I'm back.

G'Day Everyone,
I am back after the shift to Canberra. Puter is back up and running. I have had a very hectic few weeks since I last wrote in here. Moving is much more work than I can ever remember it being when I was younger and I moved around more often. Maybe I collected too much stuff or maybe I had play money to spend and collected junk, anyway. I never have been the sort that finds it easy to throw things away when they haven't fallen apart yet. There are still boxes to be unpacked, some that I have repacked after sorting and some that I won't need here so I won't be unpacking. There are still some things to be moved here from Junee, (a shed full) the removalist is storing them until he can back load them for me. Garden tools, pottery stuff, including kilns, and things I couldn't bear to throw away, silly things from my memories with the kids etc. I still haven't found our clock radio. I know it is in a box with stuff from the bedroom desk and it is wrapped in my new green top but where is it? Pete is setting the alarm on his mobile phone to get up for work in the morning.
Since my last post here when I wrote about loosing Jack I have also lost my cat Boo. I wasn't able to bring her to this house so I took her to Wagga to my son David's house until we got back into our own house. Well, she managed to open a bedroom window and escape in the middle of the night. She was very capable of opening sliding doors so it was an easy progression to open a sliding window. I left adverts in the local newspaper and on the radio but as yet nobody contacted us. She is very timid and it is unlikely that she would come to anyone if they called her. I just hope if she survives and manages to make her way back to Junee (38km) that someone there recognises her and lets me know. I talked to the neighbours and left a letter in the house for the new owner if she goes back. I am doubtful though as she was an inside cat. It might be funny if the new owner comes out one morning to an open back door and a strange cat sitting there.
In the last week I have been having a look around and sort of worked out my sense of direction here. I haven't got badly lost anyway.
I have made 2 trips to Junee on the weekends to get my pot plants over here and the yard here is starting to look like my own. The first lot of plants I brought over was in the trailer and they got badly shredded and damaged. Some of them might not recover for a long time. Yesterday I got another lot of plants over here but I loaded them all into the back seat of the car and in the boot. Much better. The car needs a good clean. I can probably load the car up again during the week and get the last of them across here. We have had several visits from the owner of this house to fix up minor bits and pieces and for him to put things in the back shed. He is a nice bloke, easy to get along with and talk to. He has given me free reign to play in the garden which is nice, but suffering drought damage with some shrubs needing a good cutting back and a few other shrubs needing removal. All the trees and shrubs in the yard are deciduous so in the next month I will have leaves everywhere. The water restrictions here are at level 3. Which means I can water every second day (odds and evens house numbers) from 7 to 10 in the morning and the same time at night. No lawn watering. There is a watering system installed but as I am technologically challenged I reckon it will be easier to water by hand.
On Wednesday I went for a drive around with Michael and we had a look in Bison pottery. I got talking to the lady behind the counter and she took my name and details for a job. I hope it leads to something.
Today is Pete's birthday and he said he wanted spaghetti bolognaise for tea tonight. So that's easy. I also bought a pavlova for dessert. I usually make my own but as we went out today I didn't get around to it. It is about time I started cooking.

Bye Love Linda.

Jack,- pets.

G'Day,
Yesterday afternoon when I came home from work I went, as usual out the back yard to feed and water the chooks and birds. Jack, my sulphur crested cockatoo, was sitting on the bottom of her cage acting funny and I thought it was a bit strange and maybe she was clucky and going to lay an egg as she does every few years. When I went back out there at about 8.00 this morning she was still on the bottom of the cage. I could see one of her legs was curled up and she wasn't using it and couldn't climb up to the perch. As soon as 9.00 came I rang the vet in Wagga. I had to catch her and I put her in the pet transport cage I bought recently and took her to Wagga. Anyway the vet had a look at her and referred me to another vet in town who specialises in Birds. When I got her out there she was pretty distressed so the other vet gassed her to investigate further. When she was asleep and easier to handle he found a very large mass in her abdomen. He said that in Cockatoos, especially birds as old as her, these types of tumor were usually cancerous and to treat them has a very poor prognosis. I was given the option of treating her and chose not to. I believe that was the kindest solution. So I have no more Jack to entertain and be a part of our family after about 30 years of having her.
I wrote a post about Jack and what a character she is on 2.5.07.
After Jack went to the vet and didn't come home again I went to have a look at the big new pet shop in Wagga to get a bulk bag of dry cat food to leave at my son David's house who is looking after my cat for a while when we move to Canberra next week. While there I also got a small 4 sided mirror to put in Charlie's cage. Charlie is my Mum's cheeky little hand reared cockatoo.
Charlie is loving it! I needed a smile after my nasty morning with Jack. Charlie hasn't shut up since we got home and put the mirror in his cage. He has been kissing and whistling and talking non stop ever since. Very cute, and gratifying. He hasn't forgotten any of the phrases he knows and has been trying them all out on his new friend. Give us a kiss, Cheeky Charlie boy, Charlie is a cheeky boy, wotcha doin', wolf whistles and the tune he has learnt to whistle. He has forgotten over time the ring tone from our old phone, thank goodness, that one drove everyone mad. Charlie you brighten my day.
It has got hot here again over the last week and a half. The temperatures are in the mid to high 30's again. It is getting late in the year to still be this hot but I guess it makes up for the easy spin we have had over the larger part of the summer months this year. Weather man says it will be hot up until, and over the weekend.
I have a moving date. Wednesday the 19Th march. One week today. Wendy the packer who works with the removalist is coming tomorrow morning to have look where I am up to and help and advise me. I think I am reasonably organised in the house. The sheds are another matter. But the worst of the stuff in the sheds can be moved across to Canberra at a later date. The house hold goods come first.
I topped up my petrol tank on the way home this afternoon. It was $1.47/litre, coming to $66 for 3/4 of a tank full of fuel. Bloody Hell!!!. When I first started driving at 17 years old petrol was 15 cents a litre.
O.K. enough I will go and find something constructive to do.

