out of order post - Lake Argyle

Typed this up from 1 July and Steve asked if I'd written about Lake Argyle.  I didn't realise I hadn't put it onto here because he has a movie to put on.

So, we expected the solar panels from DW Imports to be delivered to Big4 at Kununurra by, do you know, I’ve forgotten.  It’s been a real comedy of errors.

Warren sent them from Sydney to Kununurra but the last time we had Internet I checked the courier’s site and they’d been signed for in Perth.  I wonder why they would send them to Perth, when surely it’s quicker to send them to Darwin?  My geography has never been up to much so I’m assuming they went via Perth because it’s the same state.

Anyway, they have yet to turn up.    (got them now)

We’ve spent the last few days at Lake Argyle Resort.  Beautiful place, friendly knowledgeable staff, wifi hotspot.  What more could you want?  I would like comprehensive Internet access and Virgin mobile phone reception.  There’s supposed to be a wifi hotspot opposite where we’re parked but going by the number of people wandering around looking for it, including us, there’s none available.  Steve managed a few minutes at 6.30am this morning.  This means I’m unable to find out where those panels are unless I get up when the birds start singing and that is very unlikely.

We go back to Kununurra on Thursday, full Internet and phone reception there.  If the panels haven’t been delivered we’ll see about getting them sent onto Darwin.  Steve said to send them to Louisa’s.  Since we don’t know when we’re going home I see no point in doing that.

Ooohh, we’re really getting into Game of Thrones.  Steve has had it for ages and has watched a few episodes whilst I was reading but we’ve both started watching it and are onto series 2 within a week.   (Watched all of the series now)

We’ve done at least six loads of washing; our machine takes only 3.5 kgs.  I usually wash one queen-size sheet and one pillowcase so you can see how it takes a few loads to get everything done.  We were down to only a few pairs of knickers each before we started washing.

August 2014

Here I am again full of good intentions in getting this up to date.  It’s going to be all over the place because I’ll be typing as I remember stuff.

We’ve been to Darwin; we stayed at the bowls club in Humpty Doo.  I love saying Humpty Doo.

We had three weeks there at $100.00 per week with as much water as we needed but no power.  We met some lovely people, from all over Australia.  There were a few dogs and they were all well behaved.  A couple of them used to come over to us and eat Timmy’s breakfast because he doesn’t always bother with it.

We didn’t go looking for crocodiles, seen one, seen them all and we saw them at Lake Argyle.

We did go to the Military Museum and the Aviation Museum.  They were both really interesting.  On our way to where we are now we stopped at the Adelaide River War Memorial.  A beautifully kept place but so very sad.

We also went to the Mindil and Parap markets which are okay if you’re into the hippy clothing (Beth would probably love it) and hand made jewelry.  Very disappointing because they didn’t have any veggies for sale and the only fruit we saw were mangoes.

We got the solar panels at Kununurra and bought another battery at Darwin so we’re okay for power.  I can’t begin to tell you about the fuss with the original solar panels but this covers it.

Famous or infamous, you decide

We were in all the major papers nationwide.  Channels 9 and 10 wanted to speak to us but the Internet and phone reception was so bad that we couldn’t contact anyone to set something up.  I didn’t want to go on television and I would just like to say that I didn’t send the guy 6 emails, I sent 3 and if he’d answered the first one there wouldn’t have been a problem.

Because of our notoriety I’m loath to take on the dealer who we bought the caravan from.  (On Albany Highway,  Maddington, WA, opposite a primary school, next to Silver Chain). 

We have 2 TVs; one in the living area and one in the bedroom.  We couldn’t tune the one in the bedroom into the TV channels and after some diagnostic work it seems that although the wiring is there its not functioning, possibly because there’s a screw through it.  I sent a message to the dealer asking for help but got nothing in reply.  We’ve met a few people who bought from this mob and no one has anything positive to say about them.  One guy told us that a few years ago a guy sat outside the dealers display at the Perth caravan show with a huge sign saying ‘Do not buy from ****** ***’.  Wish we’d gone that year but I think it was when I couldn’t walk properly.

