Long Service Leave.
 

Finally after 22 years in the job I'm taking 5 months off of work, paid leave. You can get there peeps. Making the final preperations on our camper van, Solar, anderson plug and new fridge etc and then we are off on a bit of a road trip up through the guts of Aus. Then maybe back along the coast. Depending on our long we can be away from home and leaving our young adult kids in charge of the animals at our place. Should be ok hopefully.

Aus Post are still dangling the redundnacy package in front of us, I'm next one on the list now.....but I dont think it's going to happen due to the continuing massive parcel volumes increase. So looking for a casual job during this 5 months so I dont have to touch our super until the wife gets to retirement age in circa 5 years. Plus casual work will mean we'll be able to take advantage of cheap holiday deals with a weeks notice etc.

I'll whack some photos Red Roger style on this thread, should be off properly mid march.

No redundancy package means we will probably downsize to Ballarat or Hobart, although we are looking at taking in overseas students. So that would help with the not dipping into super and giving us holiday money.

Should be in a totally different lifestyle by the time July rolls around hopefully.

Some outback pictures coming this way soon.

Re: Long Service Leave.
 

Good stuff, Ozzie. Let us know how you go

B

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Yes a great spot, only issue with Tasmania is no international flights. Which is a bit of a bummer.

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Yehp, trying to get the Van as top nick as possible. If this trip goes well I can see us going Grey Nomad close to full time. Especially as it means Sharon could leave work that little bit earlier.

Plenty of work on the road apparently, like house sitting and looking after caravan parks etc. Been looking right into it.

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Looking forward to the photos. Have a fantastic trip.

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Good one Ozzie. Sounds like a great trip. You just got me thinking. I have long service leave due soon (it might be already here for service in the UK - mixed info on that) and Mrs Beoz is due soon too. We also have about 2 months annual leave. I would love to pack the family (inclusive of 2 small children) into a camper and do the same. Sadly Mrs Beoz would prefer it done in 5 star hotels. Looking forward to the photos.

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Sounds excellent! Enjoy your adventure :thumbup:

Planning to the same myself in the next five years or so - or even sooner if I can take the time out from work and keep my job open while we're away.

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Congratulations! I've retired several times in my life so far and it's the best feeling. My wife and I intend to travel around in a year or two as well and, to that end, I have just qualified as a Stop/Slow sign Traffic Controller. It's pretty well paid and there's plenty of work. Well worth looking in to.

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Thanks for the good wishes all. Will endeavour to get some experiences on here ASAP, Wifes still working through till March then she gets 3 months of LSL.

SCD. Thus far between the wife and I, we've been made redundant 3 times, twice with packages. Twas a great feeling at the time. Although the first time back in 1996 I started to get bored and then worried as I couldn't get back into the workforce at all. Took a good 5months and the longest I've been unemployed in my life.... right back to paper round time when I was 11. So I reckon now I'll always have some kind of paid employment behind me just to get me off my arse or for the social side of things.

I too am looking into the Traffic Controller thing. I'm going with a mob down here that actually employs you at the end. However it's relatively low paid compared to union work, hence I'll possibly join the CFMEU and get at least 40 pct more for working on union sites. Not sure how that would go around the rest of the country but it will definitely work here in Melbourne and Vic and should fund any trips/holidays we go for, especially if my wife goes casual nursing as well.

Have you thought about joining a Grey Nomad jobs site, with your background I figure you could sign up for jobs wanted and possibly fix up remote stations computer issues. It was something I had in mind, but your way in front of me on the Tech side. Although I can and have done data recovery and networking, so maybe. Anyway this mob here maybe of interest to you. I'll be carrying at least 5TB of Media in the hope that I may be able to barter some movies/music/tv series tothe oldies along the way. Couple movies or TV series on USB's for some just caught fish that kind of thing.

Here's that site.

Jobs - Grey Nomads Jobs

They have a jobs wanted section as well.

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That Grey Nomad site is awesome, thank you. I'm loving the idea of bartering goods for services and I already do that in our little country town. My wife teaches the Mental Health First Aid course and one of our dreams is to take this to rural communities who are not supported at all with things like this. We're excited because this has already started to happen and we have courses in Beaudesert and Goondiwindi in the next couple of months.

