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.

Falling into place

Things are falling into place. Kinda freaky, spooky kinda way.

It is funny how, before we had committed to the idea of going up there, nothing was really working out.
It was like walking through mollasses. Trying to move ahead but not really gaining anything for the effort.

But the minute we decided "Lets do it!" and more so when we found out we had the job, things have been falling into place like a life size game of tetris.

2 of the most recent examples spring to mind.
Firstly I told my Boss (of my current job) that I was having to leave. [ I love my job. I work in a tiny little restaurant, in a small town, for a brilliant, salt-of-the-Earth guy. But he has always had trouble getting people to work for him - small town and transient population and all. ]
So I didn't want to leave him in the lurch. I felt worse when I found out most of the other staff were leaving around the same time as me. Oh dear, he has to get a whole new team! I felt awful for him.

The very next shift I was on, he announced to me he had some news. After over 2 years of being on the market, never so much as a nibble of interest in it, he has a buyer for the restaurant. And... get this... his last day of opperation is my last day of work. Or my last day is his last day. Freaky! He has just enough staff to get him through the next few weeks without having to employ any one else. I get a few extra shifts to drop some extra coin into our Leaving Kitty and he gets his last few shifts covered. Could that be any more perfect?

Ok so example #2.
You know that trailer that we have been counting on and wondering if it actually exists... well it exists. We now own it.
I have been trawling the clasifieds for weeks. Checking the notice boards and surfing the net. Even scrappy, unlicenced pieces of junk were out of our budget and/or sold. It was looking grim. Plus the pile of stuff we were hoping to put in our imaginary trailer was getting bigger and bigger.

Then Steve had to run an errand to the shop. On the shop notice board was a picture of THE PERFECT trailer. It wasn't just a box with wheels, although we would have been happy with that, it was fully enclosed with a roof rack. And the price was achievable. We rang the guy and he had literally just put the notice up. We almost stepped on his toes. Well not quite but you know....
So long story short, we are now the proud owners of the perfect trailer.

Big smiles all round. X)

First the worst.

Oh dear, the good byes have started already.
I forgot that part of the 'leaving everything behind' included friends and family.

Well I hadn't really forgotten. Blocked it out would be more accurate.

I recall in the early years of primary school there was a chant the kids used to sing on many a lunch break.
It went "First the worst, second the best, third the fairy princess."
It doesn't really make any sense and was probably made up by some sore looser one day to make them feel better about not winning. But never the less it stuck.
There would be a race to the tree being run. Best efforts were made. Then someone (probably from the back of the pack) would pipe up with the "first the worst" chant. Suddenly the whole race was thrown into turmoil. No one wanted to finish first. There ended up being a crowd at the tree waiting for someone to touch it so they could get in second. Actually all the boys wanted second. Girls would happily take third too. Not the boys. No sir-ee!

So anyway the point of that little piece of useless information was to prove that the first good bye was the worst... so far.

We farewelled my parents. Actually they are leaving us but it is still  a good bye all the same.

They make fantastic grand parents.They made pretty good parents. They are the best parents I have ever had. But they truely excel at being grandparents. I love the relationship they have with Little Miss. I really love her having that. They all need each other. I dont mind being in the mix either. I am sure I register there somewhere still. Although the lime light is definately directed towards the midget performer.

But apparently we are not getting away that easily. They have camper, will travel. Or Granny and Pops Cubby Car as Little Miss has dubbed it. She was very impressed with it, and cant believe they took it away from her. And they have reached a whole 'nother level of cool in her eyes. My too admittedly. So its not really good bye. More like see ya soon.

OK so see ya soon

Boring

So Hubby rang our future boss the other day.

Hubby "So how are things going up there?"

Boss "Uh we are surrounded by bush fire and expecting a cyclone. Yeah the usual."

Hmmm sounds damn glamerous.
There is that environment again. The type of environment that makes everyday items seem stupid and useless.
Where are those high heels again?... perfect bush fire cyclone attire I am sure.
I cant see myself saying 'Quick put on your heels and grab a throw rug. There is a cyclone coming!'
Or 'Here comes a bush fire, pass me one of those scatter cusions!'

Did I mention how much I like boring?

Messy!

My house is messy. I dont mean a little untidy. I mean MESSY. It seems that even though I have 5 weeks before we leave, I have lost the ability to pack things away for the thinking "meh its only going in a box soon"
Kinda like not making the bed because you are only going to get back in there in 12 hours....
Not really good enough.
I know I am putting it off because there isnt really an "away" place to put things. It means I will have to sort it and decide the items fate. Its all a bit much really. I am all for procrastination.

I am looking at everything through a strange filter. I keep asking myself how useful something like "this" will be in the desert or on the beach. I can tell you that a whole pile of my posessions seem really stupid all of a sudden. I mean what are you going to do with high heels in red dirt? It may look awesome in a modelling photo shoot, you know the ones, designer sweat, big jewellery, tiny clothes. It may not be so practical teetering around a rugged camp site with venomous snakes under foot.

I also keep looking at the sheer volume of "STUFF" that we have got to squeeze into one van. Now my Hubby is the worlds best packer but this is one challenge he would have to submit to. I am seeing the contents in our three bed room house shrinking and shrinking but it still isnt good enough. Even the pile of stuff in the shed by the front door would just about fill the van.... or the trailer that we dont even own yet. Or have even found!

