Yesterday marked the start of the ‘8 weeks until we head off around Australia’ countdown! I have to admit the stress levels are really starting to rise! The ‘To Do’ list and the ‘Things we Need’ list just seem to be getting longer and longer rather than shorter!! Not helped by the fact that we went away camping for two nights this weekend and we still don’t seem to be able to access the water in one of the water tanks on the camper, the camper brake controller plug, running lights, brake lights etc have stopped working and the camper fridge is still not working properly on the 12 volt when hooked up to the car – grrrrrrr!!! Looks like a trip to the auto electrician is on the cards for this week.
Anyway – one day at a time I guess – I feel like we are not going to be ready but we will be heading off anyway so we just have to keep plugging away at the jobs lists!
On a positive note – we have ‘ticked’ a few things off over the last month!
No 1.
We now have tenants to rent our house and a date for our moving out (May 24th)! It seems the stars have aligned and we have been lucky enough that friends of ours are going to move in. We hope that Bernadette, Henrico and Mily will love it here as much as we have and we know that they will probably take better care of our house then we do!!!
No 2.
The Blog is up and running and inundating everybody’s email boxes on a pretty regular basis.
No 3.
We have pretty much sorted out the kids schooling. After much deliberation we have obtained a ’12 month exemption from schooling’ for the kids with the approval from our current school principal. This means that we will not be enrolling the kids in any formal schooling but rather focusing on what they will learn on the road and on some materials that we take with us (many thanks Mel for all the resources you have put together for us – very handy having a teacher as a friend!), along with utilising online resources such as Reading Eggs, Mathletics and other iPad Apps. The kids teachers have been really supportive and we will be meeting with them before we head off to discuss what else we can do to help the kids along.
No 4
Matt has successfully been selling our unwanted household items left, right, and centre on ‘Gumtree’ www.gumtree.com.au
No 5
The roof racks and awning are now on the car. These were a pretty cheap set from ‘Tigerz11’ http://www.tigerz11.com.au so we are hoping that they go the distance!! They are a bit dodgy looking and feel that way too, but so far we are happy with them for the price we paid.
A big thank you to Michael from ‘Prado Point’ for coming out and helping Matt to install the roof rack and awning!
Tobes & Matt tested the new awning out after dropping Jack off at Scout camp.
No 6
We have installed our drawers system into the back of the Prado. Matt will have to give you the detail on those but I must admit they are pretty useful and I am glad that Matt convinced me that we needed to have them – I’ve already found them great for when doing an Aldi shop – everything can just get piled in the drawers instead of rolling around the back of the car!
Drawers in – Fridge Slide not yet bolted in – it’s on the list!
No 7
The packing has begun.
Yuck – packing!
I have obtained some boxes from work (thanks BMR!) and starting tomorrow I am packing at least one box per day in the hope that it will not become too overwhelming in May! So be warned – if you come to visit this month you may be asked to fill a box!!
I guess we’re getting there slowly, slowly. The kids on school holidays, a migraine and a few days camping this week have probably slowed the progress on the list ticking a little, but we will try to make some better headway this week! Hope you are all well – I will have a few more interesting posts with some photos of our school holiday fun later this week.
Oh Jes. You won’t know yourself when you finally head off!
I hope so Carole!
PEP TALK (No 1) Think–live and breathe how i can?!!! never let i can’t enter your head, problems are just solutions waiting to happen–play Free at least once a day and imagine your first day on the road no more looking back no more questions about wheather its the right thing to be doing, just looking down the white line and way out at those far far horizons–reading the map book sussing out tonights likely camp spots even though you’ve planned this first camp for months–might change your mind just cause you can— Prado running sweet as—hardly even notice there’s a camper on behind—-you might drive for an hour see something decide to camp, hell you might just drive right on through the night put 1500ks behind you just because you can–and you know the best bit on that first day out, is that every cell every atom you have is singing cause for the first time in your lives, or at least for along long time you don’t have to be at a particular place at a particular time–no more god im late for work ,oh no the kids are waiting for me at school and im late– for the next 6-12 months you can just please your selves–damn i whish this was my dream—-exciting exciting exciting——8 weeks you can i know you can—-
Just what we needed Dad! Aaaargh – onwards and upwards!
How exciting…not long to go now.
Lyndon – it’s all worth it right?!?!
Absolutely it is…