We're Not Going To Brisbane

Monday 5th December, 2011

After our trip yesterday I feel so tired today.  We weren't home late either, around 8.15pm.

Tony rang to say that Brett had rung him this morning to see if Tony was still interested in the job offer and what he thought of the apartments/units that he had emailed to us last Thursday.  They weren't really what we would have looked for if we were up there.  Brett told Tony that we would only have to be in them for a couple of months and then we could go and look for something better for ourselves.

He was also going to fly us up there this Friday for the weekend.  Tony got the impression that if we went and found our own apartment/unit we would have to pay the rent ourselves.  We weren't prepared to do that.

Tony declined the offer.  He said it was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders as over the last week he hadn't slept much due to worrying about whether to take the job or not.  Brett was disappointed with Tony's decision as he said he really wanted him.  Brett's company had been very impressed with him when he worked for them previously.  Apparently there are other buildings, that once completed, Brett's company have got the management rights to.  I hope they don't offer Tony a job to manage one of these.

An example of one of the units they offered us.........

Balcony

and they call this a kitchen

When we were looking at apartments we noticed the photos that they showed weren't very good.  They didn't really show you what was in them and the floor plan didn't give any measurements so you couldn't get a feel for the space of the place.  This unit had only that area above for the kitchen.  Where does your pots and pans, crockery etc go and food????  Not for me!!!!

The floorplan

Three States In One Day

Sunday 4th December, 2011

Tony was able to get last Friday off and so we headed out early to go and look at cars.  Our first stop was at Kittle Toyota.  We looked at the Toyota Corolla.  Tony took it for a test drive but wasn't real impressed.  He said that it lacked power, being only a 1.8 litre engine.  Our car is a 2.0 litre and he said he would much prefer that size engine than drop down to the 1.8.

The salespeople were also quite high pressure.  We told them that we wanted to go and look at and compare other makes and models but they kept insisting that they could give us a great deal  if we were prepared to commit to buying the Corolla.  They never told us what the great deal was though.  After two hours we finally left there.

We went down the road to Nissan.  Here we looked at the Tiida, but that also was only a 1.8 litre engine.  No salesperson was interested in coming to talk to us and so we left.  Tony wasn't that interested in having a test drive.

I had my nail appointment at 1.00pm so we called in back home and then went off to have some lunch before my appointment.  After my nails were done we went and had a look at the Hyundai i30.  Tony took it for a test drive and was quite impressed, it had a 2.0 litre engine, plenty of pick up and go but he thought it was a bit noisy, lot of road noise and engine noise.  I must say I didn't notice it and the sales person said that they had their window down slightly so maybe it was because of that.

They also wanted to give us a "great" deal, but as we still wanted to go to Mazda we said we wanted to have a think about it.  We ended up at City Mazda, just down the road.  Geez, this place was busy.  We wandered around having a look at some of the cars on offer.  I sat in one of the cars and felt sick and felt like I was being swallowed up by the dashboard.  I had to get out real quick.

Tony said there was no point looking any further if that was how I felt but I insisted that he should at least go for a test drive.  I said I would stay here while he went.  As all the salespeople were involved with customers we had to wait our turn.  We went inside and waited.  While waiting they had a Mazda3 in the showroom.  I sat in it and it didn't appear to affect me like the one in the yard.  When I mentioned it to Tony he said perhaps it was because the one in the yard was in the sun, it was hot inside the car and also the smell of a new car was perhaps a bit overpowering, whereas the car in the showroom was much cooler.  Maybe he was right.

Anyway it was finally our turn to be seen to.  By this time I decided that I would also go with him when he went for the test drive.  I still wasn't sure about the dash board.  It is so big and protrudes out into the cabin.

Anyway with the air conditioning on it helped.  Tony loved the car.  He said it was by far the best out of the three he had driven.  The drive was smooth, had the response and sat nicely on the road.  It also had a 2.0 litre engine.

When we got back to the car yard it was decision time.  Tony thought there was no comparison......the Mazda 3 won hands down.  What do we do.....buy it?

It didn't take us long to say YES.   Hehehehe so we have a new car.  We don't actually have it yet, we pick it up on Friday as we are having the windows tinted, reverse sensors put in (for my benefit....lol), and having the paint work and interior treated.

Now what to do with our "old" car.  We didn't trade it in as we knew we wouldn't get anything for it.  Tony said to advertise it, there might be some young person who may buy it for a nominal amount.

Saturday was spent catching up on some laundry and housework.  Yay, I had Tony to help me!

