Things have been pretty quiet around here lately and it’s because I’ve been crazy busy with planning that thing I couldn’t tell you about. I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t want to end up in that awkward situation when your boss finds out you’re quitting your job via your blog, before you have a chance to give notice. Unfortunately, it happened anyway. Not via the blog, because obviously I haven’t written about it, but somehow my boss found out that I was planning on resigning and summoned me to the office to question me. I said yes, I’m leaving, and gave notice the next day. Originally, I was planning on giving three week’s notice (which is what is required) but now they are getting six week’s, because we’re not leaving until early September.

So… I’ve resigned from my job and we’re leaving in September… what is going on??

I can now share with you all, our next big adventure… Phill and I are moving to Canada!

We’re going on a two-year working holiday visa, something we’ve never done before. We’ve done a fair bit of traveling but we’ve never lived and worked overseas, so we’re really excited. We are going over with a bunch of our friends (some of whom have done this before). For our friends, it was their last chance before they hit the cut-off age; for us, it was a chance to get away, try something new and experience living and working in a completely different country, and going with friends was just an added bonus.

Are you wondering about Puddy? I feel terrible leaving her behind and I am going to miss her so much, but she is going to live with our friend’s sister while we are away, so she will be well cared for. Originally, Puddy was going to stay with our friend but she owns a dog and the first meeting didn’t go too well. Well, it went okay, but all it took was for Puddy to make a sudden move and they’d be at each other. I didn’t like seeing Puddy skulking around our friend’s house, obviously nervous and stressed. The stress on Puddy, and the dog, and our friend and her husband would just be too hard, so her staying with our friend’s sister is a happy solution for everyone. Puddy was starting to get confident in our friend’s house, so I think removing the stress of another animal in the house will mean she’ll settle in nicely. When we come back, we’ll take her back – I just couldn’t imagine giving her away permanently!

I’m planning on keeping this blog going while we’re away but it will turn into a travel blog, because obviously there will be no cat to obsess over (sad face). I’m saving up to buy an awesome camera when we leave because I know how beautiful Canada is and I want to be able to take photos that does it justice. It will also be good to have a way of connecting with my family and friends while we’re away. I hope you’ll stay with me and this blog while we’re away – I promise regular posts! It’s just been so hard getting on here and not being able to talk about our plans, but now it’s all out in the open, so I can!

So… exciting? Heck yes!

Scary? YUP!

But exciting. So very exciting!

Over the past week or so, I’ve spent a lot of time going through piles of stuff at home and throwing out things we don’t use or need. Some of it is going to charity, some is being sold and some is going in the bin. I guess the correct term is “de-cluttering” and boy, we’ve got a lot of clutter! We’ve lived together now for nearly five years and in that time, we seem to have gathered enough furniture and bits and pieces for a whole family, even though it’s just the two of us (and the cat, I suppose, but she doesn’t require bedding and computer desks and power cables).

I’ve enjoyed the de-cluttering process – there is a certain satisfaction I get when I look in a room or a drawer and instead of being cluttered and messy, it’s neat and organised. However, there have been a few moments when I’ve sat down and felt a little depressed at what I’ve been finding in amongst everything – things that hold memories and regrets and things that are really hard to part with.

I’ve found a lot of photographs of when Phill and I were little. We were both so cute! I spent a while sitting on the carpet, looking through them, oohing and ahhing over baby Phill (so blonde! so chubby!) and giggling at my ridiculous dress sense at various times during my childhood. There were photos of my brother and sister and I when we were little, posing with massive smiles in our daggy 90’s clothes. Remember when bikepants were cool? I don’t see my siblings much these days, so it was nice to have a little reminisce and remember the days when I didn’t have to worry about rent, or work or exams.

Something I found rather difficult was to go through piles of books and study material from my days as a university student. I spent five years at uni and came out with two degrees – but I’m not actually using either of them (at the moment, anyway). It’s been incredibly hard to find a job within my specialty and I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings about it. I’ve felt everything from guilt and anger and regret, to feeling like a complete failure.

I decided to store the majority of my university things because you never know, I might need them one day. I’d hate to finally get into a wonderful job and then wish I’d kept them. It was just a little hard to look at all the work I’ve done and think about how hard I studied – to end up in a completely unrelated job. I feel almost like I wasted my time at university (and I know that’s a terrible thing to say!) and all I’m left with is a huuuge debt to pay off.

