The Landlord Part 2

The Landlord Part 2

By the end of June Manuel had settled down in his new apartment and he spent most of his time looking for work in the town of Tralee.  He had a few interviews for work as a waiter but was unsuccessful and he became a bit edgy trying to fill in his time.  I gave him some small jobs around the house and garden.  He mowed the lawn and cut the hedges for me and I was happy to pay him cash for the odd jobs that he did.  I was pleased with his work and I invited him to become my part time maintenance manager.  He would spend 10 hours a week doing various jobs like collecting my groceries and cleaning the apartment windows etc.  He had an international driving licence and I allowed him use my van on occasions. Manuel liked his apartment room and paid his rent on time. He was a good tenant and he cooked himself some Spanish meals most of the time.  He invited me into his self contained apartment one Friday evening for a small Spanish meal and it was very tasty.  We ate small montaditos (mounted sandwiches) with toppings of pork pâté, prawns and honey and creamy goat’s cheese. He had bought a nice Spanish wine in Tralee a few days earlier and it tasted lovely. It was a Spanish Rioja Reserva dated 2005. (Vinos de los Herederos del Marques de Riscal.)

I decided to look for another tenant now that I and Manuel had settled into a happy routine. I put an advt. into the Kerry evening Echo and let it run for three day days. The response was positive and I ended up acquiring two new tenants as a result of my endeavours. The two people were females and both were working in Tralee town.  Maureen was 23 years old and Irish and she came from Cork city.  Maureen worked in the town library and was very enthusiastic about novels and poetry. The second woman came from Poland and she was tall and pretty. Her English was not very good but she was highly intelligent and worked in the nearby Spar supermarket. Magdalena was her name and she was aged 33 and came from Warsaw and loved taking digital photographs and painting landscapes with oils.  The two women moved into their separate apartments and both were pleased with the quality of their new accommodation. I noticed that Magdalena tended to be a little bit argumentive and I secretly hoped that she would not cause any trouble in the house.

The Landlord Part 1.doc

The Landlord Part 1.

My name is Sean and I live in the South West of Ireland near a small village called Dougha. I’m 60 years of age and divorced.  My former wife was a schoolteacher and she left me 10 years ago and married a university lecturer in Cork city.  I felt very lonely after the divorce and I decided to change my house into an apartment complex so that I could offer accommodation to suitable tenants.  In that way I could generate a rental income and also meet people.  I managed to hire a few experienced builders in January 2010 and they succeeded in renovating my home by the end of March that year.  I was very happy with the completed apartment although the cost of labour and materials was a bit excessive.  It actually cost me €400,000 to change my old house into a modern medium sized apartment.  However the building contained 5 rooms and 4 of them were large.  The fifth room was small but it overlooked the beach and sea and offered the inhabitant of the room a splendid view.

I decided to rent rooms to the public last June and the response was slow due to the downturn in the economy.  The Celtic Tiger had died and people did not have as much money available for renting accommodation in scenic country areas.  However I did manage to find one suitable applicant who came from Mallorca in Spain.  He was aged 26 and weighed about 14 stone.  He was very tall and must have been at least 6 feet in height.  His name was Manuel and it was his first time visiting a foreign country.  He used play soccer with a football team in Palma De Nova and he followed Barcelona Football club.  Manuel spoke a little English but he came to Ireland looking for work as a waiter in Tralee so that he could improve his English.  He had saved money when he had attended college in Spain and he wished to meet young Irish people so that he could learn more about their social life and culture.