owieb

Seeing as there is big interest in weblogs and diaries I'm going to treat you all to the ramblings of MrsOwieB!

She started writing a weblog when we first arrived. It didn't last for long, a few months at the most, but it is rather amusing to read!

There's quite a bit of stuff to upload so I'll probably do it over a few days, but to kick you off here are the first few weeks of our life out here.

Enjoy!

owieb

Thursday, 21 August 2002 - the adventure begins.

After a year of planning, saving, stressing and anticipation we finally boarded the plane that was to take us to the land of our dreams (well Singapore at least) at 10pm. And sat on the runway for an hour and a half. Meaning we missed our onward connection. Meaning we spent the night at a (fabulous) hotel in Singapore.

Saturday, 23 August 2002 - are we there yet?

And finally landed in Perth WA, after 34 hours of travelling (but don’t let that put you off coming to visit – last time we did it in a mere 18).

Rather than being in the state of total exhilaration that we had imagined we were tired, jetlagged and grubby (our suitcases had not accompanied us to the fabulous hotel in Singapore but extremely glad to have arrived in one piece and even more glad to see that the sun was shining.

We picked up our hire car and headed down to our budget accommodation (basic but clean) admiring the sunset over the sea on the way.

After a quick food shop we returned to our apartment for a dinner of fresh fish, brown rice and vegetables (yes we are not only going to be happy and glowing on the outside but virtuous and clean on the inside) and noticed a distinct drop in the ambient temperature. In fact we were so cold that we spent the rest of the evening huddled in a duvet on the leather (look) sofa.There is apparently no central heating on The Other Side of the World. We finally succumbed to jet lag at 9.30pm and slept like people who had just travelled for 34 hours non-stop and were freezing their ******s off.

owieb

Sunday, 24 August 2002 - on a mission!

The day dawned bright and sunny and perfect for attempting today’s task, which was to find a house to rent. Thanks to copious research on OwieB’s part during our Easter visit we already had a good idea of where we wanted to live, and some last minute spreadsheet analysis provided us with a list of suitable estate agents. Despite all these preparations it turned out to be the local paper that saved the day.

Dressed in our most respectable clothes we turned up to view a 3 by 2 (3 bed 2 bathrooms) house in ********* Rt (no, we had no idea what a ‘Rt’ was either) at 1.00pm. It was absolutely perfect – within our budget, 10 minutes walk from the beach, brand new, sparkling clean and the gardening and window cleaning were included in the rent. So we decided to go and see somewhere else just in case.

And of course the agent didn’t turn up!

And by the time we got back to the original house there was a dark blue Jag in the driveway and a well to do looking couple were shaking hands with the agent and making and appointment for Monday morning. OwieB and I looked at each other in horror. Why, oh why, oh why do we always do this? We are going to spend the rest of the day practising being decisive……..we think.

After an emergency summit meeting we devised a cunning plan which mainly involved OwieB fluttering his eyelashes and showing a bit of leg, and in 5 minutes we were sitting in the (identical) house of the next door neighbour who had been left in charge of the letting. I was shaking so much I could barely fill in the required forms for an application to rent no ********* Retreat (ah, obviously!). Mr Next Door Neighbour will let us know over the weekend whether the owner (who has lived in the house for about 2 weeks since it was built in January) gives his approval. Fingers crossed!

Oh yeah, and OwieB got randomly breathalysed on the way up to Hillarys. Just in case you were interested.

To celebrate we went to a great restaurant on the beach where the weather turned from bright sunshine to wet and stormy in half an hour. Abandoning our planned jog we spent the rest of the evening scouting out the Hillarys area (our neighbourhood to be) and trying to keep warm in our apartment. Thermal fleeces, socks and hats were the order of the day.

8.44pm - WE GOT IT!
Mr Next Door Neighbour called to say that we could have no. ********* subject to signing a 12 month lease and giving a $100 cash deposit. So after a quick change back into our respectable clothes we tootled back to Hillarys to sign our lives away. Well the next year anyway.

Of course the house wasn’t exactly as great as we remembered but it still looked pretty good. And Mr Next Door has promised to get us a good deal on a fridge and a hoover. And lend us some plates. And cutlery. And a bed. We’re really glad we organised all our furniture and belongings to be put in indefinite storage in the UK. Very useful.

