Bells and Smells

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It was 4 pm on Thursday afternoon 7^thMarch and I was on my way home from work, I had Friday off and it was a long week end ahead of us for what we call Canberra Day, this is a public holiday in ACT (Australian Capital Territory) and not the other states.



Caroline had done the grocery shopping and Gyspy was ready to go, so I headed home to collect Caroline, then off to hook the trailer up and we were off. I possibly wasn’t in the house more than 4 minutes, got in, got out of my work clothes, got into my shorts and tee shirt, got in to the truck and we were off.



We drove across to where we keep Gypsy, opened the roller shutter door, reversed in, hooked up, plugged the electrics in, loaded the fridge with our provisions, did a lighting check to ensure everything was working and we moved off pulling down the door behind us.



Now I know we have been really slack with the blog of late and the strange thing so much has happened and we are slowly trying to catch up.



This was the first time we had used Gypsy in a while and this was the first time we had towed it with the new Landcruiser as we had had the opportunity to sell Trevor (our old Landcruiser), so I’ll tell you the Landcruiser bit now.



When we purchased Trevor our grey Landcruiser, I did say at the time that we would only keep it two years and change it for another one and as luck would have it, back in January a guy called me and said he would be interested in buying it, so Caroline and myself met him one evening over a beer as he wanted to have a look around it and once he had seen it said that we could do a deal.



I had worked on Trevor for nearly two years getting it just how we wanted it, but when the opportunity presented itself to change our 2011 Landcruiser for a 2013 Model at a very minimal cost, how could we resist, friends of ours have said we were insane after all that work, but I just wanted to do it even better the second time around.



The guy who was going to have Trevor, was also called Andrew and we had certain caveats that he had to comply with or we said we would not sell it, the biggest one was he was not allowed to call Trevor by any other name, and he was to have as much fun in it as we did.



The price was agreed, and the date was set for 18 February when Trevor would officially go, which gave us about 4 weeks to find a new vehicle, and more by luck than judgement we found a new cruiser at Phil Gilberts in Sydney, which is where Trevor had been purchased from some two years before.



In between selling the truck, the Department of Immigration at last gave us that call and said that a date had been set for our Citizenship Ceremony, the date they phoned was 7 February and the date they had set for the ceremony was 11 February, 4 days’ notice with a weekend in the middle, fat chance of putting together this gig, so we rallied our friends and got together a little party and we all met on the Monday afternoon in Braddon as our ceremony was at 3.00pm.



Now I’m a bloke who likes ceremony but I wasn’t expecting elephants playing trumpets and monkeys riding unicycles, but I did expect a bit more than what we got, especially after the four year wait anyway, they couldn’t even give us the official certificate as they had not been signed by the immigration minister, still we are now officially Australian Citizens that is a major achievement and exactly what we wanted.



We truly appreciate the people who supported us through this process and we were glad that you were in attendance strangely enough the Department of Citizenship said we could only have 3 people as guests so we managed to get 10 to come along.



I have to say, in my mind I did envisage the event being outdoors under a hot Australian Sun, but hey a cramped office in Braddon is better than nothing.



We all went out and had dinner that evening just to celebrate and had a great time.



What does it mean, well we are Australian Citizens, the Law determines that we have to vote and we have to get Australian Passports, as soon as you are a citizen your permanent residency visa becomes invalid and therefore you are not allowed to use your existing passport. We are very lucky to have dual citizenship.



The clock was ticking on the new truck, we had been given a date when our new Landcruiser was going to be available, and we had a hell of a lot of work ahead of us, so we set about preparing Trevor, by removing the two back boxes and getting it back to looking like a cab chassis, which is the way the new owner wanted it.



Andrew (The new owner) wanted the front bull bar but didn’t want the winch, this meant that the bull bar had to be removed just so the winch could be released from its housing and weighing about 100 Kilo’s, it was not an easy task, but we managed with the help of a fork lift and a good friend of ours.



I just have to explain, the reason why you need a dirty great bull bar on the front of your truck, or even a snorkel (Barbara!!), it’s not out of vanity or even a fashion accessory, but common sense, you would be flabbergasted on how many dead kangaroo’s we see every day, even in a city like Canberra, if you hit a roo it just may save your life, and (Barbara), as we do so many river crossings you do need a snorkel.