Anyway Steve fixed the TV lead by getting an adapter for the antenna and laying wire across the roof, then down the side and through the air vent and into the aerial.  That might not be 100% correct but its something like and we can now watch all the channels from the bed.

Had to contact the dealer yesterday because every time Steve tried to use the microwave it tripped out.  They forwarded my email to the supplier who contacted us today to say they’re sending a new one to replace the obvious faulty one.  Unfortunately it won’t be here for 7 to 10 days so we’ll be staying longer than we anticipated.

We’re parked up at Manbulloo Homestead which is about 8 kms south of Katherine.  I couldn’t stand being constantly wet at Darwin, this place is certainly a lot cooler.  I thought about finding a cardi’ yesterday because I shivered and Steve had his Cystic Fibrosis hoodie on this morning when he took Timmy for his walk.

When we were at Humpty Doo we spent a few days checking out the termites building a mound.  They were busy little things and they worked only in the shade.  They left little bits of grass sticking out at the sides presumably for when they added to it another day.  They got it up to about 15cms before an oldie from Victoria came in and drove over it and then stood on it to spread it all around.  I was so upset and Mary (she pronounced it Meerie, she’s Irish) came to tell me her husband had told her about it as soon as she got out of the hairdressers.  I mentioned it to the old guy but he wasn’t concerned. 

Famous or infamous

Oh to live the life of the rich and famous, or infamous, I’m not sure which.

We’ve had a bit of a fuss with the media over Steve’s solar panels, which we ordered when we were at Barn Hill, South of Broome.  Lovely place but lots of little sticky things with ends like needles, which stuck into Timmy.  Steve had to cut them all out.

Did the order, asking that the package be sent to Kununurra Post Office, fully expecting to get a message saying they don’t deliver to post offices.  Received confirmation at 8.16pm.

1.     There’s no information on the web page as to where they are, what their delivery times are or a contact telephone number so I sent a message explaining that we’re travelling and asking if it could be delivered to Broome before 21 June or Kununurra after that.

On the 15 June at he sent a message, ‘Yes no worries’.

2.     Just a tad confused at this point on Monday the 16^th at I sent another message asking where do I collect it from, Broome or Kununurra.

He replied quoting the Kununura address, ‘so that is where it is sent’.

3.     Final message from me telling him I appreciated his quick response to my messages but he still hadn’t answered my questions i.e. has it been sent already, what’s the tracking number and when will it arrive.

Well, we all know what came next.  Customer service at its finest.

‘Hi

You made this purchase at 10.17pm Sunday night.  Despite having your pestering messages replied to very quickly you have continued to behave like an absolute f**kwit.  You are one hell of a rude stupid c**t.  You have been given a full refund and are banned from the store.

Kind Regards

Gordon Akman

Customer Service Representative

Oz Best Buy

www.ozbestbuy.com.au’

Oh dear.  Not happy Jan, not happy at all.  If he’d answered my questions in the first email all of this fuss could have been avoided.  For some unknown reason he’s saying I sent 6 emails.  I sent 3.

On Facebook there’s a page called ‘Australia’s Best and Worst Buys’ and I wouldn’t want anyone else to receive a message like the above so I put a note on there saying not to buy from this guy and I explained why, including the last email from him suitably edited.

From there it just went crazy.  By this time we were in Broome and I received a call from The Sunday Times asking could they do a story and ‘that’s how it started.’

Channel 10, Channel 9 and The Daily Mail Australia have contacted me.  We’ve been on Perthnow and news.com.au

He sent apologies after the Sunday Times, contacted him.

So over this now.

I’ll post this while we have Internet cover, once the wind drops we’ll be on our way to Halls Creek via Mary Pool.  We’re booked into Big4 at Kununurra because that’s where the solar panels we bought from DW Imports are being delivered.  I contacted him and he was very professional and suggested they send them to Big4.  He sent me the tracking number and also sent a message to Big4 advising approximately when it would be delivered.

more to say

25 May 2014

Because we wanted to charge everything up and fill up with water we spent 4 days at Big4 in Carnarvon.  They had a special which was 4 nights but pay for 3.  I should have done it on the internet because it would have cost $114.00 I think and because I booked it in the office we had to pay $120.00 but we loaded everything up and it was here that Steve broke his very expensive reclining chair.  Personally I don’t like them, as I can’t get them to recline with being short.  He decided to make the broken one into a bed for Timmy and that took him 2 days.  Timmy hopped on as soon as it was finished but I think he prefers to lay on the ground.