Bye. Love Linda.

G'Day,
Pete has just left to return to work in Canberra. I worked today, finishing at 3.30.
Did a mail redirection form and paid to have my mail redirected to Canberra.
Got some junk food at the supermarket for the next few days as I have already packed most of the stuff in my pantry.
Resigned from the salary packaging thingy at work.
I tried to take a heap of stuff down to St Vincent De Paul after work today but they were already closed at 4.00
Tried to get out of working for the last few days so I could pack, but they are too short staffed. They are planning a farewell dinner for me on next Monday night.
Informed by mail, 2 magazine subscriptions we get delivered, our new address.
Over the last week and a half I have packed 2 zillion boxes, threw out half a ton of junk and cleaned out every cupboard and storage space as I go, but I am still not finished. There is however light at the end of the tunnel. Things are starting to look like they may soon reach a successful conclusion, instead of me standing in the middle of it all and groaning "where do I start"?
We had some people look at our house on Saturday, they liked it but as yet we have heard no more. It would have to be a fluke though if anything happened with the sale of our house so soon I reckon.
The museum day last Saturday was good. There were not a lot of people through because there was so much else going on around town as part of the festival. I made a pot on the wheel and had a few kids play on the kids table. I also made a chook for Kath. There were quite a few people interested to see it progress, as they couldn't imagine how a lump of clay could become a chook. I was trying not to make very much because of the move and so I managed to give the wheel made pot away to someone else to decorate and got rid of it. I hope to fire my kiln for the last time here this Wednesday. Then I can finish packing that up too. I will miss the people there even though I have only recently got to know some of them. I will certainly miss Brian and his wife Heather who I have come to like a lot.
I have been invited back to future events at the museum. Also to do workshops for the Vietnam Veterans group who have received a grant to set up a pottery workshop here in Junee for the districts veterans and families.
I think that getting involved more in local pottery activities has helped me look towards a future with pottery, more than I have been doing for the last few years of my craft, as going to Canberra will provide a bigger market for my skills. Maybe when I have my own shed again I could teach some children's classes. But that is only an idea at the moment. First I need to find a part time job that will pay me some money, things will be a bit tight until our house sells and is finalized.
Lines from a favourite song by Billy Joel. Can't remember the name but it is off the storm front album. "And so it goes, and so it goes, And so will I soon I suppose".
Better go and feed my chooks and the cockies and cook some tea for Michael and I.

Bye Love Linda.

On the way.