The new bull bar was to be ordered from ARB in Canberra who supply very good quality off road equipment and the front bull bar needed to be ready for a specific date when the new truck was ready, and whilst this was being organised, we were also doing a design for the new tray, as when you buy a cab chassis truck in Australia you have to get a tray built by a separate company. We could have had a Toyota tray, but I don’t really think much of them, so the only option we had was to have one built.



Well the day came when the new truck was to be ready, 15 February, so we drove down to Sydney and stayed with our friends Jan and Ted Davies who live in Winston Hills, it was great opportunity to catch up whilst in Sydney as we just don’t see enough of our friends, and funnily enough it was from Jan and Teds House that we went when we picked the first Landcruiser up.



We had to be a Phil Gilberts at 11.30 as they were still fitting the tow bar, when we turned up we only had to wait half an hour, which was the time to do the paper work and we were done.



We had flipped a coin and Caroline got the choice of bringing Trevor back or the new vehicle and she opted for the new vehicle, but without a tray on it is quite nose heavy and needs to be driven carefully.



I gave Caroline a hand held radio, so we could communicate with each other and she could tell me if she needed help or was hungry, which is usually the case, and wanted to stop for coffee.



Well we got the truck back to Canberra without a hitch and as they say the rest is history.



As the truck had been driven from New South Wales in to ACT without registration, we brought it up on a special permit, but when we wanted to move the truck, to have the tray fitted in Cooma, which is back in New South wales it’s a real performance to get another permit and they only last from point A to point B, as we could only get registration on the truck until it had its tray fitted and had been weighed on a weigh bridge. So Caroline spent a very long day driving to Cooma, had the tray fitted, drove round to the weigh bridge, once she had the certificate to confirm the weight, she drove round to get a roadworthy and only then could she get a permit to bring the new truck back from New South Wales to the ACT.



Well back to the 7^th March, we were really excited to get away and our friends John and Cheryl had asked if we wanted to go to their property in the Brindabella’s which we thought would be great idea, so our first night (Thursday) would be in Brindabella Valley Road, as we didn’t want the tough descent in to our friends place in the dark.



We arrived and set Gypsy up right next to the Goodradigbee river, it was a beautiful spot, we had put the kettle on and gathered some fire wood and we were the only ones there, for a while until a red 80 Series Landcruiser turned up and we looked at each other and thought that our peace was just about to be shattered.



The occupant of the red Landcruiser was on his own, and once he had set his camp up, he wandered over to introduce himself, dressed in his fishing waders, jacket and sporting his fishing rod.



This guy extended his hand and said hi I’m James, and we started chatting, a very well-spoken chap who turned out to come from Canberra and was a Baptist Minister.



We chatted for a while then he said he wanted to go and have a fish, so off he went and we got our dinner on.



Next morning, it was a gorgeous day and I saw James, walking back from having a fish, so I asked him if he would like me to put the kettle on for him, which he acknowledged, and soon he was sitting in our camp, having breakfast with us, well you cannot let a man of god go hungry can you, and he did give us a couple of bottles of excellent ginger beer.



And finally, how we got to the blog titles, ”Bells and Smells” we were deep in discussion about religion and we touched on the Catholic church and James said ah yes, we call it Bells and Smells, which did made us laugh.

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Photos

This is the best shower in the world
I don't care,what you suggest,it is,and a nudie run is essential,look at the back drop

The new truck
Caroline and Cynthuia at Phil Gilberts in Paramatta

The new Truck
White this time, as its was my choice,last year was Caroline's

The Truck, parked up
As we were unble to drive it as it had no registration

Trevor
Nearly bak to what it looked like when we brought it

Our two favorite Boys
just before Trevor when to his new home

Comments

[John and Sylvia]

Jealousy is a curse
but I'm jealous anyway. Love your new setup. Thanks for keeping blogging. It may be ordinary for you but it keeps the rest of us inspired. Congrats on the citizenship, you both deserve it (but keep your UK passport. It makes going back to Europe a lot easier. Even though we are now married, Sylvia gets lots of grief going through passport control in the UK with her Oz passport). John

[kangaroojack]

Thanks for your comments
Hi Chris, Thanks for your comments, technically you are correct, they should cater or the slowest vehicle, but with the use of UHF radio's in all our trucks can let them get a move on. I am glad you hadan interesting flat white and nearly blogged it,when I was reading this I was eating a slightly amuzing vanilla slice, that Caroline scoffed half of. Hope all is well with you guys,our love to you both. A&C