Shifting House,Bloody sore foot and changing paperwork from WA to Qld !!
Most of the unpacking has been done,just need to put it into some sort of pattern !! My games room is coming on nicely and small sized snooker table in position and woodwork polished !!Changing paperwork because we are from Western Australia into Queensland paperwork is like moving from one country to another !! Each state has its own driving licence and motor registration.My personalized number plates cost Ann $300 in WA BUT to change them to Qld plates will cost me @2500 SO I,ll keep the bus registered in WA !!Health card,Pension card,Seniors card et al all have to be changed COME on Australia make it ONE Australia !! Different states also have different speed limits .Because I have been houseband with the cursed gout ,pictures are at as low SO I,ll bore readers with a look at our new house.We have met our across the road neighbours and although retired he is a professional GEM cutter and Ive been promised a go when he has his shed built ( We are also having one built ready for doing my bit of welding and Annie wants to construct her quarter finished Dolls House ( Im aching to get going on building my electric train set ( SO? Im back into my childhood ,lifes good)
Tradesmen of Hervey Bay (well Roller Door Motor Installers)
We were recently introduced to a “tradesman” who had come to fit an electric motor to our garage roller door !! The day started when he arrived.,walked straight into our kitchen and informed me the Electric Cooker was a load of crap (even tho it has never been used !!) he says hello and called me a pomm ( no worry Ive heard it thousands of times before) then he set to work with his mate smoking in my garage and profoundly swearing (I let all this ride as I wanted the job done and him gone !!) He & matey left an we tried the roller door > WOW !! the green pulley tag had been BOLTED to the wall ! ( Its there for quick release IF the door jams !!) and it was TAUT TIGHT no way would it move.I also noticed the roller was not level and the “machine” which had been installed was on a slant.Upon pressing a button to get the door to go up or down using the Gizmo provided proved to be disastrous.Great clanking noises were emitted from the digital apparatus.Next day I rang the builder and the installer came to investigate.He asked what was wrong and I told him “Not level,Green string bolted,installed digital motor not doing its job ” He became rather irate,called me an effing Pomm and walked away from the job !! I am currently awaiting him to come round and dismantle his bad workmanship and will demand the damage to the wall be put back to its original state ! 3 days no show from Ray from the Seychelles ( who I think runs a kitchen cabinet firm !!) Stay tuned
(non) Instalation and balls up courtesy Ray from Hervey Bay Door Centre
Moving House and the Joys of having tradesmen around !!
We have finally moved into our new home and the bed was delivered Friday night 9 pm!! We were SO ready for bed by that time.Trades men are currently installing extra luxuries that I have worked for in the last 50 years !!! Sorry children your inheritance is dwindling at a rapid speed !!We have met our across the road neighbours,turns out they,like us,are Nomads aching to get back on the road.We have 5 or 6 weeks to sort settling bits and pieces before we hit the road to Tasmania for a couple of months ,including change of driving licences,Centrelink renewal.change of address,s,dust bins .sheds put in,powerpoints re arranged and a plethora of other things !! Main thing is the Aircon is being fitted as I write Oh the joys of reverse cycling (what Greenhouse effect?) Tomorrow will be a full on day water pump from the HUGE outside water tank will be connected and our house effects arrive fresh from Perth.Oh.and I have to get my Seniors card altered to suit Queenslands laws and rules ! ( why cant this country have one rule for ALL states? i.e a driving licence that can be used Australia wide rather than different ones for each State ? Tonight ( hopefully we will all sleep well) Stay tuned for more on The House We Have Moved Into !!
The bit that gets us into Crooks and Nannies ( off the road places !)
Yesterday we took the Tilt Train to Brisbane which should have been around a 3 hour trip BUT took a while longer due to rail works that actually cause rail Jams .I was stood (in the train) next to a young fella who was unfortunate enough to throw up next to me missing me by an inch (prefer this measurement to metric !!) how such a small body can eject so much lumpy fluid is beyond me !! Naturally I thought this is going to be a good day . We changed trains at Coolbuture without any fuss with people in general very helpful on which train to get on .Arriving at NUNDAH nr Brisbane ,we were once again told how to reach our final destination (car yard) which was literally 200 yards from the Station.Annie was starting to get very excited now !! After a very quick handover we decided to drive back to Hervey Bay (around 300 kms ooops slipped back into metric !!) Ann drove ALL the way back even tho night had fallen We stopped for a break and Ann thought she had spotted an ex brother in law .Unfortunately we didnt get to him quick enough for identification ! We now have a lovely 3 door Suzuki Vitara and hopefully it will be fitted with a front towbar enabling us to go over rough terrain on our future trips !! We also passed the world famous ETAMAGOH pub and was able to take a very quick picture BUT somewhere down the track we WILL visit the iconic tavern All in all a day to remember We only need acceptance to move into new house and life is great !!
