Toowoomba wk 8, 2011

October 11^th, Dropped the Van into Trail-a-Van this morning, for repair.

October 14^th, I rang Trail-a-Van today to see how they were progressing and found they had completed the side wall repairs, and had picked up the wheel arch trim, which were still to be fitted. Still no sign of any decal arriving yet, so I said I would pick up the Van on Monday, with or without Decals.

October 15^th, We have been enjoying the extra kitchen space and having our own ensuite, in the Bungalow.  We went to The Toowoomba Sports Club for dinner before going to the Empire Theatre at 8pm to see the Carl Baron Show. We enjoyed a wine before taking our seats and the show was laugh packed from beginning to end. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

October 17^th, I picked up the Van this morning and we moved out of the Bungalow back into the Van. I was told that the decals were a week off being here, so we had to decide what we were going to do, as we were due to be in Sydney on the 25^th October. After we finished settling back into the Van we made the decision to leave for Brisbane on Wednesday 19^th, regardless of the availability of the decals. Trail-a-Van said they could post the decals to us when they came in.

October 18^th, I said my goodbyes to the table Tennis Group today, this was my last day. I rang Trail-a-Van after lunch, to tell them of our decision to leave to-morrow and was told a set of decals had arrived in the morning mail, from Concept, who originally couldn’t supply them. What a pleasant surprise, so I booked the Van in for decal fitting tomorrow morning at 7am and then we would leave Toowoomba for Brisbane.

Toowoomba, Wk 7 2011

October 5^th, Val gathered up her current craft gear and at 10am, joined in with the Craft Group (men included) here in the Caravan Park. At 1 pm she arrived back home having met a mixed group of locals that gather every Wednesday and caught upon all the local gossip. The ladies were impressed with Val’s cross stitch.

October 7^th, Still no word from Trail-a-Van, so gave them a call and found out they were still waiting for the decals and wheel arch trims. They are chasing them again today but  we booked the Van in for Tuesday morning, as there was nothing to stop them doing the wall rebuild and sheathing. Hopefully the missing dress parts would come in soon. I have now booked a Cabin from Monday morning, which will allow us time to move all our gear from the Van into the Cabin and get ourselves organized.

October 10^th, Went down to the Office to find out which Cabin we were to move into only to find that, as expected, the Cabin still had to be cleaned and we could start moving in as soon as the cleaners left, which was around 9.30am. We were put into Bungalow 12, only 8 sites down the hill from our Van site, which sounded convenient but as we found out by the end of the day, it was just as much work as moving a kilometer. Yesterday, I packed up all the outside gear, so the back section of the Territory was full. That left me the front seat area to transport our gear down to the Bungalow, as no way was I going to carry anything that I could avoid. We were surprised how much stuff we had to move as well as relocating the contents of the cupboards, on the damaged side of the Van. I lost count of the number of trips I did in the car and by the time that I finished hooking the Van up to the car, it was 5pm. The Van was ready to be dropped off at 8pm in the morning and Val had finished organizing our gear in the Bungalow. What a long tiring day!

Toowoomba, Wk 4 & 5, 2011

September 13^th, While at Table Tennis this morning, I got an SMS from NRMA Insurance to say the quote for our van repairs, by Trail-a-Van, was approved. I dropped Val off at the Shopping Centre and went to Trail-a-Van to get them moving. I found out that there was no accommodation available in Toowoomba, until Sep’t 26^th, when the Flower Festival was over.

September 14^th, We rang Jessica late afternoon, to find out how she went at the Combined School Regional Carnival, at Blacktown (Western Sydney). She was competeing in the 4 X 100 metre Relay and although they didn’t win she had a great day.

September 15^th, We walked around our Caravan Park, looking at their Garden Display which was entered in the “The Chronicle Garden Competition”, and were very impressed with their display of colourful plants and flowers. They had put a lot of effort into the gardens and were rewarded with a 1^st place in the Caravan Park Section. We found out later that it was the 8^th year in a row for them.

