I Have a Place in Africa
Odette Tolksdorf
You Are Here
It has been a minor nightmare getting the quilts here to my house. They did not arrive in time in Australia to be shown at AQC, much to the disappointment of some fo the Australian participants who had made the trip especially to come and see them- but the quilts arrived in Melbourne on 1 March- a Sunday. I could not pick them up at that stage because the very next day we had to activate our fire plan because of the high alert warnings and so it wasn't until later in the week I could possibly think of going to Melbourne - but by that stage my eldest daughter had come down with a severe case of tonsilitis- which involved us sitting and waiting for appointments in the doctors office because there is such a chronic shortage of doctors in Colac that we couldn't get an appointment until late this week. We were worried i tmight have been glandular fever- she was very tired mixed in with the anxiety to do with the last year of high school and having to do well- that shot my week to pieces. Then it was the long weekend- and I finally received notification from Qantas the quilts had arrived yesterday.
Then to add confusion to the whole process the goods were marked as" spares"- which meant I could not do any of the declarations for customs on their pro-forma forms because the goods and description did not match.
In any case I had to do the trip to Melbourne to go and get them ( I live about 2.5 hours from the airport on a good run) . I had a wonderful customs fellow who passed the quilts through customs after I showed him all the documentation explaining what they were and why they were here ( late) but Qantas was less kind- they hit me with storage charges because according to them the goods arrived 1 March and I should have been watching and ready to get them even though they were by then a week late ( never mind I was more worried about getting out of my house and trying to remember everything that was valuable) - they did come to the party a small way but it really was a token effort and they charged me quite a lot for storage.
I have opened the parcel and the quilts are wonderful and you can see them all on the My Place website built by Brenda Gael Smith, but why oh why were they not shipped door to door??? What made the South African organiser think I lived in Melbourne when clearly i do not? Australia is such a big place and going anywhere takes hours
I was supposed to have been home organising my workroom, so it looks like a workroom as I have some students doing textiles in their VCE year coming to visit next week- well that didn't get done and this weekend we are going to my mothers for her birthday as I can't make it on her birthday as I shall be teaching in South Australia.
4 comments:
What a drama! But it must be a huge sigh of relief to have the quilts home safe and sound.
what a nighmarish time you have had - i want to go and poke that $#@><)*&^% South African woman in the eye. she does seem to have gone out of her way to stuff this up and cause you the maximum amount of trouble, inconvenience and expense.
grrrrr to her and hugs to you
What an adventure you and your pieces have had! I'm sorry it costs you so much time and money, but am glad your daughter is getting treatment.
Hang in there.
Hi Dijanne,
Thankyou for your book and CD, they arrived yesterday. I love the clear layout of the FME book, my 8 year old daughter loves to FME so I'll give her the book to practice from and see how she goes!! The lutrador Cd is fantastically clear and extensive, thanks for such a great resource.
You have had some trials and tribulations, I guess that's the downside of living in such a beautiful but slightly remote area. Just breathe in the good Karma from around you.
The My Place exhibition is just beautifully presented. Will you be hanging any of the quilts on the 22nd March??
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