NB New Direction - 2. NB New Direction Chapter 2

“Well keep me posted on how the operation goes, and I will talk to you in a few days’ time after you have recovered” Sebastian said, “Ok Seb, and say hello to the rascals for me, I will let you go back to sleep now, goodnight” I said before ending the phone call.

For the next twenty minutes or so I talked to Annette, cried a bit, and talked some more, before she left to go and collect Kyle from school, and head back home to Toodyay. Annette had informed me that June was getting bored not having anything to do at the main house, so she has taken up house cleaning at the rectory, just to have company and to do some cooking for someone else apart from herself. I was pleased to hear this, as I had been worried a bit about Mrs Cooper being out on the property on her own, and apparently the Rev and Kyle were enjoying being spoilt with some very nice cooking.

When I woke up, after having the operation, I was feeling very groggy, and disorientated, and it took me some time before I remembered where I was and why. There was a regular beeping noise coming from nearby, and I saw a nurse seated nearby, reading a magazine, “Oh good you are awake, I will go and fetch the doctor” the nurse announced when she saw that I was awake.

“Good afternoon Mr Devonport, the operation went well, we were able to remove the tumour, which appears to have been caught early, so there should be no damage what so ever, you may however experience, a little bit of weakness on the left side, which with some physio, you should get full movement of your left arm and leg. The tumour was benign so there is no cancer, which is good news.

Reverend Davies, has been here since you came out of theatre, she is having a short break at the moment, just rest, that is the important part now, so you can heal properly” the doctor said to me, before leaving, and I soon fell asleep again, waking up later when I heard some noise, and I found a dinner tray in front of me. I was feeling very tired, so I ate a little bit then fell asleep again.

I was in hospital for three weeks in total, Annette, had collected my belongings from the accommodation up the road, where I had been staying, and she came to collect me when the day finally came to be discharged. I had been doing physio every day, and I was able to walk with the aid of a cane, with a distinct limp, due to slight paralysis in the left leg, and I was able to grip the cane with my left hand, but I can’t lift anything heavy with it.

When we arrive home at Toodyay, it seemed that I had never been away, the house was spotlessly clean, and the smell of cooking was coming from the kitchen area. Mrs Cooper welcomed me home, and fussed over me once Annette had left, and she looked very happy to see me home again. She informed me that Kyle and Annette would be coming over for dinner tonight, as a welcome home meal, which I was pleased to hear, as I was looking forward to seeing Kyle again.

I retreated to my room for the rest of the afternoon, with Mr Cooper checking on me every now and then, and when Annette and Kyle arrived, I moved to the lounge room, so as to chat to everyone, before dinner, which was delicious as always. “Now that you are home, does that mean we don’t get to enjoy Mrs Coopers meals anymore” Kyle asked with a cheeky grin, which made me laugh.

“I am sure we can make some arrangements for you to enjoy her cooking, even with me being home now” I replied, “That would be nice, as I have enjoyed the chats with Annette” Mrs Cooper replied with a little smile.

When our guests had left and Mrs Cooper was finishing cleaning up, I walked into the kitchen, “How about we organise for you to spend three afternoons a week over at the rectory for cleaning and cooking duties, say from 1pm to 6pm, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, to be covered by your wages here, so Annette won’t have to worry about finances, and you get to have your regular chats with Annette” I said to my house keeper.

“That would be wonderful thank you, I will make sure you have had lunch, and that a meal is ready to heat up for dinner, when you are ready to eat” Mrs Cooper replied happily, as she finished the cleaning up, just when the house telephone rang. “Devonport Residence, how may I help you” Mrs Cooper said when she answered the phone, and she smiled when she heard the response, “He is right here, just a moment please Mr Wagner” she replied, before handing me the cordless phone.

“Hi Sebastian, how are things on Douglas Farm” I said, “Hey cousin, everything is great, although the twins miss you very much, so we will be coming for a visit in a few weeks’ time, Jose is heading home to Chile to see his family for two weeks, so we are going to do the same, and come and see you in Toodyay” Sebastian replied.

