Just couldn't stay away...

Hi All!

It's been some time since my last blog, but writing another one has never been far from my mind. I guess I just couldn't stay away...

So since August, my recovery from surgery has been progressing slowly but surely, and walking independantly doesn't seem like it's really that far away now. The move to Gippsland hasn't made things easy, and perhaps Venus Bay wasn't quite the right choice, but I am happy for the change because sometimes you just know when life's in need of a little spice.

It's definitely given me the change I was looking for and I am glad it has brought me closer to members of my family I haven't seen since I was 18. But it has it's downsides too. I miss my friends in Ararat, and sometimes, unbelievably, Ararat itself.

I really never thought I could miss somewhere like Ararat, or my hometown of Stawell for that matter, but I guess you can just never be sure just how somewhere you have lived all your life can worm its way into your heart. It's funny how as a teenager the only thing you want to do is leave the town and its complete and utter boredom-inducing small town crap behind, but then once you have, you miss all the little things that give that same boring town a certain charm.

It's been hard for me to be happy since living here, but I do love the picturesque character of Venus Bay and the people here are amazingly friendly and will go out of their way to be of some help to you. Just today, one of my neighbours offered to talk to our local councillor, in an attempt to make our lives here just a little easier.

As I sit here, John is fast asleep beside me and my beautiful dogs are curled up at the base of my chair. It's a bit of a bittersweet feeling to have two of them, as we only made our big move with one. We lost our beautiful boy, Padfoot, a week before we left Ararat in a horrible accident with a truck driver who was not following the road rules at a pedestrian crossing.

Our gorgeous boy Padfoot (right) on the day we got his new friend Pippa (left)

 Losing Padfoot broke our hearts, and left his best friend, our little girl Pippa completely lost. She didn't sleep for about a week. But as well as Venus Bay bringing a new start for us, it also brought a new start for Pippa, and after a hit and miss with one new puppy, whom we called Maia, we finally found Marli, a gorgeous kelpie X beagle who has become Pippa's greatest companion.

Marli on her first day with us

So I think what our move and Marli coming into our lives has taught me, is that out of every negative is born a positive. I miss Padfoot every day, but I wouldn't give Marli up for the world, because I know in some way, Padfoot has helped us find the one dog who would heal our Pippa girl and seeing her being her old self again makes me happy.

Our life here may not be the most practical, and we may not have much of a social life, but it has taught us both some valuable lessons, and it brought us Marli, so I think in the end, maybe a bad choice wasn't really the worst choice we could have made and now, I don't think we would change it. We definitely won't be here forever, but I think the decision to move was the right one in the end.

Until next time,

Cheers.