Our Cystic Fibrosis hoodies arrived on Friday, they’re going to be warm and also to do with C.F. we had some stickers done for the caravan.  The large one on the previous caravan was originally priced at $600.00.  The guy who actually did it in Mandurah charged only $100.00 because his niece has C.F. 

We have 2 on this new caravan, one at the front and one at the back and they cost $205.00.  Not happy Jan.  I don’t mind putting money into the country people pockets but this guy really saw us coming.  I should have told him not to bother especially as someone on the Caravaners Forum said he’d do them for $50.00 all up.  We just fannied and farted around and should have got ourselves into gear and got them before we left Perth.  They’re done now, they could look better and I think I’ll see if I can get some roses for down the sides of the van.  It doesn’t have much in the artwork line.

We’re at Lyndon River (West) on the Minilya-Exmouth Road.  We pulled in yesterday and are staying tonight as well while Steve rests his back.  Its so bad that I got up at 6.00am this morning to take Timmy for a wee walk.  I was gone for 15 minutes.  Then I got back into bed and we didn’t wake up until 10.00am.  I haven’t been up at that time for years but the poor lad is in great pain.  I’m ministering to all of his needs, he’s looked after me often enough and its payback time.

I’ve read some brilliant books recently: 

The Consequences series by Aleatha Romig has just gotten better with each book.  

Jodie Ellen Malpas has written the This Man series, loved each one.

Tara Sivec changes the content like the wind.  She’s done series stuff and the most hilarious Chocolate series.

DD Lorenzo’s ‘Depth of Emotion’ gave me something to think about.

Janet Elizabeth Henderson is an easy read, I’ve read two of hers and I’m waiting for one called ‘Goody Two Shoes’ I think its called.

Christina Lauren is two ladies and their Beautiful Bastard series is really good.  They’ve just released ‘Sweet Filthy Boy’, I wasn’t too sure about the title but the book is lovely.

I have to mention Julia A Richman who wrote the ‘Searching for Moore’ books.  I sent Julie a message telling her how much I appreciated that her books aren’t about college girls and their problems.  Julie’s books are for grown ups and if you read them you will smile, laugh and then cry.  Then there’s a bit of shouting.  There’s an offshoot coming and I know I’m not the only one waiting for it.

J.L. Berg has done the Ready series and there’s another one coming out soon.

K Bromberg also gets a word because of her Driven trilogy.  Who can forget this?

Mimi Strong introduced me to Peaches Munroe, I love this girl.  She’s not slim and sylph-like, she’s just gorgeous and the books about her life enthralled me.

‘Hey there Delilah’ is written by Andria Large and M.D. Saperstein

I’m not giving the content of these books, I think they’re all really good reads, have a look on Amazon to get the opinion of other readers.  I’ve left mine on some of them but I don’t see the point of almost rewriting the book which is what some of the reviewers do so my comments are short and to the point.

 I type up this blog into a Word document then upload it when we have internet cover so please bear that in mind when you're reading it.

A bit further

Steve has been hysterically funny these past few days; we were enjoying the sunshine and two old guys and their wives pulled in.  The boys got out and moseyed on over to us.  They stood back looking at the car and caravan and asked was it a 24 footer so we said yes and one of them asked did the car pull it.  Steve told me later he wanted to say that Timmy had started out as a husky with great pulling power and had shrunk because he’d done such a good job getting the caravan so far but at the time he was very polite and said yes, there were no problems.  He heard them later still talking about us.

When we had the Jayco we had 2 solar panels fitted and we had 180 watts of power going into the battery.  The battery was always showing green which meant it was healthy.  When we got this new ‘van it came with 80 watts of power, we didn’t know how much or how little we would use but it seems that 80 is not enough.  By the end of the day the battery will be flashing red, which means it’s low so we’ve had to rethink our use of power.

