Wednesday 12th January 2011 – Sorry I haven’t been online for a while, life in Mount Molloy has been pretty full on since I arrived and this, plus the fact that everyone wants to know if I’ve been affected by the floods, means I thought I'd better update this again.

Thankfully, I have not been affected by the floods. These are all happening much further south, with Brisbane currently being inundated. The CBD has been shut down and people are being moved to evacuation centres around the periphery. The news is just full of stories of communities being devastated and I give thanks that I was not caught up in any of the major floods on my way here.

I actually arrived in Mount Molloy a few days early so the people I’m house-sitting for used the opportunity to introduce me to the community. On Friday they took me to a local swimming hole (oh, the joy of being immersed in cold, refreshing water) followed by dinner at the pub where I met many of the locals. On Saturday it was their son’s 21st birthday so I spent the day helping them prepare the local hall for a big party that night, where I met most of the rest of the good people of Mount Molloy. Sunday was breakfast at the owner’s mother followed by lunch with her father. On Monday, they finally left and I headed down to the coast to go and get “orientated” at the owner’s business. It turns out she has a spa in one of the towns there and part of the reason she chose me to be her house-sitter was because she was hoping I’d help out at the spa. I agreed, thinking it would only be a couple of half days a week, only to discover she’d rostered me on for 4 full days. So now I’m doing massage on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays! The people at the spa are very nice but I’m not exactly sure I want to be spending my time doing quite so much work, especially seeing its on a voluntary basis! Anyway, the busy season will be over at the end of January so hopefully it won’t be for that long.

After my orientation I returned to the house and decided to blitz the kitchen. The family that own it are, how shall I put this, quite “casual” when it comes to housework, and, as a result, the kitchen has an ant infestation. So 5 hours later I’d scrubbed the fridge to within an inch of its life and removed all traces of food on every surface I could find.

This is a beautiful house but it doesn’t have any insect screens, air conditioning or overhead fans, so the only way to keep it cool is to leave all the doors and windows open. This has the consequence that every insect known to man comes for a visit every day. I have a standing fan in my bedroom which keeps the mossies off during the night, but for the rest of the time, I’m a living target. Despite smothering myself in insect repellent I have been eaten alive. I’m just hoping I don’t get Denge Fever!

The owner’s son was supposed to be moving out when they left for their holiday, but he was still here on Monday, then on Tuesday he went missing, as did the dog. I searched the pub and his grandmothers but no-one had seen him, however, today, when I got home, the dog had reappeared and a few items had been moved around so I presumed he’d returned the dog and gone to his new residence.

I have also been working my way through a huge mountain of laundry that was left behind, and, as I’ve now got 3 days off, I’m hoping to do a bit of a cobweb and nest removal programme. But first, I’m going to Cairns tomorrow to visit my old stomping ground from when I lived there in 1989 which I am really looking forward to. The owner has left me her car so its making getting around a lot easier (and cooler).

Thanks to everyone who has been sending me emails checking I’m okay, I do appreciate it.