Arrivederci Casa della famiglia Nixon in North Nowra

Goodbye to the Nixon family home in North Nowra.

As of today the Nixon's no longer have a presence in Nowra. After almost 30 years of living on the South Coast mum and dad have sold up an moved to Melbourne. Today the contracts were exchanged and the ol' hacienda is no more (as far as we are concerned). Ma and Pop didn't muck around as far as moving goes either. They were in Melbourne yesterday and the truckload of possessions that didn't get sold on eBay, in the garage sale or given away to charity will follow in a couple of days.

Yep, it sold.

For me and my newish family our little holiday home on the South Coast is no more. Dammit, but we'll have to rent somewhere to get away now. Otherwise there'll be no more summer getaways to the beach and no more chillaxing in front of an open fire in the winter. The beach will always be there but god knows where we'll find an open fire to canoodle in front of again. Travelling down the coast and renting for weekends and holidays won't be as onerous as it sounds because we still travel to Myrtleford every so often to do the food and wine trails they have down there now. The old house in Barwidgee Creek even burnt down a couple of years ago so we can't even go down to see that, but we still go.

Ah the fire place. Will miss that.

We moved to Nowra from Myrtleford in Victoria almost 30 years ago. I remember the day exactly because it was my birthday - the 17th December 1981. We'd celebrated my birthday the night before and then saddled up the next day for the long drive to Nowra. Quite a change for a 17 year old - moving from a very small rural country town in the bush where we didn't even live in town to a bigger coastal city. 3,000 people to 30,000. It was like moving to the big smoke. I didn't want to go at first. I had friends and a life in Victoria. In 1982 I'd have to start my final year of high school in a totally different environment to before. In a word it was shit. It was a huge adjustment. But adjust I and we did. For the first year or two though I would've moved back to Victoria if I could. Eventually I finished school and ended up working in Sydney. Now there is very little chance I'd move back to Victoria.

Barry and Marg. Off to the old people's home. Kidding.

Nowra and the Shoalhaven became home. We'd go home on weekends and holidays and after 30 years you get to know a place. Up until last weekend we still came home for weekends. Not as often as in the 80s and some of the 90s but it was still coming home when we could. Nowra finally got some decent fish'n'chips this year for chrisakes. At least we were lucky enough to bring Georgia here the once last week. Poor old Copernicus loved the place as much as any cat could. Unfortunately for him though it almost killed once or twice. It will be kind of weird not having a home away from Sydney any more. But home is wherever the family is and Ma and Pop are in Melbourne now and I have my own little family here in Sydney. As far as the siblings go, Gerard and Jasmine are still here in Sydney, Moira is in Melbourne with her boys and Ben is with Sonja way way off over in Munich, Germany.

Adios 7 Nunkeri Place North Nowra.

After reading over all this again and looking at the pictures I'm pretty bummed. I tell myself when push comes to shove though it was just a place. Filled with memories but just a place. We have to move on. Mum and dad certainly have. They're looking forward to their next stage of life in Melbourne, and they have no regrets. So why should I be so maudlin? I'll miss the place. Like I miss the house at Barwidgee Creek and before that our very first home at Kancoona. Funny thing is I don't miss any of the flats and houses we rented or shared in Sydney. They were pretty cool but I guess they weren't home. Home is where you lay you roots and I suppose and family has much to do with that.