I own up to using a lot of power charging up my iPad, which is what I’ve been using to read on. As well, I like to keep in touch with Louisa and Beth to find out how everyone is and I do this through Viber, which is a free program where you type and I can read it when we have Internet cover to catch up.

I swapped my Kindle with Yvonne for a gel nail polish kit; my nails are so soft that I find using gel polish protects them.  I wasn’t using the Kindle because most of the books I read are in iBooks and I couldn’t read them on the Kindle because they use different operating systems.  I charge up the iPad every couple of hours and the Kindle lasts for at least 4 weeks so we decided I’ll get another kindle and I found a program that converts books so that I can read them on the Kindle.

Louisa sent me a new Kindle along with the Cystic Fibrosis hoodies.  The Kindle  is charged and I’ve transferred the books into it.  I’m now able to read without always looking at the power that’s left because it should last approximately four weeks before it needs recharging.

Australia wide internet? I don't think so

18.5.2014

We left Perth on Monday and spent the first night at Cliff Heads North or South then moved the next morning to Cliff Heads North or South.  This is the spot we usually go to and where Peter hangs out.  He’s an old guy who was there the second time we went.  I was a bit annoyed with him because I was looking at something in the ocean through the binoculars and he came and stood directly in front of me.  How rude is that?  He was telling Steve about the Dampier pipeline and other stuff and I went and sat down because I didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

I’m so over old people.

We had two nights there and then came to Yuna.  Doubtful we’ll stay here any length of time, as it seems there’s only one resident who lives in the tavern, which is up for sale.  He told Steve he’s living there so it doesn’t get trashed.  As if one old guy is going to make a difference.

Yes, I’m very negative today; don’t know why because I’m still taking the happy pills.

Poor Timmy is being walked to death; he’ll be a shadow of his former self by the time we get home. 

We have two televisions in this caravan and I was in bed yesterday at 6.30 reading because that TV wouldn’t tune in.  We’ve had a few problems since we picked up the caravan.  The most recent was no hot water.  It was barely luke warm but we didn’t want to complain because the warranty ladies aren’t very nice at the dealer.  No name and shame on this blog but the dealer is on Albany Highway at Maddington, opposite a primary school and close to Silver Chain.

I would recommend that people stay well away from this mob.  Before you sign up they’re great, afterwards their customer service is pitiful. Actually non-existent is more accurate.

Last night I felt we were going to be floating.  The rain was torrential and it was humid.  We have a shelf behind our heads when we’re in bed and when I lifted my ipad it dripped on me.  Water had come in through the front window, which doesn’t open.  Upon further investigation water has gotten into the front boot.

Steve’s walking around like Ivanhoe with his antenna for the iinet dongle.  If he can’t get a signal off that he’ll give the Telstra dongle a go.  If he can’t get one from either of them he may as well throw them in the river.

We moved to Galena Bridge this morning.  We’ve been here before, its where the black swans are.  We watched the cygnets for hours last time; some of them were little tinkers because they kept veering off from where the older ones wanted them to go.  It was quite amusing but then it doesn’t take much…

Looks like the dongles are going swimming and that means I can’t post this.  Not happy Jan or Telstra or Optus which is who iinet go through.  It annoys me, we pay nearly $200.00 a month for our phones and the internet, we had neither when we were at Chris and Yvonne’s place in Pickering Brook and that’s only 25 kms from Perth.  Every other block had cover; it’s just that their land is in a black spot.  We used their Internet whenever we went into the house but we didn’t want to be walking in as if we owned the place.  They never said anything and we know each other well enough that if they didn’t want us there they would have said.

I need the Internet because I have to know how our children and grandchildren are.  I remember Lee telling me I had to cut the apron strings to Louisa (and this was over 10 years ago) and I asked him why.  They’ll always be my babies and their babies are mine as well and if they’re not well, some of them have viruses this week, I want to know how they’re doing.

Ooh, you lucky people, we have cover.  I’m posting it quickly before the signal takes off.

APOLOGIES - BIG TIME

My apology is sincere, I didn't know that so many people read my words.  I received a comment from a lady yesterday and thought I'd have a look at it and heaps of people check it out every day so I'm trying to redeem myself today.

Lots to tell you starting with the fact that this time last year we were in Tasmania.  After we teamed up with Andre and Paula we had a heap of laughs, it was good for the men and they bonded over fishing.

