Insecurities

Lake Eildon

After Heather and Paul headed back to the UK our long drives around Victoria were far from over.  We made our next drive up to Lake Eildon with Tay and Mona who work with Barnadi at Narai Thai.  Lake Eildon is a vast man made lake to the North East of Melbourne, created by damming the Goulburn river and flooding the old township of Darlingford.  During the recent droughts Lake Eildon had pretty much dried up, but following a very wet winter it was starting to look a little more impressive again.  It was still clear how much higher the lake used to be by the half submerged trees encased in dried mud.  We started our trip with lunch which Barnadi cooked on one of the free gas BBQ's at a campsite.  We went and sat down by the lake after eating when we returned we discovered a flock of birds had descended on our picnic site, and a greedy Kookaburra was finishing off the last of the sausages.  It almost looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" which I had just watched the night before with Sam and Athina at the Astor cinema in St Kilda.

Our next big drive we did on our own, neither of us were working on Anzac day so we went to visit our friend Kath near Hoppers Crossing, who had just had a baby.  From there we headed down to Barwon Heads where once again we made use of a free gas BBQ in order to cook our lunch before taking a walk up and over the bluff and along the beach on the opposite bank.  From Barwon Heads we crossed over the bridge to Ocean grove and again took a walk along another stretch of coastline.  We then continued on to the lighthouse we had seen in the distance on our previous walks at Point Lonsdale.  The rock formations beneath the lighthouse kept us entertained for a while before we got back in the car and headed home.



Point Lonsdale

Despite all the distractions we are still progressing towards settlement on our house, although it is now pretty much all in the hands of our lawyer.  All that is left for us to do is organise utilities and to pack.  More worrying than the settlement is my future work prospects and my current feeling of insecurity.  I knew when I took the job at the Alfred I was taking a risk on a temporary contract, but with my latest unsuccessful interview the risk now feels considerably higher.  What makes matters worse is the community pharmacy in Epping I was doing the occasional weekend shift at has now hired a new pharmacist, this means  I no longer have a fall back plan for if/when my contract with the Alfred ends.

Great Ocean Drive

I met Heather at University as we were on the same course, but it wasn't until the second year that we became friends.  It was on our walks to and from the university up Widcome hill where our friendship really took root.  A friendship that has stood the tests of time and geographical distance. After graduation Heather moved away eventually ending up in Cambridge where she met Paul at a dance class.  When Heather and Paul got engaged, they invited us to their wedding, but with two trips back to the UK already made over the last year and a third already planned for August we made the difficult decision to turn down the invitation.  It wasn't all bad news though as they had planned to spend their honeymoon in Australia and New Zealand.

Ironically enough we ended up back in the UK on their wedding day, although it was certainly not a celebration.  Heather and Paul left for their Honeymoon while we were still in the UK, and our plans to give them a room for their first stop in Melbourne obviously fell through.  By the time we arrived back in Melbourne they had already moved on to New Zealand.  All was not lost, and a week later  they returned to Melbourne, and after our long drive back from Lakes Entrance, I took the relatively short drive to the airport to pick them up.


Along the Great Ocean Road

Having taken a lot of leave already this year I wasn't able to get any extra time off to spend with our guests and so we had to make the most of the weekend we had together.  On the Saturday I took them on the now familiar day trip up to Hanging rock, although the traditional stop at the Organ Pipes national park was omitted as the entrance road off the Calder freeway was closed.  On the Sunday I took them on the much more ambitious drive along the Great Ocean Road.  The Great Ocean Road is a 243km stretch of road that follows the coast along south west Victoria between the towns of Torquay in the east and Allansford in the west.  It was built by returning soldiers after the first world war, in part to give them jobs, but also to connect the isolated western settlements.  We set off early with the goal of getting as far as Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles before heading back, making a few stops on the way.  We made good time out of Melbourne, passed Werribee and Geelong finally joining the Great Ocean Road at Anglesea.  We took a stop early on at a sandy beach where we got out and stretched our legs before heading on.  We did not stop at the Lighthouse from 'Round the Twist' as Heather never had a TV growing up, so missed out on the significance instead our next stop was at the Great Ocean Road monument where we took a few photo's before getting back on the road again.  We went straight through Lorne without stopping but kept our eyes open as I had heard that there was a good Koala spotting point along Grey river road.  Despite keeping our eyes open we did not find the road we were looking for and when we took a stop at a rocky cove to look for crabs, I took a quick look on google maps and realised we had already long passed Grey river road, which was annoyingly located no where near the Grey river we had just crossed.  We  stopped again at Apollo bay for lunch, we had already been on the road for 4 hours by this point and I was seriously considering calling it quits then and there, dreading the long drive back home again.  Once I had a full stomach again we decided to push on, we had after all come this far, it would seem a waste to go back now without seeing the 12 Apostles.  The drive from Apollo bay to Port Campbell was long and winding, cutting inland away from the sea, it felt like it would never end.  After what seemed like forever we finally broke free from the forested hills and were back along the coast, the 12 Apostles finally in sight.

