Okay, okay, been rather lax on keeping the blog updated, and as i now sit here in the common room of the Piccadilly Backpackers I finally have a chance to update you all... (so forgive the length of this!)
After the joy of the Vic coppers defecting my car and scuppering any chance to sell it, the remaining week and a half in Adelaide didn’t really give me the relaxed time I’d hoped for. I still managed to steal some relaxation time here and there - A guy could get very used to this sunny morning running or riding!! (just don't mind the lame attempts at self portraits while riding, as can be seen on the right whilst on Port Rd.)
First appointment was for 9am on the following morning of my arrival, so no sleep in yet! Not helped by the fact that the appointment wasn’t til the next day anyway! Such a waste of a possible sleep-in - especially after getting in to town at 1am! At least by Friday, all the tax, super, private health, optometrists, etc... were done! Included in that was a bit of fun with expired medicare cards. Nice cruisey Friday afternoon, after a brief and unsuccessful trip to CGU for travel insurance, it was lunch with John outside the Austral hotel in the sunshine. Complete with the usual excellent standard of passers by to watch, and the Victorian footballers on end of season trip rating and applauding them as they went by. Mark n Jen joined us later in the afternoon to enjoy the ambiance of Rundle St. Fantastic dinner at the Cork & Cleaver with the family that night.
Saturday continued the runaround for the morning, with Mara’s funeral in the afternoon. Lovely service and wake. Excellent to catch up with many of the people there, even if the circumstances could have been better. Another good catch up night at the Robin Hood with Mike, Carol, Matt n Mandy, Curl, Mark n Jen with Rina and Craig also turning up! All good til your’s truly was just about falling asleep as it neared closing time. The last month of everything starting to take it’s toll. Underestimated the task of moving countries? Possibly not for moving just one, but to move both of us was a much larger task than anticipated!
Sunday was back into it early on - gotta love the effect of berocca to prevent hangovers!! It certainly made Sunday afternoon’s gathering of relatives and family friends easier to get through! A great afternoon, and i managed to catch up with everyone there except 3 people, which was fine as there was opportunities later in the week to see them, although that didn’t eventuate as mentioned for 2 of them...
A rather fortuitous trip up to Monarto on Tuesday for lunch with Ritz n Leigh was the next noteworthy item of the week. After a great lunch and tour of the amazing work they’ve done in creating and building their home, it was off to motor part dealers and cop shops to have the defect sticker removed so that Leigh could buy my car. The last big weight lifted from off my shoulders!! Thanks guys! I must say I do like the way the South Australian coppers really have no time for their Victorian counterparts who issue trivial defect notices - so much so that they didn’t charge me the removal fee!!
The arrival of Charity to Adelaide that night just added to the joys of being back home in Adelaide. after a good portion of Wednesday being spent together in town running about sorting many of the last minute items out, it was off to Matt n Mandy’s for dinner with Carl n Jayne. A great night full of laughs, food n drink.
Thursday and the final day of Adelaide (for now), and it kicked off with a quick drive up to Monarto to deliver my car and say ciao to Ritz n Leigh. A quick trip to motor reg to drop off the papers and update my licence to an SA one, close bank accounts before the fun started!
After lunch, Charity had been given opposite information to what I had with regard to weight limits for our baggage. Further investigation by ourselves and Elise verified our worst nightmare - the limit for international baggage was 20kgs not 32!! This prompted some phonecalls and research for what we could do with all the extra. Especially considering that excess baggage charge was $48 per kilogram!!
In the end, after some extremely rapid reshuffling of packing, it was off to Qantas air freight for them to ship over about 32kgs of our gear. They then sent us to another baggage handler claiming that they would save us around $150 from what they could do for us. Excellent! So, round we go, getting there with ten minutes so spare til they closed. We were then told that my 17kg bike n bag were of an “unusual”dimension and therefore must be rated as a 60kg item! Great! No where else to go as it’s now after 5pm, and this lot want an extra $250 on top of what Qantas charged.. Not happy Jan!
Back home and a surprise visit from Ian n Bev followed by dinner with mum, dad, charity and PB rounded out the evening. A lamb roast - an Aussie way to finish?! Course it was. The only way it could have been even more Aussie would have been a pie floater!! (alright, that’d be South Aussie)
Late night packing and mucking around with scales to get the weight right and bedtime was around 2am. Did i sleep? Hardly. But up before 6am to get to the airport...