While we were away our house was sold and Beth, Louisa and James packed everything up, moving stuff into Beth and Louisa's garages.  We have a beautiful 12 seater solid wood table with 8 chairs if anyone is interested.

We spent a few nights on Beth's verge then moved to a caravan park for a few weeks.  We then went to our friends place in Pickering Brook.  During this time we decided that since we were living in the caravan full time we needed a bigger one and ordered a Supreme Spirit LEX.  Its the one with white cupboards and the shower and toilet are between the kitchen and bed.  I didn't like our previous van where you could sit on the toilet and talk to anyone through the door.

We took the new van at the beginning of November while we were looking after Andrew's parent's place in Coolup which is south of Mandurah.  We've had a few issues, mainly with the warranty people at the dealer but I won't bore you with that.  I just get so annoyed that these people have no empathy for this customer.

Chris and Yvonne go overseas in the middle of March so we'll move into the house.  They return at the end of April and then we're away.

The 'plan' is to go North so that we can go across the top during May, June, July and August.  We were told the best time is to go when there's no 'R' in the month.  Our son-in-law's brother is in Darwin and whilst I'm not bothered about going there Steve wants to so we'll catch up with Scott and his family, especially as Scott used to work for Steve.

So this is just a little update of where we are now.  Its hot here in Perth and I have reading to do.  I just finished Julie A Richman's Needing Moore Series.  They are fantastic, made me smile and cry at the same time.  She's a hellagood writer and I now have to wait until she finishes another offshoot she's working on.

Seeing as I'm almost in writing mode I may have a go at updating on a more regular basis.

Making our way home

My boy is not happy this afternoon.  We left Tasmania yesterday after waiting in line for 2.5 hours.  It took only six minutes to get in position and we were right next to the exit door.  There were some people filming a new advertisement for Spirit of Tasmania but I didn't have my make up on so kept out of their way but you may see a side shot of us both somewhere.

When we were off the ship we made out way to a shopping centre somewhere where there's an Apple shop because Steve's phone has packed in.  We circled the place but couldn't park up because it seemed as if it was all under cover and Steve didn't want to be fannying about with the caravan so we had a nice drive around parts of Victoria that we weren't expecting.

He had to make minor repairs yesterday because he pulled out the electric fittings so as not to use the battery when the engine is turned off while we shopped at Aldi.  Apparently it's my fault he didn't reconnect them because I wanted to stop at Aldi.  We needed food so whether we got it there or somewhere else he still would have pulled them out (and forgotten to put them back in) but I have  broad shoulders and I don't mind him blaming me if it makes him feel less of a wally for forgetting to put them back.

So then, it was another drive around, first looking for a repairer then deciding he could do it himself so looking for Repco/Supercheap Autos etc.,  Found one, bought the bits, did a bit of fiddling and taking bits from the old one to fix to the new one and within 15 minutes we were 'On the road again'.

We're now about 90kms East of Adelaide.  Today's little job for Steve is ascertaining why his special diesel tank in the back of the truck keeps leaking fuel.  

We've met some great people on our travels.  Robin and his wife were at Evandale, they're from Queensland and also there was Chris and Sue.  She has such a sense of humour and we were pleasantly surprised when they pulled into the scout camp at Kingston.

We kept meeting up with Andre and Paula who live in Liverpool.  They came from France over 40 years ago with their son and they have a daughter and grandson now.  They are leaving Tasmania today and Paula is desperate to see AJ.  I know how she feels because I can't wait to see all of our littlies, especially the new one, Harry Patrick Foster.

We spent at least three weeks with our Frenchies, we're a similar age although as usual Steve is the youngest.  Andre took him fishing a few times and we'd all spend time enjoying Happy Hour while Andre told his stories.  I never knew whether to believe him or not.

Flappers

10.4.2013

We’ve been across the top of Tasmania from Devonport to Stanley and also through the mountains down to Port Arthur and everywhere in between.  We’re now in St Helens, which is on the Eastern side, and we’re working our way back to Devonport.  If Tassie was a clock we’re at 4 o’clock with Devonport at 12.  We’ve not been down the South Western side because that’s wilderness and national parks.

