The Take Over, The Break’s Over

… in which David catches up on a few weeks of news items , for the benefit of casual and new readers.

(insert lame blog hiatus excuse here)

It seems like only 8 weeks since we jumped the car, praying that we had crammed enough sustenance and entertainment into the trusty Forester to last two, possibly three weeks of homelessness and cross-country travailing.

I’d done a few weeks of research into the many and varied challenges that might come our way, and it all seemed to whittle down to two things

• is there petrol out there – and if so, where?
• is there wildlife out there – and if so, will it keep away from my speeding car?

Despite all my carefully laid plans, we were forced to leave early, and we headed out from ‘Bancroft’ in Sydney with only a direction in mind. West.

I’m pleased to say that the most traumatic part of the trip was when we bought a bag of oranges only a few hundred meters from a quarantine checkpoint at which we were required to hand them back. We saw very little wildlife, the petrol was plentiful (and expensive : $1.88/l at Norseman!) and we completed the journey in just 4.5 days of solid driving. A great adventure.

On arrival in Perth, we had a few days of bunking with family before beginning to camp in ‘Griffin’ – our 2008 home in Perth. We enjoyed a few days of box-free existence before our movers delivered hundreds of cartons which, at the time of writing, still grace some of the less-trafficked areas of the house. It’s a nice place, and by the looks of things, we’re lucky to have a rental property secured.

Caleb, Allanah and Charlotte have returned to their former schools, replete with stationery and uniformery, and are also setting back into their DanceSporting routines, too.

Ainslie had the misfortune of breaking her wrist a second time before leaving from Sydney, and returned home just in time to attend her older sister’s funeral.

Me, I’m back at work , and have suffered through trips to New York, Dallas, Melbourne and Sydney while all this has been going on.

There’s been a lot of changes, and a lot of sad and bad news over the last few months. We’re taking stock, and deep breaths, and looking forward to a big re-settling year in Perth. Bring it on!

My new year’s resolution? Once again, it’s to be writing more. This year, it’s more about music and relationships. I’ll be blogging less (if that’s possible) and emailing more, and getting some of these musical ideas down in writing or soundwaves, somehow.

I hope you’ll accept this humble entry as a blog-amnesty, and we can get on with the news-at-hand.