NB The Manly Ferry

Advice Needed re Onboard Communications

2012-02-27T14:31:00.002+11:00

When we finally arrive in the UK and move aboard Caxton aka The Manly Ferry one of the first things to get sorted will be a mobile phone plus getting the laptop sorted for emails and bloggin etc.
I am a bit of a fair dinkum Luddite when it comes down to setting up these things.

All we will be arriving with is a laptop.

Questions are.....

1. What company offers the best coverage

2. I have been looking at these click little wifi thinggies I like the idea of no wires and being able to connect up to 5 devices.

3. How many MBs GBs would you think we would need, we will probably be only using the laptop for blogging, downloading pics and emails etc, we are not into games...well not computer games!

4. Can you get a package for an Iphone plus wifi thinggy and do they do deals, what is a reasonable monthly figure?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Cheers Paul........... 30 days and counting

My piles are gettin' bigger!

2012-02-26T19:18:00.000+11:00

Well - Elaine here - and what a week it has been - has it only been a week? I can honestly say I have never felt so exhausted in all my life ! Well, that's my whinge over ... I will try to document now what I have been doing to get soo tired ...

As I mentioned, the 'old piles are gettin' bigger' - not being personal - just talking about the piles for shipping / air freighting / storing / junking ... here is an example or two ...

Can you spot a cat amongst it all?

... well, that's Geoffrey !

As Paul mentioned, we went out last Friday night, then (last) Saturday it was his birthday - which he wasn't too worried about this year - his mind being on bigger and better things (and canal boats !). So - Saturday morning we went to get my car cleaned as we had some friends coming over with their daughter to have a look at it, with the view to potentially buying it. Their daughter said it was 'awesome' and really loved it - so, it is all looking good for her to buy it, toward the end of March - which will give her plenty of time to learn to drive a manual car (at the moment, she drives at automatic). So - that was a productive morning !

Saturday afternoon, we cleaned out the garage and loaded up as much rubbish as we could into the Ute and took it up to the tip - the driving force being here that Paul wants me to keep the car in the garage - to keep it happy 'til it is sold ! The nice man at the tip only charged us $10, so that was a good result !

After a bit more clearing when we got back, we treated ourselves to a beer down in Manly, with the dogs (we sit outside a little bar, which is virtually empty at the time we go down there - but later in the night there are queues of young'uns up the road - waiting to get in !). Then we got an Indian take-away and a DVD (The Thing) ... that was what Paul wanted to do for his Birthday night - he said he was in heaven !

On Sunday - after all the frivolities of take-aways and DVDs, we got up and I started on clearing out drawers - as we will be selling all our furniture and so it all has to be emptied! Note to self, never ever put things in drawers again ! Paul took all his tools and tool boxes up to his work to clean and sort them out - which he did for about 6 hours! When he got back we went to the Skiffies to meet some friends - as per his previous blog entry.

On Monday, I had to chase up the animal transport people - when we pick up the animals at Heathrow we will have 5 crates to transport - so we wanted to know the dimensions, so we know how big a truck to hire ! It turns out they are plastic and can be dismantled into two parts, so what we will do is dismantle the dog crates and then fit one of the cat crates into them - that way we will only have to accommodate the size of 3 cat crates, plus our luggage !

When talking to the pet transport people, they mentioned that there were now new regulations on pet travel (as from Jan 2012) - which we knew about - in that, they now only have to wait 3 weeks following their successful rabies blood test. However, what we didn't consider was that part of the wording was that it had to have been done within one year of travel - which seemed a bit nonsensical as our animals rabies vaccinations are all valid for 3 years - even though originally done just over a year ago. Anyway, they wanted to double check with the Quarantine people - just to be safe ! I immediately developed whelts on my neck - and - it's a good job the sun was just over the yard arm - as I had a beer too ... I really didn't want any more hiccups with the animals (ref last years's debacle !).

Anyway - I continued clearing and creating my piles - I have one pile for storage, one pile for shipping, one pile for taking with us on the plane, one pile to send via air freight and one pile for the garage sale. All the stuff in this picture, had been piled up in the garage, while we were selling the house - but which ll got moved to the laundry - which then had to be sorted ..yuk !

The laundry full of 'stuff'

Anyway, the following day I heard from the pet transport people who said that the Rabies statuses of the animals were all OK'd with quarantine BUT Geoffrey and William's microchips didn't have enough numbers - being the old standard - so they would have to write a letter to Heathrow to say that - if they required - we would bring a suitable microchip scanner with us for them to scan the cats (cost $150) ... the cats couldn't be re-microchipped because they can't do that after the Rabies vaccination ... so, we were prepared to buy the scanner to take with us ! The next day we heard that Heathrow were all cool and had no problems with our old microchips ... phew, another hiccup outa the way ! The pet transport people then booked the animals on their flights (on 29th via BA) which enabled us to book ours - so Paul booked our flights out on Wed 28th March - via Qantas (A380 apparently). Another tick !

Well -- that was the animals (and our flights) sorted - back to the piles ! The week was full of sorting and culling (in between a busy week of massaging!)

We had decided to have a 'Garage / House moving / Clearance Sale' this weekend, so my focus was getting things ready for that ... this is the result on Saturday morning ...

Kitchen jumble sale !

Lounge room jumble sale !

Lounge room from deck

We had decided to run our Garage sale (in the house) from 8 am to 4 pm ... we had been told that people always arrive early, so we got up at 6.30 am - Paul took the dogs out for a walk and went to get some coffee and croissants. At 7.30 am the door bell went (even though I had put a sign on the door saying 'strictly no entry before 8 am' - I had gotten especially cranky the day before when someone turned up a day early !!!). Anyway, they were 4 elderly people at the door, who were puffing and panting, having climbed up our pathway and stairs - and said they couldn't manage it again and could they please come in a bit early ... so, I let them in - thinking that they would have a quick look and go - then Paul would come back with the dogs and we could drink our coffee and eat our croissants ... but oh, no - it was like opening the flood gates - by the time Paul got back I was up to my ears in people ... !!! The Coffee and Croissants got put to the side, the dogs got hidden away and IT WAS ON !!!

We had soooo many people through from 7.30am to about 11am, then it dropped off - we had stuff all through the lounge, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, backyard and on the deck - so we had people everywhere ! We sold quite a bit of stuff really and met some lovely people too ... it was quite a fun thing to do, but by 1pm we were really, really tired ! My mate, Julia came by with her dog, Neo and bought us some chocolate muffins, so we had those with some cuppas ... very good diet we had yesterday ! By the time 4pm came, we were completely exhausted and the dogs were very peeved at being locked away most of the day (even though I was playing them their 'doggie classical music' to keep them calm!)

So - again - last night we got an Indian take-away - but watched a really bad film (something with Bruce Willis in it) ... I fell asleep, which was great .. thanks, Bruce ! So - we went to bed, thinking that would be the last night on our bed ... as someone said they were going to buy it!

Sunday morning, I got up early as I had so much going on in my head - so started putting our remaining stuff for sale on Gumtree. The lady rang to say she didn't want the bed after all, so we get to sleep on it a few more nights ! Then --- just as we were feeling very fed up with the whole ordeal, Russel (Paul's brother) rang and cheered us up .. he is on board the boat (Caxton) at the moment, with his wife, Tracey - he told us it was so lovely and warm and cozy and peaceful ... so, that spurred us on !!

I put a few items on Gumtree, then we got ready to deliver some of the stuff we had sold (all part of the service !). Paul went under the house to box up all his paints and other bits and bobs, as a guy was coming t 10.30 am to pick them up... which was great - at least they are going to good use ! Another lot of stuff gone .. another tick !

I then had a call from a girl who had seen the ads on Gumtree - who wanted to come and see the coffee table in the afternoon ... ! So - we did 4 lots of deliveries around the place and then came back for the girl to arrive to see the table, but she cancelled and then another guy rang to come and see it ... anyway, he ended up buying it, so all was well ! Now Paul had nothing to stick his feet on while he is watching tele ... terrible habit ! We still have a fair bit to get rid of, but we still have time, before we have to start donating to the charity shops !

Right ... that's my week ... we have just gotten back from a walk and a beer with the dogs and we will settle down soon with some beans on toast ! We know how to live !!! :) Elaine x

Last trip on the Manly Ferry

2012-02-22T10:15:00.003+11:00

We went over to the city last Friday to catch up with some old friends from Byron Bay who were staying in the city for a few days. As it was probably going to be our last trip on the Manly Ferry I thought I had better take the camera along for some shots!

We were accompanied by some of our 'Northern Beaches' friends who we met when we first arrived in Oz in 1980. We were all in our very early twenties then and I still laugh when I look at the old photos from the early days; we all had mega sun tans without any worries of mortgages, serious jobs etc. - great times!

Back to the trip...... we overtook an Australian navy ship on its way back from....who knows ...

Passing a warship with another Manly ferry heading toward Manly

When we arrived at Circular Quay there was a P&O liner in (Aurora)

We walked around to a pub in the rocks area where we had a few drinks and dinner...

With old friends in the pub

At about 11 pm we walked back to Circular Quay to catch the last ferry back to Manly ...

I took a last pic from the ferry looking back towards the Opera House and bridge. If you are ever in Sydney a trip on the Manly Ferry is a must - it's cheap and you get the best views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge; if the seas are rough you get a great roller coast ride as you cross Sydney Heads!

Looking back from the ferry

On Sunday afternoon we went to our favourite watering hole ... the Manly 16ft Yacht Club, with some old friends ...

Elaine and Julia

I took a night time shot on the way home of Manly cove beach and the ferry wharf; my first flat in Manly was located 100 metres from here.....ahhhh the memories !

Manly Cove and wharf

Back to the present day........Chaos reigns supreme as we or, I should say Elaine, is getting everything ready for the big move, I won't say any more as she is going to do a blog on it. I will say she has been a bloody star, I have the easy job of going to work every day!

Other news is the flights have been booked and paid for by my boss (perhaps he wants to get rid of me :-))

We fly to the UK on 28th March the animals fly out on the 29th.

I had a chat with my brother Russell last night as he is spending a few night aboard Caxton at Stourport on Severn; he is loving it and amazed how warm it is and how much better the boat shower is compared with his home shower!

That's all for now ... :)

Daily doings / logistics !

2012-02-14T18:17:00.000+11:00

Paul wanted me to move all this stuff into the main blog ... so here it is .. don't fall asleep !!!

Here is a list of our daily doings in order to achieve our goal of getting to the UK and living aboard our Narrowboat ! Here goes ...

Pre 2012 --- in March 2011, we had the animals vaccinated for rabies, a month later they were all tested to ensure they had raised antibodies for Rabies ... however, Jaffa (cat) failed, so that delayed our departure by a month. In 2011 the rules were that animals had their Rabies jabs and then waited 6 months before they could be issued their pet passports ... now in 2012, they only have to wait 3 weeks !

We also put the house on the market in March 2011 - we had one potential buyer but they wanted to move in earlier than we could leave (because of the Rabies - animals stuff ... so we lost them. After that, the house was on the market continually --- not one serious buyer - until Feb 11, 2012 ! She signed the contract on that day and we signed our contract on Feb 12, 2012. We have GO !!!

Friday, 10 Feb 2012 - checked out pet transport. The animals are all well-ready to go now, so no problems there. Got a quote for the 5 pets - $4400. The lady at the pet transport company (skypets) told me that when the animals arrive at Heathrow, there is still a 4 hour processing time before you can get them - so we decided to fly out a day earlier than the animals and stay in a hotel overnight, to get our heads together. We will then rent a van to pick them all up and take them to Macclesfield, where we will stay with my (Elaine's) dad for a few days ... poor Daddy !

I also rang the vets --- they are sooo helpful - we just have to make sure we have all the paperwork in order to give to the pet transport people, so they can liaise with the Australian Quarantine Service. (We were originally going to do it ourselves - ie, you have to take the animals for a health check within 48 hours of flying, and then take the paperwork to the Quarantine Services to get it all authorised - but now we are going to get the pet transport people to do it for us - so much easier!)

Saturday, 11 Feb 2012 - we signed our contracts - so we have the green light. We have a 42 day settlement period and will move out on Thurs 22 March. We will then move into Paul's work's warehouse for a few days - thank God, for Paul's boss ! He did say we could stay at his house ... but, as ever, we just have too many animals. So, we will literally just move into the warehouse / office with an old bed, our suitcases, the animals, animal food and kitty litter!

We will try to fly out on Wed 28th, this means that we will say goodbye to the animals the day before probably. We will arrive in the UK on Thurs 29th and go and either stay in a hotel for the day and night - or go to Paul's Mums in Milton Keynes. The animals will follow us and arrive on the Friday morning ... well that is the plan !!!!

OK - so that's the progress to date ... following I will just write what we do on a daily basis .. it will be interesting to look back on in years to come !

Yesterday I also ordered 3 cat collars, 5 new animal tags with UK tel nos on them and also some Feliway and Adaptil - products to calm the animals down. I will spray these in the crates when we get them from the pet transport people - so they have a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling about the crates and don't hate them too much !
Today I ordered two memorial plaques to leave in our garden when we go. One for our dear old dog, Byron and one for our naughty Bella Bunny ...:( It will be sad leaving them ...

On Saturday afternoon I pulled out the contents of the filing cabinet ... oh soooo much stuff! We had some bills going back to 2000 ! So I chucked all those into a box ready for shredding !

On Sunday 12 Feb 2012 we wandered round aimlessly for a few hours - not quite knowing where to start ! Paul made a little start on his wardrobe and put a few clothes into the charity bag. Finally we got the shredding and went up to Paul's work with it. It was a very cathartic process shredding our past! I also shredded a lot of my course notes from when I was studying all those years back ... it was funny to briefly revisit them before they got shredded into oblivion ! We got a fair bit done and then filled up the shredding bin to capacity so had to give it up for the day. I will do the rest when we go and stay up there on the last few days ... when I have not too much to do !

