How much?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I received an email from Jim's Care Home on Friday, telling me that Services Australia had assessed Jim's financial status and decided that he would pay $233.30 a day for his care and keep and that therefore we owed $27, 300 in back payments.

This came as something of a surprise! For a start off, we don't have a spare $27, 300 sitting about doing nothing. Or at all! Also, $233.30 a day is more than we earn by a long way, even if we add every last cent of random income.

I rang Services Australia. Waited 30 minutes for the phone to be answered. Spoke at length to a lovely member of the Services Australia team. Ah!, she said. That amount is the top fee. I take it you haven't filled in the assessment form. 

Yes I have. I have also sent in the extra information you asked for.

She put me on hold while she looked through it. I put her on speaker and started to make lunch. After all - it might be the last lunch I ever have, if they really want $27, 300 from us!!

She came back after 15 or 20 minutes and said she had been through the stuff I had sent very carefully, and they still needed some other things and that the computer sent out the top fee assessment after a certain amount of time when it had no other information.

I strongly suspect that they hadn't got around to looking at the information I had sent or they would have sent another letter saying they needed more detail than I had sent. But I do think they should not let the computer send out extortionate demands for money just because it has got a bit bored!!

I'll get the information they need and send it back and see what happens. In the meantime, the Care Home has parked the bill they sent me until they get a further assessment from Services Australia.

A (not quite) Final Trip to Mount Martha

Yesterday, Lindsey, Wendy, Matthew, Belinda and I went to Mount Martha to make a final sweep of Stella's unit. The bloke who had provided the last skip had delivered another one on Saturday and was on standby to bring a second if we needed it. It was very clear that we would need it! I rang him at about 11:30 and asked if he could bring one at around 1:30. Ah. He had been hoping to go to the races in the afternoon. He would bring another one around in 30 minutes.

We all stopped what we were doing and stuffed the skip full of all the stuff in the garage and smaller bits of furniture. We had it full by the time he arrived about 25 minutes later. Amazing what you can accomplish when you have a time constraint 😂

We carefully filled the second skip with broken down furniture and other bits and pieces. Jenny Across the Road generously offered us all tea and biscuits. By 1:30 we had the house completely cleared out - and we  went down into Mount Martha and had fish and chips in the picnic area by the shops.

A good day's work!

We've moved the furniture out onto the lawn.
Matt chopped it up with a wood splitter and an
electric saw

We packed it all in VERY carefully

Taking tea on Jenny's front verandah

Everything is cleared out and empty

The house is ready to go on the market,
after LendLease has renovated it

Final Family Photo on the front porch

(Photos by Frances, Lindsey and Wendy)

It's not absolutely the final trip to Mount Martha. Lindsey and I have left a fridge and a cabinet in Jenny's garage to collect when Ian is free to bring the trailer down to collect them. And we are still hoping to have a final visit to The Dava. If we can find a time when everyone who wants to come is available!!