Our new home

I am thrilled to be in our new home in the village of Ebor, population 102 (we are the 2 - lol). This is our little place which actually has a name, it is called "Appletree Cottage". There is a lovely folk art sign attached to the front.

The purchase was settled on Friday at Coffs Harbour after much ranting, raving and tearing out of hair by me at the Bank's agents who had a major breakdown in communications and stuffed up big time. How hard is it to read a bloody letter for Gawd's sake?

Honestly, with less than 2 hours to go till settlement last Thursday, I received a phone call from the Bank's agent enquiring as to the whereabouts of Dorrigo, where I had booked settlement to take place, and whether it was within proximity of Newcastle. Given that I had advised the bank twice in writing and the agent's settlement department four times by telephone that Dorrigo was located one hours drive inland from Coffs Harbour and that the nearest branches of ANZ was Coffs or Armidale, upon hearing the question, I exploded.

Many years of legal secretarial training stood me in good stead for the following 2 hours of phone hockey which I engaged in with the bank, the vendor's solicitor and the real estate agent. There is very little I could do at that late stage to ensure settlement would take place at the time and place that I have previously booked and, mind you, had confirmed four (count them) four times!!! So the whole matter had to be postponed until the following day.

Of course, now there were extra expenses to be incurred by the vendor's solicitor to get the documents to an agent in Coffs by courier which I offered to pay as I foolishly expected the bank to come to Dorrigo. They said they would 4 times and you just have to take them at their word, don't you? *sigh*

The bank admitted that the booking error was theirs and that I could "possibly" be compensated for expenses following an internal investigation. Secretarial training once again came to the fore as I kept written notes of every conversation I had in those 2 hours and, how great is modern technology - the mobile phone log allowed me to transcribe every call, the time and duration and to whom I was speaking.

I have created a tax invoice and a 2 page letter to the bank's agents and I named names! They are not dealing with some silly old woman who knows nothing, no, they are dealing with "Litigation Linda" the toughest, fightingest, rootin-est, tootin-est hombre that ever was!!! I am not going to settle for such unprofessional and sloppy mismanagement of a very serious matter. MY matter that is. I expected a moderate amount of competence. Sheesh!

Anyway, the house is ours at last and we are both very happy. The dogs are loving it as they have a large grassy yard to run and laze in, Matt has his shed, I will have a craft room as soon as we get around to painting it and setting it up and we are once again just the two of us in our own space.

Coffee and tea with scones will be served to one and all who would like to drop in. The Ebor Falls Hotel/Motel is across the road should you feel the urge to stay a night or two to perhaps go trout fishing. This is a beautiful part of NSW and well worth a visit.

Love to all and, don't settle for second best in anything.

Linda

And now for the next big move

Well, I am sorry to say that things did not work out as I thought they would living at Lismore for various reasons so we have bought a little cottage in the village of Ebor, population about 100. We have partially moved in even though settlement is still over a week away. The vendor (an elderly widow) let us in after exchange so that we could mow the lawn and get started on the cleaning and painting. The house has not been lived in since June 2009 and the previous occupants were a pair of geriatric smokers with two little stinky dogs.

Cleaning this house will be a full time job for months to come. The tobacco smell is at times overpowering and every single surface will need to be cleaned to remove the smoke residue from ceiling to floor. Being a reformed smoker from the time when a packet of 20 Winfield reds cost 47 cents at Franklins, I should be a bit sympathetic I suppose but I am NOT! The stink! A curse upon anyone who smokes indoors. You'd think with all that we know about the effects of smoking on the body that there would be less and less people taking the filthy habit up but, no. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Anyway, back to the house. Upon closer inspection, there are filthy marks on every doorway, light switch and the window glass is yellow. The stove is in a less than desirable state so I have unearthed the trusty Sumbeam electric frypan and am cooking our meals in that until the sdtove cleaning fairy pays me a call. Fortunately the carpets have been professionally cleaned as the real estate agent said when he first saw the house, the smell was dreadful and there was no way he could market the property until the carpets were done. In retrospect I should have hired a professional cleaning company to do the house top to toe before we moved in but that would have cost a bomb. I know if I was a professional cleaner I would charge like a wounded bull to do this place. Nevertheless, I can see the potential of this house, how wonderful it will look when it has been painted and the arrangement of the rooms is asthetically pleasing.

