13) Ascetic in Ozland

One small issue with traveling 1/2 way around the world and renting a 3 bedroom house.

It's empty. I mean monk's-cell empty. We did break down and get a memory-foam mattress from some brits who were heading home (the thought of 3 months waiting for our ship (..to come in?) and sleeping on thermarests (been there, done that) was too much.) We have reading lamps and Nancy got a bedside table (I have en empty suitcase that serves. We have some speakers to connect to the laptop for iTunes.

Molly has a cat scratching post. And a mousie.


Our Yoga instructor has been telling us for years that "chairs are the primary cause of back and hip problems in the US". We we can sit on the floor for meals (or stand at the kitchen "bench")

So we have been asking the question - what do we really NEED anyway?!!! Many people told us to take less stuff - that we wouldn't need/use most of the stuff that clutters our lives.

So Dirk broke down first at a local craft fair - stunning crosscut slab of camphor laurel wood made into a coffee table (still sitting on the floor eh?). The craftsman is a classic Aussie - a tad disheveled, slightly red, fair dinkum rough, a bit sun-mad. When he dropped the table off the conversation went thusly:


him: "So what other furniture have you got?"
us: "none"
him: "So what do you sit on to watch the telly?"
us: "We don't have a telly"
him: "Oh. Good way to have a lot of kids then, eh?"

He (the furniture maker mind you) then walked into our empty house, eyed the expansive sweep of living room, the vacant deck, the echoing hall, the vacuous dining room, and pronounced "Hey, we could do a lot with this place!"

But we have our table. And lo, the floodgates have opened.
Next stop - Ikea in Brissy!