I LEAVE TAYMOUNT
This is a sudden goodbye to Taymount and life on a rug. Like many things in life, the decision to leave came suddenly and although I came up with lots of reasons, the why is still the same mystery it always is.
I like to put it down to watching the re-runs of Billy Connolly's tour of Australia, four episodes back to back. I thought it all looked pretty good and more to the point pretty WARM. With the wonders of internet and telephone I was able to book and pay for a ticket first thing the next day. I leave in a week.
The agent is looking for a tenant now I have proved it is possible to live in the small space. Right now I am spending the last week in London housesitting for old friends while they are in Canada. I have yet to clear my things from the flat, but this will happen next week.
I will be back in London in mid May, hopefully heading for the South of France to enjoy some good weather down there for a while.
Meanwhile it is back to Melbourne, and back to facing up to the huge amount of 'stuff' that is still waiting for me. The cupboards and bags and bags of packed Poole china has to be found a future, alongside the huge collection of hand thrown Australian potter, plus the remnants of the rugs I imported (lots), plus the family history material that I dropped into a very large stripey bag, plus the archives from my thesis that are such an embarrassing mess I need to sort it out before donating it to the National Library of Australia. Have I menetioned all the art that has to be framed and hung? I nearly forgot those 8 thousand second hand books. I am just going to take it small step by small step!!
The terrible threats made for a very bad bushfire season did not eventuate thank goodness. It was part of the reason for putting so much distance between myself and my home. The experience we all lived through in early 2009 was hard, and somewhat confusing when you saw the awfulness of the fire, and the death of people we all knew, and the loss of homes and properties. It was confusing because we felt we should feel grateful we survived with everything intact, but in fact felt traumatised just the same.
It has been fun living in my tiny studio flat. It has been good for me to be still and quiet and not doing too much. I hope I am calmer, and more able to deal with the future and what ever it brings.
To everyone out there......let's all live each day with something to celebrate.
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Hello Wendy,
ReplyDeleteHopefully you know who I am, a friend of Jenneke, and I used to live with Franca in the BoI. We bought some beautiful rugs from you. And what a pitty I've only just discovered your facebook page and this blog through your response to Jen's page. I've moved back to Holland, reemigrated after experiencing the Black Saturday bushfires. I couldn't face up to another hot and dangerous summer. Also my relationship with F. had finished so I went back to my family and home country to recover. I'm living with my youngest brother at the moment in a flat in Enschede on the German border.
I recognized what you wrote about the survivors of these fires, that we should be grateful to still have our possessions and our lives, but yes, I did feel deeply traumatized by it but didn't feel I should use the support systems to leave room for the people who really needed it. But here I am, sitting in isolation with no one around me who has any idea of what happened there. I just can't relay to people here how that felt. So I wonder if I've done the right thing to put myself in this position of non understanding.
And it has landed me in the other extremes of a prolongued and snowy winter. But I'm still glad I didn't have to go through heatwave and wild weather. I do feel safer here.
So I've been reading your blog and how you were stuck there in your little one rug room, and despite your humour I can read loneliness in it.
What a pitty I didn't get to know you better in the Bend, I would have come and visit you in London.
So you're going back there next week. Has your son been staying in your house there?
Well, I hope you'll have a pleasant trip back and a good home coming. I would have loved to help you out with all the labourous tasks that are waiting for you there.
F.'s house is sold and she's moving out soon, so many people are leaving the area it seems but new young families are moving in and establishing a different community.
Safe journeys and I hope you'll be safe there.
Greetings from Holland, Margo