We hired furniture removalists to move the heavy stuff. Two renSimes turned up and proceeded to lighthearted and with no complaints move everything the four blocks we were moving. I would have liked to have pointed out their attitude to MY sime, but I knew that the response would be "But they aren't Farris's" so I didn't bother.

We had a bad moment with the bookshelf. I had rather stupidly built the bookshelf in the room it had lived happily in for 12 months. We had no idea whether it would fit out of the doorways or not. The builders looked at it doubtfully and made some comments about it's size. I suggested removing a wall, but they sensibly pointed out that the owner may not like that. They tried several ways to get it out, but it wouldn't fit. Just when it looked like I would have to take it apart (and with the amount of wood glue I used that wouldn't be a fun job) they tried one last time and managed to squeeze it through. I immediately broke into tears.

One of the problems we had in moving this time was that we are without transportation more substantial then push bikes. Seeing us weave down the road with huge backpacks and bags galore hanging off our handle bars entertained the people of New Farm for awhile. That goodness we were only moving four blocks! A big thank you to Pauli and Diane (both renSimes in case that sort of detail interests you) who helped by lending us their cars. We couldn't have done it without them.

We love our new place. It doesn't have the beautiful wooden floors of the old place, but what it does have makes up for that. We are in a flat at the back of a rather large house. We have a huge bedroom, a fair size study, a large bathroom, a tiny lounge, and a nicely sized kitchen (see the layout). But the BEST thing about it is that it has a large covered verandah that looks out over a nice backyard. And the nicest thing about the backyard is the birds.

We have a nest of three baby crows, a mummy and daddy crow, as well as some song birds and pigeons. The crows are marvelous! (Crows, by the way, are the Australian equivalent of Ravens) We have already started feeding Mum and Dad, and they watch us to see when we are going to throw some meat out to them. They don't trust us though, and take off when the meat is actually thrown. The cats, particularly Neffie, watches them in fascination. I keep telling her that it would do her no good to even think about hunting them, and to stick with things more her own size, like lizards and bugs. I'm hoping that the babies won't be as nervous of us as the parents and will come to the verandah to be fed.

Oh yes, there is the cutest little "Romeo and Juliet" type balcony off the office.

The whole area, even though it's only four blocks away, is so much cooler then our old place. We are now only two blocks from the river in two directions (the river does a 90 deg turn), which probably is the reason for this. We suppose that the place will be cold in winter, but we don't mind that. Hey, you can always put more clothing on, but there is only so much you can take off!

I'm exhausted both physically and mentally with the strain of moving and looking after a Farris Channel (who is now moaning on the lounge). When we finish moving in and packing things away we will take photos of the new Halwyn and also of the crows. Hopefully we might even be able to do a photographic chronicle of the babies learning to fly, although with our cameras (and lack of photography skill) that is questionable.

Eliza ambrov Halwyn
Companion to Zoe Farris

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