Elaine is a bit Crook

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

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

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

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

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' !!

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

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 !!