2007

Christmas day was good. We opened stockings in bed but it was a hot day so we got up and opened all our presents which didn't take long !! Mum's parcel still hasn't arrived so there were no presents from the UK to open which was a bit sad. The girls then played with all their new stuff whilst Paul cooked a full english breakfast on the bbq. By 10am we were on the beach at the end of our road and it was bliss - the water was warm and a bit of a lagoon, people were snorkelling and swimming. Our friends Debbie and Paul and their two joined us and we stayed until about 3pm. We even went rock pooling and collected shells. Gorgeous.

We went back home and Paul got the roast on which we finally ate at 7.30pm. Never again - cold meats and salads I think for Christmas 2007. But we had a good day, ended up on MSN to my cousin Amanda which was great fun and it was the first outing for the webcam so at least we know it works.

Since then we spent a few days working on our house, Fawlty Towers, many more are needed but at least the essentials are done. Yesterday we went to our friends Teresa and Brian in Greenwood via Ikea. We spent the day in their awesome pool and had a bbq complete with kangaroo. The girls were very rude and argumentative again so have now been banned from tv, dvd's and the computer for a few days so lets hope that works.

Today I went to a new church, the Metro church at the end of our road. It 's a lot, lot smaller but felt good. I'm still not sure where I will be staying at but having a church in walking distance is nice. I got a welcome pack complete with pen, piece of rock and a cd which I'm listening to now !

Tonight we're off to the foreshore for fireworks. They have two sets at 9 and 12 so I think we'll be staying for the first set then go back to Debs for a curry ! It will have to be the last late night we have though as none of us have been getting up until gone 9 every morning and Paul has to start getting up at 5am from Tuesday. Tomorrow all the Christmas decs are coming down and being put away. The girls still have 4.5 weeks off school and we're going to make the most of all these beaches which are so close, especially now I can swim again. For my birthday I want a body board and snorkel, oh, and a cat as I am really missing not having pets but need to work on Paul for that !

Anyway, happy new year everyone. I remember the 2000 new year in cold UK when divorce seemed very likely and life seemed pretty bleak. So much has happened in the last 7 years, who knows what good things are to come

03:56 - Sun 31 December 2006 - comments {1}

So this is Christmas...

.... and what have we done ? Another year over and a new one just begun. And, what a year that was !!

Yesterday we went to Rockingham beach and spent a few hours baking and swimming in the sea. We swam out to a fixed platform and surveyed the scenery in absolute awe. We saw a sting ray and star fish and lots of schools of both big and little fish and we're on a beach - not at an aquarium. How lucky are we ?! We also found a shop which sold my beloved Haribo so I am happy once more. I wasn't allowed to buy any as I have to wait to see what Santa will bring so I made do with a bag of jelly babies. Yum.

If we had still been in the UK I'd have been in my coat, back against a radiator and watching hours of TV because it was too cold to move. I'm still to put my coat on here ! I know that time will come though but it won't be for anywhere near as long. As for the tv, nuff said. It's so not worth it, would rather play scrabble any day.

Last night we went on the boat cruise around the canal homes looking at their Christmas lights. Wow !! It was like Disneyland, Florida all over again. I've never seen so many Santa's in so many different positions ! Some of the poeple were sat outside their homes waving to us and there was a bit of a traffic jam with so many boats on the water - they needed traffic lights at the junctions ! We got off the boat at about 10pm and went looking for a chip shop in vain. Mandurah is missing out in this market big time. The bigger restaurants were open but no takeaways, especially with 300/400 people getting off the boats at this time - what a money spinner !

Well today is Christmas Eve but we missed church as awoke too late. I have managed to find a church with a midnight service. It's directly opposite a tavern so that should be interesting. I've always gone on my own so won't mind that. Father Christmas visits the children in the neighbourhood and hands out presents tonight too. I have to go and do a bit of mystery shopping at 5.30pm so hope I don't miss it. Will make sure the camera is loaded up for Paul to take pics just in case. It's a fab idea. You pay $10 which goes to charity and buy and wrap a present and hand it in and then the man himself comes around to deliver it. Love it. Nakita still believes so her face will be a sight.

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy new year - hope to see you all in 2007 for a bbq (but not at the same time I hope !)

04:38 - Sun 24 December 2006 - comments {0}

Our own piece of Oz at last

Well, it belongs to the mortgage company  but what the hell !!

These last couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. We had the last week of school with carols by candlelight. Only problem was that daylight saving put paid to the candlelight part as it was still sunny. Never mind, we sat through 16 songs and then saw that there was 12 left to go (we'd already been there 1.5 hours) so made our excuses and left.

