We Survived Three Days of Driving
Hey y'all. This will have to be quick. A darling lady from church has kindly let me overtake her computer for a few minutes to relieve my internet withdrawal symptons.
WE'VE SHIFTED.
Can you believe it. None of us have really figured it all out yet. One minute I think we're just visiting and the next I find myself planning activities with people as if I've been here since forever.
Physically it's been kind of miserable. The stress is getting to me, all the people and trying to unpack and stuff. My room is still a total bomb and I have the worse case of the wog.
Still, I'm trying to keep with Rachel's advice and take it as it comes and enjoy as much as I can. The weather is nice the way it's so consistant and the people here have been so sweet. Most of them have known about my health problems and stuff for months and have been praying. I thought it would be really disquiteing meeting people who knew half of my life story but it's actually been ok.
Oh. Must run. Hopefully we'll get internet connected soon.
The Run Down
Please excuse the fact that this post could come out totally warped and unintelligible. I'm exhausted and my mind is totally fried.
We're all ready to shift. We finished up the last of the boxes and packed the truck yesterday. Today we went through cleaning all the cupboards, vacuuming the carpets and all that wonderful kind of stuff. I spent half the day with huge hankies tied around my mouth and nose and rubbers gloves on my hands, looking like a brain sergeant. This afternoon I exchanged the rubber gloves and duster for a roll of toilet paper. Alas, the boxes of tissues got packed and this nose just won't just running.
It's going to take us about three days to get north. We're doing this whole shifting thing by ourselves (e.g. no removalists) and so we've got our own truck. All but my Dad will be staying up there once we get there. After we've unloaded the first load he's going to come back to spend a few last weeks here finishing everything up and then bringing up the second load. It was the cheapest, most practical way we could think to do the whole thing.
Um....what else must I tell you. I won't be on the net. Not sure when I'll be able to get back on. You'll still be able to send me e-mails (and I'll love you if you do) but don't be surprised if it's at least a week or more before I get back to you. This shifting business is taking a toll on my body and depending on how stressful for the unpacking thing is, I might end up having to put my feet up for a while.
Prayers, thoughs and lovely comments would be most welcome. I'm about done in and sleep seems so very far away.
Happy Easter.
Silly City Slickers
NOTE: This came out all funny when I copy and pasted. I'll be back when I can to fix it up.
It's only 10:37 on my last day in the outback and already it's turned out interesting. I woke to gunshots. Well, actually the commotion it caused between my mum and brothers. I roll over and hear my Mum's voice first, "Can you hear that noise?"
Josh’s deep voice answers in typical male form, "Nope. I can't hear anything."
"It's something,” Mum’s insistant, “It sounds like the thump of the washing machine but that can't be, it's already packed on the truck."
"Maybe it's the bass beat in the music.”
No reply from my Mum on this one but I can just imagine her pursing up her mouth in stubborn refusal at Josh’s non-dramatic conclusion.
“It sounds like gunshots,” pipes in Caleb, “just like the pistol.”
“Hey, you’re right, “ agrees Josh. Mum’s heart beat goes up at his quick admittance of her fears. “Is Dad around?”
“No, he said he was moving sheep from Warden into the Lake Paddock.”
“It really sounds like his pistol.” Caleb isn’t into soothing nervous female nerves at all this morning.
“Well, maybe he did get back early.” Mum is grasping at the loose dirt in the air now, eager for any kind of answer. She calls up Dad on the two-way radio. He answers almost immediately, “Hey, darling. How’s it going?”
“Ok. Are you outside shooting off the pistol?”
“No. I’m on the Warden fence pushing the sheep into the Lake Paddock.”
So much for nice endings. These strange booming noises are getting creepier every moment. I sit up in bed, wondering whether to join the debate, when I hear my Mum trying to calmly send everyone back to their jobs. Just as she’s instructing the boys to move the last desk out of the school room, I look up and see a strange maroon 4WD sedately driving past the front of our house. Are we expecting visitors today?
The boys see the car and within minutes everyone is hiding behind the front verandah curtains, peering out the windows like nervous jews in a german raid. Could it be shooters? People the boss has sent out to see the place before we shift? We hope not. Shooters tend to be heavy on the bottle and tipsy men with guns are never a good combination. Mum, Hannah, and I aren’t leaving our curtains. Josh sets out bravely to investigate.
A curious minutes goes by. A tense one follows. Another five minutes and he’s back. He looks intact. The car is driving away. And is that a smirk?
Hannah demands he tell us everything. Josh takes his time teasing us with his silence, “They were lost.”
Lost? But what about the gunshots?
