GB Day!

So...this morning Will put in an application to renew his passport and paid for the express service which means it should be ready by next week. It will be posted to Ros's house and she will send it on to the UK.At the airport I handed over both our British passports but after a bit of keyboard tapping they asked for his Australian passport. Phonecalls were made to unknown authorities and we were handed our boarding cards.At Border Control I sailed through the automated border gates but Will was pulled out and taken to a Customs Officer. Again I could see more phonecalls being made and began to worry that this was as far as he would get but after about 15 minutes he was finally allowed through.We are coming 'Up Over'....ready or not!

Last Minute Panic!

So...the last few days have been pretty crazy getting ready for our departure. Will has been working every day for the last two weeks except at the weekend. We got the garden sorted at the weekend. We got rid of the two white roosters, one we barbequed, one went into a stock but spared Thor who has become 'top chook' and the girls seem happy with that.On Monday I tidied up around the house outside, Tuesday I was working at the 'Book Cave' and today I blitzed the house so that it is all clean and tidy for our return.This afternoon when Will came home I set about checking in online for our flights and discovered that Will's Australian passport has expired.He has a British Passport so I was able to check him in with that but the problem now is him returning to Australia on a British passport. He usually comes back in on his Australian one. I come back in on my UK passport because I now have permanent residency but others coming in on UK passports need a Visitors Visa. Will can't get a Visitors Visa because he is Australian.We have phoned the Australian passport office and the Australian Home Office for advice. We have even rung the Australian Embassy in London.Basically he will most probably be able to leave on his UK passport but we will encounter trouble coming back if he does not get it renewed in the coming weeks. To get a passport in London at the Embassy you need an appointment and they are booked up for the next five weeks. They cannot fit Will in on any of the days that we are in London. So we are going to try and put in an application tomorrow here and get the passport sent to the UK so that he can return on it.We both feel sick and not a little worried about the whole thing.

Blood Moon.

So...what a year it has been for Moons!This morning we got up at 5.00 am to see the Blood Moon. 

Thank you Spiderman!

So...I am just recovering from two days in two different schools."You can lead a Demon to school but you cannot make him sit still" N. Allen.Yesterday I managed to cope with Demon 1 (age 5). I was warned on arrival that for the previous two days he had run out a number of times but somehow he stayed in class all day and even got some work done though I was keeping some stones he had collected and wanted to take home hostage and threatened to bin them if he stepped out of line.Today's Demon (age 5) was completely different. He was new to the school and even though we are half way through the school year here he did not appear to have had any previous school experience. He completely did his own thing and if he wandered off and you asked him to come back he didn't say "No" he just completely ignored you. My first hour was pretty much spent trying to get him sat down and writing something which is not really what he needed but I had to do what I was asked to do. He spent much of it under the table. It was only when I discovered that he would do anything for a Spiderman sticker that my day got slightly better. He was much more amenable when we did some craft work though again he did his own thing rather than follow the instructions I gave him. I let him have free rein with that.In the afternoon we went out to practise events for the upcoming sports day. I was supervising the Long Jump and spent most of my time trying to stop him from digging in the sand pit that everyone was jumping into.I was so glad when 3.00pm came. I last saw him being reprimanded by the Classroom Assistant but after she had gone and the class teacher, who had been working elsewhere in school, asked where he was I went frantically in search of him and found him in the wildlife area, barefooted in the long grass saying he had seen a snake.I grabbed him and his shoes and socks and frogmarched him back to class and stuffed his socks and shoes back on. I told him to go get his bag and while leading him out to the gate turned to find he was not following and had wandered off again. He had grabbed a ball which he insisted was his but I knew was a school ball. I let the usual class teacher deal with it and went to pack my bag.Checking my phone I had a message from another school asking if I was available to cover a class tomorrow.It was the wrong time to ask me. I just texted back, "No sorry, I can't tomorrow."Tomorrow I am having a day off!

Keeping you up to speed.

So...we have both been pretty busy with work over the last few weeks but that is OK as it means we have more spending money for our imminent trip 'Up Over!' Will has been doing extra shifts at the cheese factory and I, even though it has been the school holidays, have been busy at the 'Book Cave' and cleaning down at 'Harvista'. It has meant that we have had very little time to do anything on the new house really. When we have had free time we still haven't been able to do anything on the house because we don't have the materials we need and haven't ordered any because we are saving for our trip again.We did cut some planks from a couple of felled trees one day and are hoping they will make lovely steps up to the deck on 'Blue Moon'. 

The three lots of guests that I was responsible for at 'Harvista' all left rave reviews after their stay so that was a relief. On my last clean I unknowingly grazed my thumb cleaning the B.B.Q and then putting the duvet back on after airing it outside noticed blood on the cover! I soaked the stains in cold water and rushed up to wash it just as our neighbours returned from their 4 week trip. They were not concerned but said to leave it with them. I just hope they got it all out even though they were only tiny little spots.It has been very cold here the last few weeks and we have had frost quite a few mornings. It doesn't get as cold up here on the hill as it does down in the valley but we have been sleeping under three duvets as Blue Moon has no heating yet.With the Sun lower in the sky at this time of year last month we were struggling to get hot water as the water heating solar panels out the back barely saw any Sun. You might remember we had to set them up because the water jacket in the stove, which was how we used to get hot water, burst last year. However, in the last few weeks Will fixed it by fitting a loop of copper pipe into the stove and reconnecting it to the water tank outside and now we have loads of hot water again.We have been doing a lot of cutting and collecting of wood to keep Frogknot warm and heat the water.While it has been cold it has still been very dry. We have not had decent rain for about three months now. A few weeks ago we got about 25 mls over a couple of days which did bring a little green back to the grass and did fill up the tank at the back of the house which was great, but then Will went and accidentally left the hose pipe, that was connected to it, on all night and drained half of it.Our nocturnal intruder is still about but has only managed to get in a couple of times over the last few weeks and has not caused any mess. We have found patches of fur down by the dam and suspect that some possums have fallen victim to foxes. Our little Ring Tail has not been sleeping in the shed for about three weeks and disappeared shortly after we discovered the other dead Ring Tail. I was worried that I had not seen one eyed Caliban for a while but then he turned up again one night recently.All our 'chooks ', Arke, Pacha, Sheng-Mu and the newly named Branwen are all laying so we have dozens of eggs again. We have separated them from the three roosters and the Guinea fowl, by dividing Fort Yudhisthira, as the Guinea fowl had begun to peck at the hens as well. Before we go away we will be getting rid of the roosters and some of the guinea fowl so we can open up Fort Yudhisthira for the hens to roam in while we are away. When I say 'getting rid' I mean they are for the pot.I need to make two doors for the pen so that our neighbours can easily gain access while we are away.I have been busy the last few weeks sorting our trip 'Up Over' with visits to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol planned.Will is working everyday now, except Sunday, until we go away. I have two days at the Library and two days in schools this week. It's all go!