The dogs now have a large grassy yard to run around in any old time they want to and there are a couple of Kelpies next door they can get to know through the fence plus a bonus - the other side is a large paddock with an old wooden shed and a couple of horses. Lou Lou likes to bark at the horses. I have also seen a few rabbits there. I just love the view out the loungeroom and bedroom windows of the horse paddock. Matt has a large double shed down the back where he can tinker away as long as he likes. The Guy Fawkes river is 200 metres away and is full of trout.

There is no mail delivery or garbage service so we must rock up to the local post office which is a postage stamp size building (pun intended :-) to collect our daily mail and the tip is 2km out of town. *sigh* I am going to love being here full time. Still a little stuff to move from Lismore which we will do over the next couple of weeks.

I will definitely NOT miss the ants in everything, the humidity, trying to sleep on a hot night, the cane toads, mozzies, having to do the doggy shuffle to avoid Lou Lou and Peg fighting, not being able to cook 'cause I got no kitchen, having to go to the main house to shower and use the loo, and having to pee in a bucket at night.

Must finish off now as I need to light another incense stick which helps to override the tobacco smell. Crikey.

We're Here!

Yes, we are here in lovely Coffee Camp near Nimbin and enjoying the rain and humidity. This photo shows our caravan parked at the rear of the shed and part of the view over the land next door. Lovely really. We are still settling in but I can easily get used to the relaxed lifestyle living on Nimbin time. It is so nice to not HAVE to do anything - just please ourselves. Retirement is great.

More soon.

Don't do it! You have been warned

I have crawled up off the floor and clawed my way onto a chair to write the final chapter in this, the Cowra Prowse's DIY removal job from dry old Cowra to moist and green Lismore. At great personal effort and racked with a variety of aches, pains and stiffness I will attempt to describe the last fortnight now that the molecules of my body have finally caught up with my mind.

Firstly, let me say to those of you who are entertaining the idea of transporting your worldly goods 1000km away in a rented trailer to save a few bucks - DON'T! And, dear friends, I will tell you why. Mind you, it was not me that voiciferously and with great enthusiasm made the fateful decision to not bother and get quotes from a removalist or three. Ho hum....

So, 6 weeks to go until settlement and we had a look around the house to see how much stuff we had that we really wanted to take with us, how much could be donated to the salvos and, since there was just the two of us and two dogs (they don't really have a lot of stuff) we thought, yeah, a couple of trips in a large trailer with those cage sides should get it all there - two trips over the next 3 weeks - then we will have a couple of weeks to relax living in the caravan in the back yard and waiting patiently for settlement to occur on 9 December. I have now learned that hindsight has perfect vision and of course - as you do - we underestimated the volume of the contents of this 2 bedroom house with two middle aged retiree's collections of bits and bobs.

You will have by now read the previous post describing in gory detail the first hair raising trip with the heaviest load of precious possessions and no doubt were amazed at our good fortune to survive that nightmare drive in the dark and pouring rain down the Bruxner Highway (goat track).

Ok, so two weeks ago we rented the trailer again and no matter how hard we tried, we just could not cram everything in for that second, and initially final, run north. I should say at this stage that as we are driving 1000km each way, it takes roughly 13 to 15 hours depending on how many food, fuel and pee stops you take. Having a couple of dogs you have to factor in at least a few more pee stops. And of course, it is prudent to stay a few days at our destination before the long drive back to soak up the delightful atmosphere of the lush green countryside and to catch up with our gracious host and our niece and nephew.

The realisation dawned on us as we gazed around the living room at the rest of the stuff that was not already in the trailer was that yes, we would have to do a third trip and settlement time was fast approaching. We were discussing the idea of borrowing a trailer and saving the cost of 5 days rental, but the club's trailer was not large enough and by the look of the bulging tyres once it had been packed by he who is most optimistic, it was doubtful that the old thing would get us there and back (coff, wheeze) and the potential cost of a breakdown far outweighed the cost of renting the tried and true trailer for a third time. Quickly he looked at his watch and it was 10 to five so he jumped on the phone to the rental place and begged to rent the large trailer once again but he was told that it was not available until 2 days time. OMG, that left only 7 days until settlement. We'll take it, we said.

And so it came to pass that we did collect the trailer last Wednesday, packed the bejesus out of it, tying dining chairs in a most ingenious jigsaw fashion so that their legs did not poke holes in the covers, threw in all the bits and pieces we could find and wrapped the whole darn lot in three layers of blue tarp which were then tied decoratively with a multitude of coloured ropes (he he - did you like that???) It took the best part of 6 hours such was the difficulty of packing odd shaped items.

