I can show this pic because it’s a view from the street, public. This is where I’m going.

Wot a day! What a day it was yesterday, Friday 15th, as the removalists came and took all (most of) my stuff to the lockup.

First, they were late, a bit after 8am when they said they’d be there at 0730. That was OK, though.

Then they surprised me by doing the smart thing – they loaded all the small stuff first, all the boxes. That’s because at the other end, they wanted to unload the big stuff first, at the back of the truck. I wouldn’t have thought of that.

It turned out to be Glenn, an Irishman, and Joe, a Yank from Philadelphia, a giant of a bloke. nice guys. They could carry two items where I’d be battling to lift one of them.

The previous night I’d unhooked the washing machine and discovered the cold tap had a bad leak from the wall outlet. Normally I’d just go to the workshop, get my tube spanner and tap washer and fix it, but no, it was all packed away. Barry had a good idea – put a snap-on hose fitting on and run the hose down the drain. Temporary fix – I’ll get new tap washers today.

OK, full truck load by 11.15am and I gave the guys a map with the route marked, and said follow me. Oh, don’t worry, they said, we’ve got a GPS. See you there.

I sat and waited 25 minutes for them to arrive at the lockup gates!! Why? They’d taken a different route and got stuck behind a road making machine or something. What?? Twenty five minutes to get past? I’m going to have to speak to the boss to see that I’m not charged for that time.

PS: While we were loading, a guy walked in the front door and through the house. Who’s this? I thought it was the boss. No, he was talking silly talk. I thought it might be a friend of Barry’s, but no, he didn’t know him. He was talking crazy talk, like being royalty. He bummed a smoke off Barry, and said he’d run out of fuel on Marmion Ave. We had to usher him out. Amazing.

Unloading at the lockup went OK, but they totally filled my 27 m3 unit and I had to rent an adjacent 6.75 m3 unit as well. That was also totally filled, to the roof. Trouble closing the roller door.

Then it was time to leave and I had to pay the bill. It had blown out from a 3 hour estimate to 5.5 hours, nearly double the estimated cost. What can I do? I can’t say take it away again.

Then I said follow me to the gate. I drove up there (200m) and sat and waited. Nothing. Truck didn’t move. Fifteen minutes went by – nothing. Finally one of the guys came running up. Truck won’t start. Run out of fuel!

So he gave me some money and I had to go and buy 5L of diesel for them. Luckily there was a Repco shop nearby for a can and pourer, and a service station 600m down the road.

They poured it in, with difficulty, and it still wouldn’t start. Vapour lock. Luckily Joe knew how to clear it, so after nearly 45 mins, we were finally outa there. Boy, was I glad to see them go. It was 2pm by this time and I was famished, so I had some lunch at the shops and went home, exhausted.

Normally I would have crashed on the bed for an hour, but no bed! I had to use two of Minnoie’s cushions (new, unused) and my doona as a bed on the floor, so I was able to sleep a bit. Getting up off the floor is very difficult for me, but eventually I made it.

So then it was more packing things into the car, preparatory to going around to my friends in Scarborough. I bought ice for the esky and had a couple of cold beers, which relaxed me a bit.

Then at 7pm it was time to go. Minnie was pleased to get into the car and settled down.

I was welcomed at Scarborough and Minnie was helped up the steps into the rear area. It’ll be good for her, plenty of shrubbery, a good sheltered area. Then I polished off the rest of the beer.

Bed at 10pm – boy I was weary. I’ve got a big double bed! It took me a long time to get to sleep, and I could tell Minnie was unsettled too. She was wandering around under my window – I could hear her panting, looking to “go home”, so I had to firmly say, Bed Minnie, quite a few times. She heard it and eventually stopped looking for a way out.

So now it’s Saturday morning and apart from loading up my car with important things I didn’t have time for yesterday, I’m going to have an easy day. I can’t take any more to the lockup as there’s no space. I’ll have to rent a third unit, and that’ll have to wait until Monday.

So I’m nearly done. I never, ever want to go through this again. This has been terrible. When it comes time to take possession of Butler, I’ll just let the removalists do the lot. I reckon it’ll take two trips, so it’ll be expensive, but it can’t be helped.

Of course, I’ll end up with a  garage full of boxes to be sorted and moved inside. That’ll be fun. And hard work. But I’m never going to move again. Never!

It will also be time to invest in some nice furniture too. I’m tired of crap. Good solid bookshelves and cabinets, nice lounge suite. Not exorbitantly priced, just middle of the road.

So it’s a few days to go of cleaning up – all the final crockery, garden hoses, plant pots, stuff like that. Then I can kiss that old house goodbye. Some regrets, yes, but I’m tired of living in a run down old house. Onward and upward.