Busy week

I said goodbye to Debs on Monday which was pretty sad. She arrived in Oz only a week or so after we did and we met up early on and clicked and became good friends. Unfortunately, less than 5 months later her husband drowned at Pyramid beach and, since then, she has really struggled with whether to stay in Oz or return to the UK. After Christmas she finally reached the decision to return and Monday was D Day.  It was sad, but understandable, but has once again left me with a lonely feeling. You do struggle to make friends here and it's hard when those you do click with leave but I guess it is a fact of life. I am sure Debs and I will keep in contact and I hope she'll be back for a holiday sometime soon !!

Good news with high schools though, Tallulah got a place at Frederick Irwin High School. This is fantastic news, the school has an excellent reputation and gets great results so we are very pleased. http://www.frederickirwin.wa.edu.au/home.html      the only downside was, in the offer letter, receiving a request for an enrolement fee of $960 which went into the building fund and only 4 days to find the money !!!! We now have to put a budget into plan to save hard for the first terms money, uniform and stationery. I hope it's worth it !

The search is on for me to get a job in order to save for this. I have applied for four jobs now and, in normal Oz fashion, haven't even received an acknowledgment despite one having a closing date of over a month ago. I will keep on applying and assume I haven't got any of the jobs just to be on the safe side. Other people have told me that you can wait months for interviews and even months after that for a job offer, nothing happens quickly here. In the meantime Rob, Karen and I are looking at setting up a business, nothing spectacular but my goal is to pay the school fees. We are in the initial process and the tax and legal side is mind boggling as is trying to get some time of peace and quiet to sort it all out in my head ! Will let you know more when things are more concrete. I am still Body Shopping though as I do enjoy it and have now taken on my second consultant, yippee !!

We are in autumn now and the weather shows. Monday we had tremendous storms which flooded our garage. As Paul was trying to save our things, the beloved next door neighbour comes round moaning that the water is coming off of our side into his precious yard  which, seeing as his house is lower than ours and we had that much rain wasn't a shock ! Paul was still trying to sort out our garage but when he saw the guy coming back with a shovel he had to stop that and sort out the side. Needless to say we were pretty mad and we won't be bbq buddies with them any time soon. We had a big clap of thunder right overhead which was shocking and the electricity all went out for a few hours. I had to pick up Mutley from Robyns and all the roads were flooded (and I mean ALL), some pretty high and all the traffic lights were out too. Hats off though, no breakdowns or accidents, Ozzies are good in a crisis.

Tuesday onwards were gorgeous days until Friday night when the storms were back, then gorgeous again. In fact as I write the kids and Paul are in the pool which is now filled up to the top so they can splash to their hearts desire ! Funny though, that day and night have made April three times wetter than average and is set to break records. I'm not sure if I prefer it to be short and torrential or days of less heavy rain. Actually I think I prefer the torrential bit, much more dramatic and makes you appreciate the next day of sun.

Next week is the last week of term before the much needed holidays, although I have to say this term has flown past, but I am looking forward to grabbing at least one lie in !

05:52 - Sun 6 April 2008