Help what day is it?

Tuesday 10th October …………………..continued and Wednesday 11th as all the days keep rolling into one and I cant remember!

Bit of a bummer day L Tim got stopped for speeding on the Bruce Highway $150 fine!!! Grrr! He said she was a roughy, she was ugly and had a moustache that frightened him, so he just took the ticket and ran!

Got back and we had appointment to see house at 2pm he got back at 2pm just as the bike hire guy was delivering the bikes I had ordered. The house was a big Italian job! Big white imposing 5 bedder lots of security fencing ornate ceilings fantastic ornate decorated inside but just a but too much for the T&Y as we felt out of place in it as if we were visiting. Good price at £160k but it was the biggest house on the street and was like the white house, very nice but felt imposing.
We then cycled to the beachy/resorty side of town! Just 18k on the bikes! With the wind against us at, at least 10knots! God it was hard work and I was dripping (sorry glowing profusely) by the time we got to the internet café to hassle work collogues for references and send emails to those of you who were keeping our chins up in this very strange transition time!

Then cycled around looking at houses in Point Vernon and found a road we liked a lot! It was so much better on cycle as you got a real feel for the place and you could hear the traffic noise, or not, or birds…………. Laurakeets, pink breasted grey parrots (yet to buy an ID book) and some very noisy white crested parrots, not forgetting the mynah bird’s fantastic (unless you are trying to sleep!!)

Looked at 7 houses!!!! Ummmmmmmmmmmmph! Totally confuffled!

All of them were nice in there own way, after seeing none that we liked to seeing 7, it was all too much and too much to remember!

Went back to the cabin and went through them all, whittling it down to 4 that were possible and nice to see. Back to woolies for food shopping very strange to shop there for food! Bottle shop was closed L but the bunderburg rum is great with coke (never thought I would drink dark rum again after turning my brand new carpet in my room pale pink after bringing back up 6 glasses of rum and black….. mum & dad were listening to me while they were in bed supposedly asleep, but I was obviously not that but let me get up and clean it all up! Learned not to do that very quickly!! Mum was laughing in the morning!).

One house was a big Queenslander and it was soooooooo cavernous it was scary! 4 beds upstairs, with a main bed with en suit and a walk in wardrobe with a sort of four poster bed! A separate dining room and lounge sea views and then down stairs was a two bedroomed with bathroom, bar snooker table and laundry !! eeeeek! Then the garden was huge! A walkin fridge in a shed (full of veg) and a humungous shed at back with room for 4 cars with running water and electrickery eeeek! Too much to take in! there was also a tropical under cover garden with pond, a pond in the front, a vegetable patch and much much more!

After dinner I spent the rest of the evening filling out the application form and evaluating my skills to fit the critical criteria for the job! Mind blowing! Hate applications! By this time Tim was fast asleep watchin footie with his eyes shut!?

Thursday 12th October
Yvonne continued her attempts at finishing the application for Senior Ranger ness. Made a start on the car stereo, the crimping kit was no good for the wires so another method required.
Off to see 159 Long Street at 9:30, was OK but garage converted into a bedroom which was a pain. Nice enough but not grabby nice. Saw number 9 again at 11:30, we both forgot it had four bedrooms and an office area. It felt right on the second viewing. Saw number 165 again at 12pm, it felt just too big and there would be an awful lot to do to get it how we would like it to be. Great potential but a bit too rich for us to buy and renovate. The cracks in the base section didn’t inspire confidence either! So number 9 looking good.

Sent off job application after all the house viewing, purchased an envelope for Roxy Boxer beer bottle (squeaky one not real!). Had a coffee and milkshake (guess who had which!) and sorted proposal to get some money without having jobs. Then phoned virgin to get some money into our Oz bank account.

Forgot about bikes being collected, saw rental place at Rachel Street, ok but no furniture. Woman knew a vendor who was clearing the house because her mum was going into nursing home, so got an old bed knobs and broomsticks bed, bedside cabinets to match, including lights and 2 solid wood garden chairs. Put an offer in on #9. Managed to get bikes picked up, later even then we were late getting back to hand them over! Went to car shop to get a connecting block in the saga of the car CD player. Yvonne investigated rental options at cabin while I was out messing about with car stuff, minimum rent is for 3 months, other places is 6 to 12 which is so what we don’t want. Decided that didn’t really suit.