We then moved in, finally, to our new home. We've been renting since the beginning of April and we've hated it so it feels good to start getting those roots down. It took a good few days to clean the house as it was filthy (thanks Debbie for your help) so now we just have the back garden, garage and outside windows to sort out. All the boxes have been unpacked and the new alfresco table and chairs are the setting for our daily meals. We set up the swing today in the back garden and Paul and I swang and watched the sea. Now I'm typing this whilst watching a fantastic sunset, finally we feel 'at home'.

Had the girls around Friday night for a chat which was lovely. In the UK we always went to my friend Kenrina's so it was wierd having to take the bull by the horns and invite everyone to mine. Only four people showed up but we had a good time anyway and I finally got to bed at 3am !!

We have felt the lack of friends though. No one offered to help us move so it took about 20 trips in the car and ute as well as the removal men who brought the heavy stuff. Of all the people we have met over here and knew before and only Debbie helped me. It did bring it home that maybe we'd been kidding ourselves that they were 'friends' when really they were 'aquaintances' but we're not going to let it get us down.

Still waiting for the neighbours to say 'hi' and for the bbq invites - the Ozzies are friendly if you go shopping but, other than that, it can be a bit of a myth. There ae a few hostile ones !

Anyway, kids are calling me for tea so I'm off outside. Bet no one in the UK is eating their tea outside tonight

08:36 - Sun 17 December 2006 - comments {5}

Mixed bag

This week has been a major rollercoaster. My Body Shop products were due Monday so I ended up waiting in all day, no sign. So waited in all day Tuesday, no sign. Finally they turned up 5pm on Wednesday and the party was 10am Thursday so, to say I was unprepared was  an understatement. The party went ok but could have been a lot better. At least I managed to getting another party booking for this Thursday out of it so, hopefully, that will be much better. Other than that I spent the week on the phone chasing this and that - W.A is definitely 'Wait Awhile' !

Robbie gig was Friday night and what a night that was. We ended up driving up and parked a 10 minute walk away for free. We grabbed a bite to eat when we got in the stadium at 5.30 and then had three hours to wait for the man himself. It was an awesome gig, the best I've ever been to. The pyrotechnics did him proud as did the fireworks and the fireballs. He was brilliant, a real showman, in between songs there was a lot of chit chat and funny stories and he sang 'Me and my shadow' with Johnny Wilkes. The girls loved it too and we were fairly near the front so got to see a lot. I felt proud to be English and that was my downfall. I woke up yesterday missing haribo, grapes, soft grass, decent shops, money, frosts, decent tv, chinese, pick and mix, the music scene, films in fact civilised life !! Paul wanted to make everything right but just didn't get it. Luckily others here have been through it so listened to me sobbing my heart out. It's not about wanting to go back to the UK (although it did flit through my mind about moving to the Eastern states or USA to see if any better) it's more like a grieving process for the things I may never see or have again. To be able to walk into Tescos and buy whatever fruit you want as opposed to only what is in season and grown in your state is something you take for granted. I actually got excited to see grapes the other week - how sad is that ?

Anyway, I'm over that all now and we headed into Perth today for a shopping spree. Paul as a bit gobsmacked that I didn't buy anything but I was happy just window shopping and leaving the spending of the dollars to the two girls !! Something they are very good at.

We move into our new home by the sea on Friday and can then start to make it ours, put roots down and start getting Christmassy. Wow, what a year 2006 has been !!

10:13 - Sun 3 December 2006 - comments {0}

Was it only a week ago ......

that we went to the Red Bull Air Races ? Cor it seems like a lot longer.

I spent a lot of the week waiting for deliveries and chasing things up. My Body Shop products have still not arrived and I'm beginning to get worried as my first party is this Thursday. I'm assured that I'll have it tomorrow, let's just say I'd better !

Centrelink is another for the family assistance benefit. Everyone else I know have had no problems at all claiming it. Me ? Well, apart from the number of centerlink and medicare offices I approached to try and get them to actually accept the forms there was the number of telephone calls I have had to make to check on progress. To begin with their was a technical error on their part that needed rectifying, then there was the fact that the telephone interview hadn't been completed (apparently I'm the only one who has had to do this) which I had done but hadn't been marked up on their records and the latest one this week was that the application had now 'timed out' and I had to start all over again. What a farce. The air was blue but it didn't change anything so another set of forms have now been submitted. 12 weeks later let's see how these do !

