Philately

I have a number of projects but they have been severely interrupted due to prepacking. Tonight I was given a stamp collection and some stamps are still required to be removed from their envelopes.  These stamps have been on the envelope for 20 and 30 yar.  Frank Ostenreid was a WWII German veteran who was captured and sent to Canada for the duration.  There are still envelopes here with stamps on them from Canada.  Now I just have to separate them.

The Official Photo

New home 

Warm Water Soak

Fall of Moondust

Arthur C Clarke was a famous SciFi author working with equally famous movie men like Stanley Kubrick on 2001 A Space Odyssey.  This book is a load of Moondust.  Men landed on the Moon nine years after he wrote this book and they never found a sea of dust.  This story reminds me of the baby that crawled into a narrow well headfirst and the world watched over the next four days as the rescue proceeded. That was in 1987 the same year that this edition was printed.

Standing on solid ground

NBN diagnosed

The last time we got the NBN man out all the cable connections were recut, resheathed and reseated. A problem was identified in the street which was also fixed.  This resulted in a good signal for the last three weeks but in the last week it has been failing.  We have since removed the second foxtel box so the three way splitter was no longer needed. That splitter was replaced with a two way today and the signal degradation has gone away now as well.  In our new house we will be using a dish to deliver foxtel.

Faulty threeway

Collendina Report No 6346

The beach weather has not been very prevalent this weekend. Each morning has been drizzle and cloud well into the day and this morning the Foghorn Leghorn was going off every few minutes. However we did get to the beach later in the day.  We did a short ride yesterday and today and there were road blocks for the Cadel Evans peoples ride.

Fog

Straya

Merne at Lighthouse is a newish restaurant but a bit of a misnomer. 20 yar back when the Oakdene Winery was looking to expand they bought up this valley north of Queenscliff and planted vines and Olives.  Then you could see the lighthouses but now you can't because of the trees.  The restaurant has only been open for the last 9 months but is typical with huge glass windows looking down to Queenscliff.  We have been at this Australia Day business for 38 yar now.

Decorative Yacht

Collendina Report No 6345

A slow day was spent not doing much.  After the recent hive of activity we consumed some Moet&Chandon. There was a leisurely ride to the Bluff and I can report that the lady who has been trying to sell her bakery cafe business in Barwon Heads, which we frequent, has not been able to do so. And now there is a new coffee shop opened up right next door.

Moet & Chandon -Who is Chandon?

Coffee Galore

Blue Mars

This is the last of the three volume MARS series. Trying to read a book lately has been a stop start business. However I have made it through the final volume. It has taken two months to read the 2100 odd tightly packed pages but well worth it.  These have all won Hugo and Nebula awards.  I started watching the MARS show on SBS and it has a similar vocabulary.  Always trying to avoid radiation, always studying regolith and living inside lava tubes.

Sold.

We have passed all inspections, so the new owners have confirmed the deal.  No more open days, no more inspections, no more reports. We do not need an auction.  It's champagne Tuesday.  We have a four day overlap on settlement days so moving will be a more orderly effort.

Contracts Signed

We have sold to a younger couple who have been trying to buy a house in this area for the last three years.  I get the impression they were very keen not to go to another auction.  They had missed on numerous auctions previously so they upped their offer each time we rejected it.  After their third offer we agreed.  They are so keen they backdated the three day cooling off, which expires tomorrow.  The building inspector and the pest inspector have indicated there are no real concerns so the sold sticker should go on tomorrow.  But it is not official until then.

5 copies to sign

Bomba revisted

That world travelling comedian of note Simon Taylor has managed to reach 30 years of age.  We went with all the other Taylors to Bomba rooftop for lunch and cake.  After a three hour lunch the Disseldorps were having a final fling to see off their house before moving to the new residence.  We have to sell ours first.

86 

Chopsticks for two

No not more stories

10000 Views

I have been writing this blog for four years now.  I'm not sure who the 10000 are but I have just ticked over 10000 views of my blog.  The monthly total seems to be around 500 views so at that rate 20000 will be less than 2 years, if I can think of something else to type.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

Can I use your toilet?

