Summer draws to a close and autumn is moving in. We’re busy making plans for our winter sojourn and I’m reminded of John Lennon’s famous quote from, Beautiful Boy – ‘Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.’

We have two trips on the near horizon, the first is our first ever cruise. Only a nine day sampler leaving from Sydney in less than two weeks. Not sure if we’ll like cruising, but so many people seem to love it, so we thought it was about time we tried it out for ourselves. I’ll be letting you know what we think very soon.

The second is a five month road trip north to the beautiful Kimberleys, this time incorporating my number 1 bucket list destination – The Gibb River Road. We’ve repaired our second hand tent. Our super duper Black Wolf air mattresses have arrived (hopefully as comfortable as per the reviews), and our new, Camps Nine book has arrived. Since the books arrival we’ve had our nose buried in it, perusing all the new campsites between here and Kununurra. Our excitement is peaking, and we can’t wait to get going.

And that brings to mind John Lennon’s famous quote. Whilst all the plans seem to be all consuming, life is still happening in the here and now.

We have a few new toys, one needed, one bought on the spur of the moment, and one bought because we were finding it hard to live without.

The first, the needed item was a new oven. I’ve always liked wall ovens for ease of cleaning without having to kneel on the floor. To replace our antiquated and inefficient oven with a wall oven would have meant an expensive kitchen remodel. So, as a compromise we’re giving a pyrolytic, self cleaning oven a go. It cooks beautifully, and is currently in cleaning mode whilst I’m typing this. How good is that – the most dreaded of house hold chores is happening on it’s own, freeing me up to write instead.

Bought on the spur of the moment – a new bike. I grew up riding a bike with a back pedal brake, so when I called in – ‘just for a look’ at a cycle shop’s closing down sale, and saw bikes with back pedal brakes, and now also with gears, well what’s a girls supposed to do!

My first ride. This back pedal brake thingie that I thought I remembered so well had been forgotten on the few occasions I rode my last bike, which had twin levered, handlebar brakes. My riding confidence was lacking and my first ride was at a snails pace, fortunately. Trying to co-ordinate the braking with putting my feet back on terra firma wasn’t easy, and down I went. After Paul realised only my ego had suffered, he couldn’t stop laughing. I did get straight back on, and have had a few rides since. Slowly, I’m gaining my bike confidence back, but at the same time thinking – ‘what was I thinking’, buying a bike at my age.

And the one thing bought because we were finding it hard to live without, a new Thermo-mix. I left my first one in Tassie with my sister for safe-keeping. Since moving back into a house though, I was missing the simplicity of having such a useful gadget permanently available and waiting for use on my bench top. Wendy’s tight budget means other priorities would be prohibitive for her to purchase one for herself. Gifting my old one to her now permanently provided the perfect excuse to purchase the new updated model for myself.

Between the new oven and the thermo-mix, cooking is once again a real pleasure! The resulting additional kilos from sampling the results not so blissful. Guess that means I’d better get those bike wheels rolling.