Ah cut down trees ah eat ma lunch...

And to follow through with the song -if I could station the convenience above the Mooi River municipality and shower them with my 'appreciation'... I would. You remember that rates certificate that had to in with the deeds office by Friday that they promised - after we'd overpaid them that they would post? well guess what...

They refuse point blank to give to us to let us deliver it by hand last week. They had to deal with an incandescent Barbs today. She got it and delivered it. But of course... the whole thing is now late, rot them. So we don't know if we'll be paid in time. Ah well. It's character building. I reckon if you join B and I's character's together by now... we could build a bridge and walk to Australia on it.

The cut down trees part - we've been cutting a 4.5 metre arch to get the container in. Trust me, in 3 years you won't know it happened - we had to do the same when we moved here - the tree is about 35 metres high and as wide. Oh and Elliots (movers) seem to have lost the plot. Pop-top -what pop-top? (see another 3 feet on character suddenly go up with pilasters and small decorative arches. They promised to get back to me. Maybe they tried. I was up a tree.

So today has not been spent writing but cutting large branches. I really must start wearing gloves for this sort of thing as I have a battered thumb. Thing is rock-climber was up the tree sawing. And gloves are not safe to climb in. On the plus side being 6 metres up on a whippy branch doesn't worry me as long as it is not with a chain-saw (tied on see, and out of fall on and/or whip zone - but falling off with a chainsaw could be deadly.) So the high stuff was done with a bow-saw. This is not that bad as none of the branches were more than 8 inches thick - but I'm going to be an imitation English gentleman all over and not just my upper lip tomorrow. Hot bath time. The worst were the cypress - B wanted to do a branch and had to cut right through. I ened up doing another 4 while she went to tear strips off Mooi Muni. I had to do the same - and finish 2 with a panga. The pin-oak branches were far less tough.

Revenge of the Beaurocrapcy

To process the sale of the house, the lawyers need a rates certificate from the local municipality. Unfortunately that's on computer. Which is bust. And while told us it would be fixed by Friday... (last Friday) it wasn't. So... funeral Monday, and Tuesday B went in and begged, harrassed - and gave them a cheque for another 6 months - so they cannot claim we are in arrears, and they promised to send it off. We're out of pocket, of course, but if we don't get it all in to deeds office by friday, we won't be paid in time for the movers, and then everything falls apart. I love a little extra stress, and relying on other people who haven't shown themselves models of competancy in the past. It makes me SO relaxed...

dreams and reality

Went in - on the way to the dentist and then down to Durban to see my mum (who had a really bad day) to the local municipality to collect the rates certificate for the Lawyers handling the house sale. The lawyers are supposed to do this, but we're... shall I say we appear to be more reliable and motivated. Um. Mooi muni's computer system is down, dead. Possibly revived tomorrow, when they pull the stake out of it's heart, but no knowing if they have any records at all. At the same time we went to collect the post - and found a bill and report from the bug - people (who checked the place for borer)... with a note saying Lister and Lister (lawyers) had no record of the sale (AAAAAieeeeeee!). Called them, and they claimed to have been looking for it. We then proceeded to the town of Escourt (which has a dentist (and one that doesn't fill me with cald grue. I am a total woos with dentists) as I'd woken with a nasty dull ache during the night - he squeezed me in between patients and found a filling had 'leaked' and was developing an abcess under it. So we also booked a thorough dental exam for before we go as I gather dentists are my own problem in Aus and expensive at that... and conspicuous by their absecence on the island. We also got the exhaust we'd wrecked on the way off the dirt road fixed. Ah logging trucks - how I love thee and what you do to the road. Drove down with a circuit into the red-brick and decaying Victoriana Pietermaritzburg to drop bug-report in with Legal-eagles/beagles/feegles (you choose). Pietermaritzburg is like Launceston... after exposure to dangerous amounts of radio-active spiders, and toxic growth-hormone, with added mini-bus taxis and pedestrians. Went on down a freeway with more cars than Tas has people (and I am not kidding... much), and saw my mother. She's not doing well today, and talk of a stepdown has been put on hold.

I tried to distract myself on the way home by designing weird houses on land I don't own yet. I have a friend who has done a book on Nature-inspired type architecture... Maybe I need a Roger Dean house, like a mushroom. Or something like a norse longhouse...