I also had to chase, yet again, my tickets to see Robbie Williams, but they finally turned up on Thursday. Apparently we're standing near the front which is worrying as we're taking the girls so now I no longer need to worry about where the tickets are but need to worry about whether they will be crushed or be able to see - nightmare !! Wish I'd never bothered.

Another weekly chase was to the UK Inland Revenue and finally received my tax rebate. It meant that we could head off to Myers and order an outdoor set so will have that delivered after we move - less than two weeks now and Paul still hasn't packed anything. He just loves leaving things until the last minute.

Anyway, despite all of this we had another fab weekend. Friday we went to Dolphin Quay and had fish and chips. It was awesome and we felt very lucky and blessed. The sky was really bright and filled with stars, lovely. On our way back home we passed loads of house all lit up with Christmas lights and the ones on the canals all reflected in the water, we started to feel very Christmassy.

Saturday we ended up at another shopping centre, Garden City, best yet. Ok, it's the best we'll get so have decided that shopping will no longer be much of a fun hobby. Paul's pleased, more money will stay in the bank  We then had a bbq at a friends house which was a very good night despite the mossies being on good form !

Today we headed off to Florida beach after I got back from church. Another nice beach. I made it into the water up to my knees this time - can't wait for my wounds to heal so I can body board myself, it does look great fun and the others all enjoy it. The beach was deserted when we pitched up but there were a few families there by the time we left. We are confused over dog/non dog beaches as there seems to be dogs on all beaches despite the signs !

Robbie this week and the Body Shop party and I guess we'd better start packing for the move, oh dear, another busy week ahead - roll on school holidays !!

10:07 - Sun 26 November 2006 - comments {0}

Smoke on !

This weekend didn't have such a good start. I lost my Ray Ban sunglasses  One minute in Big W I had them then the next I didn't. Oh well, I never really was one for designer labels !! That same evening we had a bbq and invited some friends over. I made a jug of Pimms and Paul did the obligatory bbq and the children all played together. I provided the entertainment by pulling back the fly screen and walking smack bang into the sliding doors and now have a bruised nose to show for it - to say Paul laughed is really an understatement.

On Saturday we went to a big shopping centre 1 hour and ten minutes away. It was bliss, a bit bigger than the Mall in Bristol and lovely to window shop, it made such a change. I wiped out my english bank account by buying a nativity scene and some Christmas decorations and it hit home that now I had no money and was reliant on the $100 a week from Paul ! Not a nice thought. Luckily I had my training this week to be a Body Shop At Home consultant so, as soon as I receive my box of tricks, I'm ready to start !! I've tried to drum up some parties without success so am having the first one in my house on 30th November - just hope some people show up !

Anyone want a Body Shop party ? I am willing to travel in WA ?????

Today was a fantastic day. We went up to South Perth foreshore and watched the finals of the Red Bull Air Race. Seeing all these planes trying to complete a course in the fastest possible time was excellent and the weather was good too. The planes were told they could start by using the phrase 'smoke on', so they turned on the coloured smoke on their aircraft and off they shot down the slalome. As is the usual Oz way, nothing was signposted despite the number of roads shut and no one being allowed to park anywhere and it could have been a fiasco if the Ozzies took any notice of any of this. Luckily we had a 4 x 4 so parked on an empty blcok which was deep sand. We were a bit more Ozzified this time and had packed a lunch, had our chairs and a blanket, hats, sun lotion and sun glasses. Still we didn't get it right, the Ozzies turned up with gazebos and someone even trundled in a full size bbq !! Another lesson learnt. We're also still not good at our timings. We arrived at 10am and the place was already packed. We met some friends who had been there since 8am and they weren't the first !

Good news too about our rental. The real estate agent has found someone to take over a week after we move, so we can have a leisurely move and have time to clean when it's empty too. So, two weeks Friday, we'll be in our new house and I just cannot wait !

We are aware that a lot of expats here are finding it hard but I have to say we love it. Paul's been out on his own now for two weeks and, so far, it's working well. We've made some good friends, as have the girls and life is way too busy to get bored or lonely. In fact I need a holiday !!!!!!

06:58 - Sun 19 November 2006 - comments {0}

Weekly report

Not much to report this week. We spent most of Sunday cleaning the house ready for the real estate's inspection on Tuesday. Apparently they are very hot on these and expect the windows to be cleaned, garden completely free of weeds, oven spotless and no cobwebs etc  so we had a fair amount of work to do !! We did get a few hours break when some friends invited us round for coffee though. Paul is going to start work today with the dad, I'm friends with the mum and Tallulah's friends with one of the daughters which is where it all started ! Paul's glad to be getting out there now on his own building houses although a bit nervous about having a partner again. His old employer offered an extra $20 a day for him to stay, funny how you are only valued as you leave.

