Friends and Family are precious

Yesterday we spent a cool but sunny day at Nurragingy Reserve saying goodbye to friends and rellies who live too far from us to expect them to visit too often. In fact Jill, Stu and Matt travelled up from the 'Gong, the Hutties from West Pennant Hills and Jan came down from Leonay, there were a few from around Penrith and others that are dotted across Western Sydney. Thanks everyone for coming along we really appreciated the opportunity of saying goodbye and offering you all some hospitality in Vanuatu if you happen to drop in - but please don't all come at once! Here you all are smiling nicely!

The next challenge for us is to create a 'booking system' as a link to this blog so you can book into Paradise for a holiday. However we might leave that challenge till we know how many beds we have and what floor space is available!

This is Cheryl's last week at work and she will be finishing up on Wednesday. Thursday we have our final vaccinations, Friday we are visiting Youth Challenge Australia to get the run down on Cheryl's work in Vanuatu and that will lead us into the weekend with Bec and Mike moving in and our last week in Oz commencing.

Keep visiting this spot - and if you want a copy of the photo let us know before we go.

Not a briefcase anymore!

Well it looked like I was going to be a handbag there for a while, just a tag-along to Ron. He had almost schooled me in how to defer to his authority...coaching me in the appropriate home based activities I should indulge in as a 'kept woman'...I had nearly purchased sewing patterns for Mother Hubbard outfits to befit my new status in life...and then...

I had a call today from Max at AVI to tell me I had been successful in my selection to a position as Youth Program Transition Officer - sounds grand doesn't it? I will be working with Youth Challenge International Vanuatu. My role is to assist the organisation to transition to locally based management. Up until now this NGO has been managed from Australia by Youth Challenge Australia and that governance is now being moved offshore to Vanuatu. I understand there are about 6 staff in the organisation and I will be assisting the Program Director through mentoring and training and support, to ensure the staff have learned the skills required to keep YCI Vanuatu up and running in their own home base. I will also be liaising with the Board of Management to support them through the transition. I reckon this is a job written in Heaven for me - the Universe could not have been kinder. I am so excited I could burst (in fact anyone in the Industry Reference Group Branch at WorkCover today would have been forgiven if they thought I had!)

Speaking of the Universe and the strange ways it delivers goodies at just the right time...I was on a flight back from Brisbane last night after spending the weekend with my sister Helen, her husband John and my Mum. (Helen had a knee operation about 10 days ago). I had gone to help and also to say goodbye for what might be a long time (or may not if Helen can come and visit me in Vanuatu). I sat in my little window seat a little sad that I was not going to be seeing Helen for a while and reflecting on what she had achieved in her recovery over the weekend; when this woman told me I looked safe enough to sit next to. Clearly she had identified the only person on the plane that was so exhausted from her weekend that she couldn't have posed any real threat at all!

Anyway after only a few brief words I discovered Jennifer had been living in Vanuatu for 20 years, had taught at Malapoa High School and the Port Vila International School and was just a fountain of information. You can only imagine my glee as I invited her to move over next to me realising I could almost hold her captive for just over an hour and milk her brain for any piece of information she was willing to part with. I was delightfully surprised to slip into easy conversation and sat spellbound as she recounted memories, identified landmarks and places of interest, spoke of the people and the culture and teaching and working, and then gave me the names of her close friends and great contacts. She has identified a few prospective places that we might find accommodation and I feel like I nearly know some of our prospective landlords. I parted with her at Newcastle Airport, having met her husband and her son, feeling I had made a new friend and promising to badger her more with questions over a glass of wine before we leave. Thanks Jennifer - you made my day - and I will be in touch very soon!

It is only 18 more sleeps...and that is both exciting and scary! The house is beginning to sound rather hollow, our footsteps and voices are echoing and the furniture is dribbling it's way out to new owners. The garage is taking on a semblance of order with boxes stacked and packed - even the car can fit back in now. Makes me wonder where we have put it all!