Lot of phone calls between Y and estate agent….. Yvonne tough negotiator as she was peed off with old fart of woman! Offer accepted on house after much tooing and froing with estate agent whom we don’t like as she looked down here nose at us when we turned up on push bikes and could not be asked to talk to us! Y just said she had had enough and that we were going to look at another house tomorrow and it was better vaule for money as it was only $280 for 4 beds and loads of potential. Then when she realized we were almost cash buyers she came on real sweet! Deal done!Yvonne sorted a deal to stay at Sun Lodge for a month even with Roxy box allowed in cabin which no one else is allowed to! Decided to head to Hoolihans (Irish bar) to celebrate potential house purchase, just need to make someone see our point of view with lending us some money for 9 months. Food was great, Y had slugs of oysters in bloody marys with whisky added, looking very tiddley! Food was good but a bit of a wait, Tracey would love as there were some fantastic steaks served while we were waiting and Bob would love the menu too, they even have child minders that will come to house and look after babs! No chance of not visiting now!!!!! We could even get Tracey singing job there when she comes as they could do with some life injected into the place during the week, not that there was no one there it was packed! But they only have music on Friday and Saturday, kicking place!

Y is thinking about coffee shop and cake house !!!????

Friday 13th October
Well today we headed for Elders estate agents to sign offer documents and agreements! Signed and sorted very quickly …. Too quick, this Linda is not a very good estate agent she just sat there twiddling her thumbs while we were waiting for the documents to be sorted. Not one word of what Hervey Bay was like or what we should do or where to head to for jobs or any chit chat! She was a useless as a wet rag in a desert!

Then as soon as that was sorted back to cabin to sort out finance with PJ Hooker financial brokers rather than the bank. As they were not interested until we had jobs !! a bit nutty and hard to sort out when jobs want you to have a permanent address, I can understand why the street bums get peed off and just cant be asked to get jobs!

Don the finance guy was very helpful and said he could sort it with private investors and not costing us much more, just 2% above normal then its only for 9 months.
After Don went we were very excited as I thought that the money bit was going to be the hardest!

We then tried to sort out letting accommodation until the house came through, went to Rachael street but Louise said we had to rent for minimum 3 months and the place was great but unfurnished! She then took us to a house that was having a garage sale and we bought a bed and some garden chairs, which would be enough to start. Then we have to find a washing machine and a fridge freezer! And the rest of the basic stuff until our stuff arrives in late Nov/Dec!? Not sure as we have not heard from the shippers to tell us our stuff has been shipped!! Gulp!

We phoned and arranged the searches on the property to be done with local guy who is going to do it Wednesday and hand deliver the report on Thursday!!! The solicitor we organized for 2pm, we had to go to bank and get money out for deposit, but I was feeling so bad with antihistamines in me that Tim had to drop me off at the cabin as I could not keep my eyes open and was feeling very itchy with the heat rash and the bites! So Tim went and sorted out solicitor on his own, I got into bed and slept until it was cooler! L

We celebrated with a beer! And an early night for me as I still could not keep my eyes open!
Saturday 14th October

We got up reasonably early and headed to some garage sales that Tim had his eye on to get stuff for the house. We headed out at about 8.45am and soon found out we were too late for all of them as people had been up at 5.30am buying all the good furniture and white goods! L After all the garage sales we decided to go Bunderburg the next big town further north than Hervey Bay. They had a rum distillery there which we thought we would take a trip around and buy some cheap rum!

Well I was still on antihistamines and falling asleep all the way up there, until the sat nav threw a wobbly and tried to take us through some sugar cane fields! And strangely Tim was going to follow it, until we hit the dirt and the stones, buy this time my bladder was full! And a bumpy ride was not what I needed right then, Tim thought it was so funny, but did turn around. We got there quite soon after that stopping at a children’s playground which always have toilets! J
The first stop was Bunderburg distillery ……. So we thought! But it was the ginger beer factory! After a tasting session we ended up with a case of ginger beer, sarsaparilla and peach drinks! Then went on to the distillery, when we got there quite a drab ugly place and building all full of rust and puffing smoke! We got out and decided to take a stroll in, only to find that we had to leave bags, sunnys, jewelry etc due to health and safety reasons! So we decided to not go round the factory and head home, we thought as we knew where it was we would come back with friends who visited us and do the tour with them. We keep forgetting we are going to live here so we don’t have to rush and see everything!

