Love is ?

I wrote these words a few years ago now, under another guise and during a different stage in my life.
But the words are still relevant and worthy of a Valentines post.
With the world today, Feb 14th 2016 supposedly back in a Cold War, with tensions running high in numerous countries and fighting continuing in others, with politicians more interested in bickering with each other to win votes than actually solving problems today, with new diseases being found and old ones not yet cured, the words "I Love You" should perhaps be spoken more often to more people and we might find peace in areas we never thought possible, and loved ones might not leave us so soon, or at least not with out knowing how we feel about them.

Love Is ?                                                 

The only successful relationship I ever had, was with food. 

And even then I cheated.

February is about love. Albeit the mass market variety.  

St Valentines Day fills me with angst on so many levels. 

Some people find my theory on love quite bizarre, yet I find it even stranger that we must mark love with its own special day. Surely if love is a spontaneous and all encompassing emotion, it should be celebrated on a daily basis, not just by the marking of a particular day to express our feelings for another.

Perhaps it is a reflection of modern life, that we are just too busy to show emotion, take time out of our all too important daily tasks to remind those special in our lives that they are dear and loved to us? Perhaps if people stopped taking selfies, they might have time for others.

What exactly does St Valentines celebrate anyway? 

The secret unrequited love of a couple never met? 

A burning passion one can never achieve, or is it truly the celebration of a couple who have found true and ever lasting love?

I’m just not sure what kind of love I have felt in my life nor wether I’m worthy of the cards I receive. Does more than one card from different people make me a bad person or just lucky? 

Is it bad to send more Valentines cards than I do at Christmas? 

We do not all believe in Christmas but surely we do all believe in love! And to spread the feeling of love is a far better cause.

True love, unrequited love, pure love, never-ending love, unconditional love, undying love, puppy love, familial love, platonic love or a love that transcends time. When did something so simple, become so mind bogglingly complicated?

Some people seem to find love easy, some find it immensely difficult and others like me, find it perplexing.

I once worked as part of a small team. We were like the four Musketeers; just better looking!  

Our quartet consisted of a youthful Mr. Twenty something, two thirty something’s and myself at forty.(remember I wrote this a few years back)

We were a very stereo typical group of chefs. One in four marriages end in divorce and the elder of the two thirty some-things fit that bill.

The younger thirty something had been in one relationship all his life and was happily married, having found his true love early on.

Mr Twenty something, a young radical with spiky un-brushed hair full of “product” , styling mousse and texture putty was a good looking kid who found the game of love easy, yet the saying of the words immensely difficult.

To round out the quartet there was myself. Forty, single and typical of our star sign Aries.

Aries people have life tough. 

We are by birth, lovers and playboys. Read any astrological page and they tell you we are players of the game; lovers who act compulsively. It’s not our fault. The stars simply align themselves every time we pass a person of the opposite sex. 

A cosmic wave fills me, there and then with love!

It is not a game. It’s very serious. For me, love expresses how I feel. Right then! Right there! I can walk down the street and fall in love every ten feet.

It sounds like fun, but you have no idea. 

A simple task of shopping can take hours and I’ll return home with a hundred new phone numbers.

My therapist says this stems, not only from my star sign, but my size. 

I have and always will be a little on the big side. Since childhood I have known the taunts one can receive for being different. I do not necessarily stand out like a sore thumb, more like a pumpkin on a tomato vine. To say it simply, I felt sometimes un-loved as a child. I know what power this simple word can hold.

Saying “I LOVE YOU” , means far more to hear, than it does to say.

Mr Twenty something , even in a relationship with a person for whom he has “feelings”, finds the word difficult to verbalise. 

His is a set of principals and beliefs I respect from an age gone by, whilst Mr Divorcee never wants to hear or say the words again for fear of the financial ramifications.

But to make others feel loved even for a second, is an amazing experience to share. 

As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote,” Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”.

Perhaps if the world could relate to these three little words, like I do, we would have far less wars and unrest. 

We all deserve to be loved and to find love, even if for a fleeting moment whilst shopping.

For me, just to hear the words, to read them, to write them or to type them to another, fills my day with joy.

Imagine seven billion people feeling the way I do. 