This house is so clean I have to pee in the backyard.  We have a lime tree but it's already got enough problems without me trying to drown it.  We have had some action on the house front but it is still early days.  Some one told me real estate agents never stop and it seems that way as we have a meeting tomorrow being Sunday. 

Cleaning a clean house

We spent two hours cleaning a clean house just now.  After a hot north wind we have silver birch droppings all over the place but they cleaned up quite well.  We have more visitations today, these parties have previously come two and three times.  The web page ads go up today at realestate.com.au, domain.com.au and McDonaldUpton.com.au . 

House sale House sale

One of the things we have been told is that you do better selling a house in cold even wet weather as opposed to a hot day.  So why are we trying to sell in the hottest month of the year?  We have announced our sale publicly with a sign. Not a very big one.

For Sale

Heat not recommended for auctions

Collendina Report No 433

After two phone meetings or was it three, we took all the new snorkel gear over to the Indented Head site of the Ozone.  This was part of the 1850's golden age of paddle wheel steamers, getting passengers and cargo around the bay, as there were no roads.  The tide was out and you would not bother trying to compete with the number of swimmers who were casually walking out to the wreck.  Bikini girls were climbing up and jumping off. We asked one guy emerging from the water, who said it was ordinary today. The north wind was stirring things, as well as all the people in the water.  We will come back after school holidays.

Proverbial Shag on a Rock

Ghost Ship Ghostly City

Defects

We are owner builders. In 1996 legislation says that owner/builders are now included with registered  builders as being responsible for fixing defects for up to seven years.  So we legally have to pay for a defects report for the Section 32.  The defects man has just checked us out and says we are one of the rare times where no defects have been found. However we still had to pay for the report to be formally presented.  Things have changed since 1979. We bought this house with so many defects you couldn't write them down and there was no such report listing them for us.

Dictating findings like a house autopsy

Barassi Park

I went to the very end of Moonee Ponds Creek trail where it runs into the Yarra.  There I found Ron Barassi Snr Reserve but there were no goal posts.  Even if it is not Ronald Dale you would think there would be goal posts.  This area is all rebuilt as part of docklands and there is only one waterfront block left which will no doubt be another accommodation high rise.  My legs were forgetting how to ride.

Concrete Tents

Red Shitters

Plumbers

At what time is it considered that you are paying other peoples bills?  We have a blocked drain which is now unblocked at a cost of $330 but it will now stay unblocked for another 5 years, as we had this particular spot cleared 5 years ago.  It seems to me the new owner owes us a pro-rata amount. We have cleared their drains for 4 years and 9 months. It's the Silver Birch that is the culprit and it was here before we arrived.  And in the end either it had to go or we had to go.  It spits tiny seeds that invade every part of the house, particularly in summer with the air con running.  It drops half a metre of leaves in autumn. I need to fill the green bin three times to clear them. It's roots run deep and invade our drains and its branches are a convenient bat roost.  The bat who sat in the scat is here every night.  Each morning I have to clean off a ton o of guano from the fence and paths. 

One of the Mario Bros

Last Jedai

This was an improvement on Disney's first effort being Episode VII. I think Rogue One was their best effort so far.  It seems to me there is no body left to fight the bad guys now.  And another thing, how do they get so many bad guys?  We spent $97 for two of us, $39 on some sliders and $51 for two IMAX seats and $7 for one choc top.  You couldn't do that every day.

Buyers now Sellers

Even on the first inspection day we are still fixing some issues, like a blocked drain which we got a plumber to clear 4 or 5 yar ago. They did say it would most likely block up again in 5 years. We did not have their more sophisticated tunnel boring machine, so used a hose and managed to clear a lot of gunk.  So far it is draining well after two hours of steady rain.  Our first possible buyers have been through and have indicated an interest. 

Fan Atic at work

Photographer

Oh you'll have no trouble selling this says the neighbours next door.  The photographer came for the photos today.  She says "I take a lot of house photos and believe me you will have no trouble selling this house".  I must have heard that 20 times from 20 different people.  The photographer had an interesting rig set up.  There are many times where the reflection gets in the way so she has a flash unit that unhooks from the camera and co-ordinates the taking of the photo remotely via a button on the flash together with a timed flash. While this was going on the draughtsman was here drawing up the house plan.  I didn't ask him if he thought we could sell our house easily.

