Lightening Online

Cold Feet

I had an interesting experience while we were in Adelaide. I got COLD FEET about our upcoming “Big Trip”. In my defence, we’d left home at 3am to avoid travelling in the heat of the day. The kids were mostly awake instead of sleeping and therefore were tired. We’d been out and about in the 40C+ heat, visited family whom I love dearly but wear me out quickly, tried to go shopping in a Centre that was without power (therefore no shopping and NO air con for about half an hour) and then took the kids swimming (which they loved but they also love jumping all over me) while Farmboy set up in the caravan park.

To top it all off, the bathroom nearest where our van was was the closest to the pool and had been overused, undercleaned and was not only hot but STANK!!! The joys of a large caravan park in a heatwave!!!!

So while we were away I had a couple of “can I really live like this for 3 months?” moments.

The good news is that by the time we left, the heat wave was easing, people in the park were once again becoming friendly (no doubt feeling the relief and becoming more sociable once again) and I was ready to head off there and then. I think it was a good experience because if it happens while we’re away, I’ll know that I’m tired (seems to be a direct correlation between feeling tired and wanting to go home) and that it will pass.

Keeping Cool

We did manage to survive the extreme heat while we were in Adelaide, despite power outages and being out and about in the heat most days. We were EXTREMELY lucky to get a site right next to the pool (the closest in the park I’m sure) so it was mega-easy to go for a “cool off” dip.

The air conditioner in the caravan worked REALLY well. We had a number of people asking us how we were finding it in the heat (in the caravan park that is). We had no problems sleeping (which is always the biggest issue in a heatwave I think) although the ends did get a tiny bit warm for sleeping in during the day (with the sun on the canvas).

We spent the entire day Saturday in the caravan park (with the exception of going out for a nice lunch) which is something we always SAY we’d like to do but end up too busy doing other things to actually get around to doing it. So that was a welcome break!

The only issue we struggled with was trying to get the caravan fridge cool. The caravan had been unplugged all day Friday while it was being serviced so the fridge was quite warm and it struggled in the heat to get the temperature down (and therefore chill our water etc). Farmboy ended up buying some ice and adding that to the fridge which really helped it along and once it was cool, it kept nice and cool.

Warm Fridges

Speaking of warm fridges, we came home to a bit of a disaster. A power outage caused a surge overload and flicked out one of our fuses while we were away. When I opened the fridge, it was warm inside and everything was spoilt. The milk had curdled so much that it was completely separated!!! Ewww…..

AND the freezer had defrosted.

We lost about $500 worth of food.

What a waste!!!

Fortunately, we’re covered by insurance (for all but $100 of it). But to arrive home at 3am in the morning (we travelled at night coming home as well) and have to deal with all of that was simply delightful! (NOT!). Now I have to write up a list of everything we lost and try to estimate a value so that we can claim it on insurance. *sigh*

This wasn’t the way I’d planned on decluttering our food supplies!!!

Oh Well

We’re home. We’re surviving the heat wave and at least now the nights are a lot cooler than they were.

Lleyton got the all-clear on his post-op check-up but it looks like his Podiatrist appointment will be costing us for a while to come - he needs orthotics for his shoes ($650 a pop plus podiatrist fees). Still, it’s a small price to pay if it will help reduce his knee injuries. And we’ve suspected for a while now that he’d need something. Unfortunately, his feet don’t turn in the same so he really does need the custom made jobs. And double bummer is the fact that our Private Health doesn’t cover ANY podiatry costs! I think I’m going to need to review our cover and see if I can find a more useful policy out there!

And now I’m going back to bed. Farmboy is finally asleep (he decided to stay up the rest of the night rather than get 2 hours sleep before having to get the kids off to school) and I’ve had about 5 hours which really isn’t enough.

I’ll try and catch up on responding to your comments and visiting your blogs soon.