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Year View| Summary| Highlights| Month View| Saturday 17 June 2006 (Day View)
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17.06.2006 – Saturday 17 June – House Hunting
- Morning
- • You awake, but it’s cold and you don’t want to get out of bed, so you don’t. Then, Bronwen says she’s about to go house hunting, so you’re forced to get up, shower, and eat breakfast in a quarter of an hour. You ride, wishing you were wearing something warmer, until you arrive at the first house. It turns out to be rather uninspiring, very brick, and a tad overpriced. You prefer timber.
The next house turns out to be miles away and has another inspection tomorrow, so rather than visit it, you ride to a park nearby and discuss past events. While you’re proving that you’re right, Bronwen discovers that there’s no longer enough time to get to the next house, so you skip to another, which happens to be under auction, right now. You inform the agent that you certainly aren’t bidding, and you even turn your phone to silent, just on the odd chance that someone rings and you accidentally purchase a house.
As it turns out, no one bids at the auction, which is hardly surprising given that the auctioneer explained beforehand that the highest bidder must purchase the house, unconditionally and without any withdrawal clauses, but if no one bids, it’s then open slather. You don’t really understand house auctions—apparently, even if the winning bid is below reserve, it still gets the house, except at a negotiated price. Auctioning a house seems rather pointless—why not bid a ridiculously low amount, then buy the house at its reserve? Or, not bid at all, then buy it at its reserve, after? Clearly, no one can get it any cheaper, and you’ve just circumvented the whole negotiation process.
After this exciting display of disinterest, you feel hungry, so you stop at a bakery and eat a vegetable pie, followed by half an iced custard slice, washed down with iced coffee. You then inspect the final house for today—an ideal family home, in what seems to be a quiet neighbourhood, close to a park, with three smallish bedrooms but a large dining/living area and a huge deck. Unfortunately, you’re not looking for a family home, so after an inspection for interest’s sake, you ride home. - Evening
- • A mature British chap, an artist, and a mining consultant from New Zealand, looks at our room. What a cleverly confusing way to phrase it, for he was one man. Shortly after, water is discovered under the tiles in the kitchen, which is rather disturbing, as it’s not known how it’s got there.