Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Merry medal mania

On 7 September I took all the medals I have been awarded for my past military service with the Australian Army to a one-man business in a nearby suburb to have them remounted properly. I had done them myself in the past and they were not too bad, but having just received a fourth medal, I decided to have the job done professionally, and while I was at it I ordered a set of miniatures.

The man said that because he was busy they would take three weeks. Fair enough I thought, but even then my alarm bells were ringing. The business was in a private house and the place was disorganised. There was partially completed work all over the joint, and I mean all over. He had a work room but the work had spilled out in all directions. There were numerous orders in various stages of completion on the floor of his TV lounge room - almost no room to stand. Indeed there hardly seemed to be a space in the house which was not occupied by some form of incomplete work.

Worse, he didn't have a simple thing like an order book operating to keep track of things. I had to insist on a receipt for my medals, which he typed ad hoc on a piece of paper. Receipts were not his usual modus operandi.

During our conversation I mentioned another medal mounting business. They were a half hour's drive away. The man said it was lucky I didn't go there because they were not very good. He allegd they did shoddy work which people often brought to him to fix. "Phew!" I thought, "I'm glad I didn't make the same mistake."

I have had his receipt on my table ever since. Every time I've looked at it I have wondered if I would ever see my medals again. Eventually the three weeks were up and I rang him. He had promised to ring me, but didn't. He went off into his house searching for them and after a few minutes came back with the news I had been expecting. He hadn't had a chance to start on them. He said there were about four people in front of me. I asked when would they be ready and he said on the Friday, three days away.

That was last Friday week. The matter slipped my mind for a few days and yesterday I rang him again. Again he went off and came back a few minutes later with the news that he hadn't started on them. There were still about four people in front of me.

I then decided to ring the business he had badmouthed. The man said that he was on top of his work and if took them out to him yesterday he could do them the same day. Amazing. Only then I mentioned the delay with other business. The man said that he heard a lot of complaints about people having to wait a long time there, and the jobs being quite expensive. I decided that I should recover my medals if possible and give the work to this bloke. Interestingly the business, Heritage Medals, has an informative web site which has warnings about the sort of experience I had been having.

I was about to call the first bloke again when he rang back. He said that he would make a start on my medals, but this would mean I was jumping the queue. He was trying to make me feel at fault. Then he asked did I realise I was one medal down? This gave me a jolt. But what he meant was that there was another medal I was entitled to, the Australian Active Service Medal. I said I would look into it. Sure enough it seems I am entitled to one. I downloaded the application form. It's now filled out and in the mail to Canberra.

This gave me the excuse to get my medals back in a diplomatic manner. The new medal is sure to take a long time to come through and so the others would be better back with me until the set was complete. I called over to the slow place late yesterday. It was still in a mess. There were a couple of firemen there talking medal business with him. One had a small SAS badge on his shirt.

When they left, we retrieved my little treasures from the lounge room floor. There were dozens of similar piles. Mine won't be going back. Now I have to wait for medal number five to arrive before I visit the Heritage people.

© MMVI Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a million words.

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