Saturday afternoon we popped down to the Dolphin Quay in Mandurah. We last visited the place a couple of years ago and it was all just empty shops. Now it has a number of cafes, shops and a market and was good for a wonder around followed by some chips by the marina. You can see that in the future the place will be buzzing, there is a lot of potential. I'm sure my two will be swanning around there in years to come people watching. It's a bit more upmarket than the rest of Mandurah and lots of holiday places being finished off ready for let/sale. Good investment if only we had the dosh !

The main thing I've noticed this week is how much the girls love school. Nakita spent last week designing and making a hat for the Melbourne Cup (Oz equivalent of Ascot). This week they get to wear it and watch a race. She's really enthusiastic about it, they've definitely captured her imagination as they have Tallulah's !

Tallulah came racing out of school last week with a large bag inscribed 'garden buddy'. It was her homework for the evening and I've never seen her so keen to do homework. The bag contained a camera and a toy cuddly snake named Sam. She had to take a couple of pictures of Sam in her garden, draw the design of the garden and write a page on the garden from Sam's perspective. She loved it. Her handwriting is still bad but at least she was fired up about something which I haven't seen for ages. They also have to do exercise every day at school. Tallulah has to run around the school trying to beat their previous best and they both have to do skipping. Yesterday we were treated to a performance by Tallulah and her friend of the skipping they do and it is excellent. All the sorts of things (and more!) that I did as a child but now is not 'cool'. Tallulah has definitely gone backwards and become a child of ten again instead of a teenage wannabe and it brings us a real glow to see that.

This week we have the dreaded inspection and the usual bout of cafe meets so business as usual. I have no idea what we are up to this weekend, will have to see what the weather is up to but I have made a very long list of all the things we want to visit so may get stuck into that. I guess we'd better start packing up boxes too seeing as we move 4 weeks on Friday !!

10:36 - Mon 6 November 2006 - comments {0}

Mandurah

So another week has gone by and it's been a bit up and down. The beginning of the week found me a bit weepy but Wednesday was the first Mandurah expat meeting I'd arranged and it was uphill from there ! Friday evening was the start of the Mandurah Little Nippers free childrens festival and we went down to the foreshore and had fish and chips overlooking the water. There were shows, bouncy castles, games, tattoos and face painting - all free. Then at 8.30pm there was a fantastic firework display over the water - fabulous start to the weekend. When Paul got home from work on Saturday we were all ready to hit the beach so we went to a new beach we'd not tried in Halls Head (Doddies beach). We weren't overly impressed, lots of seaweed and teenagers swigging bottles of beer but we had a great time anyway. On the way back we popped into the beach which will be a 5 minute walk from our new house and it looked good. It's still a dog walking beach but no seaweed nor teenagers but a couple of families and people fishing. That will be our beach when we only have a couple of hours, we're still looking for our perfect 'all day' beach and will try Secret Harbour which is a surfers beach and Rockingham in the next few weeks.

On Sunday morning the girls and I headed off for the 10am church service and Sunday School. Nakita enjoyed it but Tallulah didn't venture into the Sunday school but at least went to church. It's lovely there, really friendly, and it looks like they're doing a lot of work in the community which is always good.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to the childrens festival. They both got a massive goody bag - think Race for Life goody bags only bigger and better, they even got full size jars of peanut butter! They had pony rides, made wooden toys and other craft stuff, got milkshakes, saw snakes, petted a baby roo, baby possum and lots of farm animals and dogs all for free. They also had shows and displays to watch. We all had a great time and have been invited to a bbq next Saturday and coffee at someone elses next Sunday.

So all good. Making friends takes a lot of effort though and I'm a bit tired of it now. May take a week off and start afresh the week after

08:08 - Sun 29 October 2006 - comments {1}

New routine

We seem to have settled into a bit of a routine now. Paul leaves for work every morning at 6pm but is home between 4 and 4.30pm. He then has time to spend with the girls before having tea and falling asleep in front of the tv. He works a Saturday morning and we spend the afternoon in Mandurah as a family, either shopping or walking along the foreshore and having a coffee/smoothie. Sundays we go out for the day.