They were looking for the highway, he says. Turns out they were a bunch of city blokes trying to cut through the back road from the small town of Eulo, a few hours from our place. In the confusion of a back paddock they’d taken a right turn when they should have taken a left and spent the morning wandering around all our back roads. This has happened before, though, never quite as dramaticly as this. Usually a local tries to draw these kind of people mud-maps but these guys had tried it blind. And what was the point of panic? They had their guns. They had time. When they saw a group of emus on the road they decided to take a shot, not realizing our house was only a hundred yards behind the trees.
Josh says they looked pretty sheepish when they came to confess. Obviously afraid their sins would be found out by a higher authority, they offer to leave their number plate details with us “Get it checked if you like.” The burly guy in the passenger seat suggests hastily, “We swear we’re clean.”
Josh takes them at their word. Besides what’s the point. Policeman have heard these stories all before. It would only make another good story to circulate around the pubs.
Just to clinch their place in pub story fame, one of the guys breaks off in mid-sentence and asks excitedly, “Hey, is that a fox?”
Josh looks and sees our orange cat walking by. “Nah, mate, that’s a cat.”
“Man, you guys have big cats out here.”
Our cats look pretty average to me. But then I’ve been here for eight years. Once we’re north I’ll not longer be “bushy”, but this is my last day and until my times up I’ll shake my head in country bewilderment and say, “Silly city slickers.”
Where's the Sticky Tape?
I never knew a house could get so messy or that packing could be so intense. Somehow I thought packing would be a tidy business where all the clutter would magically tidy itself into neat little boxes. Suddenly I find some of it's packed, some of it isn't, and all I've succeeded in doing is building a mini wall of china at the foot of my bed--the only thing it being useful for is to hide behind so I don't have to gaze despairingly at the clutter still taunting me from the other side.
I'd hold out hope that the other end will be better but I have a fear it's not. We're moving to a smaller house.
This could result in therapy.
Or I could wake up to find myself crushed to death beneath the mini wall of china.
Whichever comes first.
Memories of Sydney
I love how Rachel condensed my whole visit down into one sentence on her blog:
"We did all the girly things like shopped a lot, ate food, talked, watched movies and stuff which was so lovely!! :)"
It was lovely. My whole trip was just...what's the word?...good. The whole way down I kept thinking how much it felt just like my first ever Sydney trip four years ago. I was barely a fledging traveler then. I tagged along behind Rachel in her escapades and in the overwhelming noise and lights of the city would hide behind her back.
This trip was different in that I'm beyond that. I feel different now that I've been sick. It's as if in the last two years I've found something of myself I never knew I had. I still stumble over my shoe laces a the stupidest of times; I still even find myself looking in a changing room mirror wondering how on earth Rach let me out of the flat wearing un-ironed jeans but somehow it doesn't matter so much anymore. I see everything differently.
We sat in the car and talked. I think that was one of my most favourite things. I was exhausted from traveling, Rach was exhausted from carrying around baby and with all the groceries we had stashed in the back seat we dreaded the climb up four flights of stairs. So we sat in the car. I love moments like that. We sat there, staring at the falling down fence behind their apartment block and chatted as if we were back in our beds talking through the darkness, four years younger.
We did other things. We shopped, we ate food, we cooked muffins (well, actually I cooked muffins; Rach ate them), and then when Josh flew down a few days later we dragged him around the Saturday markets and bored the poor guy to death. He turned sixteen that Saturday and Matthew took him out to a Mahler symphony at the Opera House for his birthday. A very sophisticated thing to do. Going from the grins on their faces three hours later they had a good time. Rach and I stayed home. We made chocolate slice, changed into our pyjamas and watched a chick flick. I suppose that marks us as uncultured females. The classical lovers of this world will just have to get over it.
After that was Sunday. I went to church, slept, went to church again, and somewhere in that day felt again like I was returning to something I had done before but differently this time. Something has changed in me and in walking out of a long dark tunnel it's like I've arrived on a sun-drenched beach. I went to Sydney intrepid, a mixture of fear and longing churning in my gut, and I came back knowing I'd proved something to myself.
I know now that I am truly getting well. I know now there's a huge world out there that I have the strength to face. I know now I can sit talking with my sister in a car and not have a fear I won't be able to climb the stairs. I did it. I walked everyone of those stairs and even now, two weeks later, I have not crashed. This is the miracle I barely had faith to believe would ever come true.
I have memories of Sydney and they were lovely.
If you'd like a few photos, you can find them here.
Want a Postcard?
Just a quick note. I was just going through my writing stuff today, preparing to pack it when I realized I have a whole stack of outback postcards. Seeing as I can't exactly send them after I've shifted I thought I'd offer them up for grabs. If any of my international friends would like one (I guess you Aussies can put up your hand if you're really that desperate) drop me your address before Wednesday night (e.g. American Tuesday).
Elyse doesn't qualify. Sorry, dearie. I've already sent you three!
Don't Trust a Skinny Cook
I can't believe I'm doing this. I used to skip over the recipes people posted on their blogs, muttering to myself oaths and promises to never put my blog readers through the same boredom.
