We're off to see...
...my in-laws, in the wonderful city of Wagga! Yes, we've committed the cardinal sin of taking Ella out of school for two days, only one week before the end of her first term, but who wants to travel over Easter?
Michael's got a Microsoft 'Code Camp' at Charles Sturt University near Wagga Wagga this weekend, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity for Ella and me to go down there too and spend a long weekend with Terry and Joan, and doubtless Annemaree and her children too. I gather that we'll miss Bernadette and her lot because they're off at Jack's swimming competition in Sydney, which is a shame.
What else have we been up to? Well we've worked out when we're next going to be in Europe: we're going to start travelling over on 22nd June, and depart back to Australia on 13th July, so we'll be over for roughly 3 weeks. Plans are in the very early stages at the moment, but we hope to be in Bristol at either the beginning or end of the trip, with a meander from Nice to Venice in the middle and hopefully a quick visit to Amsterdam thrown in for good measure. We had thought about 'doing' Bristol for a week at the beginning of our holiday, but it seems that in doing so we might miss seeing Dad, which I don't want to do, as he may be over in France and Germany holidaying with Fiona... As you can see, it's already complicated and we're still 3 months away! I'll keep you informed as to our plans, but it will be lovely to see you again if we can possibly arrange it.
Our purchase of Lot 31 North Boambee Road has officially gone through now, and we should get all the deeds in the next couple of weeks. Now we have to get Public Liability insurance sorted out for the property, to protect ourselves against claims from people who shouldn't be on our land and various contractors who should... and we need to sort out a 'slasher': someone with a tractor and a large mowing attachment on the back who can keep the grass down. As we're coming into winter it shouldn't need doing so often - as long as its below knee level we can live with it, for the moment, so hopefully this will only be an expense every few months until the grass starts growing again with vigour later in the year. I still can't get my head around the fact that we're in autumn at the moment whereas Europe is experiencing spring time. It just doesn't feel right!
The excitement is mounting as we wait until Thursday next week to see our architect, who has come up with some 3D CAD drawings on his computer with ideas of what he thinks the house could look like. It's incredibly hard to imagine a physical building where none exists at the moment. Michael and I were up at the property yesterday morning (testing out the new off-road tyres on our 4WD!), and it's almost impossible to imagine what it will be like with a home up there.
I am actually feeling quite daunted by everything at the moment: the initial (long) burst of energy that has sustained me through the whole process of moving over here and initial settling in to Coffs Harbour is beginning to fade away, and some of the stress is catching up with me. It's not been helped by having my first cold for six months (thank you Mr Nardini - I caught the cold from you via Michael!), but I guess it's only natural that there will be peaks and troughs in how we're all coping with this. And I miss all of our friends so much. Yes, we're pretty sociable people and we've got lots of 'nodding acquaintances', and we are getting to know two couples (Carol and Ian and Sammie and Duncan), but it's a slow old process and it would be lovely to have you all around to talk to about things... But anyway, we just have to get on with it and keep in touch with you as far as we are able to do so via other means.
Hey ho. I've decided to take things easy for a few days and calm down a bit, and then I suspect my usual enthusiasm will come back and my energy levels will increase again. Then I might feel like doing a bit of work...
Michael's got a Microsoft 'Code Camp' at Charles Sturt University near Wagga Wagga this weekend, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity for Ella and me to go down there too and spend a long weekend with Terry and Joan, and doubtless Annemaree and her children too. I gather that we'll miss Bernadette and her lot because they're off at Jack's swimming competition in Sydney, which is a shame.
What else have we been up to? Well we've worked out when we're next going to be in Europe: we're going to start travelling over on 22nd June, and depart back to Australia on 13th July, so we'll be over for roughly 3 weeks. Plans are in the very early stages at the moment, but we hope to be in Bristol at either the beginning or end of the trip, with a meander from Nice to Venice in the middle and hopefully a quick visit to Amsterdam thrown in for good measure. We had thought about 'doing' Bristol for a week at the beginning of our holiday, but it seems that in doing so we might miss seeing Dad, which I don't want to do, as he may be over in France and Germany holidaying with Fiona... As you can see, it's already complicated and we're still 3 months away! I'll keep you informed as to our plans, but it will be lovely to see you again if we can possibly arrange it.
Our purchase of Lot 31 North Boambee Road has officially gone through now, and we should get all the deeds in the next couple of weeks. Now we have to get Public Liability insurance sorted out for the property, to protect ourselves against claims from people who shouldn't be on our land and various contractors who should... and we need to sort out a 'slasher': someone with a tractor and a large mowing attachment on the back who can keep the grass down. As we're coming into winter it shouldn't need doing so often - as long as its below knee level we can live with it, for the moment, so hopefully this will only be an expense every few months until the grass starts growing again with vigour later in the year. I still can't get my head around the fact that we're in autumn at the moment whereas Europe is experiencing spring time. It just doesn't feel right!
The excitement is mounting as we wait until Thursday next week to see our architect, who has come up with some 3D CAD drawings on his computer with ideas of what he thinks the house could look like. It's incredibly hard to imagine a physical building where none exists at the moment. Michael and I were up at the property yesterday morning (testing out the new off-road tyres on our 4WD!), and it's almost impossible to imagine what it will be like with a home up there.
I am actually feeling quite daunted by everything at the moment: the initial (long) burst of energy that has sustained me through the whole process of moving over here and initial settling in to Coffs Harbour is beginning to fade away, and some of the stress is catching up with me. It's not been helped by having my first cold for six months (thank you Mr Nardini - I caught the cold from you via Michael!), but I guess it's only natural that there will be peaks and troughs in how we're all coping with this. And I miss all of our friends so much. Yes, we're pretty sociable people and we've got lots of 'nodding acquaintances', and we are getting to know two couples (Carol and Ian and Sammie and Duncan), but it's a slow old process and it would be lovely to have you all around to talk to about things... But anyway, we just have to get on with it and keep in touch with you as far as we are able to do so via other means.
Hey ho. I've decided to take things easy for a few days and calm down a bit, and then I suspect my usual enthusiasm will come back and my energy levels will increase again. Then I might feel like doing a bit of work...
posted by Sara Bowen at 2:31 am
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