过山车 – roller coaster

八月就像是过山车，充满了颠簸。

August was a roller coaster month, full of ups and downs.

做了多年的户外青少年活动，鹭燕和我已经习惯了颠簸的生活，但当事情超出我们的控制的时候，这仍然会让我们十分紧张。我们到现在仍不知道能不能拿到举办童子军俱乐部的地点。

With our outdoor youth activities, Linda and I are used to things going up and down, but it is nerve-wracking when something that is not under your control, decides whether or not we will get the location to organise youth camps for many years.

在我之前的日记里，我说我获得了一个充满惊喜的包裹，一条别墅的前主人发来的消息，询问我是否还对该别墅有兴趣。我当然有兴趣了，虽然我当时已经对此事心灰意冷了，我向他表达了我的惊讶，而他却回复：“这世界有时候就是这么运转的”

In my previous post, I reported to you that we received a surprise parcel. This parcel came in the shape of a message in which the previous owner asked me if we were still interested in the estate. Of course, we were. Since we had not expected any progress there, I expressed my surprise. To which he replied: “Well, that is how the world sometimes turns“.

八月的过山车之行就这么开始了

And then the August roller coaster started.

当我与我在瑞士的律师谈话时，她告诉我别墅的新主人被告知他需要在八月22号之前付完所有的金额，如果付不了的话，他与旧主人之间的合同将作废，此别墅将会被卖给我们。

Talking to our lawyer in Switzerland, it appeared that the new owner had been summoned to pay the remainder of the purchase price no later than the 22nd of August. Failing to do so, would result in an annulment of the contract and the estate would be sold to us.

若要将合同作废大概率需要很长一段时间，我们请律师向别墅的新房东写了一封信，向新房东他提议说，如果他将别墅卖给我们，我们将会以比原价更高的资金买下，并帮他把之前的尾款一并付清。这封信是用德语写的，我相信房东会更喜欢用他的母语来交流，不然我们就自己给他写信了。

Because an annulment would most likely be a time-consuming court issue, we asked our lawyer to write a letter to the new owner, offering him that he could sell the property to us, receive a nice profit and we would take care of the payment to the previous owner. The letter had to be in German language and I was sure that the new owner would prefer to talk to somebody in his mother tongue, otherwise, we would have written the letter ourselves.

在那之后我们玩的就是文字游戏了，不幸的事，我的律师因学习需要离开两周，而这两周我却不想让新主人去想怎么付剩下的钱的事。我想让他只考虑我们的提议，解决他尾款的问题，并能赚到一些额外的钱。但我们的律师这两周联系不到，所以我和鹭燕得开始一天一天计算时间。

From that moment on, it became a waiting game. Unfortunately, my lawyer had to leave for 2 weeks for training. Those were exactly the two weeks that I didn’t want the new owner to think about where to get the remaining money from. I wanted him to only think about our offer: solving all his problems and letting him make a nice profit at the same time. But our lawyer was not there so Linda and I started counting the days and the hours.

我的律师在八月的23号回来了，她与别墅的前主人谈了话，并告诉我们前主人仍然没有收到付款。他将与我们签下合同。庆祝时间！我们来到了过山车的最高处。

My lawyer returned on the 23rd of August, checked with the lawyer of the previous owner and heard that no payment had been made. The sales contract to us would now be drawn. Our flag went out. Celebration time. We were at the summit of the roller coaster.

我仍担心废除之前的合同将花费很多的时间，所以我让我的律师再次联系现在这位形式上的新房东，向他重新强调我们对他的提议：由我们向他购买房子，让他赚取一定的额外资金，而我们就不需要等待之前合同废除的时间了

I was still afraid that the annulment of the original agreement would take a lot of time, so I asked our lawyer to contact the formal owner anyway and re-emphasize our offer to buy from him, allowing him to make a profit and us not having to wait for the annulment to go through the court.

读过之前家庭绿洲日记的朋友们知道，这位新主人有着经常几周几个月都没有消息的名声，这点到现在也没变。当我们的律师终于联系到了他的时候，他告诉我他没有时间，但他确实需要和我的律师当面谈话。这是我们坐过山车最快乐的时候，我们不仅能得到别墅，我们甚至可能在八月份就能拿下。

People who have read the initial posts in our Family Oasis blog know that the man has a reputation for disappearing for weeks or months. It was not different now, but she finally reached him. He said that he had no time, but that indeed they should speak to each other.

The next excitement on our roller coaster trip: not only would we get the estate, but we might even already get it in August.

