I have moved house and am back on line. The move itself took a week and was full on.

Previously, I have used removalists to come in and pack everything and move them. It was easy and trouble-free. It cost, though.

This time, I pretty much moved myself and only used the removalist for the large furniture. What a drama! For a start, I'm much older and more unfit than the last time I moved and I seriously underestimated just how physical it is to lift and carry things dozens of times. Then, the removalists themselves were a bunch of cowboys: they scored deep cuts into my sofa trying to get it through the doors, and they punched a hole in the front door while trying to get the fridge or the washing machine through. I will probably have to pay the landlord for that to be repaired.

Then I had to clean the old place and my frozen shoulders from my motorcycle accident did not like that.

All up it took about 8 days from start to finish. Still, all done now, and ADSL is up and working at the new place.

I will be moving over the next two weeks. I'll go offline while the ADSL connection gets moved, so there will not be much if anything here for a couple of weeks.

The following posts are from an old blog I started for a brief time. It was documenting my move interstate.

The buyers for the car came around this morning with a 5 tonne truck to take the CRX.

Had lunch with Ben today at a local pizza restaurant. It will be the last lunch I have with him as I leave in five or six days.

We chatted about not much. The drama with the dragon over the last few weeks didn't come up, intentionally for me and probably the same for Ben.

Pizzas were very nice, home made style with tasty fresh basil and tomato and real mozzarella and boccaccini cheese.

Afterwards, Ben helped me load the Ducati onto the trailer. We struggled a bit at first, which was not helped by not having a key so that the steering lock was engaged (I thought I had found the key previously and put it somewhere safe, but, as always in the manner of these things, it wasn't where I thought I'd placed it and we couldn't find it). We managed to get the front part of the bike on the trailer, but, since it is a single axle trailer, now that the weight was over the front of the axle it tipped forwards to make a big step for the back wheel. Ben came up with a neat step idea and laid down a bit of pipe to form a step for the back wheel to roll over and then roll into the trailer. It worked very well and the bike went in smoothly.

I knew I'd measured the bike's length and was pretty sure it would fit diagonally in the trailer, but this was the moment of truth and I admit I was a little concerned that part of the body might catch on the trailer's sides. No problems, the bike fitted in with a couple of inches to spare. My decision to get a 6 ft trailer was vindicated and I didn't need the extra length or expense of a 7 ft one.

Ben and I will have dinner one night this coming week and that will be it. Off on the new adventure, and I probably won't see Ben for a year or two.

Hooray! At last. I just sold the CRX.

There was a message on the answering machine that I'd missed. I rang the person last night and they came around this morning. They didn't look too impressed, but said they'd ring back tonight.

I'd advertised it for $3,200 and they offered $1,500. After a bit of too and fro, we settled on $1,800 and for them to remove it at their expense (since it doesn't run).

It's a relief because I'd pretty much resigned myself to selling it to a wrecker for scrap. I'd be lucky to get $1,000 if I did that.

See you little car, it was a lot of fun, but I'm glad you're going to a new home.

Show me the money

They were late turning up to get the car. I was starting to think that they had decided to pull out and I wouldn't see them, when they drove up in a 5 tonne flat-bed truck.

We put in a new battery and tried to start the car. Nothing. It turned over fine, but no start. We decided all the fuel had evaporated and one of them went off with a jerrycan to buy some.

Meanwhile, the rest of us pushed the car from the backyard out to the front. The tyres were flat, so pushing wasn't easy and, once we were out near the curb, we took an airline from the truck they'd brought and pumped up the tyres. We took off the bleed hose from the fuel filter and confirmed there was no fuel coming through. The others returned, we refuelled and still the car wouldn't start.

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I hand painted a set of registration numbers on the back of the trailer today, so we are good to go.

Victoria has a very smart trailer registration scheme where small trailers that are used for household stuff are exempt from registration requirements. The only thing is that the trailer has to display a registration number which is the same as the towing vehicle. It's an intelligent scheme and Victoria is the only state that does it.

The ACT's registration scheme is about $120(!!) for the first year then dropping back to under $100 after that. Probably the most expensive registration scheme in the southern hemisphere.

Since I'm leaving the ACT in a week and driving straight to WA, and since my car is registered in Vic, I'm not going to register the trailer here. Instead, if I get picked up, I'll plead ignorance and the move to WA.

I'll register it in WA, of course, where the registration is a far more sensible amount, something like $15 a year.

Really, what is the ACT government think it is doing when it charges $100 to register a measly little 6' x 4' box trailer. This sort of studied stupidity in government is one of the reasons I'm leaving.

Well, the end of summer, as evidenced by the very last of the roses:

We had a good summer for roses this year, not too hot, and no frosts. I used my new patented fish poop fertiliser¹ and it worked great. Last year the blooms were fairly ordinary, but a year of fertilising really paid off with the best blooms for years.

Although, we're now having the hottest autumn for sometime. A week of over 30°C so far, and nights haven't been too cold either, about 16°C.

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Finally organised a trailer for the move to Perth. I've been looking for a small box trailer to carry the Ducati across the Nullarbor to Perth. I found a small shop in Hume on the outskirts of Canberra whose prices were much cheaper than elsewhere. So I bought a lightweight 6x4 box trailer for $620; most others were $720 minimum, so it was a good deal. The guy threw in a spare wheel and re-wired the electrical plug -- for the round type that Victorians use and that was built into the Forester -- for free! Bargain.

I had planned to stay at my sister's place when I arrived for a couple of weeks. This is to give me some time to find somewhere a bit nice rather than settle for the first place available.

It turns out she has some stuff going on at home and can't take visitors. Rats. I might have to find some temp accommodation just for a few months while I settle in.