This morning was blissfully perfect. The wind swung around to offshore for the first time in a while, and there was an incredibly brief window to actually surf nice, clean waves. The sun was out, it was uncrowded - and LO! - dolphins! The excited factor was absolutely off the scale, of course. Out in the water I can feel strong and agile in the way I don't feel on land, often.

I have been persistant with my Yoga with Adrienne, an online yoga challenge for the month of January that anyone can do for free at any time. It's so perfectly choreographed that you do get a decent workout in only twenty minutes, and just when you need a rest, there it is - day 8! I must say, I'm looking forward to a more gentle session as I'm exhausted - I've been moving a little bit too much.

Apart from yoga and surfing, there's the house. It's actually been kinda fun to fix it up as much as possible. We are getting around to all the little jobs we have put up with for years - I mean, crazy what we tolerate and ignore, right? Like the tangled cord on the blinds was a two second job. We got new door locks for the sliding doors, some new handles for the bathroom as the old ones were rusting through the chrome. I cleaned out the bathroom cupboards and got the mould off the shower.

I've bee meeting with potential tennants. The best one so far is a young couple. She's from Sydney and has got a job at a local restaurant. She's young, enthusiastic, and had a good, empathetic, emotional intelligence to her I appreciated. Although she doesn't know a helluva lot about gardening, she's keen to learn and this place would be a lovely opportunity for her to do that. There's also a family - they have two young kids. He's a landscaper gardener and blues musicians, and she's a mental health nurse. Their house flooded so they need a short term rental whilst it is renovated. They have local connections, including a sister who keeps chickens and bees, and she's a home veggie gardener. There's also a bird lover from Queensland who works from home. In the end it's going to be so hard to decide and I'm going to hate disappointing the rest of them.

My Dad's looking painfully thin and very ill. If they can get his meds ringht he might have another few years in him but I'm worried about his quality of life. Despite this, everyone things we should still go ahead with our plans of going away, like we don't have a choice. I know we don't - and I know we can fly back at any point - but that doesn't make it easier.

We're also freaking out about money a bit. I'm worried we don't have enough. I've had to spend some HIVE, which isn't ideal. Maybe we will only have enough money for three months - and then we'll have tennants and won't have a house to come back to, which is a bit of a worry!

Yet, despite all of this, I feel something really, really unusual. I feel relaxed. That's odd for me. In fact, I've been in such a state of high anxiety for sooo many years that I've forgotton what it feels like. I'm not sure why it is. Perhaps it's the daily yoga, or the fact Jamie's a little more relaxed too. But I like it.

It brings me hope.