Sunday afternoon I decided the best way to start was to pack my suitcase for the UK! So I did that and then put the rest of my clothes into bags, for shipping. I have still have some in my wardrobe but we don't need too many clothes at this time of year ! I also packed up some other bits and bobs that will have to be stored. We will have to decide on what shipping agents to use, so we can get some proper boxes and pack properly!

Monday morning 13 Feb 12 I decided to send out an email to all my clients, letting them know that I wasn't going to take any more bookings, but honouring the bookings that are already made - that took me a while, but was a good process to go through, in gradually letting go of what we have here ...

The animal transport people were back in touch also on Monday morning, so we sorted out some dates with them ...

I didn't get much more done on Monday - apart from pulling the computer out of its cabinet and putting it on a temporary table ... the reason being that I needed to take some pics of the cabinet to put on Ebay ... but when Paul got home he told me he is undecided about keeping them again ... aaaarrgh !

Tuesday 14 Feb 12 - today I received the new cat collars and tags in the mail ! Our cats will hate wearing collars again, but they must ! I moved the computer cabinet out of the study room (as it is now empty and taking up space!) Still don't know if we are going to sell it or not ... it is nice stuff but is fairly big so may not be suitable in a new place if it is smaller than here in the future !

I had a few massages to do today so didn't get too much else done but I did call in the vets to get all the rabies paperwork in order for the pet transport people.

House Sale Statistics

2012-02-13T18:00:00.001+11:00

The house went on the market in September and sold on 11th February. We had an open house virtually every week, plus a lot of specials in between the scheduled open house. Total open houses approx 50! Which equates to around 350 people!! The Lady that bought it looked at it Wednesday for 20 minutes, building and pest inspection Thursday and signed the paperwork Friday! As they say you only need one.

Never mind its all over now, we have got some really busy weeks ahead as we are going to get rid of everything apart from personal momentos, we kept thinking about storage but it such a waste of money plus we dont know where we will end up in future years. Elaine is going into all the ins and outs in her daily doings, which I am going to suggest she just puts it all on the main blog.

Sold ! Sold ! Sold ! Sold ! (you get the idea!)

2012-02-11T10:27:00.000+11:00

Well - that's it ... we signed the contracts this morning ... the pics say it all !
We now have to sort out 'the stuff' ... much more exciting ! Elaine is going to add a page to the blog of our daily doings, in order to get there ... should make for an interesting list !

Elaine signing on the dotted line ...

Sasha sticking the sticker on !

Happy little vegemites !

A picture says it all ... open house cancelled !

Thank you, God !

99% There!

2012-02-10T19:47:00.001+11:00

We are now so close we can virtually taste it ! Our house buyer has paid the deposit and signed the contract and by tomorrow morning, it should all be a done deal ! Our Real Estate guy said we can be officially excited at 10 minutes past 10 am Saturday 11 Feb 2012 - it is now 19:50 pm Friday night ! So, tonight we are drinking the Australian champagne .. tomorrow it will be French (we actually prefer the Australian !).

More details tomorrow but we should be in the UK by the end of March ! Give me another glass .. hic !!!
Paul and Elaine x

NEARLY THERE!!!!

2012-02-09T19:41:00.000+11:00

We are so close but as they say "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" The last couple of days would have to be the most stressful situation we have ever had to endure! Stay tuned!!!!!

Elaine's Birthday and a Long Long Weekend!

2012-02-06T20:58:00.003+11:00

Twas Elaine's birthday on Sunday, and I'm sure she won't mind me broadcasting it was her 50th! Still got all her teeth, a bit of a spring chicken really!

We had all sorts of plans for her 50th - as in big parties, hiring out a big house for a week, having a party on a nice boat etc. but in the end she said what I would really like would just the 2 of us to go away with the dogs!

So that was it ... a quick search on the internet and I found a lovely small converted barn on the south coast in a little town called Berry. We decided to go down on Friday morning and come back to Sydney on Monday morning.

Berry is about 2.5 hours south of Sydney; it is a lovely little town surrounded by very green hills, the reason being they have a fair bit of rain down there!

On the drive down we pass a lovely little beach with a railway station right next to it and the name of this place.....Bombo (who we happened to name our dog, after the said place !)

Bombo railway station

When we arrived on Friday we decided to go for an 'explore' around the property but I ended up sliding down a hill in the mud so we had to go back to base to clean up! On cleaning up my shoes, Elaine discovered a leach - which promptly disappeared - so we didn't think too much more about it and set off to the town to have a look ! On driving down the road, I felt a squelch between my toes and stopped the car, only to find two leaches in between my toes ! Elaine had never encountered leaches before and was (vocally !) horrified ! She then found a leach in her shoe and later in the day we found one in Bombo's mouth - poor puppy ! They seemed to disappear after those few appearances but they were enough to put Elaine off walking in the grass around the property again !

Anyway, I digress ... it just so happened that Friday and Saturday were the dates for the annual Berry show. Country shows are .......click here for the best explanation. I must add that it had been pissing down for the previous week, it stopped on Friday but it was very boggy and muddy ... we have always wondered how our little white boys would cope with muddy towpaths, but after battling the Berry bog we realized that they will be fine!

Big Bull

I really enjoy watching the wood chopping events, it is amazing how the old boys generally win, this chap was in his 60s and he was on the biggest handicap of his group!

60 plus woodchopper

This truck is the RM Williams mobile outfitters, the trailer opens out to become a fully functioning shop. RM Williams is the iconic bush outfitter supplying quality Australian products, but unfortunately more and more of the products are Made in China :-(

RM Williams Semi Trailer (Artic)

The truck is amazing, the paintwork and chrome are absolutely spotless, the truck travels all over Australia to various country shows for 11 months of the year! Elaine bought a nice top and I bought a shirt.

The Truck is a Western Star

The sun came out for the rest of the weekend so we took the dogs down to the beach which was 10 ks away. Dogs are banned from all Sydney beaches but in the sticks they are a bit more tolerant, they are still supposed to be on a leash but as there was hardly anyone around - we thought 'sod it' !

Chasing on the beach

They go absolutely mad down the beach they just love it ...

Sam going full pelt

Bombo never chases sticks when we take him to the park but get him down the beach he goes mental for one ...

Just chuck the stick !

Me and the boys !

Elaine's Birthday was on Sunday but we thought we would go to a nice restaurant on Saturday night.We went to the Post House which was the old Berry Post Office ...

Berry Old Post Office

We both ate and drank too much but it was a good night!

Outside the old Post Office (Posthouse resturant)

The rest of the weekend we just walked around and went to the beach again plus we vegged out back at the Barn ...

Such happy boys !!

The Old Barn

We drove back to Sydney via through Kangaroo Valley which was also very very green ...

Kangaroo Valley

We also went out for a late lunch when we got back to Sydney - we went to the Cottage Point Inn which was very nice plus we sat outside with the dogs.

On the way back home we took the shortcut through Kuringai National Park which obviously dogs are banned from - but we weren't even allowed to drive through with the dogs in the car - the Ranger turned us around!!! Welcome back to Sydney!!!

Open House Number.....Lost Count !

2012-01-28T20:37:00.000+11:00

We have lost count of the open houses we have had, but as we put the house on the market in early September and we have had an open day every weekend plus quite a few in between weekends it adds up to rather a lot!

So back to today...... 36 people (or 18 couples) came through! Bloody amazing! Six of them (3 couples) were on second looks so it is starting to look very promising! I'm pretty sure there will be another interest rate cut next week, so that should also spark a bit more interest and loosen the purse strings. We are now waiting for the offers to flood in!

Now for my whinge of the day ... it gets my dander up when we get comments from people who live in the UK and think that we must be nuts to move over there ...what with 'the unemployment, too many foreigners, Cameron having stuffed up the economy, crap weather, the Olympics being a waste of money' etc etc.

We are not going over there to make a shed load of money or for a career change or spend 8 hours a day sat on the M25!

We are going for a lifestyle change, and for one, not working will be a big change! We want to see England from a completely different perspective and at a relaxed pace, catch up with family and old friends and of course to have an adventure! We both feel very privileged to have Australian and UK passports and to have such a choice of where and how we live.

When I left Vauxhall in 1980 and went on a round-the-world adventure (only got as far as Sydney) they thought I was mad to leave such a good company with excellent prospects! I proved them wrong as we will prove the current doomsayers wrong also!

Whinge over and out ! :)

Struth ! It's Australia Day 2012 !

2012-01-26T15:07:00.001+11:00

Today, 26th January, is Australia Day, so today's blog will contain a fair bit of the Aussie vernacular....''fair dinkum' (true, real)

Today is the anniversary of the first fleet arriving in Botany Bay in 1788. Australia Day was first known as 'First Landing Day', followed by 'Foundation Day', 'Anniversary Day' and finally 'Australia Day'. The indigenous population (Aborigines) also know it as 'Invasion Day', which you can't really argue with.

OK, that's the history out of the way ... today is now best known for having a barbie and getting pissed! Even though it is a national holiday today we did notice that the 'garbos' (dustbin men) were still working! There are also lots of citizenship ceremonies, Aussie of the year awards and honours etc.

We normally go over the city, where normally thousands of other 'dinky di, true blues' converge as there are a multitude of activities going on, but as today it is (yet again) pissing down we decided to go local.

We walked down to Dee Why Beach where they have a council run Aussie Big Breakfast Party.

We passed this house on the way, as you can see the Aussies are a patriotic bunch.

The council supplies the breakfast and drinks, but you can make a donation to a charity...

They also have a stage with bands playing etc...

We don't do queues so we had breakfast at a local cafe, as you can see Elaine loves having her photo taken ...

We just sat down and the heavens opened, it bucketed down for about half an hour (great timing!)

This old boy was playing a squeeze box in a cafe and they were singing Happy Birthday to Australia ...

They also had a car and bike show with a variety of different machinery -

Ford Capri with a 5.8 Litre Ford Motor!

1912 Triumph which was ridden there!

Australia,s first car

The 'old bill' was on display; they were also walking around to make sure no one was on the 'turps'. There was no sign of the 'Ambos' (Ambulance Officers) or 'Firies' (Firefighters) though !

There were a few 'Sheilas' on the beach dressed up as like 'galahs' ...

There was a good turnout even thought the weather was very dodgy, it isn't cold - just wet and very humid!

On the way back home we spotted this 'dinky di, true blue' drive past in his ute (pick up); he wasn't real true blue though as they wouldn't be seen dead in a Toyota, it would have to be a Holden Ute

On the way back we stopped at the 'bottlo' (off license) to buy some 'piss' (beer and wine) - so we can get 'rat-arsed' later (just kidding !)

All joking apart, Australia Day is a fantastic day celebrating Australia and what a great country it is to live in. You would have to try very hard to find to find anyone whinging and moaning about this country; my only whinge is it is very anti dog, and that is mainly in Sydney plus (as I may have mentioned previously) the drivers are worse than Arabs! Apart from that Aussie Aussie Aussie - Oy Oy Oy !!!

It is also a year ago today that we sat in our pool and after a few beers and champers decided to bring the canal plan forward a couple of years ! We didn't really expect to still be here for another Australia day, but - in the nicest possible way - we hope this will be our last here ! 'Stone the flamin' crows' what a year of ups and downs the last year has been - we are ever hopeful of selling the house soon! There has been a fair amount of interest already and things aren't really back to 'normal' yet after the Xmas Holidays - so it is all promising ! Back to work for a day tomorrow, for some 'hard yacka', then another open for inspection on Saturday ... fingers crossed ! 'Avagoodwegend' everyone !

Plane Spotting

2012-01-17T15:14:00.001+11:00

So, what is the link between living on a canalboat and planes? Nothing really apart from we will be hopping on one soon to start the new life, plus I like looking at aeroplanes! My dream would be to be on a narrowboat with a steam railway on one side and an old aerodrome on the other.

Back to Sydney Airport....Elaine was on a course all weekend so on Sunday I took the 2 dogs on a road trip to show them the big birdy things where they would be spending 24 hours stuck in a hold! It is going to be the longest 24 hours of our lives worrying about the poor little buggers down there.

I know of a fantastic spot where you can get very close to the action legally.

First you have to walk along a beach and then at the end go through some bushes and hey presto great spot for watching planes; I have taken El there before and even she thinks it is quite neat.

Whilst walking along the beach a Singapore A380 had just touched down and was back tracking on the taxi way...

I have now flown on the A380 3 times to the UK and it is easily the quietest jet I have ever been in.
It in an incredibly ugly plane though!

They come past so close that the pilots even give you a wave ...

The dogs were fine they weren't at all fussed with the noise!

This Qantas jumbo was taking off, it is the official Wallabies plane and painted accordingly I flew on this plane to London in July and to Singapore in November ...

This sign in next to the fence ... as I said you can get very close!

I took a close up of a BA Tailplane...

An Air Pacific 747 came past, they used to owned by Qantas but now I'm not sure.

And finally another A380 taking off for Singapore and London ...

Brother Russ's take on the Caxton Handover

2012-01-16T09:28:00.002+11:00

From Russ ...

"We went to do the handover on a cold and crisp winter morning but the sky was clear. We found the basin easy enough and the first test was ... how warm was the boat? Well, it passed with flying colours; it was so warm and toasty and that was just with the fire on low!

The next test was how light was it ...again, no worries there ! It was very light what with the side hatches, light paintwork and the Houdini hatches.

How much room was there? I was surprised with how roomy it felt, even with 2 big dogs in it - it didn’t feel at all cramped.

The bathroom was nice and big and the shower was nice and powerful (no we didn’t have a shower Joe just demonstrated it!)

We were there for 5 hours with a trip to the pub thrown in and as you said Lesley and Joe are a very nice couple. They made us feel so welcome ... it was an excellent day.

