Category: Travel

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.

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?

Aaaaahhhh FREAK OUT!

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Le freak isn’t C’est chic either.

A month or so ago I asked Hubs about the possibility of us moving back to Wangaratta earlier than July (when he was due back there) as he was having to spend so much time there anyway, and I have a lot of friends there that I really miss. There is much more to that story, but in the end he agreed that we could let the real estate agent know that the house would be available after Easter if anyone was interested in taking over the lease. We felt this was unlikely, but it was worth a go.

In the last few weeks, since my accident, I have stayed in MB the whole time, Chanbe has a great sleeping routine happening, and I’ve just been enjoying myself here. (Possibly because I haven’t had to lift a finger, and I’ve had Mum’s company.) Last week we had a potential tenant come through, but they decided on another house. Today we had someone else come through, and, you guessed it! They decided they wanted it on the spot and they want to move in over the Easter weekend.

I am so full of mixed emotions right now. I’m SO excited that we get to move back to Wangaratta; I’m terrified of the amount of packing we have to do and the fact that I’m not going to be able to help with it much; I’m curious as to what house we will find (we will have a look at a few next week and hopefully decide on one); I am sad about leaving the friends we have made here, but I’m also keen to come back on some weekends to visit; I’m excited that I’ll be able to attend mothers group again, and get back into the gym once the cast comes off.

The happy thoughts definitely outweigh the freaking-out, and I’ll feel even better once we find a place to move to in Wang. Now, where’s that packing tape?

Plummeting back down to earth…

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… with an almighty crash. 

This time last week we were surrounded by family and friends and a support network. We were staying in the same house, night after night, week after week. We didn’t have to pack and unpack and pack again every week. I felt relaxed and faced each day with anticipation and excitement, and had such a great time.

It’s hard to come back to our “normal” (I use the term very loosely) life after such stability. I am sitting here with my diary open, planning the next couple of months. 5 days back home in MB, then next week in Wang, then back to MB for a week, then the following week in Wang, then back here and so forth for maybe 2 months. Oh, and a few trips down to Melbourne thrown into the bag just for fun as well. 
I realise the choice to go to Wang with Hubs is mine. But at the same time, it’s not really a choice. If Hubs is going to be away for 5 of 6 days, and he’s going to a place where I have a whole bunch of awesome friends, well… what would you choose? I think the hardest part about this lifestyle is that I don’t know anyone else going through the same thing. So people can say they understand, but I don’t think they do. 
This is why next year, I need for us to go somewhere and stay put for a year or 2. We’ll go on holidays of course, but not every single freakin’ week. It’s already getting me down and we haven’t even started. Man this is going to be a long year.

We’re home

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(This post was supposed to be published last night…)

Aaaaaaah. It’s 11:30 on Wednesday night, and we weren’t planning on being home til tomorrow afternoon, but here we are. Chanbe is in bed, and in a few minutes time, we’ll be joining the little guy in dreamy-dream land.

We left Kempsey at 9:20am and planned to spend tonight in some random hotel in Goulburn, but we decided to press on and try our luck. We had a big break around 6:30pm so once we got back in the car, Chance was ready for sleep. we did the last 3.5 hours in one hit and although the yard is ridiculously overgrown, it felt so nice to pull in.

It’s so funny to think that we were in Queensland yesterday morning; that Hubs went for a swim in the ocean at 6am; that Chanbe had a power spew in the car not far over the NSW border (coincidence? hee hee); and that our long-awaited, much anticipated, wonderfully enjoyed trip to Brisbane has come to an end.

I guess there’s only one more thing to share! Road trip photo!

A package deal

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When I married Hubs, there were a few things that came with him, like the desire to live in many places and experience different cultures, the want to try new things as much as possible, a lot of electrical cables and wires, 2.5 hobie catamarans, an amazing family, and this:

Most of the people in this (very dark) photo (taken on New Years Eve) are a part of Hubs’ extended family, and they are amongst my most favourite people in the world. They welcomed me into the fold with open arms, and I feel I belong. And this is how they are with all they meet. Everyone is a part of their family and some of my best times in Brisbane are spent in their company.

I’m looking forward to so many more good times to come with these folk 🙂

Road trip

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Hubs and I love a good road trip. So when we decided to drive up to Brizzie for Christmas etc, I immediately got excited and started planning the route we would take. I have rellies in Griffith, NSW, that we have been wanting to visit since we moved south, so that was immediately going to be our first point of call. Then I asked my cousin who lives in Sydney if we could stay a night and she was most happy to have us. I just had to find somewhere between Sydney and Brisbane to spend the third night. Normally we would stay with my aunty Heather in Armidale but she has since moved back to Brisbane 🙁

I just happened to be at the baby shower of a girl Frith works with, talking to one of the locum’s wives and she asked what we were doing for Christmas. I told her about the road trip and she immediately said “Kempsey is about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, you should come and stay with us.” I replied “Wow that’s really nice, thanks for the offer” to which she responded “It’s not really nice, it’s a genuine offer. It’s settled. You can stay with us.”

How could I refuse?

