No bidders but ...

Auction tomorrow lunchtime and it would be stretching to hope for a bidder. No-one has expressed interest and no-one has looked at the place twice. They say that there are sometimes unexpected bidders but ...

Anyway, there could be some action because they are going to "put the house on the market" straight after it has been passed in. They'll announce a price and will invite people to look at it. But who will be there? It's a small board room and there are going to be six auctions with us last.

Both the auctioneer and the agent seemed to express some genuine hope that the house would attract interest after the auction. I can't quite visualise how things will pan out.

10 days to go at school.

Shot a tiu in our flax t'other day.

Please say it's over

Counting down the days. Work hell; retirement goood.

No bites on house sale - ouch - auction on Thursday.

A bit better

Seniors gone - load lightened - only three and a half weeks to go. Can't wait. Freedom is getting closer! Still have seniors to worry about - essays being emailed to me and I want to help them still. But after Thursday the worst will be over.

So I don't feel freedom's breeze just yet - some major responsibilities to fulfill but at last I can have a weekend without that awful need to prepare and mark.

Oh Gawd

Got through the school week! Obama won! Yey!

But then again National will probably win the NZ election - not good.

And the agent forgot to call around tonight which means there will be nothing to report. It really is very very slow. Have to be brave.

And fortunately I had a brain wave about the last full three days of teaching - I have already made some revision sheets for one of the three senior classes and will work on it for about four hours tomorrow and then it will all be done and if there's no time to teach it all I'll put it on the website. It's funny that I have the incentive to do that now - before all I could think about was selling the house - now I feel that's probaly not going to happen so I'm prepared to do the school work.

This weekend will be the last weekend ever that I'll have to do school stuff cos the seniors leave Wednesday. I guess I'll be able to manage it.

We had an open home when the American election results came to a head. We heard Obama's victory speech on the radio coming home from town and I was very very moved. It was the long period of cheering and the exultation you could hear in the crowd and the sense of what he'd had to overcome.

Downturn

I expected there to be a depressive cycle and there has. Agent is worrying about the fact that no other agents has brought people through between open homes and in his own daily routine he's getting inquiries only about cheaper houses in the low 200,000s. Oh dear.

Only three weeks to auction.

I'm a bit anxious because I've been asked to present some of the prizes at next weeks do. what if I drop one or go into a daze? And what will I wear/

But on the good side it's the American election today and our election next week. Ours might be sad but the American one will be uplifting I'm thinking! someone at school said the Greens were crypto-fascists and quoted their immigration policy which he said restricted the population to 5.1 million and would lead to forced sterilisation. What?

Day off

So stressful was the first proper open home and so horrible is a full week at work at the mo that I took a day's leave without pay to catch up with myself.

This means that I have a four day week this week with full duties and three full teaching days next week with Thursday and Friday much easier. The seniors go on Wednesday next week with a prizegiving at 7 pm. This week we have parent interviews from 4 pm to 6pm on Thursday. It's going to be difficult. After years of quite enjoying my job, I now feel that every day is torture.

However, when I'm at work it is usually perfectly okay - just the normal teacher ups and downs and I'm fully committed but at home I feel this heavy sense of dread at the prospect of another day, another week.

Good news today though - a house we looked at in Whangarei when we were up there early last month sold recently for only $247,000. That could mean that prices there - higher than here - are coming down pretty steeply. that was a pleasant house!

Retirement had negative connotaions for me before but now it seems positive. Retirement - what a beautiful word.

Big Bird

Another week at work over but the time is moving very slowly. the bars of my cage seem just as rigid as ever.

However, the house sale business has been stimulating. We had 3 groups through last week in a neighbour's only open home and 4 groups through today in the first real open home. We have 25 days until our auction. apparently a lot of houses sell after the auction so I guess in 5 - 6 weeks we'll know if this expensive auction campaign has been successful!

It was also heart-warming last week to be visited by a kaka - it was chomping furiously through the flowers on our kowhai. Mkaes us feel very fond of the place we're wanting to sell which is a nice way to be.