She Says - Month 2 of Preparation

Not a great deal to update on, as things have slowed down a little. Last night, we heartbreakingly sold Xander’s professional video camera (plus camera bag) to a budding documentary maker from Nottingham. It was a really tough decision to make, but as it’s an item that is replaceable and the £850 it brought in gives us an extra 1.5 months of travel, it was worth it. He can always buy another when we get back home. Advertising cost nothing, so there are options out there to shift important stuff at low cost!

We both have tough decisions to make, as everything we keep has to be sent back to Oz and stored, so will cost money in shipping and space for one of my parents! In my case, I’ve decided to sell my bat detector that I’ve owned since 2002. I was all prepared to finally buy the piece of expensive equipment to finish the system so I can finally use the thing properly, in fact I’d just attended a training course on how to sue the system, when the whole travel idea raised it’s ugly head. The extra money was something that just could not be justified in light of that! Once again, it’s not irreplaceable and if I really want to, I can buy another back home.

I’ve contacted a friend who is a fellow photographer and batter, who might be able to help us sell the bat detector and some of the old camera gear. Xander also talked to one of the camera shops in Brum, who might take some gear as a trade-in for new lenses we want, and I’m getting in touch with other batters to see if anyone’s interested in my bat detector.

I sold about 15 books to a second-hand store last week. Only got £10 pounds for them, and I realised as I left the store that I should have waited to sell them at a car boot sale, but I completely forgot I had other options for selling. Oh well. I know now to hold off on selling any others till we car-boot, although I have some old natural history books that I can try to shift through specialist natural history bookstores.

Planning hasn’t progressed at all, we just seem a bit busy right now! Xander has been working away at the website, but we’ve already had a hiccup there, with the web hosting company screwing up the charges, and making us cancel and re-sign for the package because their computer can’t deal with it. Huh?!?! Xander has given up on creating our logo, as he doesn’t feel he can get the look he wants. He contacted fellow bikers on forums to see if anyone else wanted to take up the challenge. One guy has created a very cute picture; however, it’s still not quite what we’re after. I think we’re actually going to have to pay someone for this one! A friend at work is going to see if his graphic designer friend is interested, or can at least tell us what it would cost to design so we know if we can afford it or will have to stick to Xander’s designs.