Then I started cooking. Now suddenly every recipe catches my eye. I find myself flicking through the cooking magazines in waiting rooms just looking for ideas. And alas, I've only been cooking for two months. Does this obsession get worse?
My favourites, of course, are mexican dishes. If I can find an excuse to put corn, tomatoes, avocado and chillis together, I will. One dish in particular I made again tonight and it turned into a fight between my Mum and younger siblings who would get the last scrappings out of the dish. It surprises me how a corn and sweet potato pudding seems to have turned into my trade mark dish.
To anyone interested, it's made like this:
Corn and Sweet Potato Pudding
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Total cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
375g can creamed corn
1/2 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream (or plain yoghurt)
3 eggs, lightly beatened
1 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4-1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180C (350F).
2. Stir together ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 1 litre capacity ovenproof dish and bake for 45 minutes-1 hour, or until puffed and golden. Serve with a salad and bread or as an accompaniment to meat dishes.
Note: I've found it goes well with both grilled or baked fish and mexican chicken salad with rice.
Update: Oh, this is great. I had noooo idea sultana was an Aussie word. Just for the record, Cory, a sultana is like a raisin. They look like this and here's more info on them here.
Sunny Saturday
Packing, packing, ever packing. Things have gone into full throttle here. I'm making muffins today which I plan to freeze to eat on the drive up, and last night I bought a discman online. It turns out Dad wanted me to get all that practice driving so I could help Mum drive the van up north. We've got three long days and without music or something to occupy my mind I can't imagine how I'd managed hours of driving in a row without crashing. I usually beg Josh's disman off him at times like these but it turns out Hannah dropped his in the bathtub (who knows why?) and it is now offically frizzled. The price of discmans on ebay surprised me. It seems their prices have dropped dramatically with the uprise of MP3 players.
Anyways, I must run. I need to wash my hair today before it gets so grotty the hairs start standing out straight on end. Buenos dias.
Mail Day
Sick of me raving about mail day every week? Well, here's a few photos so you see what I'm always talking about.
P.S. Sydney photos next.
P.P.S. It feels so strange to think we've only got one more mail day left before we shift.
Road Trains, Cyclones, Lipstick & Labour
Two days until I can post photos.
A few odd things that happened while I was away.
1. I drove for the first time on a bitumen road. Laugh if you have to; I know how country that statement sounds. I've been driving since I was twelve but never on anything other than bumpty dirt roads. The bitumen sensation was totally surreal. The speedometer shot straight up with the gears and the whole way Dad had to keep reminding me to get off 110kms. For the record I drove 70kms, passed seven cars, and two road trains (e.g. 16-18 wheelers). I was surprised at how un-scary passing the road trains was. I remember stories of Rachel being absoltuely pretrified of them and I had this preconceived impression I was going to be dragged into a G-force and spat out mangled and bloodied with the first road train I passed. Happily that wasn't so.
2. The biggest cyclone in Australian history nearly wiped out our new house. I thought I was being kidded when Rachel and Matt greeted me in Sydney with the news. On the bus on the way down I remembered vaguely hearing commentators on the radio talking about this cyclone about to hit Australia that was as big or bigger than Hurricane Katrina. It sounded so far-fetched I went back to my book, thinking they were exaggerating. But no. I get into Sydney and my brother-in-law is like, "So did you hear about the cyclone?" And Rachel pipes in, "Mum rang and said they can't get a hold of anyone up north. They don't know yet if your house is still standing." Talk about ice blocks down my back.
I rang my Mum and she told me all about it. Apparently the cyclone came in and hit just below Cairns. It took our a little town called Innisfail and flattened it completely. For eight weeks it was predicted they'd be out of power and in the first couple of days half the population had to sleep in army tents on the airstrip all the while waiting for the second cyclone to hit. I can't imagine what it must have been like. The most amazing thing is that despite all the damage the cyclone did to Innisfail, Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands (where we're shifting) nobody was killed. Not one. It's quite exstroidinary when compared to the devastation Hurricane Katrina did to the southern side of America.
All the fruit and vege farms have been totally wiped out. Atherton grew 95% of the banana crop for Australia and overnight of the cyclone wiping all the trees out, the price of bananas tripled. It's quite insane. They say it's going to be at all eleven months before they'll have their trees big enough to produce crops again.
After a long silence, the pastor of our new church finally rang up (him being one of the very few up north to have an old telephone stashed away that didn't need power to work), and let us know everyone was still alive. Apparently the majority of our house is still standing, the worse being the water that flooded the downstairs. They pulled the carpet up for us, and seeing as my bedroom is going to be downstairs I could be running around on a concrete floor for a while.
