Flowmadic Flo.....

What a synchronistic journey.  What a journey full stop!  In exactly three weeks almost to the hour after our lovely green machine died, Currawong drove in the driveway with our new home on the road.  How quick was that?  And exactly two weeks after our back up green machine died also.....was when we bought our new home.  Love that this story had all these little timing details.  

In case you hadn't heard the story, we've been travelling for nearly eight years in our green van, and it died by the side of the road.  We thought it was okay, cause we had a back up vehicle, but after getting it ready, that one died too.  

We were low on funds, and suddenly transportless, and I cried 'HELP!'.  And a lot of you answered.  Between our internet friends nearly two thousand dollars was raised to try and help us get a Coaster, and to move to the next stage of our vehicular journey.  One very generous donation - you know who you are and thank you darlin - in particular got us towards our goal.  And then money just kinda magically came together from all sorts of places, and I got my crochet mojo back, and put my book 'Balthazar & Nimue - A Love Story' into a pdf file ready to send out (send me an email if you'd like to read it.  I'll send you a copy, and if you like it, you could send me a donation...), and listed wearable art for sale on Etsy, and all sorts of life came out of the death of our van.  

A bit like in real life.  I've been having a lot of thoughts about birth, sex and death lately, and how they all interrelate and feed each other, and wrote a piece about it that's coming soon as a guest post on an amazing womans blog.   And I'm also totally inspired by a new direction I'm taking that's combining all my favourite learnings - blending my old desktop publishing skills, with all the photos of our life that I love to show off and tell stories about, with my words that I'm increasingly happy with my crafting of, and my favourite topics that I have stock standard stories and experiences I want to tell the world about - and turning that all into ebooks.  Self sufficient.  Self motivated. Self designed.  And a totally flowmadic way of trying to make a living from our living.  I'm thick in the middle of a colourful 'Post Phyber Philosophy' ebook at the moment.....

But all these serendipitous occurrences have occurred, and within three weeks of what seemed like total devastation, Currawong was driving in the driveway in our new Coaster.  It was beautiful and easy from the beginning to the end, Currawong made friends with the awesome dude we bought it off, and was looked after by a wonderful friend after he flew to Melbourne to buy it.  And took a swift two days to drive it home.....

And it took within seconds of him getting home to be mobbed by kids.  We all really missed him.  In fact we all miss any of us when we're gone.  It's like together we're the full orchestra, but when someone's gone, the most essential instrument is missing.  

Especially Currawong.   Currawong is like the battery of our family.  He's always on the move, and on the think, and on the hop, and trying to do a million things at once, and full of laughing and songs and silly quips, or full of sorrows and grumping, but no matter what he's full.  And alive, and talking and joking and surprising people with what he comes up with, or doing a somersault, or pushing the trolley hard at the supermarket and then lifting his feet and flying down the aisle.  He motivates us and spoils us and spends all his time working out how he can do his part of the deal to keep us all moving.  And when he's gone he leaves an awfully big hole.  Almost unsurpassably big.  Everything's a bit drier, duller, mundane, and more humdrum without him buzzing round.  So we all really missed him.  

Max and Merlin were really stumped by him being gone.  They yelled 'Daddy!' from the verandah a few times, hoping he was just on a walk, and the first morning after his first night away, Merlin snuggled up to me and very seriously said "Daddy.....work".  And I tried to explain that in a way he was working, cause he was buying us a new bus, and how he'd be home as soon as he could.  As soon as he got back they were in the bus and on his lap and stayed close to him for as long as they could.  

And it also didn't take long before the cow skull went on the bumper bar, cause it's become a bit of an icon for us.  A symbol and talisman of the wide open roads.  Buying a Coaster has been our ultimate dream for a long time.  A full sized bus is just too big for us to be a daily driver.  And a Coaster with a camper van trailer, is the ultimate way that we can have beds and a kitchen on wheels without having to do a huge amount to set it up.  Which is going to make our Flowmadic lifestyle a lot easier.  Thank you so much for helping us to reach our dream!  We're so incredibly wrapped....

But I'm almost a bit embarrassed by how sooky we are.  We're hardly ever parted, and spend all our time together, and are regularly having impassioned conversations, got some kind of plan or idea on the go, and shunting the kids off to bed so we can have our minutes together.  You've gotta come up with something pretty alluring to tempt us out of our nights together.  Cause we love em.  And each other.  A lot.  

So we hadn't been parted for anything longer than hours for over 10 years now, and then he was gone for THREE DAYS AND TWO NIGHTS!!  They stretched an eternally long time.  For all of us.  And Currawong and I went all Wuthering Heights and got on the phone to each other whenever we could, trying hard to connect as much as possible in our minutes, to make up for what we were missing.  And hanging out at home with 4 little boys under the age of 4, with various tactile obsessions like silk, and pillow slips, and that bit of skin webbing between your thumb and forefinger.......translates into spending lot of time sitting, and laying, and carousel hugging, cause if one is getting some love, you can almost guarantee that another one or two will want some too, and I hate for any of them to miss out.

So we survived our separation, and spent some days without dad.  

Balthazar fell asleep in the cupboard.....

And hung out with Zarra who he loves to distraction.....

The kids watching Winnie the Pooh.  Zarra's starting to really take his place more in the family.  He's awake mostly during the day (and night still....sigh....), and loves hanging with the kids.  Getting in on the action, and eating what everyone else does.  He's got the most gorgeous smile this little one, like the rest of them, and I can pretty much be guaranteed that every time he sees me I get a huge one.

And then the conquering hero returned, our new steed looking very 'Yar' (as Katherine Hepburn said in 'A Philadelphia Story'), and a great reunion was had by us all.  And the morning after she got here, we decided to call her Flo.  Both for our heroine Flo in 'The Darling Buds of May', who answers every problem with a huge hug in her ample bosom, and some gorgeously cooked food, and also for The Flow, that we're going to step into every time we step into our beautiful new bus.  Flo the Flowmadic bus.  What a perfect name for her.  

And there's this seriously groovy thing about her that makes her even more perfect than any other Coaster, and that is, that the owner who bought her new, had her fitted out with custom made, cherry red lengthwise seats.  Which happens to be totally perfect for us as a 9 person family, cause we need a lot more seats than your average motorhome.  And this seat means we can leave the original seats in, but remove the ones we don't need, and this lengthwise seat is perfectly opposite where we're going to put our kitchen, and then there's room for a monster bed for all the babies and us at the back as well.  Didn't get time to write the wish list before it happened!  And just as well, cause I never would have imagined this seat.

So all's well that ends well, and like I have any right to ever worry considering the miracles that have happened in the past, this story just shows that we've never got to worry about anything.  The most amazing solutions can create themselves as a gift when you're not trying to craft it too much.  And from seeming disasters always come valuable lessons and treasures.

Now we've just got to register it, and get it ready for travelling, which is a whole other story...........

And just cause I can, and just cause I love my gorgeous babies, I'm throwing in these photos, cause they were in the same folder as the photos of Flo, and they show our loverly outdoor bath, but mostly cause they are some very loved faces.

This is bath time at our place.....

Life is good!