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Went to the library in our new town; waited in line for 'information'. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, please, we'd like to join the library." "Do you have proof that you live in this area?" "Um, no, I don't think so; we've recently moved here from Victoria." "Well you have to be able to show us your Queeensland driver's licence and other documentation, such as an account with your current address on it, before you may join the library." "Oh, sorry, then we cannot join?" "I suggest you go down the road to the Transport Department and change your Victorian Driver's licence to a Queensland one. That will be a start." Later...At the Transport Department, after waiting for our number to appear on a screen, informing us as to which counter we should present ourselves, "Can I help you?" "Yes, please, we wish to change our drivers' licences from Victorian to Queensland." "Have you filled in the relevant forms?" "Um, no." "Here, take these forms and bring them back when they are completed. You will need three pieces of identification: one in Category A and one in Category B and one more in either Category A or Category B" "Thankyou". Cheeze!!! Category A includes 'a Queensland Birth Certificate' ...What? Who was ever born in Queensland? Oh, that's ok, another item in Catregory A is an Australian passport. (Tick). Then, Category B: Oh, can make that also; a Medicare card will suffice. But there still needs to be an account with our name on, indicating our current (new!) address. Oh, well, I suppose we'll receive a bill for something any day soon. Just as well we don't have any spare time to do some reading. We may even be able to join the local library by the time some spare time comes our way!
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 This is "our" Queensland sky at 7:30 am today. The promise of a blue sky day came true. Even in July ( the middle of winter) the days can be like this. The temperature today was 21 deg. C.. At lunch time I sat outside to eat - and read a book. What more could anyone want?
 The 'new' house has been lived in by us for one week now. It took nearly a week to get here - and now a week to attempt to settle in. Oh, how I never before really knew what tiredness was! There is furniture that fitted beautifully in our 'old' place that is looking for a comfortable place to settle and not finding it; there are things and stuff galore without a place to be and now we have started the renovations. It will all be worthwhile (eventually!) and our wonderful builder son-in-law has rallied his workers to all come along and help him and us to start making the house into something more acceptable. It will be beautiful! Meanwhile, the view from the back door (pictured) is very appealing. The weather is warm and we love being close to family. We are also enjoying having closer access to shops and other amenities, thereby saving us time and petrol. And, by the way, we have a banana tree in the back yard. Banana smoothies for breakfast and banana cake for the family and still there are 50 bananas ready and waiting to be eaten!
Tomorrow morning at 7am the removalists will be here. All our furniture, dozens of boxes of possessions and all manner of STUFF will be loaded into a huge truck and carted over a thousand kms away. Heading north towards warmer climes - and a daughter, a son-in-law and two grandsons. What a journey. It will take us four days and we will travel in our car, towing a caravan, which will not only be our 'place of residence' for those days but will also house the little dog in a special soft crate. She does not enjoy travlling, so the vet has prescribed some tranquilizers for her. Perhaps I should have some also (?).
No more blogging for a while until we reach our new abode. The days will be warmer, but the winter nights may still be chilly, but it will be lovely and I will take photos to share with everyone. All I have to do now is sleep away my last night in the house we built in 1982. Amazing that I am not sad at all. Perhaps I will be once I realise it is all 'for real'! Lying in bed, just as the morning light appears, I gaze out the window and see the tops of the huge eucalypt trees swaying in the wind. There are birds of many varieties flying in and out of the branches. The mornings are cold but the view is lovely.
Only one morning left for the chance to do this morning gazing. That's tomorrow. The next day I will be up before dawn to finish packing up the house and driving away from this home forever. The next time I am in my own bedroom and able to gaze out of the wndow, the view will be of a small, but sunny, courtyard. There will be a door opening from the bedroom out to the courtyard and it will be lovely, but there will no longer be the gum trees, the birds or the gentle view that I have had each morning for so many years. How long will it take, I wonder, to become used to a different morning view? The packing up of 30 years of household stuff is nearly at an end. Today we had some visitors; two who said they had come to "say goodbye to the house" and another to thank us for being good friends and to say thankyou to one of us for attending his wife's funeral some time ago. He also brought a cream filled sponge-cake for us to have for afternoon tea and some for dessert later tonight. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I cannot bear even the thought of eating a sponge cake fillled with cream...my stomach would simply rebel! However, some of our visitors did eat and very much enjoyed the cake. They all brought cards for us with lovely thoughts written inside. I suppose we shall miss many of these people, but, right now I am too exhausted with the packing and cleaning to think about it!
I have put the remains of the cream filled sponge in the freezer, just in case more people pop in unexpectedly in the next couple of days. The embarrassing part is that I have packed almost all of the crockery and only have 4 mugs (no cups!) to share around if anyone does call in. And now there is no milk, hardly any sugar and just a few tea bags - and about 2 teaspoons of instant coffee. Slim pickings, indeed. Three more days and we'll be almost gone from here. |
