Rent Book Tales: The Landlady

Horrid Wednesday

It’s been a busy time at Landlady Towers. While I was in Havana in June trying to sort out the car crash that my property purchase has become, I invited an English friend who lives in Havana to come and stay with me in Brighton. He was coming to the UK on the way to India, where he was apparently going to de-stress in a tea plantation after living in Havana for three years. Having spent many months in Havana, I know where he’s coming from and think that it’ll take more than a few ‘ohms’ on an isolated mountain top to sort it out.

At 9am, I had to show a potential new lodger a room

Although the week began in a fairly sedate fashion, it slowly descended into a chaos that could give Havana a run for its money. By Wednesday, all was lost, my friend got a parking ticket (in spite of having a perfectly valid, yet badly executed, visitor’s permit) and we had a dinner party that ended in such debauchery that we were still partying at 9am the following morning, in good time to see The Small Daughter off to summer school and The Big Son off to work. Alas it was also the day that one of my (terribly straight) lodgers moved out – at 8am no less – and I had to give her the deposit back in cash. No wonder, after seeing the state of us, she high-tailed it down the stairs as if Hoogstraten were after her…

At 9am, I had to show a potential new lodger a room. I then gratefully retired to bed until a shameful 4pm that afternoon. Luckily for my sanity, my friend left a couple of days ago and is now on his way to India. In the meantime, I’m bracing myself for another open-ended visit from The Cuban Boyfriend, who will be attempting to arrive at my house from Gatwick this Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the upshot of my debauched Wednesday, apart from the parking fine, is that the person who came to see the room is moving in tomorrow… must’ve been my winning smile.