11th September, 2016
Hello friends!
So much has happened in the last 48 hours! We packed up our clothes and our stuff, turns out that takes up a lot of space, plus of course our bikes, left behind our house and drove to Canberra to live for 3 months!
What a journey! It was so nice to see lush grass/weeds all the way, not so nice to see every river and creek turned into a lake flooding paddocks all the way up. We had some very dramatic skies all the way up and a bit of rain. I hope it stops for a while.
I don’t want to fall out of touch with any of you, but a personal update for each one of you is a bit beyond me. So I thought, let’s do another photo challenge! I hope that’s not groans that I’m hearing. Some of you will remember my ‘100 happy days’ photo challenge from late 2013/early 2014 on Facebook; some won’t. But I hope this challenge will let you know what I’m up to and how things are going, and I’d love to hear from you too. If there’s something new in your life or you just want to pay closer attention to life as it seems to be whizzing by, pick your own topic and join me!
I’ve chosen to post my challenge to my blog this time so that I retain the control over it, and also so I can more readily look back and remember my time here. The best way to follow along is via email or by joining WordPress for free and following my progress there. Posts are linked to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ however they are not always posted straight away and may not be very visible in your feed; just a handy hint!
So, welcome to 90 days of Canberra! That’s how long we ‘expect’ to be living in our new city, but all things are subject to change. If we stay longer, I’ll extend the challenge I promise!
Here we are: Day One! A lot happened, much to tell you but only one photo to share. It was hard to narrow down, as always, but I’m being strict this time around: one photo per day only!
So here’s my choice, something to give all mothers and fathers hope for the future! Two brothers who once could hardly exist in the same room of a house intentionally entering into an agreement to live together for a MONTH! There is a caveat in that they’ll be away for the 2 middle weeks, but we’re still in their house day and night. But not only did they go for a drive together for an hour this afternoon, but here they are, side by side cooking dinner together. My hubby filleting fish (btw where did that skill come from? To my knowledge he’s never filleted a fish and he just casually filleted 2 fish like a boss!!) and man of the house cutting chips. It’s going to be important to remember that fact for the dynamic to work: big brother doesn’t come into little brothers house and take over; rather one man comes into another man’s house and behaves. So far they’ve got it sorted, I think.
It was a big day today. I underestimated how exhausted I’d be from driving up to Canberra from Melbourne yesterday. Of course it wasn’t the physical driving that took the toll, it was the emotional exit out of my comfort zone where I can totally relax, and not knowing how well I’ll be able to settle anywhere else, and totally relax. I struggled with my hubby’s car packing rules and regulations in the morning and was probably a bit more raw than I thought. Once we had said the final goodbye to Grandma it was pretty real! I think I was holding it together until we met a friend briefly halfway up and then my inner tension came up to play with some withering comments and cold shouldering that I regret! I was in a state and a half and just couldn’t deal with anyone else’s problems. Thankfully she didn’t seem to notice much of it! I had battened down the hatches of my personality and all that was left was acidity and sarcasm, not very lovely! A reasonable night’s sleep is always a good remedy; I didn’t quite get the amount or quality of sleep I needed and was fairly blurry this morning!
It was nice today to meet up with some old friends, and friends that we hope will become even better friends, and I even managed pretty well with meeting some new people! That’s always a good sign. But after struggling to get awake this morning, I went back to bed after lunch and slept for a solid 3 hours!! Ahhhh. I needed that. I woke up feeling so much better!
After letting ourselves in yesterday and meeting the cat who seemed to take us in his stride, our brother and sister in law came home from their weekend away this afternoon so we got to catch up and chat and laugh over dinner and I think we’re going to work well together, despite my initial strong concerns about thrusting ourselves on them, and on how I’d cope being in other people’s territory all the time. It sounds silly to say that, but I feel it so I guess it just is what it is. I’m not suggesting that anyone makes me feel that they’re stamping their territory, it’s been absolutely the opposite. I’m just overly touchy about it I suppose. And down time is such a big part of my everyday surviving, that I prioritise is pretty highly and guard those minutes or hours when I’m just relaxed and peaceful and content.
Well this has been a big post to kick of 90 day of Canberra! They won’t all be like this, I promise. Hope you enjoy this post, and the daily posts to come. I’d love you to sign up so that you don’t miss a thing, and let me know if you’re running a photo challenge of your own! Feel free to comment below. Til tomorrow!