Today we had arranged to go to Mildura (in Victoria) to meet up with Andrew and Simone.  They were driving up from Geelong.  We left home just before 7.00am. as Mildura is some 400 kilometres from Adelaide.  At least the weather was perfect, not too hot.  We had some items that we wanted to get rid off, like a coffee table, the old tall boy, a slow cooker, food processor and some other things.  They said that they would be interested in having them.

When we got into Renmark, Andrew rang to say that they were already in Mildura.  He said that they would head towards Renmark and meet us on the way.  We caught up with them just outside Lake Culluleraine and so we decided to go onto Mildura and have some lunch.

These plants are growing along the roadside and stretch for several kilometres between Merbein and Lake Culluleraine.  They don't appear to be growing on the farmers' land but are growing among the scrub.  In places it looked like snow.  We wondered why they had been allowed to continue growing.

It was great to catch up with Andrew and Simone again. They are doing well having just bought their first home.  We had a nice lunch chatting and laughing and it was soon time for them to be on their way.  They had further to go than we did.  We loaded up their car, luckily they have a Nissan Tiida hatch and so everything we bought up fitted in their car.

After they left we went and had a look around Mildura, it's nothing like I remember when we used to come up here when I was a child.  All I can remember is the main street and the icecream we used to get.  Andrew reminded us that when we went to Renmark once to visit with my parents, we came to Mildura to go to Barnacle Bills.  I don't remember it, all I remember is we went up there with Mum and Dad for a coffee.  Anyway he was so hanging out for Barnacle Bills (they don't have one in Geelong) but they have closed down.  He was so disappointed.

We thought we may as well cross the river and go into New South Wales, hence the three states in one day........South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. 

Buronga is the small town across the river.  We left Mildura and headed back into Renmark.  That place is still the same, nothing much has changed.  I have not been back in about 5 years and another 5 years would be too soon for me, but we have promised to take Katie up there.

The fountain in Renmark

River Murray flowing through Renmark

Main Street of Renmark

As you come back into South Australia from Victoria they have a road block where all fruit, vegetables and plants must be dumped.  The area you enter into is known as the Riverland and it is a fruit growing area, producing stone fruits such as apricots, peaches, nectarines, grapes, wine, oranges, mandarines, and so on.  It is also fruit fly free and to keep it that way no fruit from other parts of the country are allowed to be brought in.

The Riverland comprises towns such as Paringa, Renmark, Berri, Barmera, Loxton, Waikerie, Monash, Lyrup and lots of small places in between.

My Dad's family settled in Paringa over 100 years ago and my grandfather built the house that my Dad grew up in and it is still standing.  It is being lived in but I don't think by any immediate family members.

The car didn't miss a beat.  I said to Tony perhaps we acted hastily in buying another car, but he assured me we did the right thing.  He reminded me that if we hadn't bought another car, this one still had to go in and get checked out as to why the fly wheel was affecting the starter motor.  Depending on what position the motor stops the car won't start.  Plus, over time, we would have more expense with this car so I had to agree with him. 

Andrew said that he would like to have our car and so he said that they would either fly over to pick it up or drive over in the next week or two.  We explained to him what the problem could be but he assured us that they have a very good mechanic.

Today Is The First Day Of Summer.....Did Spring Come?

Thursday 1st December, 2011

As I was changing the calendar this morning it suddenly hit me.....it's December!!!  Where has the last few months gone?  It is officially the first day of Summer.  Spring came and went, I know it was only a few months ago I couldn't wait for Spring and here it is, it's come and gone and I somehow missed it.

I had better get my butt into gear and do some Christmas shopping.   I have made a start but need to do a lot more.

This last week has been hard.  I know Tony has had a few sleepless nights thinking about this job offer in Brisbane.  He said he would love to take the job but it's all the other things that goes along with it, like accomodation, packing up our house, organising to get it rented and so the list goes on.

Then yesterday we had another decision to make, whether to buy a new car or not.  On Monday I had arranged to meet Tony at the Plaza.  On the way, I called into the Village to go to the ATM, came back to the car and it wouldn't start.  I knew it wasn't the battery as the radio still worked and all the lights worked.

I rang Tony to tell him about the car and to come straight to the Village.  I rang the RAA and waited.  They showed up after about half an hour, and after trying to start the car he got out his hammer, gave the starter motor a couple of hits and walla....it started.

We decided to take the car back home and walk back to the shops so that we could do some shopping.  On Tuesday morning Tony left for work later than he normally does as he was hoping to get the car booked in to be seen to.  Unfortunately they were booked out and so it was booked in for Wednesday.

