life is full of ups and downs

Life was getting back to normal, I had begun to get over my post travel depression and was getting back into the swing of things. But then I got some bad news from back home on top of the nightmare of looking for apartments and now my life feels out of control again! I hate having so many factors in my life that I have absolutely no control over - i feel so helpless!

I'm trying to stay busy, which isn't that hard when I have 15 brokers calling me every 5 minutes and millions of emails with new broker's phone numbers coming in. I am having absolutely no luck finding a new place though. Well thats not true.. we had found one down the street that we liked as it was pretty similar to our current apartment, but was new and was a full 3 bedroom (albeit small bedrooms!). But when we met with the owner all sorts of issues cropped up. There are no balcony railings (on the 10th floor) and no known date on when they will be put up. In the west you would not even be given an option of moving into a place with that not done.. but not here! And considering I have 2 cats, I just have to make sure that the balconies are safe as can be and I am not willing to take any risks. Then it also came out that just behind the building a new 16 story building is in the process of being built. This will cause lots of dirt, noise and of course take away our light/breeze. And to top it off, the building is on reclaimed slum land. What this means is that 350 families were removed from their homes so this nice new expensive apartment complex could be built. They will be eventually rehoused in a smaller, crappier building next door - but for the moment they are living in shacks down the road. So as a development worker this is tough to swallow.

So i've been on the hunt for other apartments. But basically no one has anything in our price range that is as nice as the one above. But folo's work also isn't so keen on us moving to this apartment because as they say "it's in the slums"! We don't care! it's just down the street from where we currently live, so it won't really be a change in neighborhood - and honestly I could do without listening to the posh Olive across the street! So this has been a huge stress on my shoulders. I had hoped to move by the 1st of Oct, but that is obviously not happened. Then I thought I'd be happy with moving even upto the 10th of Oct - but even that is looking less likely. So now the question is, do I risk it and move 3 days before we leave and hope the cats are adjusted or just wait until we are back from our Ireland/US trip? Due to family stuff at home, I may end up staying there longer than anticipated so Paul would have to do the move on his own... urgh. decisions. And nothing that I can really control. I guess I will just wait to see what happens. Life usually gives me a good indication of what I should do, so I will wait and hope it becomes clear soon.