The roughest thing about the TC ticket is that it's state specific - I only have a license for QLD which is a bit of a bugger. The standard pay up here is $28 per hour and that increases up to $40 odd for weekends, nights, holidays, etc. which will do me nicely. Hopefully it will be a good enough earner for a couple of years until the last child has flown the nest and we can really start our retirement properly.

Good luck with your plans though - you're going to have a ball. Make it happen.

Re: Long Service Leave.
 

Almost completed changing the Van over from Gas to fully 12V and Solar run.... Save for cooking. I wanted to run induction, but that was a bridge too far dammit. So 220AH of batteries, DC Charger, 600 Watt Inverter and 160 Watt folding Solar Panel just bought. Plus a new 12Volt 110l upright compressor fridge and ditched the old 3way.... Caravan and Camping show here next week, in the market for a Fiamma Awning, So that will or should be going on before our trip.

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Good luck on your travels. I've got a similar setup 2 X 130 amp batteries & a 200w panel on the roof. Batteries charge via a BCDC 12v charger while driving but when free camping the 200w panel isn't enough for longer than a week. My fridge uses about 5 amh.

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I've been researching this stuff for a long while now, almost 2 years before I took the plunge. I've got Pure Energy Crystal PB (AGMs) so hopefully they will do they say and charge a lot faster than standard AGM's. Too late now I've got erm. So I guess I'll find out.

All that investment just to run one of these properly lol.

Dometic 110L


Pure Energy Crystals

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Have you got a copy of Collyn Rivers book on solar? It's a wealth of info. I spent ages researching before I upgraded my setup but technology was changing so fast at the time. I bought a BCDC 1220 to charge the agm batteries whilst driving and about 2 months later they brought out the 1225 which would have saved me buying a solar inverter. Ho hum that's the way it goes sometimes. Our fridge is a 90L dometic we traded up from an 80L waeco.

Re: Long Service Leave.
 

Right we should be off at the end of next week. Got all the gear installed, bought a Fiamma f45 Awning .... Tested out our gear for a few days at Wangaratta.... hit a couple of snags, with the door slider now leaking badly in the rain.... due to brackets in the gutter blocking the gutter causing the water to overflow in through the top of the sliderdoor ..... getting that adjusted this weekend.... but worse was my auto gearbox started to slip and had run out of of most of it's auto trans oil.... with no apparent leak. Topped it up with Trans Oil, which fixed the problem, although no one can tell me why or how this is happening, with no sign of a leak, 2nd time it's done it in the two years I've had it. Whilst checking the Auto trans found the bloody rear main seal had developed an oil leak, so getting that fixed on Tuesday next. Lucky this happened locally is all I can say, so I can use my established contacts who I know wont rip me off or charge over the top.

Not sure whether to go for another check out trip first or just head off, will decide after they fix the leak and see if they can shed any light on this mysterious auto trans leak... the gearbox has to come out apparently to fix this rear seal leak, so hopefully they'll find the issue then.... Dont fancy that going bung out the back of never never with all the gear, we've got onboard.

Solar and fridge works brillianlty .... Got some more ideas for the camper as well, like adding a loft bed to give us more internal room.




Wifes Genius Jenga like packing.....




https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...4226a9ca5d.jpg



Typical set up.... we have ground covers as well.




https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...e755f84412.jpg

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Glad Wangaratta was a success, looking forward to the stories and photos once you hit the road! I know you're gonna find the best watering holes, so don't forget to tag all the local brews as well!
See you back in Melbourne sometime, I can't wait for my next trip down :)

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Yes will do, this time next week we should be in Coober Pedy or Port Augusta.

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:thumbup:

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Have fun champ

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How's it going?

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https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...39d9491716.jpg
Ayres rock camping ground

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https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...14c1a9e049.jpg
My wife Sharon taking a good vantage point over the Breakaways at Coober pedy

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Really well vans going great albeit a tad slowly... But were enjoying it... 4 nights here at Ayres Rock.. Doing a walk tomorrow

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Long as you are enjoying it - sometmes slow is better as you can see more en route!

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Great photos Ozzie. Your set up looks really good, you've put a lot of thought into this! Are you finding it easy to sleep or is it taking a bit of getting used to?

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Generally speaking its pretty good. However if you find yourself on a bit of an incline that can wake you in the night. My wife is so natural to this camping lark though that i reckon its an inherent taussie trait that you probably share? Shes made it ver comfortable.

