November - 2000

Friday November 3.......

Lord! Where does the time go???? What a week since I last wrote something here!

RAIN!! All I can say is.... someone must have left a tap running 'upstairs' :-)

Friday November 10.......

Well I didn't get very far with this last week!

The BIG NEWS for today is ,,, as of yesterday afternoon our funds balance at the Protective Office was a big fat ZERO. They finally transferred the funds to my Sydney solicitors yesterday. THANKS TO ME staying on top of the situation. If it was left to the solicitors, they still wouldn't have it. I phoned the OPC on Wednesday... left a message... got no answer. Rang Thursday 3 times.. left messages and in the last one I said 14 weeks was enough time to get their act together... I want answers!! Withing half an hour the gentleman I was trying to contact was on the phone. He was true to his word (that's a change for that office) and had the funds transferred around about midday.

Of course I've heard nothing from the solicitors today! So I rang them a short while ago. Not available! So I left message "phone me back THIS AFTERNOON. By the time I write a bit more of this they should contact me. If not they'll be hearing from me again.

So I am finally free and clear of the Protective Office BUT I'm not finished with them! I have big plans for them next year which I hope will pan out.

Now.... what else has happened??

RAIN! We're having a lovely wet summer. My new lawn looks beautiful. It had grown about 4" since it was laid and I couldn't cut it because it was too darned wet. Did it yesterday as soon as I realised we were going to get rain relief for a little while. Gave the new bit a long cut and the old stuff a short cut. Three hours later (almost) I was finished.

Then we went to the travel agent and canned our trip to Italy, Britain and Ireland. I can think of better things to do than wade knee deep in water for a vacation! Pity the poor travel agent...half the trip is to be changed. Oh well.. that's their job.

So, we will be in Hong Kong or China for Christmas... that'll be weird! Haven't figured out what we're going to tell Jared about Santa... he still believes :-) He told me something I didn't know about the Great Wall... bodies of the people who worked on it are buried underneath it. China wasn't really one of my all time places to visit.. totally unexpected plan but the places I wanted to go to from New York don't have tours going at this time of the year. I didn't want to come home any earlier *S*

From there we'll be flying to S.F. or L.A. for an overnight stay and on to St Louis for a couple of days. Then to New York for about 4 days... on to Orlando for a week... West Palm Beach to Key West (about 5 days), over to New Orleans for a few days and off to San Francisco where after a couple of days of doing the Alcatraz and giant redwoods etc., we're doing a tour that goes through Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, an Indian Reservation, Las Vegas, San Diego and to L.A. From there we're doing a trip to Tijuana and other places out of LA and then home YUK!

It's been 10 years since I've been overseas and 4 of them Hell... there was never a time during these past 4 years when it would have entered my head that we'd EVER get another holiday. My mother has been enormous support for me these past years and I would have crumbled many times if it were not for her giving me strength to continue. There were times I had to do the same for her.So this holiday is mainly for her, as a huge thank you for being here for me and for Jared who just can't imagine what it's like to be in some other country.

I remember the first time we took him to Brisbane... he was fascinated ny the traffic lights, escalators and elevators. We have none of these in Hervey Bay. Imagine what he's going to be like on THIS trip. He loves stopping in Motels or Hotels so he should be thoroughly sick of them by the time this trip is over :-) This is my Christmas present to them both.

Since I wrote last we've had Jared's school musical, can't say I enjoyed it as much I did other years. The theme was Australia Revisited.. each class doing a piece from Australia's history. But there were so many 'pregnant pauses' from the band at the beginning of each segment and some technical problems throughout the night. Parts were good but on the whole I wasn't that impressed. It was obvious the previous Director was no longer with them. Oh well, next year's another year.

We've had Jared back at the pedeatician who cut his dosage by half so that got rid of his stomach pains and everything seems now to be "moving" with regularity :-) Poor darling thinks medicine is just another part of life. Hopefully if this is successful he'll be off all medicines by this time next year.

By the way I did get a call from the Sydney Solicitors as I was writing this. As soon as she saw she had a message from me she rang the Protective office for a progress report before calling me back. Mind you she was supposed to have done this already. I can bet if I hadn't called her she wouldn't have bothered, she'd have had some excuse. My leaving a message for her to call me jogged her memory. Well... was this a conversation and a half!!

First she tried to tell me that the cheque (check) wouldn't be through until Monday as the Protective Office sent it yesterday evening or this morning.... this is how the conversation continued....

Me: "Give me a break! I just spoke to N.K. at the OPC and it was DX'd around midday yesterday!"

