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Today has been a very productive day! I got up about 7ish and had some breakfast, then got straight on with finishing the advertisement for the car. I had completed it and sorted out the photos I needed for it by about 10am, then posted it straight on 'GumTree'.
Having done that I looked at putting an advertisement on 'CarSales.com' which is how a lot of Aussies sell their cars, but it was $60 to advertise on there, so I thought I will only use that if it gets desperate.
I then set about investigsting how to get my 'Super Fund' cashed in, which is the equivelent of a pension your employer pays into at 9% of your wage. By definition normally you don't access it until your retired, but being a traveller your entitled to cashing it in for cash. After speaking to a really helpful woman on the phone, I found out you can't actually withdraw it until you leave the country. Once you get back to the UK you fill out a load of paper work and send you bank details and ID verification, then they pay it into your bank account as one lump sum. Also it has to be an Aussie bank account, so that is a good reason to leave mine active when I leave. I must ring up and check with the bank though that the account will remain free, and not start charging me X amount per month to keep it open..
Just as I finished doing that I got a call on my Aussie mobile, which turned out to be a bloke interested in buying my car, I couldn't believe it! The advertisement had only been on the internet for a couple of hours and someone wanted to come and see it. I gave him the address and the said he would be round this arvo to check it out..
Unable to believe my luck, I had a sandwich sitting on the Veranda then Fenella, Mark and I were invited to their friends (Ron and Bubbles) up the road for 'Ice Coffee', who had come for dinner while I was here before. It was the hottest day I have experienced up here yet at about 40 degrees, so I couldn't think of anything better!
It was really cool to catch up with them and see what they had been up to, and tell them about my road trip. I also had a poke around their garden which was huge and really nice, before going for a swim in their pool to cool off.
When we got back I had a proper lunch, and then 'Glen' rang ran up asking if he could come and see the car, which of course was great!
He arrived half an hour later, and I let him have a bit of a look before going down to meet him.
He seemed like a really nice genuine bloke in his 50s, and more importantly took a lot of interest in the car. Having shown him all round inside and under the bonet etc he mentioned he was impressed how tidy it was for its age/Km on the clock, then made a couple of blatent pre-barter paint job+dent comments.
It turns out he is buying it for a mate with kids going through a divorce or something, so would want to tidy up the outside. After a bit of polite heckling we settled on $1700 cash, and he would let me know by tonight if he wants it or otherwise. He has mates who are car body repairers and car spray painters, so said he could get the paint and dent done with them, but wanted a quote this arvo, hense the wait. Also I need to get a 'Road Worthy Certificate' from the garage up the road anyway, so anyone with sense wouldn't have taken it before that was completed.
Surprisingly he relied soley on my honesty about how well it runs and does it rattle etc, and didn't request a test drive! Luckily for him I told him exactly how it was, but I thought he was pretty open to be ripped off..
After we had finalised the details (he would get the quotes from his mate and let me know tonight, and I would get it to a garage for the certificate ASAP) and he had left I was pretty pleased. I could have been greedy and heckled for more, but decided its much better to just get it sold ASAP, plus he would spend a good few 100 bucks on paint etc.. Plus he won't be taking any of the travelling kit, so I can advertise that for $200 or so as its a complete kit for travelling.
After he left I jumped in the pool to cool off, as I was absolutely roasting (apparently on the verandah it reached 41 degrees!). Then I thought I may as well go 2 mins up the road into Landsborough and find out from the local garage when I can get a road worthy check done. It turned out I could leave the car with them at 8am tomorrow morning, and they would give me a buzz when it's done later. Plus it's only $60. Perfect!
Not long after I was back everyone got back from school, and the parents were already here as they were working from home. Both the kids had friends round, so we all just ended up messing around in the pool together, and I didn't do much else productive.
We had dinner quite late, then Digs and I went 'Cane Toad Hunting'. Can't remember if I have mentioned them before, but they are vermin which when animals and dogs etc eat them it kills them. As a result everyone is advised to kill them when they see them. We got our implements of choice; Digs an axe and mine was a baseball bat, then went off round the garden spot light in hand. We found about 6/7 in the end, which is nothing really, as sometimes your basically walking all over them. Having beaten them up we collected them up all dead into a bucket, and had a small fire in the paddock to burn them - they are just as deadly for animals when they are left dead on the lawn.
Digs had to go to bed as these guys still have school for another week and a bit before their summer holidays, so I went for a swim as it was still pretty warm, and went to bed myself.
(Photo - After the weekend of spending some much time in the water my dreads are a real mess. Probably going to see if I can get them sorted at a hair dressers here before I go to Bali).
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