So we've had an eventful last week and a bit to say the least! I think the expression what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger is very appropriate.

Monday 13th June
I was woken this morning by Steph running into the bedroom shouting at me to come and have a look at something quick, so I followed her out to the veranda to see a pile of ash on top of a burnt patch of pine decking. Water was dripping from the pile onto the floor beneath. Being first thing in the morning it took a while to work out what was going on but when we realised it turned out we had been pretty lucky! The day before I had collected the ash from the fires in the cottage in a plastic bucket, the ash felt cold to touch and I'd done this a few times already so didn't give it much thought. That was about 4.30pm and when we went to bed about 10.30pm there was no sign whatsoever of anything unusual. There must have been an ember burning inside though and the bucket melted and the wood caught fire! Luckily there was a plastic water pipe to an outside tap that split due to the heat and squirted water over the pile of ash putting it out! We replaced the boards later in the week and now the only evidence is the difference in colour between the new boards and the faded old ones.

As well as mending the veranda we cleaned up the cottage and the house, looked after the kids and did some general tidying. Steph also went horse riding on Thursday with Sharon.

On Friday night we went for a really nice pub tea with Sharon, Bill, the kids and Betty & John (the neighbours). When we got back Steph and I both went into the house for a bit, when we left to go to our cottage I walked and Steph went to drive the car round.

(this is me writing about the car - Steph) so I drove the car round towards the house, for some reason Stephen didn't want to come with me he wanted to walk. It was late so pitch black and since it was the middle of nowhere it was really dark!! I mistook a turning which was a pain but thought its ok I can probably make the bend but not so lucky the car was too long! So I then tried to reverse back Unfortunately the car hates reversing and I had driven down a slope. So revving the engine furiously and swearing my head off I tried to get the stupid thing to move! "For F#*k Sake why the he'll won't this f*#king thing move!" I finally gave up after making a racket and ran to get stes help! I was going MENTAL! "Ste why the hell did you make me drive the car back, I've gone and got it stuck down a ditch and it won't "F*#king reverse!" Ste said calmly "what's happened" "I'll show you, oh and I fell down the hill whilst I was running to get you!" Ste at this point burst out laughing whilst I proceeded to punching him in the arm nearly crying with rage! Meanwhile Bill had wondered down the hill coming to Findout what the noise was about! He had already said he would look at the car as the battery seemed to be bust. I think he tried not to laugh as he could see how embarrassed I was and was practical about what we had to do. Ste and Bill pushed and I tried to reverse but the stupid thing just wouldn't!! The neutral gear puts it into drive so it just rolls forward! No help! Bill decided that we were best to tow it with the tractor. We headed back to our house. Ste could not control his laughing which wound me up into a state of anger!

The next day we towed it out but the car wouldn't start Bill said it was te alternator an he found us a secod hand one an fixed it up (not before I smashed our light on his car - the at was in neutral which meant it just crashed straight into Bills car when it was jump started! Lucky there was no damage to his car) we were all set to get ready to go when Ste started to feel crook.

At some point during the week I got a blister on my hand which got infected. On Friday my hand was about twice it's normal size and really REALLY painful. We were due to set off for South Australia on Saturday morning so I took plenty of painkillers and tried to ignore it. By Saturday my hand was quite red and I wasn't feeling very well so after Bill fixed the car we test drove it to the hospital in Bridgetown to get my hand checked out. The nurse seemed to think it was gross and got the doctor to have a look. He stuck. Needle in it then slashed it with a scalpel and squeezed a shed load of puss out it which was WELL painful. I resisted the urge to swear and just felt very sorry for myself instead. Doc said I needed to stay overnight for iv antibiotics as I had red lines going up my arm, whoops. He put me on a double dose of flucloxacillin. I had my own room with a TV and a comfy bed so it wasn't all bad. After inspecting my hand again on Sunday morning the doc said I had to stay in for another night which meant another days delay to our journey, we would now only have 3 days to drive nearly 3000km.