I dropped the car off at the mechanics and Tony picked it up after work.  When he collected the car he said that he got no further than just around the corner when suddenly he heard ping, ping, ping.  Not knowing what it was he walked back to the mechanic and got him to come and have a look.  He saw that the fan belt was perished.

They got the car back to the workshop, and luckily Repco were still open to get another fan belt, and so they replaced the old one at no cost to us.  Norm, the mechanic, said that the fan belt should have been picked up during the service.

Now, this is where it gets technical and I have no idea what Tony was trying to explain to me.  He mentioned something about a fly wheel and when we had the gearbox overhauled, the problem with that should have been picked up.  It also must interact with the starter motor somehow.

Anyway further investigation is required and so Tony booked the car in again for Monday morning for them to have a look at it.  If this needs fixing it will cost us well over $1000.  There are also other bits and pieces that need doing like CV joints and the like.

I know that about 12 months ago we spent quite a bit of money on the car but we have had another 12 months use out of it.  The car, a Nissan Pulsar, is 17 years old, done around 330,000 kms and I don't think Tony is prepared to spend any more money on it.  It has been a great car and over the years we have had to spend minimal money on it, it's just been the last 12-18 months that major problems have started to arise.

Tony is hoping to be able to take Friday off so that we can go and look for another car.  At the moment we are looking at buying either a Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, Nissan Tiida or Hyundai I30.  He spent all of last night on the web looking at and comparing cars.  He also looked at the Puegot,  Honda and Subaru.

Tony Is A Wanted Man!

Tuesday 29th November, 2011


This morning Tony had another phone call from Brisbane.  It now appears that they want to fly us up there for a weekend so that we can go and look at apartments.  They are also going to speak to the owners of the building that Tony will be looking after to see if they are prepared to pay our rent.


They told Tony that they WANT him and will do everything possible to get him up there.  If we do go, I am getting quite emotional walking around my home and looking at all the items we may have to get rid off.  Having gone through a cyclone and losing everything, I never thought I would be so attached to material things.

The latest on this saga is that they are still looking for an apartment for us.

Negotiations Are Still Continuing

Monday 28th November, 2011

Last night when we came home after dropping Katie off, Tony wrote a letter to decline the offer for the job in Brisbane, and he emailed it off.  We had a lot of discussion about it over the weekend, and it just wasn't going to be financially viable for us.

This morning Tony rang me early.   Brett, from Queensland had rung him and said that he would still like Tony to take the job and so to entice us up there he increased the salary.  Unfortunately, it still wouldn't be enough to cover any rent we would have to pay.  I went on to the website and rents vary from $350 up to over $1000 a week.  Tony has to ring him back yet to say if he will accept it.

When Tony came home from work we looked at some of the rental apartments available.  Those at the lower price end I would pass on, middle price range .........a couple looked OK, but at the higher end of the price range was where I would start looking.  It's hard to get a feel for a place by just looking at it on the net.....you have to be there.

It also looks as if we would have to sell some of our furniture here as it wouldn't fit into an apartment.  We are in a real dilemma.  They would like Tony up there by the 1st January but that doesn't give us enough time to organise ourselves here, to pack up our house and get it ready to rent out.

Brett told Tony he would like to keep the line of communication open.   The only communication I want to hear is.....we will cover all your costs (rent, relocation, storage)!

Crossed Wires!

Sunday 27th November, 2011

Someone had their wires crossed this weekend and it looks as if it was me.  A planned quiet weekend was now going to be one of , "What are we going to do today?"  Still, that's what makes life interesting.

On Friday I headed off into the city to meet up with Tony and while there we planned on doing a bit of Christmas shopping.

We went off and had our usual coffee and then to the Chemist to get his prescription filled.  While there Tony's phone rang.  It was Katie.  "Hello Poppa," she said, "Where are you?"  He handed the phone over to me.  "Nanna," she said, "I thought I was coming to your house so that I could go and see Father Christmas".  "No," I said, "That is next week".  She was adamant that when we last spoke she said she was coming over this weekend.  "OK", I told her, "we will come and pick you up".

We got the prescription and then went over to meet up with Kahra and Katie.  After picking her up we headed back into the city and then went off to the Magic Cave.  We were quite surprised, the lineup to see Father Christmas wasn't that long, maybe we had a wait of half an hour.  She went into see him, and they had a good long talk with each other.  It was hard to hear what they were talking about as there was a lot of whispering going on.  When we came out she said, "Oh no,"I didn't even tell Father Christmas what I wanted."   "Never mind" I said, "I did hear him say something about a surprise".

