DOING LIFE

Its official, Unit 4, Sandlea, 4 Coghill Avenue Kloof is SOLD!!!

KINROSS AVE, FERNRIDGE ESTATE, Fourways {Our Brand New Address} - Monday, 22 October 2007 My weekend did not start off on a good note. Mike, a driver from Toyota Tsusho collected me from work at 3:45pm, Friday afternoon, taking me to Durban Airport for my flight at 17:40pm. At the SAA check-in counter I was informed, in a business-like-as-a-matter-of-fact-manner that the flight has been delayed and is scheduled for departure at 18:30pm - sans friendly apologies.

Fortunately Conroy has given me his Premier Lounge Club card on which he had loaded some credit for me (just one of the million little/huge favours he had done during our nearly 23 years of marriage). On entering the premier lounge, I noticed that it was jam packed and only one comfy single couch open amidst a group of business men busy closing deals, sorting out business problems and catching up with loved ones on their cell phones as well as others catching up with their emails on their laptops.

I got myself the latest Sarie handbag sized magazine at Exclusive Books before checking-in, and made myself comfy amidst the business buzz. It seemed as if time stood still, no sooner did 6:30pm arrive and the overhead flight schedule tv monitor updated and to everyone's dismay our flight and every other flight to Jhb was delayed by another 40 minutes with the estimated time of departure now being 7:10pm. I could not get hold of Conroy on his cell to inform him of the delay. He was flying to Jhb from Kenya with our time of arrivals co-ordinating at more or less 7pm. I gathered that he would note our lengthy delay on the other side.

At last we boarded at 7:10pm. But actually lifting of the ground was still to be seen to be believed. As everyone boarded, by now totally impatient/irate and exhausted, one of the passengers (a young guy, probably not 20 yet) 'shot a cat' [direct translated from Afrikaans 'skiet-'n-kat'], for short, vomited the biggest vomit I have ever witnessed all over the isle and that before we were even in the sky. So to make spirits plummet even more, a ground crew had to be called out to come and clean the mess. So another 20-minute delay piled onto the already excruciating delay.

We took off to the skies at 7:35pm whilst being informed, for the first time, that the reason for all the Jhb flights being delayed was that there were severe storms in Johannesburg which resulted in the planes not being able to land. We were also asked to keep our safety belts on because we could hit bad turbulence as we reach Jhb. After our vomit incident and the turbulence warning I made sure that I had the air sickness bag in sight. Fortunately we had quite a smooth flight. Met Conroy at 8:45pm whose flight was also delayed and he only waited an hour for me. Our dinner appointment was off the cards and we settled for Woolies take-out dinners.

Saturday morning, we had some breakfast and did some shopping at the new Nelson Mandela/Sandton City shopping mall, bought the Star newspaper and spent the rest of Saturday 'unwinding' at Conroy's apartment in Bryanston. 'Unwinding' meant scrutinising the three property guides that comes with the Star newspaper, for possible properties for sale, worthwhile visiting during Sunday's show houses. Yours truly spent about three hours narrowing down and cutting out house adverts. And off course, we watched the Bokke humiliate the English and once again felt proud to be South African.

We started Sunday with a McMuffin Breakfast at Fourways' MacDonalds after which we revisited and met the agent of Century 21 at 1 Moreno Crescent, Dainfern Ridge Estate. This was the house that we originally put an offer on during August conditional to our home in Kloof selling by the end of September. We did not renew our offer at the beginning of October having second thoughts and not wanting to make rash decisions we might regret later. We told Anne the agent for Century 21 that we did not wish to put in another offer and are rather looking out for a brand new home which has not been occupied before. We did see such a house when I visited Conroy during September. Ann informed us that this brand new house we saw was still not sold. There were quite a few offers on this house, but the builder was waiting for a better offer.

So off we went to the estate, Fernridge, situated adjacent to Dainfern Ridge, to go and have a look at the brand new home, we both loved on our first visit, but were restricted to putting in an offer due to the offer we put in on 1 Moreno. This time round we were cash buyers, having sold our home in Kloof. Once again we just loved the home. After travelling for a few hours visiting adjacent suburbs and estates, reassuring ourselves once again that the location of Fernridge Estate was 100% to our liking and practical, we telephoned Ann and said we would like to meet immediately to put an offer in. Our offer was compiled and signed at 4:30pm yesterday, Sunday, 21 October 2007 and the Seller had until 8pm Monday, 22 October 2007 to accept.

Well I flew back from Jhb this afternoon Monday, 22 October praying that the Seller would accept our offer [I knew that if it was not accepted, it was not meant to be]. It felt like a huge weight just fell of my shoulders when Conroy phoned me just after 5pm to let me know that our offer was accepted!! It is amazing how life just sometimes seems to work out for the best. Our occupation date is 28 November the same date when our home in Kloof's new occupants are moving in. However, there are lots that needs to happen before 28 November. First of all, Kinross being brand new, we need to have blinds and curtains custom made for it - so I probably have to fly up to Jhb one more time to meet up with an interior designer to select the colour schemes.

Enough yapping about our house saga's here are the specs for 122 Kinross:

[Apologies for poor quality brochure pictures. Will have better quality photos when visiting Kinross with my own camera.]

Entrance Hall * Formal Lounge * Family Room * Dining Room * Fitted Kitchen with cherry wood veneer cupboards, granite counter tops * Separate Scullery * Under Floor Heating * 4 Bedrooms (MES with dressing room) * 3 Bathrooms * Study or 5th Bedroom * Covered outdoor patio with braai * Swimming Pool * 2 Automated Garages * Staff Accommodation * Lovely small flat grassed garden (can't wait to create an indigenous jungle) A big thank you to all our family, friends and scrapping students/friends holding their thumbs and toes for us. It worked!!! Signing off with another wonderful creature visiting our Coghill Garden.