On the way back we encountered our first traffic jam due to a car that had rolled in the rain. It was only about 5 cars long but the driver of the car alongside us decided not to wait and executed a neat U turn on the central reservation between the two dual carriage ways (in the dark and torrential rain remember). He was aided only by a very wet girlfriend in a short skirt and heels who had to teeter out and stop the oncoming traffic - a very brave endeavour considering he was only 10 yards from the police car attending the accident - but this was obviously more acceptable to him than sitting in the jam for a whole 5 minutes.

I think our entire perspective on life is about to change. Mr Next Door told us he will be home from work late on Monday night – at 18:30!

The Other Side of the World is a strange country; they do things differently there………………â� ��¦.

Back at the apartment OwieB spends the next hour going through the local paper to make sure we haven’t been ripped off. Bit late now!

owieb

Monday, 25 August 2002 – Information

The other side of the world is closed on Sundays!

Friday, 29 August 2002 - it's my birthday in 6 days!

7.00 am. We’ve had a hectic few days moving into our new house and getting acquainted with the area. The house is wonderful but very bare; we are eating our meals sitting on the floor and standing at the breakfast bar to do everything else. Well nearly everything else.

Our next door neighbours, K’n’K, have been extremely kind in lending us kitchen equipment and crockery, and even bath towels, until our stuff turns up. They insist that we should let them know whenever we need anything but I think they will live to regret saying that.

Everything is topsy turvy here as you would expect it to be, being only held on to the globe by upside down gravity. For example Woolworths only sells food (and very nice food come to that), cars give way to cyclists and pedestrians, and all the shops shut at 5.30pm. How bizarre!

Sunday, 31 August 2002 - one week on.

I have had a stinking cold for the past few days so haven’t been feeling very forthcoming. Still not feeling full of my usual wit, charm and charisma (?!) but so much has been going on I will try my best to fill you in.

On Thursday afternoon we decided to suss out the public transport system as OwieB had an interview in town in the afternoon. There is a station within 10 minutes drive of us and from there the train takes another 10 minutes into the city. The best bit about the station was the kiss’n ride spaces. We don’t have boring old ‘drop off zones’ over here, oh no. The spaces right outside the station have a sign showing someone bending over to kiss the person driving the car. Therefore you HAVE to kiss before you ride the train. OwieB is not pleased about this. Anyway, the carpark was full so we ended up driving into town. We spent the day traipsing between interviews at employment agencies and dodging the torrential rain that came out of nowhere.

This place is so small, we ended up getting to interviews half-an-hour early as it only takes about 5 mins (by free buses) to get from one end of the CBD (Central Business District) to other. What makes it even more confusing is that the maps are to such a big scale, you think it’s going to take ages, but the reality is that it’s no more than a few hundred meters. It’s just so easy!

The weather is incredibly variable at the moment, going from bright sunshine and blue skies to howling wind and torrential rain in seconds. Sound familiar? Luckily all our winter gear is in storage in the UK but we have seen some lovely rainbows so that’s ok. However we have been reliably informed that spring arrives promptly on September 1st (which also happens to be father’s day here) and then its all systems go into summer. We shall look forwards to that even though the paper says that hail is forecast for the 1st. Well obviously the locals know better than the weather forecasters!

We drove home from the city in rush hour and that took a whole 30 minutes. According to the locals we were mad to have even considered it. Well when the ‘traffic jams’ are 5 cars long and the journey only takes an extra 10 minutes we’re not really that worried!

On Friday we went exploring up the coast but were sidetracked by another shopping centre. On returning home we sat in the front garden with the neighbours and gossiped as they introduced us to everyone who was passing. By the end of that little session, I had been employed as a tutor to mr & mrs next door’s daughter and we had arranged to go out with the people who live behind us on Saturday night.

Things got even better that afternoon when I was offered an interview for a job on Monday and OwieB was offered an actual job! (He always has to go one better!). We were very excited but OwieB is a little apprehensive about having to go to work in an office for the first time in 13 years. I have no sympathy.

