This ad must be a joke

There was a radio advertisement that made me laugh. One of the Canberra real estate companies was advertising that its company more than any other could sell your property and get you more cash for the sale than any other.

In addition to the radio ad I noticed the following appears on the Blackshaw web site:

Proven sales record
At Peter Blackshaw Real Estate we continually achieve higher prices right across Canberra.
We have achieved more record-breaking sales in more suburbs than any other agent in the ACT. (check it out)

I don't know about you, but this seems dumb to me, and I think Blackshaw are assuming we are all idiots. Perhaps Blackshaw needs to be treated to the same lack of regard as they treat the punters.

The thing about real estate companies is that they are stuck between buyers and sellers. Property owners want to sell for as much as they can get. Potential buyers want to buy for as little as possible; everyone wants a bargain. In real estate you can’t keep both buyers and sellers happy. And there’s seldom a fair price in real estate. Generally, when someone talks about the great deal they got, rest assured, someone else missed out badly.

There doesn’t seem to have been a lot of thought gone into that ad. Sure, pushing the notion that selling your property for more than the opposition might offer may attract a few potential owners with a property for sale. But it doesn’t take too much imagination to consider that the punters are listening to that ad too. Why should they buy anything from a company that is essentially announcing that they are going to be ripped off.

The importance of tick boxes

I received a telephone call from the Macquarie bank. They said I was behind in my repayments. And we all know what that means. If you don’t keep up with the repayments for something it gets taken away from you.

It’s Macquarie Bank that funds my home loan for Virgin Money. I wonder why Virgin doesn’t fund its own loans. I would have thought Virgin was big enough. Anyway, the person from Macquarie rang to say that I was behind in my repayments by $1339.13. I recall that amount being flagged as my first repayment in an email that had been sent to me.

This was disappointing news, and disturbing. I had thought the repayments would have been the least of my worries. I had a job, I could afford the repayments, and salary deductions had been set up. So what was going on?

In my previous home loan I was aware of the importance of making as many early repayments as possible. A lesson from a few years previously sprang to mind. I’d taken out a small loan with a Tasmanian cooperative building society. The loan was only for a few thousand dollars. The person setting up the loan asked if I would like to delay the repayments by a few weeks, or was it months. I can’t remember. It sounded like a generous offer, and I never questioned it. I only thought how generous it seemed. That was my mistake. Financial organisations aren’t generous. I didn’t enquire further, and I was stung.

When the loans officer had made the offer, I had assumed she had meant:

• we can put a freeze on the repayments and interest charges,
• you can have this loan now,
• make no repayments for x amount of time, and
• you will be no worse off than had you started making your repayments straight away.
  

The loans offer should have said:

• we’ll allow you to skip the first few repayments for x amount of time, but
• interest will accrue and add to your principal based on our current charges.
  

The principal grew much higher than I thought reasonable, and it took me a long time to get it below the amount I’d borrowed in the first place. Had I known what was about to take place from the inception I would have declined the offer. The loans officer was did not fully explain the ‘offer’ and I didn’t pursue the details.

With that lesson in mind, when I went along to Westpac for a home loan I was adamant about when my first repayment would begin. I had things worked out in my mind such that when the loan took effect (settlement), I had my first repayment going into my account on the very next business day. There’s not a lot of interest that can accumulate in one day, but my first repayment dropped the principal more than would have happened had I waited for a fortnight or so before the first repayment was made.

So, when Macquarie rang to tell me that nothing was being paid off my home loan I was astonished. I explained to the disinterested person who rang that I had about $90,000 in an offset to the loan. I believe the way this works is that if I make repayments greater than the minimum my offset is increased by the difference. If I make repayments that are less than I should, or presumably if I don’t make any repayments the offset amount is reduced, but the loan keeps getting repaid. Actually, I don’t make repayments to the home loan account, but make deposits into the offset account. Presumably, funds flow on a periodic basis from my offset account to the home loan account. So, what was going on?

After some telephone calls, lots of people checking on things, it got fixed. It turned out that when the loan was being set up (was that by Virgin or Macquarie; who knows) someone forgot to start the automatic transfer of funds system. Some tick box on some computer screen somewhere had been left un-ticked. Was that some form I had forgotten to complete and send away, I enquired? No, it was something that gets done their end, and someone just forgot to do it.

I was reassured that everything would be okay in the future. But I wondered how much my principal had increased because no repayments have been made. They say they will look into that aspect. And I thought the problems were over. Thankfully, I had deposited my tax return into the account not so long ago, which would have helped. Though, it makes you wonder about the people who run the financial world.

Packing tips

I used to ride a bike and packing for a camping trip takes on a perspective all of its own. Though I expect hikers know what I mean. For example, you can pack socks inside shoes, and shoes can go inside other things. You quickly learn to fill every nook and cranny. The following tips don’t go to that extent, but if you have the time and want to minimise space and cost that style of packing may be worth considering.

1. Packing may take longer than expected. It’s also not something you can work at continually. It drove me nuts after too much of it, and I found I needed rest periods to get my sanity back before I could go at it again, and anyway you will have interruptions that eat away at your time. Unless you have experience, plan for thee or four times your initial estimate of how long it might take to pack.
2. Get a supply of small cardboard boxes to help with your packing. Hardware stores often throw them out. Small boxes are really useful for packing delicate items, and they will pack better and safer than simply wrapping you small precious items in paper in a large box. The vegetable markets have some very study boxes used to pack fruit. These boxes can be greasy, but are just the right size for hanging files, from the filing cabinet.
3. Your removalist company will have a supply of butcher’s paper for wrapping crockery and delicate items. Paper is essential. Rolls of paper are unsuitable; get a stack of individual sheets of butcher’s paper. Old newspaper pages are not nearly as good, but of course they will do at a pinch.
4. Pack several boxes at the same time. Something that is a poor fit in one box may fit better in one of the other boxes. Don’t leave any empty spaces in the removalist boxes to prevent things from moving around, but never force anything inside. If there is a risk of things moving around and getting damaged and you don’t have anything to fill the gap in a box, place a few socks in the space, or if it’s a large gap fold up a towel or two and put it into the space.
5. Try to use standard sized boxes; it will keep the removalist people happy. Get them from your removalist company, or pick them up second hand. People who have moved previously might have them available as giveaways.
6. Don’t pack your removalist boxes too heavy. Think about the people carrying them. And think about your own back too. The heavier they are the greater will be the chance of them being dropped and things getting damaged.
7. Delicate items can be placed inside kitchen containers. Sturdy sealable plastic or metal containers and saucepans make great containers for fragile items such as ornaments. Of course, ensure your delicates are suitably wrapped to prevent them from rolling around inside the container, and don’t forget to tape the lid shut unless it’s a click seal plastic container. And when you pack your circular kitchen containers you will have a lot of gaps between them. Those gaps are just calling out for tea towels, socks, underwear, t-shirts etc; firstly, to fill the gaps between them, and also to stop them from being damaged by rubbing against each other.
8. Mark important boxes clearly to make them easy to find. Such things may include perishable items or clothing for the first day back at work. A clear mark might be a splash of red on all sides of the box to make it stand out. The last thing you want is to identify your kitchen items in a week or so after you get to your destination by the number of ants crawling over the box.
9. Boxes full of crockery will travel well if each item is carefully wrapped. Bubble wrap may be best, but butcher’s paper works very well and doesn’t take up as much space, and I’ve had few damages to crockery using butcher’s paper.
10. Pack dinner plates and larger ceramic plates at the bottom of the box on their edges. Plates can be wrapped in groups with each one separated by a sheet of paper. To wrap a group of four plates, place the first one in the centre of the pile of butcher paper, fold one sheet of paper over the top of it, and place the next plate on top of the first, and fold the second layer of paper on top of that one, and continue in this way until the fourth plate has been placed and fold a sheet over on top of it, then finally, wrap the lot up as you would an ordinary parcel. Fill the bottom of the box with these parcels of plates on their edges, and if you don’t have sufficient to fill the bottom, pad it with something to prevent any movement.
11. Wrap cups and other items individually in one full sheet of butcher’s paper. There is no need to tape each item when wrapping them. If the paper wrinkles that can be good as the air gaps will act as a buffer from the other items. Pack the heavy items at the bottom, and place the lighter items on top, leaving no or few gaps.
12. If you don’t have access to boxes designed to carry books, distribute your books between several boxes to spread the weight over many boxes. Paper is very heavy.
13. Buy an industrial type tape dispenser to seal the removalist boxes. They are inexpensive and help seal the boxes well. Your removalist company might have tape giveaways or a cheap supply.
14. Label the boxes appropriately so that the boxes with fragile items don’t get dropped or packed underneath boxes of hardware. Don’t forget to put your name and a contact phone number on each box.
15. Linen and clothing can make excellent padding for breakables, and I found it useful to pack both together.
16. Make sure garden tools are clean, and empty the garden hoses of water well in advance of moving day.
17. Have a look at some of the removalist company web sites for a check list of other tips and tricks. Some of them are quite useful.
    

