Cafe for sale

Great location opposite major supermarket.

Set in a pretty building that used to be the Catholic Church.

Neat little takeaway area too, handy when the tourists all want food at the same time.

Yes, they are always that cheerful.

Ooh well known chemist nearby.

Great position. Lovely Jewellers over there, and newsagents.

Oooh well known butchers too. Also opposite a well known bakers, how handy is that. All your shopping and coffee, and cake, and lunch, and afternoon tea, in the same shopping centre.
Sunny Busselton a beautiful place to live and work, need a 4 bed 2 bath house to go with it? we have one of those too, beach side of the highway, 2 minute stroll to the lovely soft sand...tempted? go on.....

Rally round Busselton

Friday 4th April 2008
We took the kids to school and listened to children reading to us in Kristian’s class, the differing standards of reading is quite alarming and the teacher has got her work cut out to try and get all of these children to anywhere near close to the same level as each other. Ian has never helped in a school before so it is quite an eye opener for him, in the short time we have been doing this we have noticed that some of the children that were reluctant to read to us are now a lot more confident in coming forward to read. Unfortunately when we get the house and then the business Ian will not be able to help out anymore because he will be busy, Carolyn will carry on (as she does) as often as possible because she enjoys it, and if the other children benefit from it then hopefully Kristian will also benefit from it.
While we were at the school we ordered the kid’s Faction shirts, they are in Blue Faction and at the moment they are top of the table. For some reason our kids, who as a rule are not particularly competitive, have decided that despite the fact that the majority of the other kids at school do not wear faction shirts for PE they want too, presumably because they will get faction points if they wear one and achieve faction superstar status in the process, also it doesn’t involve too much hard work.
Afterwards we went to the Café to check our emails, we couldn’t settle on the house today because the vendor’s legal department couldn’t get the paperwork back in time. This afternoon we got a call from our settlement agent asking us to pop in and see him, when we got there he informed us that the vendors settlement agents had put forward another offer relating to how much money we hold back for Gas and Electric problems sorted. We are not happy with it but the thought of taking on a team of Lawyers employed by a bank and the costs involved are not too appealing either so reluctantly we accept, it would appear that it’s the same the world over, one rule for the legal profession and one rule for the rest of us mere mortals. If it’s any consolation, should we ever need a lawyer we are not going to use that firm out of principle, hopefully it will be the week when they need a few bob, end up going bust, lose their fancy homes and cars in the process and get debarred for going bankrupt, but we’re not bitter.
We went to Dunsborough for a walk round the shops and bought a Thai take away for lunch which we ate outside in the shade, taking in the fresh air and ambience as we did. On the way back to Busselton we stopped off at an art gallery and had a look round, it is run by 3 artists who have got together and use the place as their studio as well as a gallery to show off the finished works. The works that they were showing were not really to Ian’s liking, but Carolyn liked a couple including the one being painted as we wandered around. We got chatting to 2 of the artists and spent a pleasant 20 minutes there before going to pick the kids up from school.
After picking the kids up we went to the local Dive shop to buy some Snorkels and Flippers for us all, we have been meaning to do it for years but never got round to it but with the sea on our doorstep and the water so clear we felt obliged to really.
In the evening we walked down to the foreshore to watch the Busselton stage of the Forest Rally, the rally is shared between Busselton and Nannup. During the day they drive the Forest section down in Nannup and in the evening they hold the time trials on Busselton Foreshore, it was good fun and it was free which was a bonus, the country’s top drivers were there apparently. The rally is part of the Australian Rally Championship so the cars are quite well sponsored; the numbers that went to watch the Busselton section were not that great although we think that as a spectator sport the Forest section in Nannup is probably more appealing.
At the rally there was not much else to do, they don’t bring in a funfair or anything for the event but there were, 2 Coffee stalls, 2 Ice Cream stalls, 2 Hot Dog stalls and a stall that appeared to have something to do with Car Parts or Oil but was making a killing out of selling Plastic Blow Up Aliens. There were also Porta- loos, I mention this purely because it is the first time in my life that I have ever been to an event where they were using porta-loos and they were clean, not only were these loos clean but they smelt clean too, ok they weren’t massively overused but there were still a fair number of people there and they stayed clean, we are being truly spoilt down here.
At about 8.30 pm we went to a nearby pub that had some kids play equipment, so while the kids played we sat down and had a drink on the patio and listened to a load of drunken yobs threatening to kill each other. All this was happening at 8.30 and the pub was open until 1am so it must have been great fun later, unfortunately we couldn’t wait to find out because just before 9pm they blocked off all the entrances to the patio bar one, separating us from the kids by a big set of iron railings. When we asked about how the children were supposed to get to us if they needed to, we were told that they couldn’t so we drank up and went home, the licensed trade over here has got a lot to learn if it ever wants to start attracting families.

