{"id":1602,"date":"2015-02-18T23:32:06","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T23:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fatbeetle.com\/blog\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2015-02-19T23:32:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T23:32:03","slug":"a-moving-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fatbeetle.com\/blog\/?p=1602","title":{"rendered":"A moving experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

So there we were, Xmas and New years had come and gone, as had my birthday, (thanks for…) and we were feeling like we were rattling about like two peas in a can. The old place was so empty without Bethy and Brandon, and we had so much spare room, spare room which still needed cleaning, it wasn\u2019t funny.<\/p>\n

So we started house hunting. Canberra has something of a housing glut at the moment, and new housing, (mainly apartments,)<\/a> are being thrown up, almost literally, all over the place. So we had plenty of choice. Trouble is we had very different ideas of what sort of place we wanted. My ideal place, basically, could be summed up in one word; \u201cCheap.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The first place we were interested in, the silly cow leasing it put up so many obstacles to our viewing it, including, \u201cI\u2019ll be having an open house from 12.10 to 12.25 on Thursday next week, if you miss that timeframe you won\u2019t get to see it,\u201d<\/em> that we just didn\u2019t bother going to the viewing, (though we said we would, we\u2019re just fucking evil like that.)<\/p>\n

The next two places we viewed nearly ended in divorce.<\/p>\n

The first one was a real shithole, definitely in need of some TLC. It had broken tiles in the bathroom, dirty stained walls, and hadn\u2019t been decorated since the seventies. Top top that, when we asked the estate agent, they stated that the owner had “expressed no intent on\u00a0redecorating.”<\/em> It was what estate agents call a \u201cdo-er uppers dream.\u201d<\/em> If you have any idea how good I am at DIY you may also have had some reservation about us renting the place. Lee-Anne had lots. At the house viewing we were confronted by another potential renter who had a huge, and very badly done, tattoo of a diamond on the top of his neck, and who seemed to have only just learned to walk upright. His hugely pregnant\u00a0..partner..<\/em> was chain smoking. All the other potential renters seemed to have escaped from a zoo.<\/p>\n

But it was CHEAP<\/strong><\/em> I tell you.<\/p>\n

The next place was far more attractive. And far more expensive. It was a split-level, four bedroom house in a more distant suburb. The place certainly had its merits, but as we were already paying a bloody\u00a0fortune to live in a four bed house, what would be the point of\u00a0 swapping it for another?<\/p>\n

Both houses had wood-burners, something that would be very nice in winter here as it gets bloody parky. Lee-Anne liked this second place lots. So, inevitably, we started arguing the merits of each place. This, of course, eventually escalated, as we\u2019re both stubborn, strong willed, thick\u00a0and loud. This reached stupid proportions, and strong words were said. Just when knives were being drawn we both realised that, unless we both really liked a place, it was stupid contemplating any house,\u00a0as we’d only fall out again. After that we cooled off.<\/p>\n

Then we saw Ivan\u2019s place, and both fell in love with it. This was a small, two bed, split level, recently redecorated and refitted, house in the same suburb as we were already in.
\nWe went to the open day and met Ivan the owner, he was a funny little Slavic chap. We buttered him up. The next day, which was also an open day all day, (that\u2019s how to get clients in Mrs \u201copen house from 12.10 to 12.25 on Thursday next week\u201d<\/em>,) Lee-Anne went around taking her secret weapon with her. No, not that, you disgusting little man.<\/p>\n

She took her mother.<\/p>\n

Ivan was duly impressed by Lee-Anne\u2019s keenness, and Mary\u2019s lunacy, and told her;\u00a0“You’re top of the list.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The next day Lee-Anne phoned him, only to be told that we hadn’t got it. He wouldn’t tell us why not, but we\u00a0presumed his Mrs had the final say, and she didn’t want nasty smelly dogs in their redecorated house. Lee-Anne then asked if hed reconsid offered to pay an increased amount of rent; “Why didn’t you offer that at the inspection?”<\/em> was Ivan\u2019s anguished reply.<\/p>\n

So, back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n

Then we found another, a three bed place in our suburb, really nicely laid out, cheaper, and, well, ideal. So we put in for it. And got it.<\/p>\n