G'Day,
My life this week has been dominated by the Canberra move. I have been packing every empty box/ container that I can lay my hands on and still keep running out of boxes. Raiding boxes from the local IGA supermarket. The boxes I got from there I was grateful for, but they were all small ones so I now have 3 zillion little boxes stacked in what used to be Annie's bedroom. Funny though, they are all grog boxes so if anybody sees them and doesn't know me they would think Hmmmm, I wonder if they emptied those boxes first. Ha Ha. Also got some boxes off the girls at work. Bigger ones but those are all full now too. I have to go hunting again. St Vincents De Paul in Junee will love me as I have been giving them lots of my unwanted things. Or maybe not? I haven't finished yet. What a way to spend your annual holidays.
I had a bloke come here yesterday to give a quote to take all my furniture etc across to Canberra. He is the local bloke so I reckon he will do. When he gets back to me I can bite him for some more boxes too. I know of him and his family, so that's good. He was helpful and seemed nice. He said that it can take a lot longer than the time I have allotted myself to pack everything so I need to concentrate on the stuff in the house and the stuff from the sheds and yard can be handled later if need be. This is so huge, remind me not to rush into one of these good ideas again in a hurry. More help is available, for a price of course, if I need it. It is tempting, but no, I will see how I go first.
Today I have been down in my pottery shed boxing up and sorting all the glaze ingredients and glazes. I got most of them dried out first as I thought they would pack better in dry form. There are 4 big plastic crates so far. That's just the glaze stuff. Tomorrow I have to demonstrate at the local museum. There is a festival on in town over the weekend. "The Rhythm and Rail Festival" Saturday at the museum they are having a living museum day with stalls, spinners & weavers, woodworkers, blacksmiths, quilting, old engines, and me hand building pottery. I am not real good on the wheel. Kath is coming to help me too. They are also trying for a Guinness world record , having 2000 people playing smoke on the water on guitars at once. I have actually heard 3 different locations for this so far, so I hope everyone turns up at the same place! Lol. Also there will be a concert at the round house. Which is a big railway turntable, the largest working one in the southern hemisphere. They have had a few there before, the acoustics are really nice in there and it is lovely sitting there at sunset with the music happening.
The sight of the week was me on tuesday morning. I had to take Mum's electric go cart down the street to the tyre place as it had 2 front tyres flat, after being punctured by bindies (big nasty prickles that go through tyres and are painful to step on) . I couldn't ride it because of the tyre being flat so I had to walk beside it, trying to keep it going with my hands pressing the speed lever thingy and steer it at the same time. My arms and shoulders were screaming by the time I got 1/2 way there. About a 3 km round trip. Rufus our dog, of course had to come with me so he sat up happily on the seat and watched the proceedings from his perch. I got some funny looks. Then I had to get it back home again, I rode it home, I must have looked lazy at my age riding it back with Rufus, again getting a free ride sitting on the deck between my feet. Never mind Mum will be happy when she can use it to go back and forwards to the shops in Canberra.
O.k. gotta go down to the museum and see Brian to work out the set up for tomorrow. And do some more packing and sorting.
Bye, Love Linda.

Change

G'Day,

I am blogging today because I want to Veg out and not face myself. I am not good at change. I am here trying to tune it out. It isn't really working.
Today my beloved has taken our little van and gone to Canberra where he starts his new job.
We were over there for the last couple of days looking around and found a house to rent. Paid rental bond etc to reserve it for later this month when it will become vacant. The rental market is expensive and very competitive at the moment in Canberra so we were lucky.It is a great house and ideal for our needs. It has 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms, a big hot tub, and a rumpus room which is being used as a big 5th bedroom. Bigger and more modern than our own house, probably out of our price range to buy if it were for sale. There is a park and nature corridor beside the house. It is close to a small but well equipped local shopping centre which is accessible via paved pathways and an over head walkway that crosses a busy road so will be good for Mum to get to on her little electric go-cart (no steps that I could see). Just 10 mins drive from Pete's work place. Pete's comment "I think we have been kissed by a fairy".
There is a big minus. One that has left a big lump in my throat and knots in my stomach. We were able through negotiations to get permission off the owner to have Rufus our dog there but not the cat. I have asked my son Dave if he can look after her for 6 months until we get into our own home again and he wasn't pleased but has said yes. She is a very timid cat and will hide away for ages when we move her but I am telling myself that she will adjust. I have to. She has to.
We have built ourselves a nice lifestyle here in Junee and I am sorry to be leaving. The dilemma between the old and comfortable and the new and progressive. As I have said in different earlier posts, I was an Army brat and so moved around with my Dad's job all my earlier life, every 2 or so years. Since being married to Pete we have lived in 7 different houses until settling in this one for the last 14 or 15 years. I always though that I wanted the stability of knowing people for a long time and feeling a part of the community which I have been here. And yes it has been good. But lacking here are facilities that are available in the city that people here miss.
So! Pete has left, I won't see him until next Friday. We aren't apart often. When the girls at work breath a sigh of relief that their husbands are going somewhere I shrug because Pete and I have never been like that with each other. Mum is visiting at my sister's in Queensland, Dave and Annie are in Wagga and will stay there and Mike is in Wagga, after not coming home after a night out with the boys. It is just me and my animals. I have someone to give my chooks a new home. A friend has taken my doves home with them and will love them. The cockies, Jack, Cheeky and Charlie are going to Canberra with us and we will be on our way.
I have been making lists in my mind for weeks now. Pros and cons for the move, whom I need to inform address wise, of the move, what I will and won't be taking with me, steps to take in the process. I think after writing some things down here I feel a bit happier than when I started writing this morning. Thinking about it just gives me nasty emotional swings.
Bimbimbee.... I took Matilda Sprite with me to Canberra and I think she has approved. The cheeky magpies at Mt Ainslie lookout sang to welcome her yesterday morning. T'was funny at the lookout, Pete commented to a couple of guys riding pushbikes up the steep road to the lookout that it was a good climb on a bike and they commented that yes it was but it was more so after 8 trips. When we left there they had ridden back down and were on the way back up again. More brawn than brain eh! Well maybe they looked at me and my little roly poly body and thought yuck too! Oh well I bet they live longer than me, but who wants to live forever anyway.
Bye for now. Going to pack up my pretties in the glass cabinet.

Love Linda.