When Grampa Killed Grandma

It's been a while since I blogged and I keep on thinking I should be writing more often because the intention of this blog was to keep a record of my life since leaving big bad South Africa but then I think that there is nothing that interesting to say. Life has become pretty routine. We are fast approaching our 2 year anniversary in Toronto and it sometimes feels like we have been here forever. I desperately miss my friends and family but there are days now when I am sitting around a table eating dinner with friends, drinking copious amounts of wine and I suddenly stop and think to myself "wow.....these are my friends too". We've even made some enemies, well I couldn't quite call them that, but I would say that friendships have ended. Now that's when you know you are settled in!

It's summer in Toronto and I never thought I would experience this kind of heat in Canada. My friend Jen warned me about this before I even arrived and I thought to myself that it cant be hotter than the Highveld heat in South Africa. Boy was I mistaken, temperatures this past week have hit the 40s (Celsius) with the humidity. It's unbearable, it feels tropical and the only place I want to be is in a horizontal position next to a pool. We have resisted putting on the central air but even the poor dogs weren't coping so now we are satisfactorily cooled indoors. Keith is loving it, spending his time on the lake in the evenings sailing with his friend Dom and I venture out every now and then for a schvitz!

We have been following the FIFA World Cup back in South Africa and I am very proud to see what a positive impact has been made by the country. We are proudly flying the South African flag outside our house.

Of course life in Lawrence's house isn't much fun if there isn't any drama so here is today's story. As most of you know Keith likes to fix up houses and has been doing this for a number of years. This has meant us moving at least every 18 months or so and I was under no illusion that what happened in South Africa, would happen in Canada. We'd been living here for just over 18 months and Keith was getting bored so it became time to sell and move on. I cant say I was truly happy about this as I really love living on this street where we have made the majority of our friends. We listed the house in the winter but didn't get any offers so we took it off the market. At the time we had bought something else that was conditional on the sale of our house and naturally that fell through. I wasn't too unhappy about the whole situation. We listed the house again in the Spring and this time not only did it sell within 10 days, it sold for the asking price which is pretty good for these times. We then went into a flat panic to find something else because we only had 60 days before closing. Keith must have looked at about 30 properties and nothing caught our eye. We thought this would be an opportunity to try out a new neighborhood but each time kept coming back to Cabbagetown where we are settled and happy to the point that we are on a first name basis with Mark the Butcher, Domingo the Green Grocer and even Andy, the Postman! We put in an offer here, another one there, got rejected, went back and so it went but no exciting sales. Finally a house came on the market very close to where we live and we grabbed it. We thought all was said and done and Keith immediately got online and started ordering chandeliers and other necessities for the new house. And then it all fell apart......

We got a call about three weeks ago that the purchaser of our house had lost his job (he was fired) and now informed us that he would not be buying our house anymore and we could return his deposit to x address. We politely informed him that we had a firm and binding Agreement and that we would be doing no such thing. Boy, did the fun then start. I wish I could publish some of the emails he has sent that have gone from begging and pleading, to vicious, to offensive to bordering on the insane. Alas, these are possibly soon to be used in litigation and can't compromise us winning vast amounts of money in damages because if he doesn't buy our house, we don't buy the one we purchased and if we sue him, the person we bought from sues us. Could it be any messier? I won't say much more except for the fact that we are due to move in a week and are nowhere near a resolution (at the time of writing this), blood pressures are high, anxiety is causing major strain and this is not something I would wish on anyone. It happens rarely, and it happened to happen to us! It sucks.

My mother is up to her usual tricks which means that she is costing me money once again and I complained to a friend today over coffee about the constant drama. I have a long-time friend who has all his/her siblings alive and well, as well as parents, a grandparent or two, children, jobs, a house, cars....and rarely seems to ever suffer any drama. For just a moment, I wouldn't mind a little of that. My friend responded that it aint always so peachy on the inside and went on to relate a story of a family much like that, with little drama or problems and the seemingly perfect life. This was until Grandpa murdered Grandma, went to jail and proceeded to set himself alight at Grandma's grave when he was paroled. I know there is more to this story, and I know it is tragic but I burst into laughter in the middle of Starbucks. I guess I'll keep my life just as it is. If my mother murders anyone at Sandringham Gardens Ill be sure to let you know.

I think that's it for now. I'll try be better at updating more often.

Adios