2 weeks til settlement

The time is really flying by.  I've packed so many boxes that we almost ran out of them.  Lucky there are workplaces, both old and new, that receive deliveries in cardboard boxes.  I had dinner with some of my old workmates and collected a stack of boxes at the same time.

My car is overdue a service but it's much more difficult now than when I was working in Melbourne.  I tried to work out a way to get from Bendigo to work by public transport but the trains don't run that often and it left me with a very short working day.  In the end I took today off.  My dear mum will come shopping with me so the day isn't wasted.  I still have a list of things to do and buy in Bendigo.

It is Mick's last day of work before we move out of the house.  He's taking next week off to get the moving done.

I'll be glad when this part is over.

Shipping quote

I had my car in for a service today and had the day off work.  My mum took me to run some errands.

We went to Pack and Send to get a firm quote on shipping some belongings to the UK and to collect the boxes to pack stuff in.  We've got 4 packing box sized boxes and 8 half that size.  Together they make up one cubic metre.  I was pleasantly surprised at the price quoted of $328 which is based on 200 kilos.  We wouldn't have that much!

There will also be charges at the receiving end (Liverpool) and for a courier to take the boxes to a friends' place.  We'll have an idea of those costs over the next week but it's less than we expected.

Recipe - Quick Salmon Pie

This is a quick dinner that is good as a backup.

INGREDIENTS
Mashed potato (approx 500g)

Can salmon (approx 450g)
1 small onion diced
1 teaspoon garlic from jar
1 can evaporated milk (375ml)
3 tablespoons cornflour
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
3-4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup grated tasty cheese

METHOD
Drain the can of salmon and mash it in a dish to break up any bones. 
Spray a high sided frying pan with cooking spray and cook onion and garlic until lightly browned.
Mix the cornflour into the 1/4 cup milk and add to the pan with the evaporated milk and parsley.
Stir until thickening and then add the salmon and the parmesan.
Pour the mixture into a small lasagne dish, or pie dish.
Dot mashed potato over the top and use a fork to spread it out.
Sprinkle with grated tasty cheese.
Bake in oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

If you write down your goals

Mick spoke to his mum on the phone last night and she said "What a difference a month makes".  She reminded him of how just a month ago we were feeling rather down about not selling the house.  Yet here we are just a month later in the throes of packing up our household and with our tickets to the UK booked.  She's right... what a difference a month makes!

It got me thinking so I read back over some of my early blog entries.  When does a dream become a goal?  I feel like we really made progress towards making our dream a reality when we, or I, started writing about it.  We made a plan and committed it to the www!  We didn't have much control over the time frame .  Firstly, we didn't know how long Coco would live and if it had been our other dog, Zac who lived to 16 1/2, we would have another 2 or 3 years to wait.  Secondly we had no control over how long it would take to sell our house.  I vividly recall thinking that the Christmas of 2010 would be our last in this house.  But still, we had a plan.  Step by step we would tick things off our list and one day we'd get there.

Just the other day we were saying how glad we are that we impulsively booked our tickets to the UK on the same evening we signed the contract selling the house.  At the time it seemed a crazy thing to do but it has given us a fixed time frame and we'll simply have to get things done by that date.  If we had waited to book the tickets until we felt we were ready to go it would almost certainly have dragged into next year.

I've learned a good lesson from all this.  If you want to make something happen - just make a plan and work towards it.  Talk about it, tell people about it, live life as though it's going to happen just as you plan and at the very least, write it down.  

Caravan - not quite according to plan

Mick went and collected our temporary home yesterday.  The plan was to bring it home and keep it under our carport over the next couple of weeks so I can clean it, Mick can make a bed base, and we can finally pack our clothes, cookware, linen etc straight into the van to be towed out to the shed on the last day.  We thought how nice it would be to have a bed made up and ready to sleep in for the first night out there.

This was all very well in theory but it isn't what happened.  He arrived home after a rather daunting drive.  His 1 tonne Mazda Bravo isn't cut out for towing 18ft caravans.  He started backing the van through the gates towards the carport and realized it wasn't going to fit!  We had intended it would go on my side of the carport which is on the higher side of the slope.  So, with me out there waving my arms about and mum watching on in likely amusement, we made a second attempt but this time on the lower side of the carport.  Still no luck.  We had no idea it was so high off the ground. 

Finally in desperation we decided to back it in at a crazy angle beside the carport and take it out to the shed Sunday.  I spent a good couple of hours cleaning everything and took down all the curtains. This morning it's been towed off again and the rest will have to be done out at the shed.

Pick of the week - George Albert

It's a bit of a different feeling looking at boats for sale now.  It's a whole lot more real!

This weeks pick is listed with ABNB - nb George Albert.

There is a lot we like about this boat, starting with the price.  I now have a preference for a boat with a second cabin so I have somewhere to go and work.  This one would be perfect.  Not only that, if we took out the breakfast bar there would be space for a 1+1 dinette.  Perfect!  We like the colour, the name's ok, we're leaning towards a cassette loo as our preference and it has both central heating and a solid fuel stove.

