We arrive late on 30/12 and will spend 31/12 running round buying inflatable beds, bar fridge, food etc so we can camp out over New Year in an unfurnished house.

Our son turns 4 on 5th January, but I imagine we'll be too busy to do a lot of present shopping, plus he'll be with us.

I thought about buying toys online and having them delivered to arrive before we do.

So:

(1) I presume undeliverable mail goes back to local post office (we're at Burns Beach, so Joondalup?) How long do they keep it for before returning it to sender?

(2) Are things like Lego and Playmobil cheaper in the UK or Australia?

(3) Any recommended websites?

Or am I over-complicating this?

1 - Generally a week

2 & 3, take a look here: http://www.fishpond.com.au/

Maybe head down to a Kmart, Target or Big W when you get here. You'll be able to get a bar fridge, inflatable bed and some toys from there. Perhaps look at the bigger shopping centres as they'll have a mix of 2 or 3 of them rather than just the one. There'll also be a supermarket, butchers, grocers etc in them

Yep, I'm probably over-complicating it!

I guess it would be easy enough for one of us to distract him while the other nips into K-Mart etc.

On a related note - where in the vicinity can I get a birthday cake, ideally Thomas, Bob the Builder or something like that?

Everything will be on sale here so I'd do it when you arrive. You only need one of you to take him off to the beach or Maccas for an hour and the other one can buy pressies.

You'll get everything you want in Lakeside shopping center Joondalup in one day, stop panicking

The hardest part is fitting it all in the car afterwards

Contact me when you get here about the cake. I bake from home and I'll probably be a whole lot less expensive than a bakery. And I'm not too far away in Butler.

I wish I'd known that in July Dorothy! We ended up with an awful cake for my son's birthday!

This is the one I did for my friend's baby shower. If you look closely you can see it even has an outie belly button.

LOL!

I'm not so much panicking as trying to be hyper-organised, but I'm bound to forget something.


I like the idea of sending them off to the beach while I hit the sales.....could get VERY expensive!