It would be like the sixties all over again! Would that be so bad?

Happy Valentines Day and may love find you all where ever you are and what ever your situation.

Screaming Silently For Help - Suicide is not the answer

I have read much since the recent tragic death of famed Chef Benoit Violier and I normally do not enter into such subjects, but having been on the front line of chefs depression I feel some people see chefs not like we really are, while the rest of us need to realise that feeding the elite is not the end of the world, and that life consists of greater wonders than just "stars" and accolades.

The death of anyone is tragic, the death of numerous famed chefs in recent times is definately a case of our industry members "Screaming Silently for Help", that our industry needs to address.

Many commentators have hinted that the only reason someone might resort to such tragic means is the stress of seeking perfection, striving for a Michelin Star or the hours worked by obsessed chefs.

Of course that is definitely part of it.

But from one who has suffered his own bouts of depression during a 33 year career I can state that the major problem with chefs, is that we just don’t deal with life like everyone else. 

Unlike many, we suck at life, because we don’t always deal with issues the same way others do. 

We compartmentalize our lives, because that is how we need to run our kitchens. 

If we reacted to everything that happened in the kitchen, our brigades would be a mess, our service would fall apart and nothing would get plated. We compartmentalize and deal with things when we have time, we prioritize and we time to perfection so that the right ingredients hits the plate first and the meals get sent out hot, that functions for thousands get served fresh and by multiple kitchens without the guests ever wondering how and so that delays never occur.

During any given day I’m putting into its own little boxes the issues of staff, their lateness, sick leaves, days off, scheduling and problems with their production, running several kitchens at once, a pastry department, bakery, chocolate room, issuing food to more areas, several restaurants need to be delivered their food on time, quality needs to be checked as does the set up of the food. Functions, banquets and promotions need to be prepared, menus written, ordering completed on time and in advance to have goods arrive in time for the events. On top of this there are the demands of management and the corporation, the issues of modern social media and guests complaints, daily meetings and proposals put forward for new equipment, broken equipment and repairs needed, some urgent, some not .

On top of this I need to find time myself to cook, to assist in production or at least to make the samples of future menus so that others know what to prepare for upcoming affairs. I need to be a fun chef to work with within a team, I need to be strict and afford respect, sometimes I need to give warnings and scold, I need to deal with bosses, immediate and higher as well as unions and their issues, I need to deal with multiple managers thinking they know my job better than I do, Executive Chefs who command the entire brigade, yet have no idea of my own stresses and often no idea of my job as a pastry chef , the time it takes to make perfection and Food and Beverage Directors, F& B managers, supervisors, departmental managers of banqueting, stores and more, all having issues with me and my department of which I need to quell and placate.

Everyone of these items is boxed and dealt with over time.

Remember most of us start this career young. Very young,

We enter kitchens with little more than a desire for great food or simple need for a job.

We learn our management styles on the job, and usually from the chef who first took us under their own wing to train us.

As youths we obsess about our careers because having left school early, this pretty much is all we have to support ourselves.

We depend upon our wits, our own resources of - hands, mind and speed to become something within our career, to be noted people and to be commanders of our realms.

Like cutting fine “brunoise” that we train to chop to perfect cubes, so too our lives become perfect “brunoise” cubes into which we slot our lives, lives we are missing out on, leaving behind and are too busy to deal with.

I started working in the kitchen at 13, I worked my ass off trying to become something, I entered every salon-culinaire, every local competition, even state fairs and regional shows to get noted by local newspapers.

It worked.

I ventured further to win scholarships, trips overseas and eventually big enough prizes that saw time taken off my apprenticeship. This in turn saw me travel internationally to work with Michelin starred chefs and more importantly with a chef striving for his own first Michelin Star.

The pressure to perform, the hours and the precision was tantamount.

For little money in a foreign land I worked stupid hours to gain under his command, a Michelin Star, which meant something to him, and very little to me.

I returned to my homeland at 20 years of age, smarter, stronger and ready to publish my first book and start to process of somewhat stardom. It came quickly thereafter and one successful book turned into more, turned into newspaper columns, television requests and demonstrations.

At 21,  I awoke to a phone call that my best friend from school had killed himself.