Some reflections on the move

Now that the shift is over, well mostly, I can reflect on the various experiences. I hope my experience will help you avoid some of the traps that caught me.

Here are a few things that might be useful to do months before you pack. These things all take time, but they are worthy of consideration.

Trash or treasure
Have a look around the house and work out your valuables from the junk. Transporting stuff to your new home that will get thrown away after a few months might as well be thrown out before you go. It can take a lot of time going through stuff. Make a realistic assessment of all your stuff. Start doing this early. Try for three to six months early. You’ll need a long time because you don’t want to get rid of good stuff.

Garage sale
You should consider having a garage sale. I’m not keen on them but I’ve heard of them working for others. The best garage sale ever I went to was organised by the street residents, and about a third of all homes in the street had stalls. It was great just wandering up and down. They may have got more people there because everyone was close by with less need for driving around.

ebay sales
I found ebay worked remarkably well for me, but of course these sales take time with photographs and the write-ups you have to do, and because of that should be organised many months before moving day. Ebay got rid of some large items that would have caused me a problem, and included an old rusty car with a blown up engine. I also had a rusted out trailer which also sold. Why anyone wanted them I don’t know, but they brought in a bit of cash when I would otherwise have had to pay someone to take them away. Ebay was also useful for getting rid of some left over mild steel that I had (recycle merchants won’t pay for steel unless you have a truck load, so you might as well sell it; they will pay for copper and aluminium etc), a motorcycle and cement mixer were also sold, along with various other stuff. It didn’t all sell, but most did.

Damage and insurance
Think about insurance if you are doing your own move. If you are being moved by your employer the chances are high that you will be covered by the company insurer, but check.

Take photographs of your valuables to help with that insurance claim you hope will never have to be made. Digital cameras make this so easy. Just think about it. If you get your furniture to your destination and find your antique dresser has been gouged by some mishap you are certain occurred during transit or storage you’d be disappointed and angry if the insurance assessor knocked back your claim. An accident could happen during transit, and some employee not wanting to upset their boss by their incompetence may have kept quiet about the incident and rubbed some dirt or stain into the fresh scratch to cover it up. The insurance assessor might reasonably assume it was you who had damaged the item before the move. A few suitably date proven photographs before and after may help with your claim. And if you are going to do this do it well otherwise don’t bother. As well as a distance shots of the items, get your camera close up and cover all surfaces, and have good lighting on the subject.

The previous owner

K, the previous owner dropped by. She promised to pick up some gym equipment that had been left behind in the carport. She also spoke about arranging to finish some carpentry work on our wardrobes. The stuff in the carport was no problem at all. We had left a ton of stuff in Melbourne. That was not an issue to us. However, the wardrobe situation was troublesome.

Despite promising that work on the wardrobes would be finished before we moved into the house the work had not been completed. The mirrored doors had been fitted, and while the wardrobes were new, which was nice, it would have been better had the job been completed. Some of the railings were missing from the inside, and the drawers needed fascias to be fitted to improve their appearance. Wardrobes are pointless if you can’t hang your clothes in them.

Cruise control

The lack of sophistication in technology
My new ute has cruise control fitted. I found cruse control takes a bit of getting used to if you’ve never experienced it. I had it set during the recent trip to Melbourne, and then forgot to switch it off when approaching a service station where I wanted to stop. I approached the entrance rather quicker than expected. As I said, it takes a bit of getting used to. While I find the device great to use, they feel weird. It’s like relinquishing control. Well, I guess this is true to an extent, but the thing is that the controller doesn’t control the car’s speed in the same way that I would.

It’s strange as they try to accelerate up hill as well as down hill. That’s truly bizarre. As you near the crest of a hill, I would be inclined to ease off on the throttle and let the car coast, but not cruise control. With it switched on the car keeps gunning it up and over the top. They can also be very nasty when you find yourself accelerating into blind corners. Some of the bends on the highway can be tight, and leaving the cruise control set at 100 kph on a bend can put the wind up you. Sure you can put your foot on the brake, or disable the device, but I wonder if manufacturers could improve upon the technology. Here are a few ideas.

Manufacturers might link cruise control devices to the steering. That wouldn’t be difficult with a few micro switches. Perhaps they should also have an inclinator built into the device to monitor whether the vehicle is travelling up or down hill.

There is little point in accelerating down hill; it’s a waist of fuel, but that’s what they do. As soon as the car gets over the top of the hill, the throttle doesn’t ease off to allow gravity to speed the car, but no, its full speed ahead. Similarly, if an uphill grade immediately follows a downhill grade the device should detect the change and maintain the higher speed (within reason) in anticipation of the load of the hill on the engine, rather than waiting until a reduction in speed to be detected before throttling up.

It wouldn’t be too hard. The current speed is known. An inbuilt timer could come into play with this. The logic might operate like the following: If the device has detected a down hill grade by the angle of the vehicle against horizontal, it should register that it’s going down hill. If it then registers an up hill grade it should maintain the current throttle opening. And if the designers were really on the ball they could design the device to note the rate of deceleration and open the throttle an amount to anticipate loss of speed. Of course, if at the bottom of the hill there is no subsequent up hill run, the device would detect this by registering horizontal for a prolonged period of time. It would be up to manufacturers (or users) to program the device as to what point the road surface is considered level. If the vehicle has been driving horizontally continually for maybe 10 seconds or so without a change in the inclination it could resume normal operation at your predetermined speed. It could also operate in a kind of inverse way at the top of hills. As the top of the hill is approaching, rather than the vehicle continuing to accelerate over the crest and accelerate down hill as they do, the device should detect the change, maintain current throttle opening or back off on the throttle, allowing gravity to accelerate the vehicle, and similarly if the road remains level for 10 seconds or so the device should return to normal operation.

Similarly, an intelligence should be built into cruise control devices such that when driving on level ground if the steering wheel is turned more than a certain amount from centre, the current speed is maintained or reduced until the steering has returned to the straight ahead position before the device returns to normal operation. It wouldn’t be too difficult for manufacturers to determine the maximum amount that the steering wheel can be turned, at different speeds, to determine whether it’s safe or not. Depending upon how tight the corner is, the device could maintain whatever speed you were travelling, decrease the speed or disable cruise control until the steering was straight again. And if manufacturers were really clever the could program to adjust for cornering on sloping road surfaces.

I know I’ve gone on about this, but these devices do seem to be lacking.


Cruise control is on, but the brain is off
I expect modern commercial vehicles have cruise control devices fitted in addition to automobiles. On the highway more and more I noticed trucks as well as cars drifting past each other at what seems like half a mile per hour faster than the other. Can’t these people step on the accelerator for a few seconds?

Do you want me to exceed the speed limit? Sure I do, if you are so anxious to overtake. If you are unhappy to drive 1 mph slower than me and stay behind me, than 1 mph faster and be in front then you should darn well step on the accelerator and get on with it. You are annoying me, and making everyone else behind you angry by holding them up with you antics.

I was watching S in the ute as we were driving down the Hume Highway, no doubt with the cruise control set. I was also watching the behaviour of the truck drivers we encountered. She was driving ahead of me and we were both aiming to sit on 100 kph. Many times while on the freeway I’d see a semi coming up behind me, creeping slowly closer by the minute. Eventually the semi would pull out and overtake, which is okay. But on more than one occasion they would do this on the approach to an uphill grade. They would pull out and overtake, and as the hill made its presence felt on the truck it would loose speed. But the cruise control of the ute would keep the car’s speed at a steady 100. Eventually, the semi would slow and pull into the lane behind the ute, and in front of me.

Eventually, the top of the hill would be reached and the semi would gradually gain speed and catch up to the ute again and pull out into the other lane and overtake it, and that’s okay. But just as often by the time it had caught up, changed lanes to overtake, it was on another uphill grade and quickly lost ground again and have to pull back behind the ute and wait for the cycle to begin again. This is annoying, and I found it to be stupid, stupid behaviour.

After a while I would watch the type of semi that passed me and if I noticed the truck looked like some sleek, new, high powered, monster I would stay behind it even if it did slow a little, because generally they just kept on going and faded into the distance. But so often the drivers of older, slower, trucks attempted the same kind of thing. I quickly learned that if these twits wanted to play silly buggers by passing a quicker vehicle (in this case, me in my brand new, empty truck) then when that hill came along I’m going to pass them without hesitation.

Here are two things to consider when driving:

1. Know the limitations of your vehicle, and drive accordingly
2. If it seems apparent that another vehicle is travelling faster than you, don’t overtake it, because they are only going to overtake you further down the highway.

Melbourne to Canberra

We managed to get everything into the campervan (with a few things in the car) on Sunday morning, and headed back to Canberra. This was our last trip!

Of all those trips I’d spent on the Hume Highway between Melbourne and Canberra over a period of almost a year, this one was now the last. I’d grown fond of the drive, listening to all those audio books, and I became familiar with a lot of the landmarks along the way. There are some wonderful landscapes on that trip, if you take the time to look around.

