My families adventure on the road to oz via Germany

Always take the weather …

Load of old shit …

I downloaded a couple of shows recently that jogged the old memory banks. They were both about the south west of England and Cornwall in particular. In one, Richard Wilson takes a road trip down the A30 coast road and in the other  historian David Heathcote explores Cornwall with one of the old Shell Guides. I thought David Heathcote’s was the more entertaining of the two, particulary as he covered parts of Cornwall we know very well. He was particularly scathing of Padstow (or Padstein as it’s more commonly known) and the fact that you stand more chance of winning the lottery than finding a car park space there. Was nice seeing the Camel Estuary and Rock, because we went on a sailing course there once - learning to drive those little Mirror dinghies you always see.

One moment did tickle me though. Heathcote drove down to Polzeath beach, a place he hadn’t visited in more than 20 years, to see if it had changed. The general upshot was that it hadn’t really changed much in that time, but what made me giggle was all the surfers, in full steamer wetsuits, hats and gloves, wandering down to the water with their surfboards. I love Cornwall, but that side of surfing in the UK truly sucks. I suddenly remembered those winter surfs off Fistral or Crantock when your head gets ice-cream freeze and pissing in your wetsuit to warm up is a necessity. Don’t get me wrong, it cools off here too, but never *that* cold.

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Messing about in boats …

One of the problems with our little surf club is that too few people put their hand up to volunteer for stuff. As a result you get the same faces doing all the donkey work. One job that’s been unfilled for some time is chief instructor - as a result of which many of us have had to go to other surf clubs to do awards. Anyway - a member of the club who has been out of the whole surf lifesaving movement for 12 years recently rejoined and the great news is that he’s an IRB specialist. The upshot of all this was that starting today, regular IRB training began.

You honestly couldn’t have asked for a nicer day than today. It was in the high 20s, the ocean’s as warm as it’s going to get and the surf was perfect - nice glassy waves and no shitty dumping shorebreak. I got down to the beach a bit past the 10:00am start time on account of going to bed at 3am the night before after an evening of boozing with good friends.

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Money for old rope …

And in other news, the next of the governments big anti-recession ‘incentives’ has hit our bank account. While I’m not complaining about the sudden appearance of an extra $1000 in the bank, particularly since it’s exactly half our next mortgage payment, and since it’s far preferable to being poked in the eye with a short stick - I still don’t understand what Kevin’s hoping to achieve. There again, what do I know - couple of people on the expat forums have commented that the car parks at the big shopping malls were absolutely heaving today as people rushed off to K-Mart, Target and Harvey Norman in their pursuit of Tivos, Tents and Mobile Telephones. Maybe it will stave off a recession.

Unlike a lot of people, Liz and I work for ourselves, so in some ways we miss the worst effects of any economic downturn. Short of firing ourselves, our jobs are fairly safe. If anything, my work (fixing PCs) has actually picked up because ($1000 gift vouchers aside) people are deciding to patch our their old PCs rather than splurge on a new one. They’re also rapidly discovering just how reliant they’ve become on their PCs. Without even noticing, they’ve started banking on ‘em, doing the household and business accounts, storing all their photos, bargain hunting on eBay, using Skype, playing games, listenign to the radio, watching movies … they’ve become as essential to the household as the family car.

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Swimming Carnival

The swimming carnivals here are voluntary so, needless to say, Tallulah has never put her name down for one ! Nakita hadn't until this year either as she didn't have the confidence but this year has started differently !! Nakita felt good enough about herself to give it a go

She swam two races; 50m  breaststroke and 25m back crawl and came 5th and 4th resp gaining a ribbon for each. I was so chuffed with her just for trying so gaining two ribbons and doing so well was the icing on the cake.

All those swimming lessons paid off

The catalogue that time forgot …

Yes, the colour changing angel - a lump of plastic 10cm high that 'spreads peace and joy' through your home. Like all angels, it changes colour from neon blue through to neon green. In the event of a home invasion it also doubles as a personal defence tool - just jab the angel into the face of your assailant and not only will you blind him, but the good lord will banish his wretched soul to hell for all eternity.

