End of an era

The House

We owned the house at Denai Endau 7 for around twelve years. After 3 plus years of renting and 8 plus years of residence our saga with the house started with apparently well-laid plans to sell the house to free up some capital in phase-2 of retirement plans. We allowed 1-2 years but were somewhat dismayed when speaking with the first agent....who said it may be 2-3 years. The issues we had not counted on were that we were competing with all the other sale houses in the area as it was a cookie-cutter design, there was no neighbourhood monstrosities on the plan when we bought the house, we hadn’t allowed for Fengshui or agents that don’t communicate. 

The area had a nice pioneering spirit when we moved in but that has long since gone and we are surrounded but ugly and ill-planned high-rises.....some of which will have low occupancy forever. The developer lied and self-interest has prevailed. The promised club house and swimming pool has never eventuated.

We set the section up to be nature-friendly and welcoming.

We had resident orchids......

  

........Colourful birds

.........Large Butterflies

..............Friendly rodents

There are always positives......walking distance to three supermarkets and that wonderful promenade that was a major feature where we had many otter viewings, bioluminescent jelly fish signalling to each other, pink dolphins in the bay, wrestling monitor lizards, migrating Bee-eaters and friendly fellow walkers at an ungodly early hour. It was also walking distance to....and staggering distance home from Healy Macs. 

We set-out to attract birds and it worked pretty well.....I will miss the dancing fantails that saw the bird-bath as a major part of their day. We certainly enjoyed family visits and being AirBnB hosts was mainly fun.

There was also a changing of the guards at Denai Endau 7. Mocha, the male Toy Poodle who had been the glue for the family in Singapore passed way. He still rests there......looking up to see if there are any lizards on the ceiling. He left a hole in our lives that was filled by a little hamster who joined us when she was only 6 weeks old. She has bought us a lot of joy since and is better known in our part of Penang than Helen and I put together. Who can forget the investigation of the fridge and all the groceries as they arrived and the fights on the bed in the morning and the games of soccer while dinner was being prepared.

Our erstwhile feathered pet also became a celebrity. Crow-face survived a fall from a tree and yards of chicken liver  before leaving home without a backward look. He knew where my study was and even followed us on a taxi roof one day. I believe I saw him/her during 2019.

Our house-selling saga is now over. Last week we were told the lawyer had the cheque from the bank. New Years Day possibly ran interference on that as it was not in our bank on Saturday. We were also told the handover date was to be Monday 6^th, most likely and that we were to cut off the electricity and power. While Helen set about chasing the right people for that I arranged with the post office for a redirection of mail and booked the car in for repair. I am also having a problem booking it later for a service. The local Toyota franchise has all the demons of lawyers and estate agents.

In typical form nothing happened in the first week of January. A week later the lawyer said she still did not have the cheque but said settlement could occur on Tuesday 7^th, 

We liked the house but it had its problems and it became too big for the two of us. The garden was too unwieldy and for the last year it was like living on a building site with the monstrosity twins being erected nearby. We could also have done without the visits by rats via the toilet near the study. We also had one stroppy rat that when confined to the kitchen, pending trap setting, started to eat the door.

Stairs are a barrier to flow in a house and I would much prefer the current arrangement.

Moving on

On Saturday evening we had the quiz team around for drinks, followed by dinner in town......all on the back of winnings from the jackpot for the quiz. It was an excellent night. The Italian restaurant was owned by members of another quiz team....it was not rubbing it in...and they were excellent hosts (back row below)

The next quiz night was not so productive with a 3^rd placing.

The last visual phenomena of 2019 was an eclipse of the sun

and 2020 started with fireworks...as seen from our current bedroom.

Coco continues to find new friends and has interacted with the otters on three occasions.

Coco played a minor role in one encounter with the otters and her Waimaraner friends as seen below.  

Two items not mentioned with the house are Helen's tutoring English and bread, sausage, pie, burger patty, kefir and kombucha production. All these activities continue and the bread is as crusty and golden as ever with the addition of cinnamon/fruit bread.