5 Fruit and 2 Veg

Thursday 3rd April 2008
Ian decided it would be a good idea to get up at 5.15am today to watch the Champions League between Arsenal and Liverpool, it wasn’t live but it was only about an hour after the game finished and early enough not to know the result. They did show the game live but that started at 2.45am which was a bit too early and obviously the TV Company think so too which is why they show it again so soon after the final whistle, and a 5.45am showing means that people can watch it before going to work.
It was Kristian’s class assembly at school today so we had to be in school by 8.30am, the theme was healthy eating and the whole class had made Paper T shirts with pictures of Fruit and Veg on them and had learned a song about eating 5 Fruit and 2 Veg which was sung to the tune of Mambo number 5. because we were early we asked if there was anything we could do to help, Ian was in charge of making sure every child had a photo taken of them wearing their T shirt that would go in with their work record while Carolyn was in charge of the register.
The show was quite good considering that this is a new class of mixed ages and that they have only been together for a few weeks. Next week on Friday 11th they are having an assembly outside under the flag to commemorate Anzac Day, it is not the right date for it but because Anzac Day is while the children are on holiday this was the closest they could get. We will be trying to get to that one but we think our removal is arriving on that day in which case we won’t be able to.
After assembly we went to the Café to check our emails and were informed by the owners that the bank that we are going to use when we take over the Café, the bank who assured us that everything would be sent to the branch until we took over, the bank who after the last letter to us from them that arrived at the Café, assured us that nothing like this could happen again, the bank who double checked and were assured by their Merchant Department (zip zap Machine) while we were standing in the branch that they would be sending our card machine to the branch and not the Café, had sent the card machine to the Café and the courier, how could have been anybody, wanted to install it. The owners sent it back unfortunately; it would have been handy to get a couple of weeks takings in the bank before we took over, although they probably do not feel the same.
We checked out a website called Wageline while we were there and the awards and benefits that staff are entitled to are a minefield just waiting to blow up in an employers face, the pay rates are high, the levels of benefits are high, if a member of staff works on a Saturday or Sunday even if they are normal working days they get enhanced rates of pay, if they take a holiday you have to pay them their basic pay plus an extra 17½ per cent for a bit of extra spending money. If a waitress helps in the kitchen for 10 minutes and the kitchen duty she is doing is normally on a higher pay award, you have to pay her 10 minutes on the higher pay award, it’s no wonder companies only employ casual staff, to employ permanent staff could cripple you.
So after checking emails and meeting a couple of staff and suppliers that we had not met before, we went to the bank. When we spoke to the girl who had set up our business account for us she was not happy and said that she had rung them 3 times to make sure they knew what to do with the machine, we just laughed it off and gave her the couriers card so that she could get it delivered to the bank which she did. On the bright side at least we know we have a card machine ready to start trading on the day we move in.
We then went to another bank and transferred the money for the house into the settlement agents account and then went shopping for some crockery and glasses, because we had use of everything in the pub back in the UK we didn’t bother buying any day to day crockery. While we were shopping we got a call from the settlement agent asking us to pop in and see him, which we did. The settlement agents for the sellers of the house are saying that they do not want to pay for the gas and electric etc to be repaired in the house and that because it is a deceased estate, as a matter of course they do not warrant that anything is in good or working order. Unfortunately for them somebody forgot to tell the Trustees for the estate because when we put these things down as special conditions they signed to agree them. It would appear that the settlement agent is willing to pay for parts but not for labour, suggesting that we could do it ourselves. On TV we are constantly bombarded by adverts put out by the Government showing people getting electrocuted, burned or gassed so if it comes to it we don’t think their argument will stand up in court and have told our settlement agent that we are insisting on them paying. The fact that they have brought this up at the last minute suggests that they are trying to call our bluff and means that we won’t get in tomorrow, but that is not going to happen now anyway because they have been slow in sending some paperwork back so we are not going to be bullied by them and will sit it out until they come to the party with a sensible solution.
In the afternoon when we picked the kids up from school we took them to the beach where they had a good swim for an hour or so, there was a red powdery sort of stuff floating in the water, somebody told us it was something to do with a certain type of seaweed and nobody apart from us was making a fuss about it so we are assuming that it is not going to do us any harm.

