Off and running

Day 1 – 12th February After 2 kilometres of packing tape and countless cartons – the day arrived. The drive to Melbourne was mercifully uneventful until the last 15km when torrential rain slowed the journey to a crawl and I made it to the ferry with 5 minutes to spare!
Awoke to views of Devonport and soon after drove off the ferry with Sting’s dulcet tones singing Brand New Day…someone fitting I thought. A brisk 11 degrees, stopped at the first servo and filled up on petrol and organic produce – excited but also wondering what the hell we had done – truly was a brand new day!
The drive was tough…..sore all over and completely knackered – stopped for a brief nanny nap and a mug of the world’s worst coffee in Campbell Town. Seems they’d had a bit of weather themselves the night before – it was all the talk in the local café. What a lovely, clean café, a throwback to another time ….shame about the coffee.
Genna GPS insisted on taking me on the scenic route out of Kingston – probably a good thing, the windy road kept me awake. Finally arrived around 1pm to a husband & dog waiting on the front/back porch. Would love to bottle that feeling. That yelp of delight from Floyd that I thought was exclusively reserved for his dad after long trips, his stump wagging so hard looked like it might drop off.
The journey begins on the front/back porch….
To celebrate my arrival, dinner was had in the best restaurant in town – the Red Velvet Lounge. I enquired as to what sort of fish stripey trumpeter was – the response from Chef was “there is no description for stripey trumpeter, but it’s nice.” Hmmmm, we’re in the country now!
Day 2 - Saturday
Up at 8 and at 8.30, the semi is in the front/back setting up to unload. I call this the back of the house – it clearly looks like the back of the house. It’s just that the back faces George Street, our address, and the front is behind the Cygnet Museum and faces Mary Street but there is no access. Gets a little confusing –especially when advising removalists either front or back bedroom etc. A few breakages along the way – including a mirror and a magnum but thankfully moving in is a breeze compared to moving out! Having said that, there’s more to come from the storage units in Sydney – no hurry guys!
Unpacking begins…….
Winsor, having already befriended a number of locals handed me a box of pink eye potatoes, a bucket of Dutch crème potatoes, bunches of baby carrots and parsnips, a number of pumpkinny/squashy veggies and a handful of green beans. Here goes nothing – no idea how the electric oven works, all the symbols have been scrubbed off over the years. Not as hard as I thought, managed an interested mélange of garlicky roasted root veggies with a stuffed organic roast chook from the IGA. The gas cooktop took a little more swearing and coxing. Not really sure what I did but the gas finally started and we were cooking with gas!
Eventually fell asleep in a lounge chair and was horrified to wake to ice in my veins. Can it really be this cold in summer?
Day 3 - Sunday
I’m an unpacking machine! Might be surrounded by churches but all I can hear is feint hymn singing in the air. Pretty chilly today and Floyd is forlorn. Don’t know why but he looks a little lost. Hope he snaps out of it.
Ventured across the road for a late lunch at the Lotus Eaters Café. The pies and curries on the weekends are highly recommended. Pies were finished so 2 curries coming up. Not like any curry I’ve ever had but absolutely delightful – basmati rice piled high with shredded chicken, lentils, cauliflower, courgettes, coriander, green chillies with a ladle full of yoghurt, topped with a crown of 3 crisp pappadums. Not bad for $19 and leftovers for Floyd. We’ll be back, but it will pay to be earlier – it’s a very popular spot and only open late in the week.
Whipped up scrambled eggs from local free range eggs, donated by some kindly soul to Winsor prior to my arrival. He surely didn’t look malnourished, did he? Wasn’t hungry but tried a few mouthfuls – haven’t tasted eggs that creamy and tasty or looked as buttercup yellow since we had our own chooks. This is what life is about. Fresh air and fresh fabulous food, not stress and pollution!
Day 4 – Monday
Grabbed Floyd and headed off on a left block into rural suburbia. What a glorious morning. Lots of school buses, kids and mums heading off to school and work, dogs barking. Took another left turn thinking it might be a block. Sign said to Church St which I stupidly assumed would end up near a church and since our house is in the church precinct….. The road seemed to go off into the sky, steeper and steeper. Bugger that, Floyd’s running out of puff. Tried cross country through a vacant paddock heading downhill and turned around to see a very sad-faced dog not going anywhere. All the encouragement and treats in the world wouldn’t get his stump awagging or his paws amoving! Unnoticed by me, the paddock was rife with some sort of thistle weed. Nothing for it but to carry the 12 kg canine back up the hill and back on to the road – good thing I’ve been doing some heavy lifting lately.
Headed in to Huonville to Woolies for a big shop….food is dearer here. $7.95 for green capsicums, $5 for bananas…..good thing we have trees full of nectarines, plums and pears in our yard and Winsor has been out collecting wild blackberries. We will need plan a little better. The request for dinner was sweet & sour pork. Wasn’t a good day for pork, finally found some pieces at the 4th butcher…..pork is delivered on Tuesdays in this region. There endth today’s lesson…..
Day 5 – Tuesday
Last day before settlement of the sale on our Leichhardt doll’s house. They had better be impressed – I worked really hard, with some help from Pam and Les, to get it to this point and it’s far cleaner than the house we have bought. Fingers crossed, all goes well….
Floyd and I took a decent walk to the Barton’s Wildlife Reserve and the bird viewing platform. He got the scent of some critter, probably a rabbit and had quite the adventure sniffing the ground from one end of the reserve to the other. Can’t imagine where he would end up if I let him loose. Soon after arriving home, he nosed his way under a bush in the front/backyard only to rouse a pademelon (like a small rock wallaby) that took off at great speed and thankfully for it, managed to pass through our newly strung fence wire. I wasn’t that keen on the choice of fencing wire with holes that are about 4 inches square but I’m sure the pademelon was more than grateful for the quick getaway route and I’m much happier with the fence.
Winsor has just set up my blog. We are planning to go wireless any day soon and then my daily blog will, in fact, be daily.