“That is wonderful news, I look forward to seeing you all, it seems like years since I last saw you guys” I replied, “Yes, I does, but it has only been three and a bit, months. By the way the settlement has been completed on all of the properties that we purchased in Claremont, and I was wondering what your plans are for the properties” Sebastian said to me.

“Well when any unit become vacant, I want them to remain vacant, till each of the block become fully vacant, then I would like to pull them down, and depending on the local government regulations, I would like to replace them, with something new, not sure what just yet, I am still thinking about it” I replied.

“Ok, that is fine, I will let the letting agents know your requirements, and we will see if we can possibly speed up the vacancies, by letter of notice of six-month termination of rental lease, that should be a fair enough length of notice for each tenant, oh and the houses that were included in these purchases are now all vacant” Sebastian announced.

“Ok, that sounds fine, now one of the houses on Freshwater Parade, I would like to keep intact, as a townhouse for me to live in, from what I gather, it is a 4 bedroom, two bathroom house, and has a swimming pool at the back, it is at the end of the block of units and houses that we bought, and would be a great place to live where I am not so remote, and would be ideal for Mrs Cooper as well, we can easily shut up the Farm house, when its not in use” I said to my cousin, “That is fine with me, they are your investments, so you do as you choose” Sebastian replied.

The following day, I had Mrs Cooper drive me back to the city and into Claremont, as I wanted to look at the house in more detail. I had arranged for the real estate agent to meet us there at 10am, with the keys. When we arrived at Freshwater Parade and stopped in front of number 28, Mrs Cooper looked at me in a puzzled manner, as she saw the sold stick that was over the for-sale sign at the front of the house.

We have made some investment purchases recently, and this is the one I would like to live in, which is a little less work for you, and not so big for me” I said to her as I climbed out of the car, just as another car pulled up behind us. “Hello, Mr Harvey, this is my housekeeper, Mrs Cooper” I said making introductions to the man that approached, “Its nice to meet you, now let’s have a look at your new residence shall we” Mr Harvey said leading the way.

Once he had given us a thorough tour of the place, he handed me the keys, and said goodbye, leaving us to continue on our own. “It’s wonderful Master Huon, and fairly close to the shops too, I love it” Mrs cooper said to me, “That is good to hear, as I was hoping to move into here as soon as we can, then we can either close up the farm house, or rent it out” I replied. “I think you should just close it up, so it is available for when your cousins come back for a holiday” Mrs Cooper said.

“Actually, they are coming for a two-week holiday, I had almost forgotten about it sorry, in that last call from Sebastian, he mentioned that he and the twins were coming over for two weeks, I am not sure of the date yet, but I am guessing that it will be within a week or two” I said. “Very good, well let me know a few days ahead, so I can get the guest wing at Toodyay ready for them” Mrs Cooper said to me.

“Right, the next stop is a furniture store to buy some furniture for this place, I will leave it up to you to select everything, as I am sure you are much better at interior decorating that me” I said with a little smile, and we headed out of the house, locking the front door behind us. Mrs Cooper stopped beside the car when she saw the realty sign on the other side of the street.

“Are that part of the investment as well?” she asked me, “Yes, that house, plus the house next to ours, and the apartments units next to them, plus some more on the main street behind us and the other street behind that house” I replied. “Wow, that is an expensive investment, for an area like this” Mrs Cooper stated, “Yes, it is indeed, but well worth it I think” I replied.

We spent the rest of the morning and half of the afternoon, shopping for furniture and other household goods, with some of it to be delivered in the late afternoon, and the rest to be delivered the following morning, and by the time the last of the afternoon deliveries had arrived and brought into the house, I was feeling quite tired, and I lay down on the double bed in the master bedroom, which had the mattress on it and I fell asleep.

Some time later, Mrs Cooper woke me up, and said that our takeaway dinner had arrived, and so I followed her to the main living area of the house, where the dining table and chairs had been set out, and I sat down to eat. “Sorry, I guess all of todays activity has made me a little tired” I said to Mrs Cooper, “That is fine dear, we have done most of the heavy-duty work now, and I am able to look after the rest of it, now do you want to stay here tonight, while I head home, or do you want to come with me, and make the early morning trip back tomorrow?” Mrs Cooper replied.

