For a number of reasons, which I won’t go into now, my wife and I have moved. We are still in the Shoalhaven but we are living on a farm.

Nearly five years ago we left Sydney and headed to the South Coast of NSW. We spent nearly a year in Bega, and for two city people that was quite an experience. We then headed back north and settled at Culburra Beach. For those who aren’t familiar with the area it is about 25 kms south east of Nowra, more east than south. And about 2 hours drive from Sydney.

We are now at Toolijooa, which is about the same distance from Nowra, but north east, perhaps a bit more north than east. And it has been a big change for us.

Work wise it makes no difference. I am still about the same distance from my client base, but with easier access to Wollongong, which is the closest major city.

There are pluses and minuses as far as I am concerned. At Culburra Beach I was very close to the water. The beach was just over the sand hills, maybe 50 metres away. The river and the boat ramp where I launched my boat to go fishing was 2kms down the road. Now the beach is about 3kms and the boat ramp 6 or 7. But they aren’t big problems.

Even though it is only about a 40 minute drive back to Culburra Beach we miss many of the friends we have there. One of my fishing mates who used to work in IT, and still does contract work use to drop in every week or so for a cup of coffee and a chat. It is a long way for him to go for a cup of coffee. However, he is a Project Manager, and as all programmers know, Project Managers are not too bright, so he mightn’t think that an hour and half round trip for coffee is a problem.

On the plus side we are much closer to our families. Our youngest son lives in Wollongong, but our other children, as well as my wife and my brothers, sisters and parents live in Sydney. So we are closer to them.

It is the farming bit that is the problem. There are around 100 cows on this farm. Actually they are not all cows, some are bulls, or so I’ve been told – I don’t get close enough to them to find out.

So I now divide my time between writing code, and opening and closing farm gates. At least these are beef cattle and I don’t have to milk them!