Hi Tech Telecoms

Wednesday 2nd April 2008
After dropping the kids off at school today we had an appointment with the Realty Agent at the house, the telephone company were unable to check if the line was dead or not and needed us to check it by going into the house, plugging a phone in and checking if there was a dialling tone or not. The text that we had received asking us to do this gave us a number to ring, saying that if there was no ring tone we should ring another number, we think telecommunication is still in its infancy over here. We rang the second number using our mobile and were put on hold for about 10 minutes, so we got fed up with that and rang the sales number instead. Obviously the idea of making a sale is more of an incentive to answer the phone than listening to somebody telling them that a phone line is dead, because on about the third ring they answered and although they wanted to put us on hold to this other department until we told them that we had already been waiting for 10 minutes and were running out of credit, at which point they offered to sort it out for us and get the department to ring back within 30 minutes. Needless to say they didn’t ring back, when we rang them and told them our name they immediately informed us that a request has been made for the line to be reconnected. They obviously had our information in front of them, they were just too idle to let us know, sometimes you just have to wonder who is paying who, we’ve done the first bit for them now they want us to give them $299 Dollars so that they can instruct a sub contractor to go out and do the rest for them. It all sounds a bit BT to me.
We then went and arranged with the computer people that as soon as the line is set up they will set up a wireless modem for our laptop so that we can use the internet as soon as we get into the house, otherwise we would have to wait until we’ve finished decorating before we could unload our belongings and set up our PCs that we brought over and then call them in to set it up and ensure that they are all compatible.
After that we went to the Café and checked our emails, we spoke to the settlement agent who was after some money so we went round to see and got the final figure and his account details, he said he needs to draw on it tomorrow so we will wait till then to transfer it so that we get an extra days interest.
We then went to the trading estate and spoke to a Uniform embroidery company about sourcing uniforms for when we get into the Café, then we went on to Bunnings (B&Q) and bought some decorating equipment for the house so that we can make a prompt start as soon as we get the keys.
After picking up the kids from school we went home and had an early meal, Ian who wasn’t feeling too good skipped dinner and went to sleep for a couple of hours.

