Now we're happy Dubb-ites, or whatever you want to call people living in Dubbo. I got a 7 month contract at the zoo, and Ben is at the "writing stage," so he can do that anywhere. Although everyone looks at you a little funny when you say you like it (as if it's not physically possible to find Dubbo pleasant), we're really enjoying the rural NSW life.
A bit of research into moving vans revealed that it was out of the question to rent the van in Sydney and return it in Dubbo. For the few companies that did allow it, they charged a ~$5,000 one-way fee. (Yes, that's the correct amount of zeros.) Although we always love a good opportunity to throw away some money on fees, we decided to opt out of this one (just for you, Mike). Since I was already living in Dubbo, I rented a truck there, drove it ~7 hours to Sydney, we loaded up all our stuff (in the dark), slept in an empty house, and then drove back to Dubbo (me in the truck, Ben and Ani in the car).
Not only was the truck big (and Australian highways small), but it was manual AND the position of the gears was different (i.e., reverse was top left). But after ~14 hours and 1000 kms together, I got a bit attached to our little truck (or at least my ass did). I spent the whole drive singing "The Lady was a Truckie" by iconic Aussie country singer Slim Dusty, and "Bumpin' up and down in my little red wagon" (the truck had good shocks).
The side-note to all this is that when I left Dubbo with the moving truck, we didn't actually know where we were moving to. But that's another story, and we did know by the time we got back to Dubbo with our van-load of stuff.
So this is our new home: 10 Lovett Ave., Dubbo
We're paying $100 less per week for about 3 times more space. Hard to complain about that. So if anyone wants to come visit, we have lots of extra space now! It even has a little cubby house out back for Ani.
