Westerfolds Park
After planning our move from Karachi, Pakistan to Melbourne, Australia for more than a year, we arrive on Thursday, January 3, at 11 pm. While our first week is exciting, moving in turns out to be even more difficult than we anticipated, with each small win accompanied by a seemingly larger drawback.
Back in November, when we ordered our main appliances, we could not foresee the difficulty of negotiating with delivery drivers. One promises to call before he arrives, but doesn’t. Delivery fail. Another turns up an hour before scheduled and leaves before we can reach the property. Delivery fail number two. A third falls sick, postponing the already-delayed arrival of our washing machine. Once the latter is finally installed in our (leaking) basement, we put on a load only to discover, once the entire box-filled is flooded, that the hose-pipe needs to be connected by a plumber. By this time, we are already waiting for a plumber to fix a leaking shower and sink tap, plus an unstable toilet seat. Briony is really pleasant. She tries to squeeze us in on Friday, but can’t, meaning that the overflowing organizer baskets and boxes which we purchased from Ikea will not be dealt with until Monday.
Dirty clothes are not our only problem. The gas people can’t seem to make their way in through the propped-open gate to read the meter. You need to be a nuclear physicist to understand Melbourne’s garbage disposal. None of us are, so we miss collection day. The dressers we buy to accommodate our dwindling supply of clean clothes are too large for the cupboards, forcing us to head back to Ikea, through our sodden and already box-filled garage, for more. The list goes on and on, so that by Friday, in spite of the fact that we are not even close to being settled, we decide to take a break and head for the hills. Or, to be more precise, to Westerfolds Park.
It is a hot and cloudless day, and Westerfolds is only a nineteen-minute drive from our tiny and chaotic townhouse. It’s a stunningly beautiful national park, filled with light and trees and humming with insects. We take the kids on a five-kilometer walk. On our way, we encounter friendly Melburnians with dogs of every size and shape, rabbits, wild ducks, all kinds of birds and quite a few lazy kangaroos. We wander alongside the Yarra River, past wattle-trees filled with bees, and an abandoned Manor-house complete with smashed carriage lights, a lizard lounge, clusters of everlasting daisies and probably a number of ghosts.
The whole experience is incredibly uplifting and relaxing. The fragrant bush clears our senses from the dust of our little house, the frantic anxiety from our minds and endows us with a healthy appetite. After lunch, my daughter accidentally slams my son’s phone in the car-door, meaning that as well as having to return to Kmart for window-cleaning equipment and a doormat, we also need to drop in to JB Hi-fi for a new phone. But after our brief sojourn in nature, it doesn’t seem as disastrous and nobody loses their temper (too much).