With that she was happy, and went off to ride the Carousel, and the horses, Nipper and Nimble. 

It must have bothered her not letting Father Christmas know what she wanted, because she asked to go and see Father Christmas at Myer.  So we headed off down there.  She believes that Father Christmas at David Jones' Magic Cave is the real one, and the one at Myer is his helper. There was no lineup at Myer and so we went straight in.  She made sure this one knew what she wanted.

Father Christmas was very impressed with her, and on the way out he commented to us on that fact.  He said that she was a delightful, charming and very polite young girl.  It was a pleasure to have her visit, he said.

She thought she had better write a letter to Father Christmas as well to make sure he really knew what she wanted.

I thought last year may have been her last year of believing in him, but this year she appears to be just as excited as ever, and we have had no mention of kids at school saying that he isn't real, or her asking if he is real or not.  I know that that day will come and I am dreading it.

By now it was getting close to shop closing time (9.00pm) and we still hadn't eaten.  Yikes!!! So off we went to Vili's for a much needed coffee and something to eat.  On the way home we called in and filled up the water bottles.  We also noticed that the Christmas Riverbank Display at the Brewery has been turned on, but we promised Katie that next time she came we would go and see that. 

On Saturday we were up early and off to the shops as I didn't get any shopping done last night.  While out we had breakfast and met up with some of the Christmas characters. 

Did some grocery shopping to tie us over for the weekend, dropped it off home and then went to Bunnings.  We needed some new fly wire for the front screen door.

Also called into the Good Guys (again....lol) and bought a new cordless vacuum cleaner.  I love using them in between having to get the big vacuum out.  My old one is needing a new battery and sometimes it works out cheaper to buy a new vacuum instead of replacing the battery.

We then thought we might take a drive into the hills and see if there were any cherries.  We were in luck, we found most of the cherry places were open.  We bought some at Kersbrook and then went to Kenton Valley and got some more.   Even Katie enjoyed them this year.

We went back into Gumeracha and to the Giant Rocking Horse.  Katie wanted to climb it.  It was too late to wander in and feed the animals, but one of the peacocks had wandered outside of the enclosure.  He was just laying in the grass, resting.

We waited to see if he would show us his tail.  After around 20 minutes we decided to leave and as we were getting into the car up goes his tail feathers.  Katie quickly went and got a couple of photos.

We came back to the city and as it was now getting late we decided to go and have dinner at the Hampstead.

Sunday morning was spent lazing around.  Tony replaced the fly wire in the screen door and Katie helped him put the door back.  She said she really felt like she was working when Tony allowed her to use the drill.

I cooked some fish for our lunch and then we went off to the swimming pool.  The Aquatic Centre had just gone through a major upgrade and so we thought we would go and check it  out.

We couldn't see too much of a difference.  A new roof and some plants removed (making it feel more open) and that was it.  Katie wasn't bothered, the pools were still there and she could still swim.

From the Lens............

A Job Offer

Thursday 24th November, 2011

I was having a quiet day until the phone rang.  When I answered it, it was Tony.  He asked me whether I was sitting down.  Yes, I told him.  He then proceeded to tell me that he had just had a phone call from his former employer asking him if he would be interested in taking a job in Brisbane.  Whaaaattttt!!! I screamed.

He said that he couldn't talk to him properly as he was with a contractor and so the guy told him to ring him tonight.  OMG what to do!!  It would be a great opportunity.....as Tony said, think of it as a 4-5 year holiday.   Yeah, but........

I can't help thinking, what do we do with all of our gear, there's too much to pack up and move it all to Brisbane.  There's no way we would sell the house.......we would rent it out.  Why didn't these opportunities present themselves 10-15 years ago?  I wouldn't have hesitated, but we are nearing our twilight years and it's a big decision to make.

At the moment there's more cons than pros but there's no point getting too excited until Tony has a lot more information.

Tonight Tony rang the CEO of the company and at the moment he doesn't think he will take the job.  Firstly the wages are about the same as he is getting here.  If we moved up there we would have to rent a place and put a lot of our belongings into storage, and as we own our home that would be an expense that we don't currently have.

There is no point in going if you aren't going to benefit financially.  I don't know if we want to spend the rest of our years living in Queensland.  Like I said, if this opportunity presented itself 10-15 years ago we wouldn't have hesitated.  We could have sold our house, purchased one up there and after 10 years or so come back here and set ourselves up ready for retirement.

It's still nice to think that even though Tony is going on for 66 years of age, he is still highly regarded as being capable of taking on another job.  There are many people, younger than him, that are considered past their use by date.