140) Some Problems Solved
On November 28th we visited the bank to see our friend and organise the transfer of the funds that would come from the sale of our house. We were sitting at his desk when we got a call on our mobile phone from the lawyer to tell us that the money had been released and that it would be in our bank account within the hour. We then got another call from the removal company. The young lady told me that there was good news and there was bad news, I always ask for the bad news first. She told us that when our household goods had been finally measured we had quite a bit more than she had originally estimated so the bill should be more but the good news was that as we had to pay in American Dollars and that morning the South African Rand had spiked and was worth a lot more, the exchange rate was being very kind to us so we would in the end pay about R2000 less than the original quote.
Now everything started falling into place. We had sold the Ford Sierra and the gentleman who bought it came and paid us the final amount and Jonny delivered the car to him in Pinetown. We had no furniture in the house except our bed that we were giving to Petros and his wife Elizabeth and some garden furniture belonging to the new owners. We spent the rest of that day cleaning up around the yard and the next morning we handed the keys over to Murray and Linda. Joel and Alley Kuiper, friends from our church had kindly offered to take us to Pinetown to catch our bus. The bus left from outside the Pinetown MacDonald’s and we were amused to see that in just about every little town and village that we went through the bus stop was in very close proximity to the local MacDonald’s. It just goes to show what money and influence can achieve. I am sure the bus route was before the Macdonald’s; they must have organised to have the stops changed to fit in with their restaurants. People waiting for a bus or arriving in town after a long journey often look for something to eat and MacDonald’s was the obvious answer. And it was a long journey! We often drove to Pretoria, it was a three hour run straight along the Highway. The bus did not go that way though; it went via Vereeniging which was miles out of the way. The trip took us about 6 hours. Fortunately we had our mobile phone so we could call Don and Sandra and give them our expected time of arrival. They were there to meet us at the station so we spent a very pleasant weekend with them. While we were there Jonny’s sister Cecilia came to say goodbye to us. His brother Devilliars and his family came to see us. Stan and Rena Malabssy-Smith, friends from when we lived in Witbank also came. We really appreciated that they all made the effort to come and spend some time with us before we left for Australia, it was very special.
One of the first things we did when we decided to emigrate to Australia was to inquire about our Police clearance. We went to the Police station in Hillcrest and we were told that if we applied from there it would take about two months but we could just go to Police Headquarters in Pretoria and it could be issued there and then over the counter. Thus doing away with the need to post documents and so we were advised to do this. We spent half a day of our time in Pretoria trying to get our clearances but we had been given incorrect information and were told there that it would take about three weeks to process the document so we had to arrange for Jonny’s brother Don to collect our police clearances and post them to us in Australia. We were not happy about leaving without them but there was nothing else we could do.
Now everything started falling into place. We had sold the Ford Sierra and the gentleman who bought it came and paid us the final amount and Jonny delivered the car to him in Pinetown. We had no furniture in the house except our bed that we were giving to Petros and his wife Elizabeth and some garden furniture belonging to the new owners. We spent the rest of that day cleaning up around the yard and the next morning we handed the keys over to Murray and Linda. Joel and Alley Kuiper, friends from our church had kindly offered to take us to Pinetown to catch our bus. The bus left from outside the Pinetown MacDonald’s and we were amused to see that in just about every little town and village that we went through the bus stop was in very close proximity to the local MacDonald’s. It just goes to show what money and influence can achieve. I am sure the bus route was before the Macdonald’s; they must have organised to have the stops changed to fit in with their restaurants. People waiting for a bus or arriving in town after a long journey often look for something to eat and MacDonald’s was the obvious answer. And it was a long journey! We often drove to Pretoria, it was a three hour run straight along the Highway. The bus did not go that way though; it went via Vereeniging which was miles out of the way. The trip took us about 6 hours. Fortunately we had our mobile phone so we could call Don and Sandra and give them our expected time of arrival. They were there to meet us at the station so we spent a very pleasant weekend with them. While we were there Jonny’s sister Cecilia came to say goodbye to us. His brother Devilliars and his family came to see us. Stan and Rena Malabssy-Smith, friends from when we lived in Witbank also came. We really appreciated that they all made the effort to come and spend some time with us before we left for Australia, it was very special.
One of the first things we did when we decided to emigrate to Australia was to inquire about our Police clearance. We went to the Police station in Hillcrest and we were told that if we applied from there it would take about two months but we could just go to Police Headquarters in Pretoria and it could be issued there and then over the counter. Thus doing away with the need to post documents and so we were advised to do this. We spent half a day of our time in Pretoria trying to get our clearances but we had been given incorrect information and were told there that it would take about three weeks to process the document so we had to arrange for Jonny’s brother Don to collect our police clearances and post them to us in Australia. We were not happy about leaving without them but there was nothing else we could do.
posted by MC at
5:34 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home