September 16^th, We did the rounds of the 4 Antique Shops in Toowoomba, Val has some old coins and a crockery set worth getting a price on and is interested in selling them. We went to St. Lukes Anglican Church to have a look at their “Water of Life” Floral Display and found it very impressive and a lovely old Church.

September 17^th, I left Table Tennis early to get ready to go into the City for the “Flower Festival Parade”, starting at noon. We walked to the starting point for the Parade, only about 4 blocks away. The Floats were amazing, colourful and the Parade was a huge success. It went for an hour and was watched by a huge crowd. I took lots of photos, too many to put up on the Blog. We had one piece of excitement during the Parade when somehow a piece of metallic foil streamer floated skywards and shorted out across the overhead electric wires and created a very loud “BANG”. The Police sprang into action and diverted the Parade to the other side of the road and the Parade continued on without any further ado. After the Parade finished, we walked on into the City and had lunch at St. Lukes Church and Val checked out the Craft Display while I had a coffee. On the walk back home we called in to the “Federal” for a drink and a flutter and went home with $60 in our pocket.

September 20^th, had a call from Trail-a-Van to let me know that they are on the job but having a few problems with what Concept can supply. Val has started on the Dukan Diet, 6 days now, and has lost 2.7 kg already. She has bought the book and is determined to follow it, to the letter. It has 5 stages and could take 6 – 12 months to reach the final stage.

Toowoomba, wk 6, 2011

September 21^st, Today we went to Queens Park to look at the gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day and we thought that the crowds would be easing off, as it was half way through the Festival of Flowers. Wrong again, there were busloads of people at the Park. The Garden displays were beautiful, full of brilliant colours and designs. The whole grounds were neat and lawns manicured. A band was playing relaxing music and adding to the atmosphere. We did notice that the few rose bushes that they had were not in full flower yet, so we decided to leave visiting the Rose Gardens for a couple of weeks and drove up to Picnic Point park. Once again, the gardens were great and they had live music in the Rotunda. The view is usually spectacular from this Park, but today the smoke from the nearby bushfires put a haze all over the Valley. Our next stop was one of The Chronicle Exhibition Gardens at 41 Stenner Street. This was one of a group of houses that charged a $4/person fee, which went to a local Charity. The flowers and the work required to prepare these gardens is amazing and very enjoyable. We also wanted to see the 1^st place winning garden but will have to leave that for another day as nobody could tell us where it was. We called into the Federal Hotel for a drink and flutter, to finish off a nice day out.

September 25^th, We went looking for the Top Prize Winning Garden and in desperation had to phone the Info Centre, to find out where it was. It was well worth the trouble to locate it, the house was huge, the gardens were spectacular and the owners were a nice old couple that were wandering around and talking to all the visitors. They told us that they did all the planting themselves, which is incredible. It was like walking through the Botanical Garden, that’s the feeling we had. Even the street, with its trees and flower beds, was immaculate.

September 27^th, Still have no idea when the parts, to repair the Van will be received so, I paid for 2 more weeks at the Caravan Park, that takes us up to October 10^th.

October 1^st, After Table Tennis, this morning, I had to (as instructed by Val) go directly to the Empire Theatre and purchase tickets for the Carl Barron Show, on the 15^th October. Luckily, they still had seats left for the last Show, half way back and towards the centre of the Theatre. That now means that we will not get away from Toowoomba before the 16^th October, at the earliest, and want to be in Sydney on the 25^th October. I can’t tell you how much I hate having to make a “fast’ trip to anywhere.

October 3^rd, Today marks the end of our 6^th week in Toowoomba and I still don’t have a booking for our Van to go in for repairs!

Toowoomba, Wk 2 & 3, 2011

September 1^st, First day of Spring and it’s a beautiful clear sunny day, which would be hot, if there wasn’t a cool breeze blowing. We are now in waiting mode as we wait for the NRMA Insurance to approve the quote to repair our Caravan. On our way home from shopping, I dropped Val off at the Federal Hotel, for a flutter while I unpacked the shopping. It’s only a 3 minute walk from the Hotel to the Van, but this wasn’t one of her lucky days.

