O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I'll tak' the low road…

Life has a way of taking us down paths we never thought we’d take. For some time now hubby & I have been talking about relocating ourselves and the business, north to either the Sunshine Coast or Cairns.  Basically, somewhere warm and humid and out in the country.  The humidity up north keeps my allergies at bay too, which allows me to enjoy warm weather.  We where also looking for a property large enough for my hubby to work from home as hiring factory/shed space can cost an arm & a leg. As we will be starting a customer base scratch, the less overheads we have the better. There is only one major problem with this plan… Cane Toads!  Now this is worrying as we have two terriers that chase, catch & kill any critter that dares set a foot, wing or antenna on our property. I have witnessed many a stalking and killing of mice, birds & even insects. It’s like a National geographic special around our place sometimes.  Attempts David Attenborough voice-over…’Watch as the tiny terrier stalks his (or her) prey…’ violent pouncing  & killing scene ensues.  The poison secreted via a cane toad’s skin can kill a dog within 15 min and small dog breeds such as my dogs, account for three-quarters of reported poisonings. With cane toads numbers constantly on the rise this is a real concern.  

After many long discussions we have decided it would be best to delay taking the high road (the road north) and instead take the low road ( the road south) instead.  The other benefit of this being we will still be within a couple of hours drive from family if we stay within the state.  Of course now there was the problem about deciding whereabouts in the country we should move to. Hmmm, well the first place that came to mind was Healesville. The downside to Healesville being that we’d be moving further away from the water & towing a boat 2 ½ hours just to get to water just ain’t fun.  Then another area came to mind, the Gippsland Region. (Partly because an old school-mate of mine, you know who are :P, has recently bought a farm in the region) After a few google searches & map scourings I spotted a town called Leongatha & found that it was the largest town in the region.  A larger town suits would suit our needs as we need to be able to receive regular deliveries of Ice machines  & parts etc. and as we are not looking to have a working farm we didn’t want too much land to maintain.    Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, 130 km south east of Melbourne. It takes just over 2 hours to get in Melbourne if we ever needed to.   The suburb as the added bonus of being about 21 mins to Inverloch (the sea)  & 50 mins to Port Welshpool. (also the sea)  We would most likely take the boat out at Port Welshpool as our boat quite a deep v-shaped hull & the boat ramps are better suited there.  Not to mention the fact that I have heard that some of the best fishing in Victoria is to be had at Port Welshpool.  Bonus!

A couple of days ago hubby rings me up and says let’s go have a look at the area & see what it’s like. We went to a local real estate agent and asked him to show us around. He took us around the suburb and showed us around 10 houses. We loved the final house we looked at and the next thing you know we put on an offer for a HOUSE! (Subject to the sale of our current house of course) We just fell in love with the town. So provided they accept our offer and also provided our house gets sold for a reasonable price we may be Leongathians in the near future. Now it's a bit of a mad rush to finish painting this house and get it on the market for sale. We have always been like this.. even when we bought current house, we saw it ..loved the feel of the place and put in an offer 10mins later.

I have spent the better part of this morning getting requesting removalist quotes, contacting local conveyancing solicitors, e-mailing real estate agents and accountants and trying to find a local floor polishing dude or dude-ess in ‘Gatha’ (as I have informed it’s called by the locals) as we would like to rip up the carpet & get the floors polished before moving all of our furniture in.  All while trying to not get too excited as nothing is official until both house’s reach settlement.  Now to spend the rest of the day dragging furniture around so that the painters have room to finish painting the remaining areas that we have still not painted. They start painting Tues morning! Yes, we decided to get someone in to do that considering the time restraints.  It’s never boring around here let me tell ya!

Argh my brain hurts… !!!

When it rains it pours…both literally & figuratively

Ok I’m starting to think 2011 has it in for me It's only the first week of Feb and so much has already gone wrong this year. The story so far...scary once in lifetime floods in Brisbane, so I spend the first few weeks in January worried about family there. We finally get word that not only is everyone is ok, but their houses where safe too.

Then I hear about more scary torrential rain and floods in Sri Lanka, so I spend the next few days worried about family there until get word that everyone is ok there. Phew!   

Then I find out that my cousin’s little baby boy is in hospital with some unknown illness. so I spend a few days praying madly once more and worried about him until I finally get word that he is improving, and is now back to his usual smiley self. Thank goodness.  

 I’m not a superstitious person but what is it they say?, Oh yeah bad stuff happens in three’s so I’m thinking things can only get better right??? Wrong! .. Cyclone hits northern Qld.  Now a year or so ago we went on a family trip to Cairns & my hubby and I fell in love with the place. I remember saying to my family that at the end of our holiday in Cairns that first time I felt like I was not going home, but leaving it. So hubby and I decided we where going to build a house in Redlynch (a suburb of Cairns). The house finished being built in Oct 2010 and we are renting in out until such time as we decide to move in ourselves somewhere down the track. So anyway 3-4 months after the completion of said house. A category 5 cyclone hits far north Qld.  As for damage to the Cairns house, well we are still in the dark about this as we have been unable to get in touch with the agents looking after our property since the cyclone hit. Completely understandable as so much infrastructure is currently down.  I figure I will just pack this worry away in the back of my mind until I know if there is actually anything to worry about. 

 

 So then crazy weather makes its way to Victoria last night, (The state in which I presently reside) and flash-floods occur all over the state. Water starts slowly leaking into our lounge room, pouring out of some of our external light fittings in the eaves of our house, and the garage also gets flooded. So I think ok.. breath …shit-happens &  lots of people are worse off than I am right now in Oz (i.e. Australia), so we lay down some towels to soak up the leaky water & I contact the insurance company.   

 Once again I think surely this must be the last of the bad news… but alas no… just got a call from my hubby to say that he is been involved in four car pile up on the Westgate bridge..  My first question to him of course being ‘Are you ok?!!’ & thankfully yes he is.  Double Phew.. or is that quadruple phew? I dunno.  Anyway it appears the car behind him pushed his van into the car in front. This is a bit of a double whammy as his van is his livelihood.    

 So as I sit here breathing multiples sighs both of frustration and relief, and blog-venting or possibly ‘benting’ or ‘vlogging’, I can at least console myself in the fact that through all of these trials and tribulations that life has thrown at me, in the end, everyone I love has remained safe… & that’s gotta count for something.

 Added note: 8th  Feb 2011… Camels back just broke I think…

Firstly, my brother is ok, but he's just been in a car accident too! ... Similar accident to my hubby, was hit from the back.  I am dumbfounded by the events of the past few weeks…