Life in Retirement

1^st August 2012

Nancy and I have been away for 8 days, we took the caravan up to Caloundra to catch up with my brother and his wife who are having a couple of weeks holiday there. Beautiful weather and a nice caravan park so it was all very enjoyable, marred only by a little misfortune on the way home. After having a really good run back to Brisbane we were just over a kilometre from home and somehow a wheel came loose on the caravan. I thought I saw it deflecting in the side mirror as we were going around a corner and thinking we had a flat tyre I stopped and checked and even gave each tyre a good kick to check the sound, everything appeared ok so I thought I must have been mistaken. However a short distance later while going around a round-about I saw the wheel actually collapse and to cut a long story short, all but one of the wheel studs had sheared off and the wheel folded up under the caravan. After jacking the suspension up and removing the damaged wheel we were able to limp home on three wheels, I guess one advantage of having a tandem independent suspension. At home I checked the damage and we are up for a new mag wheel, replacement brake and bearing hub, wheel bearings, and some other bits and pieces and to top it off there was a nail in the tyre that started to release air when I went to pull it out so we are up for a puncture as well. Needless to say I uttered a few bothers. After having a wheel off I always retighten the wheel nuts after a bit of a run especially with mag wheels, we did have a puncture in that same tyre a while ago so I can only assume retightening with mag wheels needs to be done several times, if that’s what caused it.

The house looks fabulous, painting has been finished and as soon as it had dried other trades must have swarmed into the place. While we’ve been away fittings have been installed such as door handles, stoves, bathroom mirrors, shower glass, taps and toilets, lighting and fans, and glass kitchen splash backs which we all agree are not the colours we selected so that could be interesting even though they look ok. Outside the power line has been hooked up and of course Energex stuck it in the most inappropriate location, I’m sure they do these things to aggravate people. Surplus fill material in the garden has been removed and the ground levelled off ready for us to turf, anyone feeling fit is most welcome to volunteer to help. When we arrived today concrete was being laid for pathways and tomorrow the driveway is being poured. So it is all coming together very well at long last and it looks like we will start shifting in between the 10^th and 17^th.

2^nd August 2012

Today the driveway and entry was poured and looks really good, now that’s finished the guys can measure up for our gates which apparently take about 3 weeks to make, that will be an electric sliding gate and couldn’t be made until final measurements could be established once the concreting was finished. Upstairs the floor sanders have started and hope to have it finished and coated Saturday.

I contacted “Hector the Erector”. God knows what he was thinking when he registered the name of his business, but we are told they are very professional and competent at getting items into awkward places. They will be lifting Lisa’s fridge and other bulky items up and over the front deck as that’s the only way we can get them into the house. We can’t do that for at least a week after the floors have been polished.

I have also requested a quote for all tiled floor and shower tiles to be sealed for protection and to keep the grout clean, this will all be done following the final house cleaning, scheduled for the 9^th. In the meantime we will try and lay turf in the back garden and tidy up the property where we are renting so it doesn’t look like a ploughed field as it does now.

I managed to buy a new brake hub, wheel bearings and bits and pieces today to replace the one on the van I wrecked and commenced the process of re-building it. Tomorrow I’ll repack new bearings and install the hub, then I intend to use the spare wheel that has the same rim as the other wheels and replace the spare with a basic wheel rather than an expensive mag wheel. As it is it will spend the bulk of its life hidden behind a wheel cover on the back of the van. Let’s hope we have no more incidents.

My brother John and his wife Gayle fly back to NZ tomorrow, I trust they enjoyed their couple of weeks up at Caloundra at least we turned the typical Qld winter weather on for them for best part of the time, I don’t think it rained while they were here but there were a few cold breezes and nights around.