Drifting In A Sea of STUFF
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | 6 Comments
It was never meant to go on for this long — the procrastination about getting inside those boxes in the studio. They contained all of the items that we packed to put into storage when we left Melbourne 3 years ago and moved to the country. The cottage has been complete for awhile now — 6 and 1/2 months to be specific — and I am only just now getting around to summoning up the intestinal fortitude (and energy!) to attack the vast sea of STUFF.
The Cleanest Corner in the Whole Darned Building!
Truthfully, although there are some valid ‘excuses’ since I was heavily involved with getting my last 2 books launched into the world during all of those six months, I could have begun this process long before now.
I’m being very brave and posting photos so you can see what I am up against!
The Sea of STUFF to Sort Through!
Daunting — it was seriously, hyperventilatingly daunting to walk inside of that 54 square meter/580 square feet all-one-room building and see boxes stacked half-way up to the ceiling in places and opened boxes that had been partially unpacked and then shoved aside.
Many was the time that I had walked in there, taken a look around, and walked straight back out because i didn’t even know where to begin! Then I’d share that sensation with Mark and he would nod his head with widened eyes and say, “I know!”
So while Mark finishes the new diningroom/study addition on the back of the cottage, I have begun to take nibbles from the gargantuan task of sorting out and deciding what to keep, what to donate, what to give away to friends, and what to sell on ebay. I’m definitely in a less-is-more frame of mind because I feel that if I haven’t had any pressing need for those things over the last 3 years, I have probably forgotten well over half of what is in there and those items, for the most part, can now safely be ‘re-homed’ elsewhere.
Off to the studio to get dusty for awhile!
DONATE – Doing It ‘Just Because’
Posted on | January 15, 2010 | No Comments
Clean water, abundant food, a secure roof over my head — all of the things that we take for granted. And most of the people of Haiti have none of those at this moment.
Médecins Sans Frontières aka Doctors Without Borders is at http://www.msf.org/ and they now have my 2nd donation in less than a day.
There are aid agencies flying food and water in from all over the world, but the tens of thousands of injured people lying on the ground have no one to treat them and the few doctors and nurses on the scene are simply overwhelmed.
We watched a news report here tonight in Australia that said that the medical staff at the hospital is always, always too few for too many and the hospital’s Chief of Staff said that he usually had only 150 medical personnel to treat the island’s residents on the best of days. Right now he has less than 20 medical personnel.
It is sickening to hear some of the commentators and so-called ‘preachers’ in the USA and elsewhere mocking the gravity of this situation and making breathtakingly ignorant statements about why the people of Haiti should not be assisted. I, for one, consider them to be beneath contempt.
These are personal choices, but if your heart has been touched by the plight of the Haitian people, we should offer whatever help we can, freely and without hesitation, because it is the right thing to do — plain and simple. It’s one of those ‘just because’ moments in life that might literally mean the difference between life and death.
Tags: catastrophe > charity > donation > earthquake > Haiti > homeless > Médecins Sans Frontières > MSF > tragedy
Time and Temperature
Posted on | January 13, 2010 | 2 Comments
“You know what they say about Victoria — the weather is schizophrenic down there and you have to keep your entire wardrobe out all year long to cope with it.”
I remembered the words of a friend’s parent who had chuckled over dinner one night up in Queensland when we told them we were moving to Victoria. “At least you know what to expect in Brisbane — hot and humid — period. But it’s reliable!”
Those words were dancing around in my head as I talked to my husband on Saturday night. “You need to know before you get home that there isn’t any air conditioning and the air is barely breathable. I don’t know how we’re going to sleep because by the time you get here, it’s supposed to be up to well over 40 degrees celcius (over 100 fahrenheit) again tomorrow.”
He listened quietly on the phone from Sydney as he prepared for a final dinner out with his colleagues after a week long seminar. Then he exhaled loudly and said simply, “I see.”
The temperatures had climbed a little higher every single day throughout the week that Mark was away until they were sizzling by the end of the week. I had been cool and comfortable whilst sitting in the livingroom working at the laptop when a terrible burning-electrical smell wafted into the room.
Racing up to the panel on the air-conditioner, I pleaded with it, “No, no, no! Don’t DO this!” Then I turned off the power and waited for it to cool down. Perhaps it was simply overheated since the outside air was oven-like. That could be it — right?
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Interpretation
Posted on | January 12, 2010 | No Comments
My email box has been full for the last few days and several emails have been from people who kinda-sorta know us from seeing us out and about.
Bless your hearts for being either curious or concerned — but please, calm the heck down!
It’s interesting to notice the interpretations that can be drawn from a simple post or two that mention that life in the country isn’t exactly what we had expected (and no, that does NOT mean we hate it here!), that it was more daunting than we had anticipated (and that’s an honest statement of our OWN failure to be realistic!), that a few health issues are creating some reassessment of what to do with our future careers (just letting you know that we might be making some interesting changes), and that we would still like to have a big overseas trip this year (we haven’t seen our overseas relatives for years!). So how in the world did that end up being interpreted as a negative set of statements about life in Australia?
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Make sure to check the NEW site!
Posted on | January 8, 2010 | No Comments
Quick reminder — make sure to check the NEW site that is devoted to TRAVEL!
That one is A Wanderful Life at http://www.awanderfullife.com
Do bookmark it and go back often!
I’ll be posting a series of articles in the coming days on City Breaks and Country Getaways in Australia.
And thanks for the lovely comments from the people who have previewed the site!
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