Cleaning up the grounds at Manly West beautification day on Saturday.  Notice the “bottle brushes” in the tree behind me?  My comment to MBD:  Hey, I thought I sold my house so I wouldn’t have to do this any more!

Lily, Victoria, Tilly, and MBD.  On the archery range Saturday morning.

Reuniting with Emma in Pennsylvania, July 2012.

After a few hours of archery, what more fun can you have than hanging out on the pedestrian mall in downtown Manly?  This is MBD and her good friend Lily chatting about things. The picture is grainy due to the iPhone camera, not due to weather.  But it kind of looks like a foggy day and a bit romantic so I thought I’d keep it rather than discard it.  Surf was high today (see the header picture posted above on 22-June) and even though it’s cold outside there were lots of people in wet suits enjoying the waves.  The four of us enjoyed fish and chips (indoors, not outside today!)  We are getting over our colds and feeling better after a rough week back!

We made it back to Sydney! 9,625 miles by my calculations and about 26 hours of travel time from Knoxville. This trip was better than the one to the States. There were some empty seats so MBW moved across the aisle and we could spread out. MBD lay across 2 seats and slept for almost 12 of the 15 hours of the flight from Dallas to Brisbane.
What a crazy 2 weeks it has been! I am bracing for my Aussie colleagues to ask if I enjoyed my “time off”! Yeah, right! But in retrospect we did accomplish a lot during this trip. Sold the house, saw all 3 dogs, saw my parents & sister, and re-connected with many of our Knoxville friends. I think the swim team would like MBW to stick around to help with the computer scoring. (What will GKAISA do without her manning the laptop at the big City Meet in the next few weeks?). We’re just conflicted here: The Australian adventure is undeniably wonderful but we also loved being back in Tennessee in Whittington Creek. Two paths, but only one set of lives to live!
Well, back to our Aussie path for now.

Taking a break from the intensity of last week and selling the house, we are up at my parents’ house, enjoying much cooler temperatures and catching up on our sleep!  MBD has her friend Joey with her and took time to chop herself a salad as mom looked on–a  rare sight, people!

Hell week is done! It’s been all about fighting non-functioning air conditioners in summer heat, piles and piles of stuff that had to be removed from the house, packing, moving to storage, and final cleaning the house before closing this morning.

Holy cow I am tired. This week pushed me to the max. Frankly we couldn’t have done this without our good friends in Knoxville: Macy Moore, Becky Ibrahim, and Leigh Ann and David Young that have been our gracious hosts while we closed up shop in Knoxville. It’s nice to know that our friendships have remained intact despite our absence from the USA these past 7 months.

Here is the countdown of lessons learned: #3–When you hire someone to move you, I don’t actually HAVE to help; stand back and let them do their job! (thanks MBW) #2–Sometimes it’s not all about a tax deduction and you just have to hire someone to make piles of stuff go away (as in Junk Bee Gone, thanks Becky). And the biggest lession learned #1: Jet lag will make EVERYTHING more difficult for you and totally tax your system (thanks, Eastern Time Zone!)

I think the return to Oz is when we’ll feel the true impact of today. Sitting in the Young’s house, it still feels like I live in Tennessee even though I know better. Guess this is all about closing a chapter of our lives and replacing it with the new one that opened on December 1, 2011 with our Oz adventure.

Now if we could just get some of our friends in Texas and Tennessee to come down to visit us…..?

Here’s a good way to fight jet lag.  After a 15 hour  flight and an evening of recovery, what better thing to do than plunge into the pool of good friends from Texas?  Here is MBW and MBD enjoying the pool, which was like bath water in the 99 degree heat of the last day of June in the Dallas area!  AAAAAAAhhhh!

Chillin’ in the pool!

So it’s 8:54 PM on Tuesday night, 19-June-2012 and I’m working on my computer when I notice I’m bouncing up and down.  Not violently, but steadily up and down.  Reminded me of 1998 in Wellington, New Zealand. Hey, I know an earthqualke when I feel it, people!  So I go down to the lounge and ask the people there if they felt that.  Nope.  Looked at me like I was a loonie.  So I went back to work.  Then MBW texts me that I was right!  Yikes!

EARTHQUAKE: 5.3-magnitude tremor rocks

Victoria for at least 20 seconds

5.3-magnitude quake struck 10km southwest of Moe

• Seismologist recorded the massive murmur at 10km deep
• Residents report the shaking lasted up to 40 seconds

MELBOURNE and vast parts of Victoria stood still after a sequence of tremors shook the city just before 9pm (AEST).

The USGS reported the earthquake hit 120km out of Melbourne, some 10km southwest of Moe. The USGS registered it as a 5.2-magnitude quake, but Geoscience Australia clocked it at 5.3, revising it down from an initial 5.5 reading.

Readers have swamped the Herald Sun with calls reporting significant tremors from everyone from the suburbs all the way across the state to country Victoria. The tremor, which lasted about 20 seconds, has been felt from Kilmore, Gippsland, Drouin, Rowville and inner-Melbourne.

Bottles fly off shelves at a supermarket in Victoria.

Wrapping up a nice restful and rejuvenating weekend–three days because we have Monday off to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.  MBW has been up in Noosa, in Queensland for a retreat since last Friday.  MBD had two sleepovers; one on Friday and another on Saturday.  Me?  I pracised my negotiation skills with MBD (grrr!) and on the third day of weekend stayed in my pyjamas and slept in.  Of course, I steam cleaned our tile floor this evening so I wasn’t totally inactive today.  Tomorrow it’s back to school, work, and for MBW back to reality when she returns to our little homestead in Balgowlah!

But the RAIN.  Holy cow, it started on Saturday afternoon and has been mostly constant for two days.  Just coming down in sheets, pouring everywhere.  I can’t recall seeing anything like this.  In a storm back home it’s severe but eventually it passes.  This just keeps going and going!  Well, good sleeping weather if you like the sounds of the rain on the roofs and balconies.   Good night, all!