Before we left the UK we thought our dreams for Oz were a bit materialistic. A bigger house, new car and ute etc. Now we're here we've found it's just not important. We have bought a house that is bigger than our old UK one and you can hear the sea from the garden, there's room for a pool and space for fruit and veggies. I have a new car and Paul has his newish ute but we're a family again and it's wonderful. We didn't have that in the UK. Paul worked 7 days a week and then promptly fell asleep and Sunday was always a write off as he didn't want to do anything but chill.

Here we spend loads of time together and outdoors too and that's what's important. In fact Paul and my relationship is almost the same as pre children which, for anyone who knows us, is absolutely amazing.

Today we visited Dwellingup, we spent two hours on a steam train going through a Yarrah forest. The girls weren't impressed but Paul and I were !! We then wandered through the village and had a bite to eat at a cafe. We then went to the heritage centre and walked through a forest with a high climb to the treetops. There is something about this place though - we're always exhausted by 3pm !!! So we had to come home and are ready for bed already. Last weekend we visited Falcon beach and ended up doing a bit of 4WD to a deserted beach including having to go through a bit of the sea to get back. Paul was in his element but I do think it's more of a 'boy' thing !

Last week was very busy and included driving 50 minutes for a coffee morning at Annes in Wellard, a bit of early Christmas shopping, food shopping (which takes a day) and a bit of cooking and cleaning fitted in.

Next week is going to be just as busy. I've arranged a weekly expats meeting in Mandurah as there was nothing happening here so that kicks off Wednesday and then Friday to Sunday is a free Childrens festival here in Mandurah with fireworks, markets, entertainers etc which should be fun - and free !!! Bring it on

07:04 - Sun 22 October 2006 - comments {0}

Scary

Well we finally made an offer on a house and had it accepted !! Weeks of seeing 2/3 every night finally ended with us upping our budget from $400k to $450k to $500k. Paul first wanted a property on a good size plot which needed work. We saw loads of these but only one took his fancy which I didn't like ! I, on the other hand, liked quite a few which he didn't. Finally he decided that he didn't fancy working all day and coming home to start all over again so we upped the budget.

We saw loads more houses with good size plots and liveable houses but which had the plot space to extend. Paul didn't like any. I liked most of them. So we upped the budget again.

We saw a newish modern house we both liked but it was $549 and they would have taken $530 but Paul didn't want to go to that much. We also saw a massive house with pool and spa but was on the main road and then we saw the one we finally both loved. It has high cathedral ceilings, better ocean views than our rental which will be fab with a second storey if/when we do this and room for a pool (our first job!). We put in an offer and received a counter offer which we agreed on. So, subject to finance, we will be home owners again from 8th December.

Paul has since not stopped talking about money. The latest being I have to cut back on food and save money everywhere. Funny how he's still smoking ! The mortgage repayments are huge - as high as we had in the UK but then I was working and Paul was earning double !! We will struggle for a while, that's for sure, but it will get easier I know. I hope the girls, especially Nakita, will start to settle then. They can stick posters on their walls after 8 months of being shouted at !

So, fingers crossed it all works out.

I'm settling on nicely to the lifestyle. The weather hit 29 degrees today and the girls and I met up with some expats at Rockingham beach/foreshore. We had a sausage sizzle on the foreshore and then a couple of hours on the beach. So a day out with the kids on school holidays cost exactly nothing - what bliss !! And it's only Spring ! This week is packed again and keeping me busy - tomorrow I have to once more try and claim family tax benefits, head into Mandurah foreshore and pop into see Alan and Sam before they head off to Kalamunda, Wednesday I'm off up NOR to do some shopping and see Teresa, Thursday morning I'm seeing Debra, then Nakita is off to her friend's house and Tallulah has two friends over for a sleepover and then Friday we have Tallulah's friends for the day. That's nearly 7 weeks with only one day feeling lonely ! In fact I'm looking forward to having a day at home, kids at school and catching up with the housework and chilling !! For now I'm just grateful that the girls are happy.

02:27 - Mon 9 October 2006 - comments {2}

We've arrived !!!

Well we're finally here. I've been offline for over a month now which has been a real struggle.

On Monday 28th August we left Bristol and ended up in the Heathrow Novotel. Lovely hotel, cheap too so just right. We finally managed to pack all of our belongings into many, many suitcases and squeezed them into the car. Kenrina came round, luckily, and helped fit things by directing and, after a few reshuffles we made it.

On Tuesday 29th August we, mistakenly, went to Legoland. It absolutely bucketed it down. We got wetter in the queue for the water ride than we did on it ! A number of rides weren't working because of the rain so we gave up and went for a look around Windsor. After having sat in traffic for an hour we gave up on that too and went back to the hotel.