My life unraveled quickly thereafter.

Until that moment, that very phone conversation and his terrible act I had not once stopped to think of anything, anyone or any celebration, be it birthday, anniversary or family occasion since I entered the kitchen 8 years earlier.

I was obsessed with food, I lived, ate and breathed my trying to get better, trying to get famous and trying to get to the top of my career and  I forgot the world around me.

Chefs are busiest when the rest of the world wants to celebrate. They all enjoy Christmas - we chefs, work for a week to prepare for it, the following week they celebrate New Years, we work from December 26^th to build up to it.

As a pastry chef this fight continues for another 6 months without as much as a day off to ourselves.  On January 1^st we begin to prepare for Valentines, then Chinese New Year, then Easter, then Mothers Day, then Fathers Day and the list continues.

We finish one celebration by immediately thinking of the next.

During it all, we forget events of our own.

We compartmentalize the issues of relationships, the anger of girlfriends and wives, the needs of family and the pressures of lives outside the kitchen. We box and store our own needs, our health, our families.

We snack during shifts, we dine on junk food because its fastest way to avoid hunger during quick needs of sleep, often we partake of recreational and other drugs to give us the happiness or drive to wake and do it all again. Many of us just resort to coffee by the liter, smoking and other vices to take the edge off.

We box and store our family. We miss their birthdays and garner anger from them for being self absorbed.

We are not.

We are absorbed by the worlds dining needs.

And the desires of our selves and our bosses to come up with more creative and innovative food than others.

We research and think food even when we are not in the kitchen.

Then one day one of our perfect “brunoise” cubes of storage explodes, whether it be our health, our relationships, our family or the death of a friend.

And the world falls apart for us.

We juggle these little compartments of life so well, that when one tips, so too does our entire world implode.

It happened to me at 21 when my friend committed suicide, and took me years to battle back from the precipice of self-destruction.

I walked away from an amazing future, but had to.

I took entire years off work and travelled seeking the answers to my own demons. My family suffered again as I disappeared on journeys into self-discovery and to find the person I was when I was not being a chef.

It occurred again at the death of my mother and the battle this time was harder, because I awoke from my food obsession to realize that with her death, so too was I older, unhealthier and had missed so much of my own life and hers.

I had missed,this time 20 years of birthdays, Christmases, New Years, lovers had come and gone in their dozens and I was alone without the most amazing person in the world to confide in anymore.

Some days it was just too much to handle.

It is not always just the pressure of the kitchen that tips our scales to the side of self-destruction.

It can sometimes be the waking moment that makes us un-juggle everything and realize that having given this career so much, that we have in fact lost everything else.

I have 16 cookbooks to my career, have fed the most famous of people and worked with Kings and Queens, I have travelled, demonstrated to hundreds, and been lauded over in print, yet I can no longer talk to my best friend, I have no mother to which to confide and relationships remain a struggle.

Imagine on top of this all, gaining a third Michelin star only to realize that the stuggle to get there, was nothing like the remaining daily struggle to keep it , and then what might happen if you did not? The pressure is self imposed yes, but it does not make the pressure any less.

I feel so sorry that over recent years we have lost such an incredible number of chefs who felt they had no options.

I can only imagine how many more we have lost that never get reported to the press and fall into obscurity because they are strugglers who never found the fame enough to validate column inches in newspapers and print media. Regular chefs who have suffered self imposed stresses only to slip in their own juggling acts and fall off the cliff that is perfection.

I understand the battle like few do.

I have paid the rent for myself since the age of 16 and having no means of support if I stop work, then I have had no choice but to continue working ever since.

If I have taken time away and walk the earth looking for myself and to tame the demons within, then it is only me who needs to work harder thereafter to save the money for my own future.

A double edged sword of life, where even in times of serenity you feel the stresses of who will pay the bills soon after.

I never battled for the second or third Michelin star, but since the age of 21 , I have been in the position of Executive Pastry Chef with cookbooks to my name.

Stresses came from never being able to really ask for help, as I was suppose to be the guide for others. I have had to learn on the job, how to manage while managing,

I have had to learn for myself new techniques while at the same time teaching techniques to others and I have had to remain strong for my teams when I myself may not have been strong enough for myself.

