Delicate and Awkward

Not every house would have a set of map drawers. This is actually the second set of drawers we have had.  The first was a six drawer McGraw, a secondhand set out of the Survey Dept,  Ministry of Lands. Heavy duty steel.  The current set is the new one, a ten drawer affair but probably heavier because of the extra sliding rails to accommodate the extra drawers.  We have not moved this one before and do not want to move it again.  Todays other big deal was the kiln fired ceramic bag untouched in its current location for 30 yar until today.  Somewhere along the way the glass walls snapped years ago but was deemed ok if it was never moved.  We removed the glass piece by piece and then brought it down from the high perch.  Now we need a new cover.

The next move will be worse

Storage King

I seem to be running out of energy earlier each day. The Storage is about one third full so the rest of the office will fit in.  The outdoor furniture has been rescued complete with cushions.  The junk pile has started to overwhelm the deck. I don't think there are any areas of the house left that have not had an initial purge.

Trolley Surfing

Secret Hole

Quite some time back we had put an exploratory hole in the wall which we have forgotten about by covering with a picture frame. The classic out of sight out of mind. House selling requires the decluttering of walls as well as cupboards and furniture.  Amongst two trips to storage and one to the salvos I have managed to glue the original plaster back in the hole.

Needs more work

The Key to moving

We were never good at keys.  I think I will have a new house resolution to do keys better. The new place has a Harry Potter key nook.  So far I have everything covered except for one window and the letter box.  All other locks are accounted for although I did spend two hours trying all keys in all holes. 

Temporary Office

The office has been moved out the back and everything seems to be working. If this post makes to the blog then it must be.  This is a good trial run for the eventual bigger move.  I took 12 power boards meaning 40 power points out of the room.  They were all in use.   The desks are fully cleared. We still have a map cabinet and a filing cabinet to go through.

Power Play

Not your average Boxing Day

It seems houses need to be presented for sale just so.  If its three bedrooms then our quite complicated office setup needs to be returned to a bedroom. Not so easy. We have quickly built a mountain of stuff for temporary storage already and its only the first day. We don't even have a storage area yet.

Partially cleared

Christmas Fair

The sit down lunch with all the trimmings for just six people. No problemo.  Just work backwards at 30 min for every kilo and add another 45 minutes for crackle. Easy.  OK the meat is on with 2hrs before serving time.  Lets duck out for some packing boxes.  Get back 30 mins later and the kitchen is smoked out.  The meat is too high in the oven but not burned.  Turn it down rearrange the shelves clear the smoke and were on track.  90 mins later discover the fan is blowing but the oven was turned off, not down. Nothing is cooked.  So we'll be a bit late. 

Crackle turned out perfect

Music Archive

It has taken over a year but I have completed the ripping of the record collection that had built up over the years.  I accumulated  a total of 74 bands and singers who recorded 134 records, amongst them one triple and several double albums.  The triple was George Harrison while some of the doubles  were from The Who, The Beatles, Jethro Tull and Emmerson Lake and Palmer.   The majority I acquired in the early seventies when I worked at Collins Book Depot. I would buy one album per week.  If I had to choose which album to rate as number one in that list it would be a hard choice but 10CC's Original Soundtrack would be the best.  Honourable mentions to Jethro Tull, Queen and Pink Floyd.  If anyone is interested I can copy all this material onto a USB drive and you will have an instant music library, just send me the drive. 

Beatles White Album - the last one in the list

Infringement Present

Got a Chrissie present from the Dept of Compliance.  Seems I was driving at 64km p/h in a 60 zone.  The last time I had one of these it was a similar type of speed.  So minimal over the limit it is hard to know they can accurately measure it given all the shut downs with incompetence.  And you just know there is something screwy about this when you read the amount of the fine at $3171.00.  It's the weekend then it's Christmas, this has saga written all over it.

Merry Christmas

PB Barbie

Santa doesn't come to the PB end of year barbie but Kookaburras do.  Lots of them.  Eltham is a leafy treed location that suits bird life. We do have a flock of rosellas now that screech in the street.  The Style Guru visited today and gave us the run down on how to present the house for sale.  It's mostly rearranging furniture and finding a bed from somewhere.

