So tomorrow I leave Busselton for the fourth time in twelve months to get on a plane to the other side of the world. This time however there is a joyous occasion to go to as well as seeing lots of friends and relatives I’ve not seen for some time. It’s going to be a sort of “Savage Garden tour take two” as there will be a great deal of driving to be done during which I can listen to my favourite band and there will also hopefully be some catching up with people who haven’t met me as Stephanie yet. While I’m sure they will all be positive meetings there will no doubt be a considerable amount of telling my story which I still find hard in places and need to draw upon the words of my favourite Savage Garden track in order to get past it.
My last full day in WA was spent partly at our house build in Nannup where I have been preparing the now locked up house for having the insulation and plaster board done. As it has been a public holiday here I thought it a good time to compare our idyllic south west with what I am going to tomorrow. The drive to the Nannup property is 68 kms door to door (I can say that now that the door has been fitted!) and once I had set course down the Vasse highway just a few kilometres from home the contrast was fully visible. From there to getting into the town of Nannup I overtook one car and met just 2 vehicles coming in the opposite direction over a distance of approximately 55 kilometres. The sun was shining, the was hardly a breath of wind and the temperature was already making its way towards a top of 24 degrees, all this when we are just five weeks from the start of winter! Autumn is such a wonderful season in the south west of Australia, perfect temperatures for most things with cooler nights which I must confess we have been counteracting by the use of our wood burning fire. There really is nothing to compare with the glorious warmth given out by a fire of this type especially when it is primed with a couple of chunks of well dried out Jarrah. It warms right through to your soul! I am not expecting any of the former when I reach the UK on Friday, no driving for long distances with almost no traffic, not much chance of 24 degree days of being warmed in the evening by a wood burning fire but it will be good to be back all the same, I am so looking forward to seeing all my friends and relations even if the place has too many cars, too many days when the mercury struggles to get into double digits and a greyness which we just don’t get here. I remember someone telling me when we first arrived here back in 2006 that the sun shines on 360 days out of the 365/366, at the time I didn’t believe them but it’s true and even though we are heading for winter I will miss the place, our friends and our pets! Hopefully the sun will shine while I am in the UK so I don’t miss home too much!