Dame Nellie Melba was famous (notorious) for having many final, last, never to be repeated farewell tours. I won't say that we are now on our last ever visit to Canberra, but almost certainly we are on our final visit as property owners. The sale of Bunda St is to be settled on 17 June and the removalists are booked for the 12th.
The drive up from Mallacoota had some interesting moments beginning when I checked Live Traffic and saw a warning of Alpine conditions from Brown Mountain to Cooma. Checking Meteye the likely temperature along that stretch was 10C so I suspect some algorithm had said that it is always cold along that stretch.
In the event the only driving problem was more or less constant drizzle throughout the drive which was no worse than a niggle. We came along Imlay Road, as we had enough fuel for the whole distance and the only point of interest there was the appearances of a couple of Tardis at each end of the road. A sign on the Western one said "Traffic counting". We have been using the Cann River option more on recent trips to refuel there, but have not noticed more than 6 vehicles except log trucks on any of our usage of the road in the last 18 months.
There was a lot of traffic - more than we ever remember seeing before - coming towards us once we joined the Bega Rd. I suspect this was people avoiding the problems due to a landslide on Clyde Mountain. Interestingly there has been no media coverage of 'double demerits' for driving offences, but I can't imagine Plod would miss the opportunity to annoy people.
Arrival was no issue. Checking the mailbox at the apartment was interesting. There was more mail than I have ever seen there. Apart from the usual junk there was an item addressed to someone I had never heard of "A really old resident I thought." As I started to rip it up I felt something hard inside so I opened it more carefully: a debit card! A little later I spoke with our agent who confirmed the name as that of our purchaser! A bank is being efficient! Arrangements have been made for them to get it.
A modest sized demo, calling for a cease fire in Gaza, came along Akuna St.
Somewhat later the sunset was quite good.
On the 9th the sunrise was spectacular.
On the morning of the 9th we went for a walk around Commonwealth Park where arrangements (ie reinstating the garden beds, removed at vast cost to taxpayers 6 months ago) for Floriade are progressing. We guessed, from eyeballing, there were still about 150 fruit bats in the colony. I have since counted from a photograph ...
.. and came up with 139. There were a few areas where I couldn't work out how many bats were there, so reckon that is an undercount. I'll stick with 150!
After an excellent breakfast with friends Bill and Jean, Sunday was largely a fiddle-faddle day sorting a few things out.
The 10th had a good sunrise, albeit not as spectacular as the previous day.
Another day of fiddle-faddling with some things not able to be done due to closures for the Pubic (sic) Holiday for Chuckie's official birthday.
We went to the Woden area for a catch-up and goodbye (as far as Canberra was concerned) with our friend Judith.
I also did a couple of chores in the area (which was a more pleasant experience than the Canberra Centre). A pharmacy was visit and finding that a currency exchange kiosk in the area was open filled in the time while our scripts were themselves being filled by exchanging some US dollars we had retained. Interestingly some $10 bills were rejected due to 'marks' which made the notes unacceptable to the upstream agencies. We didn't expect notes from Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands to be accepted but it was a slight surprise that the reason for not accepting the Vanuatu specimens was that they were too old and that design was no longer accepted! The website to the kiosk-owning company mentions that Vanuatu has used plastic notes since 2010 (my notes date from about 2008).
In the evening I went to the Banana Leaf for a takeaway fish Kottu Rotti, passing City Walk en route.
The masks in the restaurant are still impressive.
The 11th began with another nice sunrise - possibly getting the shepherds (or sailors, your call) muttering about the weather. The early stages were most interesting looking across towards Gunghastly,
Then the sun behind Mt Ainslie got into the act.
Switching to the 18mm lens.
Relatively shortly after that I was off to Belconnen to get a refund of rego for 4WD. I had failed to find the form on the ACCESS Canberra website but the young woman that served me was very efficient and I was outatthere in 15 minutes. The location is covered with signs about the wonders of the website, but at least 16 punters were in there by 0915. (One of the others in the queue was a dealer doing something about number plates: all dealers have to work through these shopfronts.)
