Echuca Farm Stay Diary: Day 3

I might have jinxed it when I wrote about the most peaceful sleep I had in months on my first night here — because neither of us got much sleep yesterday, no thanks to the severe wind storm. It had started yesterday afternoon, but by midnight it was a full-blown storm. The whole house kept rattling, and the trees swooshing hard that it kept us awake, tossing and turning all night. On top of that, I was worried that the strong ass wind would blow the chickens away.

When I saw the sunrise, I called defeat and jumped into the shower to freshen up. Then, after pulling the day’s card (Six of Wands again) and checking that the chickens were still alive, Fafa and I sat for a proper breakfast.

We also met the farm owner, a photographer who lives in the bigger house nearby with her farmer husband and their three young kids. She filled us in on the history of the farmhouse. It was locked for 15 years before they bought and turned it into Airbnb earlier this year.

By mid-morning, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and strangely felt cold in the 35-degree weather, so I turned on the heater in the bedroom and started reading the latest book Fafa got me (The New Parisienne: The Women & Ideas Shaping Paris Book by Lindsey Tramuta) before snoozing off.

It was past 1 PM when Fafa woke me up. He offered to drive us to a neighbouring town, Kyabram, for some Thai lunch, which I quickly welcomed since Asian food means rice, and I hadn’t had rice since yesterday. After a 20-minute drive, we were greeted by an empty town. There goes my rice dream for the day. We then tried our luck in another town, Rochester and were enticed by the menu board that offered both Thai beef salad and sriracha burger. Unfortunately, they told us they were only serving the display counter food once we were inside. All were sad-looking, but I was already hungry by then. I settled with the savoury scones, thinking how bad a scone could be. It was bland, rancid.

So far, the day wasn’t going as I envisioned it. On the way home, Fafa, God bless his heart, offered to cook us some steak tonight, to which, of course, I replied with a “yes, please!“.

Also, on the way home, I kept seeing camp site road symbols that resembled Torii Gate which reminded me of Japan and our year-end Japan trip tradition. I miss it.

When we came home, I took another shower to wash the dust and heat off and settled on the dining table with some grapes, spicy chips and a big glass of wine. With that, I could slowly feel I was back on track with the vacation vibes.

Since the weather was not too crazy and the sky was pretty blueish, I greeted the cattle walking back to the parlour for their second and last milking of the day.

By the time I came back, Fafa had started preparing the steak. With an addition of the quick-n-easy Aunty Jen’s summer salad (this time, I added the zucchini freshly plucked from the farm), a glass of wine and a bottle of Furphy, we sat for a delicious meal.

After dinner, I prepared a bath for myself using one of the three Lush bath bombs I treated myself to for Diwali. Who knew that soaking in the bathtub with a glass of wine while listening to the Wildly Tarot podcast was exactly what my soul, body and mind needed to heal and rejuvenate?

I feel so relaxed. Tonight I have a back-to-back Come Dine With Me starting from 10 PM, Gone Surfing tea from T2Tea to keep me warm and Home Body by Rupi Kaur downloaded on my kindle. Oh, also some stargazing in between ━ its almost full moon (Cancer – The Chariot) tonight, and it looks so beautiful.

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