Pursuant to my earlier post about my Treechange, here’s an update.

As I wrote that earlier post, it was the night before viewing a rather nice three bedroom place in the village of Harrietville, at the foot of Mount Hotham. As it turns out, I liked the place. I liked the place a lot. But I wasn’t the only applicant and as it turned out, they didn’t offer me the place.

So my search resumed, and I broadened my target territory somewhat to embrace towns like Beechworth and Myrtleford – neither were exactly where I wanted to be, but both had plenty going for them.

Then I circled back to a house I’d looked at previously and discounted. A four-bedroom new build in Porepunkah, 6km from the centre of Bright. At the time I figured it was too big, too pristine – I like eclectic places – and a little too expensive.

Turns out on reflection it was worth extending the budget a little, because one Facetime call later, I’d inspected the place, seen the view from the master bedroom onto Mount Buffalo and decided I was having it.

So I’m moving. I’m officially moving.

That was about a week ago and it’s been a rollercoaster. I’m moving interstate on the 9th October and I’m leaving my mad bohemian warehouse conversion in Urban Sydney for a big block of land and quiet mountain roads in the Ovens Valley. I’m having semi-regular panic attacks about whether this is an utterly stupid idea, and occasionally going through bouts of irrational grief over abandoning my home city of the last 17 years, my house of the last two years, all the trappings of the pampered Inner West lifestyle and all my friends and family.

Some of the fear is healthy, some is definitely not. Either way, this will be an adventure. Which kind of adventure remains to be seen. Most of all, it hasn’t yet solidified into a reality for me. It all seems a bit of a surreal thing that’s happening to someone else. The day I drive away in a truck with all my belongings packed might be a different thing.

More to come later…