What a day.

Background

Everything has been going so well. The biggest problem has been my Driver's licence.

In NSW, Australia, a licence is issued for 5 years and mine expires on March 15.
Knowing this, I went to the Registry a week before I moved out of my house and asked to renew my licence early as I would be overseas. This is possible several months in advance.
I filled in the forms, had my eyes tested and my photo taken. As a pensioner it did not cost me anything. There was a problem with the machine so when it finally spat out my licence, I grabbed it, pulled a face at the new photo and put it in my wallet.   This would give me a year to gain a NZ licence.

I was glad to learn that I know longer needed to sit either a theory nor a practical test for a NZ licence.

I was surprised when my sister told me that a licence renewal form had arrived and looked at my licence closely. To my horror it still had the date March 15, 2010 not 2015 as expected.

I emailed Australia and was told sorry for the mixup but  I could renew it from overseas either by sending the old licence back along with passport photocopy and a new photo or I could have a photocopy of my licence witnessed by an Australian diplomat. The nearest one of those is in Wellington.  Not a lot cheaper than flying to Sydney.

I therefore applied for a NZ licence.
Shock, I need to provide them with the date my Australian licence was issued which is not shown on the licence.

I emailed Australia again but no reply.

I was considering posting my old licence back and driving with a photocopy, hoping I would not be pulled over by the police while waiting for it to return.

Now Today
First my email would not work this morning, said password wrong.  Thank God for Skype as I rang the internet provider (15 mins on hold) and the password was reinstated.

Discovered the money for my house has arrived at NZ bank but not yet cleared.

Decided to ring Australia on Skype re licence. Was told I could get a letter stating detail of my Australian licence including date of issue sent to me after providing photocopy of passport and back and front of licence plus mastercard details for charge of $19.

Rushed to library to photocopy and took care that I did not leave my passport or licence in machine.

Returned to hotel to write letter and shocked to find my Mastercard was not in wallet.

Received call from solicitor re paying house money tomorrow.

Rang the place last time I remembered using card but not there.

Rang card provider in Melbourne (thank you Skype) and blocked card.

While on phone remembered I had used card this morning to pay an online account.

Rang bank and learnt money will be cleared tomorrow morning.

Rang library and learnt I had dropped my Mastercard at photocopier.

Rushed back to Library, posting letter to Australian licence provider on way.

Returned to hotel and again rang Melbourne to unblock Mastercard, grateful it had not been cancelled.

Received phone call from sister to say problems with internet provider, she could not log on and had been told there were password problems.

Rang Provider (another 15 mins on hold) to be told my email is being used for spam and I must change password. Did this and then rang my sister to find her internet was back on as there had been a power outage at ISP.

Exhausted but thankful as my Skype account is only about $2.50 down whereas the cost would have been ginormous on my mobile.

Fingers crossed my money is cleared overnight to send to solicitor tomorrow for house sale to be settled on Thursday and that in a week or so I can obtain a NZ driver's licence.

Also that those wretched spammers will find someone else to infiltrate.