It’s good to see some road works going on in NSW, and hopefully there will soon be more freeway sections of the road coming into the Hume Highway. In fact, it doesn’t seem so long ago that going through Albury was a 60 kph slow zone through the Albury city streets. Now the new bypass speeds you through Albury. Wodonga has been bypassed for so long I can’t remember. Albury was such a nuisance with so many left and right turns as you twisted through the centre of town hitting traffic light after light. One disappointment for me with the Albury bypass was the discovery of a roadhouse on the northern end just outside Albury that sold great fish and chips. Of course, it was a truck stop, which is often a sign of good food on the highway. Well, the freeway has bypassed that service centre. But the smooth-as-glass road surface of the Albury bypass is brilliant.

Of course, the more freeway sections that are added the more small towns will be bypassed, which may affect the viability of some of them. Of all of the small towns, Holbrook is one that caught my eye despite my never having stopped there for long, except once for some chips late one night. Holbrook is submarine town. I don’t know how far Holbrook is from the sea, but to have a full size submarine in the town centre is no mean feat. And I don’t think the river system in Australia stretches as far as Holbrook. Alas, the old subs must have arrived in sections by truck, unless there is an artesian basin running under Holbrook. Perhaps, I’ll get back that way for a weekend drive sometime and check out the sub. What a bizarre thing for the city council to do.

Another fabulous section of the Hume Highway, as far as engineering achievements is concerned, is on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, just south of Craigieburn. I used to get badly lost before the freeway section was completed if I missed a road sign or detour sign on the way into Melbourne. It seemed such a hodgepodge of roads through an industrial area of town. Not only has this section of the road been made top class, but there are a number of wonderful roadside sculptures that are worth more than a glance, and they look stunning at night the way they have been lit up, and look here for more. Look out for the speed traps that are in this new section, and also in the final run up to Melbourne; there are no warning signs. You just get caught.

Our last pickup

S got sleepy on the way down and wanted to stretch out in the camper. I had to stop in a parking bay just north of Albury because I was flaking out too, but had a lousy rest. There were so many trucks whizzing by in such close proximity that they forced me back on the road behind the wheel in search of a better spot. We drove on and found a quieter rest spot just south of Glenrowan.

We both snuggled up for a while, and got on our way shortly after 8.00am, arriving in Melbourne for breakfast in Volumes at about 11.00am. Since we had the camper on the ute I had intended to drive to a caravan park that wasn’t too far from Warrandyte. We were planning on staying there for the night and spend the next day packing the campervan, and then back to Canberra. We were on the verge of heading off to the camping site, in drizzly rain, when S casually mentioned the motel we stayed in last time. We had almost driven past it. But it was too tempting, and I drove in and booked another room with a spa bath for fun, and then loafed around.

Canberra to Melbourne

We’re off to Melbourne again, yet again. The campervan had been sitting on the ute since it had been loaded. Of course, everything had been emptied from it, and now it’s going back to Melbourne. Our task on this trip was to fill the campervan with everything from Fort Knox self storage. The camper will become a removalist van. With the extra height that it has we’ll be able to get more inside than we could by loading the ute by itself.

The furniture arrives

I’m surprised neither of us got sick from our experience of that weekend working on a cold and damp night.

Our furniture arrived today. I rang Wridgways in the morning to find out what was happening; I wanted to get a delivery date. They said they’d been trying to contact me all day yesterday. That’s probably true, as I wasn’t at work. Though I was surprised when they said they didn’t know where to deliver our stuff. Almost every box had my address on it. I wonder why they didn’t try me on my mobile.

The truck arrived just before 11.00am and they were gone by 3.00pm, and afterwards the house looked like a warehouse inside and out by the time they had finished. There was stuff everywhere. Boxes had been stacked two or three deep and two high. S fed the men up on pies and beer. This is probably always a good thing to do. It may have led to them leaving lots of large plastic bags to cover our stuff that was left on the front veranda. These people work hard and a little kindness can go a long way. The veranda tends to get wet in the rain and the plastic covers were welcome. The Canberra Wridgways people were excellent (good on you, guys); unlike our Melbourne experience with Wridgways.

A few damages were evident. I have two wooden crates. I spotted one of the crates had been stored on its side. I hope it wasn’t the one I had marked ‘stereo and computer’. Some of the removalist boxes were badly squashed. While they were unloading and before everything had been removed I had a look inside the truck to see how things had been packed. Some boxes were squashed in sideways. I spotted one upside down.

We have an old copper which got damaged, and was squashed out of shape in the shift. I think I spotted the location on the truck where the copper had been packed. I noticed an almost perfectly circular space between several cartons on the truck. It was probably the copper that had been rammed into the gap, deforming the boxes into the shape of a circle, and damaging the copper in the process by squashing its sides. That’s not particularly clever packing.

Anyway, it was darn nice to be able to sit in an actual lounge chair, and turn the telly on. Normality had begun. That is, amidst the chaos of stacks and stacks of removalist boxes.

Melbourne to Canberra

We had another very slow trip back to Canberra, with lots of breaks. I was particularly aware of how things were packed in the truck and was very tentative in driving over rough sections of the road. Parts of the Hume Highway are not as pleasant to drive on as you’d expect for a major highway. So, I slowed at those sections, and I didn’t care how much I held up the traffic. This highway badly needs an overhaul. Even parts of the Victorian side of the highway, which is freeway for the whole length of it, is beginning to break up with the heavy traffic; probably truck usage more than anything.

A fog began to develop when we were somewhere near Glenrowan and it didn’t let up until we reached Gundagai. I wonder if it was from the Murray River system. It was quite eerie. The headlights seemed to shine in the wrong directions, with low beam being the best. It got so thick at times that we had to drive slowly.

I recall listening to a news broadcast many years ago. A couple of motorists driving in Germany had succumbed to an accident on a highway. They were driving on the same road but in opposite directions in a very heavy fog. It was so foggy that both drivers were having trouble seeing the road ahead. To alleviate the problem it seems that both drivers had preferred to lean out the window and drive by keeping the painted line on the road surface in sight. They encountered each other suddenly, not in a vehicle collision, but when their heads impacted as they drove past each other. They should have stopped if the conditions were so bad. It sounds like a tall story, but it was reported on ABC Radio news.

Fortunately, the fog was not so heavy on the Hume, but it was a lovely experience to see it. This trip must have taken around 12 hours, including breaks. S was desperate for sleep. Every time I had to stop for a nap, she could only rest in a sitting position in the ute. There was more room to stretch out in the truck so we swapped and she got a good rest for a few hours. I noticed while in the ute, that as comfortable as the car is to drive, you just can’t get into a decent position for sleeping.

Home at last. A short rest, and then realising our time was short in which to return the truck to the rental company, we almost threw everything out (and it still took about 2-3 hours to unpack). We rushed to fill the tank, and get the truck back to Fyshwick by 5.00pm. Actually, filling the tank was an interesting experience that I shared with my credit card.

With fuel prices seeming to be in an upward spiral it becomes annoying to watch the dollar indicator spinning around ever faster as you fill the petrol tank at the end of the week. When I stopped the truck to fill the fuel tank, and saw the size of the tank you quickly understand that paying for fuel in a truck takes on a whole new meaning that motorists never experience. Actually, it was an experience in more ways than one. With a truck, the nozzle goes straight into the tank. There are no bends in the filler as cars have, and refuelling stations have diesel bowsers specially made for filling truck tanks. High speed bowsers. Now if you want to see the dollar indicator spin, fill a truck tank at one of these bowsers.

Actually, filling the tank was the single worst experience of driving the truck. The bowser nozzles were generally messy; soaked in diesel spillages. And it stinks, and stays on your hands and clothes. I suspect some people with diesel engines in their cars go there to avoid lining up in the queues at the regular bowsers, and of course the high speed bowser pumps mega volumes of fuel out like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, it blows back, spills, and before you know it these people are stuffing things up for everyone else.

It felt really peculiar getting back into the EXA, after driving the truck for so long. The car was so low to the ground that it felt weird, and it was a bit rough being an older vehicle that it felt like I was driving a truck; compared to the rental truck which felt like driving a car. Home again. An Indian takeaway, and then bed.

Finally cleared out from Warrandyte

We rose, not so early on Sunday morning, and got back to Warrandyte for more packing. We quickly realised that there was no way all our stuff was going to come with us. So, we loaded the hardware and things that wouldn’t come, and took it to our storage at Fort Knox.

We had an amazingly large amount of stuff (three trolleys full), and an amazingly large amount fitted into the space we had. Some of it was balanced precariously. We’ll have to make another trip later.

After a while we both became very casual when crossing the road with approaching traffic. Hey, this is our street; keep your speed down: See, we’re not rushing out of your way. Actually, you could hear the traffic coming a long way off because of the wet road. The wet weather made things miserable. But, gradually things came together.

