gasping for breath. If you have ever smelt rank cat urine, especially tomcats, you will understand what was going through my mind.
   'I think they might have to rip the carpet up and put in tiles or floating boards.' I ventured and as I threw a glance at the back yard, I was able to come up with something positive. 'Nice big back yard. Good shed.' My son came around the corner bouncing his ball. He had gone around the back through the carport.
   'Mummy, there is a shed for my bikes. A good shed.' 
   'Yes, hon, but if we lived here, we might be putting the bikes in the house and living in the shed.' He entered the double doors to the lounge and gagged.
  'Yeewwecch. Mummy that is so smelly.'
  'Yes dear it is that.' Then to the real estate agent who had during this whole time never once entered the house. 'I don't think this is what we are looking for. Thanks.'
We dash for the front door after holding our breath to close the double doors at the back. Son wisely, has gone back around the outside of the house through the car port. Real Estate Agent is a good girl and does her job well. She hands me an application form.
   'Just in case you change your mind. You never know. It is the location you want, isn't it?' she probably got top marks for pushiness in Real Estate School or just likes wasting paper and giving out application forms.  I would not make a good real estate agent because I would be telling the owner, 'Get onto to your insurance company and change the flooring in that house. Ain't no one going to rent that house unless you throw in a free operation to remove their ofactory receptors.

This is an example of a wonderful house for rent and they even throw in electricity and wood for the stove but it has a no pet policy. I wonder if I could take my cat to meet them.  Another opportunity is passed up because of loyalty to our four legged feline friend. Oh well such is life.
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-pakenham-407967191

Went to a wedding last night and it was a young woman (daughter of friends of mine) who married a young man from South Africa. It was a wonderful occasion. I reflected as I watched the young woman on the brink of her new life, being swirled in around in pure unadulterated joy by her friends, married and unmarried women and girls, friends of her parents and relatives, that this is what it is all about in life these rites of passage that we go through to mark our entry into new phases of our life. She was born and the occasion was one of great joy for her parents, they named her and raised her in a Jewish home full of love and light. She is the product of the love between two beautiful people - a man and a woman, she was bat mitzveh at 12 years of age and then went on to finish school and do the things that young people do as they make their way in the world with the guidance and love of their parents and siblings.
Then this girl finds her besheit or intended partner in life and they begin a new journey that is so filled with changes and challenges that will assist them to grow and develop as a family unit among their relatives and friends. What do weddings do? They connect people to people. It is not only the bride and groom - the kalla and the hosson but families and friends in a community. through our young people we grow and build. I watched almost moved to tears, as this young girl's elderly grandfather came to give her a blessing on this momenteous day in her life.Too often the elderly are thrust aside in the hurry of life, but not here. There was a calm stillness in the way everything paused and all waited as he was assisted up to the kalla and he raised his hands to her head and blessed her. And later, her other grandmother in her nineties, people were worried that she may feel left out of the dancing and joyous simcha so several people offered to bring her over to a chair placed on the dance floor. She was however content to calmly watch the proceedings from the table where she was sitting. The love as she watched her granddaughter marry was so apparent, she was there anyway in spirit whirling away with each dancer on the floor, giving the kalla and the kalla's mother and sisters incredible joy.
This girl will have her own babies with her mate in life, her new husband and one day in turn, they will watch them marry and one day even later, they may be the old man coming to bless his granddaughter getting married or be the old gracious lady watching the dancers twirling on the dance floor from the sidelines. These are the cycles of living. We bless and we are blessed. It is a continuous circle without end.
My time management has been poor today. I have to go and do some house work and inspect yet another house that I may not want to live in or may and may not be wanted. so I had better go.

4 comments:

jackiejr said...

What abeautiful acocunt of the wedding Ilana. Thank you fro sharing your experience. I was unwell and could nto go so it was lovely to hear how it all went.
I am glad that you have not yet bought a dog. As I said, sekeing a house with a dog is far harder than with only a cat.
I too got notice today that this place is bing sold so back to the real estate board I go as well. It can be so demeaning can't it?

jackiejr said...

Oops...sorry for all of my typos.

Unknown said...

B'H
Well, yes it seems that I am being knocked back not only for houses but also jobs. Just heard back from Chisholm and it seems that they do not even want me for a casual ESL teacher or Literacy support. It is incredible to try so hard and not get anywhere. I approach homelessness with my eight year old son, packing my stuff and praying and praying and putting in application for work after application, trying for houses and being knocked back again and again, then the estate agents offer you these run down little flats in the centre of town, just so 'conveniently around the corner from the local pub' and you think what gives? Not being a drinking woman or a pub frequenter, I am not the least interested and do not relish the thought of the customers rolling drunkenly home, peeing or puking in my front garden or throwing their empty cruiser bottles or cans there. No way. All I want is a quiet affordable little place in the country with a storage shed on the outskirts of a small township or town, for my son to finish primary school free of being harassed by bully boys this boy Daniel and his cronies. What they did was ultimately so vicious as for me to believe that this kid has serious problems if that is what he is like now, G-D help him when he is older and bigger and stronger. He will kill someone. I just can't imagine and shudder to think what would have happened if he had hit Nir on the head and of course, no one saw anything.

Unknown said...

B'H
I am thinking of giving my cat away to someone I hope will look after her. I am trying to put it to my son, that it is either a home for us or no home for us and her and we are out on the streets. I have not got a job and you cannot exist sanely and support a child on a pension. I do not know how people do it. They must deal drugs or do something illegal. You cannot do it. I am constantly unable to pay bills or just exist and have no savings what so ever. Some idiot asked me the other day, but haven't you got any money saved? I looked at this person, thinking are you mad? I am not working and the bills and expenses keep rolling in and I have not got to pay them. I need to be working and I have tried and needed to be working for the last six years. I curse the principal who was so narrow minded that he tried to destroy my teaching career because I am a single parent and older. You don't lose brain cells having a child. You can still think and operate competently.
I just keep praying and saying 'G-D what do you want of me? I am trying and trying and I will keep trying until the day I die to care and support my son and to find work."