The Calm Before Storm

By Rick Turner

This book has it all, travel, adventure, romance, comedy, drama,
sex and speedway racing.
It is a story about living our dream of traveling Australia and the
world, at the same time pursuing our great sporting love, speedway.
From our caravan travels through Northern New South Wales and
Southern Queensland to the lush, green hills of the Emerald Isle,
the historic ruins of Italy, the desert climes of Dubai, our visit to see
our daughter in South Africa and to be there for the birth of our first
grandchild.
We had such an adventure.
But, this was before the Global Financial Crisis and before the collapse of Townsville-based STORM Financial in whose hands we had trustfully placed our financial future. Little did we know what devastation lay ahead.
Still, my story here, covers a much calmer time and will hopefully entice budding retirees to be a little adventurous when planning future travels.
It was fun while it lasted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465304544

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Rick Turner.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011914267

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-0149-9

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-0148-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-0454-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

1 Our Adventure Begins: The First Month

2 Brisbane and Toowoomba

3 Strange Folk and Weird Joints

4 Texas and Beyond

5 Come on The Cowboys

6 Our Malaysian Stopover

7 Our $15 Million Adventure

8 The Emerald Isle

9 Farnborough and the Speedway World Cup

10 Our Friends—World Champions

11 Dubious Dubai

12 Kruger Park

13 Tears on the Tarmac

14 Dying To Get Back Home

Dedication

I would like to dedicate The Calm Before STORM to our four new-found friends, fellow Stormers who unfortunately, must remain anonymous. They have been through the same trauma that we have. I hope they enjoy reading about our calm period.

Prologue

In the early nineties, the Federal Government made superannuation contributions compulsory. In the future, they warned, there would not be enough welfare money to be able to support the baby boomers during retirement.

In the latter part of the decade they launched a campaign aimed at getting we boomers to actively seek financial advice with the aim of setting up a managed plan so that we would be self-sufficient, self-funded when the time came to retire.

In 1999, I was 53 and retirement age was fast approaching. Gloria and I heeded the warnings and sought advice from three reputable advisors. In the end, we chose to trust our financial future with local, Townsville-based Cassimatis Securities Pty Ltd.

Their plan involved using the equity in our own home, which we owned outright, and investing in shares. Then we could borrow funds against the value of the shares and buy more shares. This would be an ongoing strategy. There would be times when the sharemarket would dip, but, overall, it would always recover and go upwards. That was the way it had worked for the past 100 years. When our portfolio reached a certain level, we would be able to retire and live on the income being generated by the investments. We would be self-funded and would never have to rely on welfare. This was very appealing to us and it was after all, what the government wanted for us, wasn’t it? The plan was perfect.

Our needs in retirement were simple. We had always lived a modest, conservative lifestyle. We’d been in the same house since 1974, we’d always owned second-hand cars and we went on budget holidays. Our only requirement for retirement was that we could visit our daughter in South Africa at least every two years. (Kandi was living in Johannesburg after marrying a South African in 2002. In 2006 she would have a daughter and two years later, a son, our only grandchildren at that time).

Cassimatis Securities soon became Ozdaq Securities and later, Storm Financial.

Towards the end of 2005, our portfolio reached Storm’s magical figure and we were advised to retire and enjoy the things we wanted to do in life. We accepted the advice willingly.

We had three great years of travelling in our caravan and overseas, via South Africa, just the things that we wanted to do.

At the end of 2008, our world came crashing down and we were left destitute. The GFC, Global Financial Crisis, and the Storm plan saw to that. We lost our home—the CBA owned it—and we lost all the superannuation that the government had insisted we invest and live off.

So much for that idea! Centrelink, here we come.

Upon returning to work—fortunately, we both were able to find jobs—and trying to rebuild our lives, a task not easy at our ages, I took the time to write tales about our travels during the three years of retirement.

Whilst Gloria needed medication to help cope with the stress, writing about our adventures became my therapy. I must have needed a lot more than I thought for, what started out as a sort-of diary, a record of our travels, ended up being book length, three book lengths in fact.

