I lie awake at night thinking of heat pumps.
One company wants US$16,000 (Dh58,769) to install them in the house I own in the foreclosure-dented city of Winchester, Virginia.
I had, on paper, the ideal renters. She was an estate agent. He was a contractor. They had once been neighbours. They had made a deal with me on fixing up the house and giving it a modern kitchen in exchange for minimal rent.
He thought he was clever and rigged up a system to avoid paying to heat the house with oil, as was intended.
When replacements moved in and turned on the furnace in the autumn of 2011, they heard an explosion. The pipes had burst during the past year because the tenants failed to shut down the system correctly when they left.
Their carelessness and money-saving greed were especially galling because they knew what havoc had been done to the house by the tenants before them - college students who set the basement on fire, broke out window frames, destroyed piping in the kitchen, threw the rubbish in the back yard and garage and, worst of all, turned a beautiful secretary desk and other furniture into firewood.
I discovered the latter, along with a broken tap gushing water all over the kitchen and beer cans and cigarette butts by the dozen, on an Easter weekend visit to check on the home.
I had the students evicted, but the quirks of the Virginia legal system allowed them to stay in the house for up to 30 more days, and, you guessed it, destroy more stuff.
The students were in the house only because my first renters - a schoolteacher and an IT professional - pulled a con job. Their rent and deposit cheques to me bounced. They were obviously trying to get a roof over their heads as long as they could before being found out.
The house's market value has dropped by about 35 per cent since I moved to Abu Dhabi in 2008. But selling would free me from one of life's most potentially harrowing titles - landlord.
I don't want that one in front of my name again.
rpretorius@thenational.ae
The biog:
Favourite book: The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma
Pet Peeve: Racism
Proudest moment: Graduating from Sorbonne
What puts her off: Dishonesty in all its forms
Happiest period in her life: The beginning of her 30s
Favourite movie: "I have two. The Pursuit of Happiness and Homeless to Harvard"
Role model: Everyone. A child can be my role model
Slogan: The queen of peace, love and positive energy
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Poland Statement
All people fleeing from Ukraine before the armed conflict are allowed to enter Poland. Our country shelters every person whose life is in danger - regardless of their nationality.
The dominant group of refugees in Poland are citizens of Ukraine, but among the people checked by the Border Guard are also citizens of the USA, Nigeria, India, Georgia and other countries.
All persons admitted to Poland are verified by the Border Guard. In relation to those who are in doubt, e.g. do not have documents, Border Guard officers apply appropriate checking procedures.
No person who has received refuge in Poland will be sent back to a country torn by war.
