Canberra --> Adelaide 2007

Wow! It only took a week I know but waiting for TCP/IP can be painful!!

I am now back online with our 7Mbps broadband connection now established. I have now officially gone without internet access or the ability to check email for 7 days - and I would swear it was longer than the 7 days of waiting for our overdue William to arrive!

Oh, now so much to blog but so little time to do so!

A week passed since settlement on our home in Canberra last Friday and we still had not had the proceeds from settlement deposited into our nominated account by the bank holding our loan (who took the entire proceeds as they were too inept to do the math for the day). We had rung our broker on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and the bank themselves on the two latter days.

Finally, on Friday, we discovered that they had deposited the money, not into our nominated account as requested, but into an account we had 'linked' to the loan. Okay so we had the money. The problem was that it was our account with HSBC. Why is this a problem? Well, firstly, we haven't used the accounts in years so we have no clue what the pins are on the cards, but secondly, and more importantly, there was no bank branch in Canberra through which we could get a bank cheque drawn to pass required funds to our South Australian conveyancer for our settlement this coming Friday. So, I tried a bank transfer which I quickly discovered was limited to $5,000 per day (so even doing transfers every day until settlement wouldn't cut the mustard). I then lodged a contact request and walked away frustrated.

First thing Monday morning, whilst still in Hay, I received a call back from HSBC's Customer Care centre. I explained the situation and, after putting me through their electronic system for authentication, they processed a transfer for the full amount we needed to go to our conveyancer in preparation for Friday. They were the lifesavers who cleaned up this other banks stuff up very effectively.

Thank you HSBC!

Well, today is a sad day as we made our last crossing of the Hay plains for the forseeable future. :(

We passed through Gumly Gumly at way to reasonable an hour to stop at the Australian Homestead one of our favorite places for the night but found a very nice room instead in Hay at the Comfort Inn instead. This then cut our trip short leaving us with only one more day of travel before we arrived in Adelaide.

William traveled extremely well and even pulled a few three hour stretches between feeds which was a pleasant surprise. (Of course, he is making up for that now!) So, goodbye Canberra, hello Adelaide!!

Yep, it's official!! Our cooling off period is now over, so I guess you can say that we have officially bought a new home!

No, it is not in Canberra but, rather, in Adelaide - the next chapter for our family as our lifestyle and career directions make some major changes. We look forward to reconnecting with old friends back there and getting to make some more of them too as a result.

These photos were not taken by us either. It is likely, in fact, that we will not actually see the home until very close to settlement. So, how safe it is to buy a house off the internet? Be sure to ask us after settlement!


Oh, and sorry, no baby news yet!! It's meant to snow here tonight, tomorrow and Thursday so I am hoping baby decides to snuggle in close until it has passed!

For those who missed the 'my pelvis is falling apart' post, I have pelvic laxity, which the day after the aforementioned post, landed me in hospital for a couple of nights on morphine because I was woken suddenly whilst dozing on the couch and jumped up in response. Bad move.

So, I have had it corrected again twice since and am spending the majority of hours a day on the couch. It is far more comfortable than the bed to sleep in terms of being able to prop myself up to change how pressure is borne by my pelvis. It is also the best place to be during the day to do anything involving the TV or stereo, wireless networking and a laptop seems to resolve a few needs also.

Now to find a way to remove the need to go to the toilet and occasionally see the inside of a shower screen.... Oh, and don't ask about the state of the house at the moment...

A friend of mine dropped around last Sunday to pay some special attention to my belly with an SLR digital camera...

Natalie is working on them now but gave me a link to her blog with a sneak preview of just one of the pictures. It is a beautiful shot of Karl hugging my belly. For the record, I know you can see a lot of stretch marks and they were picked up in the light even though they are silvery and old from my pregnancies with Karl and Peter. I can still today boast no new battle scars this pregnancy. The full size image is attached below.