Cooking is a tough career. 

Chefs are amazing people who hold everything within themselves because we have little choice to do anything else. We need to command a brigade who needs our strength to guide them. We have to act strong even if we are not feeling such inside ourselves. Feeding others is a daily job and today everyone expects value for money and photographable food, otherwise they let the rest of the world know about it without thinking of what we have had to go through to put it before them. Perhaps diners need not know, but it does not diminish the issue for us.

Our strength is that we can compartmentalize and store the needs of ourselves over everything else.

But it is also one reason why we suck at life.

If we did another job, we might be able to take time out, take sick leave or take time to unwind and sort out all the little boxes in our heads. To arrange neatly our relationships with family, friends and lovers, to go to dinner with, to celebrate with and to take time to listen to them.

But then who would feed the rest of the world while we did? Right ?

If you find the pressures of life getting to you, I beg of you all to talk to someone you trust. 

I tried therapists and psychiatrists but nothing helped like a good friend.

Chefs do not open up often, but I beg of you to try.

Outside of our bubbles , life continues and despite what we think, the world will not fall apart nor will they starve if we are not present.

Much of the pressure we feel is self imposed and it is only after we get away from the stoves for a period of time that we can see that.

There is no weakness in taking time out. Chefs do not suck at life, we just deal with it all differently to others.

There is no weakness in needing help or asking for someone to just listen.

Please do, before your own juggling act becomes unbalanced and tumbles into a battle for self survival.

Benoit Violier RIP 1971- 2016

Sam and Ralph; a lesson in age and understanding.

I am constantly reminded of my age by one of the darlings of my team. She loves bristling my nerves by reminders of things I know that few others around me do. Music, historical events and cartoons among them.

Whilst I am aging, I'm not that old yet, and to be truthful, I feel sorry to the millennials who do not have the internal memory platform from whence our older minds run and draw our knowledge.
It's one thing to be able to look things up on the web, Google it or Shazam a sound, and pretend to be smart, it's something else to be able to draw upon events throughout your life in an instance and have real time data to support your age, remember the lyrics of a song you have not heard in a decade, pick an historic date out of mid-air or to recollect a significant event like it were yesterday.

I may be aging and some things take time to recall, but recall I can.

My father was a historical nut on all things World War II to the point that it drove my mother furious. But I learnt through reading his newspapers and magazines depths of knowledge few can research online if they did for a week at a time.

Not everyone needs World War II knowledge every waking hour of every day though. It's just one of those things that nice to be able to know about. Faces, important dates and historical places help when watching the daily world news also.

Of things I appreciate about age though, are the cartoons.
Back then (I will not admit the years), watching Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd fight it out, it was funny, harmless and filled in the afternoons between returning from school and venturing back outside to play with the others in the street.
Wiley E .Coyote and the Roadrunner, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam, Sylvester chasing Tweety and Tom and Jerry. All much about the same, good versus bad.
But the cartoon that truly strikes me daily, even today as being very close to home is Sam and Ralph.
I can relate to it and see the interaction at many workplaces.

Good Morning Sam, Good Morning Ralph.

For those too young to have enjoyed Sam and Ralph cartoons by Looney Tunes let me fill you in.
Made by Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, the context of the series is built around the idea that both Ralph ( a wolf) and Sam ( a sheepdog watching over his flock of sheep) are just doing their jobs. Most of the cartoons begin at the beginning of the workday, in which they both arrive at a sheep-grazing meadow, exchange pleasant chitchat, and punch into the same time clock. Work having officially begun, Ralph repeatedly tries very hard to abduct the helpless sheep and invariably fails, either through his own ineptitude or the minimal efforts of Sam, who always brutally punishes Ralph for the attempt.

It is the start of the cartoons that makes me laugh the most.
The two characters are essentially normal people outside of work.
But at the beginning of each day they punch into the same clock and then begin working against each other. But before doing that, they always chat nicely, "Good morning Sam, hey Good Morning Ralph", the two characters smile, sign in and then the battle begins until the end of the workday.
They shake hands, clock out and go off home together.

