Around here - September 2025

The last 3 months have been a huge effort getting my house ready to sell and getting rid of all my furniture as it was going be too big for my new townhouse.  There were many stressful days of making sure everything was gone in time.  Downsizing is a huge task as it's not just as easy as pack everything up in your house and move to your new place as most of it won't fit.  I sold a lot on FBMP and gave a lot away for free, also charity and many trips to the local tip as well.  I still have way too much stuff in my now single car garage and not much has been unpacked even though I moved 3.5 weeks ago due to being in bed with the flu for 2 weeks.  I don't think I have been that sick ever.  I got a fever for 24 hrs then no energy and a cough and literally just lay in bed day in and day out so the place looks like I just moved in with boxes everywhere.

However today is the most exciting day as I'm off to Italy on a holiday which still seems so surreal a word that gets thrown around a lot.  Raising my kids on my own we didn't get to go on holidays because I valued being a stay at home Mum and being around for my kids so holidays were not in the budget.  Now both kids are living their best lives, I've downsized and I get to do something really special for myself.  I'm flying out tonight at 2am to Rome, Italy and meeting my son for 3 days as he has been travelling abroad for the past 2.5 months.  Then on the Sunday I'll be flying down to Brindisi and getting picked up at the airport for a 7 day "slow retreat" with 8 other ladies.  The 2nd day of the retreat it will be my birthday so how wonderful is it to be spending it in Italy.  

It's called a "slow retreat" for a reason and we are doing one activity a day like learning how to make pasta, going to an olive oil farm, cooking class, visiting a ceramics factory that exports the most Italian ceramics around the world.  You can bet your life I will be buying some Italian cermamics to adorn my table when I return.  The whole thing doesn't seem real and of course I had to get a new passport as the last time I left the country was in 2002 so it was expired.  I did have a mild, well serious panic attack when I unpacked a box where I thought my passport was and I couldn't find it a few days out from my trip.  Luckily it was in the box but it was behind something else but for 24 hrs I was panacking thinking I would have to get an urgent passport redone not to mention where on earth all my documents like birth certificates etc are in which box in my bedroom.  Thank goodness I found it and all was well again.

When I get back from my trip I will have to get stuck into unpacking boxes as my new couch and dining table should be ready a couple of weeks on my return and my lounge room will have to be clear of boxes.  Looking forward to having a nice new leather couch and beautiful timber dining table and chairs.

Here's a few photos from the last few weeks and until then....stay tuned for some Italy spam when I get back.

Two lovely kookaburra's visited me when I moved in which was go great.

My flowering petunias which I brought from my old house are thriving.

This a fabulous book and I would have loved this 10 years ago when I was cooking for my kids however I read it from cover to cover and loved everything in it from reading labels, meal prepping, how to pick the best fruit and veg etc.  I was so excited when I got notification that the book was coming and as I was in bed sick ande I thought it would be a good distraction until I realized they had shipped it to my old address as it was a pre-order from 3 months ago....my neighbour went and grabbed the book and then my daughter collected it on her way over but I so wanted it the day it was delivered.

After being so sick and not really eating much I craved

meat, salad and veggies so I had this 3 nights in a row.

Teddy getting used to his new surroundings.

A few days after I moved in, we went to see a Fleetwood Mac tribute band from Melbourne called "Fleetwood Max" at our local RSL.  We saw them 18 months ago when they were here and when we heard they were coming back to Qld we booked to see them again and had a great night out.