A new home at last..

A home at last..

Lots happened this week.. About 2 hours ago, we got a telephone call from the girlfriend of the guy, Peter, up at Ravenshoe, who had previously invited us to house care for him.. He was the guy with the 6 working dogs I've mentioned already, and his is the place that up until recently, we had been hoping to move in to, but had been unable to connect with (we guessed he was working somewhere off the beaten track and his mobile was out of range)..

Anyhow, she informed us that Peter had had a change of plan, and that instead of us housecaring while he was away, he had decided to put his place on the market, and sell up.. So basically, no Ravenshoe for us..

But were we upset? Not in the slightest..!

In fact, we started the week desperately trying to contact him to tell him that we were willing, keen and ready to move in at any time, and left him a text message, and voice mail to indicate such, followed by countless hangup calls all reaching his mail message box..

Yes, the week certainly never seemed bright when it started.. Wednesday we rang the queensland housing office in cairns, and asked them how our application for government housing was progressing, and were told that they were still waiting on some papers from us.. but hang on a sec, let me backtrack some, because the story will be difficult to follow if i tell it from there..

what happened was, that when we got here, back in december, we first chose the path of believing our home would be relatively easy to find, so we started picking up the twice weekly free advertising newspapers in search of rentals, we also visited many estate agents in all the towns we've passed through on the tablelands, and eventually even got around to writing up some small fliers with our telephone number on (the one here at fruitopia), explaining we were a peaceful couple, available to house or land sit anywhere on the tablelands..

Well.. the local advertisements rarely had anything in them that we considered affordable, so mostly they gave us few leads.. - Because we are living on a shoetring budget at the moment, we were only considering rentals around $150 or less, but the cheapest are mostly $200 to $250, so much as there may have been something otherwise suitable for us,the price made us not even consider it..

The real estates have been pretty much the same deal, we've been to lots of them, and the cheapest rental we found was $160 out near some place called Tarzali.. I mentioned it in an earlier post I think.. nice view, but a few things about it made it nonsuitable, including that the house looked like it would be like a sauna inside on hot days..

So, sometime in January, toward the beginning, I think, we decided to see if the government could assist us in some way in finding accommodation.. (we were living in government housing in Sydney prior to escaping there).. Mostly it was kvetas initiative I think, in pushing us to get that process started..

We filled out a short form that we picked up from the Mareeba Court House, and they duly faxed/sent it down to the Cairns Housing department.. Some days later, the Cairns office sent us a whole load more of forms to fill out, including getting some kind of support group to verify our status, doctor certificate/form stating the nature of kvetas disability, and more.. We even had to get Ian to write some kind of letter stating that we lived where we currently are, and explaining why we will have to vacate our spot before month end..

Anyhow, rushed around like blue-arsed flies we did, getting help from some centre in mareeba called "MISC" (Mareeba Information Support Centre), some kind of small house/office that help out people in similar situations to our own.. and waiting forever to see a doctor..

We eventually had it all filled and ready to be sent back, and took it all in to the Mareeba Court House, and dutifully handed it all over to some official there, who then both faxed and sent everything down to the Cairns office.. (that was on either the 18th or 19th of January).

Now, (I'll soon be up to date, I think!) .. About 10 days ago, we rang housing and asked them the status of our application.. Their answer was that because of our situation, we have been given top priority, and there was nothing more that we could do, but sit back and wait for something to become available..

That was a relief!! So we decided, following advice of the MISC place, that the best plan is to ring up the Cairns office each week, and keep bugging them, apparently it'ld help get us pushed through quicker..

So, this wednesday just gone, 4 days ago, we once more rang the Cairns office and asked them what our status was.. This time, we were told that they were still waiting on papers from us..

What? I questioned.. What/which papers? They explained the doctors certificate, witness reports, forms we should have filled in and sent back already before the 3rd of February..

I explained as patiently as I could that that stuff had already all been taken care of 3 weeks previously, that the courthouse had received everything from us, and sent it on to them already, and that the week previously I had already contacted their office, and had been informed that there was actually nothing more that we needed to do, and we should just sit and wait patiently..

After much toing and froing on the telephone, we were finally firmly told that no papers had been received from us yet, and there was nothing further they could do until such point that the papers were received by them..

Neither of us are fans of bureaucracy, far from it.. In fact, I think both of us have an aversion toward forms and stuff, and to hear this was quite disheartening, especially as we had not taken any photocopies of anything.. So we returned to the courthouse to see if possibly our forms were still there, waiting to be sent.. The court house official (same guy who had dealt with us previously), checked his log book, and confirmed that the papers had been forwarded on the 19th of January. He promptly rang the Cairns housing office, and explained this to them.. They denied ever receiving anything..

