'Going Walkabout' on Tuesday

Thank you. I've been receiving a rent reduction for a few years for taking care of the gardens at the complex, but this year, they decided to hire a new gardener, so that made the rent go up. Then there's the annual "energy use" rent increase, which is just an excuse to raise everybody's rent every year. I'm looking forward to eventually having a new home, but I am not looking forward to moving.

I'm at Melbourne airport waiting for my flight back to Darwin...I also organised through a pet transport company for 3 birds (a cockatiel & 2 Bourke's parrots) to come on the same flight.
There was a drama when I dropped them off - because the bird transport crate has sliding panels on the ends & they thought they might come out during transit. In the end they put tape around the whole box to secure the panels. The pet transport co. didn't raise this as an issue when I sent them a photo of the box, so I'm glad we got to the pet dropoff place early.
Now I have to admit I'm a bit worried about the birds - hope they didn't tape over the air holes. Also the guy kept holding the box the wrong way up (so the water I'd put in would have spilt straight away). Aagh! 😳

EDIT: I am in Darwin now and phew, thank goodness, the birds are fine.

Whew! You must have worried the whole flight, glad they are fine!

Update: my hubby moved up here in early August and it only took 3 weeks for him to get a job (though it was actually ME that did up his resume and all the job applications... ).

We're moving again, but this time to a house which is not far from our current unit (5-10mins drive). Our 6-month lease is expiring on 17th October and hubby and I decided not to renew it, as we need more space and parking, also we're paying $50 per week for a self-storage facility because the unit doesn't have enough room for our stuff.

The good thing is that this house has great access & parking (room for the camper trailer, a boat - if/when we get one! - and 2+ vehicles). It is a really old place, but the owner has renovated the insides and it's quite nice. Plus it has an automatic sliding front gate (remote control), which makes it easy to come and go.

The intriguing thing...behind the house is a high fence with barbed wire on the top, behind which is a huge apartment complex populated by VERY interesting people.

Hopefully they aren't too noisy, but I suspect that as most of them seem to be home all day they may have worn themselves out by nightfall.

Hi Biteybird, sorry I haven't caught up with this thread sooner. Barbed wire eh? Now I wonder what that's for - how many guesses do I get? Hopefully your new neighbours wont be too noisy at night.
Gary, what a shame you have to move. How's the house-hunting going?

Hi, Jan!
We were at the new place this morning moving stuff in (hired a big box trailer and did two trips from the storage facility - back-breaking, as we're both middle-aged, but probably good for us!).

Well...this nice older lady next door said "hi" and gave us a heads up - they were broken into last night/this morning! Apparently the people in the apartment complex behind us are usually "fine", but it's their visitors/transients who tend to be the problem. The lady has been there 17 years and said it used to be much worse, but she also said that we need to lock every door every time we leave the house.

I thought it was nice of her to take the time to let us know. As I said to my husband, if we don't actually feel safe then I reckon that would be a valid reason to break the 12-mth lease if we need to (particularly as the agent told me she'd had no complaints from any tenants about noise or anything else).

Anyway, we'll see.

Luckily there is security mesh on all the windows and doors and deadlocks on the doors, along with a high picket fence at the front (as well as the electric gate).
I'd be surprised if we have major problems, but I guess we'll know in a few weeks.