It’s Sunday night and for the first time in Petrucco family travelling history we are actually packed the day before we leave. Our usual approach is packing on the morning of the trip rapidly shoving everything into our bags and then spending days afterward remembering all of the things we forgot to pack. It is also a very disciplined pack this time around with only the absolute essentials making it into the packs. The most audacious packs are the food bag and the medical kit, we won’t run out of vegemite or bandages!
The past few days have been somewhat surreal, knowing what lies ahead of us, or at least trying to imagine it, yet still caught up in the busyness of our daily lives. When you are preparing to travel you have those moments when you stop and think…this time next week….and then you get back to whatever it was that you were doing. It has been a tough few weeks with plenty to do prior to leaving. I have been working hard right up until we leave, 2 months off work when you are self employed does not go well for the bank balance so I have chosen to work up until departure day. The kids have been very active in their sports and school activities and spending time with friends. We have been needing to spend time on our home renovations before we leave, have reluctantly sold our camper (to fund the overspend of the trip), travelled interstate, doing talks to different groups, doing some limited media activities, making plans for our very old collie dog, planning to buy a new dog (ready for the kids when we get back), start a new business (ready for me when I get back) amongst getting ready to traverse India. Needless to say it has been a big few weeks.
This weekend, our last before we leave has been quite representative of our lead up. Friday I worked a full day, drove 3 hours to get home just in time for a quick bite of dinner before taking Indy to her 9.40pm basketball game. Maggie had her best friend spending the weekend with us so Bec stayed home with the kids. Saturday we enjoyed morning coffee on our new deck, trying to take in the view of home before we leave. We spent a fair bit of Saturday packing, although we did fit in Mr Popper’s Penguins and then a catch up with two members of our walk team Nicola and Eibhlin. Whilst we were trying to do some last minute planning with Nic and Eibh the 7 kids were running around having fun together. Our very old collie dog thinking she is still a pup was trying to keep up. Our carport has a few very deep holes in it ready for new footings, the holes are about 4.5 feet deep and only about half a metre wide. One of the kids comes running up yelling Molly has fallen in the hole which is full of muddy water and very unpleasant. Next thing there are eleven of us standing around the hole trying to work out how to get our old girl out of trouble. We couldn’t reach her so the first option was to send Indy down the hole, all this managed to achieve was a set of dirty legs and a few scratches when rescuing Indy out of the hole. We tried a plank, a towel and then when all else failed it was my turn to jump down into the hole and see what I could do. I couldn’t believe how muddy and soft the ground was and it was very hard to be able to get a grip. It was now or never, so I grabbed her front paws with one hand and managed to get her up high enough for Bec to reach in and get a grip and out she came, covered head to toe in filth. Straight into the bath for an extended puppy wash, Indy and dad getting a wash too. All in a day’s planning.
This morning Bec and Indy headed out for a girls morning tea at Indy’s school and after choplikarote (an old Italian favourite – basically pancake mixture served like scrambled eggs) I decided to surprise Bec by cleaning out the camper. It is amazing just how much stuff you can store in a camper. The girls were very helpful whilst Gus decided golf on the back deck was far more interesting. We managed to get the first load down to the house and I went back for more. A little while later the girls cam running up shouting Gus is flooding the house. He managed to turn the hose on and was taking great pleasure in squirting the girls and in the process flooding our back area of our house, fortunately only the builder’s underfloor flooring so even though he was quite successful in the amount of water he distributed, no harm done to the house. Gus into time out to think about his efforts, the girls up to practice their dance routines and me back to the camper for round 3. Gus wasn’t finished yet though, after having some time to regroup and consider his next assault. This time the girls came running up telling me that Gus had sprayed paint all over the deck, our new deck not yet finished being built, I was not likely to be impressed. The good news was that Gus hadn’t yet made it to the new deck, the bad news was that he had managed to grab the paint bottle and squirt copious amounts of paint all around the back room of the house. Fortunately this is still in the process of being built so despite the initial reaction of horror at the thought of Gus with a large paint bottle there was really no long term harm done. Gus back into time out and me back to try to finish my job. This time after quiet contemplation Gus decided to come and get me to inform me that I had 3 strikes and he wasn’t impressed and I should be in time out. You’ve got to admire his bravado. I decided that Gus was in need of some attention and play time was on and the camper would have to wait.
After Bec returned home I tried to print a range of things we needed to take away with us, like our walk plans. As fate would have it the printer that has worked reliably for the past 2+ years decided to die on us today, of all days. So a trip to officeworks, a new printer and an afternoon getting it all sorted and working, or so I thought. After several attempts to get things going I realised that unfortunately the new printer just didn’t want to go, was a dud and so it was back to officeworks to get a replacement and then finally we were back printing again. Just another little saga when we least had time for it. Anyway we are now pretty much all packed and ready to go, are we ready for our adventure, I wouldn’t go that far but we are at least packed.
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