Moving Day

Once again the civil war that is raging inside of Australia's labour party has come to a head as Kevin Rudd makes another challenge for the leadership from Julia Gillard.  Although the leadership challenge is all they can talk about on the news, I have far more important news in my life to consider.  After 3 months of waiting, the settlement on our house has finally arrived and we are now home owners, living in Bundoora. 

Our House

I was unable to get any time off from work and so the move was a gradual process, Barnadi doing several runs during the day with me taking over at night.  With a little help from our friends we had almost everything moved by the end of Saturday so that on Sunday we hired a van (with two men) to shift all the larger pieces of furniture that we couldn't manage on our own.  It didn't take Barnadi long to make the house more homely with the living room quickly being decorated in his usual style.  It has been strange opening up boxes that had been in our garage since we first got to Australia, and seeing possessions we hadn't seen since we left Bath over a year and a half ago, a lot of pictures we couldn't hang while renting amongst many other things.  Still it seems we are nearly at an end to our unpacking with just a few boxes left to go currently stored out of sight in the spare bed rooms. 

There are so many differences with living in Bundoora over Northcote, but perhaps the most obvious change is how much colder it is in Bundoora, one of our first purchases being a portable heater for our bedroom.  As we no longer have a garage we have even had to de-ice our car in the mornings, a job I haven't had to do since leaving England.  Other differences include the length of time it takes me to get to work (much longer) and for Barnadi to get to work (much shorter), the noise (we are no longer on a busy main road), having a garden (not just a small balcony), no stairs (single storey house Vs 3 storey townhouse) and a truly suburban lifestyle (there are no trendy bars or cafes in Bundoora).

So the ballot is back and Kevin Rudd has won the leadership of the labour party and with it he has returned as Prime Minister of Australia.  Julia Gillard, if true to her word, will now resign from politics.  So with an election just around the corner, will this be enough to save the Labour party and prevent Tony Abbot getting into power, or will this continuing farce that has burdened the government have caused irreparable damage, that even Kevin Rudd can not fix.