139) Some Problems
The first bank that Murray and Linda applied to for a loan to buy our house turned them down so they had to apply to another one. We were concerned that it might slow things up and delay our leaving. The second bank agreed to give the young couple a loan on condition Murray’s father agreed to stand guarantor, which he did, so now the transfer could be started. We were beginning to be a little concerned about the timing of our move but the lawyers told us everything was in hand and we would get our money in time so that we could leave as planned.
We went to a Travel Agent to book our air tickets. We were hoping to be able to leave before the prices went up for the holiday season but we could not get a booking at that time so we thought about waiting until the low season prices came in at the beginning of February but we realised that what we would have to spend, in the approximately two months that we would have to wait would far out weigh the difference in the cost of the tickets. We told the agent to go ahead and get us the earliest ticket she could manage. We also booked bus tickets to Pretoria, so that we could spend a few days with Jonny’s brother Don and his wife Sandra, as we did not know when we would ever see them again. We arranged with Don and Sandra that they would drive us through to the airport in Johannesburg for our flight to Australia. When I got the tickets home and had a look at them I realised that the travel agent had made a mistake and instead of booking us to travel from Durban to Pretoria she had made the booking from Pretoria to Durban. I don’t know what she was thinking of. I had to take them back to be changed.
At the last moment there was some hitch with the transfer and so we did not get our money when we were supposed to… When we telephoned the lawyers office one of the young ladies who worked there was very casual about it, she said “There has been a delay, Oh I suppose I should have told you about it” Understandably Jonny was very cross and tore them off a strip but I think they needed it or we would still have been waiting for our money. Our tickets had been paid for and we had sold some of our surplus belongings and our car so we were not in dire straights but we needed money to pay the removal company and we wanted to get our money transferred to our Australian account before we left. When we told the removal company that there was a problem they were very understanding, I suppose it happens to a lot of people and they said that once they had packed all our goods and made up a final account for us they would just require us to sign a form to allow our bank to pay them the money once our funds were transferred and they were quite happy. We had rather a distressing few weeks when we rushed around trying to get everything finished, saying goodbye to friends, getting angry with the lawyers, and worrying that we would not be able to leave when we said we had planned to. Then Jonny remembered that a friend of ours from church had moved from his job with an insurance company and was now working in our bank so we went to see him. Why we didn’t go and see him before, I don’t know because he was a big help to us. We explained our situation and he just gave us some forms for us to fill in and sign authorising the bank to pay the residue of our house sale into our bank in Australia after they had paid the removal company. No problem, no fuss, just do it. He told us that as we had booked our bus tickets for the 29th Nov. to come and see him on 28th Nov and we could finalize the whole process.
Early in the morning of 26th November the packers came to wrap up our life and ship it to the other side of the world. It was very heart wrenching. Of course we wanted to go to Australia and to live near our children but we had been in Waterfall for about 11 years, the longest we had lived in any house during our marriage and we had loved our little home and been very happy there. Seeing everything packed away was very hard. The men who did the packing were efficient and quick. Their job was to pack everything that they found and as there were still things in the house that we did not want to go with us we had to keep an eye on them to make sure that they did not pack them. I had a pile of nice clean rags that I intended using in my final cleaning of the house when it was empty, well they got packed and at least I did manage to use them to clean my new home in Australia. We said that if we stood still for too long they would have packed us away too. The workers were dropped off at our house early in the morning and were supposed to be collected at the end of the day. They were on the first day but on day two the van failed to materialize and they were left to find their own way home. We were very upset about this as Jonny ended up having to lend them bus fare and had to give them a lift through to Hillcrest where they could catch the bus. We felt that it was a terrible way to treat men that had worked diligently all day.
We went to a Travel Agent to book our air tickets. We were hoping to be able to leave before the prices went up for the holiday season but we could not get a booking at that time so we thought about waiting until the low season prices came in at the beginning of February but we realised that what we would have to spend, in the approximately two months that we would have to wait would far out weigh the difference in the cost of the tickets. We told the agent to go ahead and get us the earliest ticket she could manage. We also booked bus tickets to Pretoria, so that we could spend a few days with Jonny’s brother Don and his wife Sandra, as we did not know when we would ever see them again. We arranged with Don and Sandra that they would drive us through to the airport in Johannesburg for our flight to Australia. When I got the tickets home and had a look at them I realised that the travel agent had made a mistake and instead of booking us to travel from Durban to Pretoria she had made the booking from Pretoria to Durban. I don’t know what she was thinking of. I had to take them back to be changed.
At the last moment there was some hitch with the transfer and so we did not get our money when we were supposed to… When we telephoned the lawyers office one of the young ladies who worked there was very casual about it, she said “There has been a delay, Oh I suppose I should have told you about it” Understandably Jonny was very cross and tore them off a strip but I think they needed it or we would still have been waiting for our money. Our tickets had been paid for and we had sold some of our surplus belongings and our car so we were not in dire straights but we needed money to pay the removal company and we wanted to get our money transferred to our Australian account before we left. When we told the removal company that there was a problem they were very understanding, I suppose it happens to a lot of people and they said that once they had packed all our goods and made up a final account for us they would just require us to sign a form to allow our bank to pay them the money once our funds were transferred and they were quite happy. We had rather a distressing few weeks when we rushed around trying to get everything finished, saying goodbye to friends, getting angry with the lawyers, and worrying that we would not be able to leave when we said we had planned to. Then Jonny remembered that a friend of ours from church had moved from his job with an insurance company and was now working in our bank so we went to see him. Why we didn’t go and see him before, I don’t know because he was a big help to us. We explained our situation and he just gave us some forms for us to fill in and sign authorising the bank to pay the residue of our house sale into our bank in Australia after they had paid the removal company. No problem, no fuss, just do it. He told us that as we had booked our bus tickets for the 29th Nov. to come and see him on 28th Nov and we could finalize the whole process.
Early in the morning of 26th November the packers came to wrap up our life and ship it to the other side of the world. It was very heart wrenching. Of course we wanted to go to Australia and to live near our children but we had been in Waterfall for about 11 years, the longest we had lived in any house during our marriage and we had loved our little home and been very happy there. Seeing everything packed away was very hard. The men who did the packing were efficient and quick. Their job was to pack everything that they found and as there were still things in the house that we did not want to go with us we had to keep an eye on them to make sure that they did not pack them. I had a pile of nice clean rags that I intended using in my final cleaning of the house when it was empty, well they got packed and at least I did manage to use them to clean my new home in Australia. We said that if we stood still for too long they would have packed us away too. The workers were dropped off at our house early in the morning and were supposed to be collected at the end of the day. They were on the first day but on day two the van failed to materialize and they were left to find their own way home. We were very upset about this as Jonny ended up having to lend them bus fare and had to give them a lift through to Hillcrest where they could catch the bus. We felt that it was a terrible way to treat men that had worked diligently all day.
posted by MC at
4:49 pm
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