The stupidity of the cartoon was funny when I was a child.
It still is, but sadly this is visible across numerous workplaces in every country on every continent still today.
Normal people arrive, change, exchange pleasantries and then go off to do battle, in their varying senior positions.
In large buildings and properties seeing your colleagues is sometimes not a question, today the battles are electronic and of an email nature. Some colleagues you may not actually see all day again until the day is done, meeting up again in the locker room, ignoring the unpleasantness of emails traded between each other during the past ten hours and then off home they go , waving and smiling to each other that they will see each other tomorrow.

Humans are a complex and funny bunch. But sometimes the humor is not that funny at all.

Recent events in Paris and seemingly continuing around the globe on a monthly basis would suggest to me that we simply do not learn from history.
We repeat the same stupidity toward each other every single day, month, year and decade.
Sometimes we forget or the fighting slows for a time, but eventually it rears its ugly head once again and having learnt nothing from the losses of the past we continue in our same stupid manner.

I've raised the subject of the Sam and Ralph  cartoons a few times to others, but I'm the only one that seems to have ever watched them.
With age comes wisdom and with that wisdom it is our duty to impart the knowledge learnt so as to try and make better the future for a different generation.

We should be nicer to each other. We should not allow ethnical and religious divides to divide us as people at all.
Sure it can divide our thinking and beliefs, our decisions and our ways of life, but why can we not all live together despite our differences in peace and harmony?
Why does one jackal feel it must impose its visciousness upon others just to try and make it feel like it is the king of the woods?

Perhaps it is as simple as beginning with pleasantries at work, and in the locker room, that are true and heart felt and carrying those with us throughout the day and then extending that to our daily lives. being nice to one another could spread globally.

Of a religious nature there is the saying, "treat others as you would have them treat you".
An eye for an eye just makes two blind people, not a better seeing world

And that's really the point; we have to forgive the lesser people and move forward to a future for humanity that has forgiveness and understanding in it's heart and mind, only then peace will reign around the world.
Perhaps these people are angry and horrid themselves because of their own inadequacies, there poor upbringing, their lack of self-worth, their bad lot in life, perhaps they just have no joy at home, childless, no pets to relieve their frustrations or fill their hearts with love, or perhaps they are just lonely.

Ours is to not to judge, not to lower ourselves to the depths of their misery but to see the world for the amazing lot that we, the happy people, have in ours.
For some people, Oscar Wilde's words ring so true, "where there is no love, there is no understanding!"

Sam the sheep dog, was protecting his sheep, but he never smiled or did much. At the opposite side of the coin was Ralph the wolf who was animated in character as well as in emotions, worked hard and fast and yet never won.
Instead of battling together, perhaps they both could have tried to understand each others position a little better and let the other alone.
Perhaps Sam's life away from the sheep was a complex miserable life, perhaps Ralph the Wolf could have found another food source.

What it comes down to is "understanding!"
Understanding each other.
Understanding the root cause and understanding each others position, and then working from there to understand the bigger picture, the past, present and future and working toward a better future for us all.

Understanding has become as alien to us as the cartoons of my youth, both lost to a crazy world of political correctness.

Attending managerial level leadership classes and motivational speakers, one rarely hears the words, "Understand". It seems we are scared to try and understand each other any more- it's too personal and therefore bad from a legal perspective to suggest we understand or try to understand one another.
Instead we head to work and battle for supremacy or simply to survive another work day beneath them.

What I have learnt from history and from being the age that I am, is this.
Those that battle for supremacy usually come undone if not sooner, then later.
Karma really can be a bitch.

Those who battle to survive, usually win and do so deservingly.
Better yet, those who strive to understand, can truly change the world.

In the words of RICHARD DAWKINS,(writer 1941-)

"I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding."

Good Night Ralph, Good Night Sam.

Whims of Fancy; Plated Desserts 4.0

Over 31,000 people have viewed this blog, and that makes me happy. 
I want the blog to be what I could never find when I was younger, a place of ideas and thoughts of a real chef, in real time. 

When I was younger it was libraries we had to visit and be silent in, to research ideas.
Today you can click and learn.

Not all you see here you will like, somethings I post even I don't like, or like any more, but Im not scared to show them because what I like, perhaps you wont and vice versa.

The idea is to show plates of desserts,  from which ideas can be formulated for us both.