Wednesday night was spent at the in-laws house in Mudgee so we could get a 3 hour head start on the trip the next morning at 6am. A brilliant idea (he does have them sometimes) as we arrived in Lismore while it was still light. We spent Friday and Saturday relaxing and doing a little shopping in town then drove back to Cowra yesterday in record time of 13 hours. Thank goodness we were actually driving at the speed limit when we passed the two highway patrols. Phew!

So dear readers, we now have until 3pm the day after tomorrow until settlement takes place and in that time we need to clean the house, pack the caravan and do all things necessary to vacate the premises first thing Thursday morning. So much for my week of R&R.

I am so excited, our new life begins in 3 days. We will be debt free with a modest sum in the bank, a roof over our heads (on wheels that is) and a lovely place to park it for as long as we like (thanks Letty, we love you xx) and the possibility of doing anything that takes our fancy. I am looking forward to those organic veggies that my dear other half is planning to grow and anything else that life has to offer.

The moral of this story? Just get at least 3 quotes from reputable removalists to have the bloody job done once, and for all and just pay the bastards to do all the lifting and carrying. Oh, my aching back.........ooooooohhhhhh ........

The first removal trip

Great horny toads, the time is counting down and we have so much to do. We have officially sold the house and settlement is due on 9 December. In order not to leave things to the last minute and get ourselves in a tizzy, we have already taken half our goods and chattels to Lismore. We also did not want to pay a removalist several thousand dollars to do a job that we could do given enough time. So, we hired a large trailer last week and with the help of another big strong bloke, Matt managed to load about 2 tonnes into it and secured the lot with a huge tarp and lots of rope. Next morning at crack of dawn we packed the dogs into the back of the wagon and hit the road for a 1000km trip to Lismore. This is how it went...

Not quite sunrise and 10 minutes after leaving Cowra a small kangaroo magically appeared at the side of the Canowindra road and jumped right out into the passenger side front bumper bar doing himself some fatal damage and breaking the plastic bumperbar. After surveying the damage to the car which was minor really, a few metres of gaffer tape made a temporary repair job and we were back on the road. We quickly discovered that pulling 2 tonnes uses more fuel than we realised and although we had planned to refuel at Coolah, we had to detour to Dunnedoo instead.

Several stops for dogs to pee and walk around (and us too) and we were coming into Tenterfield just as it was getting dark. I noticed patches of white stuff at the sides of the road and in the paddocks which turned out to be remnants of the large hail storm that had passed through just before us. Phew! Thank God we missed that I said to hubby. However unbeknowns to us another storm was on the way (the one that flooded Coffs Harbour again) and whilst we were driving down to Casino on the Bruxner Highway, it hit. I should say at this stage that "highway" was a way too generous term for the skinny little winding road we were travelling on. There were road works in parts as well and I noted the sign that said Casino was just over 100km away.

Driving down hill, in the dark pulling a 2 tonne loaded trailer, with the wipers on double speed in torrential rain was no picnic and at one stage we had to pull over for 15 minutes as we could not even see the front of the car. Were we scared? You bet your bloody boots we were. The dogs didn't seem to mind much. They were pretty tired by that stage anyway.

We limped into Casino about 8.30pm and headed for Maccas for a coffee and burger and did the usual phone calls to nervous parents assuring them we were fine and had survived the trip. We made it to Loretta's place about 9.30pm where it was still raining so after parking under a carefully rigged tarp, we extracted the queen bed mattress and dragged it into the spare room so we had something to sleep on. Amazingly, with the amount of rain we drove through, very little managed to penetrate the tarp Matt had covered the load with.

We unpacked the trailer the next day and after a couple more days rest and catching up, Sunday morning we headed back to Cowra. The return trip was a lot faster and much less fuel was required. We made it home in time to watch Australian Idol.

Now, we have booked the trailer again for 5 days on 23rd when we intend to take the rest of our stuff to Lismore and that, my friends will be a whole other story so stay tuned for the next episode.

This Monday however, we are taking delivery of our caravan so we can move into it. So, all things being equal, we will be able to spend the 9 days of December living in the back yard, resting and getting ready to leave Cowra for good once settlement has taken place. Life is good, the alternative sucks big time. Until next time dear readers, adios!

We have sold the house!!!

It is slightly premature to say this but.... we have sold the house - yay!! I really should wait until contracts have been exchanged but Monday we met the purchasers and had a cuppa and a long chat with them. They are happy and are going ahead.

