Saturday marked the end of our second week here. It’s been interesting – we’ve been able to live in our rented “beach home” just about like we live in our “real” home. We’ve gone out to eat a few times but mostly eat in, have managed to keep our car trips to a minimum and spend most of our time doing the same kind of things we’d do at home. We take a bit of pride in the number of days our car doesn’t move from the garage, both here and at home.
Yesterday the local cable company upgraded the cable boxes and modems in our building to a new digital service. The upside for us is that the internet is now about 10X faster than it used to be, and we also have hundreds more TV channels to not watch! The picture is great! Unfortunately the content is the same, just a lot more of it.
At some point I realized that in the next day or two will have been “away from home” for the longest times in our lives with the exception of college and the 2 months or so that I lived in corporate housing when we relocated to North Carolina from Ohio.
The interesting thing is that we’ve settled into life here with nary a glitch. We talked the other day about how quickly this place seems like home. We brought a reasonable amount of “stuff” with us – mostly clothes, camera gear and electronics – and anticipated a few trips to Target or Wal-Mart to pick up things our condo didn’t have. But so far all we’ve had to buy is food, water and wine! It’s amazing how well we can live for an extended time with just the stuff that will fit in the car.
The weather hasn’t been ideal, but we’ve had a number of really nice days. For this time of the year, a couple of nice days each week is about what we expected. It’s warmer than home and a lot warmer than a lot of other places we could be! It’s easy to accept a rainy day or two when we’ve got so many to work with.
Thanksgiving will be a little weird this week, but we don’t do a lot of major family stuff and we never travel over that weekend, so it isn’t too big of a deal. We have a couple of steaks and a nice bottle of wine and will celebrate in our own way. We might even turn on the TV and watch the parades…likely with the sound off, of course!
Another enjoyable read accompanied by excellent photos. Sounds like you are both enjoying the kind of holiday I enjoy: slow paced with wine and food (by the way, what’s the water for when you have wine? 😉 ).
One of the nice things about working in Australia is that everyone is entitled to four weeks leave every year (no matter how long you have been working). And in some places, like where I work, you can take your leave at half-pay which effectively doubles your leave to eight weeks per year. So for most Aussies, being away from home for more than two weeks is very common 🙂
Ah, to live in the civilized world…I might have been able to work longer if I’d have had more 2 week vacations every year. When I retired I had 25 days annually, but found that to be a bit limiting. 😉
Regarding the water, the tap water here has a very high mineral content and a bit of a sulphur odor. Makes crappy coffee and tea, which are essential in the mornings!
D’oh! Of course! The water for the coffee and tea. Why didn’t I think of that? It would be somewhat uncouth to start the day with a glass of Pinot Noir 😉
I would have expected you to drink Shiraz for breakfast over Pinot Noir!
There’s a school of thought that suggests that you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning, but I haven’t gone that far yet. Usually! Although I will admit to a Bloody Mary on occasion…. 😉
Yes, the simple things are all we really need but not necessarily what we want. I think we share the ” reasonable amount of stuff”. 🙂
One of the things that being here has taught us is how little we actually need. I brought all my camera gear (of course!) but have essentially worn 2 pair of pants and 3 shirts, washing them when they need it. I’m going to have a big closet cleaning party when we get home!