I’m sure Elaine is going to love the boat (if I give it back to you) as I know I did; there is storage for everything and it is such a neat and tidy boat. They have covers for everything and I liked the cover for the semi trad end.

When I took the pictures the sun was starting to go down so the pictures don’t perhaps show the true extent of how light it is inside.

Tracy has videoed all the handover and I have all the manuals ... "

Thanks Russ and Tracy and Lesley and Joe - what would we have done without you ! Oh - we sooooo can't wait to get there ! We are ever hopeful of selling our house soon ....
Elaine and Paul :)

First Open House of the New Year!

2012-01-14T16:24:00.019+11:00

Today was the first advertised open house of the new year, and what a result, 25 people walked round for a sticky-beak!

Kitchen and looking down to the 'South Wing'

This was by far our best open house to date, and the buying season hasn't even kicked off yet! It should all ramp up again after January 26th which is Australia Day. We will see how Mr Real Estate goes with the follow ups next week.

We really want to get on board The Manly Ferry aka Caxton before the boating season kicks off; the idea is to get some practice in before it gets too crowded, we don't want to look like nobs do we?!!

Here are some pics of the house, when it is tidy and animal-free ...

Main Bedroom - not a bad view when you are in bed !

Big Deck !

Lounge looking out to deck

Sydney Harbour Bridge to Shut !!!!!!!

2012-01-12T15:26:00.001+11:00

But only for the next 3 weekends from Friday 10.00pm through to Monday 5.00am. Massive news for Sydneysiders as the bridge is the main thouroughfare across the harbour, so we will be steering well clear of the city.

Bombo and Bridge

Its the first time that the bridge has shut since 1932, the reason for the closure is so that they can carry out major resurfacing work and waterproofing.

Also Known as "The Coathanger"

It has been closed before for the New Years Eve fireworks and other special occasions but only for a very short peroid of time.

Bridge with Manly Ferry, Cruise Ship, and a Bulk Carrier going under Bridge

The Caxton Handover

2012-01-11T21:03:00.000+11:00

My brother and his other half are off to Stourport this weekend to meet Joe, Lesley and the boys and go through a handover with them. Just wish we could be there, mind you they are going to video it!

We had a bit of a problem with the insurance as in they will not insure you unless you are a UK resident, although they couldn't tell me the reason why~ Not a problem though as we will put the boat in my brother's name, and we can use it with his permission down the track :-)

When the stoppages are finished in March, bruv and crew will move the boat closer to his home in Milton Keynes. Any suggestions on safe secure marinas north of Milton Keynes would be appreciated! Once it is there he will be able to use it whenever, having worked in the boating industry for the last 31 years you soon come to realise that the best way to ruin a nice boat is to let it sit idle on a marina.

Another thing we have to change is the name, but I think we will wait 'till we arrive over there to work out how to do it; we want it very simple as in THE MANLY FERRY and maybe a small Aussie flag or pic of the Manly Ferry.

Finally once again thanks to Lesley, Joe, Russell and Tracy who have made the whole exercise very simple for us; not sure its been so simple for them !

The Buying of Caxton !

2012-01-07T20:30:00.000+11:00

We made the decision to buy Caxton on Christmas Eve ... and no, we hadn't had a few !

I have been following the Caxton blog since its inception and have always been impressed by the look and the style of the boat. I also really liked the stretch that was done on the bow, allowing for a hold to put in ~~crap~~ coal, wood etc and to keep a clean roof area.

Obviously reading the blog you get a good idea of the condition of the boat plus how fastidious the owners are in maintaining the said boat !

When Yarwood started its build I thought "hmmm I can see a cunning plan coming up"! (Yarwood is the new boat being built by Caxton's current owners, for those not in the know !)

When I was over in the UK in July/August 2011, I arranged to go to Stourport and meet Lesley, Joe and the boys and, of course, to give Caxton the once over ! It was love at first sight ! I must admit I wasn't keen on portholes because I thought the boat would be dark inside but with two houdini hatches and two side hatches plus light coloured paintwork the interior is very bright and airy. My other reservation was that Caxton had a cross-bed and the thought of dismantling and reassembling a bed every day had always put me off them. However, when visiting Lesley and Joe, they gave me a quick demonstration on making and un-making the bed and, from memory, I think it took 2.5 minutes ! If I remember correctly, Lesley's words at the time were "if you can't spend 2.5 minutes out of a day, you have a big problem". Plus of course in a cross-bed there is a lot more room (to accommodate 5 animals plus us !). The boat is reverse layout - as in the galley is at the stern (rear), followed by the dining room / lounge, walk-through bathroom (large !) and the forward cabin and a very large foredeck (cratch) - just perfect !

We discussed the price at the time and I told Lesley and Joe that I would be very interested and would like first refusal.

Of course, the plan was always to sell the house first and hopefully we would have been in the UK a few weeks before Caxton became available but it was not to be as the housing market in Aus slowed down just as we put our house on the market !

So - back to Christmas Eve - we thought why don't we just buy it and leave it in the capable hands of my brother, Russell - who has hired out many a narrow boat over the years and knows how to handle them !

There were a couple more reasons for buying the boat now (1) we would have somewhere to move straight on to rather than burdening ourselves (and our animals) on relatives plus hiring or buying a car to travel around the country looking for a suitable boat (2) the currency rate is in our favour at the moment is fantastic, so it seemed the right thing to do.

We transferred the funds for the boat plus a few months living expenses (for when we do get there) - and rather than using the bank we used a company called Oz Forex. We saved approx AUS $6000 (which is 3900 pounds!) by using this company rather than the banks ! We will certainly be using them in future to transfer money across when we need it - it was very, very simple.

So - that's it - we have bought a boat we can't use yet ! (But Russell is very happy with our purchase !)

I would like to thank Lesley and Joe for their never ending help and support (and all based on trust) and also Russell and Tracey for their help with making our dream possible !

We were hoping to get the name changed before we got there but we might wait until we get there to get some ideas. Any suggestions welcome on how to turn NB Caxton into NB The Manly Ferry !

Caxton

The Manly Ferry (North Head)

NEWS FLASH !!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-06T21:46:00.000+11:00

No, we haven't sold the house, but we are in the final stages of buying........................A NARROWBOAT!!!

Its too late tonight to go into the why, when and how etc; I will do a full blog tomorrow, but we are both stoked!

Mini Road Trip

2012-01-02T21:41:00.001+11:00

As today was the last day of the Xmas/New Year hols we thought we would go for a mini 'road trip' up to Morpeth, which is a historic river port about a 2.5 hour drive north of Sydney. "River Port" ... sorry, it's the closest we can get to a canal link !

I took the dogs for a walk around the block before we left so we wouldn't have to stop for wee breaks. Sam was so hot when we got back he climbed into a bowl of water that Elaine had left on the floor. The poor dogs really suffer in the heat, hence the reason to travel to the other side of the globe!

Sam in bowl of water

We took off up the F3 free-way and battled with the crap Aussie drivers; there was only one smash ... mind you it was on a clear blue sky day on a dead straight piece of motorway and he still ran up the arse of a big 4wd....I absolutely despair of their horrendous driving. Moving on....you get a nice view of the Hawkesbury River as you head north.

Hawkesbury River

When we got to Morpeth the temperature had risen to 38 degrees!

Morpeth Post Office

We walked through the centre (there is only 1 main street) and had a look in some of the shops but it was so hot we thought we would head down to the river ...

Hunter River

We got down to the river but we couldn't really reach the water - apart from at the boat ramp - so it was there that poor old Sammy went in for another cool down ... (Bombo gets hot too but he doesn't like the water !)

Sam cooling off

The local pub was very quiet, in fact the whole town was pretty quiet; maybe most people had headed off to the beaches - which would have been a more sensible thing to do on such a hot day!

Morpeth Pub

There were a lot of lizards on the pavement, who were competing with the sparrows for tidbits of food ...

Lizard vs sparrow

The dogs were really interested in the lizards - even Sammy forgot about the heat for a while !

As you can see the roads are very wide in the country towns...

Morpeth high street

On the way back we went the long way round avoiding the free-way, It is very green at the moment as they had a really wet December. We stopped for a pint and and nibbles at the Wollombi Pub before heading off home in the late afternoon.

Nice greenery

Back to work tomorrow :-(

Christmas and Hopes for a New Year

2012-01-01T19:39:00.000+11:00

We spent Christmas day at a friend's house with about 24 other Poms ...well, the parents are all Poms!
It was a great day with plenty of seafood, booze and a few stupid games.

This is a pic of yours truly and a couple of our friends ... Patty, who was hosting the Christmas do and Howard. I worked with Howard at Vauxhall Motors Luton over 30 years ago!

Me Patty and Howard

This is Elaine with Patty and Sue ... I met both Patty and Sue when we first came to Oz in 1980/81

Sue Elaine and Patty

The buffet, plenty of prawns, salmon, ham, turkey and an assortment of salads...

Food

Playing celebrity head, I was Justin Bieber! We have a lot in common (!)

Celebrity Head

This is a pic of Ally and myself ... she has now gone on a big adventure to South America; I worked with Howard at Vauxhall but also I went to school in Luton with Ally's mum, Sue!

Ally and me

So, that was Christmas out of the way, next we had New Years Eve. We went to a Singaporean restaurant with some friends, then at about 11pm wandered down to the Harbour to watch the spectacular fireworks; we took some pics but they never do it justice. I'm sure you all watched it on the box. We watched the UK fireworks on the tele this morning - they were brilliant ! Today we are having a lazy day, I even went into the pool, which was bloody freezing still! The weather hasn't been that hot so far this summer but today was a very nice 27 degrees - far from the heat we are used to every year. After I have finished the blog we are going down the beach to finish off the day.

Frozen Nuts

So where do we go from here? 2011 was a bit of a dud on the narrowboat front, we had heaps of plans but it always came back to the same old problem, we must sell the house! Right at the end of 2011 we made some pretty huge decisions on what we were going to do next to achieve the dream ... all I can say at the moment is that the wheels are now in motion - hopefully we should be on our way up to the Northern hemisphere in about spring time ... fingers and everything still crossed, mind you !

I now notice that the British Government has now changed the rules re bringing animals into the UK; the rabies quarantine period has gone from 6 months down to 3 weeks. Had they done this 6 months ago the house would have been sold and we would have been chugging along by now. Funny ol' life !

Never mind as we have said many times before, we and all the animals are healthy and we live very well in a nice spot on the planet. We are as ever optimistic, the big question is where will be spending next Christmas and the New Year? We ere hoping for a nice little village pub with a sign outside saying......DOGS WELCOME !

Xmas Day In OZ

2011-12-25T15:11:00.000+11:00

It's a lovely Christmas day weather wise, its a warm 27 degrees c, with a nice sea breeze. (The weather of late has been quite cool and very rainy - so it feels even hotter as it is humid too - it's good the weather has decided to do 'it's thing' in time for Christmas day though) !

We were up at a reasonable hour and had fresh prawns on the deck for breakfast, as you do.

We opened the dog's presents for them ...doggie chews as usual; they can't wait to get to England and sample Porky Scratchings! We didn't bother with a present for each other, we figured buying a narrowboat will be our belated Christmas present.

We then took the boys for a walk along the prom at Manly and checked out the surfing santas...

Even the lifeguards had Santa hats...

Lots of sunbathers out this morning ...

A young man offered take out pics - thinking we were from 'out of town' - we told him we were also from Manly - just taking pics for the folks back home (we were really trying to just take pics of the surfy santa dudes behind us !!!)

At lunchtime we went around to a friends house for a few drinks...

Our friend presented Elaine with a full set of wet weather gear, its pretty full on gear with a removable liner, all ready for the hours on the tiller in the driving rain!

The dogs had their picture taken with their dog, Jackson - who of course was dressed up as a reindeer!

Later this afternoon we are off to the full-on Christmas do at a friend's house - these are the poms we first met when we come to Australia in 1980, some I knew from the UK. Every year we have the pommie orphans Christmas; they all have kids and those kids are in their early 20s and have boyfriends/girlfriends, so there should be about 26 people!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

from Paul, Elaine, Bombo, Sam, Geoffrey, William and Jaffa xxxx

Happy Christmas !

2011-12-20T22:37:00.003+11:00

Click on the pic or the link, turn the sound up and have a Chrissy larf !!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/IhlcZk75hpHbP5aR

Happy Christmas to our 3 readers !!

Elaine and Paul xxx

Work Xmas Do, Sunday in Manly and House Update ...

2011-12-11T17:51:00.001+11:00

Saturday was the day of the All Marine Spares Christmas party; this year we were going by ferry from Palm Beach across to the Patonga Pub. It's half an hour by ferry vs two and half hours by road, plus there would be a fair bit of drinking, so it was a 'no brainer'. (Plus we get a discount on the ferry as we supply them with spare parts)!

Palm Beach to Patonga Ferry

We had the top deck to ourselves, the bottom deck was taken up by a group of young un's going to the pub to celebrate a 30th birthday. On the way back the roles were reversed - we had the bottom deck and they had the top deck. The ferry left at 11.00 am and picked us up on the last crossing at 4.15pm so we had plenty of time for a long lunch!

On the top deck

We had a private dining room to ourselves, the service, food and wine was superb.

After we had lunch it was mingle time and the obligatory group photos

All Marine Spares Crew

Only one staff member didnt make it, she pulled the pin at the last moment with a stomach bug

Crew plus wives, husbands etc

As usual with this sort of event, towards the end the photos or should I say the subjects start to look a bit strange.

Me and Rocky

Elaine and PC (and Leone in between!)

Me and the Boss!

We got a take away case of beer for the return trip (24 beers) as it was going to be a long journey ... all of 30 mins !!

On the way back to Palm Beach

I had to go upstairs and ~~perv~~ mingle with the young un's After we got back to Palm Beach we went to the local Palm Beach RSL for a few more drinks before we got a cab home about 7.30pm. All in all a great Christmas party.