I have trinkets and gizmos, gadgets and stuff. I have clothes for day and night. I have a sock collection that could sink the Titanic. How many socks does one woman need? In 30 degree heat? I have to let go.

I have found that even though I havent looked at/worn/used something for more than 2 years, once I rediscover it I have all these attachment emotions spring up in me like a well. I swear if the all just vannished ...POOF.... I wouldnt even know. But the finding it and then parting with them is the hard bit.

I have made piles all around my house too.
They are like files in my brain. This pile for the op shop (or garage sale if I can be bothered) another pile for this person or that, and more for reconsideration at a later date. I call these the second chance piles. Its a bit like an episode of Australian Idol... they are all pretty good, but ya gotta whittle 'em down. I am gonna have to get ruthless.


Little Miss seems a bit put off by the way her toys keep disappearing. I am sure she knows something is up. 2yo are pretty keen creatures. She wont let me pack anything away now. I guess she suspects she may never see them again. As a result our lounge room looks like a cresh in full swing. 10 kids couldnt make the mess that Little Miss has managed. And Gawd forbid I should pack away at night.... no sir-eee. There will be hell to pay at some uncivilized hour of the morning, when she discovers the tidy carpet and space under foot.

Anyway it is late. Till next time

The other bit

I am moving between "Oh my, this is so exciting" to "What am I thinking?!"
All in about 30 second cycles.

I live in a very civilized unit in a very civilized town near a very civilized beach with a very civilized life surrounded by very civilized wild life. It is nice and boring.

That is all about to change.
Big time.
Even the weather up there is uncivilized.

So I guess this blog is about my journey as a mother, as a woman, as a worker/manager, as a human, pulling up all ties and heading ........ OUT THERE!


Our new base is on a thin strip of white squeezed between red dirt and turquoise ocean.
Atleast that is what I imagine. I haven't yet laid eyes on the place. I have heard many things but you have read most of what I have heard in the above intro.

So this is where the journey starts. With the right amount of chaos, stress and turmoil to make anything an adventure. I cant even begin to worry about actually being up there before I get out of here... but that wont stop me from actually worrying, now will it? No sir-eee!

I will be back to worry so more soon no doubt.

Half an intro.

I am starting this blog with no real expectation of anyone actually reading this. I simply need the space in my brain. If you hate bad spelling or grammer you best leave now. I am hopeless!
Quickly about me. I am married with a 2yo daughter. I love art and nature and tryinf to live outside the box. I am just about to step waaaaaaayyyyy outside the box.
I have just got, or rather, I am about to start a new job. It comes with a fair mix of excitement and terror.
Let me tell you a bit about it.
It is 150km north of a north west town called Carnarvon, which used to be a one horse town, but then they bought another horse. It is up a dirt track. A really, really loooong dirt track. You just want to pray that it doesn't rain. On a good day it can take over an hour to travel, a bad up to 6!
It is an eco camp, so long drop dunnies, conservation, fishing sancturies etc. Water is tight to say the least. We have a house attached to the shop that has a small rain water tank but the rest of the camp has none. It is BYO. We are really going to need to be very concious of our consumption.
Our shop is the only thing for miles that has power. We get it from a generator. The generator gets switched off at 10pm and on again at 7am. There is no TV or radio. There is not much of anything else. Oh except snakes. Plenty of those buggers.
It turns out that the best plan is for ME to be the boss. It was always going to be Hubby who was getting the job but really most of the work is shop, ordering, bookings etc. Thats me and very much NOT him. So he will be a SAHD... hehehe that looks cute! A sahd . But it is so casual that I will be able to have Little Miss in the shop (that is attached to the house) with me most of the time. He has been offered extra work as a chippy which he will most likely do, on his own schedual.
We get up there 2 weeks before the madness of the Easter holidays desend. We better have it down by then coz there wont be a moment to scratch. . This was my former life - busy, pressure, tills, money, bookings, co-ordination etc but I feel wayyy out of practice. Plus with a 2 yo next to me....
Anyway. This is right up our ally even though it sounds daunting. Hubby and I have always loved camping. The rawer the better. This will be like luxury camping. With a bed. And a fridge. I just hope Little Miss can cope without Aunty ABC. But there IS fishing, snorkling and all that beachy stuff. There will always be kids in the camp that she will have to befriend. I wonder how WE will cope with lights out at 10?!
On the plus side there is internet. I can keep up with you lot. And the rest of the world... if I want to. So long as it is before 10pm 
Thinning down my stuff has been hard but liberating. I have moved that many times that all I have left is special stuff. But I figure if it has spent the last 2 years in a box and I havent even seen or thought about it, it can go. It is just he parting with it that is the hard bit.  I have halved my house. Now I have to go back through and halve that again. We are going up with our van and a trailer (hopefully if we can find and afford one.) and that is it.
My house is in a state of deconstruction. It bothers me. I am not pedantic about tidy but I do like a little order. Everything is clean but it is quite messy. Especially with Little Miss inspecting everything I pull out to play the "keep or throw" game. 
Anyhow that is enough from me for now. I will be back next time my brain needs emptying.