As I was loading the truck I had a curiously large number of motorists toot at me and calling out unintelligible things as they drove past. Were they feeling sorry for me, seeing me packing in the dark, or telling me to get off the road? Maybe they thought I was up to no good, and robbing one of the houses on the street. No idea. It was bizarre.

I squeezed our boxes into every nook and cranny, and almost packed them to the ceiling at the front of the truck. It was very loaded well.

I had to ring the rental company and apologise for not returning the truck on time. It was due back in Canberra at 5.00pm and here it was 4.00pm with us still packing in Melbourne. We needed another day.

S had collected a lot of magazines over the years, and wondered if Melody would have liked them. Passing them on would have been a way of getting rid of them. No, she wasn’t interested. Fortunately, it was rubbish night in Warrandyte, and the neighbours’ bins became very useful. Every bin in the close vicinity began to bulge as we filled them with our magazines and other rubbish.

Despite packing carefully and stacking the various boxes as high as possible so that there would be the maximum amount of floor space for our plant pots it became apparent that there would be insufficient space for them all. Drastic measures needed to be adopted: Large pot plants were placed next to one another on the floor, with tiny pots located in the gaps between the larger ones. Now came the tricky bit. Another layer of pot plants was placed on top of the first layer. That’s not something you would think of doing if you valued the pots or the plants in them. It was desperation. Then came all the last minute things, and before the truck doors were closed things were literally being thrown inside. Brooms, strips of wood and other stuff that I can’t recall, were literally thrown inside on top of everything else. There was no choice really. We finally left at about 10.00pm

Clearing out of Warrandyte

This was another trip to Melbourne. I had this grand plan of having an early night the day before, and then hitting the road during the early hours of the morning. As much as you might try, it’s almost impossible to break the circadian cycle. Our planning for this trip involved being in bed shortly after getting home from work, getting up at about 2.00am to drive the truck through the night to arrive in Melbourne in daylight. In this way we would be fresh enough to make the drive and get on with our work without much need for rest. We planned to have breakfast at Volumes, one of the local Eltham eateries, and then get to work. But it’s difficult to sleep when you don’t need rest, and the best I did was doze on Friday evening.

I got up about midnight after a very patchy rest. S didn’t sleep at all. We headed off, S in the ute and me in the truck. S had cruise control set on the ute which made it difficult for me to keep up with her. She could go up and down hills at a constant speed, whereas I found that difficult in the truck. Inevitably, we drove for a bit, got tired and had to stop along the way, just south of the Victorian border. S later had to stop again for a rest, while I kept going. It was drizzly on the way down the Hume Highway. It was a miserable dirty night.

I went straight to Fort Knox self storage while S was napping somewhere on the Hume Highway. I wish I had a camera with me when I opened the door to our storage. It was a sight to behold. I don’t know how I got everything inside. I set to work packing everything into the truck. The rain was clearing, and S arrived just as I was loading the desk. Loading took much longer than expected, and I was running out of energy.

S spent the rest of the day cleaning out the garage at Warrandyte. I forgot how much stuff we still had lying around the place. Of course, Melody had moved into our old house by this time. I began by loading the campervan onto the ute. I was tentative about doing this.

Loading the camper took me ages, but the repaired jacks worked just fine, and fortunately the anchors I had fitted to the ute were in the correct positions, which was a great relief. I was also dreading connecting the trailer extension lead, expecting to see problems with the electrics. The last thing I wanted was an electrical problem, but it was perfect.

I began loading a few boxes onto the truck that S had packed. It took so long. I don’t know how many times I’d walked up and down that driveway. It was tiring. There were so many little things to go into the truck that carrying everything down the long driveway and then walking back up that long, steep, drudge, time after time was painfully slow and sapped energy. We decided to borrow one of the trolleys from Fort Knox to see if it would help. The trolleys were heavy duty things, and would probably support the load of just about anything you might care to put on them. They were on casters and really so easy to manoeuvre.

It was a failed experiment, and we returned the trolley after using it only once. The trolley was a bit like the ones you see in railway stations or airports, hooked together to carry luggage, and pulled behind those funny little motorised vehicles, and about the same size as those trolleys too. I didn’t realise how heavy the trolley was, and it took quite an effort to push it up our drive. We got it loaded up with some of our boxes, but it took both of us all our energy to stop the thing from careering out of control as we took it down the driveway, because of the weight. The casters also made steering difficult as it tended to follow every variation in the driveway, rather than straight. The drizzle and wet drive didn’t help. What a flop of an idea.

There was nothing for it but to return the trolley and carry on loading the truck by carrying each box down the drive one or two at a time. Had I known the campervan would have gone on the ute without trouble I would have loaded it last and used the ute to ferry everything down the drive to the truck. But I didn’t want to have trouble and be trying to fix problems in the dark. The lesser of two evils. Though, it would have been a great time saver.

Eventually the day started to lose its light, and a continual drizzle settled in. There was a lamp in the back of the truck, but it was very bright and dazzling on the eyes, and would have flattened the battery quickly. So, I didn’t use it. There was a street light about a 100m away which shone into the back of the truck somewhat, and I found that car headlights shone into the truck as they drove down the street, and both provided adequate lighting for packing; funny about that. It’s interesting how your eyes cope with poor lighting conditions. The drizzle continued, and we gradually got drenched carrying the boxes to the truck.

S was buggered, and so was I to tell the truth. And, we went off in search of a place to stay, and called in at the Eltham Gateway motel. We’d both passed this place thousands of times while we’d lived at Warrandyte. It was funny to be staying there now. We must have been a sight; both of us wet, grubby, and untidy. We had been working hard and it would have been difficult to tell whether the dampness on us was sweat or rain drops; probably both. I was wearing t-shirt and jeans and when we arrived at the motel, it seemed a rather pleasantly mild evening. Everyone else was rugged up in coats and shivering; it’s all relative, I guess.

The spa bath after the day’s effort was irresistible, and we had a lovely meal at the motel restaurant, and a real bed. Our furniture hadn’t arrived in Canberra as yet and we’d been sleeping on a blow up mattress. The bed in the motel seemed luxury. I felt as though we were on holiday.

Canberra to Melbourne

It was time for another trip to Melbourne. We picked up a truck from Sargent Rentals at Fyshwick this time. This truck was manual rather than automatic as was the previous one. It took quite a bit of getting used to. I didn’t get off to a great start, as I was selecting the wrong gears and was a bit unsteady on the road because of my fumbling with the gear shift. It’s not that I don’t know how to drive a manual. It was just a matter of getting used to the truck and I didn’t realize first gear would be so low. At least I’d gained some experience in driving a vehicle this size a few days ago.

We loaded the truck with our empty cartons, a change of clothing, and some tools ready for the trip, and of course, the repaired campervan jacks.

The campervan jacks had become seized preventing me from bringing the campervan back to Canberra, and was presently stuck in Melbourne on our old property. This was a setback that had hopefully now been resolved. I took the two jacks to my trusty Belconnen mechanic a few days earlier to see if he could repair them. I guess I could have bought new jacks, but in the vicinity of $1800 I’ll try the repair first. And it worked. When I picked them up from the garage I was more than a little curious to find out how they were un-seized. Apparently, the mechanic had difficulty with them.

The solution ended up along the lines of securing one end of the jack to the hydraulic hoist of the type used raise cars into the air for service, and then securing the other end to the floor. The jacks were heated with an oxy acetylene flame, and pressure applied to the mechanism by turning the jack handle, while at the same time applying pressure by raising the hoist. I squirmed a bit when being told, but hey, if it works. Innovative!

I was so pleased they had been repaired. It wasn’t just the cost of the replacement jacks that concerned me. According to the web site I found, and thankfully they are still available, I may have had issues if I bought new ones. My campervan must be more than 30 years old. I bought it second hand and in one of the drawers was an old book of matches. The photograph on the book of matches was that of Prince Charles and Diana at their wedding. That’s getting back a few years. Anyway, according to the web site, you buy four camper legs, as they call them, in a set (I only need two), and you buy them with accompanying brackets. The brackets are fitted to the campervan, and the legs hook into the brackets when in use. Well, my campervan already has brackets fitted, neatly tailored into the aluminium sheeting and the structure of the unit. What’s the bet the new legs wouldn’t fit the existing brackets, and replacing the brackets would be a major ordeal. Not the sort of work you’d want to attempt interstate.

Anyway, our two cats will have a huge helping of food to tide them over for the weekend, and here goes another trip down the Hume Highway.

A large cheque deposit

I used the Virgin card to deposit the settlement cheques. I remain incensed by this mistake, but felt relieved once it was deposited. Banking the cheque though the Post Office was a breeze.

The new washing machine arrived. I tried it out and put too much detergent in the machine. I couldn't help thinking of images of the three stooges TV show, with soap suds oozing from every orifice, of the machine that is.