Ken Maynard started drawing the Ettamogah Pub in 1959. It was made famous through his regular cartoons in The Australasian Post.The word “ettamogah” is Aboriginal for “place of good drink!” Now one of Queensland’s leading tourist attractions It’s a must to visit due to its quirky shape and caricature appearance. Most of the furniture inside the pub is built from trees cleared from the actual site. There’s a 1930 Chevy truck on top of the bright red roof of the Pub ,the theory is the truck was washed up there in the floods of 1946 and none of the regulars could be bothered to get it down.
Around the Bay from my bus window awaiting phone calls
Just sitting,lazing along the beach front doing a gentle observation of the world around me Taking photo s willy nillywaitingfor tomorrow (WED) to come coz it should be a full on travel day to Brisbane We are still in Limbo awaiting Perth house selling handover.Life is pretty laid back at the moment Each hour is a week and house moving into is wearisome !!
Todays Blog until 1st Oct
Today (Tuesday) we are off to Brisbane to collect our Suziki Vitara and will be away from my computer until Friday.That is also (hopefully) the day we move into our new home and much time will be spent urgently attending orders given by my missus (no point in arguing with her) I m sure she will have attended Fen Shui classes or the like and I will be perfectly happy as long as my snooker table and dart board are placed where I want them to go !! SO we are at the moment in a state of excitement awaiting for all this to happen which coincidently clashes with the wedding of my niece on Saturday and with her being a top notch professional country and western singer residing in Tamworth Im sure the evening will be one to remember (hope a video is made) PLUS the wedding is in the Blue Mountains !! Photos no doubt will be in abundance from the pending visit to Brisbane
How Lucky we are
Today in Hervey Bay a rally for electric mobile wheelchairs was held.Organizers were hoping to break the world record of wheelchairs in one place (127 turned up)record was missed by THREE !! however HB hold the record any way.Wheelies turned up in all sorts of dressed up machines Just to watch all the happiness that emanated from these people whose lives were coming to an end or had injuries or indeed were born with a disability was guaranteed to melt the hardest heart !! For all of us who feel sorry for ourselves at the merest hint of an illness should get themselves down here next year and look at these guys who will simply tell you to get a life and stop whingeing !!! The day went very well and the organizers were brilliant and volunteer singers plus a Scottish Pipe Band added to the fun atmosphere that grew by the minute as the day went by,I have worked with people who have disabilities for almost 30 yrs and this event was the first I have witnessed and a pleasure to be part of the audience
Still awaiting house finalisation
With being caravan park bound whilst we wait for house completion I have taken instruction on photography (doesnt seem to have worked tho !!) so I am taking pictures of the pier and surrounds of Hervey Bay may be boring to the reader, but I have to say I,m enjoying doing it !!it also happens to be kids holidays still ! ( NO comment) we will be hanging around until mid Oct when we will once again be on the road ( and sea!!) hurtling towards Tasmania.Ann is currently doing all the ground work on Insurances,rates.and everything else involved in house re locating Interesting point is I hav PINK personalize plates on our bus (cost around $400 in Perth) to have them re assigned to Queensland rules I am going to hve to pay $2500 !! the rules between staes in Australia are incredibly different,even driving licences are different in each state (Having come from the UK that has FOUR countries that utilize the same rules and regulations including driving licences WHY cant Australia apply the same? making re locating to other states a lot easier? OR? ONE Australia !! ) Soapbox mode OFF
Eagles Eyrie pictures taken in a heavy mist
Campsite at Hervey Bay
Finally at Hervey and camped into Scarness Camping Site and we are virtually on the beach !! Weather is a constant 28C and no doubt I will be tempted to tread the Coral Sea before long !! We are still awaiting finalization on our new home in the suburb of Urangan.The site is excellent (the camp commandant is a bit of a misery tho and life goes on) facilities are great and lots of pubs and eateries in the vicinity.Right now it is kids holidays and hey are well behaved causing NO problems for we oldies,We are close to a tall cluster of trees and there are thousands of parrots making avery lot of noise at dusk and dawn (thankfully only for a short while) Just down the road from where we are moving to is a nice little 9 hole golf course (just right for us Grey Nomads) aptly called The Eagles nest.On entering the ground is a man built pole with 2 eagles nesting and we are watching the hatching of baby eagles . Im currently having problems putting film ono this blog SO until we are in an established area with good signals a good imagination will play a big part in this and possible other blogs!!!!
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 