Suited and Booted

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DAY 242


Its Monday morning, I’m not wishing my life away but I’m glad it is here, why I hear you all ask in unison, well this morning I have an interview with a recruitment consultant, who I made contact with and I’m getting my wrist watch back to day after months of being without it.

Let me tell you about the watch first, Caroline bought me a beautiful watch for my 40th birthday on or two years ago, so apart from any monetary value it is of particular sentimental value to me.

Even though my watch is approved for immersion in water to up to 100 meters somehow water had got into it, and it stopped, well here is the rub it was out of warranty by 17 days and I was not impressed, 2 bl**dy years and 17 days old and it stops.

I contacted the place in the UK where it was purchased and they said that the manufacturer would honour the warranty, but that was no good being 10,000 miles away in Australia so I had to find a dealer in Perth, when we stayed with our friends Cliff and Sue in lovely Scarborough, or our lovely friends Cliff and Sue in Scarborough, and ask for their assistance in order to get the watch fixed there was no guarantee that they would honour the warranty.

To cut a long story short, the watch was sent to Sydney where it was serviced and returned to Perth where it has been marooned, as they were unable to mail it to me, they would not send it to a post office address. The only other way to get it was to fly down to Perth and the cost of the flights were no less than $800.00 dollars to go and collect it, so since blog day 174, 29th April (Autumn Sun) I have been without time.

When I made contact with David Irvine the recruitment consultant in Darwin, he told me he was fly in and fly out, as he lived in Perth, and he was going home to Perth that day, I asked him if he could do me a favour and collect my watch for me, he said it would be no problem as their Perth Office was 35 Meters away from where my watch was.

I phoned the watch dealer in Perth and told them who was coming in to collect it, what his full name and birth date was, and that he would give them his passport or driving licence as proof of ID.

Anyway I was up early today, I had my stuff to get ready as I had a mid day appointment with David Irvine of Hays. We borrowed an Iron from reception and I was busy ironing a shirt on our impromptu ironing board which was our small camping table, with the shirt done I asked the boss if it passed muster and she said it was absolutely fine, so next task was my trousers, this will only be the 2nd time I have worn trousers since being in Australia.

With all my stuff ironed I set around collecting all the documents I needed to take with me, as preparation for a meeting is everything, we had our breakfast showered and shaved, well I did, and then got suited and booted we then jumped in the truck and headed off in to Darwin.

As my appointment was not until mid day we parked the truck, $3.50 for all day and walked through Darwin to find out exactly where I was to go, fortunately on the ground floor of this tower block was a coffee shop so we sat for ¾ of an hour and sipped on a skinny latte.

At precisely 11.50 I kissed Caroline and she wished me good luck and I strode off in search of gainful employment, while she strode off in search of gainful shopping.

6th Floor the lift door opened, I walked straight in to reception and introduced myself, I have an appointment with David Irvine, she took my name and asked me to sit and wait. Moments later she walked out with a box and handed it to me saying I believe this is yours and she handed me the box.

I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself, but I had to, David came out, we shook hands I relayed my gratitude that he was able to help my out by picking up my watch, he said he could have spent hours in the shop looking at time pieces and picking one out for himself.

I won’t bore you with the details, the meeting lasted just over an hour and I think it went well so we will have to wait and see now.

Going back to the coffee shop where I had left Caroline we had arranged to meet, and saw her walking back with a few bags as she had walked around the shops. I knew she would struggle to come back empty handed. Caroline tells me that she popped into the camera shop to check on news of her lens, but sadly there is no news from Canon, but the owner tells her that another lens has gone off in the same bag to Canon with the same problem, so that makes 3 that he has come across in the past few months.

We were again free for the rest of the day, we had some lunch and sat around the trailer in the sun shine, Caroline was doing photo management burning photo’s to CD as a back up that she will soon post back to the UK as extra security of all the photo’s we have taken. There are well over 10,000 so it is an important task.

Around teatime, Mirjam and Dave came over, and told us that Richard has had a little bother. Setting the scene Richard is severely disabled (Quadriplegic) and is obviously wheel chair bound, he has a little Tear Drop caravan and he puts his tarp up to finish his camp and give him some shade from this often searing sunshine. Yes he is untidy but this is me saying this and I am fully able bodied, Richard tends to leaves things lying around to make things convenient for himself.

Someone had complained to the staff on the campsite saying they didn’t expect to be camping next to a humpy (Bivouac or temporary shelter). ~Richard was not too annoyed about this, but they need to understand how hard it is for him, something that would take us 2 minutes may take him much longer.

What this guy has going for him even though a little untidy he is a genuinely lovely bloke with such a huge circle of friends, and a determination that is fascinating and would put a lot of able bodied people to shame.

I feel that some of these camps sites are a little bit too clicky and if someone is a long termer they think the place is theirs, as far as I am concerned if they had a problem with Richard they should have gone and mentioned it to him then gone to help him, not rely on other people to go and help him.

The people here at Big 4 Howard Springs have been so unhelpful, they ought to be ashamed of them selves.

Richard came over in the evening and had a cup of tea, he was in his usual belligerent mood saying he didn’t give a toss, about the management on the campsite.

I told Richard that he needed to play them at their own game, spend a couple of hours in the morning tidying it up then go and call the management and say please come and inspect my site and tell me if you are satisfied with my efforts, when they say it is OK, then the issue is closed, then all you have to do is stay on top of it.

Richard goes off to Skype some of his friends and Dave and Mirjam sit and have tea with is, whilst we chat and type the blog. Dave and Mirjam have offered to help Richard tidy up his campsite in the morning, for which I think he is truly grateful.

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Photos

Ironing my shirt
I ironed my shirt on the camp table, and I have to say did a pretty good job.

Ironing my shirt
Presentation is everything

Comments

[Wendy & Tony]

Shopping bags
Aw, come on, what did you buy Caroline???? We know about camera lenses and gas bottles. What us girls want to know is did you treat yourself to something nice! It was good to chat on Skype again. Isn't technology clever. You are so far away yet we can chat like you're next door. Good luck with getting work Andy, that'll be a bit of shock after so long on the road! xx

[kangaroojack]

T-Shirt
Hi Wen and Tone, I bought a T-shirt and bra (black one to wear under T-shirt). Camera Lens more important though, anxious for news on its return and not to mention how much it will cost to get fixed, so cannot do much proper shopping even though I need new shorts, all of my shorts are hanging off me at the moment, quite fashionable to show the tops of your knickers though, shorts are also wearing out as I am wearing nothing but shorts. C xx