I have been told that our travels may be an inspiration to others who are contemplating retirement and may be in a quandary as to what to do or how to go about it. Hence, the reason for my books.

During our travels, I would email updates and other snippets of information to a few of our friends and to friends of my sister, Gwen. Most would comment on how much they enjoyed reading my stories. Gwen’s enthusiasm in particular, had always been a great catalyst for my story telling and I probably owe her thanks for this and the two further publications.

The title I chose for this book should now be a little clearer. Our travels were certainly the calm before (the) Storm (meltdown)!

RICK

Acknowledgement

Of course I have to acknowledge my wife, Gloria for her love over the past 41 years and especially during the past few that have been the most traumatic of our lives. I love you.

Neither of us would have survived without the other. We’re a good team.

Foreword

By late 2004, Gloria and I were both thinking of our future retirement. I was then 58. We’d begun planning financially, for retirement back in early 2000 when we’d commenced a plan with a local financial advisory firm, Cassimatis Securities, later to become Storm Financial. Things were going well and it seemed that we’d be able to take early self-funded retirement. This was ideal.

In October, Gloria had an attack of pleurisy. Resulting from that, she developed a heart problem, which in turn led her to have a pacemaker inserted. We had to go to Brisbane for that to be done.

Whilst in Brisbane and a few days after her operation, we went to have a look at some caravans. We had for some time been talking about the possibility of buying a van for when we’d retired and doing some traveling. Now with this heart scare we felt that it was important that we head towards retirement a little faster. Life was short and no one could know what lies around the corner.

Gloria was still getting over her op, but, that didn’t stop us from signing up right there and then for a brand-new Golden Eagle caravan. We didn’t need it right away and so we ordered it to be built and ready for collection the following April.

Come April, 2005, we drove down to Burpengary and collected the van from Brisbane RVs. Of course we were still working but we would surely be able to do a few short trips away in the van to get used to it ready for our longer trips in retirement.

This we did. In the June, we spent several days in Cardwell at the Kookaburra Caravan Park. Whilst there, we went on a day trip to Hinchinbrook Island and we walked the Dalrymple Gap Walking Trail through the Cardwell Range. Our first trip in the caravan went well.

In August, our financial advisors told us that we were in a position where we were able to retire. I gave six weeks’ notice at work but took a week off and again we went on a short holiday with the van. This time we spent a few days in Atherton and stayed a day or so in Cairns on the way home. Another successful trip. We were now ready for the big-time travels.

I finished work on October 6th. Gloria meantime, would complete the school year and finish mid-December. She would however, not resign but rather take two years leave without pay. Her position with Education Queensland allowed her to do that. In the case of anything unforeseen she had a job to which she could return.

We would place our home in the hands of an agency to be rented. Our furniture would be stored underneath and only the upstairs area was for rent.

We had several things to consider when planning our trips away. Being Speedway fans, we wanted to take in some race meetings during the major summer season. We also had to fit in trips to South Africa to visit our daughter, Kandi and her husband, Gary. They lived in Johannesburg. By this time, late 2005, we were well aware that Kandi was pregnant and expecting our first grandchild in May 2006. A trip for the birth had to be factored in.

Gloria and I have a good arrangement and it is mutual. I am the trip planner. When I come up with a plan I run it by Gloria. She will then add her suggestions which may mean some changes or some additions or maybe not. Usually the final plan is very easily agreed upon. After all, we both love family, traveling and speedway so it’s not hard to reach an agreement.

Thus I went about planning our first big trip away in the caravan. For the most part there were no concrete bookings made. There would still be room for flexibility. Some things of course, had to be booked. In particular, flights, etc., in relation to the forthcoming South Africa trip. The caravanning had to fit in with that.

I booked our return flights to South Africa with Malaysia Airlines. They were the cheapest and they offered free internal flights within Malaysia if you booked a stopover through them so we did that too. Our plan was to fly from Brisbane on May 1st, stay in Malaysia a few days then fly on to Johannesburg.

