When Life Gives You Lemons
Immigrating to Canada had been no mean feat, being jobless, homeless, and possession-less with no sense of security or financial stability meant that we had been living in a constant state of transition and low-level anxiety. Nothing had been guaranteed e.g., finding a home, finding work, starting the workshop, and being accepted in Nova Scotia and whilst we had planned as much as we could it had also been a gamble, a risk.
The not knowing where we would end up added to the excitement of our adventure, we knew where we wanted to be and what we wanted to do once we got there but the way we thought we would get there had changed so many times that we had no choice but to ride those peaks and troughs and trust that the universe would wash us up on the right beach.
All the decisions that had changed our direction, all the decisions that we had left to the universe or just cuffed had led us here to Atlantic Canada, the Maritimes, to Nova Scotia and we were feeling blooming marvellous about. There was still plenty to do like renovate the house, get part time jobs to bolster our savings, and get the workshop up and running but we knew (or at least hoped) that the incredibly difficult part was over, we had the rest of our lives to make a home and settle.
Now that we were ‘Home’ and had been reunited with our fur babies we wanted to take at least a couple of weeks to relax, spend time with the pets and get to know our new town and local area. Spring and the fast-approaching summer had made the area come to life, our garden was a riot of colour and abundant growth and the well-known local tourist haunts in and around Bridgewater that had closed during the winter season were opening their doors again.
We took Lola almost everywhere with us including our local farm shop a mere 10 minute drive into Wileville, WILE’S LAKE FARM MARKET – HOME (wileslakefarmmarket.com) and before we even entered the farm shop we knew we were going to be regulars because not only do they make their own bread, muffins, cookies, biscuits (scones to us posh folks), and fudge, but they prepare homecooked meals like soup, shepherd’s pie, chicken pot pie and chilli as well as sell fruit, veggies, plants and flowers.
We walked out of the farm shop with arms and pockets laden with goodies, we had not bothered with bags because we were only going in to have a look! Having successfully dumped the proceeds of our visit into the Warlock we went back to the farm shop to buy an ice-cream and sit in the shade of the grape vines, this was Lola’s favourite part. Lola has mastered the art of hoofing her ice-cream down in two bites without getting brain freeze, the Boxer dog skull and brain or lack there-of has evolved over time for such purposes.
We also went on days out with our friends the Rocks, one such time was when we all volunteered for the beach clean-up on the coastline at Barrington lighthouse with the Scotian Shores which was a real revelation. At the end of the day over two hundred washed up lobster pots were recovered and over fifty tonnes of waste dragged off the beach ready for removal or recycling.
We also explored the eateries in the local area (would be rude not too) a favourite was Jac’s Burgers and Shakes home of the bacon infused burger! Styled as a typical American diner bedecked with fifties and sixty’s memorabilia the burgers are served traditionally in a basket lined with grease lined paper and the milkshakes are to die for especially the pina colada and blueberry vanilla.
There was a whole lot of eating and relaxing going on, so we tried to intersperse it with walks down to the river, lake or 16km bike rides on a loop track through the nearby forests off our road. We could walk or cycle for miles without seeing a vehicle or a person, it felt like we had the wilderness to ourselves, and we were loving it.
When we were not off gallivanting, we spent time in the garden which was turning into a bit of a monster, we are talking weeds of Triffid proportions! Everything was growing so quickly it was almost impossible to stay on top of it, but whilst we had weeds coming out of our ears among the weeds we had a glut of strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, lettuce, tomatoes, and wild cucumbers growing.
Picking and eating the fruits of the previous owner’s labour was easy and most grateful but managing the garden was hard and made more difficult by the fact that all our gardening tools were sat in a shipping container somewhere in Toronto … or so we thought.
According to the contract that we signed with the shipping company our container would be uplifted from our property in NZ where it would be taken to the Port of Auckland and put on the next available container ship bound for Toronto, because that was the nearest port to transfer it to Ottawa which was where we were going to live at the time of signing the contract. It would remain in storage in Toronto until such a time as we had found a place to live.
We had contacted the shipping company back in March whilst in Ottawa to notify them that we were now moving to NS and that the container should remain in storage in Toronto until we were settled in NS at which point it could be transported to Halifax and then on to our home. There was no mention at that point of where in the journey our shipping container was, it was uplifted on the 11th of February and now here we were in May expecting it to be in storage in Toronto.
We had made multiple attempts to contact the shipping company both by phone and email prior to moving into our new home to get an update on the location of the container and when it would be transported to Halifax and got zero response, just a resounding and very suspicious looking tumbleweed blowing through the room …something was amiss!
When life gives you lemons, throw them through life’s window and run away.
We finally received an email from the shipping company to let us know that there was some unwelcome news, they had re-costed our original quotation to allow for the change of end destination, new port charges due to the Covid pandemic, and a worldwide freight charge increase over the past couple of months. Once we paid an additional $6,000+ on top of the $16,000 we had already paid to ship our container to Canada they would release it and put it on the first available ship out of Auckland, but the good news is they would not charge us Auckland storage fees for the near four months it has been stored there.
Disclaimer: I make no apologies for my prolific and excessive use of exclamation marks in my next paragraph.
WHAT THE ACTUAL EFF!!!! If I were an emoji, it would be the one with the steam billowing out of its nose! Firstly, why wasn’t the container put on the first available ship once it was uplifted from our home like they agreed. Secondly again WTF! Thirdly we agreed for it to be stored in Toronto not Auckland, and fourthly (okay I’m just being ridiculous now) when were they going to inform us that our container was still sat in NZ after all these months! For fudge’s sake!! We had anticipated extra charges due to the change of destination but if they had shipped our container back in February as agreed it would not have been subject to the additional freight and port charges. We were so angry!
They had sat on our container for four months and were now demanding we pay the additional costs to enable them to release our container. They had us by the nuts and there was nothing we could do but squeal in a high-pitched voice. We were absolutely disgusted that we had not been kept informed of significant changes to our contract.
We sent an email to the CEO of the company telling him so, he then sent our complaint to the operations manager who then kicked Patrick the external sales consultant responsible for our shipping up the backside for not communicating the changes to us …whoopity doo, thanks for nothing.
People say everything happens for a reason. So, when I punch you in the face remember I have a reason.
Our complaint changed nothing, yes, they would waiver the Auckland storage fees that we should not have been paying in the first place, but the extra costs still stand, we felt like we were being held to ransom, no payment equals no container and that container held all of Martin’s tools, machinery, and equipment.
We know that Covid changed many things, but we still had the overwhelming sense that we were robbed and that there were companies out there getting extraordinarily rich off people like us, disappointed did not ever come close to how we were feeling.
We had so much still to pay out for over the next few months and losing another $6,000 was not going to help, it was looking increasingly like we would need to head out sooner than anticipated to look for work.
So, we paid the extra costs whilst fantasising about new and interesting ways to ruin the ‘Moving Company’ but dwelling on it would not do us any good, yes it was a slap in the face, but it was not the first and would not be the last, although we did at times question the lessons we were supposed to be learning from the universe.
Our container would now be arriving at the end of July so in the meantime we would focus on the positive and start planning and arranging the renovations in the house and manage with what we had in the garden, there would be no more freeloading for our pooch, it was time to teach Lola to dig up weeds instead of just random holes in the garden.