Panic Level 2

It could be something in the water, or maybe it's the ether or the space-time continuum. But somehow, a wave of panic has washed over us (or at least me). I'm sure it's not the worst it will be, but it seems noticeably, qualitatively different from yesterday. I wonder if there's a "straw that breaks the camel's back" situation with panic. Probably not. It could be just that I'm tired as well. Spent a little too much time in the e-surf last night.

It would be nice to know that all is well with the passports. Apparently my helper in Canberra was not in at work today, so there was no news. Maybe tomorrow (Thursday - my second last day in the office). I've given up waiting for passports to do the bank account application. That was faxed off yesterday with my private passport details, although my assistant in London is away until Thursday. Maybe that will all go haywire. I've asked Westpac for the business access thingy - not sure how long that will take. Maybe we'll be out of the country before they can deliver the dongle. And then there's tax. My managed funds tax statement will arrive on 1 October (next Monday), giving me loads of time to fix it all up before the removalists arrive on Wednesday - although we don't move out until Thursday. I met with my financial people today to discuss their doing it all for me, but it doesn't seem to save that much work on my part, and they charge too much anyway. Another decision...

We've arranged the landlord insurance for home, and we've re-addressed insurance for the Townsville house, so that's good. We've thought about the health insurance, and the insurance for goods being sent overseas. There's paperwork involved in both of those, and they're not done yet. One lot of car insurance is arranged from my point of view, although Peter still needs to do stuff. The other car insurance isn't completely sorted yet, although it's been nicely serviced yesterday. I've made arrangements for the broadband account to be cancelled, but we need to preserve the phone number, and "stop" the electricity and gas.

I've been trying to prepare myself for internet and mobile access in the UK, so that we don't waste time/money making bad choices. It all seems so different over there. It seems that mobile phone contracts are double the Australian prices, and the broadband is half the price (or less). It will probably take rather more poring over web pages to reach a satisfactory understanding of how it all works.

To top it all off, we've decided that we need a locksmith to service the front door (coming Saturday); a gas man to make the stove work a bit better (coming tomorrow); an electronics man to make the DVD player eject the disc (calling tomorrow); a removalist doing our storage (pre-pack inspection tomorrow); rental-property cleaners to arrange, and a plumber to stop the toilet dripping. Well, you don't really need a plumber for that - anyone can change a washer. But that wouldn't really be the John way of doing things. Nope, I went and bought a whole new, much more water-saving toilet suite. I've half installed it already tonight. A spot of plastering and painting (since the old toilet covered up more of the wall than this one does) to do tomorrow morning, and an extra little flexible hose, and we'll be a two-toilet household again.

Other things on the list: a new battery for the laptop - but there are currently none in Australia. Maybe it will be easier to buy one in the UK. Do I need a new laptop? It would be nice - one for me/work and the old one for kids games etc, and it's almost half price with salary packaging, but maybe it's not really urgent. I think the ASUS F3SV is the machine I would choose. And if I did have a new computer, would any of the other tasks ever get done?

On top of all those, there's a farewell lunch with work friends tomorrow, and with games friends the next day (tentatively so far - should I arrange it?).

Clearly there's no time to spend on blogspot...