It's been quite the December.

Well what a really lovely christmas it has been. We've been in the new house for 8 or 9 days now. All the boxes that are gonna be opened have been opened and stuff stacked away in too few cupboards and hidieholes, and the garage looks like something that would make an entrepreneur proud, a week out from starting her online junk yard shop. The rest of the place looks like we live here cos of course some our stuff is being used to sit on and cook with - bad grammar - give me a break I am still looking for my mind and December - where the fuck did it go?

Our first night away from the Big House was blessedly QUIET. Accounts from neighbours tell us that TMR really out did themselves with noise and mess for chrissie. How very fucking kind of the fuckers. In any case I admit that I am very very very pleased to be away from it all. NO they haven't finished yet despite the holiday push - yeh we all know that was just a push of cash deep into pockets, and the schedule for work in the New Year is not a picnic either.

But we are here and the noise is NOT. Yippee.

It's a bijou stop gap between selling the Big House and buying a Brisvegas place. And the search for a new permanent home is gonna become a full time occupation cos we need to be quick and the area we want to be in is pretty small. Phill and Kirstie from Location Location Location would not be best pleased with our growing list of MUST HAVES. Ho Hum - Compromise is neither Stevie's or my middle name.

So on our way to groceries or coffee or just a general mooch about, we are looking looking looking.

And it's a bit like jury selection in all those American legal eagle movies. We both can say NO without explanation and then there are the maybes and then there are the ones we sit outside of and just dial the agent on the sign.

Choosing a house is like that. Love it, hate it, or maybe just maybe, and we are lucky cos mostly we are on the same page, and it's a job we enjoy, at moment anyway when it is all still new and exciting and there is no hint of desperation, perhaps if we are still looking in a month or so it will be less wonderful and more find it fucking NOW.

Dog has been all a bit discombobulated. Even though we have taken her on lots of holidays, she seems to know that this is different. The packing of all those boxes worried her and shoving all our stuff into a truck and unloading it here has left her in an almost constant state of anxiety. Her belly has been upset, and not just because of all the chrissie treaties and she's been sleeping like she's dosed up on Valium. She is acclimatising and is very fond of swimming in the Brisbane river, just a block away.

Stevie is busy looking for a new Golf Club and I am tending the grass which to be honest was in pretty shit condition, even though the agents found it necessary to tell me it was my responsibility to return the house all lush and green gardened. I am happy hosing and watching and hoping it will come good.

And we are all being CAREFUL not  leave a mark. This renting malarky is not easy. I wonder if I will ever get the oven clean and I wonder about the man made stone tops in the kitchen - is it ok to pop a hot something on 'em? The house is still on the market. The builders have been unable to sell it, perhaps because they are being more than a tiny bit greedy, so it suited them to rent it out for 6 months, but that's our lot. 6 months to be in and out. Yeh when I think about moving again, the foetal position is calling.

And the kids are close by. My Girl reckons it's 19 minutes on the Tom Tom, but I reckon it's closer than that, so pop ins are happening, and I love that. Yippee!

Our feet are almost up and our arses will be in chairs unless we want to be out and about, cos there is no full time job of cleaning the house and no noise to escape. Bloody blissful.

It might not be how I would ever want to spend December again, but I am pleased.

Yippee to 2018