Our Dunny in Paris

Be warned this post may not be as interesting as the title...

My wife and I recently moved our family interstate. It's a big deal moving interstate. I know, I know, we're not the first family to do it - I'm sure we're not even the first family with four kids 6 y/o and under to do it. But none the less it was a big deal for us (side note - we have moved interstate on three previous occasions......... important to note that each of those was on the company account [read very cruisey and free]).

This post is not about the move although it was fun and there were some adventures had. OK I will make one very quick mention - - - if ever you drive from Adelaide to Brisbane via Broken Hill be sure you stop at the Mt Bryan Hotel and eat dinner at the counter and chat to the locals. Very warm and welcoming and if you're feeling game mention wind farming...

So back to our Dunny in Paris.

Often when moving house (local, interstate or overseas) it takes a while to fully unpack in the new house. Generally we seem to do 50% of the unpacking in the first 24 hours - - - think, beds, fridges, cutlery, crockery, clothes. Then the next 30% is done over the next 24 hours - - - think, kids toys, more bedding, chairs, couches, tabels, drawers. However the remaining 20% seems to drag out over the next two months. C'mon who here hasn't got a box or two that has never been unpacked from your last two (or maybe three) moves...

It has now been a smidge off 5 weeks since we moved in and I am up to wall hangings (photos, paintings, corkboards etc). One always looks for preexisting hooks and nails so that one doesn't have the responsibility of finding that elusive stud in the wall from which to hang the important artworks of the household (think Blue Poles less about $1mill). One hook that I found was in the toilet;

It's the small touches that make a house a home.

In other news our new home is also a wildlife sanctuary. Many fauna reside in and around our little place. Most commonly sighted are house geckos (opaque with bludgey black eyes) and I asked the kids to name them. It started with Lizzie (a good start although not all that left of field), then came Yellow. After a while we realised that Apple (this one I named and reasoning may become more apparent later) and lastly Orange joined the crew - unsure of whether my son based this name on Yellow or Apple (or just because it is his favourite colour - or something else completely random). 

Yesterday to my wife's absolute disgust the neighbour showed us two baby Brown Snakes in his front yard - not great. A closer inspection of our property reveals about 47,000 possible hiding places for snakes so thats comforting - NOT!

We also have a good collection of toads (mainly seen at night), bugs, birds, mozzies and crickets. Ants too; lots of ants.

Pretty sure this is Lizzie and Yellow

Lastly - the JOB hunt. So it took a little longer than I would have liked but I am now gainfully employed or I will be by the 27th of this month. Actually as I type this I am anxiously waiting for a courier to arrive with my contract - my employer would like me to return it to them today via post so that I can start next week - I really really want to start next week.

Lessons from this experience - no amount of staring at a phone or computer screen make calls and emails come any quicker (you'd think I would have learned this from Bridget Jones' Diary already.) This also applies to leaving your front door open and checking the letter box repeatedly. Which brings me to another lesson - - - if your house is hot and you don't have mod cons like Air Con and only have one ceiling fan in the house and you like to walk around in just your undies (really adding to the feeling of unemployment) in order to stay cool BUT you are waiting on a courier to arrive at your open front door; put on some precautionary pants - thats all I'm saying.

Til next time - may your socks rock!

PK