下坡路 – The downslope

下坡是过山车中最吓人的一段路，轨道越陡，速度就越快，嘴巴里的舌头就越往后，心脏也有可能停止跳动

The scariest part of sitting on a roller coaster is the downslope. The steeper it is, the faster it goes, the further your tongue is in the back of your mouth, the more chance that your heart stops.

而这下坡确实很陡，我们下降得很快，令我们无法呼吸

And our downslope was steep. We went down vast. Our breath was indeed taken away.

新主人他接完电话做的第一件事是什么呢？

What was the first thing that the new owner did after this phone call?

他把尾款给付了！ Oh， no.

He paid! Oh, no.

这是我没有预料到的，而如图所示，鹭燕变得很开心，而我却很郁闷，每天只想把窗帘拉上。

That was a very unexpected turn of events. As you can see in the drawing, Linda took it a lot better than me. She became very upbeat and happy, while I was devastated and wanted to draw the curtains closed, all day.

依我看，这件事只有一个原因，别墅的新房东想要完全的买下别墅，不然他为什么要放弃我们给他的，赚取一笔额外的钱的机会呢？

而鹭燕有着与我不同的观点，在她看来，这是一个好的结果。我们拿到了一份新主人拿到的合同复制，合同上写的很清楚，如果他没有付清尾款的话，别墅是不能卖给别人的，所以鹭燕说：他买下房子的原因是他能将此别墅转卖给我们。

In my opinion, this could only mean one thing: the new owner wanted to keep the estate. Why else would he pay when he could have sold it to us and made a nice profit at the same time?

Linda, however, had a totally different opinion. According to her, this was positive news. We had a copy of his purchasing contract and the purchasing contract was very clear: as long as he had not fully paid, he could not sell it to another person. So Linda said: he paid the remaining amount so he could sell the estate to us.

不放弃 – Not giving up

与此同时，我们听说他虽然付清了尾款，但他之前还欠着一部分的金额，所以就算他现在，买下房子四年后，付清了尾款并拿到了房子的钥匙，他还是收到了另一封信，写明了他需要在9月底付清所有的金额，不然旧主人还是会上报法庭。而因此，我们的过山车还未到达终点。

In the meanwhile, we heard that he had paid the final part of the purchase price but not yet some other amounts that he was due. So despite that he paid and would now, 4 years after the purchase, finally get the key to the house, he got another letter saying that he had to pay the final amount before the end of September or the previous owner would still go to court. Our roller coaster was not yet at the end of the trip.

我们不是会放弃的，当我听说新主人跟我的律师说保持联络后，我请我们的律师再给他第一次电话。一日日过去，联系他仍然十分的困难，但突然有一天，律师联系上了他，这简直就像是让一艘已沉的船再次浮上水面，我的律师好像成功说服他了。

Never one to give up, and realizing that the new owner told my lawyer to be in touch, I asked her to call him. Days passed. Days without, as usual, being able to reach him. And then, suddenly, she had him on the line. This was really the call to raise a sunken boat back afloat. No easy feat. But she might have succeeded.

发生了什么呢？在电话的结尾他说：“把你们的提议用邮件发给我吧，我不确保我会答应，但我会考虑你们的提议的” 我们该孤注一掷了，我的律师跟我说我们只有一次机会，而我们要把提议尽量写的简单，他仅仅需要决定接不接受罢了。

Because what happened? The call ended with him saying: “Do me an offer by email. I am not saying that I will sell it, but I will consider the offer.” Now it was back to all-hands-on-deck. My lawyer said that we would only get one chance, and we had to make it very easy for him. He should be able to simply say Yes or No.

我不想让他说拒绝我们，所以我们交出了我们的提议，只有两句话：

1. 我们会将购买价格提高，比他付给旧主人的价格还高，所以他能从中收益。
2. 我们会替他付清他未偿还的债务，这包括了4年来房子的税收，他拖欠的一笔钱，和电费。

Since getting a No was out of the question, we made an offer that only had two lines:

1. We offered him an amount that was higher than his original purchase price, so he would make a profit
2. We would take over all obligations that were outstanding to the house. That included the taxes that had not been paid for 4 years, the amount he still had to pay the previous owner, water and electricity.

如果他接受了，他将获得一笔十分干净的交易，不用再担心这栋别墅的负债了

By saying YES, he will get a completely clean cut and never have to worry about anything concerning that house anymore.

我们的提议在上周发给了他，等待开始了

That offer has now been mailed to him last week. The waiting starts again.

