Matthew Ford’s Infernal Blog

In an episode that would be cut from a Baz Luhrmann epic as “too cliched”, last night a kookaburra tried to steal some roasting kangaroo fillets as I cooked them on our barbecue.  Let me say that in a more cliched manner: a kookaburra tried to nick some roo from my barbie. I expect this to be followed by a dingo taking our baby and my being attacked at Bondi Beach by a shark and crocodile, which I fend off with a boomerang.

The  footage below (also at http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ll8aPonbA7E) sets the scene: this is a few days before. On Christmas morning, as you do, we put out food for the resident kookaburras. Kat, Dee, and Kira all star; I am the cameraman.

Dylan and Kira and I took a walkabout yesterday in the reserve behind the house. In the big loop formed by Moggill Creek there is a hill which every springtime erupts in thick clover, so Dylan suggested we check it out. It was a li’l slice of heaven, and I was lucky enough to get a really nice picture out of it as well.

We’ve done it– moved into the new house in Kenmore. I’m more in love with the house than ever. Kira loves it too, she is looking out at the trees and birds, sniffing, stimulated.

It was a great feeling to wake up in the house, hear the birds, and watch the trees wave from bed. It was lovely to live in our new home. We had neighbors stop by and they were very nice.

Our friend Romi decided to accept our offer to stay with us for a while, using the guest room. She’s looking for fulltime work so in the meantime she’ll be a huge help, staying there to meet tradesmen, teaching Dylan how to get home from school via the bus, helping unpack and get things in order, and such. She’s also a very sweet and energizing person to have around and Kat and I are very pleased to have her along on the adventure.

The building inspections and financing went through so it’s a lock… the house will be all ours on July 18. It was great to be back in the house again as we met the inspectors. I just love it more and more. I’ll put up pictures before long.

The termite inspector was a great Aussie bloke. He probably enjoyed horrifying us with tales of termite persistence. But he basically said “That’s Queensland, you got termites. It’s not our land, it’s theirs. We’re just building houses on it. If it weren’t for termites this place would be 100 foot deep in dead wood and we’d have no place to stand.” He’s been bitten by redbacks 42 times and “I’m still here” so I think he has a pretty relaxed attitude about annoying insects.

The offer on the third house was accepted! We’re very pleased and will have money left over for “reno”. We move in 60 days, assuming the building inspections and financing does not fall through.

We’ve now made a third offer on a third house. The market is very favorable to buyers here. We went in with low bids on two houses and did not raise them much so the offer was not taken. Now this third house is the one I like the most but also the cheapest! It backs onto a nature preserve which is awesome.

But the exchange rate is now dropping just after we transferred a lot of money here. Grrr.

We’re getting to the final stages of looking at houses now. There are a few we like, all of them in Dylan’s school’s neighborhood.

We got an espresso machine. We figured that given our propensity for drinking double-espressos every day without fail, it will pay for itself in less than a year. We almost got a fully-auto one, just put in the beans and push the button, but that seemed like a missed opportunity. I want to learn to make espresso manually! I want to fiddle with the dozens of minute factors that separate good from sublime brew! I want to be prepared if I find myself in an Italian villa full of supermodels! So far so good. I’ve been able to make something which is as good as what I’ve been buying, and I’ve now got a series of experiments before me to try to improve it further. It’s a trivial pursuit but at 7AM in the morning I’m not good for much else, so I may as well harness my desire for caffeine.