Two bob watch

Month 2 Two bob watch

A break was needed - with all the renovations at the country residence and the unfolding drama at the beachside apartment, the mobile home – Zingara -  was packed up and we headed to Mulwala – another border town with Yarrawonga along the Murray River.

Maria’s friend Ane has a holiday home which is lovingly referred to as Club Shed because basically it’s an eclectic mix of small fibro cottage with several caravans, belonging to a variety of relatives, all on a suburban house block. Whilst on the block the feel is rural, the moment you step out to the curb, you’re back in suburbia – we love Club Shed!

As the families grew, some relies bought their own bit of Mulwala and that is where we found ourselves on New Year’s Eve - Club Med (Ane’s brother’s place that is somewhat a little upmarket than Club Shed).

A huge roast dinner was put on for about 20 family members, with lots of bubbly, some dancing – well Don and Maria, sparklers (little kids were fascinated as they didn’t get the benefit of cracker night), karaoke (Ane’s nephew could do a rousing rendition of Jimmy Barnes) and party pop streamers added to the festivities of the night.

Back at Club Shed, gelato was whipped up, mango chicken salads tossed together and chicken nuggets that taste like well gourmet chicken nuggets disappeared like hot cakes, along with spending time at Paddy’s Bend, swimming in the Murray and following each evening with an iced Baileys or three.

The weather was extreme – in the low 40’s and the day it got to 45 found Maria positioned under the air con and was not moving.

The week at Mulwala certainly restored our flagging spirits – where we were actually pleasant to one another after the gruelling month of renovations.

Op shops in Mul were scrutinised and the day we shopped there was a 50% sale. Maria was so chuffed that she purchased a stainless-steel coffee plunger, reduced to $1.50 after the discount, for the days she wanted to feel “French”.

Don even managed to find some more items for the bus – metal fly screen which were reasonable priced rather than the exorbitant Sydney prices – another plus for country towns! This was placed on the side of the bus that didn’t have a screen and thus allowed us to open windows at night and have no mozzies flying in.

Whilst we are the subject of mozzies – they were relentless! Maria was bitten so much that she managed to make a make-shift fly screen for the back door and install net curtains to the sliding door of the bus to ward off the pesky insects!

Don also fitted a water filter to the water inlet, so water is now filtered right into to the water tank which pleased Maria no end as now she can drink her clean water!

Improvements to Zingara are always welcomed!

Is this giving the finger to Sydney??

On the way back to Albury a short stop at Rutherglen to have eat one of those world-famous pies at Parker’s Pies and this road sign took our fancy. It’s almost like raising the finger at Sydney!

Shortly after arriving back to Albury where a few more minor jobs were waiting, there was a bit of a raucous from next door.

Don was working out the front of the house on a small project and around 10 am a young redhead arrives and starts bellowing to the inhabitants of the house next door, to be given her daughter back who apparently was with her father on his access visit.

During the day the redhead kept up a steady stream of screaming abuse, crying hysterically, and threatening everyone in the house. Yet the house stayed quiet.

At times she would go quiet, sit on the step, mutter quietly to herself, then the raging and ranting would begin all over again.

As 2 pm approached Maria and Don had had enough - not only were profanities were being yelled, but the redhead was now threatening to kill them all.

Has anyone called the police Maria asked – Not sure says Don

Maria decides out of public duty to call the police and after apologising to them for troubling them proceeds to tell them that there is a very distressed young woman next door hurling abuse at the household, swearing and insisting on having her daughter returned. Not sure if anyone was home as there has been no sound coming from there.

Not a problem say the police, that’s what we are here for – we will send someone. And they did – within 20 mins with the paddy wagon Good says the redhead – they have my daughter - You need to get her out.

Good policing strategies were implemented by our boys in blue – one stayed with her, the other approached the house.

After about 10 minutes the policeman in the house emerges and the two of them proceed to talk to the redhead explaining that the dad has the right to spend time with his daughter. How would you like it if he turned up at your mother’s place carrying on like a two-bob watch? Asked the young police officer. The term made Maria and Don smile - would he even know what two-bob meant or is??

She really didn’t have an answer and consequently was given a lift home and peace reigned in the suburb again.

Maria saw the inhabitants from the house emerge and asked are you ok – they said yes. Maria asked why didn’t you call the police, they said we did – several times. Oh says Maria  I told them there was a highly distressed woman yelling abuse. Oh they said, we didn’t think to say that. hmmm

In the meantime, Karen from Zelle paid us a visit and was amazed at the transformation of the place. She immediately found a tenant who just “loved” the place. Don and Maria were both pleased that all that hard work paid off.

Update on the beachside apartment - Apparently in the 70’s when the building was built they laid down a product called magnetise – a cork like product to help with soundproofing but if it gets wet it needs to be removed. All good however that is part of the building. Enter the strata people and there began another round of dealing with another real estate and another insurance company.

