Back to Flexibility

For those with limited reading time:

Highlights	Less of a highlight
No sandfly bites – Kate!!	Wind, it picks up in the afternoons a bit - Kate
Warm enough weather that you can sit in the shade in summer clothing and be comfortably warm! – Both	Work being about four days a week or sometimes even less for Will – Kate (that wasn’t the plan – it’s my turn to not earn money LOL)
Pool – Kate, yet to get Will into it.	Not celebrating Jade’s birthday with her - both
Work being four days a week, sometimes even less - Will	Not celebrating Lola’s birthday with her -both
Markets – such a variety of vegetables and fruit – I’ve got no idea what a lot of them are – but other shoppers are happy to explain them to me - Kate	Sunrise being so early – it’s well and truly light by 5am, with sunrise not happening until 5.20ish - Kate
Getting back into morning activities – walks or bike rides almost daily- Kate	House prices rising - both
Catching both the sunrise and the sunset yesterday - Kate
Chatting to interesting people – Kate
A morning swim in the sea before starting my writing day - Kate
Flexibility – not my physical flexibility but my timetable - Kate

Well, I’m very pleased to say we have settled into our new sandfly free location. Every caravan park is so different! The caravan park in town has a different clientele. Some campers were in similar situations to us, working and paying their way. But there was also a substantial number living on pensions, just getting by, the park their only option. How do I know? Because some told me while others we overheard as we hung out our washing. Merv beckoned me into his mate’s camp, raised my hand to his lips and told me he was a returned Vietnam Vet. He was proud of his son who served in Afghanistan, but, like him, he too finds life a struggle after his years of service. There was Lacy. She was short a few teeth, (maybe a Collingwood supporter??) but she was never short of a smile, a ‘good morning’ and a ‘God bless you, have a wonderful day.’ The park was their home and I felt welcomed into their family. I’m sure if we had stayed, we would have gotten to know more people.

This park, I feel, has people who have chosen to make a caravan park their retirement village.

It's easy to get your daily steps up when your toilet is a nice stroll away.

My Office - not sure the chair fits OHS standard but it's the right height.

My office converts to the kitchen quite quickly!

Many have added carports for their newish cars and decorated their sites with plants or gardens. Some sell relish and monkey jam from their annex. (Apparently monkey jam is made of pineapple, banana and a few other ingredients – maybe when I’m finished my apricot jam from Vina, I’ll give it a whirl). Everyone here is friendly, lots of hellos when you pass each other and a bit of chat around the hand basin. But, apart from our direct neighbours, Laurie & Wendy who invited me in for a cuppa and Bruce & Pam who water our lawns for us, my longest conversation has certainly been with travellers from Victoria, Liz and Paul! And of course, Liz and Bill knew someone in common through the CFA.

The grounds here are much nicer. Palm trees, bromeliads and other plants are dotted throughout. We have a bottle brush on our site. It is often filled with parrots. Right now, two are feeding in it and the other day a lizard was sunning itself up there. Oh yes, how could I forget, we have cane toads. Heaps of them! They pop out after dark and wait around the amenities block or under the tree at the back of my ‘kitchen’. I was worried I had scolded a few tree frogs when I tossed out the veggie water, but I was assured they were only cane toads.

I was chatting with Kyle the other day and he remarked “Mum, you sound content.” And I am, unless I let my thoughts race ahead to the one nagging question I have, ‘What financial situation will we be in when we are 70ish?’

That wondering pops up for a few reasons - we see homeless daily and are constantly hearing news reports of the housing crisis in Australia. And I’ve realised I’m really, really impatient! We dilly dallied on the way up because I was so confident that I wouldn’t like Bundaberg as much as Will. Turns out, we both like it! A lot. The climate, so far, has been wonderful. Warm days, a little humid now and then, but warm enough to sit in the shade and walk around without socks on – this for a lady who had to wear Ugg boots in January is a true delight. So, we’ve started keeping an eye out for a house. After three whole days of looking and not finding the ‘perfect’ place, ‘Little Miss Impatient’ started to lose sleep, waking at 4am and spending hours on Realestate.com. And the question would rattle around in my brain, ‘What if Will dies and I’m left homeless?’ So, I started to think maybe I should see a doctor for some Valium but instead I shared my worries with Will, and Kyle (and now all of you – thanks for listening if you’re still here). Kyle chuckled, not so helpful in a way, but in another way, very helpful – it was a ‘Get over it, Mum, you’ll be fine’ chuckle. And Will, his answer was “We’re doing OK. If we can’t find a house here, we can house sit, keep traveling, do whatever. Something will turn up when it’s meant to.’ And so, the weight of worry has lifted. I sure as hell don’t know what our financial situation will be in 20 years but I’m back on track to enjoy this adventure and stay content!

So, with the aim of staying content, I’ve refocused on the aspect of this adventure that makes me smile the most and that is flexibility. I was chatting with friends the other day and thought maybe I was missing routine. So, I made a routine and kept to it, for 4 whole days! Little Miss Impatient went, this isn’t working for me! At all! So, I’ve gone back to having a vague plan for the next day – I decide on a number of hours I will spend writing, I’ll enjoy some form of exercise, I’ll do something in what I call my ‘joy’ time but where, when and in what order will be decided as the day unfolds.

Today, when I woke, I decided to grab my compute and bather bags and jump in the ute with Will. After leaving Will at the work site my exercise has been a half hour swim in the ocean at Bagara – I thought I’d do that after a bit of work, but the ocean was so inviting that I was swimming by 7am. My joy time has been coffee and blogging while watching the waves, tucked out of the wind, at my favourite coffee shop. My work hours will now start after 10am, as I’ve just decided to catch the 9o’clock bus back into town and work at the library for a few hours before grabbing another bus back to the caravan.

Lucky I've embraced flexibility. As I drove around to drop the ute back to Will I saw the bus go past! What a shame, I've had spent another 30 minutes watching the waves while getting ready to press send.

Will at work digging out plenty of rocks formed when there was an active volcano near here.

Excuse me lizard, could you please move, I'd like to park here.

Love the top rule - Give respect to gain respect.

Sunset at the back of the caravan park.

A guy is known for putting old trucks, planes, bulldozers, and other items on posts. Glad Will didn't get into this form of sculpture.

Macadamia trees in flower

Sunrise over garden markets.

The farmer had started irrigating by 5.30am

Last weekend we rode from Mon Repos, famous as a breeding ground for Long Neck Turtles, to Burnett Heads, famous as the home of Gail and Jeff!

We took some time out of our ride to explore rock pools

After working in the town library one day, I wandered Alexander Gardens while chatting with a great mate.

My ripening shelf - and the pineapple was as good as it looks!

In Alice Springs there are white buses that take detainees to their day work, here there are white buses taking the fruit and vegie pickers out to their location for the day. Some were being dropped off at 5.30 one morning.