Bye Bye Brunswick!

Hello from Rye! We are currently in the middle of a five week stay on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula. My parents are here with us and we have less than three weeks left before our big move to Canada. The last month has been a whirlwind, to say the least! At the end of January we moved out of our place in Brunswick East, where we lived for the past 2 ½ years. I didn’t think we had that much “stuff” to sort through, but boy did the process of packing/shipping/selling/donating seem to go on FOREVER!

January was a strange month for us. For the first 3.5 weeks we were balancing keeping Ella amused with Ollie’s sleep schedule, and doing all our moving jobs during Ollie's naps on the days Ella had daycare. There were a lot of “lasts” - my last dinner with my mother’s group, our last swim at Brunswick Baths, our last visit to CERES, Andy’s last round of golf with his friends, our last coffee at a local café.

The most emotional "last" for me so far was Ella’s last day of daycare. She’s been at that centre for two years and the educators there took very good care of her. One in particular was just exceptional in terms of the care she gave our little girl, and I’m forever grateful for her. We were both in tears on that last day. The daycare is also the place where Ella made her first friends independent of us, so it's pretty sad that she probably won’t ever see them again. 

Leaving daycare for the last time

We managed to sell all of our furniture via Gumtree which was great - however it all sold much quicker than I imagined. With over two weeks left in Brunswick all we were left with was the kid's beds, air mattresses and camping chairs. Oh, and tons of toys. We had a lot of picnic dinners on our bare living room floor! I can’t imagine how confusing it all was for Ella - she had a few minor meltdowns when people from Gumtree came to collect things like her bike and her table and chairs. (However by the end she would happily tell anyone "everyone took our furniture!" so she seemed to get over it quite quickly.) 

My parents arrived the week before we moved out which helped immensely. Thankfully a friend lent us a mattress for them so they had something other than an air mattress to sleep on! They were able to take Ella on a few last trips to the Melbourne Museum and Zoo which gave us some extra time to sort through the house. 

Andy and I also got to spend a bit of quality time alone with Ollie on those days which was nice. Now that he sits up and eats real food he’s a pretty good brunch date. We had our last Brunswick brunch at Awkward Mike’s which is around the corner from us. It’s one of our regular places where the baristas know us - I am going to miss running in to our local baristas walking down the street! They have a picture of Justin Trudeau up in the café that they move around so you can play "where's Justin" each time you visit. 

I managed to sneak out to the NGV to see the Escher X Nendo exhibition that has been on all summer. It was the one thing I wanted to get to before leaving the city and it did not disappoint. Escher’s art is a perfect example of how beautiful and creative mathematics can be and I could have looked at some of the artworks forever. If you are in Melbourne before the show closes I strongly recommend going!

Although we were a bit tired of our rental in Brunswick, with its three levels, lack of back garden, and afternoon sun beaming in our living area all summer, I was still sad to go. This was the place where Ella took her first steps, and where we were living when we completed our family. It was not perfect, but it will always have a special place in my heart.

As for Melbourne itself, there are so many things I will miss about living in such an amazing city, most of which I probably won’t realise until we are gone. I will miss the outstanding coffee and cafés on every corner. I’ll miss the 50m heated outdoor pools that you can swim in all year round. I’ll miss the pretty decent public transport system and living in such close proximity to the city and other amenities. I’ll miss Ceres and our walks down the Merri Creek and the abundance of playgrounds in every neighbourhood. I’ll miss being able to cycle all year and my beloved Tokyobike, which I recently sold (and is not available in Canada, waaaa!)

Mostly of course I will miss the friends we've made here. I'm in a bit of denial when it comes to saying good-bye to people. I prefer more of a "see you later", as you never know when you'll run into people again. And of course the internet makes it much easier to keep in touch with people around the world. We have our leaving drinks next Saturday (kid free) so I'm looking forward to one last night out with those that have been a part of our lives for the past six years.