Heading out of town we spotted a bike shop and stopped to look at a bike for me, we decided to get me a nice bike as I still had mine from when Luke built it for me at the age of 14, bless him! So I tried out a few bikes and Tim found me a mongoose, which was just right, so we bought it with helmet that would fit either of us or guests who visit (as they are legal here if you want to ride) and lights, then finally a lock. We asked for discount and got the lock thrown in for free! J
After the bike shop we stopped for lunch which was really lovely, Tim had a works burger with fried egg, bacon, and loads of meaty things! I had a veggie open with asparagus and courgettes it was loaded! Topped up with a beer for me! And a milkshake for Tim as he was driving.

On the way back Tim found an ice-cream shop which was famous apparently, but most had macadamia nuts in them! We had stopped with a tour bus from Hervey Bay, so fought our way to shop through all the old people who were dropping ice-cream everywhere but in there mouths! We sat out the way and munched our way through the ice-cream which was very very rich and sat quite heavy in our tummy’s (which is shocking for Tim as he can eat shed loads of ice-cream!). Up the raod from the ice-cream shop was a snake farm that Tim wanted to go into but he decided not to when he saw it and said he would rather go to Australia zoo and support Steve Irwin.

When we got back into Hervey Bay we drove around some furniture shops, which were stunning with great wooden pieces. Tim had to leave the shop as it had incense burning and it was making his eyes burn and short of breath.

Then headed to esplanade to get paper and to chill.

Back to the cabin, and Tim had his first lesson in peeling king prawns, which he was not keen on! But managed and ate them all washed down with beer!
Early bed for me as I stocked up with antihistamines.

Sunday 15th October
Got up early again and headed to garage sales again. We did buy a rusty old bike which Tim was going to do up for when Shirley and mum visit so they can ride out when ever they want! I will try and get a picture on the site of the bike! So that you can both have a look! We dropped the bike back to the cabin and headed out to another garage sale, but it was not open so we stopped on the esplanade for breakfast, Tim had the outriggers fry up, with milk shake and I had blueberry Danish and cappo to wake me up after all the antihistamines! Then needed the toilet! (Weak bladder you know!) Every park in Australia has a toilet next to it so there we were in Ernie Organ Park (don’t ask me why it was called that!!) in Torquay! Seems so very strange all these names from the UK! All the toilets here have disabled and are cavernous, they seem to cater for disabled which is really nice to know.

As I walked back to Tim eating breakfast it was about 8am by now and there were council workers cleaning the free gas BBQs all very chirpy and wishing everyone a good morning!
Tim had read about a psychic fair so we headed to the botanical gardens not to find anything going on! L So we headed back to cabin to find out it was only on the Sat and not the Sunday. So we decided to head to shops to get prices of electrical stuff and compare, all this shopping was doing our heads in as neither of us like shopping! But we managed to buy a very cheap microwave/griller/nuker a wireless modem!!?? (don’t ask me but we needed it for computers to talk to each other I think!), a landline telephone and a shiatsu chair massager, which dad can use when he comes its great! We won a free flight to anywhere in Oz except Tassie, bonus.
Out of that shop and into food shop and also managed to get hangers so we can hang our clothes up eventually!

Hungry and tired we were looking for food so I suggested the RSL Royal Service Legion club which everyone local has told us to join, Tim was not enthusiastic but I made him and we joined for the year! You get discount beer J discounted food J discounted beer from the beer shop! And much more! We had some food which was really nice and had a drink. They had snooker and pool there for 30cents!! So there is a challenge coming on! And I am sure to lose as Tim does not like losing at anything! They even have karaoke there that pays $200 to the best singer of the night, so Tracey and Shawn looking forward to you visiting and any others who can sing and win beer money for the night! They also encourage you to stay by giving away $200 every hour on certain days! And a 3 course meal for $7 on a Monday night! Tim ended up quite pleased I had made him go there in the end it was a really sociable place, the only thing I did not like were the pokies (or slot machines they had there).

