Rhonda Bracey: At Random

There I was today, working away on client stuff, when I checked the date. It’s exactly a month today since we moved out of Perth! It all still feels very new, yet it all feels very familiar too.

ALL the boxes (those that aren’t in storage) are now unpacked and out of the house – I did the last one on Saturday after I cleaned out the old aviary and made it into a shed to store the gardening tools etc. Most of the boxes were done by the end of the first week, but there are always stragglers. I’m just glad we’re not living in “Box City” any more. The house is definitely looking like a home now.
I’ve been getting as much work done for my clients as when I was in the office – in some ways more, as I’m not distracted by water cooler chat, people dropping by your cube, the “just a quick question” situation etc. Of course, I miss some of that too, but as I’ve been working for one client for 5 years and the other for 2 years, I’ve found that many of the nuances of body language and voice can still be achieved via email and instant messaging with those I know well.

Some things I’ve ‘dropped’ since we’ve been here…

• Office clothes – I now dress for comfort and the weather, so if that means shorts, T-shirts and thongs, or tracky dacks and uggs, then that’s what it is! Both clients were pretty casual about work clothes anyway, but not THIS casual! Oh, and no bra, but you really didn’t want to know that, did you??
• Setting the alarm – no alarm buzzing at 5:10am like in Perth. I’m waking up naturally and finding that my typical waking hour is around 6-6:30am. That gives me time to read the paper, have a cuppa, check email, have a shower, have breakfast, etc. before starting my workday at 8:00am. I walk three steps from the kitchen to my new ‘office’.
• Watch and jewellery – I’m only wearing my watch and jewellery occasionally, and never at home. So I have to reset and rewind the watch every time I put it on.

A couple of times a week we’ll pop into town when I take a lunch break to do the grocery shopping, go to the butcher, bank etc. Town is about 1 minute away, so it’s not a long trip!

I’ve already made one trip back to Perth to do face-to-face with my clients, and I have another 3-day trip planned for early April. That first trip worked well, except my intentions of catching the train from Bunbury were impossible as there is no secure parking at Bunbury train station. It’s out in the boonies these days, and the car park is wide open and unsupervised at night. With a 90 minute trip back to Bridgetown after the train trip, it just isn’t worth taking the risk that my car could be smashed, stolen, or just undriveable when I got back in at night. So it looks like I’ll be driving, which is a real shame. I had a good run on the first trip back to Perth – I left at 4:45am and was at the southern end of the freeway in Perth by 7:30am. And then I hit the biggest traffic jam! It took me 1.75 hours to get from the Anketell Rd exit to the Powis St exit! Unbelieveable – and unacceptable. I’ve told that client that in future I’ll leave a bit later so I can avoid that situation. Fortunately, I’d had a pitstop just before Mandurah, otherwise it could’ve been embarrassing! Getting home took just over 3 hours, but getting to Perth took 4.5 hours, all because of that freeway situation.

I’ll write more later about some of the things we’ve discovered about living in a country town. Don’t worry – it’s all good!

Well, it’s almost two weeks since we shifted from Perth to the quiet of the southwest of Western Australia. So what have we learned about moving?

1. Stressful though it is, we should do it more often – 16yrs of STUFF is too much to deal with!
2. Life in the country has so far lived up to expectations – the air is cleaner, it is quieter, the birds sing, all the people we have met have been friendly and welcoming. Oh, and there are more bugs that come into the house…

Next, my list of essential tools for anyone considering moving:

• box cutter so you can remove that packaging tape easily when either you stuff up or when the box gets to its new location
• packaging tape dispenser (like they use in shops/warehouses) – saves your fingers, stops scissors from getting gunked up (technical term!) with the sticky stuff from the tape
• pedometer so you too can be amazed at how much walking you do moving stuff from its home to a box then back from the box to its new home (and any double or triple handling in between)
• bubble wrap – go buy a big roll from your office supplies store; you’ll be glad of it for all sorts of things, including artworks and mirrors as well as the small breakable bits and pieces
• sense of humour – ‘cos you’ll need it!
• mental health check before you start – ‘cos you’ll question your sanity and that of your partner at various times
• time – allow enough time to consider each item and then make a quick decision on whether to toss (charity or garbage) or keep
• a comprehensive list of what’s in each box – saves your verging-on-madness sanity when you need the xyz item NOW! (I needed a replacement fax roll three days before we moved as the bank sent through a 27 page fax! I located and had it installed in about 5 minutes because I knew it was in a specific box – all I had to do then was find the box in the garage, open it, feel around, and voila! new fax roll!)