A new abode

It's official I am now fully moved into my new abode. I may have no running hot water yet and there may be a few little things that need to be finished but for better or worse I am in.

No more walking up these rickety stairs every time I forget something.

No more french door leading out onto a wide veranda

No more waking up to a view like this, well as soon as I open the curtains

It was kinda bittersweet, walking out of what has been my space for nearly 2 and a 1/2 years. I remember how I felt when I first moved into that room. The tiredness from travelling, the uncertainty of a new job and getting to know new people, the sadness of being so far from family but also the excitement of a new journey, a new adventure.

This is a place of memories like being woken up to deal with a snake bite, falling into bed after fighting fires half the night, the micro bats playing at 9 o'clock at night, of untangling the cute little blighters from my mosquito net, the willie wagtail that decided to make my room it's home, the frogs that wanted to snuggle in bed, the kids lurking in wait around the corner to scare or to beg pancakes on a Sunday morning, of everything smelling like diesel after having to fill the engine, of many beautiful sunrises watched from the veranda, of tip toeing around the veranda and down the stairs to take photos of those sunrises before everyone else is awake, of snuggling under 6 layers of blankets to keep warm in winter. There are plenty of memories attached to that room.

All personal touches gone it is the same room I walked into over 2 years ago.

After starting here the final term of 2009 these quarters and the attached schoolroom were promised as bribery to get me to come back the following year. Little did the family know that I wanted to come back regardless, I loved the job, the station, the family and the kids, I was hooked. Mind you I think they may have cottoned on to this fact as it has taken almost another 2 1/4 years for the schoolroom and quarters to be completed ... patience is a virtue. Mind you in saying this, this is my final year with the family. It is time to take a new direction in my life and travel a road I haven't taken (this may or may not have to do with meeting a certain Sparky).

The new quarters/ schoolroom and the main house ... see I haven't gone far.

My new home ... right next door to the schoolroom (so I can roll out of bed and dawdle into work)

(A quarters tour to come a later date ... when I have found a home for some of the stuff sitting in the middle of the floor.)