Home Again, Briefly

We always knew that we would have to return home at some stage. When we moved down to Inverloch it still felt like summer. We came with clothes for warm weather and were poorly prepared for a winter by the coast. There were also a few other items that we realised that we had left behind. It was also time to check the house itself. That meant that we would have to make a quick trip to Melbourne and back.

Since travel between two places of residence still seems to be one of those "grey areas" that no one seems to understand fully, we were slightly nervous that we would be pulled over by some overly keen constable and issued with a "please explain".

To our relief the 70 minute drive back to Pakenham was achieved without incident. We also noticed that the amount of traffic on the highway had increased dramatically over the past few days. Could it be that people have taken matters into their own hands and decided that they had to get out of their homes before going barking mad ?

When we arrived at our home it was a somewhat strange feeling opening the front door. Maggie has not lived here since February and it seemed a bit like we were housebreaking. Fortunately the burglar alarm had not been tripped and everything was exactly as I had left it. We quickly checked the house and exterior, packed the car, chatted to our neighbour and were on our way again.

We decided to make a brief detour to visit our son and grandson from a distance. Although we stayed well apart, it was great to see them in person for the first time in weeks.

As we began the drive back down to Inverloch we noticed the sky behind us was darkening dramatically. It was obvious that the storms were coming quickly. We had originally planned to stop for a couple of take away coffees somewhere along the way, but the prospect of being caught in a hailstorm was enough to make me press down a little heavier on the throttle and head straight for Inverloch.

The rain did not start until we were safely back in our unit, but the temperature certainly headed south. It was freezing. On went the slippers and the heater, out came our books, the dog assumed her normal place on my knee and we settled down to lasting through the blast from the Antarctic that the Weather Bureau had warned about. The next few days will be interesting for all the wrong reasons.Leia mais