Winter is here

Monday 31st March 2008
Winter is here, and the weather forecasters have got it wrong, the temperature went down to about 18 degrees instead of the 25 degrees that were predicted, it rained all day with Perth getting a Months rain in one day, they didn’t state which months rain it was or whether it expected that month to be dry so that it could balance out over the year but it was still quite a bit of water.
We dropped the kids off at school and were told that we weren’t needed for listening duties today because the children don’t take books home over the weekend; they are allowed to play games instead.
Excuse me if I have got this wrong but it seems odd that during the week when time is tight, the children need time to play with friends away from an educational environment, they need time to have a family life, they need to sit down to a well balanced meal, they are expected to have an early night so that they are in top form the following day, they have then been given a book to read in the hope that they will either read it of their own free will or find another busy, time constrained person in the house that has got the time to encourage them.
The alternative would appear to be that you send the child home with a book at the weekend when it is more likely that there will be family around to help them with their reading, when time is less likely to be an issue, when it is not so important that they go to bed early, when the time available will generally be more relaxed and stress free.
If they did that the kids might enjoy it and turn up for school on a Monday with an enquiring mind, but there again that would be a pain in the backside for a teacher.
We had our interview with the management company that runs Busselton Boulevard Shopping Centre today in Bunbury, it seemed to go quite well and we think that they liked us and our ideas, if we are accepted the only thing that may hold it up is that we have asked for either an option on the current lease or a new 10 year lease which if agreed will have to be drawn up and may take time. The management agent didn’t think that we stood much chance but said that she would put it to the owners to see what they said.
When we came out of the interview we drove back to Busselton to check if we had received the mortgage documents, but when we got back we hadn’t received anything so we went to the Café to check our emails. After that we bought a couple of bits for dinner tonight and went home to find that the mortgage documents had arrived.
It was a mad dash then to get the house insured and the mortgage offer signed by 4pm when the bank closed, plus we had to make time to pick up the kids from school. When we got to the insurance office it was about ½ hour before we received our certificate of insurance which meant that it was almost 3pm by the time we came out, so Ian went to the bank to start signing the forms and to make sure that one of us was in there at closing time so that we could not be locked out before signing the documents and ensuring that they reached the lending department with enough time left for the sale to go through on Friday. Carolyn went to school to pick up the kids and came straight back to the bank to sign her bit and we left with about 15 minutes to spare.
The Realty agent has been on the phone suggesting that we withhold money and use it to pay for the outstanding works to be done so we had to pop in to see our settlement agent to see what he thought. He was quite happy with the idea and said that it was quite common in Australia; basically it means that we get the work done to the standard we want and then bill them for it. We are quite happy with the idea because it means that we can have the cooker that we want and only have to pay a portion of the cost, plus the installation will be paid by the vendor and we can get the decorating done before it is fitted.
In the evening the kids went to bed early and we panicked because we thought we had lost lumps of this blog and at one point thought that we had lost the whole lot because of a glitch in the computer that decided to change the name document. We eventually found most of it and saved it to a different memory stick which will hopefully be more reliable, after that of course we had to run a system scan so we ended up having a much later night than intended.

1st day at School for Ian and Carolyn

Friday 28th March 2008
We made sure we got the kids to school early today, after all we couldn’t be late for our first day of listening to the children read. It was relatively harmless, there were only a few words we didn’t know and if we hadn’t been there the teacher wouldn’t have been able to listen to them all on her own so we will be going back next week.
After that we went to the house to do a final Pre-Settlement viewing with the agent, we pointed out all the things that we knew from the surveys needed fixing and found a couple of others that we thought we may get away with. Some of the electrics were not working when we got there and the agent was straight on the phone to an electrician who, luckily for the agent was working close by and came straight over to fix the problem. It was a shame the electrician was so close in a way, it was quite funny watching the agent sweating over the possibility he might have to take a cut in his commission if it didn’t work and we put in a lower offer.
The electrician fixed the bits that were not working and just as we were about to leave the owners turned up and we introduced ourselves, they seemed quite pleasant but we didn’t really get a chance to chat because the agent was desperate to get us out (they obviously don’t approve of buyer and seller talking to each other out here). Outside we spoke to the agent about the bits we weren’t happy with and he tried to fob us off saying I don’t think you can ask for this and I don’t think you can ask for that, so we just stood firm in the knowledge that there is only a week before we are due to settle (exchange) and the small amount that we are asking for is nothing compared to what the cost of us pulling out would be. The agent said he would talk to the owners and see what he could do.
We then went appliance window shopping again and managed to strike up a couple of what we feel are good deals, well it is a darn sight less than we would have paid in the UK. While we were shopping we got a call from the realty agent asking us to pop in and see him so when we had finished we went straight round to his office. He had apparently spoken to the owners who had agreed to get everything that we had listed fixed, the only query was that the cook top that they would be fitting to replace the faulty one may not be exactly what we would want so we might want to do a deal whereby they pay for a cook top and installation and if we want a different top we pay the difference, which sounds good to us as we were going to change it anyway.
We then went to the local showroom to check out the price of cooker tops and bumped into the house owners who were doing the same thing, so we exchanged numbers with them so that we could avoid dealing with agents and said that we would wait for their call and we were sure we could agree a price.
We then went to see the settlement agent and paid our Stamp Duty before a bit of lunch and de-clutter of the emails in the Café. From there we went to an insurance broker to organise house insurance as we are supposed to be signing for the loan on Monday and need the insurance before they will release the funds.
After picking the kids up from school we went to another insurance broker to get a quote before going down to the beach for a swim. Today we went to yet another new beach, this one was recommended to us by the salesman who we are going to buy the Fridge/Freezer/Dishwasher/Washing Machine/Dryer/Iron/Kettle/ Toaster and Vacuum Cleaner from. It is in a small cove called Meelup and it was gorgeous, gently shelving beach, crystal clear water and no Jellyfish (stingers), which we found out today aren’t baby Jellyfish but full size ones which is a result because we weren’t looking forward to meeting the big ones.
We are into Autumn over here now and the nights are starting to draw in, the nights are cooling down and during the day it can go down to 25C degrees so it’s only a matter of time before we put on our sweaters. The clocks go back an hour tomorrow night, we have had an hour daylight saving (summer time) as they call it over here so we will not be able to go down the beach in the evening for much longer although apparently in a couple of weeks time it will start raining for about two months so we probably wouldn’t want to anyway.
We got home at about 8pm after stopping off at a bottle store to buy a box of wine which Carolyn got stuck into whilst watching a load of TV adverts interspersed with the film Love Actually.

