I've moved - to Country Victoria. I hadn't seen the house until I arrived with all my boxes but it's everything it possibly could be. A mud-brick home on a couple of acres of land with a dam, it's absolutely beautiful. A shingle hanging from the front of the house carries the name Faraway.
People ask me "How did the move go?" and all I can say is "Smoothly." Quite incredible really. Willo and I spent about 48 hours over 4 days packing with the day before the most concerted, prolonged effort. We'd hired Mini Movers and they were fantastic - like moving machines! our apartment was on the second floor and was two storied with no lift. The movers didn't complain with all those stairs, and they hardly stopped but at one point when I suggested it was okay to do so they said "This is tough, even for us."
After packing up all the gear - we were suprised at how much stuff we had, but then isn't everyone when they move? We are great accumulators. Mini Movers stacked everything so beautifully into their truck before driving the couple of hours out to Green Gully.
We came up in Willo's Ford and arrived before the movers. Willo had taken the scenic route for me through roads lined with Autumn trees and stopped at the district's best bakery for a pastie-stop before carrying on to the house. As we pulled off the main road it seemed to me as if we were driving into the bush. The road up to the house is less like something for vehicles and more what torrents of rainwater have carved out of the surrounding vegetation. Thank goodness he has a truck, a smaller car may have fallen into the deep grooves and tracks. His parents arrived not long after, complete with food and a six-seater table so we'd have somewhere to sit and eat. They also gifted Willo a chain saw which he loved to receive and his dad used to cut lots of wood for the open fire in the living room.
Unpacking continued until it was done - completely done. Bed made, books shelved, pictures hung. No living out of boxes, every day counts, don't you know! Over the last couple of weeks we've been settling in. Getting used to the oven, killing mice, getting a log fire put in where the open fire was.
It's been three weeks since we moved in and I figured out within the first few days this has been one of the best decisions I've made in a while. Not that I've been making bad decisions, I have a pretty fantastic life with great, close friends and a wonderful life in Melbourne. But right now I feel better than I have in a while. I think I might be happy - might be too early to tell but I feel good. I am sleeping well, reading lots, eating well, feeling energy, and meeting so many really lovely lovely people. Willo grew up here and has life long friends and school mates he's kept in touch with, and of course through Chopped which is held in Newstead (just up the road) and they're all like him - good peoples. From what I've seen too, they are just so happy he's moved close enough for them to see him more often.
We both miss Fox and Jet but they're coming up to visit us soon, and we're only a trainride to Melbourne and can always meet up for drinks or dinner etc. In fact both Willo and I stayed in the city last Friday night - I stayed at Mars and Chaz's house back in the old neighbourhood. Saturday was a gorgeous day in Melbourne. One of those bright, light, cold Winter days that really suits this city. I walked from Collingwood, through the parks and the city, to the train station to meet Willo and the 1:35pm train. He'd been shopping and I'd been meandering.
I was struck on my meanderings how much I thought Melbourne was a great place to visit. To visit. I love that city but our full-time together has passed, for the most part. I couldn't wait to get back home to the country and Faraway. To my own bed with windows full of views of trees and wattle, of gum leaves against bright blue skies. The little wrens that peck at my window in the morning snatching small insects and tapping me awake. To the quiet and the cosy that our home is becoming. I was sitting next to Willo on the train after he had stowed his new Scanpan in the overhead baggage rack. He plonked next to me and said he'd walked through the city and said how interesting it had been to see Melbourne "through a different lens." I told him my "to visit" revelation and we were both amazed at how we felt at all, let alone after such a short time.