“I think I am too tired to travel, so I think I will stay, if that is ok” I answered, “That is fine by me dear, I will come back in the morning with some luggage for both of us, so leave everything until I come back, I will make your bed for you, so you have a place to sleep, before I head back home” Mrs Cooper said to me.

After we had eaten, Mrs Cooper cleaned up the takeaway packaging, before making my bed, and making sure that the bathroom had towels, and toiletries, which she had purchased earlier in the day, before she left me to go home. Once she had gone, I wandered around the house, to get use to the new surroundings, and when I stepped out onto the front veranda, and saw the swimming pool, I switched on the lights, and walked to the pump room, and turned it onto automatic, before stripping don to my boxers and diving into the pool.

The water was quite cool, but refreshing, and I did a number of laps of the pool, before climbing out and walked into the house dripping wet, and I walked into the bathroom to shower and dry off. Once I had dressed, I cleaned up the puddles of water that I had left through the house, before I went to the master bedroom and laid down, soon falling into a deep sleep.

When I woke in the morning, I heard some activity in the living area, and I climbed out of bed, and noticed a set of clothes laid out on the nearby chair, so I had a quick shower and changed into the fresh clothes, before making an appearance in the living area, where Mrs Cooper was busy putting everything that we bought yesterday away.

“Good morning Huon, how are you feeling today?” Mrs Cooper asked me, as she placed some breakfast on the table for me, “I am good thanks Mrs C, I couldn’t sleep at first, so I went for a swim in the pool, which was great, I think I might do a lot more swimming, to help strengthen my left leg and arm” I replied.

Soon after I had finished breakfast, and Mrs Cooper had cleaned up, a delivery truck arrived, with the fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and television, with a second truck arriving with the rest of the furniture, just as the first truck was emptied. Mrs Cooper directed the workers, where to put everything, and soon the house was full of furniture, the last truck had left.

“Well, the place looks like a home now” Mrs Cooper said smiling, as she looked around the living area, “Thanks to all of your hard work, and it looks great, you are wonderful Mrs C” I said to my housekeeper happily. “Always happy to help my employer, now that we have refrigeration, I need to do some food shopping” Mrs Cooper replied, as she gathered her handbag, and the vehicle keys.

I grabbed my wallet, and handed her five $100 notes, which she accepted, and walked out the front door, closing it behind her. Now that I had a tallboy and wardrobe in my room, I unpacked the suitcase that Mrs Cooper had packed with a lot of my clothes and toiletries, from the Toodyay house, plus the clothes that I had brought with me from the Falklands, which included my laptop computer, once I had finished unpacking, I sent a message to Sebastian.

“Hi Seb. Can you send me an email, stating that I am a representative of Wagner International Investments, so I can deal with the local government here in Perth. Regards Huon” and a few moments later I received a reply, “Sure, no problems, I have already organised for some business cards to be printed, and they should be in the mail on their way to your Toodyay address, I am heading to the office now to prepare an email now, Sebastian”.

About twenty minutes later, my phone beeped with a new email arriving, and I sat down before I opened the email.

“WAGNER INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENTS Herzogstrasse 2, 8044 Zürich, SWITZERLAND Douglas Estate, East Falkland, FIQQ 1ZZ, FALKLAND ISLANDS Deepdale Estate, Harders Chitty Road, West Toodyay 6566, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

To whom, it may concern, this is a letter of introduction to Mr Huon Davenport, who is the Administration Executive Officer of the above company, who’s Australian residential address is listed above. Please accept this letter as authorisation for him to conduct any necessary business on behalf of the company. Regards Sebastian Wagner, CEO and Managing Director of Wagner International Investments”.

I smiled when I read the email, and at the addresses that he had added to the letter. I realised that I needed to get some office equipment, so that I could do some office work when needed, so as soon as Mrs Cooper had returned, and packed away all of the groceries, I asked her to take me to the nearest Officeworks building, so I could buy a printer / scanner, some stationary, printing ink, and a large whiteboard and pens, to make notes on. By the time we returned to the new house it was close to close of business hours, so I decided to relax for the rest of the afternoon