Young un's on the top deck

We got up a at reasonable time on Sunday morning so we took a walk down to Manly for breakfast and after breakfast went for a walk around the headland to Shelly Beach. It was the first decent day for a while so there was a fair few tourists about.

Manly Beach

It was still pretty hot for the dogs so we had to keep stopping to let them cool off ...

Rest time

Rock Pool on the Shelly Beach walkway

Shelly Beach is a lovely sheltered ocean beach at the southern end of Manly, there is a very popular walk and cycleway to it ...

Shelly Beach

There is a very nice restaurant (Le Kiosk) on Shelly Beach its a bit expensive so we have only been there on special occasions; there is a take away and coffee shop next door so there is an alternative.

Le Kiosk

We walked back around to Manly with yet another rest for the mutts, they really cannot handle the hot weather and today wasnt even that hot!

Yet another rest stop

By the time we got back to Manly the storm clouds were rolling in from the west ...

Storm clouds

Still sunny looking east though ...

Lifeguard on duty

After the walk we did a bit of essential shopping and made it home as the thunder lightning and rain hit

Update to house situation ...

Tomorrow the Real Estate chappie will bring 3 groups through .. one lady (from Hong Kong) at 10.30 am and two others at 6.30 pm ... a-cleaning we shall go !! Fingers crossed for a lovely Xmas pressie !

At Last an Offer !

2011-12-07T11:39:00.001+11:00

Don't get excited though as the offer is about the price of nice narrowboat below our absolute bottom line :-(

I rejected their offer so Mr Real estate should come back today with what we hope will be a decent offer.
We think they are probably just trying it on - can't really blame them, it is definitely a buyers market. Still pretty annoying though.

Personally, I'm pretty crap at making people ridiculous offers for anything; we brought a second hand car a few years ago and because we were cashed up and the young girl was a bit desperate I made and she accepted an offer for far below what is was worth. However, when we picked it up we gave her more money because we just couldn't do it! Hopefully Karma will pay off!

Update: They offered $10,000 more - still nowhere near! Mr Real Estate suggested leaving them for a few days! Ah well - onwards and upwards!

Amsterdam, England and the Bloody House

2011-12-04T18:52:00.000+11:00

OK - so I have been back for over a week and today is the first chance I have had to do a bit of blogging - the main reason is the poxy jet lag ! (Even though I got an upgrade to Business Class and slept for 16 hours on a 24 hour flight it still makes you feel like crap for about 5 days!). Another reason for being slack is that work has been hectic - November was our biggest month since the company started 20 years or so ago, in turnover, sales and profit. We have been just so busy and if it carries on we will need more staff; we already have 5 on the phones selling marine parts all over Australia and are averaging 100 invoices a day, plus quotes and general enquires and its pretty full on. A few reasons why we are so busy is (1) Christmas and everyone want their boats ready for the hols (2) New boat sales are buggered so they are spending keeping the old ones in good order (3) Our major competitor has just about fallen over so we have picked up a lot, if not all, of his customer base.
So that's the excuses out of the way, so with beer in hand off we go....
Once upon a time........

Because of Elaine's appendicitis operation I didn't leave Oz till Saturday afternoon and arrived at mum's in Milton Keynes Sunday lunchtime. I went out with a few family members on Sunday night and on Monday morning I was off to Amsterdam via Luton Airport and Easy Jet. (My boss had gone direct to Amsterdam; he left Oz on Sunday night and he arrived at the hotel about 10 minutes before me!). We went out straight away and had a walk around the local Leidersplain area and had a few beers before we had a pretty early night and a bloody good sleep!

My Artistic Shot

I just love Amsterdam, such a great city with so many different bars and restaurants, some pretty good museums but we just don't have enough time to have a look around them - it is a business trip after all!

Nice bar where we had a drink or two

We stay at the Amsterdam Americain (Hotel) and a lot of the waiters and bar staff are the same as they were on my first trip twelve years ago.

Our Hotel

It's a great show for us as we meet all our suppliers from all corners of the globe in one spot and we are always on the lookout for new products. We had a look at a new motor we will be selling in the new year; its a Craftsman 85hp diesel, Dutch company, Hyundai power plant and marinised in India!

Craftsman 85hp

After the show finished we flew to Southampton, picked up the hire car and drove to Poole. The good thing about going with the boss is you get a better hire car and we had a very nice little Mercedes something!

At Poole we stayed at the RNLI training college which also doubles as a hotel open to the general public.
It really is such great institution and the facilities down there blew me away. They have a huge pool where they practice rescues and righting lifeboats, class rooms, slipways and repair yards for the lifeboats plus administration buildings; well worth a visit if you are down that way.

Our rental car

View from my window

RNLI Hotel

Interesting sculpture outside of RNLI centre

After a night in Poole we drove up to Norfolk to meet a supplier in King Lynn. After a quick lunch with him we went to my my boss's brother- in-law's place, who lives in a lovely little village called Thornham. It reminded me of that programme 'A Place in the Country' - lovely house with gardens and a view to die for! We went down the local for drinks and dinner to a fantastic pub called the Lifeboat. 'Spider' (the brother- in-law) is known by all and sundry as he is the local builder who has virtually rebuilt the village, using traditional building methods. Oh and the pub allowed dogs!!!!

Spiders House and Garage!

The Garden and View

After Thornham we drove south to London, where we had a hotel booked for 2 nights right next to Tower Bridge!

Lovely Norfolk Windmill

We used the Thames Clippers on the river to get about, we only had to see one supplier so we actually had one day off to go sightseeing.

Spot the Bus

I love the Battle of Britain sculpture, it is so different from the norm. My boss's dad, who is still alive, flew Spitfires in the war but missed the Battle of Britain. I have read all his diaries - basically he enjoyed his time over there and, as he says, he enjoyed his war even though of the group he left Australia with only 2 returned.

We also visited the Churchill war rooms, which have been left just as they were or reconstructed to as they were in wartime. Once again if you are in London a must see.

Churchills seat was the one at the far end middle

Chief of Staff's Room

Churchill's Bedroom

Whilst we were walking down Whitehall we heard an almighty bang ... a van went through the security and had activated the anti-terrorism posts. The van shot about 4 foot in the air and was thrown against the wall; when they released the posts it had smashed the sump and rear axle plus body damage, when they pushed it forward it crabbed along at 45 degrees! Oops !

Unlucky Van

We caught the clipper down to Limehouse and we had a beer at the pub by the entrance. Can't wait to do that trip down the Thames in the sardine can!

Limehouse

After London I dropped the boss at Heathrow and spent 2 nights at Mum's and caught up with the rest of the family ...

Mum feeding my Niece's Horse. Plus My Brother Russell

All in all a really enjoyable but hectic trip.

Now the Bloody House.........Saturday was the last official open house of the year - 4 groups went through and, according to Mr Real Estate, two of those are very interested (again !). So far, we have had lots of 'very interested' but not one has made a half decent offer. We are absolutely 100% we are priced right but we don't have the flat garden that 99% of the population with their 2.5 children and Ford Cortina want. So unless we get an offer in the next few weeks that's it folks. :(

Nothing happens in the real estate market now till after Australia Day, which is January 26th, 2012. We will then see how the market is and make a decision to re list with current agents or try someone new. It's been a very interesting (challenging) 3 months we have had approx 20 open houses and 100 groups through! Poor Elaine is well and truly over it, especially when Mr Real Estate has a 'red hot prospect' who can't come on the Saturday scheduled open day and comes mid week. Elaine spends 2.5hours getting the house shipshape and then takes the dogs down the road and watches Mr Real Estate turn up with a woman, her baby and a toddler. In Elaine's words 'F#$%^K !!' - you know they will never buy it in a million years! Since we put the house on the market 3 months ago every other house (approx 12) in the same area and price range have sold, except ours and 2 others. One is an overpriced dump and the other is a fantastic house a bit like ours but isn't kid friendy. Isn't there any one out there who doesnt like kids! Its a joke OK....well bit of a joke, we just prefer animals. On the last few open houses we even resorted to putting pictures up of our friends children to make the house appear child friendly. (Desparate or wot ?!!)

After the last open day Saturday we did the proper thing and went down to Manly at 3.00pm went on a pub crawl and got pissed....It was great!

Although we are frustrated with the delay we are both healthy and happy, all the animals are healthy and I think they are happy and we live in one of the most desirable parts of the world. But we will make it to the England of our dreams living on our narrowboat cruising the lovely canals and rivers, exploring gorgeous villages and going to DOG FRIENDLY pubs - one of these days !

PS: It is supposed to be summer now and is FREEZING !!!

My Thoughts On The UK

2011-11-24T21:14:00.001+11:00

Well I am sitting here in the business lounge at Heathrow, awaiting my flight to Oz ... I got an upgrade to business class, so very happy.

My thoughts on this brief trip ... I had written out a long detailed list but the PC just scrubbed it so I will have to a condensed version !

1. Being back with my tribe

2. Family

3.The countryside

4. The history

5. Fantastic pubs in the towns and the country and of course dogs welcome in most, downside, too many sprogs allowed in pubs.

6. London....best city in the world, always busy. I was amazed at the pubs and restaurants were packed during the week ...what recession? In Sydney they are busy during the weekend but weekdays, nope!
I loved travelling on the Thames clippers; my God, those boats get some stick, and I found out they are made in Australia! I spoke to some of the crew, they love the boats but said the heating system was crap; my answer was they don't need heating in Australia!

7.Driving - the roads are too crowded but the driving is 1st class, which is my biggest gripe about Australia - even more than dogs being banned from everywhere is that the drivers are CRAP. I wish the Australian authorities would send their road safety experts to the UK to see how drivers are trained properly.

7. The canals of course, the list isn't in any particular order so i don't mean 7th best!

I will do a more detailed blog when I get back with some pics, but one thing for sure I hope we can sell the bleedin' house and get back here asap! I totally know it is the right thing to do. Nothing wrong with oz (apart from the drivers) but the change is long overdue!

All aboard and off we go.

Sand Spurge and dog walking on the beach ...

2011-11-19T19:17:00.000+11:00

What the ? This article in our local paper made me see red this morning ... apparently we are not to be allowed a bit of a beach to walk our dogs as there is some endangered sand spurge there (?) - you can read the article here ...

http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/study-rules-out-opening-beach-to-off-leash-canines/

I don't know why they just don't say they don't like dogs and don't want them anywhere ... would be a lot more honest !

Well, that's on whinge for the day - another is that NO-ONE turned up to our Open House today - waaaahhhh !!

Signed ... Depressed of Sydney xx

Health Care in UK ...

2011-11-18T13:47:00.000+11:00

... for us types wanting to move back !

My brother sent me a link to the following article ... shows that the 'emergency only' treatment is to prevent health tourism (I often wondered how the UK was coping with all that !). It's an interesting read ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-204961/UK-expats-fall-victim-health-tourism.html

Also this info - again, from my Brother ... is also of interest re. health care entitlements ...

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Entitlementsandcharges/OverseasVisitors/Browsable/DH_074376

We must remember to keep all our selling and buying documentation when we do get to move !

Paul, the House and Shampoo ...

Well, Paul is still away but heading back to the UK from Amsterdam today (ish!) -- off to Poole with his Boss to see some people. He sounds like he has been having a nice time - and catching up on plenty of sleep, which is good !

Our stand-in Real Estate guy bought a couple of people through yesterday to have a look but rang today to say that one couple really liked it but are worried that when they have children and want the parents to look after them, our slope and steps up to the house will be too much for them - bla, bla, bla !! Note to selves ... always buy a flat block in future ! Ah well, another open day tomorrow ... please, please, please send us a buyer !

This morning, I thought I would try to make some doggie shampoo (I've been making soap for a while but never tried the shampoo!). My recipe was a mix of Poly Decyl Glucose (from Cornstarch), Xanthan Gum, Geogard Ultra, plus Cider Vinegar, some ground oats and some essential oils.

Sooo many bubbles left after washing up all the shampoo-making pots !

At first, I thought it was a complete disaster because it went all gluggy and wouldn't pour, but now it's not so bad - it settled down a bit in the fridge, so I washed the dogs with it. They loved it ! Usually, when I wash them, they go mental, running up and down but after I washed them with this (to leave it on for a few mins) they laid down and waited for the rinse ... remarkable ! A success after all - just looks a bit odd !!

Clean and Happy Dogs !!

Right - that's enough playing for one day ... I'm off to wash the walls in the backyard, brush the leaves, do a bit of pruning and clean the pool out ... Elaine x

Sorry NHS !

2011-11-16T14:29:00.000+11:00

My brother has put me right on my comments on emergency treatment with the NHS - so I retract my previous statements ... sorry NHS !! (It actually sounds like it would have been better than here ... I didn't get operated on for 24 hours and never, ever met the Surgeon who apparently did the op. - and who I paid for privately !). I will meet him next week, however, for a follow up - but I will pay for that too ! Elaine xx

Appendicectomies and Canals !

2011-11-15T17:46:00.001+11:00

Well - there was a turn up for the books - didn't expect to be getting my appendix chopped out when I started off last week ! I must apologise about my husband's graphic details of my bodily functions ... too much info! However - a reality of life!

I was thinking about it all and I figured that my having my appendix out now is the 'Universe / God's' way of making it 'plain sailing' for when we do get on the Cut ! I can't imagine having to find a hospital and dealing with all that emergency stuff in the UK (I hear the NHS can be very trying these days !) but then not being able to lift anything more than 5 kg for 4 - 6 weeks - that would mean I would be totally off lock duties and have to drive the boat for 6 weeks (what a terrifying thought !!) - or be moored somewhere for 6 weeks! So - thank you God, for getting that out of the way for me !! :)

Paul is in Amsterdam as I write this ... he rang before and said he had just slept for 13 hours ! He nearly had a heart attack driving from Milton Keynes to Luton (!) - said the traffic was just stopped - said he could have walked quicker ! However, he made his connecting flight to Amsterdam with minutes to spare! He probably overdid the adrenaline there - no wonder he slept so long ! He will be attending the Boat Show with his boss for a few days now, before returning to the UK and doing some other visits over there - also with his boss !

