The prospective "Riverbend" buyers are now retrospective: "Thank you but no, thank you!" was their final answer.
And I am thankful, too, as the likelihood of a sale prompted me to have a big clean-out after which "Riverbend" is so much more livable that I may as well stay here!
I rid myself of at least three dozen pairs of pants, mostly made to measure (but not today's measure!) by tailors from Rangoon and New Delhi to Singapore and Bangkok to Hong Kong, a dozen-or-more suits and jackets, dozens of New Guinea-style dress shorts and socks, and dozens and dozens of business shirts, many with the hotels' laundry markings in their collars and others still untouched in their hotel wrappings (see above). I kept my best dinner suit for my own funeral!
A YASHICA miniature spy camera, flogged off to me back in the 70s by Roy "Goldfinger" Goldsworthy and never used, and a SONY Camcorder bought in Singapore in the late 80s for well over $3,000 and used only once, will go to the Spy and Camera Museum in Herberton. A gold ROLEX Oyster Datejust watch, not worn since my halcyon days in Saudi Arabia, will stay well hidden inside a drawer so as not to give the wrong impression when I line up for the weekly Pensioners' Special Roast Beef at the local bowling club.
Supernumerary radio and stereo and television sets together with a bar fridge (my drinking days are over!) and an old dishwasher will go to the local tip.
Then there were the three or four extra dinner sets, countless glassware and beer steins, cutlery sets, kitchen jars and containers and utensils, and endless nicknack (not to mention the paddy whack) which will all be donated to the next Nelligen Hall jumble sale.
And what about the countless tee-shirts which seem to follow my pretzel-shaped career path:
Papua Yacht Club Port Moresby
Morgan Equipment
AIR NIUGINI
Papua Besena
Papua New Guinea
Husat? I kisim Independence
Townsville
HARTLEY
Saudi Arabian Oil Splash
CLUB MED Cherating Malayia
Noumea Beach
South Pacific - The Beer of Paradise
Penang Malaysia
Saudi Building Systems
Kieta Bougainville
Sid Deeky is my Friend
I Love My APPLE ///
I am allergic to work
John XXIII College
Thursday Island 1877-1977 Centenary
Batam View Beach resort
Forget Singapore, Remember Batam
Kin Shi Ji
SHANGHAI
Selangor Club Kuala Lumpur
Canberra Computer Accounting Systems
Puerto Galera Philippines
Cambridge University
Wine Festival Dafni Greece
The Great Wall
Cape Pallerenda
Happiness is being one of the gang in Saudi Arabia
Had a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel
PFL
Drinking Team - Bougainville Island
Point Cruz Yacht Club Honiara
Harmonie Canberra
Saudi Arabia - Love it or Leave it (I did!)
Peace Hotel Old Jazz Band
See India - Travancore State
Kelab Sukan Suruhanjaya Pelabuan Pulau Pinang
Then came the boxes full of old NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and GRASSROOTS magazines after which I tackled my huge collection of professional books accumulated during my days as chartered management consultant and accountant and computer systems analyst and programmer.
Years ago I had already created a huge landfill at "Riverbend" from long outdated computer reference books but somehow they kept on breeding so that another lot needs to be disposed of:
The PC Configuration Handbook - 2nd Edition
Killer Windows Utilities
Glossbrenner's Complete Harddisk Handbook
NOVELL Netware Power Tools
HELP! The Art of Computer Technical Support
Working with Clarion
Dictionary of Computing
Tips & Tricks for your PC Printer
The Computer Virus Handbook
1-2-3 The Complete Reference
PC Secrets
The Audit and Control of Microcomputers
Working with PICK
Understanding Microsoft Access 2
EXCEL 4 for Windows
DOS for Dummies
Exploring the PICK Operating System
Microsoft Access/Visual Basic Step by Step
Using Clarion Professional Developer
The Printer Bible
Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Clarion Professional Developer
Revelation Tutorial
The Help Screen Collection
Using Access 97
Windows 3.1 The Visual Learning Guide
Murphy's Laws of Windows
Staying with DOS
The IBM PC from the Inside Out
Access Programming for Dummies
EXCEL for Dummies
Voodoo DOS
Using Access 2 for indows
Microsoft Access Answers
and
Computer Wimp - 166 Things I wish I had known before I bought
my first computer
which, unfortunately, did not tell me not to buy so many computer books!
