Before I reminisce about fun and games over the last month, let me say that we’re now firmly ensconced at our new/old/new/old….you get the idea…… permanent address. After 3 outback tenures, it’s time to pull the plug and be gypsies no more!
Two months ago, we were officially informed that our 4-year tenure was coming to an end and the transfer date would be the 10th of May (almost 5 years after the date we arrived but who’s counting?)
In preparation for the move, clothes, gardening equipment, furniture and appliances were sorted then either donated, sold or packed up and, as much as I’m not a fan of Facebook, Cobar Buy Sell Swap became my ‘go to’ web site. In fact, I suspect I met more people in that month than I had in the 5 years previously – such is the life of a gypsy hermit.
After the sorting came the cleaning. Now I’ve always considered myself a clean freak, so when the End of Lease cleaning quote came in at $580 – for 10 hours work – I must admit I rather arrogantly spat the dummy announcing that I would do it cleaner, faster and obviously cheaper. Of course, “I” so often translates as “we” and once Nigel had finished work, he came home to, “can you please move this lounge (or “absolutely enormous computer desk”) so that I can clean behind it?”
And did I mention that removalists no longer transport flat-packed items because they apparently disintegrate in transit so our options were ‘ take it apart or take it yourselves’. Plan B involved two extra trips to the coast plus a fair bit of carrying flat-packed furniture (think book shelves, chests of drawers etc) upstairs by ourselves. Taking into account the myriad of change of address utilities forms, it all made for a rather hectic last month.
What’s that they say about pride? Yes, yes okay I DID boast that, being old hands, our sixth move would be relatively easy!
To be honest, not only did mopping floors, vacuuming blow flies from window sills, scrubbing ovens etc take much longer than 10 hours but climbing ladders, bending to clean skirting boards, helping to move furniture to get to tiny marks on walls etc all took a particularly hard toll on my back and any savings on the cleaning bill were probably lost on medical bills to address the three “bulging discs” I developed.
So celebratory drinks with friends and neighbours were replaced with appointments (minus drinks) with radiologists, pathologists, doctors and acupuncturists. Not quite the homecoming I’d imagined but thankfully the pain is subsiding.
And with the urgency of solving our drainage problems high on our “to do” list, we’ve even managed to pull up and give away hundreds of plants and cuttings, plus a garden shed in preparation for digging trenches, laying ag pipe, erecting two new fences and returning the gardens to some sort of manageable size.
So, what shall we miss about life in the outback?
I guess camping trips (Cobar really is on the road to everywhere “outback”) would be high on my list and definitely our lovely neighbours. Then there’s the fire pit (one of our first installments on arrival) which took the chill off a Cobar winter.
Nigel will definitely miss the freedom to choose where and when he patrols and/or does RBT as well as the Border Patrols where he got to catch up with the other bush cops, plus the fact that his wife did the rosters so we could always scrape together 4 or 5 Rest days in a row.
And what won’t we miss?
Definitely the flies and stray dogs……. and maybe the Summer heat. But would we do it all again? I’m pretty sure we would!
Addendum: For anyone interested / still awake, here’s the official Vacate Cleaning Guide.
Notice that last bit about keeping the bond? Well a few months into the tenure, and for reasons way above Nigel’s pay grade, the 4 weeks’ bond was paid back to our account…. And not just for us but apparently for all police residences owned by the public. Also, when Nigel tried to contact Police and Teacher Housing (the name on the key ring they gave us) they didn’t seem to exist, nor did anyone particularly care that we were vacating.
Then, interestingly, two weeks after moving back to Paradise, we received instructions in the form of a government departmental email, to say that we had to sign in to vacate and, BTW, ‘make sure you leave the house clean’.
Having never registered in the first place, it was even more intriguing that the said department’s system wouldn’t allow us to vacate until we signed in but then wouldn’t allow us to register either. And round and round it went until Nigel emailed back to say that we’d already moved and could they please check with the property manager, who declared that the house was in better condition than when we arrived. We’re still waiting for a reply. Donna??????
Addendum 2
It was quite a surprise, a couple of weeks ago, when I met a lovely pathologist and gave her my details, including that I’d just moved from Cobar. After a reflective pause, she announced, “I know you!”.
As it turned out, she was one of the (very) few people, who follow my Blog. Not only was she following it but we seem to have been living parallel lives – she and her (police) husband moved into the Enngonia residence after we left and were planning on applying for the Cobar transfer when health matters put a stop to their plans.
A future catchup is definitely on the cards!
Addendum 3
For those who’ve already read this Blog and are wondering why all the changes to what was there yesterday, you’re not imagining things but it seems that my brain is reacting to the myriad of To Do lists in my head and has gone into panic attack mode – Will we get the drainage work done before it floods again? Will the neighbours agree to their share of the new fences? Will the AEC stop threatening that I’m breaking the law because I haven’t gotten around to completing a Change of Address form yet ?
And if you think that’s bad, take a look at the Animal Companions Change of Address form – a $680 fine if you don’t submit it within the first two weeks.
So apologies for the last two Blogs that I probably changed way too many times to correct facts and/or mistakes. You’ll be pleased to know that my brain has a clever plan for slowing me down when I start to unravel. It basically points out that I’m an idiot – as happened recently when I added washing up liquid and white vinegar instead of water and white vinegar to my sweetened grated carrots. …… perhaps a new version of Bubble and Squeak?
Although, in my defence, the dispensers are quite close together🙄.
Married to a Country Cop 