The Girls Having  Fun in Lake Camilla, and in an increasingly rare moment of freedom as it’s the start of snake season!

Having moved to our own new home life has taken on a sense of normality to which neither of us are accustomed.  The two and a half long years of a slightly nomadic life had become the norm and now we find ourselves weirdly thinking, gosh, it feels so strange that we haven’t got to pack up and move again.  Life has become so normal that I’m struggling to think of what to tell you!   So I shall write about normal things that us, who have become normal, do.

Firstly I have got into the groove of my work.  I’m now Accounts Manager for a firm of lawyers in Hamilton and I spend my days balancing the books, helping on reception and generally keeping the show on the road for everyone.  It’s a happy little practice which is well thought of in the district.  We work in all fields of law from matrimonial and family to criminal, conveyancing and commercial litigation.  You might think that it’s a totally different world from my days as proprietor of an art gallery in Suffolk but strangely many of the skills I acquired doing that have proven to be most useful in my new job.

The Kiwi has been working on a sheep farm quite a distance from home and the travelling has been getting him down.  Another farmer has for some months been chasing the Kiwi to come and work on his cattle and sheep farm which is a little closer to home.  The Kiwi has accepted the offer and he starts in a few weeks, hopefully he’ll be able to gain a little more time at home.

It has taken us a few weeks to get the house looking straight with the spare bedroom ending up as a store room for Stuff we couldn’t find a home for.  With the impending visit of friends from Suffolk the motivation to get rid of the boxes of Stuff arrived and we crammed our two shipping containers with the not required “Stuff”.  We have so much “Stuff” that I’m guessing only a quarter of our Stuff has made it into our new house.  Have I missed Stuff?  Yes and no – I’d love to be able to find my salad bowls as I haven’t seen them since we left Suffolk.

Our first visitors from Blighty came to stay with us for a very jolly week. Graham and Rosey had travelled by train across the Nullarbor from Perth and we arranged to meet them in typical eccentric Aussie style at the Coleraine Pedal Car Grand Prix. It was quite a surreal moment as we spotted each other at either end of a deserted street in a little town which a Pom would refer to as being in the middle if nowhere.  Smiling and laughing, we walked towards our friends who like us put on funny walks and dances eventually greeting each other with big hugs and kisses.  Meanwhile we were about to be mown down by highly specked up, spruced up pedal cars racing each other in the Australian Pedal Car Grand Prix. 

It was just great having our friends to stay and being able to show them our new world.  I think they were a little phased by the distances we have to travel, for example 1.5 hours to the dentist.  I took a day off work and we drove down to the coast at Port Fairy, sadly it was horribly windy day and our walk on the beach was a tad bracing.

Meanwhile both Daphne and Margot had come into season and this time both were going to the “dog”.  Margot back to Will for a second attempt, who lives 4.5 hours away on the other side of Melbourne and Daphne to Thunda who was much nearer in Colac.  Prior to their wedding nights there was an exhausting program of blood tests to be gone through with each girl to ensure that they were absolutely spot on to go.  At last, on a Thursday lunchtime I got the call from our Vet who said “Margot’s right on – today’s the day.”

Literally dropping everything (including work) Margot and I jumped in the car and set off on our long journey to the other side of the big smoke of Melbourne.  Having lived the life of a country bumpkin with only the occasional car in front of me at my local roundabout it was a bit of a shock to the system to find myself in the middle of an enormous traffic jam on a ten lane motorway and of course I was in the wrong lane.  You will be proud of me, my London driving skills returned along with the one fingered salute.

Margot and Will dispensed with the pleasantries of a normal flirtation and got straight on down to business.  To cut a long story short so did Daphne and Thunda.  I left both girls to their new found love interests each for a couple of nights before making the mammoth 800km round trip again to collect them both. 

A few days later we woke to find Daphne feeling very under the weather and another trip to the vet revealed she had a nasty uterine infection with no cure but to perform a hysterectomy.  The cause was completely unrelated to her antics in the love department and could have happened at anytime.  We were both so sad as we would have dearly loved to have a mini Daphne but it was not to be.

“Well, Margot, the pressure’s on girlie”.  I already had 17 people on my waiting list for a puppy and  having to let the bottom 7 down wasn’t great.  Meanwhile we had everything crossed that Margot would be in pup looking for every teency little sign that the multiple patter of furry feet would be on their way.  Last weekend we noticed that she was feeling a little bit short fused, slightly off her brekkie and then was sick for no reason.  Could she, is she, might she, at last be preggy? The four week wait to have her first scan had been interminable and I do wish someone would invent a “pee on a stick” for dogs.

Finally the big day arrived and we were greeted by the whole vet practice who were all as anxious as us to find out if Margot was in pup.  Boss Lady Vet did the honours while Margot helpfully lay on her back with her legs in the air (so what’s new there?)  Cold jelly was smeared on her tummy and we gazed at the screen showing Margot’s inner plumbing looking for signs of puppies.  I wasn’t at all sure what I was supposed to be looking for but the Kiwi and Boss Lady Vet gave a simultaneous whoop and there they were, four little sacks of each containing a little blond, furry bundle of love.  I couldn’t help but shed a tear and I think so did Boss Lady Vet.  Although we could only see four foetuses there might be more and one of them will be spending the rest of their life with us.  It’s been a long and arduous road to get to this point, more than I am able to write about but we couldn’t be more delighted.