Our place fared remarkably well compared a lot of other places. Mum says she was watching interviews they did of people online and the interviewer asked one police man, "Why on earth aren't you home trying to fix up your own place?" The guy replied, "I don't have a houes anymore. It's completely gone." For weeks apparently the counsel forbade anyone to send their kids to school because the ground was so soggy all the trees were falling over at the most random times and they couldn't guarantee one wouldn't fall on a school kid. Most places have power now, ours will have it back by the end of this week ready for us when we go down the week after.
What amazes me the most is how if we'd gone with our original shifting date we would have been shifting the exact same week of the cyclone. Mum reminded me of this and I was like, "I'll never complain about how long it's taken us to shift again!"
3. I plastered lipstick all over Andrew's face. In self defence I must say I was obligated to do it. Josh and I went to youth group and one of the preliminary games involved a tube of bright pink lipstick and a blindfold. I'll leave the rest to your imagination, though I must say, squiggly lines of pink lipstick all over a guy's face is quite a fashion statement.
4. A friend of Rachel's went into labour. It was one of those weird experiences. It was Sunday night and I was just getting into bed when Rachel turns from the computer and says, "Rachael in America just went into labour. I'm talking to her on IM." I've read quite a few birth stories within the last few months but never, from any of them, was I prepared for the thought of imagining my sister taling to a woman currently in labour over instant messenger. It was just one of those totally bizarre moments. Weirder yet is the knowing now that she was in labour for 52 hours, the whole time I slept Sunday night, went shopping Monday morning, watched a movie Monday night, and started packing Tuesday. I'm convinced labouring woman are a group of heroes all their own.
Falling Like Rain
You know what I feel like. I feel like walking out the door of my little mansion on a secluded island, pulling a snuggly toweling robe around me and breathing in the cool sea breeze. I won't have on any shoes. The sand won't be hot and I'll skip down to the beach, my long wavy hair flowing behind me. There I'll wander along the shoreline, let the waves flirt with my toes and think about every little nothing that has become everything to me. That's what I'll do. I'll sing to my creator in silence, feel the moist air on my skin and glory in the wonder of his touch.
Well, if I had a mansion and if my hair was that long already, that's what I'd do. As it is it's Autumn here and the cooler weather has chased away the lethargy of summer and mentally and emotionally I feel so refreshed. I'm guessing this is something of a calm that's finally hit after the storm of emotions I've been wading through since January.
As I look back I'm seeing how it's probably all tied in with my health. I've had a huge leap in my health upwards since January and no longer being sick full-time has suddeny sent me through a whole wave of emotional and mental hurdles. For years I didn't dare to dream, now suddenly anything seems possible. For years I barely ever had the strength to get through a day, now suddenly I have spare energy on my hands leaving me listless and bored.
We're about to move, too, I think that helps. After six months of waiting it's nearly here. The date at present is set for the 18th of this month, the Wednesday after Esther. Since getting back from Rachel's I've managed to pack seventeen boxes of books. I still have a whole another bookshelf to go, making me wonder where on earth we managed to get this many books from. I know I'm a bookworm, but twenty odd boxes? It's quite sobering. Maybe if I stopped buying books I might be able to afford that mansion.
Four Times Eleven
Yay! The month is up, I can finally fill this in. Thanks to Andrew for tagging me.
1. Four Jobs I've Had:
- Mustering sheep
- Sorting sheep
- Rouseabout
- Secretary
2. Four movies I could watch over and over:
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Life Is Beautiful
- Ocean's 12
- LOTR: The Two Towers
3. Four places I've lived:
- My Mummy's tummy
- On the coast (Gladstone)
- In a little town (Crookwell)
- On a big sheep station
4. Four TV Shows I love to watch:
- Getaway, the travel show
- Hogan's Heroes
- LOST
- Home improvement shows (I'm an interior decorator nut)
5. Four Places I've Been:
- Singapore
- Cambodia
- Melbourne
- Sydney (Brisbane, Dubbo, Bourke, etc...etc..etc...)
6. Four favourite Dishes:
- Lasagna
- Sweet Potato Pudding
- Spicy Chicken Stir-fry
- Anything Mexican
7. Four sites I visit daily:
- My blog (so I'm a comment junkie)
- maybe a few blogs off my links list
- occasionally Ezibuy.com to check for sales
- Google
8. Four Favourite Drinks:
- Water
- Peppermint Tea
- Drinkable yoghurt
- Hot chocolate
9. Four places I would rather be:
- The bathtub
- An airport
- My doctor’s clinic
- Europe
10. Four transport methods I often use:
- Piggy Back Rides (thank you Daddy)
- Ute
- Bus
- Plane
11. Four people I'm tagging:
- Rachel
- Heidi
- Cory
- Stephen
Bother It
April Fools indeed. My first planned action was to show you all photos of my Sydney trip and then I found out we're over our internet download for the month. I won't be able to really post for yet another five days.
Cruel, cruel world!