White v stainless

Wednesday 26th March 2008
Ian got the kids up early today and made breakfast in bed for Carolyn again, she is going to struggle when he has to go out to work early and she has got to get the kids ready for school every day.
The kids all looked a bit tired this morning so after school we fed them early, made sure they read a bit and did whatever homework was required for tomorrow before putting them to bed for an early night tonight.
After we dropped the kids off at school this morning we went to the Café for a change to check up on our emails, we were also expecting to see an electrician there checking the equipment for us because he had told us that he had made an appointment to do it today. When we asked the owner if she had seen him she said that she knew nothing about it and had not had a call from anybody to arrange an inspection. Marvellous.
After coffee we went to the Settlement agents office to sign some documents for the house before rushing to the house to meet carpet salesman No 3 who had already measured up by the time we got there. We explained to him what we wanted where and he showed us some swatches of carpet and vinyl so that we could make sure that we were all talking about the same thing and he said he would ring us with the price. He was smiling so it doesn’t look good.
After that we went to a household appliance store and spent about ¾ hour trying to work out which home phone, mobile phone, satellite TV and internet networks would be best for our needs, when we had worked it out it turned out that the store could only help us with the mobile phones as that was the only bit they are licensed for. We need to go to another telecom store 200 yards down the road to get the rest sorted out which we will try and do tomorrow.
While we were there we got a call from the Café letting agent asking us to go to Bunbury on Monday morning for an interview and to talk about our business plan, also we had a call from carpet salesman No 3 and it wasn’t good news, Carolyn must have really liked that carpet for it to reach that price.
We then went to another department within the same store and spent the best part of 2 hours looking at White Goods although we were going to go for Stainless Steel Goods at one point, but after careful consideration (stainless steel is dearer) we decided to go with white. The salesman must have thought that he had got a result dealing with us; a couple of Brits, new to the country and not bringing much over with them as far as electrical goods was concerned. So it was that nearly 2 hours later having discussed the benefits of every Fridge/Freezer/Dishwasher/Washing Machine/Dryer/Iron/Kettle/Toaster and Vacuum Cleaner in the store we had produced the list of goods that we wanted and agreed a price which the nice man duly printed off for us.
Tomorrow we are going to a similar store, prices in hand, to see what they come up with and then expect to go back to the first store to renegotiate the price that we had just agreed. Lets face it as a salesman he was able to give us some quite large discounts without seeking permission so there has got to be room for a bit more negotiation yet, also we have got nothing better to do while we are waiting for the house and business to go through so we might as well make somebody work for a living.
After we left there we popped into the Café to let them know that we have got an appointment with the letting agents next Monday in Bunbury, while we were there they told us that the electrician had turned up unannounced about ½ hour after we had left in the morning and had done the inspection in less than an hour which is a little bit less time than the “all day” that he had told us it would take. It will be interesting to see how much he charges for labour.
We then had a coffee in one of our competitors’ establishment before picking the kids up from school, they were absolutely shattered so we fed them as soon as we got home and sent them to bed, Kristian was in bed by about 5.30pm and the other two by 6.30pm and they all went to sleep quickly. We also had an early night to make sure that we are fit and ready to do battle with the white goods salesmen tomorrow.
Carpet Salesman No 1 still hasn’t come back to us with a price, he’s probably too busy making more TV adverts for us to watch while he is away on holiday in Thailand next week so that he can justify the price he is about to quote. Alternatively he may have spent so much money on adverts that he has had his phone cut off and can’t let us know how much it costs. If we tried we could probably think up all sorts of stupid reasons why he hasn’t called but we would get bored typing it and you would get bored reading it so we’re not going to bother, perhaps we aren’t posh enough for him, oops there we go again. We shall say no more on the subject, that is unless he comes up with a reasonable or unreasonable excuse for taking so long in which case we will let you know as soon as we do.