So on Wednesday the 7th of December, we began our journey. We had a lovely visit in Griffith with the fam and Chance had a lovely time being spoiled. We left the next morning for Sydney and were told to stop in at a place in Harden that sells good Devonshire Tea. We had over half a tank of gas (our car takes LPG) and even though we thought we should fuel up in Griffith before we left, it didn’t happen and we thought we’d just find somewhere on the way. Towns passed by and no one seemed to sell LPG. We thought Harden would have it as it seemed like a fairly big town, so with 80km left on the predicted range, we stopped for our Dev Tea.

And I promptly locked the keys in the car. We rang RACV (NRMA in NSW) and decided there was nothing else to do but enjoy our tea and scones. And Hubs enjoyed some soup.

NRMA came and helped us out and advised us that the next LPG wasn’t til Yass – about 70km away. Or we could backtrack and get off the main highway about 30km back. We decided to live recklessly (and we knew we could get towed if we did run out of fuel!) and set off for Yass, praying like crazy.
With some excellent, fuel-efficient driving, and no air con, this is what the dashboard looked like when we got to the petrol station at Yass:

We fueled up on gas and cherries and set our sights for Sydney. And of course, in true Sydney fashion, the traffic started banking back about 60km out of the city. Thankfully we exited not long after and it was very easy finding our way to Nikki’s. My friend sent me a text to suggest Sydney peak hour traffic + crazy hour for kids = not much fun for Chanbe in the car. I took this photo:

 
… and assured her he seemed okay! We had a lovely night in and although I was worried Chanbe wouldn’t sleep very well, being on a major, busy, noisy main road, he slept amazingly well, only waking up once. I joked that we should get a CD full of traffic sounds to help him sleep at home!

We left Nikki’s place at around 8:30am the next morning and took the one road all the way around the outskirts of Sydney and onto the Pacific Highway. Even though it took an hour, it was very easy, and when it comes to Sydney traffic, that is saying A LOT!

We stopped at Bulahdelah for delicious burgers and picked up a couple of $1 Hawaiin shirts (one was actually made in Hawaii!!) for Hubs, and then made our way to Kempsey arriving shortly after 3pm. We had a lovely afternoon playing on the lawn of our new friends’ house and also getting up close and personal with the local farmyard animals.

We all shared delicious home-made pizza for dinner and followed that with fresh fruit salad and a couple of games of Yahtzee – I won the first game and Hubs won the second. We had a bit of a rough night with Chanbe but I knew the end was in sight so I just kept my eye on the prize!

We left Kempsey around 9am and had to battle through roadworks, stopping and starting for a couple hundred kms. It was pretty frustrating but we managed. We stopped just outside of Grafton for lunch, then headed to Coolangatta to visit Hubs’ Dad and Nanna. After a cuppa and home made date loaf, we convinced a protesting Chanbe to get back in the carseat for the final leg.

We happily drove across the Houghton Highway in more rain and arrived at our new home not long after 6pm.

It was so good to get there. Mum and Dad made us a yummy dinner and that glass of wine I had hit the spot. We all slept soundly, awaiting the excitement of the birthday party to come!

Withdrawal

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It’s been 9 days since I’ve been on my laptop and man am I feeling out of the loop. I’ve still been checking my emails on my iPhone, but that’s it. No google reader, no internet banking (and lots of shopping! Oops!), and of course, no blogging. And I’ve really really missed it! I had been having lots of feelings of “could I be bothered with the whole blogging thing” lately, and it turns out that I could. I feel that this blog is a part of me now, and I’ve really really missed it. I need to download the blogging app to my mobile so I can blog on the run! Just something else to add to the to do list.

So I’m back! And I have lots to say! So here goes!

Well, I’m just going to ease back into it, as Hubs and I are going out for a romantic dinner tonight while Gran and Grumpy look after Chanbe. Oh, and I’ve fully weaned the little guy, so you’d better believe I’m going to have more than 1 glass of wine!!! (But probably not more than 2 as I have a very low tolerance for alcohol these days! Plus, you know, I still have to get up to Chance early in the morning!)

Our road trip up was fan-freakin’-tastic! Chanbe was amazing and napped for the morning drives, had a play on our long lunch breaks, and napped again in the afternoon! He has also learned a few new tricks that I can’t wait to share with you all!

So, coming up in the next few days:
– The road trip
– Chanbe turns 1! Another birthday party to report on including THE CAKE!
– The end of Movember 2011 and the great shave
– Cooking and playing with Chanbe’s cousins
– The biggest coffee I’ve ever purchased (and I’ve been to America!)
– Our home for the next 7 weeks
– Chanbe’s new tricks

And lots more as things happen! There’s going to be a lot of this in the next 7 weeks: (can’t wait!)

The month/s to come

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We leave MB on Monday, will be staying in Wang for 2 nights, then we’ll be hitting the road for Redcliffe, stopping in Griffith, Sydney and Kempsey on the way. I’m very excited and am busily making my way through our huge to-do-before-we-leave list. I’m not sure what my blogging will look like over the next 2 months as I’m not sure if we’ll have internet up in Brisbane, so I’ll keep you posted as much as I can!