We're On Our Way to Antarctica!

We're currently in a motel in Melbourne enjoying cable tv and internet. Tomorrow we leave the mainland and head straight for Tassie on The Spirit Of Tasmania. Since leaving Mould Hold, or The Black Spot as Stylish named it, we've spent a week in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney being tourists in our home town, and a night in Canberra, a night in Albury, tonight we're in Melbourne and tomorrow on the boat. Then a night at A's parent's house before we finally go to OUR HOUSE!!!

The placenta is traveling well, it's far less argumentative than the children, and experiences far less reflux than the baby. I can't believe we've come 1000 km in three days and by the time we get to Tassie we'll have seen four states in a week. I'm pretty desperate to get "home" and eat something cooked by us, not that I'm complaining about the lack of washing up or anything, but home cooked food is so much nicer, not to mention healthier.

We're pretty sure the power, water, phone and net are organised, but we're still unsure what sort of net we'll be able to get. A's family have been over to our house and mown the lawns, cleaned the fireplace, organised the electricity (which we needed an electrician for) and left us a couch. We're very glad about the couch because we actually don't own one. We didn't even have a loungeroom at Mould Hold.

Speaking of Mould Hold, the property manager is trying to get us to pay for the mould damage! I'm very keen for him to take me to court because I'd love to show the rental tribunal all the photos and discuss how he refused to return my calls when I rang to tell him about the problems with the property, from the mould to a broken window, cockroaches, rats, and a blocked drain in the side passage which prevented the bathroom sink from draining and the foul smell coming from the toilet. Not to mention the five days in the middle of winter with a new born baby when we had to stay at my sister's house because there was no electricity. Now, I know I'm not a bottle feeder or anything like that, but I'm a cloth nappy mama and we couldn't wash nappies or heat the house and we had no hot water either. So. Giampaolo, if you read this, we'd love it if you could take us to the tribunal. We'd really love it. Especially since we said you could keep our bond due to some very slight damage to the kitchen bench and the need to steam clean the carpet.

The Plans

So plans are as follows. Leave the Mould Hold on the 8th, stay in Sydney for another 5 or 6 days (depending on the available accommodation at destination B). Leave early in the morning and travel to Canberra, spend a few hours letting the kids run amok at Questacon, maybe do the National Gallery too. Stay the night in the ACT then make a run for Melbourne the next day.

The placenta will travel with us. We decided it is too much of a risk to trust an airline with it.

We located a cat box in the shed, now I just need to find out whether it's an acceptable one to post the moor unsuspecting cat to Antarctica in.

The Modern Day Migrating Feline

We're at that unbearable point where all our worldly possessions are in boxes. All my books, all my treasured things, all the kids toys (except a select few) and all their books too, are all in boxes, stacked in the hallway. I did the last basic grocery shop today, mostly snack food, and cat food and litter for his holiday at my friend's house.

I had a really difficult time packing James' ashes into a box. I put them in with all our precious things, candles from his funeral, beloved decorations, photos and gifts, then labelled the box very carefully. I had to have a good cry before I was able to put him in there though. I should be packing his toys, twice because he should be unpacking them faster than I can pack them.

I'm still working out how to transport the placenta to the new house. we have a few options.

1. Store it in my friend's freezer (next to her placenta!) then let it fly down with the cat in his carrier box, telling the airline that it's cat food because they allow that (they probably wouldn't allow a placenta)
2. Courier it down to a friend there and store it in her freezer (again, next to her placenta) until we arrive.
3. Take it with us in an esky with ice, adding more ice every time we go past a servo and storing it in hotel freezers
4. Same plan only with dry ice so it doesn't need too much maintenance as we travel.
5. Get it dehydrated so it's easy to travel with.

I'm leaning towards number one because it's the easiest way, and the only way to keep it as is. Having never had a placenta and having had four babies, I'm a bit precious about it. I want to plant it underneath a fruit tree in the new garden. I'm thinking of doing a whole placenta ceremony where everyone in the family (none of us have had our placentas buried or even honoured remotely) chooses a rock, catches some blood from our finger (the kids can just use red paint) and ties a small cutting of hair to the rock and then we'll bury it with Angus' placenta.

Today I rang several companies to find out how much it will cost to fly our cat down to us. It looks like being about $120 plus $10 cat cage (second hand from the cat protection society) and whatever the cost of sedating him will be. Yesterday I organised for our pay tv account to transfer to the house, I'm researching phone and internet options, and I've created an account for electricity. I can't get the electricity on properly until an electrician has been to the house because apparently there is a problem with the hot water meter. I've never even heard of HOT water meters so I'm inclined to agree ... there's a problem!