Went to see if we could find local colony of flying foxes, just by the river inlet, and there they were nearly 100 thousand flying foxes in every tree as far as the eye could see! All protected by a fence to keep people from hassling them! Tim had taken the camera down and the tripod to take pictures and I had the binoculars. Tim was snapping away at the foxes and I was trying to find all three species, the red, the black face and the black (I think) only found the black face and the black could not find the red as they were all wrapped up in their wings and it was only when they moved that you could get a glimpse of what they were. It was a fantastic sight to see but we went back before they started their night flight, so will go back another day to catch them in action! Went on to beach and a local guy with a dog came up to talk to me, he was friendly and started chatting about the binoculars and the flying foxes and then got into talking about houses and how he felt (now that we have bought a house) that the prices were going to tumble in the next 5 years! How pessimistic! Depressed me some what and worried me a lot, but as Tim said it was only the thoughts of one guy who owned and estate agency and did not work in it. Still he managed to flatten my high spirits somewhat, amazing how someone’s negative thoughts and feelings can jump so quickly and quash any feelings of happiness and euphoria. Note to self………….. think positive thoughts when people are being negative about life the universe and number 42

Back to cabin to watch the 100 most inspiring movies, Tim had only seen about 12 out of the 100 and I had seen about 90 (must be my age as I am not a TV addict!) some of them Tim had not even heard of !!! Gulp!

Monday 16th October
I have a date organizer here which I have to change daily as I loose count of what day it is as they all seem to merge into one and weekends are no different from the weekdays at the moment.

Got up early and Tim was sleeping so went out for bike ride on my new bike J woo! Hoo! My first new bike at the age of 46!! It was great fun and I whizzed along the esplanade with ease! Got to nearly the other end but stopped to watch the people doing tai chi on the beach front it was magical to see them all swaying and easing there way with elegance from one move to another. Wanted to stay to the end but thought that I should get back as Tim would be up and wanting to get on with things!

On my way out and back I encountered 88 people of whom at least 75 said good morning with a smile to me! Another shock and really nice, all these people were out exercising, walking cycling and running. Some with dogs (9 encountered in all) and a couple of mums pushing babes. The sea was calm and the breeze was light and the sun was strong already!

When I got back Tim was trying to fix the rusty bike! He had managed to get it moving and all the gears working it looked ok and he said it was almost ready to rock and roll! Strange change around as Tim has a very expensive bike (which is being shipped) and I have my old home built one, so until his bike arrives I have the nice one and he is not keen on going out on it! (is this a man thing?) I am sure I will get him out on it before the week is out J

I then went for a swim in the pool for 20 minutes to cool off, then into cook breakfast of scrambled eggs and sautéed mushrooms and onions with leftover scraps of bread J there was only one slice left so I had to make it stretch until we got to shop! Did washing.
Sorted out stuff to do on the internet, jobs, shipping stuff mortgages etc! So Tim dropped me off while he went to bank to get statement for finance. Internet café was shut (this is quite normal as they just seem to shut when they like!) so I hug around until they opened and then sorted out my stuff, sorry no blog as we have been so busy and I have been so sleepy! But I am doing it now (tonight). Then off to pick up the bed and chairs we bought on Friday from a Garage sale, old fashioned bed knobs and broomsticks one and very heavy! We had to strap to top of car, there was so much stuff the woman gave us anything we wanted as it was all going to go to charity if we did not want it! So we took some more bits that could see us through until our stuff came.

Hot and sweaty and feeling rather light headed! It must have been the hottest day so far while doing all this manual work!

Went into town to look for washing machines and fridges, found some and sorted out energy ratings and water economy stuff (so now we know!) and we are armed to buy!
But not yet as we had had enough and just wanted home, so stopped off for some tubs of ice-cream to cool us down and some veggie rolls. Bought the dog a bed and some other bits and then back to the cabin.

Tim a bit touchy today! Found out he stayed up until early hours watching motor gp live! I must have been tired as I am a very light sleeper!
Ate J

Re loaded all the stuff we had bought back from the garage sale into a caravan that the owners Carl and Nerida said we could use until we got ther house, such nice people here ready to help at the drop of the hat, as I found out when lugging the stuff over to the caravan as two guys appeared to help out (scared me a bit as one was huge and had shaved head and tattoos and the other just stood there nodding his head eeeeek! But they were genuine and just ended up chatting to another woman from a nearby cabin.

Had a drink and headed off to see the sun set at the point, it was beautiful there and we were chased by a staffy that would not go back to his owner J Went back to cabin via the possum tree, we have not seen (the possum not the tree!) it yet but hope to before we leave the area!
Back to cabin to write blog and shower and chill J

Tuesday 17th October
Woke this morning struggling, miss family, friends, and coffee with Judy/ Norman/ Smiley, there is no one close to just chat to. Bad day, trying to lift mood but not sure how to.