Category: Photos

On the home stretch

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On Sunday we headed to Lakes Entrance for the day, to get out of the house and to have a look around. It was quite a cool day, but the sun came out enough to keep it enjoyable.

It was just SO BUSY! We had fish and chips for lunch (when in Rome!), took a walk along one of the lakes and then hit the playground for some action. It was quite a lovely day.

Monday’s weather was absolutely miserable. A cold front was coming up from Antarctica and the combination of wind and rain and low temps meant we stayed inside all day long with the heater on. (Remember, just 3 days earlier we had the air con on! Gotta LOVE Victoria!) The sun came out at about 5pm so we took Chance out for a little runaround before dinner. He did pretty well but he was going crazy by the end of the day.

Tuesday we set off around 11am to stay with more rellies in Melbourne for the night which was really lovely as well. And then we popped in to Wang on Wednesday on our way back to MB to visit Hubs and sign our lease. It was a glorious day so we had lunch in the park which Chance played in the playground. Of course it was lovely to see Hubs and give him some encouragement.

We arrived back in MB at dinnertime and were all pretty exhausted. We are really really looking forward to moving in to our new place, but it has been lovely to visit with family and friends in the mean time!

More fun!

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We spent a very relaxing few days with our rellies in Sale (actually, it’s Stratford, but most people have never heard of Stratford), enjoying the unpredictable weather. We spent Friday fighting the heat (30 degrees!), cleaning out the car and giving Chanbe lots of rides on his new trike:

It was seriously SO hot that day. The wind was gusty and we had the air conditioner on inside. Chanbe was getting a little too cocky on the 3 steps down from the deck to the gravel, and took a bit of a spill 🙁 It actually looked a bit worse than it was. After the initial shock and tears, he was unfazed. My little bruiser.

On Saturday, my great uncle had to take my great aunt (they’re great in more ways than one!) to the airport in Melbourne as she was flying over to England for her mother’s funeral. Her mother was 97! So it will be a great celebration of a wonderful long life. So we went in to Sale (much bigger than Stratford) to do a spot of shopping, along, it seems, with half of the town! It was crazy! We didn’t do too much else, other than make delicious lamb shanks for dinner (sorry Hubs 🙁 I’ll make you some next week).

We’ve been busy little bees!

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Has it really been only a week since we left our house at MB?? REALLY?? It seems like a lot longer. I’m writing this from the house in MB where we’re staying to kill time before we can move into our Wang house on Monday. We left our lovely house with our magical view around lunch time Thursday last week, and started our trip down to Sale. We headed over Falls Creek, and apart from the really steep bit on the other side, (our car’s lower gears don’t work so there were some pretty smelly brakes!) the trip to Omeo was pretty uneventful. We stopped there for some playtime:

And went on our merry way. I was in the front with Dad, and Mum was in the back entertaining Chanbe. He was having a great old time snacking away, and I forgot to mention to Dad that he gets a little carsick on the winding roads. After about and hour of twisty-turny roads, we hit the straight stretch, and wouldn’t you know it? That’s when Chanbe decided to do a HUGE power spew all over the car. We were doing 110km/h at the time, so by the time Dad slowed down and pulled over, he was done. And there were chunks EVERYWHERE. This has happened before to Chance with just Hubs and I in the car, and it’s normally my job to look after Chance (who always feels fine straight after) and Hubs’ job to take care of the car and car seat. This time, it was MY job to do the car seat. Yeuch. Thankfully Mum was there to help while Dad entertained spewy-guts-McGee.

So on we went in our smelly car, and we arrived at the rellies house around 6:30. Just in time for a yummy dinner. More adventures to come!

Goodbye Mount Beauty (edited)

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Hubs arrived with”the truck” on Tuesday evening, filled it up, and left yesterday morning. Here is the truck as it was when it arrived:

And here it is, mostly full. Chanbe really enjoyed carrying things down the deck to truck. He was very helpful! (And so cute!)

He even offered to help Hubs with the driving! (And was most displeased when we kindly refused his offer!)

We were still hoping to move straight into our new place, or at least over the weekend, but we got the call from the real estate yesterday afternoon to say that now the house won’t be available til the 16th!
So Hubs is in Wang, locked away in the student accommodation working on his PhD while , Mum, Dad (who arrived yesterday), Chance and I go and visit our rellies in Sale, then come back here to stay with a friend for the following week. That gives Hubs some serious uninterrupted time that he needs, and gives Dad some serious Chanbe time that HE needs.

So it’s only farewell to MB for now, as not only will we be back next week, but we’ll be making an effort to come back a bit for Hubs to go gliding, for ME to finally go gliding, and to see the lovely friends we have made here.

House news

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We got the house (rental) in Wang that we (I) wanted!!!! SO EXCITED!! The only thing is, we don’t have a date we can move in as yet. The current tenants’ lease doesn’t finish til the 13th of April, but we are hoping they’ll want to move out earlier (this weekend would be ideal!). We have to move out by next Wednesday and it would obviously be best if we could move straight into the new place. But the real estate agents haven’t gotten back to me about that, so it’s not looking good. It took a week for the landlord to approve our application which was annoying, and they couldn’t ask the current tenants if they would be prepared to move out early, until we were approved. Which is a shame because it would have worked out really nicely.

It could still happen though. Otherwise, we’ll be looking for somewhere to stay for the week in between moving out and moving in. That wouldn’t be much fun, but this house is totally worth the wait.