We would stay in South Africa for five months and fly back to Brisbane via Kuala Lumpur. There would be no stopover on the return trip.

Meanwhile, my plan for our caravan travels was to head to Newcastle firstly. There, we would visit our friends, Marg and Al and spend New Year’s Eve with them. Whilst in the Newcastle area we could catch some big speedway meetings in Sydney and Gosford and then we could move around seeing the countryside and catching more speedway meets at various other tracks. There was no hurry to do anything and we could merely just go where and when we pleased. (For a while, after being committed to timetables for so long during our working lives that concept took a bit of getting used to). We just had to be prepared to fly out of Australia in early May.

After our first few months on the road and the trip to South Africa, there would be nothing planned. That would just come as time got closer.

And so, we were ready to go. Retirement, here we come!

1

Our Adventure Begins: The First Month

During October and November, after I finished work, I prepared the caravan for our travels. I also had to prepare the house. Our plan was to store all our furniture and belongings in the lock-up area under the house and rent out the upstairs area. Gloria, of course, was still working.

We bought a digital camera to replace the 35 mm SLR that had served us so well for many years and a laptop computer to download the photos we may take on the trip. I could also complete writing my memoirs, a project that I had been working on for several years. We did not purchase wireless internet, figuring on just using internet cafes or other facilities during our travels.

The preparation went well. Gloria finished work about a week before Christmas. Our plan was to drive out of town on Boxing Day, a Monday.

During that last week, we packed the last few items from the house either in the van or under the house, depending on whether or not we were taking them with us. We had a garage sale that final weekend to offload any unwanted items and we turned over the house into the hands of a rental agency. With the house empty, tidied and cleaned we had to live in the van for those last few nights and use the amenities under the house.

On Christmas day, we visited a few friends and had lunch with our son, Mick and his dog, Fergus, down on the Strand and said our farewells, not knowing exactly when we would see them again.

Early on the Monday morning, we hitched up the Golden Eagle to our BA Falcon, loaded our pet Indian-mynah bird, Bright Eyes, in his cage onto the back seat and we pulled out of the driveway at about 8 am. It was quite sad and quite a worry too, leaving our home again not knowing when we would next see it.

I should explain about our pet. Early in 2001, while I was working in the storeroom at Officeworks, a pair of Mynahs had established a nest right up in the girders of the roof. Now, whilst most consider these birds pests, I never did. I’ve always loved their cheeky-ness. Anyway, it was mating time and I think three babies were the result of this particular union. One afternoon, about an hour or so before I was due to go home, I discovered one of the babies on the cement floor. Surprisingly, having fallen about 7 or 8 metres, it was still alive. It was less than a week old with absolutely no feathers. I placed it in one of the rubbish bins which I would be emptying before I left work, figuring it would die within that time. Just before knock-off, I went to empty the bin and the bird was still breathing. What could I do? I placed it in a box and took it home. To cut a long story short, it lived and we raised it. For a while, of course, its eyes were closed, but as it grew and gained strength, its eyes opened and looked very bright. We named it Bright Eyes.

It wasn’t long before we discovered just how clever these birds are. It soon began to talk not just in the one screechy voice like a parrot, but in the same voice of anyone who would talk to it. Naturally, that was mainly Gloria and I. In the end, Bright Eyes’ vocabulary was incredible. He spoke in sentences, not just words. The longest sentence he used was "What do you reckon about that, mate?" He was also able to make the prettiest of whistles, just like a canary. He could, but very seldom did, make raucous sounds as well. He was a fabulous pet and a great companion and would live for 7 ½ years.

We had to be in Newcastle for New Year’s Eve, so we had deadlines for the first part of our journey. We were used to meeting deadlines so it didn’t faze us at all.

The day’s journey was long and hot. I didn’t use the car air-conditioning as I figured why add to the extra fuel usage the caravan was causing. Normally, for town driving, we would use about 7 to 8 litres per 100 kilometres. When on the highway it would drop to about 5 to 6 lph but with the van in tow it would increase to between 15 and 20 on a flat road, about triple the usage. The consumption was shocking.