She likes to flash remotely

Aladdin

Disney are known for very strict employment requirements. You almost have to be a saint before you can work for them. This might be why the entire cast of Aladdin was imported from the US.  How did they make that flying carpet fly?  Some of it was literally smoke and mirror.  Sir Richard Burton was an English adventurer who I have mentioned on this blog previously. He disguised himself as a muslim and brought back a 1001 Arabian Nights.

Golden Orchids

Chinese Christmas Tree

In Genie Ous

Restore Points

I can't emphasize the value of regular restore points.  There are automatic points recorded along the way. I have used this facility before to restore my computer to a previous point that was working. Last night something tried to install which broke my machine.  There are a number of actions for recovery but I recommend a restore point as the first place to try. Saves a lot of grief, although I did have to reinstall Google Chrome just now.

All Decked Out

Another painting day and I threw out most of our painting gear yesterday.  We only needed a few brushes for some decking stain.  Then there was trying to paint some tricky fly wire screens.  We have been assessed by the removal broker as having a lot of stuff.  Good thing she didn't see the one tonne that was removed yesterday.

You can live on this deck even have a bath

Piggy Back Skips

What is the collective name for skips?  A rope of skips, a tip of skips!  I thought ours may have been on the heavy side when it came time to haul it away.  But no, the truck arrived with another full skip already on board.  Having a skip available is too convenient. I was putting more and more in. Looking for gaps here a space there. Just in time, I squeezed in another 80 kgs of dead weight plates from the old gym.  The 2nd hand man says he will pay 50c per kilo as long as there is no rust.  I have dealt with these people before and I was not going to chance it.  Eventually the skip man put one on top of the other and lifted both of them.

Skippy back

Final configuration

Bin Raiders

We were rudely woken up at 4:00 am because a couple of nutters were trying to sift through the stuff in our skip.  The biggest item in there is a home made tool storage enclosure.  A series of shelves and compartments with a fully lockable folding door. It was deep and they were trying to get it out.  If they had knocked on the door during the day we would have said take it away.  They nicked off quickly when confronted but I had to put the stuff they took out back in this morning.  I think I need to add another $500 invoice for the time it has taken to build a sofa and another queen bed today and I haven't even gotten to the 2nd bedside cabinet yet.

Sofa So Good

Puzzle

Office no more

IKEA

In many ways IKEA is an annoying store. It's a 1km walk on the top floor and another 1km walk on the ground floor before you can exit.  But we only needed the sofa section which was close to the front of the trail.  We did find one short cut which saved 500 m.  There is a growing trend where companies are putting as much onto the customer as possible.  IKEA will charge you a fee to pick your goods off the shelf.  So if the customer spends the time to pick the goods then it seems to me you can send IKEA an invoice for your time.  Say $300 an hour, so send a $150 invoice for 30 mins. The other day we spent at least an hour printing and sorting through 50 pages of bank documents that we have to sign.  Time is money so I would say a $300 invoice for that hour.  The sofa doesn't fit in the car so we paid another $90 to deliver it.  And after the move it will cost $250 to deliver the second one to CS.

Props

Renting props to stage manage the house presentation is an expensive business.  The style guru also has a props business but wanted $1600 for a bed setting and a two seater couch.  We went to Fantastical furniture and bought a bed for $800 which will be delivered in time for photography.  The skip is absolutely jam packed and they may have trouble lifting it.

Skip It

Today should be the last day of the big clean up.  The shed needs a bit more work but not much.  We had the largest skip delivered and have filled it.  Among other things placed in the bin, like your run of the mill floor boards, angle iron, weather boards and electrical conduits, there are more exotic items such as javelins, long bows, a didgeridoo and an entire gym workout station.

Mrs Dirty Knees

Clean Bricks Dirty Bricks

Repairs

The storage is just about full, fortunately there is not much more to move.  The fence is fixed, the glass balustrade is fixed and the sliding door is fixed all thanks to James handy work, although tomorrow the door frame will need a paint job.  The pile in the yard has grown, so good thing the skip arrives tomorrow.

Pile 1

Pile 2