Wednesday 30th arrived and we decided to set off early for the airport due to the tighter restrictions because of the foiled terrorist attacks. Paul once again squeezed the cases back in the car and we got to Heathrow at 7am. We found three luggage trolleys and piled our stuff on then went to check in. We were over our luggage allowance of 160kg by 55kg. Singapore Air said they'd charge us £850 but excess baggage said only £350. What they didn't tell us was that we'd have to pay another $250 Oz end on picking up !! We then had to take the bags to Arrivals (why ?) and then remove all batteries (because, apparently, their planes fly higher and the batteries would explode!). Luckily no one weighed our hand luggage and we pretended it was as light as a feather when really it was back breaking !! Eventually we got through to departures just as our plane boarded so went straight on. It was an hour late taking off which meant we only had time to walk to the next departure at Singapore but, at least there was no hanging around.

In all it was a good flight. Nakita stayed awake the whole 12.5 hours to Singapore as the films were just too exciting. She finally fell asleep an hour from Perth. Paul slept most of the way !

We landed, picked up the hire car, shoved the reduced number of suitcases in and headed to Merriwa. The holiday house was dark, damp and cold but big enough for us all and had a pool. It took us a couple of days to work out that reverse cycle air conditioning gives heat as well so froze for a bit. On the friday we went out and sorted the bank accounts and TFN's then had a nose round the shops. On our first weekend we visited some northern suburbs and, of course checked out the beaches. We visited Hillaries, Quinns Rock, Yanchep and Two Rocks to name but a few. Mindarie caught our attention. The schools were good and area nice so that was top of our list. Paul loathed Butler with a passion, he is still dreaming about having a ranch on acerage with a verandah and a rocking chair. I think he watched too much of the Waltons when he was growing up.

The next week we checked out south of the river and, once again, ended up in Halls Head. The primary and senior schools have good reputations, beaches are lovely and all facilities were there so we decided to make our new home there. Unfortunately it was 1.5/2 hours away from Merriwa so we travelled a lot of miles !! We had real estate agents working their backsides off looking for rentals and we found a gorgeous one (after seeing some sights I can assure you) up on a hill, with ocean glimpses. The girls walk to school and the area already feels like 'home'.

Whilst still up north we visited Lucy (a work colleague from AXA in the UK who moved over in March) and Theresa and Steve (who we met from expats and moved here in January) so never felt lonely. Lucy has since visited us in Halls Head too !

So now we're south and looking to buy. Our budget of $450k doesn't stretch far but we can buy a house with 'potential' so are looking hard. Every weekend includes a trip to the beach to body board and a bbq provided by Paul although as soon as he puts it on it gets really cold !!

We currently have no tv as the aerial isn't working at the property, nor a sofa to sit on so most nights we go to bed. We've already adapted to the Ozzie way of life by going to bed early (you try going out for a meal here after 7.30 !) and getting up early. Even Paul is up and out by 9am weekend mornings  but I haven't quite got there whilst shopping (no one hurries) yet. As for claiming family tax benefit - I've been trying for two weeks but no one wants to deal - it's a nightmare !!

The girls have settled in easily at school, especially Tallulah, we have three of their friends round on Tuesday which will be good for them. Tallulah now calls this 'home' but regularly talks about moving back to the UK when she's 18. She misses Jane badly. I think if Jane was here, life for Tallulah would be perfect.

It's late now so I'm off to bed. It's a bank holiday here tomorrow but Paul is working so I'm going on a cleaning bender ready for 5 children on Tuesday.

More soon

11:07 - Sun 1 October 2006 - comments {2}

An emotional time ahead

I am an emotional wreck now. Crying over the simplest things.

Yesterday we had a photo shoot with Venture.

It was all four of us and my mum and stepdad. We did the shower, hair wash, blow dry, straighten, make up etc thing. Took all morning to preen ourselves and then an hour for the shoot. £3.50 or parking too !!

Get home to a phone call 'unfortunately we've lost all of the photos as there were problems with the memory card, we can do it again tomorrow morning at 9.30am ! I sobbed my heart out all day whilst I worked out if it was worth going through it all again. How stupid is that ? It's only photos.

So, today, we were all up at 7am and went through the whole process again. I don't think the photos will have the same feeling as we've already done it once and they are very expensive, but at least we were able to invite my dad so we had a full house. Just got the row with hubby on Saturday to go as he thinks the pictures are over priced !!

