Monday

Dear family and friends,

Monday morning and the start of a new week. Wondering what the week or weeks ahead may hold.

Time to back track a little on my personal health issues. Following the MRI done on Friday 16th at Traralgon I had an appointment for Wed the 21st to get the results. But alas they had not been done and with apologies the Doctor asked me to return on Frid 23rd. Guess what no results still on that occasion, by which time I was a little annoyed but I did hold my anger in and asked the Doc if he would phone me when the results came in rather than have to make another trip back to Sale. I was surprised when he said yes as we had asked the same of Ken's results and he had said no that he wanted to see him in person. So we are back to playing a waiting game.

In the meantime we have spent much of the previous ten days in Sale waiting and wondering how long our wait might be.

Since we bought the new van we have done much cleaning and feel now it is our little home. We have needed to do a clean out as we realised we were overweight and thus need to lighten the load. We figure that there are many people out their with way to much stuff in their vans and we were one of them. We have taken out as many heavy things as we could, including spare water and fuel which we really won't need till we get into the outback. At present we have ready access and therefore don't need to carry those things just yet. Some of the heavy things we had in the boot of the van we have now moved into the car, such as a rather heavy toolkit of Kens which he has to clean out some time soon and leave out the items he has doubled up on. My sewing machine will probably have to go also so we are both making sacrifices We have rather a heavy picnic table which used to get left in the van when we were travelling but we have now moved it into the car. There are plenty of lightweight tables out there but the reason we take this one is that we can adjust each leg individually if we are on unlevel ground, something which the newer and lighter ones can't do.

This new van has two water tanks where as our other van had only one. Plus, our new van has a front load wasing machine added after purchase of the van which means we have to take into account the 5o kgs that it weighs. I love my washing machine, it is such a bonus having and it means no more laundrys and no more $ coins to feed into the washers at an alarming rate.

Back to the weight issue, we have been told by more than one person that NSW is the worst state for stopping people about the weight of their vans. Once we are ready to go we will have the van go over the weighbridge and have that docket on hand if need be.

We are both getting itchy feet and just want to go. It is highly likely that we might set of on Wed regardles of phone call or not from Doctor and come back if there is any major issue that has to be addressed straight away.

We get such a lovely welcome when we come back to Justin's and Lee's place. Natalya and Lachlan run at us with open arms and give us the loveliest of hugs. And at meal time it's so lovely to hear them thank God for our return.

Justin and Lee have now bought a tractor for their farm and it arrived in Bairnsdale on Friday.

The tractor is registered so Justin was able to drive it all of the way out to their farm with a friend following so there were no mishaps along the way. We all went out on Sat arvo while Justin, Ken and then Lee had a go of driving it. It will save them so much time when it comes to moving dirt and trees and whatever else he needs to do. It's the beginning of their dream to live out of town on their own parcel of land.

Wonderful news, the specialist has rung to say I have a clean bill of health and doesn't need to see me again. So that means all systems go. We have a couple of things tomorrow to finish doing and we plan to leave on Wed morning.

We've just had a lovely meal with Pam and Colin, Sam and Irene tonight so we are tired and ready for bed.

Love to all.

Ken and Lyn