It can be very stressful sometimes, trying to manage a property from the other side of the world. I thought that to lessen the worry, I would arrange to have it managed by a letting agency. While I was home at christmas, I called up 1 agency and emailed 3 others. No-one replied to my emails, and the other agency didn't return my call. I ran out of time, and had to come back here having no-one to look after the property. Luckily my tenants are very responsible chaps, and not much has gone wrong. I do panic when I get an email from one of them however as I did the other day.......the boiler had broken down. Turns out it only need a new thermocouple and a friend of one of my tenants replaced it and got the boiler working again. That boiler is like a thorn in my side. I've had so much grief with that thing. Still, it could be worse.

No much going on here. The weather is turning cold, although we do have clear blue skies every day, we just have a very nasty cold wind. Back to the boiling hot showers to heat me up every night since the house doesn't have heating (like all houses here). Shopping list for tomorrow: little fan heater.