The point is that you see what works and what does not, you learn from it, pick from it, get ideas from it and move forward in your own style and own time to create what you want.

If you don't like the pictures, move forward, click another blog or turn off the computer, its that easy. 

If you do like, then return some time soon for some more ideas in the world of pastry and plated desserts. Not all I do is plated, but it's one part of our job in pastry.

Amazing to see this month so many people from Russia have joined the family and have visited the site, it fills me with happiness that the world truly is one large kitchen when politics plays no part.

Croatia, Indonesia, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Taiwan, Germany among some of the larger viewing audiences this month, hello to you all and welcome.
Its nice to know that the word is spreading, and being enjoyed.

light and refreshing

2.0

les tartes tatin

modernity by Aries Dasal, Sous Chef Extraordinaire

les fruits rouge

chocolate fondant , caramel sauce

2016

smores re-thought

passion

citrus fantasy

snowflake

banqueting for the future

Pistachio, blood orange

Seeing Snow in Manila

An old friend calls them "white-outs".
Like when its snowing so hard you can't see anything but pure perfection in white, and can not make out the lines or shadows of anything because there is nothing to see.

I had a "white out" today, but sadly not from snow-  but from anger.

I've had a few in my lifetime. Today was the first in a while.

Despite blogging that I had one, Im not proud that I did.
In a deeply religious country I have tamed the beast within and try to stay calm for the most part or walk away from conflict. Not easy when you are a chef. But I've mellowed over time.

But today a few people of this deeply religious country had me furious.
What gets me so angry as to have a "white out"- lies and being lied too directly.

My mother always said since we were children " tell the truth and shame the devil", "Liars go to hell" and many other anecdotes about those who can't find the truth as important as most.

Today I took on the role of investor. Seeking a new house to buy.
A luxury our generation has.
My parents bought 2 homes in all my years. The first home we grew up in and the second home which carried my mother to her end. Two homes in around 50 years.

Im on my tenth home buy now in 20 years....some have been quick flips for profit, others investments, the one today is for a writers retreat for the future, a place I will call, ONCE UPONA TIME and close the doors to the real world on the outside and write like the wind, within.

So as an investor I ventured forth to several properties and corporate developments.
The first was the worst.

Having seen the properties and display homes on-line I visited to see the same. Truth of the first was that the development itself was miles from the display homes. Display homes of each variety and size where neatly lined up in pairs. One was the cheap bare turnover option and the second of the same variety was the fully loaded completed finished and furnished expensive option. The display homes, despite having sat since 2007 where in pristine condition, freshly painted, cleaned and perfect.
I chose a small three bedroom with landscaping.

Simple. Priced right. Looked amazing. options affordable.
Broker pushed for signing of papers and payment of deposit on the spot and kept asking.

What's the rush I thought, the development has been around since 2007, if there where leftovers, then they were not going anywhere soon.
I asked to see the real house.
This was obvious as I had all along told everyone this was a purchase for IMMEDIATE RFO (Ready for Occupancy).
Some times what I want, I want it now.
So be it.
So I requested to see the house, I was about to buy and pay for in full.
The broker discussed with his boss, the boss spoke to his boss and a supervisor came to speak with me.

She was nice. Friendly and affable.
I explained , I want to see the house because I want it ready for occupancy and want to see if its ready.

A car was arranged and away we went.
Quite the drive from the picture perfect Wysteria Lane version of the Display him area, across bridges covered with display boards hiding reality behind them, through some unsightly construction and past underdeveloped areas we really should never have been shown.
Finally entering the -Ready For Occupancy - area, we passed the guards hut which was unfinished and un-roofed and more importantly unmanned.
Driving down the street I noted that every house was identical. This was an entire subdivision of the same 3 bedroom house, all the same color. Why would any one do this?
Why rob the subdivision filled with one bedroom homes priced at below one million when you could walk two blocks and rob every single house priced in the multiples, each with three bedrooms.
Make it easy for the thief's by putting the rich all together. Why make them work for the task?
This entire line of thought and questioning completely flew over the Broker and supervisors heads!!

