There's none so strange as folk
MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Sat 6 Dec 2008 18:09
|
We got ourselves safely tucked up in Bahia Redonda
Marina and put Malarkey to bed ready for the Hurricane season. We were ready for
our trip back to old Blighty, well at least we thought we
were.
In a nutshell, one of our tenants was being a bit
of a knobhead and wasnt paying the rent. We planned on happily resolving that
little problem to our mutual benefit while taking the opportunity to do some
much needed maintenance on both the properties and do the well overdue
family & friend thing. The whole thing should be done within a month,
or two at the latest....... fat chance.
What is it that makes people think that they have
the right to not pay the rent when ever it suits them? Well it completely
baffles me. They wouldnt go into a supermarket and walk out without
paying for a trolley load of food believing they have a right to eat. And
they wouldnt go to a fuel station, fill up the tank and drive off with out
paying believing they have the right to drive their car. But some how they
believe it is perfectly ok to shaft the landlord and live in his property
without paying the rent regardless of any legal agreement. And much to my
bemusement, so does the British Legal System...well at least it seemed that
way. It took months to get the muppet evicted and in the meantime he was
happily living in our property and at our expense. The law seemed to do
everything to extend the time period and was clearly on the side of the tenant.
The British legal system is so heavily swayed in that direction, to protect
the so called 'unfortunates/underdogs', I can see that in time, the country
will soon be full of the same sort of parasitic arseholes I had to deal
with.......There, I got it off my chest and I feel much better
now...... What with the credit crunch and all the doom and gloom, if
it wasnt for a great time with friends and family, I think I would have
probably fallen on my sword. Oh, and bye-the-way, thanks to everyone who
gave me advice on how to get rid of an unwanted tenant. Most suggestions
revolved around inflicting serious pain to certain tender parts of his anatomy.
As tempting as they were, I managed to refrain knowing that it would
have been me that would have ended up in Jail and he would still be living
in my property laughing, well, at least until he had to go to the bathroom,
if you know what I mean.
It took over 4 long months to get it all sorted. It
was paticularly long for Jo 'cos she did the dutiful thing and took some part
time work to earn some pennies to help with the finances, while I was
down the pub.....er...I mean doing the maintenance work. And then to top it
off, when we got back to the boat, we had to get that sorted too. You see,
life's not always rosy for us cruisers and to prove it, while waiting for the
boat to be lifted ashore, we had the misfortune to witness a pretty awful event
over the VHF radio.
Two of our American cruising pals off sailing
yachts 'Chill' and 'I-Lean', left the marina enroute west to the Venzuelan
outer islands, the ABC's and Cartegena, much like our plans. But they stopped
just outside the marina at a little island for an overnighter before the longer
passage to Tortuga. Unfortunately, they were approached by pirates, (yes, they
still do exist here in the Caribbean) and Ken off Chill was shot twice at
point blank range and died almost instantly and Steve was shot in the arse while
diving below going to get a gun. There are lots of gorey details and this
is not the place for it, save to say, the whole event had a marked affect
on the cruising community in the Caribbean. The cold bloodedness of the
pirates actions shocked us all and our thoughts are with Cathy, Kens
wife and Steve & Gloria off I-Lean.
On a much happier note, Malarkey was lifted ashore
and work began on the repainting of her topsides almost immediately. Our Kiwi
pal Alan (Baz) off 'Moonsong had negotiated a very good deal with the yard,
(cheers mate), but to be fair, it was a close run thing, whether to spend the
money going skiing with friends Ade & Jan in Colarado or on the paint job.
The balance was finally tilted in favour of the paint job when they reduced the
price even further and we had the opportunity to rent a swanky apartment in the
marina complex, for the duration. Jo loved the idea of the appartment. It was a
4 bed party pad, with aircon and a large balcony over looking the pool....just
like being on holiday. The plan was coming together. We would languish in
sublime comfort, while the yard workers would slave away working on our boat in
the sweltering heat. Marvelous....we could Lord-it over all the plebs lower down
in the marina and wave the big stick at the workers in the yard....in fact the
cattle-prod worked rather well.
It was almost a shame when the painting contract
came to an end. We were thoroughly enjoying our holiday and our newly elevated
position in the marina. But when Malarkey's nice newly painted dark blue
topsides were splashed back into the oggin, both Jo & I felt that
pride of ownership thing again. She did look rather splendid glistening in
the bright Venezeulan sunshine.
 So, all set ready for our trip West.
|