New Place

Greetings again...wow, been that long since we've updated the blog...sorry.

Well, the rental market here, is definitely a different kettle of fish. So you look on the net and find a place you like the looks of. You can go and do a reconnaissance of the area and of the house. Then you have to contact the agent...so far no difference. Here comes the catch....your name gets added to a list of potential people. They then schedule an "open house" viewing of the place. So you turn up at the allotted time, to find out there are others there too. Not just one or two, but could be around 20 to 150.... If you are interested, you approach the estate agent and get an application form. Now the form, is like filling in a job application, give referees, how much do you earn, etc. Now you go to the estate agents shop, drop off your application, along with an application fee (usually a week's rent, which on average is £150). Then it's a wait and see game. If your application isn't successful, you usually get the money back. If your application is successful, but you turn it down, you loose the money. If you accept, it goes towards your bond...usually two weeks rent up front, plus a month's worth for damage, etc. So basically, you have to be careful, as to how many applications you put in. Luckily, we were offered the first two that we put in for....if you listen to the locals and to the local news, it would seem we were lucky.

We are now in a villa with 2 bedrooms. The best feature of this place, besides coming fully furnished, is the veranda which overlooks a nature reserve with a lake. Now, when we moved in the lake was dried, but after a few good rain falls, it is starting to fill in again.

Just before we moved in, the owner of the property called and asked if we could come over, as they wanted to show us a "small burn" at the side of the property. Now, I'm thinking, oh the BBQ got over active...or they were burning some rubble and it scorched the side of the house. No, part of the bush behind the property caught fire on Easter Friday and it came within 10 feet of the property line....The peat was still smoldering over a week after the fire. The first Saturday we were in, it was smoldering quite a bit...well just to be safe, we called the fire department and explained about the smoke (about the size of a campfire). The fire department turns up and they are looking for the smouldering area....We are out on the veranda and call out to them and point to the area we were concerned about (about 50 feet from the house). Well, after they chuckled...they said, you called us out for this? Turns out, that because of the dry weather and the fire, the peat is likely to smoulder (for up to 2 months), until there is a good dose of rain. So, they kindly turned the hose on and doused the smouldering area, for a good 10 min. I asked, when should we call them out...."when you see flames.". ...you could almost hear the jokes back at the station.

Anyway, that's all for now, will update you all some more later on...will try not to let it go too long.