Picking up shipped goods at Auckland Airport can be so frustrating. You get the waybill, then go to MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Fish?Food?) at one site, to get a clearance certificate, then drive a km or so to Customs to have the next page stamped, all of this costing about $38 each time, then back to Cargo to pay another $38 before you can pick up whatever. Why the hell they can’t put all of this in the same site is beyond me. But anyway, I’m finally reunited with the few belongings I had in Honiara.
The Unit looks like a disaster zone, I’ve got boxes in the lounge, in the garage, sorting and repacking, the clothesline is full of washing from the stuff that arrived, thankfully, Rose is going away for a week from tomorrow, I’ll try to get it all sorted repacked, and ready for the carriers to take it to Golden Bay.
My usual run of bad luck continues
The Pajero has been slowly losing the brakes, so this morning I went and booked it in for Monday to have the brake pads and discs done, driving back home, about 4km, the front left locked up, it’s taken me a while to get it into the driveway, and the wheel off, and I hope I’ve freed the cylinders up enough to get it down to the garage on Monday. Just what I need without any income as yet.
I’ve had Jesse and Kahu to look after the last couple of weeks till School starts again, which has been an interesting time. I missed out on my kids growing up for a long time, working a 10 hour day, 6 days a week job tends to cut you out of family life, and it wasn’t till I got crippled I had the time, but not the energy to be of any use. So having my grand kids is like trying to make up and catch up on everything I missed out.
That isn’t to say that they are darlings to look after, and little angels, far from it.
I’m trying to stay positive about the move to Golden Bay, it’s something I’ve had on my list of 1,000 things to do before I die, but I think I’m just totally burnt out from the last few years, the disastrous Irish expedition, the frustrating Solomon Islands experience, basically the culmination of a long period of frustrations and head butting with no real outcome.
I’ll be down there at the end of February, once the final settlement goes through, just getting out of this environment here will help, although I’ll miss Jesse, Kahu, Damian and Tarsha again.
But, I’ll be back on my own, and able to get things moving to what I want.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Tuesday 18th January
It’s finally all coming together, my final offer on the house has been accepted, all the compliance certificates are signed off, the building permits etc have all been found, and I’ve sent off the 10% deposit. Settlement is now the 28th February, due to the 4 weeks we lost over Christmas and while they were trying to find all the Building Permits.
Damian Tarsha and family are home, I had dinner there Saturday night, with a few fireworks let off to celebrate Damians birthday, a few weeks late, but better than never. The rest we have kept for a date in May, I can’t say for why yet, as there are still some family members to tell, but it’s something we’ve been waiting to happen for a long time.
We’ve got the remains of a tropical cyclone hitting Auckland today, 60 – 70 knot winds at the moment, with gusts expected up to 120 knots. The kite surfers are out on St Heliers Beach at the moment, having a great time by the look of it.
I’m slowly getting everything collected from storage, and sorted out and repacked, I’ll need a removal firm for a fair bit though, Rose is giving me the old rose wood and cane 3 seater couch from Otahuhu, the 2 seater that has been around for 30 years so far, my brass bedstead and frame, bookshelves, plus all the cartons of stuff I’ve accumulated that won’t fit into the Pajero. I’ll take what I need to cope with in the Pajero, till it arrives whenever.
I heard from Steve finally, he chased up where my stuff was in Honiara, it hadn’t left until yesterday, after 3 months. I know that sounds like a long time to get things sorted, but after living there, I’m more surprised it was still there and hadn’t been stolen. Anyway, it is meant to be here today, and I should be able to collect it all maybe Friday after customs have cleared it.
Damian Tarsha and family are home, I had dinner there Saturday night, with a few fireworks let off to celebrate Damians birthday, a few weeks late, but better than never. The rest we have kept for a date in May, I can’t say for why yet, as there are still some family members to tell, but it’s something we’ve been waiting to happen for a long time.