12 Apostles, Port Campbell

I first came to the 12 Apostles 9 years ago with Barnadi, and several of the limestone columns have collapsed since then, not that there were 12 of them even then.  It was a shame Barnadi couldn't have joined us on that trip as the place is filled with nostalgia, back to a time when our relationship was still new and everything was an adventure.

We took a short cut home back inland via Colac and the A1, which took a mere 3 hours to get us back compared to the 5 hours on the way out. 

I was working the rest of the week so didn't get to spend much time with Heather and Paul, although they entertained themselves with a trip to Healsville on one day and Belgrave on another.  We got them a ticket for dinner on the Tramcar restaurant as a last minute wedding present.  Heather and Paul had to leave Melbourne the following weekend and I wasn't even able to see them off at the airport because of work, but Barnadi took them down before heading to work himself.

Rest and Recuperation

Straight back from the UK, bought a house, had a job interview and started my first on call all on the same day.  It is not surprising then that I was a little exhausted by the end of the week and with a couple of days off in lieu in payment for my week on call, Barnadi and I took a much deserved trip down to Lakes Entrance for some R&R.

View of Lakes Entrance

Lakes Entrance is a small holiday town in East Gippsland that lies on a man made channel linking the Gippsland lakes to the Bass straight and Tasman sea.  Barnadi picked me up from work on Wednesday and we started the 5 hour drive along the Princes Highway stopping only once in Moe to switch seats.  By the time we pulled up at the Great Western hotel it was already dark, and we were greeted by an overly cheerful receptionist "We had begun to think you weren't coming" who gave us a map and pointed out some key attractions in the area before allowing us to escape to our room to rest after our long drive.  Rather than going straight to bed we decided a walk along the waterfront as far as the bridge that took us out to the sea front.  As we crossed the bridge over the Cunninghame arm and away from the street frontage it got noticeably darker and the sound of the crashing waves became our only clue that we were heading in the right direction.  The darkness however became complete as we passed over the sand dunes and onto the beach, it was then that as we looked up we noticed the stars for the first time.  It was a clear night and in the complete darkness of the beach the stars were so unbelievably bright and numerous, with the dense band of the milky way marking its course across the middle of the sky.  We slept well that night.


90 mile Beach at Lakes Entrance

We only had one full day in Lakes Entrance and so we decided we had to make the most of it, we got up early and took a walk along the 3km of beach and the windswept wooded sand dunes that run between the Bass straight and the Cunninghame arm, from the bridge in Lakes Entrance right up to the man made inlet and back again.  The walk finished with a hot but bland breakfast of bacon and eggs and a watery coffee in a cafe along the waterfront, but by that point I was too hungry to care.  After breakfast we got in the car and drove inland to the small town of Buchan and area famous for it's limestone caves.  The limestone of Buchan is black in colour, and stone from quarries in the area was used to build the six black pillars inside the shrine of remembrance, some of the stones were even shipped to the UK and used in the building of Australia house in London.  While in Buchan we joined a tour of one of the caves known as the Fairy cave, a narrow winding tunnel decorated with translucent stalactites and stalagmites, strange formations contaminated with iron salts that had the appearance of streaky bacon and waterfalls of sparkling calcium crystals that gave the cave its name.


Inside the Fairy cave at Buchan

On leaving Buchan we headed back to the waterfront and a small town called Paynesville where we could catch a free ferry to Raymond Island, a small Island in Lake King that has a colony of koalas living on it.  The short ferry ride took us straight onto the path of the koala trail, but it wasn't until a couple of locals pointed out one in their front garden that we managed to spot our first koala.  Once we saw one however it didn't take us long to spot another and another and another.

Feeling very satisfied with the days activities we drove back to Lakes Entrance for dinner at a Greek restaurant called Miriam's where we shared a 1kg seafood platter filled to the brim with Bass straight bugs, oysters, muscles, prawns and a selection of other fish.  Barnadi washed it down with a glass of wine while I had to make do with a glass of water.  It is times like this when I miss being able to drink the most, but it wasn't enough to ruin what was an incredible day.

On Friday we had to head back to Melbourne, Barnadi was working and we were expecting more guests from the UK.



Sleepy Koala

Sold!

We returned from our trip back to the UK exhausted and forlorn, but had no time to sit back and refresh with so many unexpected developments to come.  A house we had intended to attend the auction for failed to sell while we were away and we were invited to put in an offer.  So with our recently increased budget we set out to the estate agent to work out our best price.  Someone had already put in an offer 'deemed acceptable by the vendour' so we had to ensure our offer was at least equal to that already made if we wanted any chance to secure the property for ourselves, and after some intense haggling we finally agreed on a price.  The price was a little higher than we had hoped to go, but still well beneath that of similar properties in the area so that we still felt like we were getting a bargain.  One more person was planned to come in and make an offer before all offers would be submitted to the vendor who would then pick their favourite.