Back to School

Wednesday 19th March 2008
We were all up early this morning in preparation for the kids first day at school, Marisa and Kristian woke up first at about 6am and by 6.30am were chomping at the bit and making a hell of a row. Fraser had to be woken up at 7am because he spent most of the night awake, playing in his room and was not at his best.
All three were ready to go, dressed and breakfasted well before we needed to leave at 8.10am so we were able to get there well before the uniform shop opened at 8.30am. Because we were early we were able to get all of the paperwork done first which was good because it meant that as soon as the uniforms were sorted they were able to go into there classes at the same time as all the other kids. The first lesson of the day for the whole school is a walk along the beach, we don’t imagine that it stretches the kids too much but it does give the Principle a chance to go through the kids bags and confiscate the drugs, booze and ciggies that have been brought into school without fear of being disturbed (only joking).
The kids look really great in their uniforms but we didn’t get time to take a photo to prove it so hopefully we will remember tomorrow. After watching the kids head off on their route march to the beach we headed for the Café for a cup of coffee and a chance to catch up on the emails after which we headed to the bank. That’s right, the same one as yesterday.
What a difference a day makes, today everything is waiting for us all we have to do is fill out the forms, decide which accounts we wanted, which tends to work on the principle of how much are we willing to pay the bank for doing nothing before you start paying fees for the things that they will do. Once that was decided they then arranged for a card machine for us and even helped us negotiate the fees so that we didn’t pay top whack. We did need to sign a form and fax it back to the card machine department but the guy who was dealing with it went for lunch before sending it, so after about 10 minutes of waiting for this form that was obviously not going to turn up till after lunch we decided to go for lunch and went back and signed it afterwards.
We had arranged another viewing of the house, to measure up for carpets and curtains but had ½ hour to kill so we went to the local Telstra (phone) dealer and discussed a few Phone/Mobile Phone/Internet packages with them and it would appear that to set us up with 2 lots of broadband, 2 Phone lines and 2 Mobiles to cover work and home it is going to cost about $300 a month (approx £150), and that’s without starting to use them. The call charges are obviously set by somebody who has worked out that people do not like talking to an ansaphone because they charge a connection fee of 37 cents (18p) which if you put the phone down you still have to pay, and when you try again you will pay again. If you manage to get through to somebody though it is a different story because they then start charging you in blocks of 30 seconds as well as the connection charge and the 30 second blocks cost up to about 50 cents (25p), at least Dick Turpin wore a mask. Fortunately if you disregard all this charge through the nose for everything attitude, Busselton has still got a great feel about it and while we may kick up a stink in our own little way we have no intention of leaving just yet as we think the alternative, coming back in the UK would be worse still
After that we went and measured up the house for carpets and curtains, it appears that the bank sent round the Valuer yesterday so we should hear back from them quite soon. While we had a look round the garden Ian mentioned to the Realty Agent that we would get a gardener in to cut back the trees and bushes a bit if only to keep it safer for the kids, because of spiders (Redbacks) and their habit of living in trees, to which the agent replied that it’s not the Redbacks you worry about down here, it’s the White Tips that do the biting in Busselton. This has made Ian feel really good, having preached to the kids about the dangers of spiders but concentrating on Redbacks because they are the ones that people talk about from day one, he has now got to warn them about white tips and he hasn’t even seen a picture of one yet. Did you know that receiving a bite from a White Tip will do you less harm than receiving a phone bill from Telstra?
At 3pm we went to pick up the kids and fortunately they had loved every minute of it, they didn’t appear to have been worked too hard on their first day but nevertheless they seem to have enjoyed it, made some friends and are looking forward to going back tomorrow.
Early evening Carolyn took the kids to the park while Ian went food shopping again before making dinner and then they all had an early night.

