I don’t mind admitting this is one of the most stressful times I’ve ever experienced. I’m very, very unsettled, discomfited, anxious. I’m not sure exactly why except that I’ve sold for a song, given away or junked almost all my possessions. I still have boxes and boxes of treasures in the shed, but the house is an echoing shell.
This was 19 April:

This is today, 29 April.

 

I must pay grateful thanks to my friend, Peter Partridge, who has pitched in and who took two full trailer loads to the Stirling recycling centre. He was a huge help. Plus he helped reorganise all the stuff on the lounge room floor today. A heartfelt thanks, Pete.

The rest has gone to the Vinnie’s, Red Cross and Save the Children Fund shops. Plus a lot has been binned, of course. When you do this, you realise how little you actually need. I used to “collect” things, often never using them. This is cleansing, therapeutic. It still gives me the collywobbles, though!

So it’s another suitcase run to Bali on Sunday. I have a 30Kg allowance and I’m about 2Kg over on each of two bags. It’ll be interesting to see what I can get away with, or have to pay extra.

I’m watching “the wedding” at the moment. Wouldn’t it be nice to have staff that I could just detail to do all the packing and moving for me! Yes, sah!

I nearly had a solution to clearing the house. It would have been a bit drastic.

In the photo in the last post, the bed is shown leaning against the back wall. In fact, behind it is the hot water heater. I started my shower and noticed that the water was not getting very hot and was fluctuating in temperature. I let it run for a bit with no improvement, so I went outside for a look.

I realised the bed was covering the exhaust vent for the fan forced gas heater! The bed base covering was smoking. It wouldn’t have been much longer for it to catch fire, and the rafters are just above. Burning the house down would have solved a lot of problems, although there might have been a few new ones created.

I switched the heater off quickly and moved the bed.

I’m feeling a lot less stressed now. This should look less cluttered than last week, as a lot of things have gone, either sold or to the tip. Most of the rest is spoken for and should go this week. That’s a relief, as I’ve booked to go to Bali for the whole of May and I didn’t want to leave good things out in the rain, assuming we ever get any.

Even the old carpet is spoken for! It’s going to be covering the ground around a sheep feeder on a farm. Lucky sheep.

Minnie is enjoying her trips to the park when the house is open for inspection. Still no sale, I’m afraid…

It gets worse. I’ve been turfed out! This is my bed:

I’m going to be sleeping in the spare bedroom from now on.
All my wardrobes are out!

Lying on their side near the front door.
And my neat, empty lounge is now:

a junkyard.
This is where I’m sleeping tonight:

Somewhere in there…
Somehow, I have to sort and pack all this and get it cleared away by the weekend. Aaaarrrrgh. This is too hard.

Clearing the house is nearly finished:

The house echos. It’s not my home any more (sob). Horrible feeling. But it’s never been so clean, either.

People seem to be interested in buying now, but no commitments yet.

It’s all excitement here at Chaos Manor. I heard the sirens and here they are. This is next door:

See the broken crossbar on the pole? After such a long period of hot, dry, dusty weather followed by rain, it was predictable that arcing would occur.

The fireys had to move a neighbour’s aluminium boat out from under the lines in case they fall.
I thought it wouldn’t affect me as I still had power, but it’s gone off now so it’ll be off for a while, I’d say.

But note that word — RAIN!! We’ve actually had RAIN. Amazing.

Ugh! Barry doesn’t do things by halves. Compare this:

with this:

Carpet’s gone. Furniture’s gone. I have to eat off the floor!
Not quite. Compare this:

With this:

Yeah, carpet gone, bare room, table and one chair, but painted and stripped. Phew, this is tough going, but Barry is a dynamo. I can’t praise him enough! He’s working like a Trojan to get my house sold. His enthusiasm never fails.

Another garage sale this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, and home opens both days too. I think I need a holiday in Bali!

Things got a bit too much on Sunday. The garage sale was going well, but it was another warm day and I was pretty tired and anxious. It was OK, I sold a lot of things, but there’s a long way to go.

The house was open for inspection from 3-4pm so I took Minnie in  the car to the park. But I’ve been having a lot of palpitations over the last few months and this time they seemed a bit stronger and didn’t stop. There was a bit of pain in my throat and left shoulder, not much, but …

When I got home at 4pm I thought I’d better call an ambulance as I was feeling a bit sick and breathless and very weary.

So off we went to Charlie Gairdner Hospital and they found my heart was pumping chaotically at 125 – 150 bpm. Aspirin and oxygen worked their magic and about ten  minutes after I got there, my heart suddenly flipped back to its normal rate and I felt OK again.

After a blood test and X-ray and a boring four hour wait, I was transferred to Hollywood Private Hospital about 9pm and spent the next two nights there, under constant monitoring. Lots of tests, but it didn’t show again, so today at 2pm they let me go home. I have to have an exercise stress test to see if it will happen again, but it’ll mainly be adjustment of medication. It’s an uncomfortable condition, but not life threatening.

Keith ran me home and Barry was there to make coffee and welcome me, and Minnie of course. She’s very happy to see me.