BARRABA

 G'Day and hasn't the time moved quickly I can't believe that it has been nearly two weeks since I left work. A lot of things have happened since then.

I left work just prior to starting my blog and the team that I was part of and managed for the last 2 years got together and gave me an excellent send off and a couple of lovely presents as well as an emotional "see ya for now".

One of the presents was a lunch habour cruise on Monday next and I will be taking lots of photos that I will post for all to see.

Maree and I decided some time ago that when we retired we would move from Sydney and head north west to a place called Barraba which is about 80 km west of Tamworth.

My sister and her daughter run the Post office in Barraba and they have a very nice caravan park which is located about 1 km to the centre of town and it is a lovely stroll to the centre of town.

We plan to leave the car and walk everywhere to get ourselves back into shape and healthier. 

Both Maree and I are over owning a house and all the hassles that come with ownership and will live in our caravan for the forseeable future and rent out our house until the housing prices increase and then sell off all of our assets.

The owner of the Barraba caravan park , whom we have known for many years, plans to build a verandah and ensuite for our caravan as soon as we move up there so we will still enjoy all the comforts of being at home in the park.

This plan has been in the making over many years and would have come to fruition on my 65th birthday but extenuating circumstances has bought our decision forward by about 18 months, so here we are now.

Part of our planning was to semi retire and do part time work so that we did not have to rely on pensions or superannuation and downgrade our life style.

My sister has offered us some work in the post office and a mail delivery run for two days per week and we are currently looking at purchasing a school bus service in Barraba.

This would allow us to do the travelling that we have been longing for over the last 10 years as we would have all of the school off and December and January off each year. 

Thats our current thinking and we will know over the coming weeks how that pans out.

So over the last two weeks we have been selling up our furniture and anything that is not nailed down so that we can get underway as soon as possible

We have had the real estate agents through and listed our property for rent on the net and the cleaners will be through the place on Monday ready for occupancy.

We move out of our home of 28 years today and will temporarily move in with my son not far from here in Leumeah for a week or so, which will be nice spending some time with our grand kids for the period.

It is amazing the amount of junk that accumulates over time and I can say that we filled 4 small skips with junk and rubbish during this time.

For now that is my update and over the coming weeks I will post additional blogs as we start our incredible journey which has been in our dreams for so long and even though it is now here there is a certain amount of the "unknown" which excites us a lot.

Best regards to all of my friends and especially the BSTT.


Bill