Monday 15th August

Oh the saga of the tenants…

My new and much-longed for tenants moved in on Friday, and just as swiftly moved out again, back to their hotel. My poor agent, Teresa, rang me to say…they were FREEZING. I asked if she had put the heating on and she said yes, on Wednesday. And they had cranked it up to…THIRTY! (I have it on 18, but have been known to put it up to 20 when it is particularly icy outside, and it stays very pleasantly warm all the time… My friend Jacqui only has hers on 15!!) Teresa said, succinctly, “I don’t find it very cold in there…” But my poor Saudis couldn’t bear it and wouldn’t go into the bedrooms downstairs where – gasp – there is no thermostat control… I don’t like the bedrooms to be all that hot, and find they are a pleasant temperature just from the floor heating upstairs. But…Teresa said they HAD to have heaters, one for each bedroom… She organised for me to buy some by remote control from Harvey Norman, and she picked them up and installed them. I said that the electricity bill will be phenomenal and she said, coldly, “Not your problem. They will have to pay!”

I told my friend Elsa and she said she knows someone who rents out an apartment under her house to students from the Middle East. They have all the heaters on high all winter long, and she doesn’t need to heat her own living area at all – she has floor heating from the tenants, who have enormous electricity bills; $1200 a quarter…