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Ticket to Sydney

Interesting facts ...

• To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain’s sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That’s why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders. Worth bearing in mind if you’re not used to sleeping in warmer temperatures.
• One of the most common (dangerous) spiders in Australia is the redback. The female is four times the size of the male (just like humans) and is the one to watch out for. They build incredibly crappy webs close to the ground that look like they were abandoned months ago and where you find such as a web, you’ll probably also find a female in a nest of dead leaves. While not the most venomous of spiders, their venom can cause death in the weak or elderly.
• DLUG stands for double lock-up garage - no Aussie home is complete without one.

Happy bloggy birthday ….

Just noticed that it’s exactly three years since I started writing this blog (or it was when I started writing this post). When you consider that I have trouble sticking to anything, I reckon that’s something else. When I began this blog I was living in Nailsworth in Gloucestershire and had recently made the decision (along with my missus, natch) to emigrate to Australia. That decision was much easier for us, because I’ve held Australian citizenship since birth on account of having an aussie dad. So the spouse visa was just a case of form filling and an agonising five day wait!

My first blog post was made after a day at the Bristol Ice Rink with my wife and son and the sister in law and her daughter. Yes, it’s a pretty bitter post, but I genuinely have a lot of affection for Bristol and the Southwest of England in general. I was brought up in commuterville, 30 miles north of London, but found Bath, Bristol, Cornwall and the Cotswolds far more to my liking and made them my home for all of my adult life post-college. My all-time favourite band - Massive Attack are Bristolians and I love pretty much everything the ‘Bristol Massive’ produced, from Roni Size to Portishead and all stops in between. If our family return to the UK (you never know what’s down the line), we’ll almost certainly head for exactly the same spot we left from.

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The world according to Australia …

Thought I’d begin with a few things that are making the news here in Australia-land. Firstly, today was an official national day of mourning for the people lost in the Victorian bushfires. Amazing stories continue to appear regarding the fires - such as one couple who lost mains water and successfully tackled the blaze in their house with a couple of crates of Pepsi.

Also in the news, an Australian won this year’s Oakley big wave award. The wave in question, a 40m beast, was at Cow Bombie near Perth. Absolute nutters those big wave surfers. I mean, how in the name of all that’s holy do you survive a wipeout on a wave that big?

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Surfs up !

This week Tallulah had her school camp with a difference. She trotted off to school as per usual on Friday morning but, instead of coming home, she stayed at school and disco-ed the night away. They all then slept in the classrooms before getting woken early at 6.30am for breakfast and then spending the morning at the beach ! I picked her up at lunchtime and it was obvious from the start she was tired ! Still, she had a great time so it was all good and cheap as school camps go !

We arrived home and an hour later left again for Margaret River, Tallulah slept all the way down in the car and Nakita watched a dvd so it was a quiet drive ! Paul's ute is dead at the minute and will be for 6 to 8 weeks so it was my little car making the long journey with me driving ! Luckily we made it there and back without incident. We managed to get a cheap night at Margarets Beach Resort (don't you just love www.wotif.com.au ?? ) and after checking in we tried to find Gas Bay. It was with some difficulty as neither TomTom or whereis could find the place but we just followed the surfers all hitting the surf after work. Then there was tea at the bar and we watched the bushfire over at Prevelly, apparently a possum had climbed onto a power line, electrocuted itself and, as it fell sparking, started the fire. Before the Vic fires a bushfire wouldn't have worried me as the firies are awesome but now every smell of burning and every red sun panics me ! Luckily by morning it was gone, yay !!

Sunday we headed to Gas Bay and the surfing competition. Paul is just learning to surf so he was in awe at the talents of the guys and girls ! There was even an over 40's section so he couldn't blame their youth ! We spent the morning there before heading up to Bunker Bay near Dunsborough and, after having dreamt of owning a holiday pad there, headed home and back to reality. Oh for a caravan so we can get away more frequently and cheaply. There are still so many places I want to visit !!!