A $90,000 loose end tidied up

The Virgin card arrived in the post this afternoon. At last I can correct that dumb mistake that occurred during settlement and deposit the $90,000 cheque. But I wonder what it has cost me in increased interest repayments.

S called in at the Belconnen solicitor’s office to pick up the cheque. She was treated in an offhand manner by the staff at the office. That was at William Heague, Belconnen. She was amused to note, that when they spotted her title (Dr) their manner changed markedly.

Stupidity, incompetence, and lies

At settlement I had a couple of cheques issued in my name, the larger of which was in the region of $90,000. The cheque was not drawn at my request and was done due to absent mindedness, error in judgment, or incompetence by the people undertaking settlement on my behalf.

I had rang David, from Virgin Money when I first got wind of it as I was concerned I hadn’t completed all the various forms exactly as required. He telephoned to say I had completed everything correctly. So why did the Virgin agent and my solicitor go making decisions on their own and fowling things up? My solicitor had said she was advised by Virgin to draw the $90,000 cheque. It could have been that the Virgin agent knew little about banking, nor how to conduct a property settlement. It could have been that the solicitor had little regard for my interests. I don’t know what it was, but someone had goofed. No one sought advice from me. If there was any doubt they should have contacted me and asked.

I rang Wridgways to find out when our furniture would be delivered. It would be delivered on the 4th July. Now that’s curious, considering Wridgways in Melbourne said our things would be delivered definitely before July. It sounds as though Mark De Lacy, the Melbourne Wridgways guy, was making things up when he said our furniture would be delivered before the end of the month.

Is that the technique? Whenever there is a problem, just open your mouth and tell the punters a whole heap of crap. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not just smooth the waters to get them out of your hair. Well, it fitted with the whole Wridgways experience.

Life in the new house begins

I was still feeling exhausted, and my day at work on Friday seemed to come and go without much input from me.

Normality is beginning to return, and on Saturday we went shopping for a new washing machine. Our last machine was taken to the dump as a lost cause, after it died in a fit of smoke and sparks. Is this domestic bliss returning?

Some time to recover

Back at work again. I seemed to in a daze and not able to concentrate on much. I guess I was still recovering from our efforts in Melbourne. I could barely focus on work except to check a few emails and not much more.

I dropped off the campervan jacks at my local garage to see what they could do with them. My campervan is still in Melbourne because I couldn’t load it on the ute, because two of the jack stands had seized. Though, I don’t hold out much hope for the repair. I checked on the web to see where replacements come from; not finding much.

Melbourne to Canberra

It was very late when we left. We had said to Melody we’d phone when we leave, but that didn’t work out. I doubt she’d appreciate being wakened at 4.00am.

We were both desperately craving sleep, but we had to continue working. Our cats had been drugged in readiness for the trip, but seemed wide awake. We got some drugs from the vet; cat valium, I guess. It was almost time to leave and we couldn’t get them to pee. Then they started to become wobbly on their feet, which was so bizarre to see. Drunken cats!

S wanted more things loaded into the cars. There wasn’t room. There should be a rule when packing. Namely: if one person is doing the packing and the other is bringing the stuff out. The rule is, when the car is almost full, but not completely full, the packing person should make an announcement: “Hey, the car is full.” That way, when the other ‘last minute’ items that must be packed are eventually brought out, and they will, there will be room for them. Of course, I guess you could just survey all the stuff that has to go and try and make an estimate. This is a difficult time.

To my regret I got grumpy with S. My grumpiness came out in my manner and in the things I said. I tried not to grump, but stuff slipped out. I was too self-absorbed in packing the car that I didn’t appreciate what S was going through in the house. I expect lack of sleep may have contributed. We had been going at it all day, and into the evening, and now it was some ridiculous time in the early hours of the morning.

So that was it. We weren’t able to shift everything, but we were out of the house. S had left a bottle of champagne as a welcoming gift for Melody. I had a final quick look around the house one last time; to make sure everything was out. And I took a few photos for the memory of it all. S wasn’t interested. I think she had had enough of it and just wanted to go.

So, we got under way, and with just a few hours remaining before sunrise we hit the road. We’d been on the road for less than an hour and I was hanging out for a place to pull over and sleep. I couldn’t go on. I spotted a parking bay. The first one on the Hume Highway just north of Melbourne past Craigieburn. I had to stop and rest. We slept for about an hour. It’s difficult to sleep in a sitting position. There was no possibility of stretching out because both cars were packed to the brim. There was no real sleep here. It was just a rest, and the rest didn’t seem to help that much. We were both still tired.

We were disturbed by dozens of trucks zooming by and shaking the car as they went. We eventually got on our way again. I’m supposed to be back at work in a few hours’ time. Ha. Oh, yeah, right.

I had Squeak in a cat box in the EXA, and she was surprisingly well behaved for the scaredy cat she is. S had Elsa also in a cat box, in the ute, and she may have had a reaction to the sedative we gave them before the trip because she was farting all the time and stinking up the car. Poor S had to put up with the smell. We drove for another hour or so, and I had to pull over at a service centre. Another place to park and sleep. We slept for another hour which again was another horrible rest. The cold weather didn’t help any.

We had a snack before leaving, and with daylight’s arrival staying awake was beginning to become easier. Then I had an interesting experience with a couple of police officers in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Melbourne and Canberra. I can’t remember where. Things were a bit hazy you must understand.

The road ahead was just a blur. A strip of grey-black that wriggled and rolled around in front of me, sometimes passing through towns, sometimes not. I’ve never been on such a boring horrible trip. Anyway, somewhere in the middle of nowhere David, my Virgin Home Loans contact, called to congratulate me that settlement went through, which was really nice of him. While on the phone, I spotted a cop car driving by in the opposite direction. The section of the road I was on was straight but undulating a bit. The cop car was over the hill and out of sight behind me in a few seconds.

I had a notion they might have spotted me with the phone to my ear. I pulled off the highway as far over into the dirt as I could, and stopped. I switched off the engine, continued talking to David on the phone, and waited. Either nothing would happen or there’d be a tap on the window.

The journey from Melbourne to Canberra is about an eight hour drive. What are the chances of someone calling, and a cop car passing, just at that instant? For the few seconds it takes to pick up the phone when it rings, why that particular time? The gods were against me. Had the call come at any other time or even a couple of seconds later this would not have happened. Bizarre.

I can just imagine it. Two cops driving and one eagle eye says to the other, “He’s on the phone. Got one.” They screeched to a halt, chucked a u-turn, on with the flashing lights, and raced after me. They probably thought it’d be something to do on a quiet afternoon.

So, I’m sitting there in the car, parked at the side of the road, and a moment later I caught sight of some flashing lights in the rear view mirror. A cop car was pulling up behind me. They didn’t stop me; I was already parked by the roadside. A knock at the window, and the young police officer says he saw me on the phone when they passed. They must have good eyes.

I admitted it. I couldn’t deny it. I still had the phone to my ear. I rang off, and gave my attention to the policeman. I said as soon as it rang I pulled to the side of the road. That’s difficult to dispute, particularly with me parked as I was. He said that I shouldn’t have answered it, and issued a warning. That was a narrow escape. I wonder how it would have gone had I kept driving.

Our traditional stopping spots when travelling on the Hume Highway were MacDonald’s (near Glenrowan) and at Gundagai. At both stops we allowed Elsa and Squeak a breath of fresh air outside the cars, and perhaps to take a toilet break. But at Glenrowan they didn’t want to leave the safety of their cat boxes. Squeak came out of her box at Gundagai. We put a leash on her, but she didn’t want to explore. There were a few dogs around the place, which may have put her on edge. At one point Elsa squeezed into the same pet carrier as Squeak; poor things: scared.

We continued, and once again had a late arrival, but this time it was at our new house. B, our Canberra real estate agent, had left a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses for us, but we had too much to do to sit and drink it. Perhaps we should have had some. Wasn’t that nice of her? Isn’t that great marketing?

It's not coming together

We planned to vacate the house at Warrandyte at 8.00am, but it just wasn’t happening.

Despite what I thought was my diligence in packing our remaining stuff into cartons, S seemed to keep on bringing more and more stuff into the room. Was it breeding? Was I in the Twilight Zone? The lounge room looked a wreck. There was stuff everywhere. Then Melody came by to show off the house to one of her friends. Just what we needed!

I didn't know what to do with half the stuff. A few hurried visits to Fort Knox self storage helped, but not much. Our storage space at Fort Knox was now badly packed (which meant there was wasted space), but it was full. Some of the stuff in storage was precariously balanced too; I hope there’s not too much disturbance from passing trains vibrating the ground as they go by. It’ll all come tumbling down in a heap if the floor vibrates.

A trip to the dump was required, and while there I also took the opportunity to get rid of some good stuff by donating it to the recycle shop. This was a small thing, but despite hurrying it still took much more time than we could afford. This is actually a nice service the Nillumbik council provide. They run a shop at the dump. Anything that looks mildly valuable is put in the shop and sold. It’s a kind of a really down market op shop. It’s something that should be encouraged.

