WEATHER: Summer-30C
So I’m home and it feels FABULOUS.
It doesn’t matter how long I am home for
it is never long enough. I had 7.5 weeks
in July and I now have 5 weeks this trip and time will just pass so quickly. I know this, and I rekon I could have 10
weeks and it still wouldn’t be enough.
I hit the ground running after I landed
in Brisbane. It was all perfect timing,
as I exited the terminal to wait for Shelly to pick me up, she arrived with
Zoe. We were all as excited as each
other. They were coming from ice skating,
so Tess was at home and just to see their smiling faces was like a breath of
fresh air for me and not that I wanted to start thinking about it now, but it
is going to be tough to leave this time round, especially as I really have no
idea on when I will be back. I will definitely
be home next year, but when is a good question and it really is the first time
that I don’t have ticket back to Australia-scary much?
The airport is only 15 minutes from the Elkins
and as we drove in the drive way, the heavens opened and a massive storm struck
Brisbane. That explains the poor visibility
as we flew in over the city and I am just glad that we weren’t flying in it, as
it was a doozy with the rain coming down horizontal and very windy. I am sure it would have had an impact on us
landing if we were 45 minutes later in arriving. I had an hour to refresh up before we were
back in the car and heading to Hadley’s birthday party’. It is always a surprise on what clothes I can
find in the drawers, what things I have packed in drawers and what personal
items I have again. It was nice to have
a bevy of clothes to choose from and after unpacking the monster and a quick
shower we were off again. Hadley’s party
was a great opportunity to catch up with a bunch of people at the one spot. I wasn’t feeling too bad considering that I
had been on the go for the last 17 hours.
From here we then had to get the
god-daughters to their dance concert at Redcliff that they train for all year. I have told the girls this is the main reason
for me coming home a week earlier; just to earn some brownie points along the
way with the girls. I haven’t seen them
dance for 2 years now but as the concert runs over week-end, we were dropping
them today and then we had tickets to see them dance tomorrow morning. We had 2 hours to fill while they were dancing,
so we walked across the road to the RSL and had a few drinks and a punt at the
TAB which is always great time filler.
Picking up the girls we were home by 7pm with dinner in hand. My first meal back and we had decided to have
Red Rooster and this is one of my ‘foods’ I miss when I am travelling.
Sunday was the concert again for the
girls and we were on the road at 9.30am.
Zoe was in 3 dances and Tess was in 2 and they were cute as
buttons. We had to sit through the first
half of the concert and saw them dance twice and then after the break I watched
their last dance, which they were both in and shortly after they had performed
I got a lift home with the neighbors as there was still the afternoon concert
to go and finally my jetlag was catching up with me.
Monday was spent going through the bags
that I had packed in preparation for my trip to Ethiopia in September before it
was cancelled a week before I was due to leave.
I literally had forgotten what was in there, so I needed to take stock,
work out what else I needed and also thought about the amount of clothes that I
had. I had far too many. I would really like to get the clothes packed
into 2 suitcases at most, so I also went through the clothes I had and anything
that didn’t fit, or look the Africa part and they will be given to Vinnie’s. I also need to keep in mind having ‘office’
clothes as I just don’t know what type of work I will be doing in Africa, so
with this in mind I culled another round of clothes. I also hit the wardrobe while I was on a roll
and I have 2 bags of clothes for Beth that I will take when I catch up with
them for lunch. Some of them still have
tags on them, so there is nothing wrong with them, I just don’t deem them as Africa
appropriate and I need to get into the swing of getting rid of things as I have
to make a date to get my shipping container out, hopefully this week, and go
through all my belongings that have been locked up for the last 2.5 years. I have emailed Minalu and asked if there are
things that I should bring with me, things that are hard to get or cheaper to
bring with me, so I am waiting back on a response from him at this point. So with a list now in hand on what I do
have-I am now making a list of things that I will need to get. Things like and extension cord, a power
board-as all my electrical gadgets have Australian plugs, wall hooks and I am
also thinking of buying a bread maker, a jaffel maker and maybe a grill
plate. You may or may not be able to get
those things in Ethiopia, but at least I will be able to cook something from
day one when I arrive. I also went
through my souvenir box and I have managed to fit 90% of them into a suitcase,
so I am going to take them all with me.
It is funny that I have some African pieces and pictures and they will
be heading back to the motherland.
Africa-Australia-Africa.
I phoned the shipping container people
on Monday to organize getting into my container. I wasn’t sure how much time they needed, and
for me the sooner the better, so I can get it all done and dusted and enjoy my
weeks at home without having that hanging over my head. I just know what a massive job it was going
to be and if I didn’t get onto it, it would just fester, time would tick and I
could be stuck with the container after I leave. THAT I definitely do NOT want to happen. So I phoned and the lady I have been dealing
with for the whole 2.5 years is really not that nice. We always clash and I dint find her very
helpful at all. So when I spoke to her
and explained my situation I was after some thoughts from her on what would be
the best way to gain access to my container for a week. They were unable to deliver the container to
the house and then come back for it as their trucks don’t have swing
lifts. She mentioned I could have access
at the depot, for the day, and when I said I would need more than one day to go
through all my things, she said she would have to talk to the boss and get back
to me. Her last comment before we hung
up the phone was that if I am giving it all away, why don’t I just toss it all
out at the dump. She really was rude and
I told her they were my belongings and I needed to go through them all first
and that wasn’t a very nice suggestion at all.
Stupid cow. How about we throw
out all ‘your’ stuff…… would you like that?
Stupid cow. Well I got a phone
call back and I was able to get access for 3 days from Wednesday. Well I had to take it and just hope that 3
days would be enough time. Already, just
booking it in and having a start day has relieved my stress my 20%-I was on my
way and this was the last massive hurdle that I had to jump as closure of my
life here in Australia. Based on the 3
days, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sell/give away all the furniture in that
time so I contacted a storage place that handles storage modules. So I figured, I could get the modules, pack
in my furniture and other bits and bobs, get it stored and then that would give
me a chance to put in EBay, sell it, and then get it all delivered on a certain
day and get it all collected. I am still
not sold on the EBay option, it would be less hassle to just get rid of it all
rather than trying to make a few bucks, but people keep telling me to try and
sell it, so I will give it a go and see how it pans out and worse-case scenario
I will just pop it all out on the street and put up a sign telling people to
help themselves.
So I’m home and it feels great to be
surrounded by friends again……
The clock is tick tick ticking……
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