Coming back to the Wankelkontakt stories, PC and car being unreliable. In early 2013 I went to two different experts on those issues and they both solved the problem more permanently I am happy to say.
2013 started approximately the way 2012 ended. Slowly but steadily I get into the ‘swing o things’ here in my new living environment of Far North Queensland.
Earlier in the year Ute suggests to me that we do a survey in the community in order to find out what people would like to be improved in the area. Well it’s a call not to be missed by a market researcher. Hence I organise some group discussions first, to be held in the CWA Hall – which they kindly provide me for free, even serve some things to nibble. And afterwards I do a large number of structured interviews in Flying Fish Point and the Coconuts. Ute, who had suggested to do the survey and offered her help, was then called to Germany since her mother had a fall and broken her shoulder. So it was left to me on my own to do all the work for the survey. Never mind, I had plenty of time.
Eventually I produced a report and gave a few copies to local businesses which had been part of the assessment and also brought a copy to the local council as well as the Katter party headquarters in Innisfail. The Council even sent me a letter, thanking for the interesting information and promised to contact me if/when there was a need for my services. Well I have not heard from them since.
Some many years ago I somehow decided to write some kind of diary/running report during times when lots of things are happening, usually during the many trips around the world. The reason being that I wanted to capture the most important moments and not forget some minor things which might have happened during those times.
Well settling down in FNQ was not really such a ‘variety’ of life and nothing really earth shattering was going to happen – well we hope it won’t – and life really settled into a very normal, ordinary and one day like the other way. BUT, Jochen Holzrichter decided to write a diary. And I am doing it to this day.
In the early days, the entries were sometimes a week or two apart but in the process of getting more into it, and with life getting more and more ‘regular’ I got into the habit of entering things almost on a daily basis.
I guess I got a little bit used to the life in one small room in Flying Fish Point After Ute left for Germany in February to care for her mother, I was able to move into the back room behind the bathroom which was a bit more convenient and larger. But it did not really change the fact that I had 95% of my stuff still in the shed with access being a bit of a problem.
After the car started with a new problem, in the ‘transport’ of petrol did not work properly, I made a wonderful decision in April 2013. I bought myself a small 50cc scooter. Honda four stroke.
Having a largish container on the back and a little storage space under the seat, it suits me fine for getting around and hence the car stays more or less unused at the house. One of the good things is that the little bugger only takes about 2.5 litre of petrol for 100 km hence a cheap way of getting around. Filling it up after around 150 km costs me around $6.00 And around I get. Have been driving to all sorts of places in a 75 km radius
Having my 65th birthday in May also means that I can apply for the pension. It’s a drawn out process with weird forms to be completed. There was even a filter mistake in one of the forms. All in all it took about 4 months and two attempts to get it all done but on the 19th of December I become an official pensioner. And that obviously provides me with some degree of certainty as far as regular income is concerned. A weight off my shoulders which has worried me over the last few months a lot.
In September I moved into my rented apartment in 3/3 Riverside Crescent. Thus ending the one room existence and having enough space for all my stuff from the shed. Tony, Ute and Dominic were kind enough to help me with the move.
I had been driving around the Cairns area before in order to look for some rental properties there, but there was nothing under $200 to get which I simply could not/did not afford. So the apartment here with a starting price of $170 per week was fine.
Eventually I also solved the petrol injection problems with the car – well the guys at the repair shop did – and now both vehicles are fairly reliable moving things.
With my driving of the scooter I also started again my hobby of landscape and plant photography. And yes the folders with the pictures are growing by the day. Some really nice photos in it.
Sooner or later the year comes to an end. It’s been one with some new experiences. There is a new Government in Australia, this time the Liberals with Tony Abbott as PM. Well Labour had done themselves no favour with Gillard and Rudd moving in and out and Rudd being a strange freak in his role as PM. Now we roll back into conservative territory with 19th Century Abbott being at the helm.
A sad moment in December was the news about the death of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. I guess it was to be expected at some stage, he was old and frail, but it brought tears to my eyes. The end of a wonderful and very wise man.
It somehow reminded me of my first visit to Johannesburg (J’burg for short) in March/April 2004. I had found a reasonable hotel in Santon, an upmarket suburb of J’Burg. And there was just opposite the hotel the Nelson Mandela Square with a large – very large – statue of the good man. As far as ‘art work’ is concerned, it reminded me a little about some of the communist country statues of their ‘dear leaders’ However, I agree that he deserves such recognition in South Africa which he has helped – in a leading role – to change for the better and do away with unacceptable discrimination.