As a kid I used to love going to the dump. The treasures you could find at the dump kept me distracted for hours, and funnily enough I’ve still got one or two bottles I found as a kid.

We took some rubbish to the dump about three years ago during one of the council’s hard rubbish days, and noticed there was a pile of brick pavers there. Well, having a ute and seeing them looking quite good it didn’t take too much consideration to start loading them into the ute. There wasn't a huge number of pavers there, but there was a nice amount. We collected them and took them home, and within a few months we had dug out an area and paved an area in front of one of our park benches, and we built a raised garden bed next to it, and it all looked very nice.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted. There was still too much stuff remaining to be packed, and really no where for it to go. There was only one solution: it had to be left.

I rang Melody, and asked if we can leave some stuff at the house. She obliged. So, this was our situation:

• our immobile camper was now propped up and would stay
• the camper was packed full with stuff as a temporary measure
• more stuff (tools, steel, hardware) was stored below the camper,
• more stuff was stored in front of the camper
• pot plants were placed at the sides of the camper
• The garage bench was chockers full of stuff
• the space between the bench and the garage door was full of stuff
• the tool room which runs off the garage was also full
• there was also an overflow from the tool room into the garage, and
• the shelves in the garage also had our stuff on them.

There was obviously a lot to do still.

A duty of carelessness

The solicitor rang. She said, “Settlement went through without a problem.” This was really good to hear. And then she dropped a bombshell. She mentioned, in what seemed like a passing comment that there was a cheque for about $90,000 in my name. The cheque was in her office and ready to pick up.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

This was dumb to write a cheque. This amount was to remain in my home loan offset. I didn’t need this money as a cheque, cash, or anything else. This was an amount that was built into my home loan should I need cash for something in the future, but at the home loan interest rates.

The home loan interest is calculated on the amount that is borrowed. I had no intension of borrowing the full amount available to me, but now that a cheque has been issued the interest that will be calculated will be based on the full amount, rather than just the cost of the house. While these funds remained in the offset I would not be charged interest on them.

This offset amount was never actually intended to be borrowed. It was money for a rainy day; a kind of nest egg. However, now that a cheque has been issued I will be paying interest on an additional $90,000 that I have no need for. She said she “…was instructed by Virgin’s agent to draw all funds.” I find that difficult to believe. It was Virgin that had set up the offset. Surely, they knew what an offset was. Surely, they’d know they were going to send me a cheque book. Surely, they’d know I could write my own cheques whenever I wished. Whatever it was that happened between these two at settlement I’ll never know, but between the two of them they goofed badly, and stuffed me up into the bargain.

Put it back into the account, I said.
It can’t be done, the solicitor said.
Why not, I asked.
Because it’s in your name, she said.
I have no means to put it into my account, I said.
She said sorry.

Aggh!

Virgin Home Loans claim that one of the ways they keep their interest rates low is by having no shop front. With a bank you front up to one of their branch offices and carry out your business. With Virgin there is no branch office that you can visit to speak to someone from Virgin Money. Everything is done by phone, and if you want to make additional payments you go to your local Post Office with your special Virgin Home Loan ID card in hand and make the deposit, and your deposit gets directed into your account that’s encoded on the plastic card. This seems a simple process, and that’s how I would deposit the cheque into my home loan account. However, as a new customer Virgin Money hadn’t got around to sending this card. Without the card I can’t return the funds to my account. So, until the deposit card gets delivered I’m paying out more on interest than I need.

I think I just need to remind everyone about the people I’m dealing with: My home loan comes courtesy of Virgin Money who provided the cheque that I don’t need, and my solicitor who works with William Heague accepted this cheque without my instruction.

Both the lender and the solicitor appear to have shown little interest in my needs. Acted contrary to my wishes, in fact. You’d think with mobile phones someone might have spotted this whole situation as a bit odd, and thought, perhaps they should speak to me. But no, that was too difficult. Lazy sods. And to think these people bill for their services.

Canberra to Melbourne

On the trip back to Melbourne S drove the truck while I slept in the passenger seat. After a while, we took turns at driving while the other slept, finally arriving at Warrandyte in the early hours of the morning.

We could only afford a few hours sleep before getting up again to return the truck to the rental company by 8.00am. Though, to sleep in a decent bed was wonderful. It was only a mattress on the floor but it was Heaven.

I finished getting the anchor points fitted to the ute. Not a perfect job but good enough which will have to do until they can be tidied up later. I was content with my work, and ready to load the campervan. Then I discovered the campervan wouldn’t go on. This was devastating. I'd spent so much effort over the weeks to get to this stage, and now this. I could have wept.

The campervan is supported by four jack stands, with one positioned on each corner of the camper. Normally, it’s a simple matter of raising the van by using the jacks to lift it into the air, and when it is sufficiently high reversing the ute under it, then lowering the jacks to allow the van to settle onto the tray of the ute. The jacks unclip and are carried inside for storage until you get to your destination. Two of the four jacks were seized. I couldn't get them to move at all, and I felt that if I forced them something was going to break. I didn’t need this. Not now, when we have to be off the property.

There was no way I was going to be able to load the van without all four jacks. I slumped to the ground with my head in my hands and lent on my knees. I didn’t know what to do. I had to get them repaired or replaced. This was Saturday; nothing would be open even if I knew where to look.

I rang Melody regarding the problem, saying the van would have to stay on the block for a while until I got something worked out. Thankfully, she was accommodating.

Melbourne to Canberra

So, with S in the MR2, packed to the brim, me in the truck, we arrived in Canberra not at 11.00pm on the same day as we had hoped, but 8.00am on the next morning. It was a lousy trip. We were both tired. Watching the tail lights of the car in front bob around, rather than remain focused. Was that because they were bobbing around or because I was nodding? We took lots of breaks. S was driving behind me said she began to see a face on the back of the truck. I woke with a start at one point to the sound of a horn then realised I was leaning on the steering wheel. There was no way to get comfortable, and you can’t sleep in the driver’s seat.

It was early in Canberra when we arrived. I dropped off S at my lodgings. I’d previously flagged her arrival with my landlord. She went straight to bed. No sleep for me as yet, and I drove the truck to Flynn, which fortunately wasn’t too far away, to unload our stuff. We had made arrangements with the owners, who were still living in the house. They were happy for us to drop off our things. Anyway, most of the truck was loaded with pot plants and other bits and pieces that could stay outside or in the carport.

Gerald was there. He is a friend of the owners, and he helped me reverse the truck up the driveway, which was good of him. It would have been tricky on my own.

There was surprisingly little damage to the plants during the journey. The table tennis table had been set up as a table inside the truck on its trestle legs. I had screwed them open and linked them together with a piece of timber to prevent them moving during the trip. Having legs collapse during the trip would have been nasty. And it all worked very well.

I had placed large plants under the table with smaller pots on top. I also had a couple of pieces of steel reinforcing mesh; the type that concrete workers immerse inside concrete. I was going to leave this behind, not really having a use for it, and then S said it would easily go on the floor of the truck. In fact, it helped locate the plant pots in position and prevented them from moving around.

I was unloading the stuff, and the whole family turned out to greet me. K showed me through the house, offering me a coffee which was welcome, and we had a chat which I couldn’t afford. I wanted to get on with things, catch a nap, and get back to Melbourne, and I also had a very inquisitive little girl of theirs chatting and trying to help unload the stuff. What else can you do but go with the flow, and let her carry the odd thing. We were already a day behind because of the Wridgways removalist stuff up.

I had a worrying telephone conversation in the morning. My Canberra solicitor (Jaki) rang while I was unloading the truck to ask how I would be making the loan repayments. She said she had had someone on the phone from Virgin enquiring. I wonder why Virgin didn’t contact me directly. This was a bizarre question. Why didn’t they know this already? I’d already completed these details which were on the documentation that had been sent to me while in Melbourne, and had been returned to them. I told her how I’d completed the documentation and returned it by express mail. I was perplexed as to why they didn’t know, and said as much to Jaki. She was short with me saying that I’m not answering the question. She was rude. She worked with William Heague. I think it’s worth making a note of this. Anyway, she was correct; I wasn’t answering the question. I wanted her to tell me why they didn’t know something I’d only recently informed them of. She made no attempt to explain why they might be asking this, I provided the information, and she rang off. Virgin Home Loans or their legal people seem to be ignoring their own paperwork.

It’s bizarre that these legal people spend so much effort on sending documentation to customers, making it so difficult to cope with, and then when you return it to them including the basic information, like yeah, there will be a regular salary deduction toward the home loan, and they can’t read their own forms but have to ask you the same thing all over again. Nutty.

When the unloading was done I drove the truck to my digs.

I packed up the stuff that I had been collecting at my digs, loaded it into the truck. It was a handy bonus having the truck to do this. I drove it up to Flynn and unloaded it there. I had more stuff than I expected, filling the entire floor of the truck.