Kookas

Surburbia with an outdoor kitchen

Sales Force

The McDonald Upton gang  were here today checking out the lay of the land.  There were 5 or 6 staff and all were impressed at the standard we had reached in this old house.  I asked a few times about its sellingness, not a problem, sell it tomorrow, it will go off like a hotcake, as soon as word gets out its gone.  OK I should be recording these statements.    Later that morning two police detectives came to the door.  Somebody had used our address as part of an alibi story.  They had to come inside to take my statement as I had never heard of the person etc etc.  However they were wondering if he had got the address from online advertising of its sale.  They were very observant and said this house would sell in a heartbeat.  So everyone is of the opinion that we have done the right thing.  Show me the money.

Seaside Rendezvous

Spent an afternoon at the new address. The inspection went well and officially the house is not going to fall down.  We have measured the fridge which will fit, just.  Pianos and roll top desks are another matter but we have found spots.  The large office desks will not fit, so if someone wants two sets of office desk with drawer unit and bookcase, then make me an offer.  The map drawer has been consigned to the garage along with other wall units. It will most likely change.

Who's a happy camper?

Boathouse revisited

Studley Park is a leafy location by the river on a hot day.  The cafe is swapped for the dining room on really hot days to take advantage of the air con.  However the cooling worked so well that we moved onto the balcony.  Not so good for bald heads.  I had seafood spaghetti which was finished off without too much mess.

Gazumping

If you have negotiated an offer which is then accepted and even if some money has been paid nothing counts until a contract of sale is signed.  Timing can be an issue such as when this happens at COB on a Friday.  When the contract arrived on Sunday there was also a higher offer.  It's unethical but still legal.  After a day of strategizing we put in another higher offer on a signed contract which was also accepted but this time there were no rival higher bids.  The auction you have without an auction.

Old

New

Grandma's Brag Book

Nana's Brag Book in this case. The cloud placement of all things continues. This one has an odd collection of different sized photos and paper clippings.  Its like your original analog version of a blog. 

How old?

Hedged in

The Corner Shop

Did a quick ride to Yarraville and had coffee at the Corner Shop.  $25 was a bit steep I thought, at $15 for a sandwich and $5 each for tea and coffee. It was busy though and the drinks were hot. The green patch there was jumping, maybe it was Christmas or Star Wars or both.

The Corner

Poor Man's Singapore supertrees

SeaChange

We are surrounded by people buying houses and moving houses. We have bought a house in Clifton Springs and will be moving there in around 90 days. The Essendon house will stay but be leased out providing some income.  A price has been agreed but nothing has been signed as yet.

Sold

View

Aldara dream cream

Actually this is  nasty stuff.  Designed to prod the immune system into doing some healing. In order to do that, this cream turns your dodgy BCC into a weeping sore.  More like anti medicine.  Today is the last day in the five week schedule for applying the cream.  So now the problems on my shoulder, ear lobe and back of neck should all go away.

One use only drip system

Collendina Report No 2858

Hot Day at the Van.  Temperature on the beach today was 38° but we still gave it a go.  We were cooler than the plover man who was setting up an exclusion zone just short of first rock. We saw him going back later in the afternoon with a heap of nesting huts. Hot heavy work.  We spied out some low tide rock pools that might work for a spot of snorkel. Not so much today as some weed was clogging things up.  I used a waterproof camera and when I unloaded just now there were shots from Hamilton Is, from St Malo  and somewhere else I've forgotten!

St Malo bikini

Collendina bikini

Collendina Report No 2857

Reacquainted ourselves with the snorkel masks we got last year. We went over to the North facing EdgeView beach for some snorkelling amongst the pylons. On our second effort we went out much further, so far that we ran into a speargun diver who seemed a tad sus as he was spearing into the wood of one of the pylons. When he saw us he just lit out of there.  We saw some ugly fat fish a bit like puffer fish. The best was the ray that was snuffling in the grit.  All the way I was swimming with a broken fin. The back just ripped out when I was putting it on. These were James when he was in swim squad at least 20 yar ago.  The old yellow pair were just replaced with a set from Body Glove.

