Play the Game

In the weeks preceding Christmas I joined Sam and Athina every Tuesday at The Drunken Poet in North Melbourne for their local pub quiz.  It was a good little quiz, free to enter, 6 main rounds and 2 bonus rounds.  Sam and Athina had been attending the quiz night for several weeks before I joined them and they had high expectations that I could bring 'The Ignorant Fools' out of their run of bad luck that saw them consistently end in last place.  This worked to an extent, we never finished in last place when I joined the team, but we were still a long way from winning.  After having a short break for Christmas Sam was determined that 2013 would see a change in the fortune of 'The Ignorant Fools' but Athina, having a more competitive nature, decided she had had enough of losing and didn't want to return to The Drunken Poet.  Last weekend they dropped by so that I could certify some documents for Sam and we had a quick game of Risk while they were there.  It was during this game, once again exposing Athina's competitive side, that we agreed that we would return to Trivia Tuesday after all.

I don't know if was the weather, a side effects of the isoniazid or just a busy day at work, but after our promise to restart the pub quiz at the weekend I felt far too tired to go out last Tuesday.  Speaking of the isoniazid though I have now made it through my first week of treatment only another 35 to go.

Barnadi and I visited the house in Bundoora for another inspection this week, we had arranged a professional building and pest inspection that morning and are pleased to note the building seems structurally sound and termite free.  The only problems of any significance that were found were the window frames which we had already spotted and the guttering which is not to big a problem to fix.  Despite this good news we are now in a real dilemma as to what to do next, as the act of buying a house seems to be one big game.  At first we were ready to put an offer in then and there, but the agents desire to get us to put our maximum in from the off, and no guarantee the vendor would even accept it gave us pause for thought.  There is a lot of interest in the house, with at least 10 other groups passing through while we were there, and if we offer the maximum we can afford straight away, we have no room to maneuver if someone else decides they can offer more.  There is also the risk that an early high offer may increase the vendors expectations of what they can get for the property.  This leaves us with the option of waiting for the auction (even though we will not be in the country at the time) and getting Rae and Stuart to bid on our behalf.  I really really love this house and I hate this uncertainty that comes from constantly having to second guess the actions of the vendor, agent and other potential buyers.