So, with the MR2 parked under the Flynn carport, we’re ready to set of on a return trip to Melbourne. Got to get the rental truck back to Melbourne before 8.00am. I’ll sleep in the truck while S drives.

Wridgways - a hired help company

We were up early again, this time to pick up the rental truck. We had booked a rental tuck from Europcar pretty much like this one. It was almost brand new with less than 10,000 kms on the clock. Very impressive! Driving something this size was quite an experience, but it was automatic which helped markedly. This was a small truck by any real standards, but seemed huge to me. It gave me a whole new level of respect for the skills of truck drivers.

The removalists had arrived after we’d left to pick up the truck, and when we got back I spotted the men hanging about not doing anything. I asked why they hadn’t started work. “There was no one here,” someone said, “and didn’t know what to do.” It would seem that Emily didn’t pass on our message to the men to say we’d be late, picking up our rental truck, and that they should start without us. Emily seems incompetent. I’m beginning to hate Wridgeways.

At least the men were on site and ready to go. They had brought a utility with them, and the lolly-pop men had arrived too. The plan was to drive their ute to the top of the driveway, load it with stuff, and then drive it down the drive and to an adjacent street where the truck was parked, and from there they did a swap from the ute to the truck. And presumably, the lolly-pop men held slow signs when the ute was entering or leaving the driveway. They were slow at first as the ticketing was being completed and while they got used to driving up and down the drive, but the pace quickened.

It was a frantic day.

S cleared out the attic, and passed furniture and boxes down the stairs to me. Funny how I’d forgotten how things got up there in the first place, when trying to get things down. Were they assembled or disassembled prior to putting them up there? I was washing out compost bins, coiling up garden hoses, and collecting garden tools. A lot of this stuff should have been done before, but there didn’t seem to be time.

We have an antique wardrobe. A brilliantly conceived piece where the top, bottom, back, mirror, and doors all separate for transport, and everything is held together with specially made wooden wedges and brackets. The wardrobe fell apart as one of the men tried to disassemble it. He said he knew what to do, but obviously he didn't have a clue. Then someone carrying part of the disassembled wardrobe on his shoulder scraped the polished wooden surface of the linen press while walking through the hallway. Hired help.

I was following this guy and saw him scratching the woodwork. He was unaware of what he’d done. I quickly grabbed the trailing end of it to steady it as he went. “Have you been working for Wridways long?” I asked. “No, it’s my first time,” and added, “and it’ll probably be my last.” This was probably a rather good plan if people’s houses and property is to be protected from this guy's destructive approach. Wridgways were dumb for hiring such sloppy, inexperienced people.

I asked one of the men who looked like a foreman not to pack my wheel barrow and hand truck, as I’d be using them to shift the pot plants into our rental truck. And then I saw the wheel barrow and hand truck being packed. “Oh, you want to keep them do you,” the same guy questioned. Thick as a brick.

Then later they made lots of use of our hand truck, as well as their own? Okay, whatever helps. I asked them not to pack the table tennis table. It was going to be used in our rental truck, opened up as a large shelf to store items on top as well as underneath it. And then later I found it missing and already loaded. It was unloaded. I don’t think they were happy, but they didn’t seem to be listening. They had packed a dresser but had left its mirror behind.

I was up and down the driveway checking that they were taking the correct things. Every time I did this I'd see our rental truck parked across the road, doing nothing. And every time I saw it I thought: I'm paying for that and getting no use from it. That's because of Wridgways.

S had organised some morning tea and beer for men to snack on as they went, but few seem interested. I offered a cuppa to the lolly-pop men. They had a lonely job, afer all. One of them took up my offer, but I was dissappointed at the end of the day to discover that either the mug had been 'pocketed' or thrown away.

At the end of the day, Wridgways wanted to charge $40 for the rent of the witches’ hats that the lolly-pop men had put on the road. I refused to pay it. I don’t think S paid it. What was that about: let’s see if we can fleece these bunnies for more money. Oh, I really hate Wridgways.

As the removalist had finished early, I asked the lolly-pop men if they’d stay while I loaded my truck. No, they couldn’t help; they had been hired by Wridgways, and they all left together, but added that their contract started at 7.00am, and at 3.00pm they’d soon be on overtime. I wheel barrowed the pants across the street on my own.

I should say, in fairness, that I was carrying a particularly heavy pot plant down the drive on the hand truck. Perhaps it looked as though the weight was beyond me, and I got some help from this one guy. It was appreciated. He was a pleasant guy, but by and large the rest didn’t give a damn, and departed as soon as they could. Anyway, while both of us were pushing the hand truck across the street, I asked this guy what it was like working for Wridgways. “I don’t work for Wridgways. I’m a contractor,” he replied.

We finished packing our own truck just as nightfall hit. After a day like that, the last thing you want to do is a couple of hours of loading heavy pot plants. It was a great saving to have shifted the pots part way down the block on the day before.

So, with S in the MR2 and packed to the brim, and me in the truck we set off for Canberra. We were both tired and despite wanting to rest up we had to hit the road.

Wridgways - a stuff up

It was a late night yesterday. With the removalists due we didn’t get to bed until about 2.00am, but the garage was almost finished. And so, after a lousy sleep, worrying about everything we had an early rise, and up at 6.00am. The removalists were scheduled to arrive at 8.00am, so we had to make an early start.

Eventually the removalists came and they started to mark off various boxes and items in the garage. Then not so far into the morning there came a time when there was a lot of standing around happening by the workers. For some reason the activity of everyone had ground to a very slow pace. I asked one of the men, “How’s it going?” It was just a causal question with no particular deep and meaningful intent behind it. Though I guess I was surprised to see the guy leaning against the wall and not really doing anything. But the guy’s response caught me off guard, “I don’t know. It’s not up to me.”

Wow. Something was up. How come I didn’t know?

Then along came Mark De Lacy from Wridgways and made himself known to us. He said the uplift had been called off until some traffic control people could be organised, that is, called off until the next day. He spent a long time talking with us. He apologised, and explained the dangers and difficulties of this particular job.

The issue of concern was access to the block. Because the removalist truck couldn’t be driven into our driveway (we had a steep block) or parked at the side of the road next to the drive (there is no footpath, just an earthen gutter), and because the block was situated on a main road (which was almost true) that a different approach to the upload would have to be adopted.

Mark then went on to explain how our furniture would be transported. Perhaps he was trying to deflect our thoughts from a lost day. He said our container load of furniture would be shipped by train, and he could guarantee a freight booking and said our stuff would probably be in Canberra next week. He couldn’t say exactly when it would arrive, but definitely this month.

Emily rang. She was the grumpy Wridgways person who, the other day, said I shouldn’t call into the office without telephoning first. She said the local Council would provide a service that included some lolly-pop men for a fee of $900, which she wanted us to pay for. These would be the traffic control people.

I dug my heels in. We had a quote. I told Emily that the person who had provided the quote had seen the property. He had walked up the driveway and knew how steep it was, and had driven on our street to get to the property and knew how much traffic it carried. Surely if something was difficult it would have been included in the quotation. Emily said she would check the quotation, and rang off. I was annoyed the uplift had been cancelled. I was doubly annoyed that Emily was asking for more money, out of the blue. I hope my anger showed on that phone call. I was seeing red. I’d had enough of Wridgways.

I rang my workplace who had forced me to use Wridgways. Apparently, at least one other person was having trouble with Wridgways, and I was asked to provide a report of my experience with them when I got back. Apart from that request, I didn’t get much help other than sympathy from this person, as pleasant and understanding as she was. I asked if I could dump Wridgways right there and then and go with another company. We had had a quote from Dawkins Removals, but that was before I knew we had to go with my company’s preferred removalist. She said I could change removalists if I wished given the circumstances.

I rang Scott at Dawkins Removals to see if he could do the shift, but in the mean time Emily rang back and offered to split the cost. She said the Council would put on three men at $47.90 per hour, and half works out to be $453.70. That amount needed to be paid in cash on the day of uplift. If we didn’t pay the amount immediately the uplift wouldn’t take place. Does this sound like blackmail? Dawkins was willing to do the shift. They were more expensive, but had built in the various hazards they had recognised on our block, and would shift our pot plants too, but unfortunately could not come as soon as we needed them. Wridgways had us over a barrel. I told Emily that I’d pay the fee.

I also said to Emily that we would be leaving the house early on the next day to pick up a rental truck, and to pass on this information to the men doing the uplift. I emphasized the fact that the house would be empty but unlocked tomorrow and that the men should start work in our absence. We didn’t want further delays.

Our original plan, had things gone to plan, was to have the removalists to do the uplift today. We had banked on that, because we had booked a rental truck for the next day, and would be loading our rental truck throughout the next day, and had planned to drive off to Canberra when loaded, hopefully sometime in the afternoon. This was going to be a nuisance with the Wridgways people and us trying to load both trucks at the same time.

The removalist people departed.