Interesting to have seen some of the changes happening to Adelaide, even if doesn’t appear to change much at all. It’s still my home town and despite that it’s still a great place.
After the joy of the Vic coppers defecting my car and scuppering any chance to sell it, the remaining week and a half in Adelaide didn’t really give me the relaxed time I’d hoped for. I still managed to steal some relaxation time here and there - A guy could get very used to this sunny morning running or riding!! (just don't mind the lame attempts at self portraits while riding, as can be seen on the right whilst on Port Rd.)First appointment was for 9am on the following morning of my arrival, so no sleep in yet! Not helped by the fact that the appointment wasn’t til the next day anyway! Such a waste of a possible sleep-in - especially after getting in to town at 1am! At least by Friday, all the tax, super, private health, optometrists, etc... were done! Included in that was a bit of fun with expired medicare cards. Nice cruisey Friday afternoon, after a brief and unsuccessful trip to CGU for travel insurance, it was lunch with John outside the Austral hotel in the sunshine. Complete with the usual excellent standard of passers by to watch, and the Victorian footballers on end of season trip rating and applauding them as they went by. Mark n Jen joined us later in the afternoon to enjoy the ambiance of Rundle St. Fantastic dinner at the Cork & Cleaver with the family that night.
Saturday continued the runaround for the morning, with Mara’s funeral in the afternoon. Lovely service and wake. Excellent to catch up with many of the people there, even if the circumstances could have been better. Another good catch up night at the Robin Hood with Mike, Carol, Matt n Mandy, Curl, Mark n Jen with Rina and Craig also turning up! All good til your’s truly was just about falling asleep as it neared closing time. The last month of everything starting to take it’s toll. Underestimated the task of moving countries? Possibly not for moving just one, but to move both of us was a much larger task than anticipated!
Sunday was back into it early on - gotta love the effect of berocca to prevent hangovers!! It certainly made Sunday afternoon’s gathering of relatives and family friends easier to get through! A great afternoon, and i managed to catch up with everyone there except 3 people, which was fine as there was opportunities later in the week to see them, although that didn’t eventuate as mentioned for 2 of them...
A rather fortuitous trip up to Monarto on Tuesday for lunch with Ritz n Leigh was the next noteworthy item of the week. After a great lunch and tour of the amazing work they’ve done in creating and building their home, it was off to motor part dealers and cop shops to have the defect sticker removed so that Leigh could buy my car. The last big weight lifted from off my shoulders!! Thanks guys! I must say I do like the way the South Australian coppers really have no time for their Victorian counterparts who issue trivial defect notices - so much so that they didn’t charge me the removal fee!!
The arrival of Charity to Adelaide that night just added to the joys of being back home in Adelaide. after a good portion of Wednesday being spent together in town running about sorting many of the last minute items out, it was off to Matt n Mandy’s for dinner with Carl n Jayne. A great night full of laughs, food n drink.
Thursday and the final day of Adelaide (for now), and it kicked off with a quick drive up to Monarto to deliver my car and say ciao to Ritz n Leigh. A quick trip to motor reg to drop off the papers and update my licence to an SA one, close bank accounts before the fun started!
After lunch, Charity had been given opposite information to what I had with regard to weight limits for our baggage. Further investigation by ourselves and Elise verified our worst nightmare - the limit for international baggage was 20kgs not 32!! This prompted some phonecalls and research for what we could do with all the extra. Especially considering that excess baggage charge was $48 per kilogram!!
In the end, after some extremely rapid reshuffling of packing, it was off to Qantas air freight for them to ship over about 32kgs of our gear. They then sent us to another baggage handler claiming that they would save us around $150 from what they could do for us. Excellent! So, round we go, getting there with ten minutes so spare til they closed. We were then told that my 17kg bike n bag were of an “unusual”dimension and therefore must be rated as a 60kg item! Great! No where else to go as it’s now after 5pm, and this lot want an extra $250 on top of what Qantas charged.. Not happy Jan!
Back home and a surprise visit from Ian n Bev followed by dinner with mum, dad, charity and PB rounded out the evening. A lamb roast - an Aussie way to finish?! Course it was. The only way it could have been even more Aussie would have been a pie floater!! (alright, that’d be South Aussie)
Late night packing and mucking around with scales to get the weight right and bedtime was around 2am. Did i sleep? Hardly. But up before 6am to get to the airport...
Interesting to have seen some of the changes happening to Adelaide, even if doesn’t appear to change much at all. It’s still my home town and despite that it’s still a great place.
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