I'm having a week or so off massaging, till things have settled down - so I am having a bit of a holiday myself ... which the dogs are loving !

The House ...
As regards the house - still no takers ! We had another open last Saturday - two couples through but no interest ! Boo hoo ! Please, God - now that my appendix is out of the way, can we sell our house and get on the Cut ?!!

Our friends are going to come around this Saturday and help me to clean up - mostly needing help with mopping and cleaning the pool and the garden - so it shouldn't take too long. I feel another 'thank God' coming on ...

Thank God for all my beautiful friends and family who help / offer their help / send their love at these tricky times. We are completely Blessed !

That's my lot for now ! Toodloo - Elaine x

Sydney Airport

2011-11-12T15:17:00.002+11:00

Blogging from the Qantas business lounge at Sydney Airport waiting for the flight to the UK via Singapore, I have to change planes in Singapore within a 1hour and 15 minute time frame so I hope the bloody thing isn't late, they are both Qantas flights so they generally wait if the first flight is a bit late.

I made the final decision to go on the trip this morning as Elaine had a good night's sleep and this morning her bodily functions returned to normal, if you know what I mean ... 5 days is a long time between No 2s!!!

We had to get the house ready for yet another open house, we had a bit of a role reversal with Elaine doing the dusting and very light work whilst I cleaned the floors, deck, hoovering and cleared the fu%&ing Jacaranda petals out of the pool.

Elaine just texted to say there were a few couples going through the house.....please buy it, the next time I want to be at this airport is with Elaine, 2 dogs and 3 cats and off to a new adventure!

All aboard we are off......

Elaine Update

2011-11-11T09:18:00.000+11:00

After having the CT scan it was confirmed as appendicitis and the offending appendix was removed Wednesday.
In the words of the eminent surgeon "It was very infected and manky" Because of this they kept her in another day to pump her full of anti-biotics so she should be released today I hope. She seemed in very good spirits last night which was good.
She is still in the EMU section (Emergency Medical Unit) which is where the patients are assessed after being taken out of the Ambulance, it is amazing how many nutters are unloaded I feel for the doctors and nurses that have to handle them.
I have taken today off work so I can give the house a good clean up before I pick her up, this of course is in anticipation of a successful open house tomorrow! Although the news coming out of Europe is a tad gloomy.
Still got my flight booked for tomorrow and am pretty optimistic that I will go, we will see how er indoors copes today when she gets home. So I will now have a whole day in England before going to Amsterdam, never mind as long as I can get down to the 3 Locks for a pint and a canal fix
I am now going to take the dogs for a good walk around Long Reef. Poor Bombo he is really missing Elaine and is constantly looking for her, Sam couldn't give a toss!

Elaine is a bit Crook

2011-11-09T18:18:00.002+11:00

Elaine has been feeling a bit crook since about 2.00am on Tuesday morning, she had been complaining of stomach pains. When I got home from work Tuesday night she said she had spent most of the afternoon in bed as the pains were getting worse, the area of pain had moved to the lower right area of the abdomen, so we thought we had better go to the local medical centre as it was looking a bit like appendicitis. Ten minutes after a quick diagnosis by the quack we were off to the emergency department of Manly hospital. We arrived at about 7.00pm and by midnight she had been seen by 2 doctors and 3 nurses, upshot being they were going to keep her in so they could monitor her vital signs etc.
I went home had a glass of red and went to bed at 1.30am!
I went up to see her before I went to work and by then the surgeon had been to see her and said she was going to have an CT scan and a ultrasound to make sure it was appendicitis. At 2.00pm they had completed the tests and confirmed it was appendicitis. It is now 5.00pm and they are operating as we speak. She will be kept in overnight and should be released at lunchtime tomorrow (Thursday)

Now this is the bit where it gets a bit spooky....5 years ago I was just about to go off on my annual UK/Amsterdam business trip and Elaine was diagnosed with the big C! Thankfully after they had operated it was found to be a benign lump! 3 years ago she broke her ankle a week before was due to go, and now this. I am supposed to fly out tomorrow but have postponed it till a Saturday afternoon flight, she should be OK by then but if she isn't I will can the trip.

We also had a hot prospect coming to look at the house today but I had to put them off as the house looks like a shit fight at the moment, at least I can get it ready Saturday morning before the open house, and then off to the airport.
I came home from work early today as the poor dogs had been locked in all day and were busting.

I also jumped in the pool to 1, cool off on a bloody hot day and 2, clean all the Jacaranda flowers out of the pool.
Why o why would you plant a Jacaranda next to a pool? Every early November it blankets the pool and I have to clean the pool and filters every morning and night, the rest of the year once every couple of weeks is suffice.
There is an old boy who lives behind us and loves sitting on his deck looking at the Jacaranda, he is the only reason I haven't chopped the bloody thing down

Bloody Jacaranda

This was taken 5 minutes after I had cleaned out every flower, by tomorrow morning it will be completely covered!

Mods and Rockers

2011-11-06T15:56:00.001+11:00

Today was the annual Ride with the Rockers 2011. I borrowed my mate Matt's Triumph Tiger for the day; Elaine was going to come with me but as Matt and his family had gone camping for the weekend we were looking after their Golden Retriever Jackson, so she stayed at home with all the dogs.

I was up bright and early after another night on the turps (!) (we didn't get in till 1.00am) ... but it was all in a good cause - it was a fundraising night for a local family with 2 severely disabled daughters.

I decided to wear all my full leather gear today and guess what, the temperature reached the low 30s!

The Mo is in aid of Movember!

The meeting spot was Harry's Cafe de Wheels at Tempe which is a southern suburb of Sydney very close to the airport.

There were literally hundreds of bikes there of all shapes and sizes and of all vintages.

I will let the photos tell the story...

This is an original WLA Harley and it is still being ridden

Unfortunately, my bike started cutting out and refusing to start again! I got it going again after some other bikers gave me a push start, but I was a bit worried about breaking down in the sticks on a stinking hot day so after about 30 mins into the run I decided to bail and and chuck a U-tun and head off home. Of course, the bike then ran faultlessly so I went for a bit of a spin up the beaches as I hadn't ridden a bike since I sold my beloved Bonneville a few months ago.

Mod and Rocker discussing the route

I had a Lambretta LI 150 in the 70s

Too Funny

Hope he has a big Alternator!

Lovely 1960s Triumph Bonneville

As I got home Elaine was just about to take all the dogs out down to Curl Curl Lagoon where they can legally go for a swim!! So after a quick change I joined her but forgot to take the camera so she just took one with her phone - you can see all the doggies enjoying themselves escaping the heat swimming in the water!

When we got home, the dogs were all exhausted ... here is Jackson having an afternoon siesta !

As we write this blog it has just started thunderstorming and torrential rain is pouring ... what a change !

Tonight we are off to a nice Thai Restaurant on Dee Why beach with our Ex Pat pommie friends who we met in the early eighties in Oz, plus two who I went to school with and worked with back in Luton - so a bit of history there !

Selling Houses Australia & other Stuff

2011-11-03T19:10:00.001+11:00

We had another meeting with Mr Real Estate last night, he also brought along his side kick, Tonto, as Mr Real Estate is off to Bali for a couple of weeks.

We had a good long chat on what to do next and why the house had not sold yet. The main reason for not selling is because we are on a slope and the majority of people don't like steps! So, last night I counted them, and guess how many steps.......12!! So they like the view but not walking up 12 steps to get it, plus we don't have a lot of lawn just natural sandstone rock and bush.

We had to laugh when he said that the house was 'quirky' and needed a buyer who was a bit arty! Don't know what that says about me ... when it comes down to art I wouldn't know my arse from my elbow! Elaine is arty because she has a brother in law who is a brilliant artist. (You can see his website by clicking here !)

The upshot of all this is that we will carry on advertising for another 6 weeks, albeit in the smaller black and white ads, plus the Internet (click here to see the ad!). If it doesn't sell in the next 6 weeks we will take it off the market until the day after Australia Day - Jan 27th 2012 and start all over again! Yawn !

The good news is that the bank rate dropped by .25 points 2 days ago which is the first drop since April 2009 - plus we have noticed that more houses are being sold recently, so still confident but it is such a pain getting the place ready for its Saturday open days! Last Saturday was bit of a disaster because I went out with the works boys on Friday night for a Oktoberfest night, so after ending up upside down in a urinal and losing my mobile I wasn't a lot of help to Elaine getting the house sorted on Saturday morning! My head healed about 1.00pm and someone had handed my phone in at the pub ...bloody honest these Aussies! The open day last Saturday was a non-starter (after Elaine had toiled all morning getting the place sorted) ... one couple turned up .. and they didn't like it ! We were depressed to say the least ! Mr Real Estate reckons people don't like seeing the house next door, so we are looking at getting some screening put up !

Another good thing was that Elaine got her car back from the panel beaters looking all nice and new again - it had a bit of a problem with the windscreen not being fitted correctly but that is being rectified today.

I would have to say the insurance process was so easy - one phone call, in which I explained that the car had been vandalised but didn't know when or where, and that was it - no forms to fill out, take it to a panel beater and get it fixed plus no loss of our no claims bonus, total bill was nearly $7000.00! Glad we didn't have to pay that lot !

This weekend is all go! We are going out with friends to a charity do on Saturday night, borrowing a mates Triumph Tiger on Sunday to go on a Motorbike ride and finally to a Thai restaurant on Dee Why beach with the ex- pat Pommie contingent on Sunday night ... maybe we will be celebrating selling our house - fingers crossed !!!!!

UK Trip

2011-11-01T17:07:00.001+11:00

I am off to the UK again next week, the main reason is to attend the METS trade show in Amsterdam. But 1st I fly to London then pick up a hire car and go and see mother, family and friends in the Milton Keynes-Luton area. Next stop Amsterdam for the trade show and various nights out being entertained, that means dinner and drinks, not red light area!! We stay at the Americain Hotel which was used as the Nazi headquarters in WW2, it has the most fantastic dining room and bar. This will be my 12th year of visiting Amsterdam and METS. We then fly to Southampton, hire another car and go to Poole, London, Norwich, Kings Langley and London again, that's the business part done I am then left with 2 days off before flying home. I will be away for a total of 15 days.

Closest I will get to a canal will be the 3 Locks at Soulbury :-(

This Saturday (bonfire night) will be 31 years since I left the UK and came to OZ as a young back-packer....I WANT TO GO HOME......just got to sell the bloody house....update tomorrow!

Walk around Narrabeen Lake

2011-10-30T19:41:00.001+11:00

Today was the day we walked around Narrabeen Lake; we had planned to do it for a while but with constant house showings and Elaine's knee op, then it was too hot etc.

Today was a perfect 24 degrees, so off we went. The lake is about 10ks north from where we live so its not too far - I pass it every day driving to work. Talking of driving I had the boss's car for the weekend because he wanted the ute to move some furniture. The last thing he said to me Friday was "don't fiddle with anything and don't take your bloody dogs in my car......."

Oooopppss!

We left the car park and walked around the lake in a clockwise direction past some of the lake side houses.

This one would be the worst house, best street etc and still probably worth a couple of million!! It was a total dump.

I reckon it was going to be about a 12k walk so it was going to be a good test for Elaine's knee

The lake is used by canoeists, sailors, windsurfers and fisherman, it is a lovely but very shallow lake

Sam was very interested in the ducks and geese so we had to keep him on his lead as he would just swim after them and not stop.

Yep we are going right to the far end

Sammy started to suffer in the heat so we regularly had to stop and let him have a swim or sit in the shade for a while

Another thing that really upsets Sam is when he gets twigs and leaves stuck around his bum and of course he makes it worse by dragging his arse along the floor and everything sticks to him, every now and again Elaine has to give him a clean up....no crap just sticks and mud, god knows how he is going to go on the tow path!

Dirty Doggie

Sammy cooling off

Of course there are the occasional 'dogs banned' signs but this one also bans cats...come on pussy lets go for a walk! They are just so dumb.

The walk also cuts across part of Cromer golf club, which was quite nice. You can also cycle around the lake and I would have to say all the cyclists were very polite, we only saw one wanker in the full Tour De France get up.

Towards the very end you have to cut across the Academy of Sports Ground, there were quite a lot of Cockatoos strutting about.

You have to cut across the sports ground as there is no way round it, by now we only about 2 ks from the car, as we entered the ground there was a huge sign saying 'Absolutely No Dogs Past This Point' - which we chose to totally ignore ... there was no way we were going to back track 10 ks. I think we would have happily told them where to go at that point !

Nearly back at the car and there is a new section of walk/cycle way which is very impressive, there is even a sign warning of snakes!

I (Paul) am off to the UK in 10 days time, now who am I flying with.....OOPPSS.

Still waiting for 'the one' !!

2011-10-25T18:02:00.000+11:00

Ah well - we are still waiting for 'the one' to buy our house! The 'Red Hot' buyers seemed to fizzle out quite quickly. All rather annoying really because they had us do a special open house last Tuesday morning, for the wife and then wanted the husband to come and see it on the Sunday as he couldn't make it to the Saturday open house and she didn't need to see it again as 'she was so sure she liked it' !)

We were going to go out for a long walk on Sunday but when we were about to leave the house in the morning, the band started up next door ... so we couldn't go out and stay out in case they continued playing ! (Next door we have two sons - in their 20's who have been playing the drums for as long as we have been living here (12 years) - the father has sound-proofed the room, so it is not too bad generally but when the whole band arrive, we can hear it and so can half the street)! So - we were panicking a bit - but it was only 10am - so we were sure they would have had enough by 12.30pm when the guy was supposed to come and view the house !

