Mail box creativity

On the way from Gin Gin to Mt Perry, you pass Mick's mailbox.
It always puts a smile on my face.

The new house

The final floor plan of our new home. Contracts are signed. Building time: 70 days from Council approval (dutch: bouwvergunning).

Power for Mt Perry

New Power supply for Mount Perry.
At last, three fase power to the town to replace the existing,very outdated and overloaded, single fase supply.
New posts, transformers, cables, all the way from Gin Gin (50 km).
We will not need our generator that much anymore.
November is the planned date to go live.

back in Australia

I safely returned back to Australia on 2 June. Coen dropped me of at Dusseldorf-airport and we had a nice dinner there before I checked in. I had a pleasant flight with Emirates, and a warm welcome at Brisbane International Airport from Pam together with her Brother and sister-in-law.
Since my last post in January, I have been busy in obtaining a partner-visa for Australia, and believe me, that is not a straight forward procedure.
I had to leave Australia in order to lodge my application from overseas, so I decided to travel to The Netherlands again to lodge my visa application in Berlin.
I had everything complete, ready to put it in an envelope. My medical test was organised, all copies of documents signed by a Justice of the Peace (poor Lucy, it took her an entire afternoon to go through them).
From the Embassy in Berlin I learned that I could be eligible to lodge my application “in-person”; but after 3 weeks of mailing/phoning I was denied that possibility. (I was not married for more than a year yet). So three weeks time lost, and finally I lodged the papers by ordinary mail.
To make a long story short: Berlin will process my application WITHIN 5 MONTHS!
For that reason I obtained another EVisitor-visa and returned to Australia to wait here for a decision. Once that is done, I have to fly out of Australia again to pick it up, but TG I can do that from New Zealand; I don’t have to fly to Holland again.
What a stupid system: I was legally in Australia, but was not allowed to lodge my application from there, so I had to fly to Holland. Then I returned here, but have to go to New Zealand to get my visa once its ready.
We’ll see what happens!
In the meantime: the contract for the new house is signed. It will be ready in October.
I will use the time here to get the block of land ready (quite some excavation and levelling to be done!), to get a plumber to install the septic system, and to prepare for our temporary move to a new house from July on, because we cannot stay where we are now.
I will keep you informed!!
By the way: there is a new photo book with some pictures of the last few months.