So basically, we were given little choice other than to get the stuff filled out and sent off again. This time, though, I think we were given slightly less forms to fill out.. just the basics i think, but fortunately we were able to book in to see the doctor already the following morning, and we were also able to get pretty much everything done and dusted by 9:30 thursday morning.. phew.. record timing.. We then returned to the courthouse with those precious papers, and this time asked them for copies as they had been lost previously.. they did that, and faxed the docs immediately down to cairns (actually, they both fax the docs and send them by post!).. Time of faxing (which they stamped on the photocopies they gave us), 09:52.

That done, we thought that we had done enough for the day, but i suddenly got this recollection of how we were told once that there was some kind of office in mareeba that we could go and register with and they could also help us find lodgings, so not really knowing quite where or what that office was, I honed in on some local council offices..

There in, Kveta and I approached the desk, and asked if they offered any assistance for homeless people, explaining that that might soon be our case if we continued being unsuccessful in finding a suitable place to live.. Explaining also about kvetas spinal cord injury..

We were told there was no emergency accommodation place that they knew of, but were given a lead to go see some guy who ran a sort of employment agency for people with disabilities, saying they believed he may have some ideas to help.. Once there, we nearly decided to give the place a miss, thinking that it was doubtful they would be able to help in anyway, but I told Kveta that I would just nip in quickly and ask some simple questions..

I was greeted by a guy named Barry, who as I'd imagined, appeared to have little idea, but he told me to hang on a sec, and disappeared into his office to make a call..

minutes later, he came out smiling and told me that we should go to some other office in town, and that there would be a woman waiting there to see us in half an hour.. My hopes weren't exactly overly enthusiastic about the idea, but I returned to Kveta, and told her what the plan was, and she agreed to go with the flow and see where it lead us..

So, the next stop was only around the corner, and I soon got the realisation that this office was in fact the one we had heard of previously that could assist us in finding housing.. It was a barely noticeably office, that apparently keeps irregular hours and rarely open to just wander in, but this lady named Patricia was waiting there for us, and patiently listened as we explained our situation to her..

Miraculously, she smiled and told us she had a place for us.. No fuss, no messing around.. She first described a unit somewhere, which I don't think either of us were that keen on, but when we explained that we needed a bathtub too, she immediately told us of another place that would be available to move in to from next week..

I could feel the stress relief valves open up for both of us as she told us this.. She said first she would have to check our status with housing, and she rang them immediatly, and was told that they were still waiting on our papers.. We explained they had been faxed an hour previously, but it appears they had once more gone missing, and the department denied ever receiving them.. Fortunately, this time we had the copies with us, so Patricia took them from us, and told the housing dept she had a copy of everything in her "hot little hands" as she worded it, and told them she would be faxing it down to them again straight away.. Which she promptly did, and after speaking with one guy handling our case down there, agreed that she would go ahead and process us for the house she had available..

She gave us the keys and told us to go have a look at the place.

It's sort of in a quiet suburb area in Mareeba. a 2 bedroom house with a front and back yard, and a large mango tree in the back yard..

Now we both know that this is not exactly the place that will ultimately be manifested for us, but as a stepping stone toward it we are quite content to be given the chance to stay there.. So we agreed to move in.. We need our own space and privacy, and, much as I might like Ian, his sometimes habit of bringing home road kills, wallabies and kangaroos and stuff, and letting them rot around the place has made the air at times unbreathable for us..

But I'm side tracking again.. OK.. We returned to Patricia, and asked if she had any idea how we could get the house furnished cheaply.. She was extremely kind and helpful , and wrote a letter for us, that we were told to deliver to some organization called "Lifeline", basically, through public donations of unwanted household stuff, they help out people in similar situations to ours, and they have agreed to fit out our house with the basic basics free of charge.. Bed, table, chairs, fridge, etc..

Unbelievable really.. Thursday turned out to be the day of big smiles as everything started to fall into place for us..

Also, I have to say that the house is not exactly everything we've been dreaming of, and that what we do know, is that in every case, it is purely temporary for us.. Patricia says we would likely be moved on within 6 months or less, as housing in cairns would still be searching for a new home for us, and one other organisation based in Atherton, who Patricia is also registering us with, will also be looking out for suitable accommodation for us elsewhere..

Because of our low budget lifestyle, and the fact that this organisation is somehow government sponsored, the rent is relative to what we can afford, and after an assessment of our bare incomes, we are quite relieved with it's affordability...

We've no idea where our true home is, yet, but the Divine continues to provide as always, and destiny awaits us..

We move in to our new home on Thursday (18th).. We'll probably get a telephone installed shortly after, and figure out some way to reconnect ourselves to the wide eyed web..

peace,
mango.