So - change of plans - we just went to Manly for brekky and a little walk about (it was too hot for our planned long walk round the lakes anyway !) - then we went back home just as the band were leaving .. yay !!! We popped in the house to light the candles and oil burners and do one last check --- and there was a nice big pile of dog poo on the deck ... sooooo glad we came back !!! That would have made a nice impression !

Out we went in the car with the dogs - and when we hadn't heard from our Real Estate guy by 1.15pm we were wondering what was going on ! Turns out the guy was running late and they weren't even in the house yet - so we continued to drive around !!

Anyway - after all that - they have decided to buy a place round the corner (which is a dump !) - hey ho .. back to the drawing board ! We have another couple coming for a second look this Saturday and also one coming for another special look tomorrow morning - another morning cleaning - I will be so glad when we sell it and I can go back to my slovenly (?sp) ways !!! Elaine xx

Big Weekend Coming Up

2011-10-21T12:26:00.015+11:00

Sunday is the rugby world cup final so it will be another big night down the skiff club. (Not a bad place for a cheap beer or three !)

As the Aussies have been knocked out we will be rooting for the Kiwis, and just in case you don't know, New Zealand is a small suburb of Sydney located off the east coast. (You could also see NB Waiouru's take on the subject on Fri 21 Oct 11!)

Another open day on Saturday plus Mr Real Estate has got what he calls a 'red hot prospect' who is coming for a private visit with her hubby on Sunday, she has seen the place already but hubby is in NZ and gets home Saturday night. He reckons she loves the house, the street and is cashed up - so this is hopefully 'the one'. If this one falls over then that's probably it 'till after Christmas. Certainly a few more houses have sold recently in the area so we are, as ever, hopeful.

I went next door to check on the progress of Elaine's car, (it has been in the panel beaters since someone 'jumped all over' it!) ... it has its new roof and bonnet on and is now in the paint shop, but it is a very tricky colour....Pearly White?? so it is still a few days away yet - so Elaine is stranded for another week !

On Sunday (after our private 'open for inspection' !) we might go for a long walk around Narrabeen Lake - they have just made a walkway all the way round it, which makes life easier ! The last time we tried it ... years ago ... (with pushbikes !) - we got stuck half way round and had to carry our bikes through the bush! Apparently the walk is 6.5 km and takes about 90 mins ... although I think it will take us longer than that !!! Anyway - it may be too hot - the weather has suddenly warmed up and today is 27 degs ...

GO THE KIWIS !!

The Week That Was

2011-10-16T15:22:00.000+11:00

Social Life.....

We went to see Meatloaf in concert ar the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Wednesday, really good concert even though he missed a few notes, great backing band as well. He came on at 9.00 pm and finished at 11.45 pm! Friday night we took the dogs down to Manly and sat out side the Bavarian Beer Cafe for a couple of beers, Oktober fest and all that, followed by takeaway and home. Saturday we went down to the Steyne pub in Manly and watched Wales get beat by the Frogs :-( Afterwards we went to a very nice Thai restaurant and then home to watch Man Utd vs Liverpool. Today (Sunday) we walked down to Manly to pick up the ute from the night before, then to Curl Curl beach where Curly sound waves was going off. Then we had lunch in freshwater and I am now sitting on the deck blogging in superb sunshine, El is is in a state of vegetation with the dogs. Later this afternoon we are off to the Manly 16ft skiff club for tea followed by the weekends main event....Australia vs NZ in the Rugby.

Elaine vegging out with the dogs

House.....

Another open day Saturday, with a good turnout and according to Mr Real Estate a couple of very interested parties, so we now wait for the offers to come flooding in. We went and had a look a a couple of places ourselves on the weekend, just for market research reasons, and would have to say that there seem to be more positive vibes out there, bloody hope so.

Work....

Elaine has been restricted to working from home as her car is at the smash repairers having a new roof, bonnet and respray after an unknown TWAT carried out his dance moves on the roof and bonnet.

I have been really busy at work with no slowdown whatsoever in the marine spare parts industry.

Animals....

We removed the 1st tick of the season off Sam last night, joy o joy. The paralysis tick in Australia is deadly to dogs so you must check them often and thoroughly. The rest are all very happy lying in the sun and chasing possums at night.

That's it so Go Aussies in the Rugby World Cup semi final and good luck to Casey Stoner in the Australian Moto GP.

Blogging Away

Continuing House Sale Saga

2011-10-11T12:45:00.002+11:00

We had another open day last Saturday, but with a definitive price rather than auction or 'offers-over' options. Out of that, we had one very interested couple, who are coming back for a second sticky beak. We had three groups through on Saturday and no advertising in the paper for that weekend ! We are back to a few more glossy ads this weekend onward - so fingers crossed !!! Elaine was in the garden this morning and spotted a car checking out the sign and the house for a long time ... who knows, he could be 'the one' - we only need one!!

At last there is better financial news coming out of the states and Europe and the Aussie dollar is up again.

One of my work mates put his unit (flat) on the market on Saturday, he lives around the corner from us. He had it on for offers over $560,000 dollars, It sold after 25 minutes for $590,000 !!! They are still in shock.

I really hope the house sells soon we want to blog about more exciting subjects rather than a bloody house sale. I want to be whinging about hire boaters and speeding boats etc....Joke :). I would like to aspire to the great heights of the Northern Pride and Caxton blogs with their positive and upbeat content.

Ah well .. back to work ! Highlight of this week ... we are going to see Meatloaf in concert tomorrow night ... will let you know how it goes !

Auction No Go :-(

2011-10-06T20:34:00.000+11:00

No auction result I'm afraid. Real estate man came around the night before the auction and said that 3 people were going to the auction but only 1 was going to bid, he also said that her absolute top bid was going to be $165,000 less than we got offered back in April. That offer fell over because Jaffa the cat had failed his rabies jab so it would add another 1 month to the settlement date, the purchaser couldn't handle that and pulled out.
A very expensive cat!

So after a long deliberation (2 secs) we knocked back her crap offer, so there was no point going to auction.
So now we have gone straight for a sale price and will keep on advertising for a few weeks. If still no offers we will probably take it off the market until the prices sort themselves out. It really is quite strange because Australia is going very well compared to the rest of the world, mainly because our Chinese friends buy all our coal, iron ore and other such minerals as in copper zinc etc, so along as China is OK so are we.
But this hasn't stopped the housing market from being spooked, so it seems that all the buyers are looking for bargains and are trying to help the poor house vendors by taking it off their hands for a fraction of what its worth.

So are we bitter? A little, but as the canals have been around for 200 years I think they will wait a little longer for us to join them.

One person who was very happy was my boss, as we will probably be around for a bit longer.

We told Bombo about the nasty lady that was taking the piss, and what can I say, this is all that's left of her.........

Elaines Dodgy Knee

2011-10-04T21:45:00.001+11:00

Elaine has spent the day in hospital getting her left knee sorted out, she will explain the technical details later.

She had the right knee sorted out about 6 months ago, so hopefully she will now be able to walk for miles on the towpath with no pain, you never know I might even get her to come snow skiing with me.

haha - Elaine here - the day after ! Dunno about that ski-ing lark - just maybe along the towpaths in winter time (with the aid of our two 'mini-huskies'). I've been pretty dopey all day - so have been bludgin' around watching daytime tele - mostly on the sofa with my legs up! The left knee has been a bit more involved than the right - it had gotten pretty bad as I think has been taking the load from my right knee all these years ! I blame Jane Fonda for the original injuries - which shows that I am talking a few years here !!

This op was also an ilio tibial band release plus removal of a plica and a general clean up - should be as good as new I hope ! I start physio tomorrow and will see the surgeon so will get the full story then ! Wasn't too good last night after the anaesthetic - made a dash for the loo in the laundry when Paul dropped me at the back door - didn't quite make it and - tune out here if you don't want the gory details - but managed to projectile over the laundry door before I could get it open !! Yuk ! Pretty good today though all considered !!

Our Real Estate guy is coming to see us tonight - not sure if he has any buyers for us for our auction on Thursday - so maybe we will just have to have the place up for sale for a while ... anyway - we will see what he has to tell us tonight - hopefully someone has come up with an amazing offer for us !

That's me for now --- back to the tele :) Elaine x

Tourists For A Day

2011-10-03T18:55:00.000+11:00

As today was a public holiday we thought we would be tourists for a day and go over to the city and have a walk around the Rocks area, which was the first part of Sydney to be inhabited by the white man over 200 years ago.

We started by walking over the harbour bridge ... you can walk over the arches of the bridge but that costs a lot of money plus you can't take the dogs with you! (In actual fact you cannot take anything whatsoever with you just in case you drop it onto the roadway below)!

So along the free and dog-friendly walkway we went.

The bridge consists of, from left to right ... a cycleway, 2 railway tracks, 8 lanes of traffic and 1 walkway.

You get a fantastic view from the bridge deck. You look east over the harbour, Circular Quay and, of course, the Opera House.

Just imagine this chap cruising along the the canals...now that's what I call a WAKE! The bloggers would go into meltdown.

Looking back towards the city is Circular Quay and the Passenger Terminal for the cruise ships. The green and cream boats are the harbour ferries with the larger one being the Manly Ferry, which is classed as a outer harbour ferry. The cruise ship was the Volendam out of Rotterdam. I doubt if there are many cruise terminals in the world where the ships are moored right in the middle of the city.

You get a nice view of the Opera House from the bridge

The Manly ferry sporting the Go Manly banner from yesterdays Grand Final, which of course Manly won, woohoo !!

We walked back across the bridge and down to the passenger terminal and checked out the Volendam - I think she is based down here for our summer, doing Pacific cruises. Nice looking ship.

We then headed off to walk under the bridge - there are always lots of groups walking over the top of the bridge - they are all tethered on to a continuous cable, so if you have suicidal tendencies forget the bridge climb, you are wasting your money. They also have to wear grey overalls so they blend into the bridge!

We stopped for an ice cream whilst Bombo rolled around in "Bat Shit" - he was in doggy ecstasy !

mmmmm deodorant!

Had to take some pics of the dogs and yours truly with interesting back grounds.

I see no bridge!

Wot's that stickin' out of my ear !

There was a nice tall ship passing under the bridge (it was built in 1922 in Denmark of danish oak frames. Its original name was 'Svanen' and she traded as a grain carrier between Denmark and Greenland for the Tuborg beer company until 1969. She was then purchased in 1969 as a private vessel and extensively refitted to make extensive ocean voyages and charters on Sydney harbour. She first came to Sydney in 1988 for the bicentennial...I think. She is now called Southern Swan).

We only spotted 2 brides today, mind you it is Monday, on a normal Sunday there are shed loads of brides grazing under the harbour bridge and its environs. A few years ago we counted them for a laugh, we got up to 17 groups all looking for that different special shot. Can't really blame them as it is easily the most beautiful harbour in the world!

Nice day for a white wedding yea

Lastly we went right under the bridge - this is a pic. of the concrete bases and bearings that hold up the bridge - 4 altogether, 2 either side; the bridge weighs approx 60,000 tons. The pylons either end are purely there for aesthetics.

Last bit of useless information.....Paul Hogan used to work as a rigger on the bridge!

Manly and all that Jazz

2011-10-02T17:09:00.000+11:00

Its a long weekend this weekend, plus its the Manly Jazz Festival and today is the Rugby League grand final and it just so happens Manly is one of the teams. The Rugby League Grand final is one of Australia's premier sporting events so this weekend is huge in Manly.

One slight problem re the jazz festival was that last night and most of the morning there was a huge storm and torrential rain.
We had a late start for our walk down to Manly and breakfast,

The sea was angry that day my friends

The sea was rough and the beach deserted! Normally at this time of the day the beach and walkway is packed, with both locals and tourists.

It was blowing a bloody gale as we made our way along the deserted walkway.

Streamlined Sam

The dogs were looking very streamlined

Wot no tourists

El striding into the gale!

Once we got down there the stages were deserted but at least the rain had stopped.

The Corso palm trees had the Manly team colours wrapped around them

We spotted a lonely jazz man looking for somewhere to play.

We got to our regular Sunday breakfast cafe and the lonely jazz player met up with his mates

So we had a lovely breakfast being serenaded by the 4 piece jazz band

We walked back home past nearly deserted cafes, such a shame they should be packed.

We are now home and the weather has improved a lot, so we are about to have a few beers and watch the Grand Final

GO MANLY!!!!

Last Open House

2011-10-01T17:22:00.000+10:00

We had the last open house today ahead of Thursdays auction, we had 8 groups go through which was a good number for the last one.

That was the good news! Bad news was that the house across the road went to. auction on Thursday night and SOLD but for a real crap price!! Apparently the vendors are really spooked with what's going on in the world and just wanted to cash up in case the real estate market crashes very shortly.

So today we went to an auction with a friend who wanted to buy an investment apartment, result....passed in but not far off the mark, Then this afternoon we went to a house that was being auctioned about 10 mins drive from us, not such a good post code but a nice area and it was a absolutely fantastic fully renovated house, this place was just stunning....... result.....2 bidders and passed in at nowhere near the reserve! We left like a couple of stunned mullets came home and had a few beers, and decided to go out tonight and have a good few more.

So to next Thursday and we really haven't got a bloody clue on what will happen, what will be will be, could always be worse, we could live in some hell hole, chin up and all that.

Wish us luck!

Manly Ferry Trip

2011-09-28T15:08:00.004+10:00

The Manly Ferry Trip was acknowledged in a US travel mag as being one of the worlds most beautiful journeys in the world....not bad for $6.60! Click Here

Lets hope the good ship NB The Manly Ferry carries on the tradition! I think she might cost a tad more than $6.60 though.

Lovely old poster ... not a new Ferry !