Back, sack and crack …

I was getting ready for bed the other night and I commented to Liz, that my fine masculine leg hair felt really peculiar in two stripes across the rear of my thighs. She looks at me over the top of her book and says, “Oh.” I stare at her with a querulous look on my face and she says, “I might know something about that.”

Turns out she’s been getting annoyed by the state of ‘the boys’ toilet upstairs, which is used pretty much exclusively by me and Jack. So one morning she put raw bleach on the toilet seat - and forgot to wash it off. So when I paid that loo a visit for a read of my new copy of Empire, I sat right on the raw bleach, which killed the hair in a bog-seat shaped swathe across the rear of my legs.

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The grind …

So, the year is starting to settle down to routine again. There was a bit of upheaval at Jack’s school initially because they get more enrollments then they’d planned on (a rare occurrence by all accounts) and so had to create an extra class. Pretty much all of the school’s classes are combined, so you get year 1/year 2 classes, year 3/4 clases and year 5/6 classes. Only this year, because they had so many new kids, they could afford to bring on another teacher and thus create a new year 2/3 class.

Anyway - we had a letter home saying that there’d be some upheaval and that there was a possibility that your child would be moving class. They finalised those moves at the start of the week and as far as Jack was concerned (but not us), it was all bad news. Firstly, they moved his main out-of-hours playmate from his class. Secondly they moved his main in-hours playmate from his class. Thirdly, he wasn’t moved into the year 2/3 class.

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Schools back !!!!

The schools are finally back now after the long summer hols. Tallulah is now in high school. She very happily trotted off, no sign of nervousness at all, all smart in her uniform. She has mainly stuck with her old school friends for the time being but I suspect that will all change soon enough. So far she is enjoying herself but then the homework hasn't really kicked in as yet !!

Good news on the dental front. Tallulah was due to have surgery to remove the tooth stuck in her gum but the dentist still wasn't happy about doing so as it would cause trauma to her so he took another x ray to check it out. Turns out the tooth root is sustainable and the tooth has started to right itself and so he thinks that the tooth should be saved and capped (it's really pointy) as opposed to ripped out and substitued with an implant. Not only is that good news as Tallulah hates pain (don't we all ?!) but it will save us a fortune too. Yay !!

Citizens ...........finally !

Monday dawned bright, early and hot !! We set off for the foreshore and arrived at 7am for a cooked brekkie of bacon, sausage, eggs, bread and beans. Then at 8.15 we sat down in the reserved seats and waited for the ceremony to start. We felt very priviledged as quite a few of our friends turned up to see us although it might have been better if we hadn't known anyone. Loads of people were becoming citizens so I felt ok knowing that I'd be able to slide to the back ........... as if !! They made 4 go up onto the stage at a time to say the oath !! Anyway, it all went off without a hitch and we were given a native plant, framed citizenship certificate, pen, City of Mandurah badge, bookmark with the national anthem on and a copy of the oath. They also made sure I signed up there and then to vote at the next elections (it's compulsory here!). After all that and posing for the photos we went home and stuffed a cooler bag with food and headed for Perth, we met up with Rob and her family at the train station and then mum and Mike at Perth train station and headed for the esplanade. There was lots of free entertainment for the kids in Perth, Nakita and Lexie even managed to play the drums and then at 9pm the half hour firework spectacular started. It was a very long, tiring and emotional day especially as we had to say goodbye to Mum and Mike at the end, but definitely one never to be forgotten - now we just need Pauls ceremony on 19th February and we'll all be officialy citizens.

Then on Friday Tallulah had her orientation day at school. She had to wear her sports uniform and didn't get off to a great start by trying to get away with not wearing the official socks (Freddies are very hot on uniform!) Luckily hawk eyed Nakita spotted them and dobbed her sister in so she was sent off with a flea in her ear. One of Tallulah's friends is also going and they are going to get the two busses in and back from the second week and this week Tayla's mum is taking them both in and I am picking up so that helps out tomorrow as both girls had to start at the same time at two different schools !