When I say \u201cput in for it\u201d<\/em>, oh how easy and carefree that sounds! Forms? The department of administrative affairs\u00a0<\/a>runs on less paperwork than we had to complete. Honestly I had to complete more paper work than I did when I was applying for my Aussie citizenship. I had to get my manager and my mates to provide references, this involved a lot of threats, bribes and grovelling. I needed to give my jobs since leaving school, I’ve had dozens. Just to make it all the more painful, the fucking online form didn’t accept UK addresses. Though it only told you this when you had completed the whole \u201cWar and Peace\u201d<\/a> length shebang, then it kicked you back to the front page to start again.<\/p>\n

We handed our notice in to Henry street, then our landlord, Vinod, hit us with a $grands worth of water charges. Bills he\u2019d \u201cforgot to pass on\u201d<\/em>, but he added a sweetener.<\/p>\n

Thus;<\/p>\n

Please find below water consumption charges due for 14 Henry. I should have been sending this to you quarterly but I got lazy and complacent. My apologies. Please feel free to pay by instalments as your fund permits. Also attached is an excel file with water charges due in a more user-friendly format. The total amount due is $1,034. Also attached are all the invoices.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was wondering if you would consider staying on at 14 Henry if a lower rent could be negotiated. What would be the rent that you would be willing to pay to stay on at 14 Henry. I can understand that you are looking for a smaller place and that 14 Henry may not be suitable for you any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regards<\/span>
\n Vinod<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0We didn\u2019t want to stay there though, not even at reduced rent.<\/p>\n

So, new house, time to move.<\/p>\n

Lee-Anne went and got the keys to the new place a week early, so we could start moving in. We spent a week shifting boxes of non-essentials over in our poor bloody car, (we\u2019re going to need a new car soon too.)<\/p>\n

Isn’t it amazing how much shite you can build up over the course of 12 years? One sticking point came when we had\u00a0to sort out the somewhere in the region of 1000 books we had collected. We started going through them, sorting them into two piles, ones to keep ones to donate to the Salvos. It didn\u2019t take long to realise that we had 500 books in the \u201ckeep\u201d pile, and 4 in the \u201cSalvos\u201d pile. We boxed them all, and shifted them over to the new place.<\/p>\n

Following this capitulation to the inevitable, Lee-Anne decided we needed to buy new bookshelves. Who am I to argue? Luckily she found some (big,) well made, bookshelves, on sale from a Stationer, who was shutting down, at only $50.00 each. We bought four of them. \u00a0Then he told us we’d have to have them off the premises by 4.30 pm that day, as after that time he’d be shut for good, and we’d lose them.<\/p>\n

All this happened on the Saturday of the\u00a0weekend I’d booked off, and also had a day\u2019s \u201cpersonal leave\u201d booked for moving. Via\u00a0the net \u00a0we hired a 3 tonne truck for a day.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Truck on!<\/p><\/div>\n

Well when I say \u201ca day\u201d we got a deal, we had the truck from 4.30 pm Saturday, and didn\u2019t need to return it until 7.30 am Monday morning, all for the bargain price of $150.00. (As perspective, another place quoted us $340.00 noon Saturday to noon Sunday.)<\/p>\n

The guys at the hire place w<\/a>ere dead good, the let us have the truck two hours early, which meant we could bomb down to Fyshwick <\/a>(home to Canberra’s famous sex shops and brothels,) to pick up the new book cases, getting there just in bloody time too. Seeing as we were in the area we stopped off at a second-hand\/junk \u00a0shop <\/a>we know and love to buy a really tasty new (second hand,) wine rack. Then we raced home to move a van load of stuff.<\/p>\n

Yes, just one load, as we were seeing Eddie Izzard <\/a>that night. Bloody typical, the only weekend I could get time off just happened to be the same weekend we had tickets to\u00a0a play on the Thursday, and Eddie bloody Izzard on the Saturday.<\/p>\n

Both were well worth seeing fortunately..<\/p>\n

As I said, the play was a stage version of a classic Aussie sit-com, one of the few Aussie sit-coms I really love, “Mother and Son”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Though it finished showing in 1994, I\u2019ve caught repeats of it, loved it, and so have now ordered the 6 DVD complete set from the local library.) A very interesting concept, the mother is controlling, selfish and quite nasty, the son is pleasant and a bit soft. It was very well done, but the mother character was softened a bit. The \u201cfamous in Aus\u201d<\/em> actress Noeline Brown <\/a>could not pull off the happy malice that original mother, played by Ruth Cracknell,<\/a> portrayed, so she was made more scatterbrained than nasty.<\/p>\n