A byootaful Life

I can’t believe that this weekend, Phill and I will be moving out of our house in preparation of leaving the country! We’re not heading overseas straight away – we’re moving in with some friends of ours until our departure, since they offered and it will save us a bit of rent money. It also means we can do away with this townhouse in advance, giving us plenty of time to clean it until it sparkles, tend to the garden and fight to get the bond back (isn’t it always a fight? Sigh). So Phill and I have been spending our nights after work packing our lives into cereal boxes. It’s such a strange feeling.

I’m excited, but nervous. I’m happy, but sad. There’s such a mixture of emotions. A part of me can’t wait to leave Australia, but another part is absolutely terrified about what lies ahead. Making new friends, finding a new job, learning a new culture, learning how to tip (we generally don’t tip in Australia), finding where to buy Tim Tams and Vegemite – there’s a lot of changes coming and sometimes changes are scary.

Perhaps the biggest change (and the saddest for me) will be this Saturday, when I bundle Puddy into the car and drive her to her new home. I am not looking forward to it; in fact, I’m dreading it. It’s going to be incredibly hard to say goodbye and no doubt I will be driving home with a few tears on my cheeks. While I take Puddy, Phill is going to be moving our things out of our house and into our friends’. A part of me wonders whether he didn’t want to have to face giving Puddy away. I have to keep reminding myself that she’s going to a loving home with a family we know and that she’ll still be there when we get home.

Doesn’t make it easy, but it does help. A little.

We’ve still got plenty of things to pack and a few more dump-runs, but we’re getting there. The house is clearing out pretty quickly and we’ve only got a few large appliances left, and we know where most of those are going, it’s just a matter of moving them out. This weekend, our house will pretty much be empty and we’ll have moved out. In just over a month, we’ll be boarding the plane.

It’s all happening too fast! (Or not fast enough, I can’t decide!)