Departing Australia

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So here we are at Kinsgford Smith airport waiting for our flight to take us to the other side of the world.

We spent last night in the transit lounge known as Parramatta Street Cronulla in the company of our gracious hosts, Shane, Claire, Emily and Charlotte and other guests of the Clan Cannon, Rita, Jim, Juleen, Natalie, Darren and Jonny. We enjoyed a pleasant BBQ evening which followed a dip in the Pacific at Cronulla Beach.

As Alex alluded to in the first post, it has taken a lot of planning and a lot of shifts to bring us to this point. We have many people to thank for helping us with this achievement without any loss of life; close friends, family, neighbours, kids’ bffs, employers, workmates, real estate agents, travel agents, plumbers, labourers, gardeners, arborists, teachers, principals and so on.

Special thanks must go to Alex’s work colleagues who went on leave and to the inflow of patients; together they created an increased demand for Alex's talents and a whole lotta shifts. In the end, Alex, the so-called part timer, worked more hours than me.

Thanks must also go to the State. No, I am not going all North Korean, we simply would not have got as far as we have without Alex’s packaging capacity. Sacrifice that part of your salary for the mortgage, sacrifice that part for meals, and sacrifice that part for accommodation. OK – we won’t say no to that. In the end, Alex, with her so-called supplementary income, earned more than me.

“Trails of troubles, roads of battles, paths of victory we shall walk”

It was not all smooth sailing. Life still had to go on no matter how much we tried to focus on a particular goal. Alex may have felt the stress early on in the piece while I was oblivious or simply in denial believing “she’ll be right” and so forth not knowing who this ‘she’ was or whether she had any particular political bent. For me it hit me like the proverbial outhouse over the last week. It was the closest I think I will get to understanding how a ship’s cook attempts to coordinate the kitchen so that everything comes together to feed the masses in a perceived seamless manner. I was not always ‘Ian the Stoic’. What would have been amusing to the fly on the wall, was how when one of us had our head in our surrendering hands the other would support and convince the said headholder we were on the path to victory. We would often swap roles.

Other amusing outtakes of the last few days were the murdering eyes I received from all quarters when the Austar TV was cancelled a couple of days earlier than expected, and, in a similar vein, Oliver’s disbelief that the “Interweb” was off on the very last day at our house. I will have to search Wiki for a simple explanation of how the internet works so I can pass onto the youngest as OD kept asking me “where did I put the Interweb”.

We have estimated, since we started the process back in January, we have removed the equivalent of five skip bins. The house is clean and packed so well I think I might buy it. The chickens are with a friend, the dog has gone to camp at the kennels, and the cat is now horse meet. The photos attached to this blog are of Abbey and me having a cuddle on the day of her going to camp…

Ian

No animals were harmed in the production of this post.

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Comments

[Susan Cyganiewicz]

Holiday
Enjoy, Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!