Narrow Boat Stern Glands

2011-09-26T14:53:00.000+10:00

The majority of narrowboats seem to use the old stuffing box type stern gland with replaceable gland packing. They have to be constantly filled with grease which is a pretty grotty and dirty job plus they leak!

I wonder why boat builders and owners are not changing over to a more clean and modern system.
We sell stern glands of all different types and the main selling point is that the bilge keeps dry.

When I was still on the tools a few years ago I fitted a bellows type to a yacht that was going on a world cruise, he sent me a letter when he was half way around stating that he had dust in his bilge!!
I wonder if the reason they are not used is because canal water could be classed as abrasive? It would be interesting to know.

So a few types of gland seal...
The first one is a the Volvo Penta seal affectionatly known as the "dogs dick"
Dead easy to install with very little maintenance it has a built in bearing and 2 floppy seals

Volvo Penta Seal

The next seal is a manecraft seal, English made, easy to install no maintenance pretty expensive in Oz but probably not too bad in the UK

Manecraft seal

The last seal is a Lasdrop Gen11 seal, we sell heaps of these, USA made easy installation and no maintenance

Lasdrop Gen11 seal

Dont get me wrong Iam no trying to sell any of these products, just wondering why they are not being fitted.

3rd Open House and a Very Rainy Sunday

2011-09-25T19:17:00.000+10:00

Another open house yesterday, and another good turnout. Had a meeting with Sasha the real estate God and he gave us a list of feedback from the last 3 open houses (including Saturday). Basically everyone loved it but not suitable for the majority because it doesn't have the obligatory kiddie friendly garden. So far 2 contracts have gone out and he thinks another will go out on Monday, fingers crossed.

We also went to an auction yesterday click here not one bloody bid except one from the vendor for $980,000 I really thought it would have gone for over a mil, it was in a great location, one street away from the beach, but.....very small and only 2 bedrooms and no parking.

So we are as ever optimistic.....12 days to go!

As for today, it absolutely pissed down all day like we haven't seen for a while and only got up to 14 degrees!
We went for a drive and a bit of a walk with the doggies but it was just too wet, so we got back home just after lunch cracked open a bottle of bubbly and we sat by the computer doing different spreadsheets on what to do with our cash once we sell........buy a property here plus Aussie term deposit or buy a UK property and Aussie term deposit or just an Aussie term deposit. And what did we decide on? Lets sell the house first and work it out from there.

And lastly as I am typing this we are listening to Canalside radio from Bollington....sad or what.

World Doom and Gloom

2011-09-23T11:10:00.001+10:00

This morning's news was all bad on the financial front ... American stock market crashing again, Eurozone going down the gurgler and the Aussie dollar plummeting against the American dollar.

Its a joy to get to work and read the canal blogs where there is no mention of the world doom and gloom ... the worse that seems to happen is that a boat goes past and poor Johnny spills his tea or workers cutting the grass make a mess of some shiny paintwork!

I cant wait to be in the same position where all we have to worry about is our little sardine tin and where shall we go today.

Only hope all the negative financial vibes don't affect the house sale! Fingers - and everything - crossed for our 3rd open day tomorrow - and a meeting with Sasha - the Real Estate guy!

Ooops

2011-09-20T20:08:00.001+10:00

This happened on one of our favourite walks very close to our house. High powered car and low powered brain cells don't mix. Very very lucky couple.

He wasn't even pissed!!

http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/photos/gallery/bmw-m3-crash/

Lazy Day

2011-09-18T16:37:00.000+10:00

Saturday was another busy day getting the house ready for inspection and tidying up the garden. Then we watched Australia get beaten by the Paddy's.......that wasn't suppose to happen! To finish off our Saturday we went out to dinner with friends before watching Arsenal get beaten again! Now that did make me laugh.

Sunday morning we awoke to a clear and hot day, so we thought 'bugger it' today is the day to have a rest. In the afternoon we went down to Little Manly.

Little Manly Beach

As the name suggests, it has a much smaller beach than the ocean beach. It is our favourite part of Manly as it is off the main tourist route and this is the area that I (Paul) first moved to 31 years ago. I met a lot of friends at that time who also lived in the area, and as a matter of fact we are going out to dinner with them tonight (they are all POMs!)

Next to the beach it is now a park with free BBQs and is a nice spot to sit and veg out. (It used to be a gas works, they did a real nice job converting it to a recreational area.

From Little Manly with Sydney City in the distance

Its not Pink its Salmon coloured

Collins Flat Beach

Manly Ferry heading to Manly

Manly Hospital on the hill

To the left on this pic you can just about see 'Jump Rock' where kids love to go and jump ! (...even though Manly Council have put up a 6 foot fence to try and stop them ... they just jump off the top of it !)

Federal police training centre

Loads of POMs on the beach playing soccer !

Obligatory ban everything sign!!!!

Of course, there are the Manly Council signs - banning everything that might be considered fun (double click on pic to see more detail). Everyone ignores the 'no drinking' sign though !

Shark proof swimming enclosure at the beach

Second Open House

2011-09-18T15:38:00.000+10:00

Saturday was our second open house, all went well according to Sasha the real estate god. Two couples came back for a second look so that was good.
Last Thursday he rang us because a lady couldn't make the Saturday open house so could she come come on the Thursday, no probs says I. So Elaine had to delay some of her clients and spend a couple of hours getting the house to presentation standard again. Apparently she has been travelling around the world for a number of years, she now want to settle down and has friends in our area. She is cashed up and loved the house.....so hopefully she will make us an offer we cant refuse.

Quote of the Day !

2011-09-14T13:59:00.000+10:00

One of my clients gave me this quote today .. he thought it apt considering our future plans - I like it ! (Posted by Elaine!)

Houses, are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you cannot think of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the vegetable not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay transition. I admit, doubtfully, as exceptions, snail-shells and caravans. The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting-place.

by Arthur Ransome (January 18, 1884 – June 3, 1967), who was a British children's author

Double Trouble

2011-09-11T14:15:00.004+10:00

On Saturday I noticed a big dent in the bonnet of Elaine's car, plus 3 dents on the roof! Looks like some twat has been practising his parkour moves on her car!

... and today there is a bloody great dent in the back of the ute. Some one must have overdone the touch parking or their parking sensors failed.

Never mind they are both insured and as they say 'worse thing happen at sea'! We will just have to pay the excess !!!!

Had a great night out last night, even managed to catch a bit of the England vs Argentina rugby game at the pub, there were hundreds of back-packing poms having a good night down there.

1st Open House

2011-09-10T19:03:00.000+10:00

Had the 1st open house today from 2.00-2.30. Sasha, our real estate guy. just rang - he had 12 groups go through - his second highest of the day! (They show approx 10-12 houses on a Saturday).

The feedback was 'very good, immaculate presentation' (thanks Elaine) and a few really interested parties.
Next step is Monday - he calls them all and gets their feedback and interest after the weekend.

... then we do the whole episode again next Saturday!

We were up early getting the house looking all super-dooper so tonight we are off to the pub and a very nice restaurant in Manly called the 'Pantry' - which we affectionately call the 'toilet block' because that is all it used to be (now it has the toilets underneath it !).

Update on the Chicken saga - and a farewell to Ant !

2011-09-08T18:27:00.000+10:00

The chicken must have had a good old night in the laundry - when we went in there this am there was poo everywhere - who would have thought a chicken could poo so much - she had even jumped up on top of the toilet seat to do one ... good girl !!

Anyway, after delivering the fliers last night and not hearing a word from anyone this morning, we were beginning to panic about what to do with her ! (Especially with our first open day being this Saturday !).
So - this arvo (about 3 pm) when I drove back from a job, I thought I would have a look at the street behind us - to see if I could find a 'chicken-looking' house ! I was in luck ! I met a lady in the street, who directed me to the house at the back of her who she thought had chickens !

So - I went and saw those people, asking them if they had chickens and the lady said she did indeed have one ! So - I asked her if that one chicken might have gone missing ! We went to inspect the run and it was indeed chicken-less - so I went and got her and took her home ! Apparently, she hadn't had her wing clipped lately, but had never tried to escape before ! I was very happy to leave her with her lovely home and her deluxe chicken-run! It turns out her name is 'Dog' !!! ... quite appropriate since our two wanted to have her for tea!

Anyway ... when I went back in the laundry to clean up .. she had left us a pressie ... how special !! We will savour that egg like no other ! One day I would like to have my own chickens - so it was a good intro!

Anyway - with all the chicken saga going on ... we forgot to mention that our lovely nephew has departed these shores and is now back in Blighty! Here is a quick pic I took when I was farewelling him to the Shuttle bus ! He was here for 3 months in total - the place is pretty empty without him here - although I am glad he wasn't here for the chicken ... he is the biggest carnivore I have ever met !!! :)

That's my lot for today ... settling down for the evening with a glass of champers - to celebrate our 'for sale' sign board going up outside the house ! (any excuse !) Elaine xx

Rugby World Cup

2011-09-08T12:20:00.001+10:00

Bugger all to do with canals and narrowboats, but this made me laugh.........GO THE AUSSIES!!!

Chicken Anyone

2011-09-07T18:55:00.000+10:00

Just got home from work when we heard the dogs going nuts on the front deck, checked it out and there was a bloody chicken!!

We live in the city for Christ sake, what do you do with a chicken? Eat it of course, only problem with that is that Elaine is a big time vegetarian.

The said chicken is now safely ensconced in the laundry and Elaine is going around the streets putting chicken found flyers in the neighbours letterboxes.

I wonder......chickens on a narrowboat....nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

The Campaign Begins!

2011-09-07T14:01:00.000+10:00

The ads are in the papers and on the Internet click here its all go for the 1st open day this Saturday, I really hope we sell before the auction, but either way 1 month from now we should know exactly where we stand.

Good news is that yesterday the Reserve Bank of Australia held the interest rate at 4.75% so the buyers should be out there.

Canal Webcams

2011-09-06T17:04:00.000+10:00

Just checking the canal webcams before leaving work for the day, and I would have to say the weather looks decidedly rotten click

Of course this is at 8.04am UK time. Hopefully your weather will improve later!

Here in Manly its sunny and 26 degrees at 5.04pm :-)

Melbourne Weekend and Long Lost Relos

2011-09-05T22:04:00.000+10:00

We arrived in Melbourne on Friday afternoon, picked up the hire car and went straight to the Hotel. Bags deposited, we spent the rest of the day walking around the city and being good tourists.

At night time we took a cab to Lygon Street, which is famous for its Italian restaurants.....we had Thai ! :)

On Saturday we drove up the Dandenong ranges - to Gembrook, which Elaine goes into in more detail below.

On Saturday night we went to the Crown Casino where we won $21.00!!!! ... and then lost it! We had dinner later (at 10 pm!) at a very amusing Italian restaurant.
On Sunday we went to St Kilda (which, once again, Elaine describes below) and in the afternoon we went back to the city for more exploring of the city and headed off to the airport and home late afternoon.
All in all a great weekend in a not so bleak city....and they do make very nice coffee!

Flying in over Melbourne

The Yarra river

Southbank where we stayed

The famous Flinders Street Station

Flinders Street Station

1930s tram on the free circle line

On Saturday we headed off to Gembrook, which is a beautiful little village in the Dandenong Ranges - you can click HERE to see more info about Gembrook and also Elaine's Uncle, who is an Artist.

A Cockatoo overlooking the party !

Family pic !

Long lost cousins !

Catching up on a few years !!

The Gembrook cottage and 'Aunty Pat'

Long Billed Corella in Pat's garden

At last .. some young 'uns for Ant to converse with !

The youngest members of the tribes !

View from the veranda .. not too shabby !

More long lost cousins ! (He was shorter than me last time I saw him - Elaine)

Elaine and Lynne

Paul snuck off with Ant to check out Puffing Billy !

Sunday ...

Elaine's Uncle and Aunt run a stall at the St Kilda Esplanade Market - most Sundays !
Uncle Lionel aka Leo Buckley - paints personalised book marks to-order and 'Aunty Pat' is in charge of card sales (beautiful pen and ink prints of Melbourne and the local wildlife).

Lionel has also written a book about drawing - you can find more info on that by HERE

The Stall

Constant flow of customers all day

The whole stall is built on a small trailer and all folds up after use

Artist at work !

Off To Melbourne

2011-09-01T15:51:00.000+10:00

We are flying off to Melbourne tomorrow for a 3 day break, Melbourne to us Sydneysiders is commonly known as the bleak city and Mexico to name but a few. There is a great rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne, Sydney has great weather, fantastic beaches, incredible harbour, Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the best harbour in the entire world, held the best Olympic games ever, and I could go on for ever, Melbourne however does nice coffee!!
Our main reason for the trip is so Elaine can see her Auntie and Uncle for probably the last time before we take off to the UK. We are staying in a hotel in the city but will drive up the Dandenong ranges to see them on the Saturday. We are taking Anthony with us and will obviously have to go out and have a few drinks whilst we are down there, Anthony leaves us next Tuesday and heads back to the UK and Sheffield Uni.

Should be a good trip, we will post some pics next week.

Auction competition in the Street

2011-08-31T18:49:00.000+10:00

We are keeping a very close eye on the property market in our area as our house will be on the market in 10 DAYS! Our brochure is attached here ... Anthony looked at it and said - it is amazing how it can look when all the animal beds and people aren't everywhere !

Yesterday a sign went up at a house up the road and this morning the 'for sale' sign went up on the house across the road! Springtime is generally the peak time to sell as the gardens are all in bloom, and punters want to move in before Xmas.

The other 2 houses are both on the flat with nice lawns, so will attract couples with kids, whereas our place is built on a rocky slope with no real lawn so will attract the DINKS .
We have an advantage of being very private and no-one can look into our house, plus being on a hill we have great district views.

Disadvantage ... being on a hill you have to walk up hill to the house which can put people off. (It never gets easier !)

So could be a very interesting few weeks, but we are very positive plus we are realistic with the pricing. One thing for sure we both cant wait for it to sell, then we can really ramp up the plans.