I'm still not sleeping, last night being the worst - I watched every minute ticking by. I really need some sleep.

The final goodbyes are starting to happen. My dad this morning and some friends tonight. Tallulah's friend bawled her heart out which caught me unawares. I had thought that they were too young to really understand what migrating really meant so I wasn't expecting it at all. My friend's bottom lip then started so they dashed out the door fast without a major goodbye. We hadn't even been friends for all that long but something clicked and we got on great.

Another friend is having the girls a lot this last week so I can get on with packing. We're already over 80kg and not even touched half the stuff we need to take - I have no idea how it's all going to fit into the hire car but we'll give it a damn good go.

It's starting to hit home now what we're doing. A lottery win would help a lot as we could buy a house then but with only two draws left before we go I can't see it happening !

12:04 - Mon 21 August 2006 - comments {1}

Final stages

It was our last expats meet this side of the water yesterday. It felt strange. From the first meeting we went to we are the only ones now left other than a couple that seem to have disappeared into thin air. Now it's our turn and I'm pretty stressed. I'm not knowingly stressed but keep getting continuous mouth ulcers and am not sleeping.

My head keeps spinning with everything left to do. I'm still waiting for calls back from HR, the bank, the hospital and numerous other places. I started sorting things out really early but no one else seems to bother that I only have three weeks left. I just don't want to have to make calls from Oz to the UK at stupid times because people don't get their finger out and do what they say they are going to !

The girls bedrooms were sorted this weekend so, hopefully, they won't collect any more junk before we go. The church has also agreed that all the last minute stuff we need, we can take to the church to give away with donations to charity which is going to help. Paul spent a lot of the weekend putting his car and van on ebay to sell and we've had to wait in all day today for a guy to come and take a picture of the car for autotrader. He's still not shown up and the girls have watched tv since 9am and I'm desparate to get them away. I do hope, though, that the car doesn't sell until the last week. I have a few things planned that I want to but won't be able to if we don't have a car ! On the other hand, we do need to sell them.

Sounds really silly but I miss my bed, dishwasher and tumble dryer. They are currently on the high seas and I do hope they arrive safely. I am sick to death of ironing and washing up !!

Man's just turned up so now we can go and buy pick n mix

03:56 - Mon 7 August 2006 - comments {1}

Friends

The girls have gone for five days holiday to my mums so I intended to use the time wisely ! No such luck though, Monday evening I met up with some old school friends (did I really leave school 25 years ago ?!!) I felt 18 again and it was great - neither are married although one is planning it - so there was 'boy' gossip

Today an even older friend (can't ever remember not being her friend) came down from Lancaster and we had a drink at the garden centre. It was fantastic. I last saw her probably about 6 years ago but it felt like only yesterday. Am really going to miss her which is strange. Have missed her the last few years already but, who knows, she may decide to migrate herself - I can but hope !

Tomorrow I'm having coffee with an old work colleague then in the evening I'm out for a meal with some girley friends from church and Friday I'm out with another friend.

The strange thing is that when we started this migration process hubby and I sat down and said how few friends we had ! I'm sure things have changed only because both sides are now making more effort. Makes me realise what I'm going to miss and how much effort I'm now going to have to put in on the other side.

On the negative side, my belly is exploding these days and, at this rate, I'm going to need to purchase an extra seat to fit my big arse in

10:13 - Wed 2 August 2006 - comments {0}

Boring bits

kids have now finished school and so the little bits and bobs that I've been putting off must now be done.

I filled in my P85 for the Inland Revenue but eldest daughter lost it on the way to the postbox so must order another one  serves me right, I should have posted it myself.

I rang up the TV licence to cancel and request a rebate. The IVR led me through to a message machine telling me to leave my name and address and they'd call me back in three days !! Is that how long it takes to get the message to India ?!!

I've been off sick most of this year and noticed that I'd only received one wage slip so I rang work for the rest and to ask when I'll get my redundancy payment. That was two days ago. No one has rung me back nor replied to my email.

I've given notice on our rental and asked for a reference and am now going to cancel the rest of the DD's. Looks like I'll need every second of the next five weeks if today is anything to go by.

When we got the visa I thought all I had to do was have a goodbye party and pack. Oh how wrong I was !

09:35 - Tue 25 July 2006 - comments {0}

leaving party over

today we had our 'goodbye' party. We had a casino (with fun money), giant jenga, target, twister, downfall and connect four. It looked like everyone had fun, weather was fantastic, really hot, kids ended up in a water fight followed by a game of rounders.

