The beauty of not being able to go anywhere or do much is you have a great excuse to sleep in.

Except I can’t.

Sleep is not something that comes easily to me. Hard to get to sleep, hard to stay asleep, hard to sleep in. The best solution I have found is exercise. Catching the walking bug a few months ago has helped me find some sort of ability to sleep long enough to refresh my brain and body ready to start each day.

And so I find myself in Iso, unable to go on my usual walks, and as a result, it seems like I am also unable to sleep. I did manage to get to a measly 2000 steps yesterday by marching up and down the hallway which lines the side of the small cottage we have been staying in. But at 20 metres long that makes for a hellava lot of laps!

Our new place is much more suitable for exercise. There is a reasonable sized front yard and also a pool in the backyard, so once it warms up a bit we are going to try group pool exercises. We’ve found some online aqua aerobics classes, which are downloaded and ready to use, once the weather improves and reaches my minimum swimming temperature of 25C! Hopefully tomorrow!

After arriving at our new digs late morning, we unpacked and checked the place out. Bedrooms were chosen, bathrooms ‘baggsed’, toes dipped in the pool and importantly fridges filled to the brim with the arriving groceries and alchohol.

It’s a large house, with two stories, meaning we can all have our own space. The pool area has a lovely covered spot with comfortable chairs. The kitchen is large, has a 900mm (temperamental) oven and all the usual gadgets: toaster, coffee machine and two electric fry pans, no less! You could have a party for 50 and not run out of cutlery or crockery. Mixing bowls on the other hand are in short supply. Braden, not deterred by that decided to make a banana cake with the one lovely overripe banana. This ones a keeper @Victoria – he likes to bake 😉

Part of our grocery order from the wonderful Pasadena Foodland was a ‘Large Seasonal Mixed Fruit and Vegetable Box’. Has anyone ever ordered an unknown box of fruit and vegetables? I love it. It means you get things you don’t normally chose. How beautiful are these peaches (white and yellow), nectarines and plums?

Another purchase was fresh flathead fillets. For dinner, I mixed a simple batter (SR flour and beer, nothing more) while Pamela prepared potato wedges. Victoria helped put together a Greek salad. The end result was fantastic. The simplest things are often the best, don’t you agree?

After dinner we gathered in the lounge room for a movie – tonight chosen by Braden. ‘Funny People’ was actually, in my opinion, not that funny, but it did give us a few laughs as we munched on way too much chocolate and lollies.

And so our first day (Day 6 quarantine) in our new house finished with full tummies and an appreciation for how things could, without doubt be much worse.