So tomorrow sees them both back at school, we shouldn't be seeing too much of T after that as she will be hit with 1.5 hours homework a night which she has never had before. Peace will regin at last. Mind you, I am counting down the days until the next school hols in 10 weeks time. Although on saying that, it is fantastic that their first day back at school coincides with the superbowl which for us starts at 10am .... a much more civilised hour !!

Lovely day for a swim …

Ozzie sayings

Nicked from Lucy .... ta

For all those planning on coming over to visit, you will need to understand the Aussie strine (language). The following english words are interpreted for you :

The August Bank Holiday …

Every country seems to have it - that mad time of the year towards the end of the summer holidays when everyone hurtles Lemming-like towards the coast for one last blast of down time before the new working year unfolds. In the UK, of course, it was the August Bank Holiday, when the entire population of the United Kingdom gets into its cars and drives towards Cornwall - though usually only making it as far as the Maccers at the Exeter services, due to weight of traffic. If you’re lucky, you can make it from the Midlands to Cornwall in about five hours - so if you set off at midday you can make it to Newquay just in time to watch the ceremonial knife fights outside the Sailors ‘nightclub’.

Over here the equivalent (and it is in every way directly equivalent) of the August Bank Holiday rush is the Australia Day long weekend. Australia Day comes right at the very end of the school summer holidays on the 26th of January - typically only a couple of days before the new school year begins. This year it falls on a Monday - Tuesday is uniform shop day and Wednesday the little darlings return to school.

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hols nearly over

Not long left of the school hols now so we are trying to make the most of them.

On Tuesday we headed up to Scitech with Robyn and Lexie (Tallulah abandoned us for a daytrip with a friend and Aunt to Perth as Scitech is boring!)  where we spent ages playing with all the sciency things. We also got the train up and back to so was a perfect day out.

On Friday it was Paul's 40th, so I baked 23 cupcakes and made a cupcake birthday cake complete with candles and sparklers. We managed to get Paul a surfboard for his birthday and Tallulah made him some CD's for his car and the obligatory massive bar of chocolate - I think he was happy with it all ! For tea we headed down to the forshore and cooked hotdogs on the free bbqs fab day.

Saturday was surfing again only this time Paul was on his new board ! Both Paul and Matt were standing up quite well but Nakita isn't quite there yet. We also watched the suicidal body boarders who ride the rips as they crash into each other and just miss the rocks .... fun to watch but pure madness. In the evening we all went out to Scusi restuarant to celebrate Pauls 40th and mums birthday, another great night.

This week I also heard that I didn't get the job, am not too upset as I didn't want to work but we really could do with the money at the minute especially as the lotto win is alluding us ! So instead I am concentrating every effort on the Body Shop business ... so watch this space !

Today is Mum's birthday so yet more cake ! Tomorrow is Australia Day and our citizenship ceremony. It starts at 7am and I think I'll go wearing my pjs !

zoo

This week Nakita had a behind the scenes experience booked at the zoo. So Nakita, Tallulah and I left at some silly hour and drove up to the zoo and dropped Nakita off, Tallulah and I then headed on the ferry (all included in the bus/train fare !) over to Perth where we met Mum and Mike. We spent a few hours in the museum which completely underwhelmed Tallulah (but Nakita would have loved it !) before heading back to the zoo to pick up Nakita. As she had free zoo entry we all went in and demolished our picnic before spending a long time walking round the zoo in the heat !

Nakita told us how she had prepared ice blocks with food in for the sunbears (who had a baby!) and how they saw the tortoise who was sick and it had hissed at them and how all the animals including the meerkats had babies so she obviously had a fantastic time. However, by the end all of our feet were burning and we were exhuasted. We headed back to the house Mum was letting and had chicken and chips for tea and then very shortly afterwards the girls and I headed over to where we were staying and by 9pm the only sound was snoring !

The next morning we spent having a nose around Subiaco and being thoroughly spoilt before heading home. It was lovely being able to stay so close to Perth after the zoo but no amount of persuasion will get Paul to move ! 

Friday saw me having my first aussie interview, which was different. I am used to lots of tests followed by countless grillings but this was a doddle with barely a question asked ........ something tells me I haven't got the job but you never know !