September 2^nd, I checked the mail today and my Father’s Day card and present of “Calvin Klein” Aftershave, from Steven, had arrived. A very nice fragrance which will, no doubt, have the ladies chasing me. Val bought me a Ronson Electric hair cutting Kit for Father’s Day, so I can’t wait to see how she performs as a Barber.

 September 4^th, Fathers Day. The Boys both rang today to wish me a “Happy” Father’s Day and Greg told me to keep checking the mail for the present that would be posted tomorrow. The local Pub was fully booked out for Father’s Day lunch, so I enjoyed a quiet day at home.

September 5^th, We have been in Toowoomba 2 weeks today and still no word from NRMA Insurance, so I decided to start chasing. In reply to my phone call, I found out that they had received the quote for the replacement Turbo Oven and the Van repair quote had arrived but without the photos of the damage, needed to hopefully approve the repairs without the need to send out an Assessor. I left it with the NRMA to chase up the photos, if they couldn’t find them. I explained our travelling situation and the need to have the repairs completed as quick as possible, so was assured that they would mark the claim it as Urgent. I posted Jessica’s birthday parcel today, to make sure that it got to her in time for her 10^th Birthday, on Saturday. I was chatting with our next door neighbor and happened to mention that I played Table Tennis and was told that the Toowoomba Table Tennis Association was only a block away. I will check that out tomorrow.

September 6^th, I went to check out the Table Tennis  Association and had a hit up with some of the players. I was made to feel welcome, they had a good set up with 6 tables, so I joined up for Social play. $28 to join and $3 each day to play. Social days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from 8am till 12 noon.

September 7^th, Today was Val’s big venture into Barbering, as she cut my hair for the first time. It was the longest time I have ever spent in a Barbers chair, and although I was a little nervous, the finished job wasn’t too bad with just a few low spots above my ears.

September 8^th, My Father’s Day present from Greg, Dianne, Jessica and Annaliese arrived in today’s mail. I got a 3 pack of Pyjama Shorts, which Annaliese told me she “hand picked” them for me and a $50 Gift Voucher for BCF. I did very well for Father’s Day.

September 9^th, I rang the NRMA Claims Dep’t, to check on progress, only to find out that they still didn’t have the photos. Several phone calls later to “Trail-a-Van” and the NRMA and a set of photos were in the hands of the Claims dep’t and I was assured that the Claim would be allocated to an Assessor today. The quote to repair the Van was $3751.50, which didn’t surprise me as it will be a bigger job than it looks. When I went online to check the emails and bank, I found that our claim for the Turbo Oven had been paid into our bank yesterday. We will wait till after the Van is repaired before we replace the turbo, as we will have to take a lot of stuff out of the Van when it goes in for repair. I had noticed a few wayward hairs standing tall on the top of my head, so I asked Val to trim over the top with a lower step on the clippers. The finished look was much better than the 1^st attempt. They say practice makes perfect.

September 10^th, We rang Jessica for her Birthday and she opened our present while we were on the phone. She was overjoyed and was getting off the phone so that she could make up some “Whipple” Charms.

September 12^th, Turned the TV on at 6.30am to watch Sam Stosur play Serina Williams in the Woman’s Final of the US Open Tennis. A great game to watch with Sam coming out the winner in straight sets, 6/2, 6/3.

Toowoomba, Wk 1, 2011

August 22^nd, We packed up and drove to Toowoomba, planning to stay at the Big 4 Caravan Park. Because the Flower Festival was only a few weeks away, they couldn’t give us a site, for a long period, but they rang another Park for us and found out that The Jolly Swagman could accommodate us. We booked in on a weekly basis, with the first 2 nights on their drive through site then onto a permanent site for as long as we needed, which is an unknown. This worked out well, as I was given a glowing recommendation for a local Caravan Repairer who would quote on our Van repair to-morrow and being on a drive through site I didn’t have to unhook the car from the Van. After hooking up the power and water I tried to tune in the TV, but to no avail. No signal was being received. I unpacked our 2^nd TV, which I had bought from Coles when we saw them on “Special”, back at Bateau Bay. It is a digital ready model, so doesn’t need the separate set top box. I connected it up, tuned it in and we had perfect reception, so after checking all my cables it was obvious that the old HD Set Top Box had “karked it”.