我们又到了过上车的顶部，准备滑下底下的深渊，或者滑向一个为青少年俱乐部准备的最佳场地，在2024年开始。

We are at the summit of the roller coaster, waiting for it to go down into the abyss or to the promising field of regular youth camps and events, starting from 2024 onwards.

充满活力 – Energized

我们的家庭又重新开始为家庭绿洲做准备了，虽然我觉得他拒绝我们的可能性仍然较高，但我们现在做出了我们的第二次提议（第一次在三年前，2020的四月）谁能控制自己在做出这样的提议后的期待呢？

Suddenly our house is again focused on the Family Oasis again. I still think that there is more chance that he will say no than yes, but we have now made our second offer on the house (remember the first offer that we did more than 3 years ago? In April 2020?). Who doesn’t start dreaming after they make an offer on a house?

我们讨论有关冬令营和夏令营的事宜，讨论有关软件教学训练营的事宜，讨论我们能用太阳能生出多少电。在这样一个茫茫荒野，我们需要一辆车（与此同时我们甚至付不起别墅的首付，甚至付不起我们这个月的房租，此事能证明我们生活在白日梦里）。而我需要向别人讲述我们为明年所做的1001个计划。（我仍相信房东大概率会拒绝，我的这些计划都不会实现除非房东能接受我们的提议，抱歉）

We discuss when we can start the winter camps and summer camps. We discuss how I can give software boot camps over there. How much electricity we can generate with solar power. That, when we live in the middle of nowhere, we really need a car (while we don’t even have money for a down payment on the house nor for this month’s rent, this was proof that we were really living in dreamland) and I have made a leaflet for when we want to tell people about our 1001 plans for the coming year (but since I still believe that we will get a ‘no’, you won’t get to see that unless we get a ‘yes’, sorry).

分心的方法 – Distraction

生活给了我们一个新的惊喜，我们需要一个能让我们分心的东西，上周末我们去在海牙Ockenburgh的Ockenburgh estate进行了参观。Ockenburgh estate 里也有一栋白色的别墅，和家庭绿洲中的别墅一样，这栋别墅和”我们“在Prémery的别墅一样有一片属于自己的地。

Life had another surprise in store for us. These days, we need distraction, so last weekend we paid a visit to the Ockenburgh estate on the outskirts of The Hague. The Ockenburgh estate also has a white mansion, just like the planned Family Oasis, and the estate itself has a similar size as ‘our’ land in Prémery.

我和鹭燕被这两栋别墅的相似度所震惊，把自行车从照片里除去，他们简直一模一样，上方的照片鹭燕在法国时拍的，而下方的图片是在海牙拍的。

Both Linda and I were shocked by the similarities. Except for the bikes, you could simply exchange the view from each of the estates. Have a look yourself. The video at the top, Linda made it in France. The video at the bottom she made here in The Hague.

加上这两座别墅都有自己的湖区，你将意识到这两座别墅简直就是为了户外活动所准备的，别说，这Ockenburgh estate果然有属于他们的童子军俱乐部。

Add the lake that both estates have, and you realize that these locations are perfect for our outdoor scouting activities. And, indeed, you won’t believe it, the Ockenburgh estate also houses a scouting club.

Logo

我甚至为家庭绿洲准备了logo

I even already designed a logo for the China European Family Oasis.

为了表达家庭绿洲的风格，我选择’我们’的豪宅的形状为外形，红色为主色调，因为红色在国内是吉祥的颜色。红色同时也代表了生活所必需的几种元素，太阳，血液和火焰。黄色的星星则是从代表欧洲的旗子和中国的国旗中选取的两个重要元素。这所有一起形成了FO（Family Oasis），中国和欧洲的家庭绿洲。

To express the personal approach of the Family Oasis, I chose the shape of ‘our’ mansion. The colour red was chosen because, in Chinese culture, red is seen as a very auspicious colour. It is associated with life-generating energy coming from the sun, blood, as well as fire. The yellow star is chosen as the yellow star is the most important symbol in both the flag of Europe and the flag of China. Together, all of that forms FO; the China European Family Oasis.

所以现在我们所能做的只有等待，并祈祷我们能从新房东那里收到一个好的回复，那个从4年前买下房子后一次都没有进过房子的房东。

So now all we can do is wait, hope and pray for a positive response from the new owner, who still hasn’t visited the mansion since he bought it 4 years ago.

我和鹭燕又回到倒数日子的那段时间

Linda and I returned to counting the hours and the days.

PS (post scriptum):