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Tuesday

Free Events for the Financially Challenged

Just before Phil and I got married, we bought a home of our own. I have stopped house sitting and started house renovating.

Since Phil and I have both been nomads for the last two years, we have not much in the way of furnishings. The living room is bare except for the working trestle we are using as a couch and the bedroom has only a bed. Our clothes, tools, and other possessions sit in little piles around the edges of the spare room. We have a microwave, a kettle, two plates, two cups, and some cutlery. It is like camping in our own house.

Everything here needs fixing, so I spend up to two hours a day painting, scouring, and buying for my new house while Phil is at work. It is going to use up all our money for a while, but it hasn’t stopped us travelling and having adventures. We are just going to have them a little closer to home for a while.

There are so many local events. This month I want to go to an Indonesian Royal Wedding Festival, a Chinese Lantern Festival, the Brisbane Laser Light show, and the Brisbane Riverfire event. I would love to attend the Zombie walk, the superhero festival, and the Toowoomba Flower Festival, but it might be all too much.

Closer to home, I want to go to other free events like a movie night at the local library, a musical show at my church, an introduction to snakes and lizards, and a to spend a morning watching kids set up mini worm farms.

For my creative side I plan to attend a silk dyeing workshop and a clay animal making workshop. For my health and wellbeing I have applied to attend an abseiling day, an informative cruise of the local protected marine region, a cycling tour of a nearby island, and a day ocean jet skiing.

All of this and much, much more is available in my local region; most of it free, and the rest at a subsidised rate. Only the flower festival is more than 30 minutes away and some are just minutes from home.

It took me all morning to collate the activities and put them into my calendar and I haven’t even started to decide which of the nearby exercise and sport classes will suit me.

It is astounding how much there is to do here, and thanks to the mild climate, so much of it is outdoors. Even if there is nothing planned I can still walk a few laps of my local forest, wildlife reserve, or beach, or just stay home and walk around my garden.

I suspect it is going to take a little longer to get the house all set up as I want, but I don’t care. I am not old enough to settle down yet, and I suspect I never will be.

Perhaps you have some local events you love. Please share them with us in the comments.

2 comments:

Red Nomad OZ said...

There's no excuse to be bored, is there?! And as a recent op-shop devotee, I bet re-decorating is great fun on a budget!!

Nikki Lentfer said...

You hit the nail on the head there. I said to Phil how much nicer it is to get things as we find them and to look for bargains. If we had the money now, the fun of shopping and fitting out the house would all be over in a flash. Now we get to spread it out