You heard it right, we are preparing to leave Australia. It’s inevitable. Although we loved our time here, living with adventure and awe in our hearts, nowhere truly gave us a sense of home (the closest being right here in Mollymook). I’ve come to believe only our family can give us that sense of belonging. There are aspects I miss about England, such as the changing seasons, especially autumn, a good roast and a cold christmas. But without our families,this place could never feel like a forever home for us, and with that, we must make our preparations to leave.
The van
Painting
What I’ve failed to mention to you all is that we’re not currently residing in the van, but very uninspiring (but cheap) staff accommodation. While this has made preparing the van for sale much easier, I’ve already begun to miss living in it.
Although it certainly made it easier and safer to paint the walls! This was the first time we’ve ever bought paint, a roller, the roller tray and frog tape! How adult-y of us (at 26 and 29!). We blasted the tunes and tackled the smudges and marks on the walls. I gotta say, it was a fun way to pass the time and has made me so excited to decorate a home of our own (some day)
Cushions
I updated the cushions on the ‘sofa’ by buying some material and hand-sewing it to fit. This elevated the van as the old cushions had accumulated some ugly stains leftover from the previous owners and picked up by the odd spilled tea or dinner!
Things
We’re obviously going to sell the van with all the outdoor ‘furniture’ we have, including, but not limited to:
- 2 outdoor chairs
- An outdoor table
- 3 buckets
- Fishing items
- A body board complete with fins
- A bbq
- An electric scooter
The scooter is pretty rogue right? First purchased in Brisbane to get to and from work, Ben then couldn’t sell it at a price he was happy with so we’re throwing it with the sale.
Boring stuff
We also serviced the van, renewed it’s pink slip (safety inspection), green slip (compulsory third-party insurance for my readers wondering what the heck that is), rego (short for registration, which is like road tax I guess) and break down cover (which can be transferred to a new owner). So I’d like to think we’re getting there!
What else?
To keep or not to keep
Well, we now need to go through all of our things and whittle it down to what we want to keep and to squeeze it into our backpacks and donate or give away the rest. It’s a task I don’t fancy to be honest, but one that can’t be avoided and needs to be done.
Final clear up
The things like old batteries we need to dispose of, drawers to clean up, just little bits and bobs like that so the van is ready for its new owner.
List and sell
And then of course, the final stage of being ready is listing the van for sale. It’s tricky to work out how this is going to go in my head, as the van is also our sole mode of transport. Do we sell it and arrange to get to Sydney the very next day? Do we ask the buyers to wait a week so we can get ourselves in order? Still something we need to figure out.
The plan?
Is it Sydney to London you’re asking? No, it’s not. How could we pass up the opportunity to explore southeast asia while we’re on this side of the pond, and while we’re jobless with no responsibilities? It’s a position we probably won’t be in again for a long while so we have to make the most of it, and passing on southeast asia would certainly be a regret for both of us.
A leisurely week or two in Bali in a nice villa with privacy and a pool before tackling hostel after hostel to stretch out our funds is the plan for now! Then when we’re either broke or too tired to go on, we’ll get our last flight to England. It could be in a couple of months, it could be in September, who knows. We’re staying loosey goosey, but, we’ll see you soon motherland.
