Back in Mooloolaba and packing up again.

Up early and ready to go on 18^th September, we wait across the road from the marina for our lift to Townsville airport for our flight with Virgin airlines at 0845 hours.  It was a pretty easy flight and we arrived early although as there was so much other air traffic trying to land in Brisbane we had to circle for 35 minutes which ended up getting us there on time.  Just hand luggage so quickly through the airport to see a happy Pete waiting for us in his car.  

A chatty drive down to Cleveland with Pete to pick up our car from friend Steve’s place, only to find that the car battery was dead.  Thank goodness Pete had jumper leads, and half an hour later our battery was charged and rearing to go again.  Andrew filled the car with all his tools and hooked up the sea calf and we said bye to Pete for our separate drives back up to his place at Mooloolaba.  We towed the sea calf behind us and a neighbour of Pete’s had kindly lent him their garage for a few days so we could store the tinny in there whilst we were visiting.

Back to Pete’s a few hours later for tea and another afternoon of chatting away, then headed over to Gay’s where we are staying whilst in Mooloolaba.  Pete came over to Gays also and Michelle arrived a short time later.  We had a very enjoyable evening over a nice dinner chatting away.

Goodbye work

Up on Wednesday 19^th September and we head down to Zillmere to Policelink where Christie said her final farewell to some friends and work mates and for the last time was rejoicing as she walked out of her old work, and was pleased to not be going back.  We had lunch with Alicia and Laura at the downstairs café and said our goodbyes to them before we headed over to Rothwell for the dreaded job of going through our storage unit and deciding on what to take back to Townsville and what to leave in storage.

As soon as we opened the door we closed it again with the thought of “oh shit, how much stuff do we still have”.  The storage unit is 2 meters by 2.5 meters by 3 meters high and we had if packed to the brink of

Our full storage shed

 not closing.  Its funny that you can go away for a short time and forget so quickly what you have.  We packed the back of the Ute with the things we are going to take to Townsville and then closed the door and left…  Goodriddence  - we wish!!!!

Pete has kindly offered to help us store our boxes and furniture at his place for a while until we find somewhere more permanent.  So we phone around and find that we can hire a 24 cubic meter truck for a full day for $136 which we thought was pretty good, so all booked in for tomorrow.

That evening we had dinner at Pete’s kindly prepared by Gay.

Moving out of storage

We were up and rearing to go early on the Thursday morning.  We headed over to Pete’s and he drove down with us to pick the hire truck up then we all headed for the hour drive down to Rothwell for the arduous task of clearing the storage unit and loading the truck.  What a fun job moving is.  This is the third time in less than 7 months that we have moved this furniture and are hoping the last for a while.  It was made a lot easier with the help of Pete.  We now wonder why we did 6 loads in the Ute when we moved it from Burpengary and didn’t just hire a truck then – oh well you live and learn. 

Unpacking the truck of furniture

Lunchtime and the truck is packed and we are now heading back up the highway to Pete’s place.  Now time to unload the boxes and furniture and try and fit them into a smaller area than the storage shed.   We had things scattered from one end of the driveway to the other.  Also time to sort through some of the boxes again.  We ended up making three trips to the charity shop and unloaded them with some furniture and four boxes of goodies.    We managed to fit everything we needed into Pete’s place and his friends garage now looks like a bomb has hit it as we have stuff scattered from one end to other with the tinny parked in the middle.  Oh what a sight.

Andrew and Pete packing the garage

By the end of the day the three of us were absolutely exhausted and ready to hit our beds early.  We are not used to this type of work anymore…

Sorting through things to take to Townsville

Friday morning we spent the morning with Gay and did a little bit of shopping for our trip back to Townsville.  Then we headed to friend Joel’s place and picked the box trailer.  We towed this back to Pete’s, where we will be selling it.  In the evening we headed back over to Gays for dinner and then to bed fairly early.

Time to pack the tinny and Ute

Saturday Christie went into town to do some shopping and catch up with friends whilst Andrew spent the morning with his mum Gay and went to visit his Aunt Minnie, who is in a nursing home in and doing well for 99 years.  Andrew then went to his dads Pete to do some work on the trailer, swap some wheels over and fix up some bearings so that it is safe for the trip. 

We then spent the afternoon packing the back of the Ute, the back seat and the sea calf.  Where does this stuff keep coming from, we seem to be accumulating more and more whilst we are trying to get rid of more and more.

Packed and ready to go

Everything is jam packed full of things now and we are all tarped and roped up and don’t think we have forgotten anything.

In the evening we headed back over to Pete’s with some Chinese for dinner where Gay and Michelle were waiting.  We had a really lovely evening on the balcony with a few drinks and lots of laughs.