Bankers

Tuesday 18th March 2008
Ian got the kids up early this morning in an effort to break them in to school routine and they were not happy chappies, Fraser as usual just got on with it and stuck his head into a bowl of cereal before brushing his teeth and getting changed. Kristian and Marisa were not quite so accommodating and had to have the bed clothes pulled off them before they would even move, they eventually got up and had breakfast but they are such slow eaters we think they will be going to school hungry until it sinks in that they need to get moving in the morning if they want to eat, meanwhile Carolyn enjoyed her Coffee in bed again this morning.
We went shopping again today to pick up the last few things that the kids need for school tomorrow, dropping off Kristian’s Library books on the way (I think we need to start choosing for him as he gets through them quite quickly) followed by a trip to the bank we intend to use for the business.
Banks over here appear to be the same as back home when it comes to red tape. We can’t arrange a meeting with the Business account manager because he only talks to businesses that want to borrow money, we can’t open a business account prior to taking over the business because somebody else is currently running that business, we can’t have a card machine until after we have started trading and then it could take 7 working days after we apply before we got one, we can’t order cheque books until we have started trading.
We pointed out to the young lady that we needed an account because potential suppliers would want references before opening credit agreements, we explained that there own bank was lending us money towards the business and would need for us to have an account in order that they can get their money back, we told her that the Café has a card machine at the moment that customers are used to using and would expect to carry on using, we told her that we needed cheque books so that we could start purchasing things for the business rather than getting things mixed up with our personal account, we pointed out that when we get in there we need to hit the ground running and that meant that everything had to be in place before we take over, not just the banks.
She said we can’t do it until you are the registered owner of the business, but I will try to get you a card machine although I don’t hold out much hope because they have strict rules on what they can do (and the rest of the bank don’t? what planet is this girl on). She took our number and said she would get back to us, so as a parting gesture we pointed out that we currently bank with the same bank as the Café owner, they had also offered us finance (the rate was not as good) and as they know the business would probably be more than able to set up a card machine for us and left it at that.
About an hour later we got a call from the bank saying that we could set up an account, we could arrange for a card machine to be there on the day we take over and we could have a cheque book, all we have to do was give them our Company and Trust details and they will organise it.
Was it blackmail in threatening to go elsewhere or common sense that prevailed, I don’t suppose we shall ever find out.
We then headed home stopping at the supermarket for some bits for the kids packed lunches tomorrow, followed by the accountants to drop off some paperwork and then to the Library to get Kristian some more books, all of this done and we haven’t got in the car once today, at this rate we’ll be able to fill that hole in the ozone layer before long.
When we got home Ian switched on the laptop and found that he could connect to a network but could not get a good signal, however we did see who had sent emails to us even if the signal was not strong enough to download them and one of them was from the Foreign Investment Review Board.
So desperate to know what it said Carolyn sent Ian to the Library again to use their internet and find out what the email said. Ian got to the library and asked about using the internet service and was told he had to register, so he read the rules and signed the form to register, he was then asked when he wanted to use the internet to which he replied, now please (that caught them on the hop). It turns out that you have to book your time slot which is fair enough so Ian took the first slot available which was Computer 4 at 3.30pm, half an hours time, so he went and bought a paper and stood at the library counter reading and hoping to get on one earlier. After a couple of minutes the person on computer 2 finished, came to the desk and said goodbye to the person behind it, Ian is thinking that’s handy, but no, about 10 minutes later some spotty youth walked in and said can I use the internet, to which the person behind the counter replied you can have one computer now but if your friend wants one as well he will have to wait for 40 minutes, so off the youth goes and gets comfortable at his computer that he has not had to wait for. It’s a good job Ian is such a placid sort of chap really because any normal person would probably started ranting and raving about this by now.
Anyway, a couple of minutes later the person on computer 4 finished, came to the counter and said goodbye, this time the other spotty youth who should have been waiting 40 minutes was given the use of the computer and before Ian could say anything the person behind the counter had done a runner, fortunately a very nice lady took their place and after asking if he had booked time on the computer pointed out that the computer in question was about to come free. Ian has vowed that if he ever becomes Mayor he is going to change the rules to take into account the fact that some people may not use up all of their allotted time on the computer. But as we said Ian is not the sort of person to let things like this faze him.
Anyway after about 20 minutes on the computer number 4, not 2 or 3, Ian had received the message that we had been hoping for and forwarded it to everybody that needed to know. We have FIRB approval to buy the house which is great news and removes a great weight from our shoulders and subject to a bank survey of the property tomorrow, should be plain sailing from hear on in.
When Ian got back and told Carolyn and the kids they were all ecstatic which was good to see, after dinner we took the kids to the park in the hope that they would burn off a bit of steam and get a good nights sleep before going to school tomorrow, we’ll let you know tomorrow if it worked or not.

