25 Years in Oz
19/11/2018 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaOn Friday 19th November 1993 a plane landed in Dursleyville, Western Australia bringing a certain emerald serpent to the wide brown land of Oz
It is hard to believe that it is now exactly 25 years since then. Especially sad is that I did not get to spend the evening over at Privet Drive with Petunia toasting to at least another 25 years in Oz. For it is also now exactly 8 months to the very day since she departed this mortal coil. I was sitting out in the garden this evening listening to Late Night Live remembering how I had been listening to the same radio program on Monday 19th March when Vernon came to ask for assistance in giving Petunia some Endone pills. Less than 5 minutes later she was gone.
Little did I know that the real drama was only just about to begin.
The folks from the hospice would have been coming at 9am next day because we were no longer able to look after her at Privet Drive. She had gone from walking with assistance on Sunday morning to completely incapable of even wriggling around in her bed within a few hours. I had learnt various tricks of the trade from all those years working in a nursing home but with no slide sheets and a normal non adjustable double bed, options were quickly running out for all of us.
Tonight I sat outside in the garden of the Lair with a glass of red toasting to her memory while sitting next to a very precious Angel’s Trumpet tree with 21 pendulous blooms ensnaring the serpent senses with their enchanting and intoxicating scent.
Within a few weeks of landing in Oz, I had found a job scrubbing pots at a local restaurant followed in the new year by another in a noodle factory.
It took less than 3 months to pay the Dursleys back the cost of the airfare and by Easter I had already flown the nest and found a flat on the south side of the river just up the road from the restaurant job.
Izzie was busy making hay while the sun was shining and by April 1998 had signed on the dotted line in blood to buy what is now the Lair.
It took 13 years to gather a pile of silver sickles and even more importantly sufficient accumulated annual leave to go on an overseas adventure to Europe to catch up with relatives, new and old friends and especially the Fairy Godmother in Germany.(Also known as Molly Weasley)
In the meantime there were green lights and old toads and assorted dramas with the Dursleys. Or rather one half of the pair. The usual suspect. Of course some things only become clear with 20/20 hindsight
When at the end of 2012 I finally freed myself from house elf and home loan slavery, it became apparent that it would be necessary to find some new grand goal to keep the inner creatures amused.
Without some grand project or goal to aim for, it is too easy to become distracted and drift around aimlessly.
It is a pity that when I finally did find some grand project of turning the Lair into a work in progress permaculture garden and set a deadline for Friday 13th April 2018, it got derailed very quickly by the soul sucking Dementor of Privet Drive
The Grand Plan had been to turn the Lair into a permaculture food forest and haven for assorted feathered and scaled critters and to invite the Dursleys over for dinner on the evening of Friday 13th April this year
Oh how the gods cackle when serpents make plans. For on Tuesday 3rd April, instead of toasting to exactly 20 years in the Lair, I was at Fremantle Cemetery attending my mother’s funeral.
So at the end of these 25 years I have a fully paid off Lair with its own electricity supply and a stash of books that I will need 5 lifetimes to read, but I no longer have my wicked witchy partner in crime and drinking buddy Petunia Dursley.
Thanks to modern technology, the Izzie sister half way across the planet is never more than a minute away allowing of course for time zones.
When I first came to Oz it was a very big deal to get to ring Ireland or anywhere in mainland Europe for $8 for 30 minutes and those offers were usually only around Christmas, Easter and St Patrick’s Day.
Now you can call for free using the latest tech toys and apps or even do group video chats. Not worked out that one yet and no great desire to either. Izzie is very very camera shy.
Back in 1993 the World Wide Web had already been invented but even then no one really had any idea how it would so dramatically change everything
Only discovered today that lurking somewhere on Skype are some voicemail messages from Petunia Dursley. Will have to go looking because it will be the only recording of her voice that I have left. I had asked her a few times to leave a few video recordings on the iPad as a memento for all of us and her one and only grand child but she was just as camera shy as her serpent spawn.
So for millennia like most folks who have departed this mortal coil, it is now only memories that remain.
