Hectic........

I knew I was starting to lose it when I realised I had packed nails into one of the cardboard boxes that had already been carefully stacked inside the shipping crate. So, with no other way to nail the crate shut, out came the boxes. Bloody hell, if I had known that it was going to be so much hassle and cost to ship personal goods back into Australia I would have given this away long before we started. In total, it is going to cost us about $1600 to ship 1.4m3 of goods from Antwerp to Melbourne. Half of these costs are the shipping, the rest is the customs/quarantine and port costs in Melbourne. I reckon these costs are about triple what we paid 12 years ago to ship twice as much gear...

Lut has finished work and is tidying up her paperwork. The boys are just hanging out, though they did go to the scuba diving course again last night. The next few days will see me ferrying furniture and goods back to the family and friends who have so kindly lent them to us.

I am looking forward to getting out of the apartment and on the road and have bought a Kerouack, "the Dharma Bums", to fill in the spaces.