Tress and I left home very early last Wednesday morning, as we drove out of Melbourne onto the Hume Highway and headed north again. We had an appointment for a pre-settlement inspection of the house we purchased in Canberra, before the deal was completed the next day.

We arrived early arvo, contacted Kiddo and we met at the property and looked through the house. The next day (Thursday), after a false start, the transaction was completed. The first major leg of our transition has been completed.

The next day (Friday), we moved some stuff in – clothes and kitchen stuff mainly – and spent some time taking measurements and a bit of cleaning. Then Kiddo met us for lunch before we went to look at some furniture to complement what we will be moving from our present Melbourne home.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time there, the stress of dealing with the move notwithstanding. Moving out of our home here in Melbourne – one that we have loved – and into a new place we know so little about, has been difficult to deal with. Yet, the underlying raison d’etre for this exercise was borne out every single day that we were there, staying with Mic and Kiddo and Abby. Seeing them grow as a family, witnessing the blossoming toddler and engaging with her smiles, laughs, words and antics – they were all affirming, the painful and worrying logistics notwithstanding. Overriding all these of course, is the constant prompting to submit everything to our loving Heavenly Father and worry less. A loving God and the lovely Abby and her parents, kept me focused and hopeful.

I had a boss who swore by siestas. He has a snooze every day, right after lunch. He is now 86 years old, and he is still only semi retired. When he was my boss, he was 63 years old. I still remember walking to his office to have a chat over something, only for his EA to signal to me that it was nap time…

Yesterday, after we returned from lunch post St Alf’s, I walked the little fellow and then we came home and I said to Tress we needed to go to Bunnings to pick up a nut for the bolt on my mower. That nut had come off last week and I couldn’t find it. So we headed to Bunnings, picked up my $0.71 nut and bolt set (together with a washer) and when I got home, I felt tired, with the slightest hint of a headache. I decided to have a snooze. It was one of the best afternoon naps I remember, not that I can remember the last time I had a nap. Tress said I was snoring and when I woke, I was worried that I had overslept. I had in fact, only slept for some 20 minutes or so. I felt refreshed however, and resume our activities.

We had been packing our bigger car that we’ll be driving to Canberra in, in a couple of days. It is filled with clothes and boxes of kitchen stuff that we would lug with us when we head there for the settlement of the home we bought. Settlement is for 26/9 and on the day before, we’d do a prior inspection. The first leg of our transition would then be completed. Sort of.

We had a first “open inspection” of our Melbourne home on Saturday, and so we busied ourselves with some tidying and putting away our everyday stuff, so that the home gets into a presentation ready state. The marketing gurus had their way again and I am simply doing as I am told.

Later that evening, after the “open inspection” and the cleaning up after, we went out for some lunch, walked the little guy, then went home for the footy prelim finals between the Cats and the Lions. It was a ripper game – one of the best prelim finals I can remember. The Lions got up (yay) and will meet the Swans in the Big Dance on Saturday. One that we will follow from the Capital City.

Most Sunday arvos, I cook. I like to see our freezer filled with lunch packs, ready for our work day lunches. The past few weeks however, have seen our stoves idle. I haven’t been cooking.

The tasks to put our home on the market have kind of consumed us. Every spare moment has been spent on how to steer along what the real estate agent and his team of marketing gurus have been telling us. We’ve removed heaps of stuff (not that we’re incurable hoarders), cleaned up (not that our home is messy or dirty), patched up flaws (not that our home has been a decrepit and run down bomb site) and generally obeyed the gospel according to real estate marketing hype generators. They are after all, the supposed experts and we’re paying them money (for us to toil…)

So the past two weekends, we continued with our make up artist roles, in preparation for the illusionists to come in and do their thing. All we want is to do our best to optimise this sale, so that we can move on to live the new chapter of our lives in the nation’s capital city. With little Abby and her folks.

Lately, we’ve been doing video calls with them. It’s both heart warming and affirming to have those calls. Keeping our eyes and focus on when we can start to build our lives anew is probably what we need to remain positive and energised. Being closer to Kiddo, Mic, little Abby and her little sibling, keeps us filled with joyful hope.

Tress and I got back into Melbourne last night, after a very good week in Klang.

We left home at about 9am on Saturday 24 AUg, and left the little fellow with H, before heading out to Tullamarine. The flight took off around noon and we arrived in KL later that night. We went to Tress’ parents’ home to pick up a loan car, and waited at a restaurant across the road as her parents had gone to bed and her brother was visiting a church friend nearby. We had a bite to eat and I had some Tiger draft, before Ben and his family rocked up, and we chatted a little while, went back to the house to pick up the car, and headed to the nearby hotel where we were to stay.

We spent the next several days catching up with family and friends – always over a meal or some other form of eating – which was really nice. There was however, a sticky incident which we had to help deal with. It worked out ok in the end but there remains many worrying issues and that was the only blemish of our trio back to Klang this time around.

The main event was the wedding of Bryan and SY. Brian is Victor’s son. Victor is Tress’ other brother. Both her brothers are younger than her but Victor is the older of the two. The wedding took place at our hometown church (the Klang Chinese Methodist Church) and as always, being there amongst familiar (albeit aged) face was a wonderful experience. Following the wedding, we headed to the lunch reception at “iCity” in Shah Alam. There too, we met many familiar faces, and again, it was a wonderful experience of renewing our acquaintances.

We came back late last night, and was pleasantly surprised to see our house touched up. We had made plans for the “staging expert” to tee up a tradesman to do some patch work. Cracks that had emerged after all these years, and some odds and ends were thought needed to make the house more presentable. So while we were away eating and making merry in Klang, the trademan did his thing and while the house now looks better with fewer scars etc., it did leave the house a tad messy in terms of dust etc from the works. Tress did a quick vacuum, and I did other odds and ends to make the house as habitable – or as closely resembling the pre state as possible – and only finished late. So another late night and less than ideal sleep but we’re back to it this morning. Back at work, catching up with all those emails but also picking up where we left off in our transitional journey.