Diver Dan's old Shack

Heel trouble

Collendina Report No 2856

There are a few warm days ahead so we have made it to the van for some pre-Christmas beaching before the hordes descend.  The shower block is still unisex so blokes are currently banned from a stand up pee.  We found a hand me down waiting at our front door. This item has fitted in very well. At times the previous one was a tad dangerous especially if you had had a few.  We have also tested out a new beach shelter. This one is an improved model with a bigger area and a back door and lighter as well.

Shelter upgrade

What's new?

Flight Paths

In the 1960s and later I lived under the Essendon flight path. Planes would come in low over the house roof.  The recent move of the Clancy's to Strathmore and right next door to the runway lighting reaerve has kicked in the deja vu big time.  (What ever happened to those banks of lights?) Back in the day you could walk right onto the airport grounds as there was no fencing of any kind.  No such thing as security needed back then.

Tarmac Walking - the original dodgem game

Trans Australia Airline

Clancy house below

Photo from the fence

Quick ride to the Big Wheel

The sun was out so we saddled up at 9:30 am and was back at 11:30 am.  We stopped at the Big Wheel for a morning coffee.  I don't recommend the apple and blueberry muffin from the Coffee Club.  The drinks are ok and the service but that muffin was doughy.

No riding faster than 40 km/h

Green Mars

This is the second in a three book series I am reading about future Mars. It is solid reading. A densely packed 600+ pages of small print.  The text is highly scientific, with accurate believable scenarios about the colonizing of Mars and the independence revolutions that accompany it.  The SciFi is also there, particularly the magic longevity medicine that keeps one set of characters alive throughout the whole 150 year saga thus far.

Mars is now a Garden

Card Writing Day

In my University days I used to write for hours at a time and as fast as possible in order to keep pace with the spoken word.  These days physical writing seems to be a lot harder work. We all favour typing, like this blog post, but if I'm going to the trouble of buying cards and specialised postage stamps then doing the addressing, envelope licking and stamp sticking, as well as the posting, then an extra 15 minutes each to write something down, once a year can't be that hard.  There are some tips. 

• Do the card writing earlier in December rather than later 
• Have the list of recipients and their addresses ready
• Use an ink stamp for the return address or don't even bother with one\
• Mention which year it is
• Don't carry them around in your pocket for a week 
• Derr: use the cheap stamps 

Even still I just spent four hours writing 15 Christmas cards, filling just one of the blank pages with text.  You can get on a roll and say much the same thing in each card. They are not going to read each others. 

I need more stamps

Wayward Wandering Washer

Turns out the new Strathmore residence does not allow for a top loading washing machine.  These unit type residences can't waste bench space for a toploader.  It just so happens I have a spare front loader just laying around. Moving all the old computer gear reminded me of my old job back at CMG as I did that type of thing a lot.

Control Room to Paris

Long Way to the PO

I had to pick up a parcel in Buckley St so I took an hour and a half detour along a new section of the Maribyrnong that I have not ridden before.  The Afton St bridge is actually a pipe that crosses the river but there is room to ride across as well. This side used to be mud and gravel and dirt now there is a brand new path but it only goes for a few km then stops and the cross country continues.  I had to walk it out of this dead end up the hillside until I found a road at the top.  I finished off at Brian's Pies for lunch.

Wall Art

Pipe Bridge

Dirt

Beep Beep revealed

After three maybe four years of beeping going off in our office which you could only hear during quiet times, I have found the source of the noise.  Closed up inside a box of odd electronic bits and pieces was a smoke detection alarm that had been removed from the kitchen due to its sensitivity and repeated bleeting during cooking.  The battery had been left inside and was sounding off once per minute for the last three years.

At least it still works

Technology Cleanout

I have been on a technology purge today. Access to some cupboards and wardrobes has been reawakened recently.  I did not actually pause to see if there was a spark of revelation around each object although on one item there was an electrocution of nostalgia. This was around my old turntable. I saved up $200 for this machine which in the late sixties was considered a piece of furniture.  I was 12 at the time and so now 50 yar later I dug it out for a test and the sound is still as good as ever.  That one will have to stay. The rest including a laptop, home theatre, dvd player, modems, digital receivers, monitors and a box of cables will have to go. 

This also plays at a 16 speed