Given the current real estate climate which is not real good plus the bad publicity Cowra has received over the last 16 months thanks to John Walsh murdering his wife and grandchildren, and then the fact that at least 1/3 of Cowra is for sale, we accepted an offer of what we paid for the house 5.5 years ago.

This is a good thing for both vendor and purchaser. Us because we can move on to the next phase of our life living in a caravan on Loretta's land near Nimbin and be debt free while we build a granny flat on the end of her shed and we will be closer to all medical services. The purchasers because they will own their own home rather than keep renting. We are also selling them about 3/4 of our furniture as they are in a unit and don't have a lot of stuff. The bonus for us is that we don't have to pay a removalist several grand to transport it all to Loretta's and for it to be storred in the shed until we build our granny flat. So everyone is happy.

We will take a trip to see Loretta in early November and take a trailer load of stuff with us. We will be taking the dogs too as they need to see where they will be living plus they need to meet Loretta's animals which consist of 2 horses, 4 cats and Peg the red kelpie. That whole exercise should be interesting to say the least. No doubt the animals will all sort themselves out in the long run and I will do my best to stay calm and not let Rocky and Lou Lou sense stress or tension otherwise they will want to protect me.

I have already started packing up my craft things as from past experience, you need to start early to avoid a last minute rush and stress-out but I am waiting until official notification of exchange before I really get into packing everything else.

All things considered, we have done well and will have a tidy little sum left over after paying the bank back. Unfortunately, the bank does not give a pensioner discount on the fees they are charging to pay out the mortgage early but if you don't ask, you don't get.

So, we are both doing a little happy dance in anticipation of exchange sometime next week. More soon....

Mortality

It had to happen some day but I was not really prepared for it to be so soon. Last week I attended a funeral for a girlfriend who was the same age as me - 56. This was the first funeral of my generation of friends that I had attended and the thing that makes me so sad is that it could possibly have been prevented. Breast cancer, which affects so many people had crept up and claimed her all because, like many others, she put off going to the doctor when she found the initial lump. Why do they do that with all the publicity these days? I know Dawn was not the sort who liked going to the doctor unless there was no other solution but I suspect it was probably sheer fear, fear of what the doctor will say, fear of what treatment will be required and fear of your own mortality.

My dear friend Dawn and I met in 1976 when we were in our early 20s and living in share accommodation in Paddington. She was going with Gary, they lived in number 51 and I was going with Tony, we lived in number 47 Elizabeth Street. We became firm friends and had great times going to the pub on the corner or to Angelos Pizza parlor, the Paddo markets. Then there were regular Sunday lunches at no. 47 where we had up to a dozen friends turn up for a feed. A whole lot of good, fun times.

Dawn and I both married these blokes of ours between 1978 and 1979 and Dawn went on to have 2 beautiful daughters, Kylie (now 29) and Amanda (now 28). The four of us kept in touch over the years spending many Christmas's and long weekends at Gary and Dawn's house they built on the lake at the central coast until sometime in the early 1990s, we all separated and subsequently divorced. Such is life, you grow, you move on and life changes for everyone.

I had lost touch with Dawn over the past 10 years and had made a new life for myself meeting and marrying Matthew who turned out to be my true love. Having gotten into the internet a few years ago, I found Kylie and Amanda on facebook a year ago and it was then I learned of Dawn's cancer. She was not a computer person so I immediately phoned my old friend and began catching up on our last 10 years. Little did I realise during that first long conversation that 12 months later I would be attending her funeral. I phoned every few months and we had a lovely chat. I never got the impression from her that she was suffering though she had had both breasts removed and was undergoing chemo for bone cancer. She was always a positive and upbeat person yet quiet and dignified. Not one to complain about her lot in life. Dawn was a great sketch artist working mainly in charcoal and pencil and I admired her for her talent.

So, after many years, last week I caught up with Gary again, Kylie and Amanda, Kerry (Dawn's sister), Diane (Dawn's mother) and a few other folk from way back when. What a crying shame that it had to be at Dawn's funeral. It was a lovely service, some of Dawn's artwork was on display along with a digital display of photos of my friend from when the girls were little. I am not ashamed to say that I cried a lot for her. Still I can look back and say what a wonderful person she was, what a truly remarkable artist she was and what a wonderful mother to those two delightful daughters. I will miss her.

Finally, rest in peace Dawn and know that you were loved by many. Also, ladies, check those boobies regularly and if you do find something suspicious, get yourself to the doctor immediately. I don't want to attend any more funerals for friends my own age until we are all 80 something.