The 1st week in my new home
It all started with an enchanted 30 hour traveling adventure with Jacinta. I am serious, our five hours at O’hare included 2 hours at the children’s museum, some munching, strolling, napping and some mischief. All throughout the four hour flight to San Francisco she played happily next to a kind Korean Buddhist monk who emitted peace and humility, heavily influencing her mood, I do believe. While she giggled through our 2 hour layover in San Fran and made people smile, I too smiled in shock at her contagious mood. Once aboard the plane to Sydney, Jacinta promptly crashed on my lap and slept about 9 hours of the 14 hour flight.
We arrived in Sydney on Friday at about 7 am, after narrowly escaping the customs officials for not specifically declaring CHEESE!! Matt picked us up in our first new car, a silver sedan with a stick shift on the left hand side of the car. After a short trip to Matt’s sister’s flat, Jacinta and I relaxed in the bath with a whole tin of lavender bath salts (thanks Jess!), walked to town to buy some food and smell the fresh spring flowers, and came home for a hot drink and a long nap. The remainder of the weekend was spent catching up with friends in Sydney, napping, waking up at strange hours with Jacinta, drinking coffee and bracing ourselves for the last leg of the journey. Matt was actually working a bit while Jacinta and I worked on jet lag, basically re-enrolling our family into the business aspects of living, filling out tens of pages on governmental forms, Medicare, banks, and of course, watching cricket.
Monday came and sent us off in pouring rain on our 5 hour trip north to Macksville. We stopped for breakfast with Matt’s sister, and then for a few hours at Matt’s dad’s house on the bay for lunch and catching up on lost time. At about 8:30 pm we finally arrived at our final destination in the dark, our new home on Coronation Road. Greeted by Mary and Keith, open arms and a cheesy welcome sign, Jacinta woke up for hugs, dinner, some playtime and a new beginning. Having spent months gathering things for us and wondering if we really were going to show up, Keith and Mary were as ready for our arrival as we were eager.
Imagine being 16 months old and waking up to a huge new bedroom to share with mum and dad, filled with toys you’d never seen. It gets better….imagine getting dressed to then step out onto the verandah only to see cows over the fence 100 feet away, hear a rooster crowing and then follow the sound to the chicken coop. You could then throw down grain for the “chooks” to munch on and go and collect their eggs. After chasing the chickens around a bit, you’d come up for breakfast on the verandah and eat oatmeal while watching all of the birds come and feed on the fig tree and sing to you while you ate. Later on you might go and follow mom around with your own little wheelbarrow and spade, digging in the empty vegetable beds before planting. Perhaps you’d see your first big fat worm and try to hold it. After a while, you may get sick of mom paying too much attention to the dirt, so you might start whining and get a cuddle and go in for a drink. This is Jacinta’s life for now. How lucky we are to witness the wonder on Jacinta’s face.
Having been in Macksville for about 4 days now, I’m finding more every day that this is a cool little town. There are small businesses everywhere, no fast food chains (though plenty of junk food), beautiful parks, river culture, oyster farming, lots of cows, and places to play bingo (: I hope to try out a playgroup next week on Thursday, and there are farmers markets in surrounding towns every Saturday and Sunday. There is a women’s camping weekend in November that I would like to attend. Matt saw an ad for a women’s night out at the Hardware Store!!?? Wednesday we bought bikes from a shop in town and were able to ride them home, one at a time though so Jacinta could have a parent (: My first bike ride back home from town was like a pilgrimage, smelling the air, free to explore alone, without worrying too much about crashing the car because I’m driving on the opposite side of the road. In addition to being a pilgrimage, the ride home is also a good way to picture life here.
Out of the car park, I cross the road to turn right (new to me….) and ride on the street with the cars as it’s illegal to ride on the footpath. I turn left, passing an Energy Bureau, an Accountants Office, the Senior Center and then the library. I spot a little pond with some lily pads in flower, bright purple, walking around the perimeter are these beautiful bright blue and black duck-like birds with red beaks. I continue around the path and see that there is an island in the middle, and amongst the reeds are fuzzy black baby birds following around their parents. The path eventually borders the main road and on it I spot a sign which I admire and plan to photograph saying, “Nambucca Valley is a Nuclear-Free Zone.” I follow the pond back to where I began and turn right, passing once again the library et al…eventually turning left onto a quiet street off the main drag to go up a slight hill. On my left I see a re-sale shop, a trade shop, a church, on my right a fruit shop, a convenience store, and some houses. I turn right and while coasting down a steep hill I watch the grade school children at play after lunch in their uniforms, blue shorts and white polo T-shirts. At the bottom of the hill I turn left and pedal along on nice flat pavement, passing a few houses and a bus-making factory. I cross the Tilly Willy bridge, pedal along passing a bunch of humble little houses until I reach the much larger Nambucca River and cross another bridge. I see birds fly over head and smile that this is my town. I turn left onto Coronation Road gazing at the river while pedaling on relatively flat road. Here the houses are much more spread apart, and eventually distance themselves from the river. Changing gears…..oh my oh my, pedal hard, I can do it…no way! I hop off my bike and push it up the huge hill (Yes, I come from the Mid-West) deciding to enjoy my time rather than work too hard. This way I have time to admire the fields of grass being munched on by the cattle on my right, the wildflowers on the side of the road and the birds in the trees. Et voila! I’ve seen about 7 houses on this road and I’m home. I get back on my bike and coast down the hill to park my bike under shelter.
Life is good here, relaxed and still uncertain of how we will earn a living, how exactly I will cultivate the land, how exactly we will share living with Mary and Keith. But the uncertainty is not negative just something that will decrease each day and become a warm comfortable home, and it already feels warm here. We’ve spent time here so far walking the land, rejoicing in the animals with Jess, shopping, checking out re-sale shops, setting ourselves up medically, financially and governmentally, learning how to drive (me), searching for work (Matt), digging garden beds, planning out our house, cooking, drinking lots of tea and coffee, working out details with Mary and Keith, laughing, playing, and entertaining Jacinta. It will be interesting to see how much changes each week. Although 6:15 is early for me, Jacinta has chosen what time we will rise and I love waking up here.