We’ve got the remains of a tropical cyclone hitting Auckland today, 60 – 70 knot winds at the moment, with gusts expected up to 120 knots. The kite surfers are out on St Heliers Beach at the moment, having a great time by the look of it.
I’m slowly getting everything collected from storage, and sorted out and repacked, I’ll need a removal firm for a fair bit though, Rose is giving me the old rose wood and cane 3 seater couch from Otahuhu, the 2 seater that has been around for 30 years so far, my brass bedstead and frame, bookshelves, plus all the cartons of stuff I’ve accumulated that won’t fit into the Pajero. I’ll take what I need to cope with in the Pajero, till it arrives whenever.
I heard from Steve finally, he chased up where my stuff was in Honiara, it hadn’t left until yesterday, after 3 months. I know that sounds like a long time to get things sorted, but after living there, I’m more surprised it was still there and hadn’t been stolen. Anyway, it is meant to be here today, and I should be able to collect it all maybe Friday after customs have cleared it.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Monday 11th January
I realised just how long it has been since I updated this. The main problem is that all I’m doing is waiting out the time before I can get the house signed up, not till the 17th now, when the Lawyers and Solicitors get back to work, so all I’ve been doing is working out what I have to pack, where everything is, but with Rose and I sharing the Unit, there’s not a lot of room for me to get it all together so I can see just how much there is to pack and have sent by carrier, and how much I can fit into the Pajero.
Plus all my cartons from Honiara are still lost somewhere, with stuff I need to take, as well as my fishing rods and reels. Which never got a chance to be tried out in the Solomons anyway.
New Year was quiet, I borrowed a few fireworks from Damians box, just to keep in practise.
I’m accumulating darkroom equipment slowly, an enlarger I got for a knockdown from the camera shop in Mt Albert, Chromega 670, and the next week I found a Durst 670 with variable printing filters and timer on Trademe that I picked up for $100. Still have my developing tanks for negs, so I’m practically set up again once I get to Golden Bay.
Damian and family arrived back from Melbourne on Friday last, picked them up from the airport, Kahu was asleep by the time we left AKL International, they’d been up since 3am getting to Tullamarine Airport, plus the flight.
Hopefully I’ll know more about the house by next week, they are working on getting all the compliance certificates done before Friday, for the extensions, the bathrooms, so it should all got through reasonably smoothly.
The weather continues warm to hot, not a lot of rain lately, the beach has been crowded out every weekend, and a fair few people during the week as well.
Hayden was going to Christchurch this week to have his cochlea implant retuned, and hopefully upgraded to a better one. He’s lost a lot of the higher frequencies, so talking to him on the phone becomes a study in frustration.
Plus all my cartons from Honiara are still lost somewhere, with stuff I need to take, as well as my fishing rods and reels. Which never got a chance to be tried out in the Solomons anyway.
New Year was quiet, I borrowed a few fireworks from Damians box, just to keep in practise.
I’m accumulating darkroom equipment slowly, an enlarger I got for a knockdown from the camera shop in Mt Albert, Chromega 670, and the next week I found a Durst 670 with variable printing filters and timer on Trademe that I picked up for $100. Still have my developing tanks for negs, so I’m practically set up again once I get to Golden Bay.
Damian and family arrived back from Melbourne on Friday last, picked them up from the airport, Kahu was asleep by the time we left AKL International, they’d been up since 3am getting to Tullamarine Airport, plus the flight.
Hopefully I’ll know more about the house by next week, they are working on getting all the compliance certificates done before Friday, for the extensions, the bathrooms, so it should all got through reasonably smoothly.
The weather continues warm to hot, not a lot of rain lately, the beach has been crowded out every weekend, and a fair few people during the week as well.
Hayden was going to Christchurch this week to have his cochlea implant retuned, and hopefully upgraded to a better one. He’s lost a lot of the higher frequencies, so talking to him on the phone becomes a study in frustration.
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