Continuing my tour of places that give me grief at times I went to Westpac to pay in some coins ...
.. in fact 154 of them (plus a dime which wasn't accepted). I also paid in the proceeds of cashing some greenbacks and got some good advice about preparing for a purchase in Melbourne (in due course).
We had an excellent snack lunch at Smiths Alternative - no longer a bookshop but an excellent music venue - with friends Julie and Michael. Some of the signage outside.
In the evening we were invited for dinner with Rob and Carol which was as usual a very enjoyable time of conversation and eating/drinking. Back for our last night in the apartment.
It is now our last morning in Bunda St. There are many good things I will remember about the place and a few bad things. One of the worst is the noise of skips being emptied at Myers at 4 -5 AM. If only the Greens cared about nose pollution (or indeed anything other than keeping their jobs).
We had been advised the removalists would turn up between 1100 and 1300, giving them time for contingencies on the first job of the day. So about 1250 I got a call from one of the guys - the truck driver - saying that he was going to be a bit late because his overseas job was taking a little longer. He thought closer to 1400.
So about 1350 I gave a call to find out he was going. He will be a little while: how much packing was there left? All of it: I thought his crew were doing it! Oh: he will see what is going on. About 1500hrs a guy turned up and taken up stairs to do some packing: after about 30 minutes 3 more turned up! Frances was up in the apartment looking after things and advising on what was to go and what to stay and being most amused about the speed with which they were working. Then about 1600 everything was packed and they started shifting stuff to the lobby. At some point they checked the truck driver was located somewhere on the Monaro Highway! Eventually all the stuff was out of the apartment.
The truck was inbound so doco was signed and the four guys headed off, leaving us to guard our stuff all piled up in the lobby.
Around 1700 hrs the truck arrived with driver and two mates. They all went like the clappers and had everything in the truck by about 1750 hours! So we took ourselves off to Peter and Deborah's place - our abode for the night after a pizza at Locale in Deakin. An excellent pizza it was, as was our evening of conviviality and sleep in the excellent guest suite!
Next morning was a walk with the small Mitsi and a look at one of the three families of Tawny Frogmouths on Red Hill. Then back to the apartment to dismantle our shelving to give to P&D. Farewells were made and possibly our last visit to Costco.
When we got back to the car I unlocked the car and we stowed our purchases. Frances did the first spell of driving to Nimmitabel. That freed me to take a few snaps shown the brown paddocks and grey skies. This is just after Booronda Rd.The Bredbo Xmas Barn was opened but not well patronised
Very little traffic on the road at midday on a Thursday.
We passed a caravan and a truck about 5km before Nimmitabel. We didn't want to fall behind them so did a high speed driver swap leaving the car running with Frances key in situ. On, on. Filled up with fuel in Cann River, again using Frances key for the last leg. Have you had enough foreshadowing yet?
Get home, light fire and unpack car. Check pockets of pants. Hmmmm: where are my keys? Search pockets very thoroughly not there. Both of us search the car unsuccessfully. No trace of keys detected. Rude words thought of. Ring Costco to ask if anyone has handed in keys: no, but they will go and check the area we were parked. Have you had enough foreshadowing yet?
Thought about what keys were involved and concluded 4 important ones. Key to Pajero; remote for garage door; PO box key; and key to gates at Werribee Treatment Plant which we expect to visit week after next. As the final one was the most time critical on Friday morning I ordered a new key ($50 deposit required).
Of course I then go and check the car again and the first place I check (between the passengers seat and the console) there are the keys. I am sure I checked there last night! Wot a muppet!
Finding the keys again removed the final blot on what was overall a very pleasant farewell to residence in the National Capital Region. I am certainly wistful about leaving as there are many very good memories of Canberra. Unfortunately the current ACT Government have lost the plot (the current Opposition have lost the book explaining that there is a plot) so it is becoming an unpleasant place to live. So with family ties pulling us towards Melbourne it was time to leave.
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