I certainly don't want to read any of these again:
Management : Theory and Practice
How to Hire the Right Person
The Laws of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate
How to be a Successful Computer Consultant
Asian Pacific Taxation
Accounting for the Changes in the Purchasing Power of Money
How to Face that Interview
The Legal Frame Work of Business
Creative Accounting: How To Make Your Profits What You Want
Them To Be
Crime by Computer
O&M
Highlights on Taxes and Trade in Iran
Accounting Desk Book
Unaccountable Accounting
Efficiency Auditing
Introducing System Analysis
Management Information Systems Handbook
Management and Computer Control
Discounted Cash Flow
Model System of Accounts for Electricity Supply Undertakings
How to Save $14,500,000 through Internal Auditing
Readings in Cost Accounting Budgeting and Control
Discounting and other Interest Rate Procedures in Farm
Management
Filing and Records Management
Modern Accounting Systems
Accounting Theory
Development of Information Systems
Materials Management
Manual of Cost Reduction Techniques
Accounting Perspectives
Accounting Practices in the Petroleum Industry
Management Consulting - A Guide to the Profession
Improving Office Efficiency Today and Beyond
Accountants' Cost Handbook
Microfilm in Business
Design of Purchasing Systems & Records
Sales Tax in Australia
Profit Improvement
The Law of Banker's Commercial Credits
Petroleum Accounting Practices
Budgeting Problems
Towards Better Company Reporting
Costs and Prices
Civil Claims Practice
Budgetary Control & Cost Reduction for Retail Companies
Business Mathematics
Manual of Auditing (the classic by V.R.C. Cooper)
Guidebook to Australian Company Law
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Accouting for Management
Controllership
Accountants' Handbook
Australian Secretarial Practice
Financial Handbook
Modern Internal Auditing
The Practice of Modern Internal Auditing (another classic!)
Cases in Auditing
Sources of Company Finance in Australia
A Manual of Office Systems Procedures
Business Forms - Design and Control
Cost Reduction from A - Z
Spicer and Pegler's Bookkeeping and Accounts
(generations of budding accountants studied this!)
Business Management Handbook
Company Law (Yorston and Brown was required reading!)
Credit Management
Business Logistics
How to Form and Use a Private Company
Accountants' Data Processing Services
Australian Secretarial Reference Manual
and many, many, MANY more.
Nor will I ever again need to refer to these tomes from my five shipping assignments in Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Greece:
Tonnage Management
Tramp Ship Sale and Purchase
Voyage Estimating
Bunkers
Steamship Accounting
Handy Book for Shipowners and Masters
Laytime Calculating
Shipping and the Law
Marine Claims Handbook
Hague Rules Law Digest
Timechartering
Book of Shipping Abbreviations
Carriage of Goods by Sea
Bills of Lading Law
The Hamburg Rules
International Cargo Carriers' Liabilities
Chartering and Shipping Terms
Shipbroking and Chartering Practice
Scrutton on Charter Parties
I may, however, have another bash at these just for old time's sake:
International Maritime Fraud
A Popular History of Taxation
The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation
Adventures in Tax Avoidance
and Michael Summerskill's classic on shipping calculations,
Laytime
which I have always struggled with (although Bozenna in my Pireaus office filled that gap wonderfully).
Freedom from clutter at last!
As for selling "Riverbend", well, let's take a breather and see what three other recently listed properties on less than 2000 square metres in the same lane - at # 23 for $1,600,000 and # 27 for $1,990,000 and # 33 for $950,000 - sell for. If they sell for their asking prices (or even near them), then "Riverbend" on over 7 acres is clearly too cheap at a mere $2 million!