Can’t wait to show it to you! But here’s a sneak peek in the mean time…

(Disclaimer: it probably won’t be furnished as nicely when we move in, unless Vinnies is particularly well-stocked at the moment 🙂 )

Cast off

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Aaaaaaahhhhh…..

That was the relief I felt when my cast came off yesterday. I’m free! I can walk again! Or so I thought. Was it crazy for me to think that they would just fit me with a boot and I’d walk out of there unaided? (You know, except for the boot.) How wrong I was. I figured since the bones had healed nicely, I’d be right! A bit weak maybe, but I certainly didn’t expect the level of pain I was about to experience. Especially when the kind orthopaedic surgeon pushed down on certain parts of my foot and asked “Does this hurt?”

Does it hurt? DOES IT HURT????? YES IT FREAKIN’ HURTS!! DID YOU NOT SEE THE 3 BROKEN BONES THAT ARE STILL HEALING!!!!!?????

My foot is still bruised and a bit swollen, and I can’t really move it much on my own. The best bruise is the one under my foot:

And I can’t believe it’s still swollen!!

I just figured by this stage it would be a lot better than it is. I thought I’d wear the boot for a week or 2 and be good as gold, but I couldn’t even walk on my foot yesterday at the hospital without the crutches, even in the boot. By the end of the day though, I was just walking around in the boot. Just a bit, to ease myself into it. When I woke up today I needed the crutches for the first couple of hours but am now walking around okay. I just have to be careful not to push it, and to pace myself so it doesn’t take longer than necessary to get me back on both feet.

I have to wear the boot 24/7 (yes, even to bed), (but not in the shower – woo!) for 1-2 weeks, then just during the day for another 2-4 weeks after that. I guess the Doctor at my visit 4 weeks ago did say it was a 3 month injury.

So this is me for the next few weeks:
Sexy, oui?

They arrived!

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Hubs and I arrived home last night after 3 days and 2 nights away together, alone, in Melbourne. I had a wedding to officiate, so we decided to make a weekend of it. Chanbe stayed home with Mum and my aunty Mandy (Mum’s sister), and it was a great weekend all round! Hubs and I got to relax, unwind and do not much at all, while Chanbe got to stay at home and get spoilt! (Thank you thank you thank you Mum and Mandy!!!!!)

And waiting for me at home, were these:

And the bigger picture?

Yes, I’ve started packing. (Well, emptying out cupboards and stuffing the contents in bags. Packing, right?) Anyway, more about that later.

I still haven’t decided which one to read first. I’m leaning towards Vivian’s autobiography I think. I’ve had a lot of free time the last few weeks, and now that I actually have something specific to read (apart from random blogs) I don’t have the time to read it! Oh well, things will settle down in a month or so (won’t they???) and I’ll hopefully get cracking on them then. Who knows? I might even remember to tell you about them once I’m done!

Back to the packing. I found a house on Thursday in Wang that was just GORGEOUS!! And in our budget and in a nice area. Tick tick tick! We had looked at a couple the day before, and although they were okay (read: liveable) they certainly didn’t get us that excited. But the gorgeous one? It’s just so US. Hubs hasn’t actually seen it yet. Oh yeah. That’s how much he trusts me. I know what he likes and I know what he wants (a shed) so I’m super confident he’s going to like it as much as me. (It has a shed.) We put in the application at 4pm on Thursday and by 5pm, 3 out of 4 of our referees had already been contacted! How on the ball is that! Considering the debacle of finding a rental in Wang last time, I didn’t hold high hopes of dealing with real estate agents, but so far so good. We haven’t got the house yet, but I’m hoping to hear today. And hoping to be moving by this time next week.

So how about that packing?

Self portrait

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You know how sometimes you grab your camera or phone, take a photo of yourself and go “wow! That’s awesome!” And sometimes it takes a few more goes (and adjusting some settings) before you’re even remotely happy with the outcome? That happened to me the other day. I started out with a little of this:

But it kind of made my nose look bigger than it is, plus I didn’t like the angle (or the background). 
So I tried this:
Kind of a “glancing up all sultry-like”, but I just looked dopey.
Speaking of dopey:
I’m not exactly sure about what look I was going for there, but I realised I need a hair cut and colour.
Then came this one:
…where I went from dopey to goofy. And realised I also needed to WASH my hair.
By this stage I was getting a little bewildered:
So I moved inside for a change of scene. 
And a change to black and white:
Aaaaaah. That’s getting better (though, my nose still looks a bit big. Or maybe it just is). 
Do I really need to push my luck?
Turns out, yes I do:
I think that was supposed to be my bedroom eyes shot. Oops (and poor Hubs).
And then we went back to goofey.
The purpose of this “shoot” was to get a new profile pic, which I did (I used the first b&w one) but have decided that once we move house, and I get my hair coloured and trimmed, I’m going to ask Hubs very nicely to take some headshots for me. That way, hopefully, we won’t have to go through this exercise again… 🙂

Crafty

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Hubs’ Dad and Nanna have been visiting here the last few days, so while the boys have gone gliding, Nanna and I have been making cards.

It has been SO long since I’ve sat down and let my creative juices flow – it’s been so lovely! Here are a few of my creations:

I’m hoping to do some more crafting, and maybe even some sewing in the next few weeks while I’m still off my feet. Getting back to reality after this time may be more challenging than I realise! I might just forget about that for now, and enjoy this treat.