To date our moves have gone relatively uneventfully, which has been great. However, not this time.
There was recently a talk-back segment on the local radio where Richard Glover asked his listeners about the response they get after answering that dreadful question “What do you do?”.
An airline pilot called in and said the reply he invariably got was “That must be exciting”. He then went on to explain that ‘excitement’ was one thing he didn’t want in his job.
Quiet, boring and routine was what he hoped for in his role. As a passenger, you can appreciate his desire for a quiet, uneventful day at the office.
When we move we aspire to the same thing. Sadly, this time, that wasn’t to be.
It all started well enough. We were packed and ready to go well in advance. We’d even had a day off the previous day and had been tourists in our own city.
This was due to Danita getting us a “job” as mystery shoppers for a tourist organisation. Our mission was to stay at a city hotel and do the Opera House tour. We then had to report back on our experiences.
It was lots of fun and it fascinated me how differently you see things when you’re paying attention to little details (in order to complete the massive feedback questionnaire).
Anyway, we’d enjoyed our little interlude and had everything packed up a ready to go by early afternoon.
The move was from Glenorie to Killara (another leafy suburb on the North Shore) and so I went via Galston Gorge.
This is usually a very pleasant drive through a gorgeous piece of natural bushland.
As is normal in a pristine environment (well almost pristine), the road is very narrow and winding with tight corners.
Coming around one of these corners and heading up the hill, I heard some very odd noises behind me, but didn’t think much about it until I looked in the rear-view mirror.
There, strewn along the road, were clothes, boxes and other things from the back of the truck with a line of traffic already building up.
I couldn’t turn around so I reversed the truck back down the hill to where our stuff had been distributed along the road.
My initial reaction was being mortified at holding up the traffic, now blocked in both directions, and was expecting to hear something on the radio about a truck losing its load in Galston Gorge and closing the road.
With the help of a couple of people from the stopped traffic I threw everything back into the truck without paying any attention to the condition of things. I did notice that some bottles of wine and our plastic crates had been smashed and there were clothes and my computer and other things all over the road.
Also, my thanks to the gentleman from Ausgrid who swept up the broken glass.
It transpired that the latches on the pull-down door on the back of the truck had come undone and the door had opened. Going up the hill (quite a steep one) had caused a lot of the load to slide to the back and out the now-open door.
Arriving at our destination was the first chance to inspect the damage. The immediately obvious casualties were a couple of bottles of wine, some smashed plastic crates and our ceramic water filter. Of those, the water filter was the most upsetting as it’s been very special to us and was a beautiful piece of ‘artwork’.
What surprised me were the things which survived. Some bottles of champagne and other alcohol came through relatively unscathed, although the containers they were in a little the worse for wear.
My computer and monitors were in pieces but survived in working order. The computer case is bent out of shape and the monitors have scratches on the frames but are working perfectly. The above picture shows the computer after it fell off the back of a truck.
There was a scary moment when I put the computer together and turned it on for the first time – nothing happened. However, once I worked out how to switch on the electricity to the power board it all fired up beautifully.
(It was, however, an excellent reminder about the importance of backups – not needed in this instance but just in case …)
The final problem with this move was that we’d left my hat collection in the previous house. Fortunately, the lady called us to let us know so we’re due for a return visit. Losing my hats – now that could have been a disaster!
All in all, we survived and have now settled in. BTW – this house has a resident pet snake. More on that in the weeks to come.
We’re going to relax for a little while so there’ll be a slight pause in our weekly updates. (I expect the adventures will continue, so stay tuned.)
Wishing you all the best for the festive/silly season and a wonderful 2014.