The story about the old girl and nearly parking in her backyard happened when we were driving up to Moulting Bay.  The gps said to turn right and there was a sign saying it was a no through road.  When you’re free camping a lot of sites are at the end of roads and to see a no through road sign was no big deal.  However, there was a fork in the road and Paula shot out of their car and took the left hand road and Steve took the right hand side and both came back saying there were houses at the end of each road but Paula’s had a field that we could turn around in.

So, into four-wheel drive and up the road we went.  When we were almost at the top this old bird appears, arms flapping like a distressed swan, shouting that this wasn’t the road to the Bay.  Obviously she was right because there was a house plus a garage and Paula’s field was the back yard, perfect for lots of caravans to park on because it was short grass and level but the flapper said we had to get out and that caravans were always coming up her road.

How hard would it be to have a sign erected at the bottom of her drive, where the street sign is to say it’s not the entrance to the Bay?  Steve started turning around in the back yard and the flapping started again when she told him to take a little track which led to the main road.  Paula was hysterical because as Steve had driven over the crest of the drive the caravan had gone into a plastic marker at the side and Paula was trying to hold it up and straighten it before the old bird noticed it was bent.  I had no idea what was going on behind us because I was watching the old bird.  She was like the Road Runner.

So we’d entered at her front, turned around in her middle and exited through her rear.  (Steve’s words, not mine).

She was short tempered with us but Andre’s French accent calmed her down.

Not quite secrets but stuff that doesn't need to be openly discussed

While we were away last year James’s house was sold.  Later that year Louisa’s house went the same way.  Both sales took about six weeks.  Just before we left for Tasmania we put our house on the market.  That sold in two weeks.  This time we were a tad more organized and had a printer on board for printing off documents from the settlement agent rather than having them posted out to a post office somewhere.

The two houses were between 15 and 20 years old and ours is 6.  There were no issues with those houses and everything went through smoothly.  Can’t say the same about ours.

The buyer wanted a building inspection done and this showed that the roof wasn’t built to code.  The builder said it was and wouldn’t fix it but I turned on the charm and explained we were ‘overseas’ and that we didn’t want to lose the sale and I’d had nothing but good things to say about Summit, blah blah blah and within a few days a crew of roof carpenters had been round and sorted it out.  I have to say that when they were building the house they worked on it every day and we were very pleased with it.

We’ve sold all our properties and possessions.  Actually various people, mostly our daughters, have snapped up the possessions although James is having the washing machine, fridge and other stuff.  To keep our house we would both have had to go back to work in order to pay the mortgage.  If we were both working we wouldn’t be able to travel.  We thought long and hard and discussed with various people and (especially after Steve had experience of his mum’s affairs after she died) we decided to clean up our own affairs now rather than leave it to Louisa, James and Beth to deal with after we died.

Our children have dealt with everything, from packing up the house, to getting the spa removed and the house cleaned.  I’m told that Beth’s garage is full of our stuff, they moved into their new house a few weeks ago and also during this time Paige has been in hospital and Louisa had Harry Patrick Foster on the 2^nd April.

I loved that house; it was the best house we’ve ever owned.  I loved that the living area was so big.  People would walk in and be overwhelmed by the space but we had to be realistic.  Did we really need such a large house that had two spare bedrooms and two bathrooms for the two of us?  It was too easy for any of the grandchildren to stay over; they got to choose their own bed although they usually ended up in ours.  We’d even bought a king size bed to accommodate them and us.

So, from next week we are no longer homeowners.  We leave Tasmania on the 23^rd April and after a trip to an Apple store in Victoria to get Steve’s iPhone sorted we’ll be making our way to Beth’s house.  No definite plan, we hope we can get the caravan in her backyard but we’re not stressing.  One plan is to travel North for the winter and South for summer. 

We haven’t advertised the fact that we’re officially Grey Nomads, living out of a caravan and we’d rather you didn’t mention this on Facebook.   You are more than welcome to leave a comment on this blog.

The next update will be about Andre and Paula and Steve and myself almost setting up camp in an old lady’s back yard and Steve’s fishing plus any other dribbling that comes to mind.