There is nothing like a series of unfortunate events to  bring you back to reality with a thump and the day after our lovely week away, that’s exactly what happened!

When we were looking for a house to rent in Toowoomba, we were on a tight time frame and I couldn’t believe the state of some of the places we looked at.  As soon as we stepped inside this one however, I got “the feeling”. You know, the “this feels like home” feeling.  Despite being nothing like an English house, it just felt comfortable.

Growing up on a housing estate in England, I was used to clones and clones of fundamentally the same house: some may have an extra “box” room, which is exactly that – not enough room to swing a cat.  We keep the doors closed to keep the heat in because it’s bloody cold for most of the year, whereas here everything is open plan and there are lots of tiled floors etc because the aim is to keep the house cool.  Both styles are fit for purpose because we have completely different climates, but I’ve always been someone who has felt the cold and have always been a little OCD about having doors completely shut and avoiding drafts! I still have issues with fans and air con because I just don’t like that drafty feeling, but I’m slowly being forced to change my ways by the husband, who has his own hot water body system going on, which can make for very uncomfortable sleeping arrangements!

The house we left in England to come here was an end terrace and I think the thought of houses joining onto each other like that would be a completely alien concept here.  I do remember flying into Manchester after backpacking for 18 months and thinking how cute and diddy all the houses looked!  The new trendy thing is to add another floor, basically because we don’t have the land to build on, but that is something they certainly aren’t short on here.  Instead of building up, they build out and the average plot is much bigger, hence the majority of houses are on one level.  When my Dad first came out to visit, he said “Does everyone live in a bungalow here then?!” which made me laugh, because a bungalow in England is seen as a miniature house, where you would imagine your nana and grandad living for example, but here single level properties are just normal houses!

Anyway, the house we are currently in ticked all of our boxes, as we needed a large, fenced garden for our dog, it had four bedrooms so we could certainly have visitors and best of all…it had a double garage with an electric door that I could buzz up and down! “How fancy?!” I thought.  I took great pleasure in pressing the buzzer as I was driving up the street, in preparation for turning onto the drive where the raised garage door would be ready lifted and welcoming me in!

That is until that Tuesday morning when, with Mia in the car on our way back from playgroup, I pressed the button and nothing happened. I pressed again and then started jabbing it like a crazy person….nothing!  “Damn it, the batteries must have run out!” I thought.  It had been getting a bit slower to respond, so it made sense.  Stupidly, because I had my buzzer, I hadn’t bothered to bring my house keys, so we were locked out of the house! How annoying?! I tried the door anyway, on the off-chance that I am so dopey that I had failed to even lock the door that morning, but no, of course I had been a responsible adult for that nanosecond of my life!

I quickly drove to the nearest shopping centre and grabbed batteries, drove back, replaced them and…still nothing! “I need a wee wee!” wailed Mia! Of course you do! Back to the shopping centre to the public toilets we went! I was getting mindful of the time now as I was due a Woolies (supermarket) delivery within half an hour and had started wondering what I was going to do with the shopping!

We got back home again.  “I’m hungry!” moaned Mia.  “Well, you can have some food when the shopping arrives sweetheart.  It should be here any minute!” I said through gritted teeth, patience starting to wear slightly thin now.  I jabbed the garage door buzzer again futilely, just in case, by some miracle, it had decided to start working again…nope!

I rang my husband to see if he could come home and rescue us with a spare key…”Sorry darl, I’m an hour and a half out of town today and I’m not going to be back until late!” Of course! “Any words of wisdom to get me out of this predicament?!” “………….Nah, sorry!” A man of few words, my husband!  “It’s ok Daddy, I can help!” exclaimed Mia and started plucking blades of grass out of the front lawn.  “What are you doing, Mia?!” “Making a new key!” Riiiiight, going to be here all day then!

The Woolies man arrived and I had verbal diarrhoea explaining what had happened to him.  “Oh dear, you’re not having much luck today, are ya?!” he said. “No, no I’m not.  I was hoping you might have some sort of solution though!”, I thought to myself. “No.” I actually replied dejectedly.

As I was grabbing the bags from the man and shoving them into the foot wells of the ute, as it was the only shade I could see, I was acutely aware of Mia repeating “Mummy!!!!” over and over again. “Hang on, I’m just signing for the shopping, I’ll be there in a minute!” I yelled back.  I turned around to see a bright red, disgruntled little face.  “I needed a poo! So I did it in my pants!” “Oh Mia!!!” “Well I was calling you!” Yes, yes you were.  I grabbed a new pack of wipes out of a shopping bag and headed back to the shopping centre…luckily I had a spare change of clothes for her in my bag, as I can sometimes successfully adult and had learnt my lesson on this issue through previous messy misadventures!

The four hours until husband home time were spent eating lunch in a café and playing at the park.  I parked under a tree and prayed that the shade would help save my cold things, but naturally it was a hot day and my frozen items had all melted all over the car floor by the time we were leaving! I felt like crying when Ian finally pulled into the drive, but I had lost sense of all of my feelings by then and could only grunt.

He unlocked the door, helped carry the bags in and had started loading things into the fridge, when he exclaimed “Hang on, the fridge is off!” On further inspection, we’d had a power cut.  Ian went round to the mains on the OUTSIDE of the house and flicked the switch…he pressed the buzzer and…OPEN SESAME! The garage door opened. Now I wanted to cry.  All I had to do was flick the switch and I could have saved myself six hours of hassle!   Aaaarrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!

“What a waste of a day!!!” I yelled in frustration! “Ah well, did you have a good day Mia?!” my husband asked her. “Yes Daddy, I had a great day! Me and Mummy had so many adventures! We went to playgroup, the shops, we saw Sid (she’s on first name terms with the Woolies man!), we went to the café, we went to the park, it was so much fun!”

I suppose that just goes to show that if you look at things from a different perspective, you can have a different outcome.  I’m sure there has to be a lesson in there for me somewhere!  That and ‘always take your house key, in case of a power cut!’