I was relieved when I’d finished with those boxes and I moved onto the linens, which, of course, don’t hold such memories. It’s hard to confront things and look back on choices you’ve made and wonder if they were the right ones. It’s harder still to talk about it, because I guess that means the issue is real, and then you’ve got to deal with it!

Ok enough whining, I’ve got blankets to sort.

I was patting Puddy the other day while she was curled up on my lap and my fingers brushed something hard on her ear. I instantly thought “flea!” because it felt like that familiar little hard body they have. I learnt all about fleas when we first took Puddy in as a stray – she was absolutely covered in them and I would spend hours picking them off her and drowning them in boiling water. Eventually, with the help of flea medication from the vet, we managed to get rid of them all, but it was a horrible, horrible experience.

Anyway, with my “flea!” thought, I grabbed it between my fingers and yanked.

Whoops. Turns out it wasn’t a flea, it was just a bit of dried something (blood? skin?), and I had managed to pull out a tuft of her fur! Puddy didn’t react, but I sat there looking at the fur in my fingers thinking, “Oh, oh!”

See the little bald patch on her ear? I felt so bad about it, but she didn’t seem to even notice. Hopefully it will grow back quickly because now, every time I see her, it’s all I see!

At least it wasn’t a flea!

The days are getting shorter and the nights colder – by 5:30pm it’s dark and I’m in my track pants and ugh boots (attractive, I know). We pulled out our down doona about a month ago – it’s too cold for our usual blanket.  Puddy has decided it’s too cold at night too, because she comes into our room in the early hours of the morning and taps on my arm. Automatically, I lift the doona and she crawls underneath, flopping on the bed, pressed up against my side. She’s like a living, purring hot water bottle … with claws!

So while winter is cold and miserable, it’s the perfect weather for homemade soup.

I don’t often make soup but I was feeling confident one grocery shop, so when I spied some bacon hocks in the deli department I knew I wanted to get one and make a hock soup. I was originally looking for a ham hock but I’ve read that they’re quite similar, so I figured a bacon hock would be fine. I picked up some carrots, celery and an onion to go with it. I wanted to try leek but frankly, it was just too expensive to justify. Damn, because leeks are delicious.

The veggies were chopped up and put in my favourite pot. It’s small but really fat, which means it holds much more than you’d think. I use it to make pasta and big pots of mince and stews – it’s my comfort pot! I cooked the veggies until they were a bit soft and then added two litres of vegetable stock. It was at this point that I realised my pot isn’t as big as I thought – the stock almost reached the top of the pot and I was concerned when I added the hock it might overflow!

(Sorry about the terrible quality photos – I didn’t realise they were a bit blurry until after I saw them on the computer)

I added some soup mix I’d soaked for an hour in some hot water, covered with alfoil to keep the heat in. It looked really healthy and I’d never cooked with a soup mix before so it was a bit intimidating. The instructions on the soup mix packet were rather fussy and required hours of preperation, so I figured I’d just simmer the soup for longer if my pre-soaking time wasn’t adequate.

I just love that photo – you can see all the healthy peas and beans and lentils and stuff. You know, stuff we don’t normally eat! Once I’d trimmed the fat from the hock, it went into the soup. It took half an hour to bring it to the boil  because the pot was so full(!!) and then I let it simmer for about three and a half hours all up. It started to smell deliciously wonderful and I was soooo hungry, I just wanted to eat it but I knew it would take a long time to cook through the soup mix and the veggies, and there’s nothing worse than hard bits in soup (unless it’s bacon, of course!).

Once it had simmered for what seemed like a lifetime, I pulled the hock out and cut off all the meat I could find. (I seemed to forget that a hock taken straight out of boiling water would be hot and burned my fingers). There wasn’t that much meat on it – perhaps that’s where a ham hock and bacon hock differs? If I was going to do this again, I’d probably put two hocks in there. The meat was really pink, which made Phill think it might not be cooked but it had been simmering for three hours – it was definitely cooked.

It tasted really good – I was quite impressed with it. The veggies were melty but still held their shape and the soup mix had swollen up and really helped to give the soup a bit of body. The weirdest thing was seeing the peas in there – they started off as dried peas and now they were plump little green balls – weeeeeird!

There’s no recipe because I didn’t follow one – I just chucked everything in and let it simmer until it was done.

What’s your favourite soup? I’d have to say pumpkin!