Amazing Avocados

Wednesday 12th March 2008
Had a call this morning, the bit of paper that has been flying back and forth with the offer details for the house is now unreadable so the agent has got to send a clean copy, express post, to the Trustee who will return it, express post on the same day which means that in theory we will receive a scanned copy on Friday which we will then have to print and take over to the Mortgage advisors office so that we can fax it through to FIRB and hopefully save ourselves a couple of days. If this does manage to go through on time it is going to be tight.
We have managed to find a Furnished house in Busselton that we can rent until the house sale goes through and will be moving in on Saturday, that will give Sharon a chance to recover before the next lot of family move in at Easter for 3 ½ weeks.
The weather is hot today 33C, so we went out for the day to a place called Maze (guess what we did there?), it was a cracking day out, we walked round a few mazes, and saw some Koalas, Red and Grey Kangaroos and Emus, before lunch. After lunch we played a couple of rounds of crazy golf, the first of which was played using Frisbees instead of golf bats and balls and was extremely amusing and time consuming and bearing in mind it is not something we would normally do I think we did well before the park closed. The second game was just ordinary crazy golf which Ian won.
Its Malcolm’s birthday tomorrow and he wants an Avocado tree so on the way home we took a diversion down the Wanneroo road looking for nurseries that might have them for sale but there seems to be a shortage of them because everywhere we went they said they would normally stock them but they just can’t any at the moment, so on the way home as a last resort we stopped at Bunnings, the Australian equivalent of B&Q and although they didn’t have any and didn’t know why they didn’t have any the old boy who was serving us did point out that you shouldn’t have Avocado trees near children because the branches drop off for no apparent reason, and what good is a child with no branches, but more importantly from Sharon’s point of view as it is going to be her garden that it would be planted in, they grow up to 25-30 feet tall and 7-8 metres wide within a couple of years and her garden is not the largest in town. Did you like the way I managed to use imperial and metric in the same sentence? Is that what they mean by Multi tasking?
After that we needed to freshen up a bit so we went down to the beach for a couple of hours, the surf was great for body boarding, probably a bit like back in the UK at the moment.
Sharon did the cooking again tonight, she’s starting to get very inventive all of a sudden, tonight’s culinary delight was last nights Chilli leftovers mixed with sliced Pepperoni, plastic coating and all, stirred through with a jar of Dol Mio and served with Pasta, it was different and I bet Jamie Oliver would never have thought of it but it was very tasty.