early January 2011:

“What is worth doing, and what is worth having?   It is worth doing nothing and having a rest”  

Michael Leunig

Happy New Year!  

I have started this with a quote from cartoonist Michael Leunig as it sums up rather neatly how life is for me for the time being..  I am doing nothing and having a rest.  I’m getting pretty good at it too which is a relief, as for the first few weeks after my arrival I found it very hard to relax.  I suppose letting go of almost all of one’s worldly possessions and saying goodbye to family and friends for the long term is right up there in the major-life-stress category, but the momentum and busyness of the preparations and farewells is in itself a distraction from the enormity of what one is setting out to do.  Luckily for me the talking engineer has been brilliant and has caught me before I venture too far down any tempting little black holes.  Mind you, it is his fault I’m here in the first place...

Life in Hobbiton continues.  At some point before Christmas we decided that for whatever reason the house hunting wasn’t working and so we would simply stay put for the time being.  There is nothing inherently wrong with where we are, apart from it’s too small, too hot, and too full of uninvited wildlife, but otherwise it’s fine.  We invested in a portable air conditioning unit and a couple of bug bombs, and agreed we’d stay until it was time to go.  Which isn’t yet.  There will come a point where we both go “that’s enough”, but I know we will miss this funny little place when that time comes.  

I can’t help but be aware of life moment by moment here..  Step outside to the dry and untamed wilderness that is our back yard and life slaps you in the face.  There’s an area the size of a tennis court groaning with sunflowers that nobody planted.  A fig tree laden with the biggest figs I have ever seen hosts a regular tea party of rainbow lorikeets who love to squabble over the same fig.  

The neighbour’s vine has crept over the wall and is fattening up a couple of plump bunches of grapes for us.  One evening, four strange and wonderful enormous white flowers unfurled, flowered triumphantly overnight, and by mid-morning the next day were simply another happy memory.  As I write, skinks skitter up and down the walls outside, ants march endlessly, the local cat population is taking a break from the morning’s hunting and snoozing in the shady corners, and the GIGANTIC cockroaches are hiding wherever they hide until it’s time to haunt the shower and play cat and mouse with me again!  All this before I even step outside the property..

Go for a walk, and drift away on the heady scent of frangipani which are all in full bloom right now.  If there’s moisture in the air the scent of eucalyptus is almost overpowering.  Everywhere I turn there are olive trees heaving with fruit, mulberry trees dripping with berries, sunflowers to beat the band, cape gooseberries, lemons, grapes, passion fruit, figs, flowers, and birds, birds, and more birds.  

There’s very little that’s subtle about the birdlife here - it’s loud, raucous, colourful, and good fun.  The usual suspects spring to mind - the jaunty Crow with its death-throes-of-a-strangled-cat gurgle; the gate-hinges-need-oiling full volume creak of the Rainbow Lorikeet; the ‘looks-like-a-dove-aspiring-to-be-a-magpie’ Magpie Lark who is, in fact, neither magpie nor lark but doesn’t care, and will talk to anyone about anything; the self-conscious tittering of the Corellas; and, of course, the infectious chuckling of the Kookaburras.  In contrast, one of my favourites is the Willie Wagtail who flies in the face of the others’ uncouth displays and, like New Zealand’s fantails, flits about in a quietly friendly, enquiring way.  Willie Wagtail’s tail flick is more graceful and swooping than his New Zealand cousin’s and just as endearing.  I’ve become the proud owner of the Field Guide to  the Birds of Australia - no hope for me now, it seems I’m a bird watcher.  Who would have thought?  

I think since I’ve been here we have had two actual days of rain, and a couple of times where it started to rain but must have forgotten what it was doing and sort of fizzled out again and all this unstoppable life just carries on anyway. Amazing.  

Before Christmas, we went Christmas shopping - the version I like where everything we bought was for us.  Socks, underpants, a stick blender, picnic table & chairs, and a barbecue later, we had it covered.  Oh yes, and a portable air conditioning unit because it gets quite hot here.  

Christmas Day dawned clear, sunny and hot, with the overnight low of 22 degrees hitting around the same time as we woke.  Taking the usual precautions of adequate footwear, sunscreen, hats, water, letting the authorities know our route etc..  we set off for a walk before the temperatures reached the stupefying stage.  Then a skype-ing session before hunkering down with the air con. on and the door & windows shut to keep out the worst of the 40 degree heat of the day.  I had done a comprehensive shop with a view to having a traditional Aussie “throw some prawns on the barbie” Christmas feast.  Whatever.  In the end the heat got the better of us, and Christmas Dinner was hummus on a Ryvita and a mini Magnum - and that was too much food!  However, I’m happy to report that the prawns with Asian pesto on Boxing Day were everything I had hoped for and more.  

Richard’s job is going well, he goes “to site” every second week which involves very long hours and he usually gets home pretty shattered, but is having some excellent boy-type adventures too.  The weeks he is working in the city, we get up early and go for a walk together while it’s still cool enough.  After work he picks me up and we go and throw ourselves into the sea - bliss!  

From the department of slightly too much information:

• Today I ate mangoes naked.

• There are two types of bra wearers.  Those who can put their arms through the holes and do them up at the back, and those who do the hooks up at the front and then twist it around and put their arms through.  It’s not genetic, and you’re one or the other.  After nearly 36 years of being a do-up-at-the-front-and-then-twist, I am learning to be a back hooker (so to speak). You can’t be a front and twister in this heat without breaking stitches.

• The other day the talking engineer went to get the ladder so he could hang a curtain above the door.  At 35 degrees plus, the ladder came out of the shed very, very hot.  Ouch, he said, I can’t stand on this, I need jandals on.  Half way up the ladder, it became apparent that he should have had clothes on too...

New Year’s resolutions:

Haven’t exactly made specific ones.  I am percolating on a very confronting question that comes from Spencer Johnson’s book “ Who Moved My Cheese?”:  

“What would you be doing if you weren’t afraid?”

I’ll get back to you on that..