Her: "Well in that case we won't get it till Monday."

Me: "Don't give me that! N.K. said it would be in your DX Box .. whatever that is, within 24 hours. Since it's now 3:15p.m. at your end I expect it's there. Have you checked??"

Her: "No, we don't have anyone available to go check."

Me: " You ARE joking!"

Her: "Would you like me to arrange for someone to go now?"

Seeing the dollars mounting up if they made a special trip just for me I told her "No! First thing Monday will do!"

Her: "Once we bank the cheque (check) into our Trust Account it will take 3 to 5 days for the cheque to clear."

Me: "NO IT WON'T!!!! If you pay a small fee the bank will do it within 24 to 48 hours!"

Her: "I don't think we can do that."

Me: "Are you serious??"

Her: " Hold on, I'll check it with the accounts department."

She disappears for a couple of minutes....

Her: "Yes, it seems we can do that,"

Me: " I KNOW THAT!! O.K., once you get it cleared you can transfer it overnight into my account."

Her: "I don't think we can do that since we don't bank with the same bank as you do."

Me: "YES YOU CAN!!! The OPC have been doing it every month for the last 4 years AND THEY DON'T USE THE SAME BANK AS I DO!!" They used to transfer it Wednesday afternoon and it would be in my account THURSDAY MORNING!

Can you believe this twit and she's an assistant to a solicitor.! By this time I'm really losing my patience....

Her: "Hold on.. I'll go check if it can be done."

Another pregnant pause....

Her: "Yes, it seems it can be done."

Me: " Of course it can be done! I've been doing it for years. O.K. so how much is it going to cost to have the check cleared quickly?

Her: "Hold on......"

Her: "About $40"

She must think I'm so stupid! By this time she's talking, I'm NOT listening and I'm talking over the top of her...

Me: "Listen M.. We wouldn't be this far ahead if I hadn't got on the phone on Thursday and hammered into the people at the OPC! I don't have time for your office to pussyfoot around, it could be Christmas 2001 before anything was done if I waited for you lot! If I'd left this to you we wouldn't be this far ahead! You hadn't even rung the OPC before I left the message for you to ring me! What I want YOU to do is, once you get the cheque on Monday morning, YOU attend to it straight away. YOU pay the fee and get the quick clearance!! (Of course I'll find out exactly what the fee is... unknown to her and I'm sure it will be nothing like $40 - my bank only charges $15!!!). THEN the minute it's cleared YOU get someone from you office to transfer the funds directly into my account up here. I expect it finalised by Wednesday at the latest!"

Her: "I'll attend to it Monday."

Me: "Haven't you forgotten something????"

Her: "What"

Me: "Won't you need the details of the account you are to transfer the money to???"

Her: "Oh Yes."

At this point I relayed the details....

End of conversation.

It makes me wonder how these people get jobs and manage to keep them! I'll be watching how much they charge me for THAT phone conversation and I'll be paying half. She should have had all the facts before she rang! I'm not paying for her time running back and forth to their accounts section! So by Wednesday I should be free and clear for the first time in many years.

Back to the travel. Mum and I sent in our applications for renewal of our British Passports... we had them in our hot little hands 10 days later. Jared has to have a passport of his own and that's taking 3 WEEKS! Australian of course! But that should be here by Wednesday as well. We need them so the travel agent can get us Visas for China and re-entry Visas for Mum and I since we're still British Subjects we need a piece of paper allowing us back into this country. We haven't much time up our sleeves.

Jared's passport application was another problem. Jason hadn't put his full name on the Birth Certificate when Jared was born. But he put his full name on the Passport Application! Luckily he was on town! He was home for a day and then back out to sea for 3 days. So I got Helen (Jared's Mum) to lend me her mobile and called him and told him to get his butt down to the Post Office immediately. Nothing ever goes smoothly in my life :-)

Oh yes... when the guy from the OPC rang today to tell me the money had been transferred and the balance with them was now zilch I said (tongue in cheek) "I suppose that means I can't call and nag you any more." He told me that I could phone him any time for advice if I needed to! I couldn't believe it. In the 4 years of dealing with these creeps I've come across only 3 of them who are normal human beings. The last fellow who handled the estate when George was alive, this gentleman fron the Deceased Estates section and the fellow above him who I spoke to for the first time yesterday and who did as he promised... attended to it straight away.

That's about it for now. I had a 'run-in' with Jared's school teacher, but I'll leave that for the next entry. Hope you haven't been bored to tears.

Just incase I don't make it back here before Thanksgiving....

Catch you later,

Jamie

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