18 to 24 May 2011

We’re down to five bags and two backpacks.  The sum total of what we will return to Seattle with come mid-June.  Well, that’s if you don’t count the shipment that’s on a container boat right now, hopefully not more than a nautical mile or two from docking in Los Angeles.  Not that that’s a big shipment.  It is, in fact, smaller than what we sent down to Sydney 15 months ago, which itself wasn’t all that much.  After awhile you get tired of packing things and simply throw them out.  Actually, it’s not all that “simply” that we decide whether or not to keep something.  It usually takes way more minutes and words than it rightly should.  And if we do decide to throw something out, we are not comfortable with tossing it in the rubbish bin or kicking it to the curb.  Instead it must be hauled however many blocks to a donation bin or several calls must be made around town to see if anyone will give us any money for it.  We definitely complicate our lives while in the process of simplifying.

Right now we’re doing the last of this packing at Limpin’ Leigh and Simon’s home in Neutral Bay.  They have taken us in like wayward dogs and given us shelter and home cooked meals.  What a pleasure it’s been to dine on dishes that contain no rice or noodles or mystery meat.  Being an excellent cook, Leigh has also been giving us culinary tips, the number one of which is to get a crock pot.  This we shall do after we get a kitchen.

Tomorrow we are off to Perth for a two week road trip around southwest Australia, our final days of traveling this land Down Under before making our way back to the Northern Hemisphere.  Big swells and big trees ahead.