Whew, it's been a tough start to the year...been so long since I posted I'd forgotton how to do it..which included the angst of remembering my long forgotton password.
First though, the news. God daughter made the New Zealand Triathlon team,and is off to the World champs in Budapest..which is actually two cities on either side of the river Danube...named coincidentally enough, Buda and Pest.
Last year at the NZ champs the kid got 65th. This year she got 2nd. "Not bad" I said,"I told you I was the greatest coach in the world" "Pffft" she replied, "I didn't win". She was 13 seconds shy of gold.
Since then though, her unemployed and moneyless wastrel of a father has somehow got it into his head that he has had something to do with her success...things have become strained, and so now she is trying to do it on her own...it's a shame...but that is life.
I was talking to Wickie in the pub one night. Wick is the manager of the local tip..."recessions over" he said. "What makes you say that" said I. "People are dumping more rubbish" he said. Five weeks later the Governor of the reserve bank of New Zealand raised interest rates, citing inflationary pressures...
"the worst of the recession is over" he said...
Sheesh, I thought, Wickie could have told him that weeks ago.
Business has been awesome of late, and I have saved close to $150,000.
So, I decided to buy some more land...(one can never have enough land.)
When I was 8 my father leased a long narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Great South Road and the Railway line...we called it, in a fit of eloquence, 'The railway lease'.
"Why don't you build a motel on the railway lease" I once suggested.
"I'm not going to be a queen street Farmer" he replied.
I was so humiliated that I never broached the subject again.
If he'd listened to his 8 year old son, he might not have gone broke in the aftermath of the '87 sharemarket crash, and lost the farm.
Now,years later, I own that strip of land, and a motel on it would still be a good idea.
Transit New Zealand meanwhile have been widening the main road, and have bought out, and closed down, the two christmas tree farms north of the city...so I am going to grow christmas trees, which I am hoping will make a pleasant change from cattle.
The land, which is 10 acres, cost $390,000. The vendors couldn't sell it, so I offered them enough money to pay off their mortgage, $140,000, if they would leave the balance in at 0% interest. They heaved a collective sigh of relief and said yes...and I get two crops of trees before I have to pay them off in 3.5 years.
It has been a real birthing process and has taken months to settle...but now we are there, and I can now look out the window of the cafe and watch my grass grow while I drink tea.