S and I spent the rest of the day lunching at a restaurant in Eltham, trying to take our minds of this shemozzle. A little bit of pleasantness amongst the chaos. On the way back I called into a steel merchant and bought some steel bar to help in fixing some anchor points to the ute so that the camper van could be secured. I’m not looking forward to this job.

We also spent the afternoon shifting some plant pots in readiness for loading into our truck on the next day. Some of those pots felt like they were glued to the ground. I could barley budge some of them. To say nothing of trying to get them down the steps through the garage and down the driveway. The hand truck was invaluable. I'm glad I bought a heavy duty unit.

Wridgways - an unexpected experience

I took a drive to the Melbourne office of Wridgways to pick up some removalist boxes. I’d been building up a few boxes from people who had finished using them and had given them to me. I also had a lot stored in the attic from when we moved into the house about 15 or so years ago. Those old boxes were still good, but the tape had perished. I guess that’s not surprising after all that time. Anyway, although I had a lot I needed some more.

Ted, one of the Wridgways reps had told S that the cost of removalist boxes would be included in the quote. And so there I was at Wridgways office looking to pick up a few boxes. I was asked to pay for them. I’m not particularly impressed with that.

Emily came out to the front desk to speak to me. She was visibly annoyed with me, saying I shouldn’t have just fronted at the office without having telephoned first. What the hell?

This is a business, surely. A shop front. When has anyone telephoned before calling at a shop front for anything? When was the last time you wanted something from a business; a chemist or shoe shop perhaps, and have had to make an appointment first? With a doctor or dentist you need to make an appointment, but if you walk in from the street they are not going to refuse to sell you a toothbrush or something, and say to you in an annoyed manner that you should have rung first. What a load of rubbish. What sort of company is Wridgways?

Anyway, Emily, this overly aggressive office tyke said the cost of removalist boxes was only covered if the company did the packing for us, and as we were doing our own packing we’d have to pay for them. This must have been in the small print somewhere. I don’t recall anything like that, and I thought I was quite good at reading the documentation. I couldn’t help wondering if she made it up on the fly. I paid for my boxes.

Tiffany rang while I was at Wridgways. She’s the person I was in the process of buying the ute from. She said the cheque had been cleared and she’d be bringing the key around. She congratulated me on the purchase. After Emily’s little tantrum I didn’t feel in a particularly congratulatory mood, being more in an it’s-about-bloody-time mood. Emily had definitely soured my frame of mind. Which was a pitty because unfortunatley Tiffany copped some coldness from me.

The 'to do' list grows

I had a very large ‘to do’ list, and only got through part of it with the most important being that the home loan forms got signed, witnessed, and sent off to Virgin Home Loan’s solicitors.

A day of packing and even more packing. The garage is a mess. I hope it comes together in time for the removalists. Emptied a sideboard that was in the garage. That was where the old stereo and my old uni notes were stored, but rats had taken up residence. I wrapped the stereo in plastic and old sheets to keep the dust out, but all it was doing was keeping the piss in close contact with everything.

I had to throw out a lot of urine soaked photocopies. But then, if I haven’t used then in all this time, I’d be unlikely to use them at all.

I've just noticed the tags I've selected: I seem to have inadvertently placed rodents and solicitor in the one posting. I wonder if there is a message there. Freud might have been proud.

Packing is so boring

The packing is taking much longer to do than expected. I found I get one of the removalist boxes almost full, only to see that there remains a little gap that’s too small for the next item. The gaps were too big to leave empty, but too small for much else. I didn’t want to leave any boxes only partially filled, yet I could not find a thing to put into the box to fill it completely. Bugger it. It’s so frustrating that in the end I just stuffed the gaps with cushions.

My eventual solution: pack two or three boxes simultaneously. Any items that don’t fit into one box often tend to more easily fit into one of the other boxes. Packing is so tedious; I wish I had started a lot earlier, and then the job could have been spread over a longer period and would have been less of a strain.

I didn’t get much done to the ute. The weather has been drizzly. Perhaps the weather is just an excuse. I have to fit anchor points to secure my campervan. I can’t seem to find the appropriate pieces of steel to do the job. I have lots of steel in the shed, but couldn’t find anything suitable. Perhaps this is avoidance behaviour. You see, I don’t quite know how to tackle the job. I have a general idea of how things should be, but can’t seem to make a start. I don’t want to make a hash of it. It’ll all come together when I get the correct steel for the job. Surely it will. It has to come together as there’s not much time to get things done.

And the clock ticks on. The removalists will be here soon. Got to go faster.

Getting the ute ready

I began to figure out how to attach the campervan to the ute. Well, should I say how to secure the four anchor points which will locate and secure the campervan when I put it on. I had to remove the plastic liner that’s used for a tray in modern utilities. Tiffany might be surprised to see her car (my car) in pieces if she calls by. The plastic liner was difficult to get out – it had been glued in place (probably to stop it vibrating during travel) as well as being bolted in position.

Manufacturers have gone a bit cheap with this plastic liner thing. Not long after I bought this house I built a few stone walls around the place; retaining walls and steps. I’d go to the local quarry and bring back about half or three-quarters of a ton of rocks in the back of my old ute. But with this new plastic ute; I don't know. I wouldn’t be willing to load rock in this ute; the rocks might fall through the bottom. Though, it does allow easy access to the innards of the vehicle when removed.

With my first ute I bolted the anchor points, as specially made steel u-bolts, part way down the sides of the ute. That worked very well, but looked atrocious. Kind of industrial looking. With my next ute I fitted rope rails, which would double as actual rope rails. This was great, but it took ages to put it together in a way that looked good. So, I had something different planned for this new car.

What I was trying for this time was four simple anchor points, but not having them bolted to the outside skin of the ute. I was trying for mounts on the inside. Plastic ute liners are not structural things. So, I had to remove it to find out where the steel in this ute was located. Anyway, it’s a happening thing, thankfully.

The legal stuff arrived

S did a stint of teaching at Monash. I returned a missing printer panel to a chap at East Bentleigh. I had sold an old printer to this guy on ebay, and months afterward realised there was a panel that had been left off, which made me feel bad. This was almost a year ago, and I only made this discovery while I was in Canberra. Anyway, this guy lived near to where I’d dropped S off. So, I paid him a visit while she was teaching. This chap was an enthusiast and bought the printer pretty much because it was a museum piece. He had collected a multitude of old computers some of which were quite impressive looking items.

We also spoke of the Monash University computer museum. He hadn’t seen it. It’s really a must see if you like that sort of thing. The museum has displays of calculating devices through the ages. Of all the items on display the one that got my attention and drew me up with a start was a terminal-come-printer of a type I had occasionally used when I was studying at uni. Things change quickly. Another interesting thing in one of their displays was an example of computer memory, which was essentially a wire spiral. I don’t really understand the principle involved in this, but presumably, by the time it took a charge to accumulate in the wire and dissipate, it stored the value for a short time. I wonder why a capacitor wouldn’t have done. An excellent display.

Melody called today. S made herself scarce, and I showed her around the garden and house, pointing out the various things, and gave her $350 for rent with our extended overstay. I said we’d leave the keys and garage door clickers on the bench.

A package of home loan documents (from Virgin Money’s solicitors) was sitting on top of the letterbox when we got back from Monash. Balanced precariously – thanks Australia Post. This was not a one or two page form to sign, but a massive bag of stuff to wade through. The swanky bag had “your home loan is in the bag” written on the side. Don’t you love it? I think it would have been fitting if instead the bag had the words, ‘we’ve put more hoops in the bag for you to jump through.’

A reading of the documents was more confusing than informative, but because it arrived late on Friday there was no time to contact anyone to clear up the issues. The document referred to monthly repayments – I wanted fortnightly repayments. They want insurance documentation for $210k, but I’ve already got insurance for $183k. And they want a rates notice! How could I possibly have a rates notice? I don’t live there yet. And they want an ID form sent via the Post Office. Most of the material they are asking for is in Canberra. I wish they’d said something to me before I drove down to Melbourne.

Tiffany dropped off the ute in the drive, but kept the ignition key. I gave her the cheque from the leasing company, and she completed the transfer of registration form, and passed that across with the RWC and car handbooks. This is step closer to actually having a car, but frustrating not to be given the ignition key. At least I can work on the ute and make a start to fitting the four anchor points that will secure the campervan that needs to go onto the ute. Everything is happening much slower than I’d like.

A leased vehicle

Wridgways, our removalists, got back to me with a quotation for undertkaing the job without doing the packing: $5592. They think that only one day will be required for pickup.

I drove into Melbourne to take some documents into Lou at DSP, and while there picked up a cheque for Tiffany to help pay for the car. DSP had already sent a cheque to Tiffany's car finance company the day before. So, that will pay out the balance, and that’s it. The car has been paid for. But Tiffany is still suspicious.

I suppose it’s only fair. Cheques do bounce. Although, its unlikely that a cheque from an organisation that’s owned by the RACV will have any trouble being cleared. Still, she doesn’t want to hand over the car until the money is in her account. I'll just have to wait.