The animals are all ready to go, the cats had their final vaccinations yesterday. However, Geoffrey might have a thyroid tumour so he is having his blood tested to see what is going on with him .. never a dull moment !

The mighty Aussie dollar is climbing against the the Great British Peso again.....its all a bit exciting really.

Elaine has had a week off this week - trying to get all the finishing touches done .. like painting outside and cleaning ! (It was funny last Sunday, we were out painting the front fence .. and so was our competition over the road !! Truly a competition .. mind you their house is worth more than ours !)

We are off to Melbourne this weekend to see the relos down there - we are leaviing the animals in the hands of our trusted friend ! It will be brilliant to see everyone down there but there is still so much to finish off on the house - Elaine might have to keep going next week, instead of taking clients !

Nearly There

2011-08-28T22:33:00.000+10:00

Up early again, and on a Sunday! First stop down to pick up the Ute from outside the skiff club, left it there last night after watching the Aussies beat the Kiwis at Rugby. We then took the doggies for a walk around Curl Curl headland.

Quite a few people out and about enjoying the winter warmth, it got up to 22degrees.

Check out the chap with the full wetsuit and snorkel gear diving into the ocean.

It was a good day for the rock fisherman with a very small swell

Elaine marched ahead, she was keen to get home and finish off the garden etc.

Back at the carpark even the fire brigade had stopped to have a look at the view across to Manly

We them went up to a landscape company and picked up some pebbles to finish off prettying up the garden, next stop a hire company to pick up some carpet cleaning gear. Elaine and I unloaded 1/2 ton of the pebbles from the Ute and spread them around various spots in the garden. Elaine then starting cleaning the carpets whilst I removed the front screen door and proceeding to spray paint it. After I mowed the front lawn and nature strip I took the dogs and Anthony and we went down the local car wash to give the ute a good spruce up. There is something very satisfying about sitting down with a coffee and reading the paper whilst the car is washed, vacumned and windows cleaned etc. What would take me a few hours is all done in 45mins, love it.
Back home hang the screen door back on its hinges and a quick fix of a bathroom tap and another day is gone.
So the garden is now all finished and looking pretty good.
Elaine has a week off work next week so she will spend that time generally cleaning up and touching up any paintwork etc.
We are off to Melbourne (The Bleak City) for 3 day from next Friday and the Saturday after that is the first open day. I just hope that all this is worth it and we get a quick sale at the right price!

Front Garden

Elaine and the Bali shrine...Byron our first dog is buried here :-(

Another day getting the house ready for Auction!

2011-08-27T18:46:00.000+10:00

Up early this morning, loaded up the ute with more garden debris to take to the tip. I took the dogs with me and took them for a good walk round Long Reef golf course, treated myself to a large sausage
and onion roll plus a large coffee for breakfast at the golf course, gave half of the snags to the dogs :-)

After the tip I picked up another ute load of pine chips and proceeded with the help of Bombo....not! to unload them in heaps around the garden

Good place to dig

Elaine then gave me a hand and we spread the chips all over the garden. After we finished the front garden Elaine started to clean up around the pool at the rear of the house. I replaced some cracked tiles leading up to the front door, been meaning to do that job for the past 10 years! We finished around 5 rather buggered.

Tonight Elaine and Anthony (Nephew) are staying in and watching a dvd, I am going down the Manly 16ft Skiff Club to watch Australia vs New Zealand rugby game, they erect a large outdoor screen on the deck. We will probably have a few beers as well, be rude not to.

Elaine raking the chips

More raking and brushing

Pic of garden from deck

Front garden and garage.

Our First Bit Of Kit For The Boat

2011-08-25T22:22:00.000+10:00

Today we ordered our first bit of kit for the boat.......A Laptop...hardly exciting, but we have to start somewhere. I have never really used a laptop but we wont have room for a full PC and I am sure I will get used to it.

Its a Dell Vostro V130, our computer guy at work has had one for the past 3 years and reckons its a pretty good tool.

We probably should have waited till we got to the UK but Elaine wanted one now so she can transfer all the how do you say.....stuff from our present PC, plus Dell were having a 3 day sale which finished at midnight tonight!

Auction Date!

2011-08-22T22:32:00.000+10:00

The house goes up for auction on 6th October 2011, which means that the sales campaign will start on Saturday 10th September 2011 and there will be an open house every Saturday till the auction.
So now we are back to sprucing up the house and garden...First we did a fair bit of pruning of the trees and bushes, I took all the off cuts to Kimbriki tip and whilst there got a ute full of wood chipping to pretty up the garden. We spent most of Saturday spreading the chips across the garden, it looks a lot better now, I will get another ute load next weekend and we will finish it off.

Sunday Elaine cleaned out the laundry and spare bathroom and touched up the paintwork. I water blasted the sandstone rocks in the garden and blasted off all the crud and moss etc, They are now looking a lot better.....not sure that people do blast their sand stone rocks, but they sure do look a lot better when you walk up the path to the house, they are more like bloody great boulders than rocks.
The house is built on sandstone.
We then started painting the railings outside the house till it started raining!
I felt pretty crappy all weekend and could feel bit of a cold coming on, so today I chucked a sickie, first one in years. So today (Monday) I have spent most of it in bed. Feeling a bit better tonight so could well go back to work tomorrow.
Elaine's nephew has found out he has to get back to Uni in the UK earlier than he thought so we have re-booked his flights and he now leaves us on 6th September, 3 weeks earlier than planned. His dad tried to get the flight changed back in the UK but they said no chance you would have to cancel the flight and rebook it for 1300 pounds!! I spent 1/2 hour on the phone here talking to Qantas, and the flight is changed for 151 pounds.....Result!!

Water blasting the sandstone!

It's a Sign !!

2011-08-20T18:41:00.000+10:00

This morning when I took the dogs for their walk, I thought I would take my camera with me and take some pics of some of the signs in Manly, as all you thousands of readers know already the anti-dog signs and anti-dog behaviour of my fellow Aussies does my head in. I also included a few other banning-everything signs.

The first one...as usual - not allowed on beaches etc. but also not within 10 Metres of a children's playground and BBQ areas!!

This one is an interesting one, basically if Mr and Mrs Smith want to go down to anywhere in Manly, as in beach, promenade, park or wharf etc. they cannot have any alcohol with their picnic at any time of the day or year - unless of course its the Manly Food and Wine Fair then you can drink as much as you like, as long as its bought from the official stalls. This happens one weekend a year. Thankfully, most people ignore this rule and do have a drink with their BBQ or Picnic. Why not just arrest someone that is drunk and a nuisance?! Because its easier to ban everyone from having a drink!

This one is on the Corso which is a pedestrian-only area linking the Wharf and harbour to the ocean beach. Basically, everything is banned .. including feeding birds ! It actually used to say 'Please do not spike drinks when in Manly but they actually removed that one as they realised it was pretty stupid ! (Double click on the picture to enlarge it and it is all readable).

Swimming and Diving Prohibited ! Only one comment about this one ... WHY?!

I especially like this one because no fishing is allowed from the Wharf .. even though people have been fishing there for many years !

Here is one we had a protest about a while ago - and won ! (click here to see previous blog entry, for full details). It used to have the 'no dogs' sign on the beach and the grass ... which meant that a dog could only walk (and poo and wee) on the path only - and would not be able to get out of the way for people / prams etc as it would force it onto the grass !

Sign enlargement - they are actually called 'Fairy Penguins' but were renamed 'Little Penguins' for politically correct reasons :)

Standard 'dog prohibited' sign on every beach in Sydney.

It was a nice morning so I took a pic of the Manly Ferry coming in from the City ! Once again, it is very, very rough going across the heads. Yesterday, one of the Ferries got damaged by a freak wave and has taken it out of action. Our nephew, Anthony went across to the City on the Ferry today and said many of the poor tourists were screaming!

Last but not least - this was parked on the Ocean Front - and I have absolutely no problem with this sign, whatsoever !

Its all Go!!

2011-08-18T18:29:00.000+10:00

We have been having lots of chats between ourselves as to the timing of selling the house, which was going to happen late January 2012 ... it transpires that there are a couple of problems with this, one is that the housing market is going a bit soft and could worsen after Christmas (who knows) and the other being that if it goes on the market in late Jan, we probably wouldn't get to the UK before late April or early May. We would like to get there before that so we can get out on the canal before the season kicks in and get used to our boat.

So.......we have had a chat with Mr Real Estate and we are going to auction the house early October; the campaign will run for a month starting early September but we haven't finalised the exact dates yet. If all goes well the settlement generally takes another 4-6 weeks, so we should be all cashed up in November !!

Open house coming again soon !!!!!

Now this is the best bit ... we really didn't want to go the the UK so close to Christmas and be a burden on our relatives with our various animals etc., plus I would be leaving All Marine Spares right at the busiest time of the year and I really didn't want to drop my boss in the do-do. I had a good chat with the boss-man about it all and the upshot is that he offered us the flat above the warehouse next door! It's a huge place, fully air-conditioned etc. So now we will move in there after the sale with basic furniture and can leave in the new year at any time that suits us. The Boss will be happy too .. as I won't ever be late for work !

So this weekend we will start again cleaning up the house and garden, sorting out stuff to sell, store or dump - again !

We both are very excited about all this.....there is a light at the end of the Blisworth Tunnel :-)

Yippee !!!

PS: If anyone wants to come for an Aussie holiday, you had better be quick !!!

Holiday Pics Part 3 (No Canals)

2011-08-15T21:04:00.000+10:00

The main reason for the trip home was for my mothers 80th Birthday, which was a complete surprise to her and held at Billing Aquadrome.
The whole family turned up with their respective partners and children except for my eldest brother who for some strange reason decided to go to Portugal!
If he would have been there with his children and grand children there would have been another 10 or so people!
Never mind it was a good weekend and the weather was very kind to us.

Mother and her 5 children (1 missing)

Mother and her 5 grand children (5 missing)

Sisters caravan

Camp site

After the Birthday I went up to the Macclesfield area and stayed for a few days with one of Elaine's friends in the village of Bollington. Lovely village in a very beautiful area with plenty of good dog walking areas and of course some very good pubs.

Bollington

White Nancy

Macc Forest

Cheshire Plains

View from the Hanging Gate Pub

Hanging Gate Pub

More Canal Trip Pics

2011-08-13T14:38:00.000+10:00

I would have to say I have just recovered from the worst case of jetlag since I have been travelling to and from the UK over the last 30 years!
I put this down to having such an enjoyable trip on the canal, mums 80th, staying in a nice little village (Bollington) and catching up with old school mates.....then 24 hours later its across the other side of the world straight back to work and all that it entails.

Today I am feeling much better, so it only took 7 days to get over it!

So back to the blog and some more pics from the trip.

The Saints car looking in need of a bit of TLC

Puppy outside of the Greyhound pub at Hawkesbury Junction

Steptoe and Sons Boatyard

That's what I'm talking about

Aussie Aussie Aussie

The Caxton Crew

Arley station on the Severn Valley Railway

Bridgnorth Station

Big Bull with rather large rollocks

Talking Heron

What chocolate biscuits

Passing a boat in the Blisworth Tunnel

Blogging on the roof in the dark

Random Holiday Pics Part 1

2011-08-09T21:05:00.000+10:00

I didn't keep a log of our canal trip 2 weeks ago so I will just put down some random photos of the canal trip plus a few other holiday photos.....

Passing another Manly ferry on my public transport trip to the airport.

Getting rougher

Dove Valley our hire boat

The Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction

Hawkesbury Junction

Stockton and the butty Betelgeuse turning onto the Coventry Canal

Nice House

Bit Green

Braunston Tunnel with boat coming other way

Being Gongoozled

Nice Doggie

Mum is still very agile at 80!

Calves all in a neat line

Nice House

Does this dog look like its owner?

Morris Dancers outside the pub...magic

Racing the train

Newborn calf being cleaned by its mother ahhhh

More nice doggies

Jetlag and not such a good homecoming!

2011-08-08T10:54:00.000+10:00

Today is my first day back at work, at least it is quiet this morning so I can do a little blog.

Arrived on time Saturday night and a quick taxi ride and I was home, good to see Elaine and the various animals plus of course Anthony, who is Elaine's nephew.

Went to bed at 10.30 and slept for 12 hours!! Sunday was spent unpacking and trying to retrieve all the info from my failed phone sim card, which was unsuccessful.

Elaine mentioned that her beloved rabbit Bella hadn't eaten for the last day or so and was now just sitting in the backyard looking a bit ill, we rang the vet (Sunday) and were going to take her to see him at 4.30pm.
About an hour before that Elaine was out the back with Bella stroking her when she started letting out the most god awful screaming and thrashing around!! I quickly joined her and we both sat stroking her and reassuring her, after about 10 minutes she passed away. It was pretty bloody awful, I didn't know rabbits could make such a noise. Our last dog Byron passed away in the same spot and in nearly the same fashion 4.5 years ago. I said to Elaine if I keel over at that spot in the garden call an ambulance!

After all that I felt like crap, plus the jetlag is such a killer, it usually lasts about 3-4 days then wham normal again. Ended up going to bed at 6.00pm and sleeping for 13hours on or off.

Moving ahead......only 3 months and I will be back in the UK, business this time so no time to play with narrowboats, should be able to squeeze in a pint or two at a canalside pub though. Plus ramp up efforts to sell more stuff and declutter and to move to the UK early next year and live the dream.

I will put some pics on soon from the trip, cant quite get my head around it at the moment.

Singapore

2011-08-06T10:28:00.000+10:00

1st leg of trip over......couldn't get a upgrade so it was cattle all the way!

The Airbus 380 is a very impressive plane though even right down the back it is amazingly quiet.

Got to go, its only a 1 hour stop.

Next stop Sydney, Elaine, dogs and a good sleep!!