August 23^rd, I dropped Val off at Spotlight and took the Van out to “Trail-a-Van” to get things started on a quote to repair our Caravan damage. After a look and a few quick photos, they will prepare a quote and send it to the NRMA Insurance for approval. It’s now just a matter of waiting till we hear from them. The young fellow at Trail-a-van recommended Superior Springworks, in the next street, to fix my rear suspension problem on the Territory, as they did all that sort of work on their vehicles. The quote for the car was $340, to replace both rear suspension coil springs with HD long and it’s booked in at 8am on the 31^st August. I picked up Val from Spotlight and on the way home we checked out the local, Federal Hotel, and decided to have dinner there to-night. We walked across the road to “Big Dads Pies” and had takeaway pies and chips for lunch, back at the Van. They were really good pies. It was only a 2 minute walk from our Caravan Park to the Pub, the $11 meals where great but the Pokies weren’t good to Val.

August 24^th, I dropped Val at The Grand Central Shopping Centre, in the CBD, while I went to Centrelink to put in my paperwork. Parking is impossible, every street, laneway and back alley has Parking Meters and I had absolutely no money on me. At Centrelink I found a 10minute parking space and was in Centrelink for at least 30 minutes, so I was a little stressed, worrying about getting fined. When I got back to pick up Val, I had the same parking problem. I couldn’t drive into their car park as the boat was on top of the car, so I rang Val’s mobile, numerous times, without an answer, while driving around the streets looking for a place to park without meters and you can understand the level of frustration I was feeling by now! Finally Val answered her phone and I picked her up and went home for a couple of Chardies. When I checked Val’s phone, somehow the ring setting had been accidently changed to buzz only, so I soon fixed that.

August 25^th, I took the boat off the car and unloaded most of the gear from the back. Two reasons for this, I wanted to be able to drive into underground car parks and Scott, at Superior Springworks, wanted to check the unloaded height of the back of the car, so that he could make sure he selected the correct springs for the rear suspension. After I got back from Superior Springworks, we walked down to the Information Centre just down the road from the Caravan Park. We browsed around and picked up some brochures on local sites and events, had a free coffee and walked back home.

August 27^th, The weather has been good since we arrived in Toowoomba, with the temperature being kept down by a cool breeze, until last night. The rain caught up with us and this morning it was quite a sight to look out a see the air was white with, what I can only describe as “sleet”. Something I had never seen before and very cold.

August 30^th, The weather has been controlling our activities. We have had a good day , then a wet day, sunny day etc, so in between we have filled in time with a few repairs around the Van. I cleaned up my boxes in the back of the car and put a lot of stuff in the bin. The painted base of the table was an eyesore, the chipped and worn areas had Val complaining for a long time now. So I dismantled it all, cleaned up and painted the base, then to stop the base being damaged by our feet I cut a circular piece of carpet and glued it in place. I am very happy with the finished job and it met with Val’s approval.

August 31^st, I took the car into Superior Springworks at 8.30am and waited while they fitted the new heavy duty coil springs, into the rear suspension of the Territory. I’m very satisfied with the finished job, the back is well clear of the tyres now.  Scott pointed out that one rear tyre was badly worn on the inside edge and needed replacing. When I got back home I thought that I would replace the worn tyre with the spare and put that problem aside till later. Not a chance, the spare was as bad as the worn tyre, so now I’m up for 2 new tyres. We did a bit of shopping after lunch and stopped off at the Federal Hotel for a flutter, on the way home, and came home $120 in front.