A few more sleeps!

We are mere days away from setting off.

I am sitting on the floor. My lap top is on the floor. All that is left is the TV, kettle and toaster. Oh and our materess... that is on the floor. The fish is in tupperware on the bench. I dont think he is impressed. It is amazing how much we can actually live without. It is also truely amazing how much we can squeeze into a van and a trailer. My husband is officailly the Worlds Best Packer. You would be hard pressed fitting as much stuff into the tardis. Doctor Who eat your heart out.

I have taken to drinking. Well, OK, OK, I have always liked a drink. I have increased the regularity of my drinking. It makes a lot of things easier. Like parting with stuff you love but never use or look at. It helps with cleaning walls and other menial tasks that just need to be done before departure. Well, lets face it, drinking helps with almost everything, except rollerskating backwards, in the dark, on gravel. This I dont recommend. Dont ask...

Little Miss is with the program now. I tell her we are sending everything to our new house. So now when anything dissapears she says it is at the new house. Hopefully she is not keeping a catalogue or she will be sorely dissapointed. A very low tide in the toy department.

So only a few sleeps. I am getting butterflies on a permanent basis. More like elephants doing a rendition of Swan Lake in my belly, but, hey...

We are taking a bite out of life... stand by to see if we can chew it.

Getting closer

Things are picking up pace now.
It has been coming for so long now, but has been too far away to actually DO something. Now it is just close enough to put things away, give things away and pack them up. It is almost a relief to actually start doing something in the name of leaving.
We are starting to put things into the trailer. Finally I am getting an idea of the reality of space we actually have.
Little Miss keeps asking where HER table is and Her couch etc. She doesnt trust us at the moment. Every time we leave the house she is taking an unprecidented amount of stuff with her. Teddies, pillows, blankets, books, you know, all the important stuff.
We have been talking about the new house and what it will be like.
Although it is all specualtion. We have never been there.
It seems weird to be pulling up stumps and moving to a place we havent even seen before. Do people do that these days?
There is so much stuff we can leave behind. I think I will adopt the minimalist attitude when we get up there. Or perhaps now would be a more appropriate time.
I have learnt a bit about myself with this transition.
In the "absolutely must keep" pile, 3/4s of it is made up of books. The other 1/4 is trinkets and shiney stuff, mostly covered in glitter. Hmmm throw shiney thing at snake? Save glittery thing from cyclone? Well I dont care really. I will totter on my heals, saving cheep shiny s#!t in any emergency. Just watch me.
Oh well. 10 days to go. Not that I am counting. All right I am! Bring it ON!!!

Things are moving...

Things are moving slowly but they are moving.
And in a strange turn against trend they are actually moving in the right direction. *Touches wood*

I have been very nervous. Too nervous to write. In my superstitious self  I didn't want to speak too soon. Writing counts too.(Well I am not all that superstitious really. I will play devils advocate with umbrellas, shoes, ladders and black cats. But saying things out loud has always made me quiver.)

In the steps we are taking for our new transition to Gnaraloo, having a dodgy vehicle was not really acceptable. You cant be way out in the middle of nowhere, on a dirt track and break down. I dont think road side assistance would do a call out for that. I think their clause is you actually have to have a road to have a road side and there fore assistance.  But being financially retarded our options were limited as was our time to procrastinate. If you have read any of this blog you will know by now how much I lurve to procrastinate.

So with a cracked head on the van, we had to jump into action. Looking at the vehicle on jacks in our drive way with half its insides missing and 2 weeks to go made me a little uneasy to say the least. My clever man has a clever friend. After rounding up quite a few very large and very expensive pieces, plus a few tiny but crucial bits too work commenced. The day for action was my birthday. I made myself a cake so I could blow out the candles and make a birthday wish. I cant tell you what it was...(did I say I wasnt too superstitious??)... but I am sure you can guess. Well by the afternoon I heard it turn over. It took 3 go's. But then the sweetest sound of an idling diesel engine. Hooray! Best birthday gift ever. Needless to say I had a few birthday wines to celebrate.

Anyhoo update again soon.

Tick tick

There is 3 weeks til we leave for our life changing transition.
Well it is actually tomorrow that is the 3 week mark but tonight I am having a wine so it is a write off.

We have a cracked head in the van getting us up there and we have run out of money... so yeah, right on track, hence the wine.

Little Miss is very un-impressed with what we are doing. Every time I decide something should go by putting it into my gotta go pile, she goes and fetches it back. By way of protest she turned out a whole bag of mega blocks lego and a huge bag of balls. not to mention all the puzzles, pens and pencils that ended up on the floor.
Like I said, not impressed.

I have been trying to tell her what is about to happen but she is not really getting it.

Although she loves the trailer, thinking it is the best cubby EVER!. Hopefully I can buy her off with that, although I dread the day that is chockers with "Stuff"

my Brother

I told my brother I had a blog.
He took a look.
He must have read the first half of my last post because he said..
'You started talking about cleaning and lost me.'
"Yeah sorry Bro"
Oh well. *shrug* thats my life at the moment.

My Brother was never really known for his cleaning.

But do stand by. Once we hit the road I know things will happen, as they do, that you just cant make up.

The sticky engine goo has gone in. Amazingly it seems to look pretty positive. Giving it a big test run tomorrow.
If it holds out we are calling it problem solved *with fingers crossed*.

Not much else to report...

Falling from the sky

In my usual aim-low kinda way I have started cleaning the house.
Starting with the second smallest room in the house.

I just gotta keep chipping away at it. If I do something every day,....
I am hoping at the end of our stay, it will be a fairly easy exit. A quick once over, and we will be done. Fingers crossed.

I have a mini internal celebration with every trip to the bin. A slightly bigger one with every trip to the recycle bin. A mild berration with every trip to the procrastination pile.

My piles are out of proportion. The 'yes' pile is small. The 'no' pile is smaller. The 'maybe' pile or 'procrastination' pile, as I like to call it, is freaking huge! It takes up the best part of a whole room. And lately I have found myself actually retrieving things from it. I guess that is a decision and cant be snuffed at, but really I am trying very hard to eliminate stuff. And then I just keep bringing it back. Gawd! We have a trailer now but really, it was only fitting the bare minimum of the 'yes' pile. The procrastination pile really has no place.

Now our van (long wheel base with precious packing area under the bed) has got a cracked head. Hmmmm. Now what?! Well we get  one chance at some sort of goo filler stuff that you chuck in, run it hot, let it cool and pray to gawd that it fills the hole, or holes or what ever! We are kinda counting on this. Cant afford a new car, running out of time, need the space.
Well we have the trailer, but short of a donkey, it wont do us much good without a van to pull it.

I gotta count on the general trend of good fortune or things falling out of the sky. But if a van falls out of the sky, if I dont dodge it, it wont be so fortunate.

Life has been amazing, so I am glad I am writing this down. I hope in one of the next instalments I have some sort of amazing news.
Everything crossed now.
Stand by

Count down

I have marked a count down on my calender. Today is 33 days before we have to leave.

I have to do this because otherwise I will be lulled into a false sense of security. I will think we have plenty of time. Then I will turn over the page of the calender and suddenly be in a panic!  .
I am glad for the time we do have. I need it. I really need it.
I am such a procrastinator. There are actually about 10 good reasons to procrastinate.
#1.... oh I will tell you later.