Pulling up in front of the Home I had requested to purchase, the car doors clipped shut.
Without even lowering the tinted windows, the Supervisor said, "Please note you do not have permission to leave the vehicle."
I was stunned and annoyed.
I unclipped the car door, and exited.
Supervisor followed me yelling that I was not allowed onto the property.

I answered that if , "Im spending my money and being pushed for a signature and deposit , Im going to look at what I'm buying."

I requested a look inside?
It was denied with a lie."I forgot to bring the keys", she replied

No problem I replied, "the side door is wide open anyway.?"

As I rounded the car port, I kicked the bricks from the wall, the concrete grouting holding them , long deteriorated from flood waters I believe, or simply poor workmanship.
I continued and entered the open doorway.
Filth, garbage and animal droppings filled the tiled floors.
Broken pipes and cracked tiles completed the picture.

Being followed by a shouting agent and supervisor I ran for the stairs and upward to the bedrooms. Cracked walls, door frames hanging off the wall and a balcony so cracked its pieces where easy to kick free from their foundations.

The supervisor caught up with me, and stated, "Sir you have no permission to enter the property, "I can be fired for you being here."

And thats when the snow fell!!.
Total "white-out" ensued.

"White Hot" or  "White Out", call it what you want, but I had heard enough.

Surely an Investor has the right before purchasing a Ready for Occupancy home, to view what it is he is about to purchase?
My money, My right?
Why waste my time taking me to see the outside of a home I wished to buy, from the curb side, from the inside of a car. I may as well have just viewed corporate brochures.

My anger built because the Supervisor thought I was dumb enough not to understand that she had lied to me consistently.
The only reason they did not want me to leave the vehicle was the tragic poor low standard of their development. She did not wish me to then enter the property, for the same reasons.
Ready For Occupancy for me is the ability to move in within 48 hours of paper work and checks being passed through the bank.
Ready For Occupancy for her was 6-8 months of repairs and landscaping away.
I asked for a brand new home, not a fixer-upper.

I do not remember much of the conversation (I was the only one talking) on the way back to the display home village."White-Out's" are a little like that.
There are no shadows within the snow.
I was furious that my time had been wasted, that I had been lied to, and that they had no respect for the fact that they were asking for my money, and trying to sell me a piece of second hand poorly constructed junk, and covering every step with stupidity and lies.
If they do not wish you to enter the properties, don't suggest they forgot the keys, when the doors are left open.
Don't even take customers to the curbside of the property, if your going to refuse them to get out of the car.
Don't suggest a home is Ready For Occupancy when they clearly need months of repairs and re-building.Not the pristine home they were offering me from the display centre.

As we had left the display village the supervisor had made note of their impressive cathedral they had built for the residents of the "New Town". On the way back I had desire to remind her she would use her company's cathedral to pray for her sins as a broker and unscrupulous efforts at flogging a poorly built property to a sincere investor.

Im not proud of the lambasting I gave the real estate folks on the drive back.
Im even a little sad that others I love had to listen within the confines of the car at my anger.
But Im even more saddened that there are people out there that have zero respect for investors, zero honor in their jobs, and zero dignity in trying to flog poor investments to sincere buyers.

Not once did anyone try to apologize to me.
For that I am saddened because the real estate people feel they are the ones who where disrespected.
A sadness that means they will flog these dead horse properties to others with zero remorse.

All I can do is to blog, and to remind all investors to do your homework before buying anything in any country.
I have bought properties in several countries and have never been disrespected as badly as i was today. Always ask the tough questions and never be afraid to look foolish by asking or pushing for answers. You look more foolish if you get involved with unscrupulous sellers without having asked. It is your hard earn money, spend it where you wish, but make sure you have done your due diligence before signing the check, even if the supervisor thinks she will get fired because you did so.
It's probably just another lie.

Note; The day started badly, but ended well.
A wonderful Broker who understood my blunt line of questioning eventually found my Once Upon A Time for me.
House found, contract being worked upon.
ONCE UPON A TIME is soon to take OCCUPANCY and be the home to future writings and novels.

ONE OF THE NICER HOMES WE LOOKED AT TODAY...

KITCHENS ARE IMPORTANT TO ME....

I LOVE THE BUILT IN OPTION...SAVES SPACE...