After a long Pandemic filled, lockdown survived 2 years, we are returning to complete our journey of 2020, with a few changes. The prep for this takes months. I'm leaving my house in the competent hands of another who will nurture my tenants but so many things go awry before I leave. I have the windows and doors painted but when the sun comes up, bubbles appear in various locations - I'm told by my Chinese painter that this happens but I can't work out why from his explanation. He returns the day before I leave to fix it, spending a couple of hours and when he leaves - you guessed it! Bubbles appear. He will return but I won't be there.
Then my veranda begins to fail, rot sets in, the roof cracks and a renewal is needed. I call my Irish builder man who looks like a very nervous, skinnty Irish gang leader but has a heart of gold. Even though we are in the midst of heavy rain and flooding, Irish men appear every now and then, talk in accents that I barely understand, start and then stop, hiding under my eaves in the side garden, waiting for the rain to ease. I finally get it almost finished, bar an unconnected water pipe that unfortunately delivers the water straight into my letterbox. I start stuffing the entry to the box with a towel but my dedicated postman, removes it and slots the letters in where they sink into oblivion in a few centimetres of water.
And then my beloved Fiat 500, Conchita who is half manual, half automatic, had to have her gear box and transmission renewed. I was warned to sell her before 7 years but she just kept going until she could go no more. A very expensive operation taking place over 3 months and at the end of this period, I decided that we should part company. So three weeks before we left, I put her up for sale to find a new loving owner . And I did, a lovely young girl who fell in love with her as I did. Fiat 500's have this effect on you. She picked it up four days before departure. I breathed a sigh of relief and made my money back on the repairs, saving on insurance etc as I'll be away for a year.
We celebrated her departure and then, she texted me to say there was a weird rattling sound she hadn't heard when she took it for a test drive. Now Conchita does have the odd rattle somewhere in the back, it comes and goes, possibly following her moods. For a while, it hadn't been noticeable but it was back. I'd had it checked by two mechanics (one Italian one half my age who asked me out a few times and was very upset when I said: Would it be like mother and son? He texted me to say that Italian men didn't have an age issue with older women and that he was disappointed in me for thinking that would be an issue), and then Covid hit and we didn't get to go on the mother and son walk with a coffee at the end.
I explained this to the new owner and she felt that it was ok. The rattle probably disappeared. We celebrated a second time.
And then the daughter had all four of her wisdom teeth out and lost sensation in her tongue. It has never happened to any of my patients the surgeon said. Yer, right. I put her on anti-inflammatories and vitamins and finally after about 3 weeks, she got her taste buds back!
And then the roof started leaking, in the main house and the granny flat. I had to call up the Irish man and he sent a different Irish team up and things were repaired. By now, the money saved was being spent elsewhere but we were not going to cancel this trip....And then the Ukrainian war started and we watched and waited and calculated the distance from there to where we would be and in the end, we decided just to get on with life. It had been on hold for so long, it was time to take a leap of faith.
So nothing else went wrong. We were farewelled by our beautiful tenants, we were taken to the airport and waved off through customs. But of course, we were x rayed, they were convinced I had drugs taped to my stomach, I was patted down and my bag and shoes brushed over for drugs. By this time, I could have done with some drug support, even a wine would have helped. But no, this is Australia and even though we had managed to upgrade with points from previous trips and were given expensive vouchers to have dinner (as the lounge was closed), all that was open was McDonalds! All bars shuttered and closed. Nowhere else in the world would this happen.
But finally, we are on the plane and we drink the alcohol there and we sleep the sleep of the dead. We are on our way. The relief is palpable. Two years of thinking - will we get back, can we, should we, could we? We are on our way, the lights of Sydney twinkling below us. Onwards and upwards!
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