A few sad people decided to make a 'stand' by not turning up - like we care !! We are off to make a new life in the sun down under without them in our lives and they'll still be stuck here in the same dreary routine with just their arrogance to keep them company.

When it came down to it, it's amazing how many friends we have, ok, I have, hardly any of Paul's turned up. I was chuffed and it's a great feeling. Let's hope I manage to keep some of them !

10:49 - Sun 16 July 2006 - comments {1}

finally we've made a decision

..and that is we are not going to buy straight away in oz but rent for a while.

It's taken a great weight off of us because if we bought it would take all of our savings to pay the deposit and costs etc. ok so we're going to be out of the market and are taking the risk we may not get back in but at least we won't have the mortgage millstone from day 1 with nothing behind us.

now just need to find a rental with a pool

10:58 - Thu 13 July 2006 - comments {1}

op

Today's friday and I had the op Monday. Last food and drink was 8am and i had the op at 4pm. It was very hot and I was desparate for a drink but I had smaller boobs to look forward to !

I haven't had much pain although they are really tight and the 5" width plaster is now very itchy. I came out of hospital on Wednesday and Paul has been as good as gold despite forgetting to leave me any breakfast or dinner today !!

The children have spent the week at a friends house which has gone ok although Tallulah wanted to come home badly yesterday but I could'nt have coped with them. Paul picked them up from school today and then dropped them back there at 4.30pm as they are off camping (in tents!) with the church so we have more peace and quiet until Sunday evening.

As for Oz we are now looking at cars, second hand ones seem more expensive than brand new - explain that !! Need a ute and a small run around but with a total budget of $40k the small run around is getting smaller every day. Paul will have a nice ute though, he'll make sure of that ! Perhaps we'll just end up with some nice bikes   

08:59 - Fri 7 July 2006 - comments {1}

Catch up

Finally the shippers got back to me and have to rearrange our shipment. It turns out that it definitely can't get there before us and so needs to either be sent on a slower ship or sent a month later - we should find out soon. I hope that they don't try and charge us extra for storage, we stupidly didn't negotiate on the quote in the beginning and could have saved ourselves hundreds.

Yesterday I ventured back to the docs, it really does go against the grain being off sick but, when I know I'm going back to work, I can't sleep, feel sick, cry loads and snap at everyone. The doc was great, as I only have 5 weeks left to work she said it wasn't worth going through all the pain so signed me off for 6 weeks to be on the safe side. I handed the note in Monday and am still waiting for someone to contact me. No one there obviously really cares.

Today was a bit non stop. I had to take my eldest to the dentist as her temporary filling had come out whilst she was chewing gum. My dentist is great, he talks about Oz all the time as he spent a year there and loved it. I have pretty bad teeth so asked if I could have a copy of my file he printed it off, complete with prints of the x rays all for no charge, bless him. I will miss him that's for sure, finding a good dentist is no mean feat.

Next I went to the school to help out at lunchtime playtime. A lot of the problems my kids have at school occur at lunchtime because they don't have enough helpers so I thought I'd do my bit. Kids were chuffed and proud which was great to see.

Tonight I had an appointment with a surgeon re having my bust reduced. It's something I've wanted for ages and have finally been given a date - 3rd July ! Hubbys not happy, it's quite a risky op and so close to going to Oz, I just have to hope that I recover without incident. It's going to be painful and tough but so needed. My ever increasing size is causing more and more problems every day. I wish it had been sooner but beggars can't be chosers and at least it'll be done before Oz and whilst I'm off work. Now I have 13 days to panic that I'm going to die !

Still, at least it'll stop the panic thoughts that I'm moving my family to Beirut on a bad day and that my husband is going to turn into an alcoholic wife beater. Sometimes too much information is a bad thing  !

Note to self - stop reading Expats :O)

01:02 - Wed 21 June 2006 - comments {0}

Frustration with shippers

11 weeks today will be our first night in Perth. It seems such a long time to wait. I'm waiting for John Masons to ring me back as they are sending our shipment early so it will arrive a month before we do which I didn't think was allowed. I rang them on Monday and, as usual, the girl was in a meeting/at lunch/away from her desk and would ring me back before the next millilenium. Still waiting. She has my landline and mobile and no excuses. Funny how this happens as soon as they have your money.Still waiting. I rang again yesterday too but she was in a 10 minute meeting (?) Still waiting. We didn't even negotiate the price down when we should have done, feel really stupid about that so, for some reason, I expect better service. It's only a phone call, why is that so difficult to make ?!!

11:29 - Thu 15 June 2006 - comments {0}