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Oh yes I'm with Sharon, I can sleep on gravel on top of a bull ants' nest :lol: Sharon sounds (and looks!) lovely. I'm glad you're doing ok with the sleeping, you'll probably get to the stage where you can't sleep on a plush, comfy king size bed on level ground. Or maybe not :D I'm enjoying your travels, keep in touch when you can!

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Been in the Alice for the last 4 days, had a small issue with the auto trans at Kings Canyon of all places, which is quite remote. However got it checked out here in Alice Springs and all ok. We are off to the Anzac day commeration very shortly an Iconic place to be if your going. Then it's onwards to Darwin by the looks. A great way to see the Country and Alice Springs is really worth a visit for everyone. Very impressed with this town.





https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...48d624e1ac.jpg

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Haha free wifi for the shedloads of tourists to send this very photo out into social media world! :D Loving the updates and photos, keep 'em coming.

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So glad the transmission was ok, they're those 'oh shit!' moments when you're on the road. I haven't been to Alice Springs but would like to, I have a friend there who's a public health nurse and she tells me some great stories about it.

Great to hear that all's going so well Ozzie and that you're seeing so much of Oz. Safe travels to Darwin!

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Made it to Darwin..... Pics later, been very sketchy internet coverage through the NT, even with Telstra on the Sturt Highway.

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Hi Ozzie, glad to hear that you made if safely to Darwin. Hopefully the Wet's well and truly over, don't want you or Sharon going troppo! Looking forward to your pics, sketchy internet allowing :thumbup:

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3 weeks left of my LSL..... Had a great time travelling in our Pop top Campervan, the 'net was very iffy as I stated before and tricky to communicate our travels. We've joined a Facebook group called the "Wizzbangers" The name comes from the noise the door makes on a slide door campervan. .Met some on our travels and went for a weekend away with a group of them up to Wagga last week. The reason I'm mentioning it is they are a very inspiring group. The amazing thing about them is at least 60pct of them are women, maybe even 70pct. There are so many Solo women travelers out there doing their own thing. Lots of reasons, but one common theme is their husbands get to set in their ways, in their late 50's and the women take off on their own. They find little bits of work around the country and have a great social network. A few divorcees of course and widows as well. Only 3 couples amongst the 15 of us there last week.... and only one single male.

As for me, well blow me down they are still eeking out slowly packages at work, one guy who turned it down last time, the only one in our area with longer service than me has just taken it. Now I'm definitely the next one on the list on account of the steadfast rule of longest in first offered.. So If I leave I risk losing 84 weeks tax-free redundancy money. So still bloody tied to the damn place. Lots of restructuring going on so damn it.... got to go back for at least up until just after Xmas to see what happens with all the changes.

Not exactly happy about it....but never mind.

These 5 months off did change a few things as I thought..... Best change of the lot, is finally our youngest 21 years old has a steady job... fingers crossed it stays that way. He's grown up a lot in that time and the family responsibility shackles feel like they are coming off after 37 years of full-on parenting.

It's amazing how much can change in 5months eh :)




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Freedom from all the kids?!! Believe it when I see it :)

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It's one of the reasons we are considering a tree change move lol ;)

May not need to.


On that note, I reckon Ballarat is on target to become the Tunbridge Wells or Harrogate of Australia.... Hence my interest in the place.


Most of Ballarat looks like this.....


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...a28e82088a.jpg

Re: Long Service Leave.
 

You certainly seem consistently interested in it, which says a lot...!

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Lovely to hear from you Ozzie! The group you've joined sound like a lot of fun. Re returning to work, 84 weeks redundancy is a very good reason to go back! Fingers crossed that your turn comes up very soon.

Really glad to hear that the boy has grown up a bit and is working, long may it reign. Hopefully he'll get a taste for independence and having a regular income.

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Hey Ozzie, I hope everything is going well for you, not seen you about for a while. I know your long service leave was long ago "spent" but did you keep your camper and continue to use it much afterwards? Also, any tips for anyone considering a grey nomad lifestyle? My wife and I have been of the mind to get a full on motor home for our travels in the coming months and years. Looking at your set up here I can see positives to what you did also in terms of flexibility of use and ease to go off the beaten track from time to time etc. I reckon I could live rough and get by with few luxuries but my princess wife has other ideas. :lol:

Re: Long Service Leave.
 

Hey Ozzie and Pollyanna - I haven't much to do with Ballarat or Bendigo - having only ever passed through - nice cities I think - there is a charm about Victorian centres...