As for the next 25 years, who knows what time will bring. Will Dreamwidth still be around? Will the World Wide Web still exist? I guess the odds are more in their favour than in ours.
It is hard to believe that it is now exactly 25 years since then. Especially sad is that I did not get to spend the evening over at Privet Drive with Petunia toasting to at least another 25 years in Oz. For it is also now exactly 8 months to the very day since she departed this mortal coil. I was sitting out in the garden this evening listening to Late Night Live remembering how I had been listening to the same radio program on Monday 19th March when Vernon came to ask for assistance in giving Petunia some Endone pills. Less than 5 minutes later she was gone.
Little did I know that the real drama was only just about to begin.
The folks from the hospice would have been coming at 9am next day because we were no longer able to look after her at Privet Drive. She had gone from walking with assistance on Sunday morning to completely incapable of even wriggling around in her bed within a few hours. I had learnt various tricks of the trade from all those years working in a nursing home but with no slide sheets and a normal non adjustable double bed, options were quickly running out for all of us.
Tonight I sat outside in the garden of the Lair with a glass of red toasting to her memory while sitting next to a very precious Angel’s Trumpet tree with 21 pendulous blooms ensnaring the serpent senses with their enchanting and intoxicating scent.
Within a few weeks of landing in Oz, I had found a job scrubbing pots at a local restaurant followed in the new year by another in a noodle factory.
It took less than 3 months to pay the Dursleys back the cost of the airfare and by Easter I had already flown the nest and found a flat on the south side of the river just up the road from the restaurant job.
Izzie was busy making hay while the sun was shining and by April 1998 had signed on the dotted line in blood to buy what is now the Lair.
It took 13 years to gather a pile of silver sickles and even more importantly sufficient accumulated annual leave to go on an overseas adventure to Europe to catch up with relatives, new and old friends and especially the Fairy Godmother in Germany.(Also known as Molly Weasley)
In the meantime there were green lights and old toads and assorted dramas with the Dursleys. Or rather one half of the pair. The usual suspect. Of course some things only become clear with 20/20 hindsight
When at the end of 2012 I finally freed myself from house elf and home loan slavery, it became apparent that it would be necessary to find some new grand goal to keep the inner creatures amused.
Without some grand project or goal to aim for, it is too easy to become distracted and drift around aimlessly.
It is a pity that when I finally did find some grand project of turning the Lair into a work in progress permaculture garden and set a deadline for Friday 13th April 2018, it got derailed very quickly by the soul sucking Dementor of Privet Drive
The Grand Plan had been to turn the Lair into a permaculture food forest and haven for assorted feathered and scaled critters and to invite the Dursleys over for dinner on the evening of Friday 13th April this year
Oh how the gods cackle when serpents make plans. For on Tuesday 3rd April, instead of toasting to exactly 20 years in the Lair, I was at Fremantle Cemetery attending my mother’s funeral.
So at the end of these 25 years I have a fully paid off Lair with its own electricity supply and a stash of books that I will need 5 lifetimes to read, but I no longer have my wicked witchy partner in crime and drinking buddy Petunia Dursley.
Thanks to modern technology, the Izzie sister half way across the planet is never more than a minute away allowing of course for time zones.
When I first came to Oz it was a very big deal to get to ring Ireland or anywhere in mainland Europe for $8 for 30 minutes and those offers were usually only around Christmas, Easter and St Patrick’s Day.
Now you can call for free using the latest tech toys and apps or even do group video chats. Not worked out that one yet and no great desire to either. Izzie is very very camera shy.
Back in 1993 the World Wide Web had already been invented but even then no one really had any idea how it would so dramatically change everything
Only discovered today that lurking somewhere on Skype are some voicemail messages from Petunia Dursley. Will have to go looking because it will be the only recording of her voice that I have left. I had asked her a few times to leave a few video recordings on the iPad as a memento for all of us and her one and only grand child but she was just as camera shy as her serpent spawn.
So for millennia like most folks who have departed this mortal coil, it is now only memories that remain.
As for the next 25 years, who knows what time will bring. Will Dreamwidth still be around? Will the World Wide Web still exist? I guess the odds are more in their favour than in ours.
