Aka The Pink Lake, near Port Gregory, WA. Hutt Lagoon is Australia’s Most Unique Lake
Hutt Lagoon, or the “Pink Lake,” is a marine salt lake in Western Australia, famous for its vibrant pink color caused by the Dunaliella salina algae and high salt content
When we arrived the lake was a beautiful pink colour. Then the wind got up and the colour disappeared. Thankfully, the wind dropped away.
Today, Thursday 28th, we are heading up to Sunset Beach, WA, to visit our rellies, my grandson and his family. And we are looking forward to seeing our three great granddaughters, for the very first time.
We have just pulled in to the roadhouse at Cataby, making a pee stop, where these beautiful flowers are enjoying the sunshine.
It is almost as if they are cheering us along our way.
The WA weather is also behaving itself. The sky is blue and clouds white and fluffy. Not the dark and brooding ones that have filled the skies around Perth for the last few days.
Earlier this year my daughter lost her husband. Anyone who has lost a partner will know what a difficult time this can be.
Over and above the funeral arrangements there are many administrative and bureaucratic tasks to be fulfilled. For the most part, banks and insurance companies, local councils and utility companies, know what has to be done and execute the processes efficiently.
And then there is Exetel and, subsequently, Superloop.
These companies have displayed a singular level of ineptitude that defies belief.
Over the last four weeks my daughter has contacted Exetel to explain that her husband has died and that his credit card, to which her broadband account is tied, has been cancelled. She has explained that she wishes to keep the account, just transfer it to her name so that she can take over the payments.
She has contacted Exetel via telephone and email. Has provided proof of identity as well as other supporting documents.
She has been handed off from Exetel employee to Exetel employee over three weeks. Despite their promises, not one of these people has taken ownership of this issue, neither responding to emails or returning phone calls as promised.
On Friday there was a light bulb moment. Albeit a dim one. One of the Exetel employees explained that my daughter had to make a new account application via Superloop.
Superloop are the parent company of Exetel. And, if you go to their website, it tells you that they cannot supply broadband services to my daughters address. Which is strange, as they have been supplying this service for several years.
To continue, on Friday my daughter fired up a new account with Superloop. She had requested the same services and also confirmed that her (VOIP) telephone number would be transferred
Imagine her surprise when later that evening her landline (VOIP) stopped working.
So, yet more phone calls to find out that her phone number had stayed with Exetel even though the broadband had transferred.
By then, at the end of the Friday fiasco, Superloop had created a separate, dummy acount, in my daughters name. Supposedly, this was to allow Superloop to capture the phone number.
My daughter was promised that Superloop would call her on Monday, during which they would merge my daughters new account, with the dummy account, to return things to normal.
And so, here we are on Monday afternoon and, surprise surprise, no phone call from Superloop. My daughter has called them to find out what is going on. More confusion as they seem unable to find any record of the dummy account. My daughter is now back to waiting for Superloop to sort things out.
Meanwhile, my daughter was just checking her husbands email account.
Exetel have sent an email stating that his account has been closed and how sorry they are to lose him as a customer. But they just wanted to let him know that he is now liable to a charge for the early closure of the account.
Needless to say, this has triggered another phone call to point out that he didn’t leave Exetel, rather, they booted him out, that they would not be getting paid. In order for them to forgo this payment, my daughter has now been requested to send a copy of his death certificate. This she has done.
By the way, the clown at Exetel, despite moments earlier, having been told of his death, asked to speak to to account holder.
We are now awaiting the next episode of this unnecessary saga.
My daughter cannot be the first person to have gone through this process.
Did they go through the same degrees of stress and upset that such a simple request has caused?
Like I said, Incompetence? or Stupidity?
Yesterday, 9th August, would have been Steves birthday. It was the first since his passing earlier this year.
We thought we would honour his name by having a meal and raising a glass at one of his favourite destinations.
And so it was that we found ourselves heading up to Mindari to visit The Boat. Mindari is about 60km north of Perth, normally an easy drive of an hour or so.
However, yesterday was very wet, and the drive took a bit longer. The conditions on the highways were diabolical. The wipers were going at their max rate for most of the journey, and the road spray was severely reducing visibility.
Having safely arrived at The Boat, we grabbed a table and ordered our drinks and meals. Obviously, given the weather conditions, we opted to sit inside.
Chilli Mussels for Gerry, Garlic Prawns, and Rice for Denise and Battered Barramundi with Chips for me. Oh, and a sharing platter of cheesy garlic bread. All the food was, as usual, very well cooked and tasty.
We raised a glass to Steve and wished him a happy celestial birthday, The Boat, being one of his favourite eateries, he would have approved.
While having our meal, I noticed that we had an observer, keeping tabs on us.
The drive home was much better, dry and sunny.
We have been in WA for nearly a month now. Having travelled out from the UK to support our daughter following the passing of Steve, her husband.
Up until now, our time has been filled with preparations for the funeral and general mundane household shopping trips and, most recently, collecting Steves ashes from the funeral home.
To be honest the weather hasn’t been the best but yesterday we managed to get out of the house for a couple of hours. This is the first time that a trip out hasn’t had a purpose. By that, I mean it was, just to get some fresh air, for a change of scenery.
We opted to drive down to Rockingham, forty odd kilometres south of Perth, to walk along the foreshore. After a forty-five minute drive, we found ourselves on the prom.
The sun was shining, and the sky was blue, and with a temperature of 20°C it really was very pleasant. We had already planned to have fish ‘n’ chips, and so it was we found ourselves sitting in the sunshine enjoying an al fresco lunch.
Freshwater Cobbler in crispy batter with crispy but fluffy chips. The Cobbler was a first for me. The lady who served me in Nae’s Seafood & Grill informed me that it was a kind catfish. It was very tasty, but it’s not Cod or Haddock. However, it did hit the spot.
Then, it was time to head back along the prom and back to the car. And, after a forty minute drive home, we were soon sitting in the lounge with a very welcome cuppa.
The brisk, but not unpleasant, sea-breeze definitely blew away the cobwebs we had accumulated.
Shame the weather forecast for the next few days shows a temperature drop and plenty of rain and thunderstorms.
WrAnTz 