Ah, country living. For the last month we’ve been spending time with family in regional Victoria, with only a couple of quick day-trips into “the city” (Melbourne) so far. It is relaxing, certainly: we’ve had a couple of barbeques, even fired up the chiminea (a kind of cast-iron wood-fire oven); we spent an hour fishing on the Murray (and now want fishing-licenses of our own); even did a little “off-roading” down some bush tracks, although we balked at attempted a water-crossing, thanks to the recent flooding rains. If we couldn’t keep two wheels on the dry, we weren’t risking it.
That was of course the first item on the long list of things we have to do to establish ourselves here: buying a car. We looked for a while, mostly online, and eventually found a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Limited in Kangaroo Flats: a shiny black one, naturally. Smaller than our original choice (like a Toyota Prado) but in good nick and oh-so-much-fun to drive, both on-road and off.
(No sooner have I washed it than Dee goes into full-time 4WD and dirties it up again. I think she can wash it next time.)
I’m talking to a potential employer — the same brilliant young company I worked for in London — but in the meantime we’ve been exploring rural (and not so rural) Victoria, looking for a place of our own. Dee has also discovered an as-yet untapped skill: casting a fishing line!
We haven’t found a home yet (still looking), although one cute place we viewed had large rooms, a lot of potential and, the real kicker, a couple of kangaroos in the front yard when we pulled up — but someone else has already made an offer! So we keep looking: somewhere near Kyneton, perhaps, or Daylesford. Somewhere out of town, up to an hour from the city centre — our own little rural retreat. Just so long as we have fast Internet!