I am finally back after sadly neglecting my poor blog since moving a few months ago. 

Yes – moving house …. so glad it is over.  I truly admire people who have to move every few years with their jobs.  We have made one move in about 15 years, and three months on I am just starting to feel settled.

Now I am definitely not the sort of person who gets stressed.  I normally take things in my stride so I expected that packing would be the only hassle I would experience and consoled myself that once that was achieved I could unpack at my leisure as we would leave all the excess in the big shed on the property until I could sort it out.

Well, that was what happened in principle, BUT I did not take into account how I would feel so far out of my comfort zone.  I have had 3 months to reflect on that.

The biggest hassle was, and still is, the problem with the internet, or lack thereof.  After changing our provider because they promised ADSL straight away, Telstra then advised that they had made a mistake and we will have to wait 6 to 9 months; in the meantime, wireless broadband is costing us more than we paid before for 100Gb and we are trying to manage on 8Gb!  To get around it, we use the internet sparingly at home and use public Wi-Fi whenever possible.  Luckily the local library is very close by, so me and my laptop are constant visitors!

The other thing that I completely underestimated was how I would feel far away from familiar shops and even the traffic lights that were not coordinated and annoyed me so much.  Suddenly I was thrust into the countryside with far too much space around me for comfort, city person that I am.

Our town is only 2 minutes’ drive away which has everything we need but I could not help but compare it with what I had left behind – how could I survive without shopping malls nearby?  Here I was in a town where the shops are actually situated on the street!

Well, I have managed quite well, as it turns out.  After all, Brisbane city is only about an hour away by car or train, which is no time at all by Australian standards.   

Not knowing the area was the other hurdle which did make me feel quite isolated for a time, but once I made the initial move, one thing led to another and now I have joined a very friendly Women’s Group, a craft group and a quilting group where I have been made to feel very welcome and through my husband’s interests and volunteering, we have made other friends as well.

Finally things have settled down after having lots of tradesmen in, fixing this and installing that.  The worst of the hot weather has passed and we have had some good rain.  The grass is green, our autumn weather is lovely and life is good.