Where has the time disappeared? Our housesitting stint came to and end but we have a number of housekeeping duties to attend to and I don’t mean just the cleaning kind. I mean getting things in order ready for our big trip, things like doctors appointments, getting tests completed, getting prescriptions filled…yes, we need 6 months worth so we need to be organised. Making sure we have letters from the Doctor listing all the meds we are carrying with us – yes, it is necessary as sometimes they check at borders. Included in my letter is the fact that I have joint replacements as I set off all the alarms and it’s not fun being searched at every border crossing. Oh and getting jabbed again, this time was my second shingles vaccine plus the flu jab, and yes my arm was very sore for a couple pf days but I feel pretty fortunate that is the only side effect I have. Covid jabs will be next, but not for another week or so at least.
Roy has another appointment at the skin clinic to get a couple of suspect skin lesions removed. He had some biopsies done earlier in the year which all came back ok, so this is a follow up. Plus he also has to have grommets put in both ears and his hearing aids tweaked. Some of our regular readers will recall the kerfuffle he had with ears and hearing aids on our last trip to the UK in 2022.
Then there is the packing and what to take, what not to take, remove half of what you think you need, remember pack light, there are shops on the other side of the world!
We have enjoyed our wee break away from the van housesitting although I am looking forward to getting back to it for a week or two before we leave besides, the housework in the van is minuscule compared to the house.
Our last day to housesit was Anzac Day, Roy went off to dawn parade locally at Browns Bay then the rest of the day was spent packing up all our gear, tidying, washing, and getting back to the van which is parked at Peter & Wendy’s.
Of course I had left something behind, just a charging cord so we picked that up on Saturday on our way back from Shakespear. Yes, we had been back to the park as the Rangers put on a thank you BBQ for volunteers. It was a great lunch and such a friendly welcoming group of people who willingly give their time, knowledge and expertise to make sure the Sanctuary remains such a great asset to the city. It’s lovely to see everyone get on so well, there is a great range of groups whom we don’t necessarily see very often. There’s the Crack Track building team, there’s the nursery team, those that do trapping, planting teams, bird monitoring teams, pest control, farm teams, translocation experts, even a lizard specialist, just to name but a few of the wide variety of jobs that are done by volunteers under the expert eyes of the Rangers.
Now onto sorting out everything before we leave, the list seems to be growing each day rather than getting shorter, but hey, we will get there!
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 