On Monday morning we had a leisurely start, I milked Annie's left back quarter again, and we picked up some stock feed and leafy greens and then Aimee headed back to Rosebery where her Dad lives.
Today was a nice day weatherwise, but almost a complete loss on other fronts.
I didn't get time to do the calves, sheep, far end cows or chooks. In fact, Annie's feed and milking was the only farm work I had time for.
The reason being that I wasted a whole day chasing red tape to try and roll the money from the SMSF back into Geoff's First State Super account.
It started well enough, with the accountant saying that if we could get the forms and identification stuff done we could maybe even do the payment today. However, in order to get a confirmed ID from the tax office to do the rollover I had to get a MyGovID certificate. I raced home to get my birth certificate and added that to my driver's license and my medicare card. That brought me up from "basic" ID to "standard" ID, but the process we wanted to do needs "strong" ID. OK, what identifications are the options for that ? A passport. And ONLY a passport. Nothing else.
What do people do who don't have passports ? They ring a helpline. I have no idea if ringing that helpline works because we couldn't get past the "we're madly busy and won't be answering the phone" message. No option to email or use a web form. They're probably madly busy with all the people who don't have passports because they put a stupid system into use without considering half the population.
They did give the hint that if your passport expired less than three years ago they'd take that. I do have a passport that expired two years ago. So back home, and I turned the house upside down. Emptied sock drawers, waded through piles of papers, checked every shelf and every hiding place. That passport is nowhere I can find. SO DAMN CLOSE AND YET SO FAR ! The curse of the farm saving continues. Every single thing that could have been reasonably expected to go right continues to go wrong.
After giving up for the day I went back into Scottsdale and picked up Geoff's new tough phone, required because Telstra is turning off 3G. Remind me again how all this technology is making our lives better ? And then went for a cuppa and hot chips with Kelly so we could both vent about our bad days.
While I was searching for my passport I found the saffron bulbs that Robyn gave me. They are sprouting. I need to plant them asap.
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