As if buying a house wasn't enough for my jetlag addled brain to deal with as we were sitting in the estate agents office I received a voicemail explaining that my interview had been shifted from 11:30 to 12 o'clock.  Now I knew I had applied for my contract to become permanent, but no one had actually bothered to tell me the interview had been scheduled for my first day back.  So with my head buzzing with a maelstrom, with jet lag, thoughts of my father, our house and my imminent on-call, I turned up to work and went straight in for my interview.  It was as you might well imagine a disaster and I was lucky to even have my current contract extended to September, the tone of the feedback I received suggested if it wasn't for my mitigating circumstances I might have been relieved of my post then and there.  The uncertainty of my employment is certainly not good news, and it was even worse considering we were on the verge of getting a mighty big mortgage.

The agent didn't keep us waiting long and we knew later that night that the vendor had considered all offers carefully and that it was very close, but we were the successful party.  When I heard the news my stomach exploded with a mixture of pure excitement and fear.  It was done, we had bought a house, subject to finance of course.  The finance, that was our next hurdle.  Our mortgage broker insisted it would only take 5 working days for the bank to sort it all out, we gave her a little longer.  Around lunch time on D-Day we still hadn't heard the confirmation we were waiting for and the agent was getting a little edgy, calling us up every day to ensure we weren't going to pull out as she still had several interested partys waiting in the wings.  A call to the broker revealed that because of the backlog of work from Easter the bank hadn't managed to get to our application yet and was currently applying for an extension for us which after much confusion and a 3 way conversation with the agent and our solicitors was finally agreed upon.  The extension proved to be pointless though as we got a call that very night to say the bank had finally got to our application.  It was mixed news, the bank valued the property the same as us, but because of the close proximity to some overhead power cables would only lend us 90% of the purchase price instead of the 95% previously agreed upon.  Our mortgage broker did a quick calculation for us and worked out we would need to save another $6,000 by settlement in order for us to be able to meet all the costs.  It didn't take us long to decide that the amount should be achievable, with Barnadi's boss Sam giving us reassurance that he could always lone us the difference if we couldn't save enough.  So it was with much celebration that we agreed to the terms of the loan and with that, we had officially bought a house.

So what can I tell you about the house?  It is in Bundoora and only an 8 minute walk for Barnadi to get to work (not so convenient for me, but at least only one of us has to commute now).  It is on a quiet residential street far enough away from the main roads to remain quite but close enough to be accessible to local shops and facilities.  The house is not huge, but has 3 bedrooms and sits on top of a 600m2 block of land, with beautifully tended gardens and a back gate that opens onto parkland.  We can't wait for settlement when we can truly call it our home.

In Loving Memory

Raymond: 1929-2013

My father passed away last month, and it has been a difficult time for Barnadi, myself and all the rest of my family.  He had been in hospital for some time, but had seemed to be getting better.  It was therefore very unexpected when I received a call from my sister Rachel to say he had taken a turn for the worse and had been transferred to CCU.  This was not the first time he had been to the Coronary Care Unit, but the seriousness of my sisters tone allowed us to realise the severity of his condition without actually having to spell it out to us.  We booked a flight with Singapore airlines as early as we could, but unfortunately we were too late.  It was in Singapore airport that we received the message to call home urgently and it was up to my sister Martha to break the devastating news.  The 5 hours stopover in Singapore airport were the worst of my life.  He was not alone when he passed and he seemed at peace.  It has been reported to me that he knew we were on our way, and that he apologised for not being able to hold on any longer.  It was this last sentiment that stuck in my mind the most and it summed up my dad so completely, in the way that he was always thinking of others before himself.

We stayed with my sister Rachel for 2 weeks, extending our trip so that we could stay for the funeral, which my dad had pre-organised with a funeral plan.  There was not a lot we could do, other than be there for each other.  The British weather constantly interrupting attempts to sort out meetings with family members by snowing.  A lot of the practicalities such as sorting out the will and other legal issues had to be left until after the funeral, but we did what we could, making a start in organising my fathers effects, although this was frequently interrupted when a stash of photos was found and an emotional trip down memory lane was initiated.

The funeral itself went smoothly although I don't think any of us were looking forward to it.  The service somehow making everything more final.  With music picked by my half sister Lesley and some heartfelt words from my Half brother John, the immediate family then followed on to the crematorium to say a final, more personal goodbye.

My father was a kind, gentle, generous man.  He lived a good life although good things may not have always happened to him he never took it personally and kept a positive attitude throughout even towards the end.  He was greatly loved by all his children and grand children, and he loved them each in turn. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.