Maria contacts Nicole from the strata – not a problem she says but get two quotes and send to me and oh by the way we are closing for the Christmas/New Year break. But we were 600 kms away!

Nevertheless, we somehow managed to get quotes and at 8:55am on the day the office reopened the email was sent. 

A wardrobe that was built over the carpet had to be removed before new flooring laid, so we decided to pack up Zingara and head to Sydney to sort out the drama with the beachside apartment.

En route we stopped in Canberra to visit Maria’s son where we free camped for a couple of nights (read on the street). Don got a chance to exercise his excellent mediation skills.

So if you need some couple crises management/therapy or some direction in your life, Don is now taking his mobile business on the road, so feel free to contact Don.

During this Maria’s daughter calls in a distressed state – What’s the problem bella says Maria to her daughter. I’ve just had a call from the Tax office telling me I owned them a lot of money and they were…. Maria cut her off and said It’s a scam - we have all had that call. Oh says her daughter, but wasn’t entirely convinced. Really? Yes really Maria responds, What did you say to them? I started to cry and cry told them I had a disability (which she does) and I kept screaming where’s the documentation said her daughter. And what happened after that asked Maria. Well it went on for a bit, about 5 mins or so with me crying and screaming says her daughter and then they came back and said it was all ok I didn’t have to do anything, and they were terminating the call.

At present there is a Nigerian scamming team quickly being trained up on how to deal with very distressed, crying women.

Update – Turns out Maria’s daughter’s husband decided to have a bit of fun with the scammers. As the number was not private and an Aussie one at that, he called them back. The first time they tried to sell him prostitutes, but he decided to call again and be a little more prepared. This time he got the tax scam and they were telling him he was going to be sent to gaol. He kept telling them that he had already been to gaol, so how can it be he was going again – and he would have done it so seriously and sincerely – quite fun to listen too. This went on for some time until the scammers terminated the call – yet again.

The moral here is have fun with them and turn the tables on them.

From Canberra we headed to the beachside apartment to inspect the damage and remove the built-in wardrobe in readiness to lay the new floor. More calls to the strata revealed the quotes had been received and had been sent on to the insurance company. The saga continues . . .

We decided to continue our journey and had an idyllic stay at the Lane Cove National park where we had a chance to check in with nature, relax and de-stress and get a night of dancing in!

Maria hard at work

The heatwave was now coming to Sydney and we were both pleased that we had purchased that air conditioner. Maria was now back working (part time for TAFE) marking assessments and was glad to have a cool office to work from.

From there we decided to head to Bulli on the lovely south coast of NSW on the beach where the temperature would be much cooler and be by the water.

Can you spot the quirkiness?

The unfortunate positioning of the caravan park situated between a cemetery and the beach was a juxtaposition of the completely stationary with the itinerant travellers, or the dearly departed with the newly arrived.

Who can spot the quirkiness of the signs?

(Hint: No entry to the left and arrow pointing up to the right)

Washing – at some point needs to be done. As we had taken mostly old clothes where we had washed hundreds of time, image the surprise when the washing machine was opened, and somehow a colour had run thru! Ok ok we know to separate whites from coloureds, but these clothes were oldish and had been washed so often any running of colour would be gone. Maria hadn’t figured on the purple yoga pants bought in Thailand.

Maria now owns lilac shorts, undies and very purple bras……WHICH came in handy one particular humid day when the skin was so sticky with humidity and Maria put on a t-shirt back the front. As she peeled the t-shirt off her sticky hot skin she decided it was cooler to stay in her purple shorts and purple bra which looked more like a midriff top. It was soooo cool but more importantly colour co-odinated! No one knows us here anyway….

Maria is starting to think Don is accident prone. As Zingara was being packed up to go to the next exotic location, Maria was doing the “lock down” of the bus. The lock down is similar to what a Flight Attendant does prior to landing where all drawers, cupboards, overhead lockers are secured and checked, window shades drawn up – well the bus needs the windows closed and curtains drawn, but you get the drift.

Maria was just finishing washing up some breakfast dishes prior to storing for lock down and had left the cutting board to the right of the kitchen sink – where there is little room - balancing on the edge with the electric kettle sitting on it, with hot water still in it as she wanted to rinse out the water bottle with the hot water. Don decided to do his “old man” trick of putting his hand on the side of the kitchen bench to support himself as he lowers himself to the stairs. In doing this the chopping board upturns, the kettle ricochets in the stairwell, water is splashed on kitchen cupboards, stairwell and doors and Don who was last heard shouting similar expletives when he drilled in to his thumb.

On top of this we have now been invited to a wedding to a dear friend of ours on the 1 Feb, so we have decided to tour around the wedding site. One of the best things about this adventure is that nothing is written in concrete and we can be as flexible as we like!

Stayed tuned to see what adventures and where we will be next time….