Not the story of a Texas cattle magnate but a brief insight into my efforts to have the house painted (the Ibiza Villa from the View from...) vis-a-vis methods of trade.
Our house exterior needs painting and the Moroccan lad who painted the house next door has been mithering me for some while to do the job. Whilst in charitable mode on Sunday I agreed to him coming to give me a quote.
He turned up last night under cover of total darkness to measure up and examine the walls carefully to enable him to assess the extent of the work and carefully calculate the costs.
Within a minute he had come up with a good price. Three men working for one week would each earn 150% more than I was paid as a teacher in a month!
Haggle: Argue about the price. 'Off you go lads, that's way over the odds, come back with a reasonable quote when you can see what colour the house is.'
Barter: An exchange of goods usually made when your third world currencies aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Paint my house and I'll give you my eldest daughter, two gallons of camel milk and if you finish within a week I'll throw in one of the cats.
Haggle and Barter: A combination of above where I offer items of less value eg the wife instead of the eldest daughter.
Will we get the house painted? I'm not worrying yet.
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