Besides Gloria, Bright Eyes felt the heat. He just sat on his perch with his wings spread and his mouth open. On his very first trip in the car, several months earlier, he didn’t know what was going on and just sat on the perch and never moved. But, after a couple of trips, he was a veteran. He would whistle and talk, drink and eat as if he was at home.

We made it to Rockhampton around 6 pm., just before dark, and booked into the Country Club Caravan Park on the northern outskirts. Everything had gone well. We chose a drive-through site as we were only staying the one night. With the pop-top up and the awning rolled out, we sat down for tea. Gloria had cooked up some silverside before we’d left home especially for the trip and with that and some noodles heated up we had a lovely first evening meal on the road.

A foul-mouthed jerk happened to be parked just a few van spots away from us and disgusted us with his vocabulary. The sad thing was that there were two young girls with him and his partner or wife. After our nice meal, it left us with a sour taste. There’d be plenty more of those types to come though.

We continued south on Tuesday morning. At Mount Larcom we stopped and enjoyed some free refreshments at a roadside driver-reviver stall.

Turning inland just before Childers, we headed for Toowoomba and at Biggenden, at 1 o’clock, we stopped for lunch. As we neared Crows Nest, we could see a huge lightning storm way off in the distance. Fortunately, it had moved on before we reached the area but it had left a trail of debris over the road.

Again, we arrived and checked into our caravan park just before dark. We didn’t know at the time that we would return to the Garden City Caravan Park on several occasions. We chose a drive-through site and parked beside one of the permanent vans. The owner had a nice vegetable garden and when Gloria admired his spinach, he offered her some, making a very nice addition to our evening meal.

Heading down the New England Highway we passed through Warwick, Stanthorpe, Tenterfield and Glen Innis. Before Armidale, I got quite tired and Gloria didn’t feel confident to tow the van in the hilly country, so, we pulled up, lay on the bed in the van and had an hour’s sleep. It was so convenient.

We weren’t quite as lucky as the day before. Just before Tamworth a big storm hit us, but it wasn’t quite bad enough to have to pull over so we pressed on. The van passed the storm test with flying colours.

We were almost going to call it a day in Tamworth, but decided to go on a bit further. We got to a little place called Murrurundi at the bottom of the range and booked into the Pages River Caravan Park. The park was quite a pleasant surprise. The office was an old railway carriage and the lady manager was friendly and cordial. It was a very comfortable night spent in this unknown little town.

The next morning, we got away early at 7.30, or so we thought. However, this was daylight-savings country and it was actually an hour later and we adjusted our watches accordingly.

After telephoning ahead, we were met by Marg and Al at Lochinvar, just west of Maitland. Typical of Marg, she had morning tea prepared and we all enjoyed a cup of tea and cake in a little park beside the road. Here, we discussed our plans.

Gloria and I had planned to stay in a caravan park in Tarro, which was quite close to Woodberry where our friends lived. Marg informed us that their builder-son, Rod, had just bought a house in Beresfield, even closer to Woodberry. Rod’s intention was to renovate the run-down house and then offer it for rent. At this stage, it had been fairly gutted, but the bathroom was still intact and the power still connected. If we wished, we could park the van in the driveway and use the facilities. That sounded fine to us and so we followed them to what would be our address for almost a month. The arrangement worked well.

It was no mean feat backing the caravan down the narrow driveway, but with that done, we settled into our new surroundings. I never had a problem with backing the van even into the tightest of spots. My years of towing speedway sedans around the country was my grounding.

Our friends left us to it, but later, we joined them at their place for lunch.

Marg and Al Black were country music singers and Al wrote his own songs. We had met them in May 2001 on a coach tour through Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. They were just the nicest people on that trip and we became instant friends. Our love of country music helped too. At the end on that trip they presented us with a CD of their music. After we’d gone our separate ways—they went on to Ireland and we went on to Scandanavia and then, home—we kept in touch via emails. I joked to them