When I saw it, I knew it was mine! It was love at first sight with this little stone cottage with its round thatched roof and huge rose trees in the front and down the side, looking much like a huge toadstool, the house, that is! I was sure it winked at me, but kept silent, as Irma already thought me a bitty soft in the head, so I asked the agent if it was up for sale, and gave a very unladylike whoop when she said yes! This house had been enlarged with an en-suite at the bottom, and I could not understand when the agent said she had only the keys for the built-on part, but soon saw why, as there was no door connecting the house and the new built. That didn't bother me much, but the fact that I couldn't see the main house was a bit of a drawback. The new part was a bedroom, a huge bathroom with the ugliest greenish, and longest bath I had ever laid my eyes on, and a huge shower. The handbasin was built into something looking like a cross between a supermarket cloakroom and a plane toilet cubbourd, and it was hideous! The top was of a very unlikely coloured fake marble, and on the one side was two openings, one looking like it could be a space for depositing used papertowels and one for who knows what! The roof was about five metres on the side where it joined the main house, falling sharply to about one and a half on the other side, and as it was thatch, it gave the room a nice atmosphere. What I did not like was the huge rainspiders that sat eyeing us from their lofty lairs high up between the thatch. Another thing that bothered me was the heaps of very fine dust everywhere, and I knew that that meant I had some other goggas than the spiders who would be sharing the house, but I also knew that I could have the house fumigated to get rid of the beetles that were chewing away on the rafters! I had a lot of misgivings, but for the price of this place I would have money to do the neccassery, as structurally it looked good. Another nice thing was the river at the bottom. The plot was about one acre big, with a few oldish fruit trees still fighting for life, but apart from that it was bare! Irma and Hannes, who by now was quite keen on Haarlem had gone to look at the big house next doors, as it was also up for sale, so the agent convinced me to also have a look. It was a long white house with a veranda that spanned the whole of the front, looking out down to the tree lined river. We couldn't get far into the house, as all over there were drunken bodies sitting and lying around, and they were not very eager for us to invade their orgy! I asked the agent a question, and she smiled, showing the two curly teeth, and one of the youngsters gasped and said to his drunken pal: 'Het djy daai vrou se moese tanne gesien!' [did you see that woman's huge teeth], but said in the typical and wonderful way only our coloured people can, I was hard pushed not to laugh, but as the agent sounded so very English I hoped that she didn't understand it! Soon after, the agent left, and we took our flask with coffee and the sandwiches I made down to the river to have lunch. It was beautiful, the huge Poplar trees changing the light to a soft green, making it look almost surreal, and the river flowing calmly away to the Kouga. We had our lunch sitting on a huge fallen Poplar trunk! Irma and Hannes were talking about buying the big house, as it also had a huge barn that could be converted into a nice house, so he decided to bring Manda, his wife who was away to her daughter, when she came back, and hoped that she would also fall in love with Haarlem. I had a lot of thinking to do, as it would be quite a big step for me to take!