TripRoundUnder

So, it has been a minute since we last posted on here! Just thought we could do a little update on what has been happening in our TripRoundUnder lives. We last left you exiting Townsville in the middle of a storm, on the way to Hervey Bay in South East Queensland, where Lauren had an nursing agency contract waiting. Spoiler alert, we bought a house, Steve got a job, Lauren became permanent staff and we got a puppy called Alfie, who basically rules our life now.

We switched from spending every day in our Landcruiser Troopy, to a more settled (for the time being) home owner life.

Always looking for a new challenge, Steve decided to make it his mission to transform a pretty boring backyard, into a fruit and vegetable garden. Not realising that a puppy makes this a very challenging task! We decided to have a fruit tree row at the back, planting mango, lime, avocado, banana and lemon trees. This has provided unforeseen challenges, with heavy clay soil and overpowering bamboo from the property behind us leading to some heavy brainstorming sessions! In saying this, we are making progress. We also brought in some planter boxes and soil for a veggie patch and they have thrived more than we could have hoped! So much so, we have had to thin out some of the tomatoes and other plants.

This is our progress so far.

To this:

Steve also decided to put his Exercise Science University degree to good use and started working as a personal trainer at a local gym. mours swirling that Lauren put her foot down and let Steve know that there wasn’t going to be any stay-at-home partner action going on. This has provided a good challenge, as he had previously been working with athletes, whereas, general public is a whole different ball game. He has surprised himself with how much he has taken to the change in role and the sense of satisfaction of helping ordinary people change their lives.

We had long talked about wanting to get a dog and now that we had kind-of settled, it was go time! In retrospect, I don’t think we quite appreciated the chaos and stress a crazy puppy can bring, but who has time to worry about that, when you’re looking at cute little puppies! Alfie, a border collie cross kelpie, pictured centrepiece in the photo below, came home with us and has changed our lives forever.

From here, life has been pretty crazy! Both of us have had full time work schedules, Lauren especially putting in long hours. With the addition of young Alf, at first, a crazy little puppy and now an even crazier teenager, life has become a different kind of adventure! We will cover how we coped with such a drastic lifestyle change in a future blog, but safe to say it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows. But, we’re doing our best and I’d say there’s more sunny days than rainy ones.

Another one of Steve’s dreams came true as he purchased his own little Tinnie and after a couple of months, even managed to get his boat licence! This was big news, as he had been jealous the whole way around Australia of people with their boats catching fish and Steve slaving away from the shore.

Another milestone, was the construction of a new boundary fence, as the previous derelict number was not going to keep a young puppy in forever. Chief aesthetic officer Lauren was also keen on a different look! Very kindly, Steve’s Uncle and Dad travelled up to Hervey Bay to assist with construction and after running into initial problems, they forged ahead and even managed to complete it early and go out for a fish in Steve’s new boat!

To keep our sanity and feed that travel bug, we try as much as we can to get back in the Landcruiser for weekend getaways around South East Queensland, that we will cover in a seperate blog.

Stay tuned!