It was several hours later before
the next development took place. I was driving to my parent-in-laws
house near Keelogues, with a car laden with wife, sister-in-law, daughter
and nephew, when I spotted a village sign "Fuerty". Now I know that
name for some reason, I thought. A few moments later I remembered
where I had seen it. I began to tell the car occupants what I had remembered
of the cottage advertisement. I am sure it must be around here somewhere,
I concluded. However, a further couple of minutes driving had resulted
in us leaving the village with no viewing of any cottage for sale. A
few, further minutes later and we had almost forgotten about it, when from
around a bend we received our first view of Cherry Tree Cottage. "That
must be it !", I exclaimed, pointing in the direction of a white cottage
with several "For Sale" sign posts scattered around it. "Lets have
a quick look I said and before there were any objections the car was already
turning into the small road adjacent to the cottage. A padlock gate
meant that the car had to be parked outside of the entrance. We all
trooped out and leaned over the gate.
The late evening sunshine reflected magnificently from the white coloured cottage, which was flanked by a white painted outbuilding beside it. A quick hop over a wall and soon children were playing in an open space in front of the cottage, while the adults peered through cottage windows. "It looks quite quaint inside", I said. "Maybe we can ring the Estate Agent in the morning and have a tour inside", replied Imelda. "Well, we got nothing to do in the next few days and I am curious about how it looks inside", I replied. The evening sunshine was quickly being replaced by dusk and we returned back to the car. The car journey continued and the previous talk of baby clothes and family matters were replaced by the first impressions of the cottage. Imelda was viewing it as an interesting curiosity, however, my mind was considering it more seriously. Fate was resting on tomorrow's viewing. Nothing would happen if Imelda hated it! Time to show restraint and a slight indifference. Best practice with women!
An early morning phone call had arranged a viewing with the Estate Agent for 11.00 o'clock that morning. It was to be my first introduction to "Irish time". Irish time is different to normal time, in the fact that there is always an explicit time delay. A 9.00 o'clock meeting is understood to be 9.30 or even 10.00 o'clock. Today means tomorrow and tomorrow could mean next week. Once you have understood the principles of Irish time, then you simply make what you consider are the appropriate adjustments and both parties eventually meet up. So it was to be that our first official viewing with the Estate Agent took place at noon.
(To be continued at a later date ...)
The late evening sunshine reflected magnificently from the white coloured cottage, which was flanked by a white painted outbuilding beside it. A quick hop over a wall and soon children were playing in an open space in front of the cottage, while the adults peered through cottage windows. "It looks quite quaint inside", I said. "Maybe we can ring the Estate Agent in the morning and have a tour inside", replied Imelda. "Well, we got nothing to do in the next few days and I am curious about how it looks inside", I replied. The evening sunshine was quickly being replaced by dusk and we returned back to the car. The car journey continued and the previous talk of baby clothes and family matters were replaced by the first impressions of the cottage. Imelda was viewing it as an interesting curiosity, however, my mind was considering it more seriously. Fate was resting on tomorrow's viewing. Nothing would happen if Imelda hated it! Time to show restraint and a slight indifference. Best practice with women!
An early morning phone call had arranged a viewing with the Estate Agent for 11.00 o'clock that morning. It was to be my first introduction to "Irish time". Irish time is different to normal time, in the fact that there is always an explicit time delay. A 9.00 o'clock meeting is understood to be 9.30 or even 10.00 o'clock. Today means tomorrow and tomorrow could mean next week. Once you have understood the principles of Irish time, then you simply make what you consider are the appropriate adjustments and both parties eventually meet up. So it was to be that our first official viewing with the Estate Agent took place at noon.
(To be continued at a later date ...)
