G'day

Ok time for the latest update on our never ending adventure down under. So there we were sitting pretty in our temporary rented accommodation on the morning of 26^th September. We were all set for the move to our new premises the next day. Unusually for us we had already arranged for a seamless transition to the new place by arranging for our relatives and a convoy of vehicles to arrive the next morning to pick up our stuff. So what could possibly go wrong?

Well, as we sat contentedly in our lounge discussing the planned activities for the day (Morning coffee with a friend and his family down by the beach, pre – employment medical for Bill at 2pm, and a trip to the estate agent to pick up our keys later in the afternoon for our new rented home) when a tap on the door interrupted our conversation. I answered the door and there stood our apartment cleaners, which wasn't unusual as they always turned up at around the same time on a Friday. I explained that as we would be leaving the next day that perhaps it would be best if they returned tomorrow. "Sorry, thought it was today”. they said, “Nah” said me, “Its definitely tomorrow”. They looked puzzled but left to continue cleaning another apartment.

Told Bill what they had said, that they thought we were leaving today, to which he reassured me, for two seconds, with “Nope, we are definitely booked in here until the 26^th”. An uneasy silence followed this sentence as we looked in horror at each other. “Err, wait a minute, today is the 26^th……..Ahhhhhhhh!”

The scenes that followed would not have looked out of place in a Keystone cops movie. Bill called the apartment owners in the hope of extending our stay only to find out that a family of six were due to arrive at midday and the cleaners needed to be in by 10am to fix up the apartment. It was now 9.45! What were we going to do now? We had to be out of the apartment in the next 15 mins and we had our arrival baggage of nearly 200Kg of luggage, plus a variety of new bulky articles (Pillows, quilts sheets, cutlery etc) for the new house scattered around the apartment! Bloody hell!!

This was definitely our darkest hour (or near to the top, we seem to have so many!). Even if we could quickly get it all together, which would be impossible, where would we put it? We thought of outside but then dead on cue the skies clouded over and a torrential downpour started, accompanied by some very high winds (no jokes please) outside of the apartment.

There seemed to be no way out, we dropped into auto pilot and continued to assemble our belongings and pile them up by the door. I was like a zombie, very pale, vacant, and desperately trying not to cry. Another tap on the door stopped our frantic activities in there tracks. “What now, I know its 10am but geeze, give us a chance”. Thankfully it was our upstairs neighbour who had heard of our plight and had come down to lend a hand. “Hey” she said “Don't worry about anything, we can take all of your stuff in while you sort yourselves out”. Lisa (my neighbour) told me afterward that she could tell by just one look at my face that I wasn't handling things well, so she decided to take charge. She gave me a bag and told me to just take everything out of drawers and from tops of tables and just throw it in the bag "you can always sort it out later upstairs" she said. I think if she hadn't been there I would probably still be clearing out the apartment! She got the boys organised into taking the light bags and suitcases upstairs and found something for Rosina to do so she was occupied and out of the way.

Bill then rang the telephone company and arrange for the line to be disconnected ASAP - the last thing we wanted was for the next people running up a huge telephone bill for us (we can do a good enough job of that ourselves!) Lisa came back into our apartment from one of her many trips and suddenly announced that she had just called her husband and that he would be coming home from work to help us out!! As he was nearby it would only take about 10 mins. Sure enough about 10 mins later Mark (Lisa’s husband) appeared. As well as helping move our stuff he also took it upon himself to ring around and try to find us alternative accommodation. This proved difficult as the next two weeks are school holidays and everywhere seemed to be booked solid. Eventually he found somewhere nearby - phew - and by 10:40 we had moved everything out of our apartment, and turned their apartment into something that resembled something between a tip and an obstacle course.

Mark and Lisa were absolutely awesome. Having helped us out of a massive predicament they now proceeded to make us all tea and coffee and helped us to calm down a bit. We were totally overwhelmed with their kindness, considering we hadn't even met them before now. They told us that they had moved at least 10 times which was why they were quite expert and organised, I just love organised people! They then let us use their phone to call for a taxi to take us into Adelaide for Bill to have his medical (high blood pressure or what). Lisa offered to look after Lewis for us until we got back as he had been playing with her son David (also 9) for the past three weeks and they had become inseparable.