I was out playing tennis last night (my regular Wednesday tennis night). Damm cold too. But as we were playing (poorly) and talking, it began to crystalise that we'll be leaving all this behind -the people and the events / good times. And even though the friends and the times we have together are great, fun, and at times very important to us, leaving them behind is not necessarily a bad thing - but it will be, in some ways, a sad thing! Just something to give pause for reflection.

And I'm sure it will happen similarly at the other end of our 2 years!

Tickets and contact details received!

Yesterday afternoon it all started to become very real. We have been notified of our departure and arrival times. We leave Sydney at 7.20 pm on the 8th July (one day later than expected) and we arrive in Port Vila at about midnight.

We have our flight details and a bed to sleep in when we get there. We will be staying at the Kaiviti Resort for at least one night - where to from there is still a mystery. Most accommodation is rented as furnished - however we have no idea what that will include! We have secured a Post Office Box for mail - PO Box 3104, Port Vila, Vanuatu. Please drop us a line!

I've just looked through my lists -and was surprised to see that all but a few items are completed. I've copied some music, bought more NiMh batteries, got the new torch, taken the dog for her vaccinations (no she's not going -they're the annual ones), created a family archive photo CD, completed the "Instructions to Executors" (oooh, how morbid is THAT!) and we're checking out freight companies. The wardrobe is amost bare, with winter clothes packed away, summer clothes on the back bed for taking with us. The house doesn't quite echo, but almost. And I'm sure the dog knows somethings up!

Another thing that has happened this week is that we have become very conscious of the personal cost of the decision we have made. Our friends here on the Central Coast are very happy for us and encouraging. They are however people that we have known and cherished for nearly ten years now and there are more than a few we have grown very close to. We are used to spending some wonderful evenings and events with them and we will miss them. There are some that are more than close to us - soul buddies is an apt description (and they know who they are!). It is heart wrenching to leave knowing that no matter what happens in this next two years, neither we, nor they, will ever be the same and our relationships will change. We will love them and we are thankful for their friendship - maybe they will visit us and maybe we will come home from time to time.

Christmas in July will be fun at Geoff and Gill's the week before we go - we have decided to go as Christmas Puddings!

We continue to stack and pack. It is a luxury to have all this time to do it and to be able to be ruthless about what we pack! The sound of the packing tape ripping off the reel and wrapping around boxes is constant but not hurried.


A few tears have been shed............. and there will be more............ and we are still excited and energised towards this goal.

Updating now that May has finished and June has begun!

Oh boy! Where do the days go - we have started counting down the 'sleeps' and now that June has begun we are well into the 30's. Only 31 more sleeps to go!

It is difficult to pack up a house and at the same time keep it liveable for a while. The obvious things to pack are the ornaments and pictures and 'uneccessary' items - and yet, they are the things that make a home a home in some sense and the house looks really bare if they are not on display. It is a little like the post Christmas taking down of the Christmas decorations - for a week or two the house looks quite minimal after all the glitz of the festive season.

It appears our blood, poo, wee and other items are 'up to scratch' - the medics have not advised us of any untoward results. Mammograms are interesting tests to undergo and whilst I would never say 'don't have one' I reckon the quicker they are done and over with, the better! Ron survived well - Cheryl was bruised and knocked about by the vaccines.

Shopping to go has been fun. We have a new transistor radio (in case of cyclones that will knock out the power for days) and a lovely new suitcase big enough to fit a couple of bodies in (thanks Mum!). Our feet have been kitted out with 'Crocs' and 'Ecco's' and we have taken full advantage of the stores selling off their summer clothing stock.

Cheryl has put the finishing touches on her last project for Advantage Management and is winding up her coaching work, arranging for handover to other local coaches for her clients. Her work at WorkCover has been earmarked for someone else and she is in 'handover' mode already.

Ron delivered the first of a series of wine seminars to staff at the Crowne Plaza at Terrigal this week. There will be a few more before we go. He has now finished his wine course and is a fully accredited 'Somellier' (when they confirm he has passed all the assessments!).

And so our preparations go on! The garage is a MESS - empty and half full boxes everywhere. A pile for taking now, a pile for sending over later, a pile for 'Vinnies', a pile for the tip....and a pile of empty wine bottles - stress management in a bottle!