On the minus side... it looks slightly awkward access from the trad hatch, there is no washing machine, the bed would need to be turned around to a cross bed, it doesn't have a cratch/cover.. so there's a bit of money to be spent.  At the price, that's fine with us.

I don't know who John McIntosh is and google hasn't helped with that.

Price: £42,500

Length: 58ft 0in

Builder: Liverpool Boat Co

Fitter-out: John McIntosh

Style: Trad

Year registered: 2003

Certification: BSS 2013, RCD issued 2003

Engine: Isuzu IM4LB33 diesel

Plating: 10/6/5/4

Last out of water: 2011

Water tank: 150gall (approx) stainless steel

Headroom: 6ft 5in

Fit-out materials: Cabin sides in painted oak panels, hull sides & deckhead in oak panels, all with sapele trim. Floors in wood-effect vinyl throughout.

Insulation: Spray foam

Berths: 3

Berth sizes: 6ft 4in x 4ft 0in permanent double, 6ft 5in x 2ft 0in permanent single on dinette bench seat

Fridge: Shoreline 12V 5cu ft

Washer/dryer: None

WC: Thetford swivel seat cassette wc

Shower: over bath with curtain

Cooker: Country Leisure hob & Midi Prima oven & grill - gas

Water heating: C/heating + engine + 230V immersion heater, calorifier

Cabin heating: Webasto diesel c/heating, 3 rads, s/f stove

Mains 230V: Landline, Sterling 1500W pure sine wave inverter

Other: Breakfast bar with side doors above. Centre cabin could easily be converted to an office or separate single bedroom

Location: River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire

Nine months of Winter?

Goodness it's cold tonight!  We've got the Rayburn burning in our back room/kitchen but the rest of the house is like a freezer!!!  I feel like we're in practice for the UK Winter.  When we started talking about it tonight we realized that we're going to get our Aussie Winter and then an even worse Winter.  In fact with it being cold already now in May, except for perhaps a slight easing of the weather early September in Australia and hopefully a few good weeks in the UK in October, we've got close to a nine month Winter.

I must say I'm not very much looking forward to having to go out the caravan, across the driveway, into the shed and right down to the other end of the building to use the bathroom. It's going to be absolutely freezing.  More good practice.

Water

The issue of water has suddenly become rather more urgent.  Out at the shed there is an old water tank that has basically just been supplying water for the bathroom and the old lunchroom (since pulled down).  Now we'll be living out there for a while that tank really isn't going to be enough.  We'll leave it hooked up for the bathroom but have been making enquiries for a new one to connect the caravan to.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone lately trying to chase up a tank or two in stock that we can have soon.  Finally success.  The same company that made the existing one (many years ago) had two similar sized ones in stock and can deliver next Tuesday.  More rushing around - paying a deposit so they'll book us in for delivery, Mick working out where we want the taps and overflows and arranging for Mick to be out there to accept delivery of the tanks.

Bring on the rain!

HSBC UK account update

We went to Melbourne today to sign up for our UK bank account and open an Aussie one too.  It was all dealt with quickly and efficiently - we were very happy with the service.

There was one thing that I'd either mis-understood or hadn't been clear in my questions on the phone the other day when we did the phone application.  It turns out we can have a Visa/Mastercard on our UK account without having to apply for a separate credit card account.  So.... we had one less account to sort out.

As a bonus for the day, HSBC South Melbourne had a brochure on their counter saying if you opened an everyday account (or whatever it was called!) you will get two Gold Class movie passes.  Excellent!

Chores for the day

I only have Mondays off work now and they've become my busiest day.

I started out today with a list of things I needed to buy - from a shower curtain to a fan heater and a whole lot in between.  The general aim for the day was to gather everything we need to set up the bathroom out at the shed.  I spent the first couple of hours packing another round of boxes and put them in the car to take to the shed on the way home from my shopping expedition.  We don't want to waste a trip out to the highway!

I did the chores in Bendigo and had a quick lunch with my mum at my favourite Thai restaurant - Bunja Thai.  They do a great lunchtime deal with a changing daily special - a set lunch menu which is always delicious.  It's very popular with local workers because lunch appears at the table within about 5 minutes.

A passing comment from someone today turned out to be a very good idea.  We had intended to take the caravan out to the shed when Mick picks it up on Saturday.  Today someone said we should bring it to our place when we are ready to move and just pack the things we need to use over the next 3 months straight into the van and then tow it back to the shed.  We've decided we'll bring it home to begin with.  I can give it a good clean up with Mum on the weekend (thanks Mum!) and Mick is going to pull out one of the bedside tables and make a new base for the bed so we can use our queen size mattress.  All this will be easier done at home and then we can start to pack things into the cupboards.

Tomorrow we're off to Melbourne to sign up for our UK bank account.  We're impressed with the service from HSBC.  We had a phone call tonight to check that everything's going according to plan and to say to ring after we've handed in all our documents so the guy from the international department can check that it's been correctly processed.

A good days work on our plan.