So after just a week of being here everything seems to have fallen into place quite nicely. Out of the list of things to do we have managed to get a house, a job and a social life. What more is there to life?? We have also worked out a great jogging route which takes us across the park, around the lake, down to the beach, along the beach to the harbour and back again. Most of this run takes place on cycle paths well away from the road so it’s actually very enjoyable.

owieb

Monday, 01 September 2002 - the first day of spring

OwieB is not the kind of guy who holds your hair out of your face and says ‘there, there’ while you’re being sick. Oh no. He lies in bed shouting ‘make sure you rinse the bowl properly’!

The only reason I know this is because after 4 (lite) beers at an ‘English’ pub on Saturday night I was violently ill. Twice. I’m sure it must have been a dodgy bottle that I had. At 31 years old (in 2 days time in case you had forgotten) it certainly couldn’t have been the quantity………..

We had whiled away Saturday morning very pleasantly. OwieB was messing around on his computer, as boys do, and I was reading, in between hanging the washing out and taking it in again, and hanging it out again etc etc, depending on what the weather was doing.

In the afternoon we decided to pop up the road to the shopping centre to pick up some washing powder and the like.

We returned home with 2 bean bag covers, 400litres (about 10 car petrol tanks) of polystyrene beans, an ironing board, a box of tissues, a bath mat and a pair of rollerblades. We were having a very random day.

I don’t know if you have ever tried to fill a bean bag with beans – I think in the UK they come ready filled, and with good reason!
We ended up with a new carpet of polystyrene beans. We then discovered that polystyrene on a highly varnished wooden floor results in a friction negativity situation. We were chasing the little bastards all over the floor for the next hour or so!

We eventually had to give up as we had a hot date with our over-the-back neighbours, R and N, to go to an English Pub up the road with a crowd of their friends.

We found the English Pub hysterical. It was in the middle of nowhere in a trading estate full of industrial buildings. It stood out like a sore thumb because of the mock tudor style of the building. Typical of English pubs as we all know. It served Caffreys, but that was where the similarities ended. It was big and spacious, practically smoke free, enough seats for everyone, the ladies loos were huge and clean and you got served at the bar within a minute without having to push and shove and stand in pools of beer. And there was a live band that played music you actually wanted to dance to on a dance floor that was big enough for everyone. We had a great night, until of course, I had that dodgy beer.

It was about 12.30am by then (no chucking out at 11pm in this pub!) so the crowd we had come with decided to go home.

On the way we encountered about 3 police cars and our friends were very concerned that they would be caught not wearing seatbelts. The fact that N and R were both crammed into the front passenger seat didn’t seem to worry them at all!

The police and their ‘booze bus’ were another example of Australian efficiency. The police had set up a mobile police station in a bus at the side of the road and were stopping drivers to breathalise them. If you failed the test you were hauled into the booze bus, booked, fined and had points added to your license there and then. You were also required to leave your car at the side of the road and take a taxi home.

We first encountered this level of customer service when we rented our household electrical goods.

I phoned the rental company with our order at 1.00pm only to be told that the delivery man had just left. Now in England this comment would be followed by platitudes such as ‘we can’t promise a delivery slot before the end of the year’, or ‘it will be anytime in the next 6 weeks between 9am and 5pm but we can’t be more precise than that’.

On the Other Side of the World however, the delivery man was called back, our order was loaded onto his van, and an hour and a half later we received a brand new washing machine (top loader – what’s that all about?), brand new tv and nearly new fridge.

That’s the way (aha, aha) we like it (aha, aha).

Anyway, todays little task is for OwieB to teach me to roller blade.

The blades we purchased yesterday being an early BIRTHDAY PRESENT from him. However we were woken up by the most torrential storm imaginable – at one point the rain was driving so hard we couldn’t even see the houses on the other side of the road! The wind was howling & extremely loud. Luckily I don’t have enough alcohol in my bloodstream any more for a hangover, as i would have found the storm very noisy and confusing!
However now, about 2 hours later there is a gentle breeze and the sun is starting to come out.

owieb

Tuesday, 02 September 2002 - one more day to go!

Here are the Rubbish Rules: (their formatting, not mine!)

 Put your rubbish cart and recycling out before 6.00am on your collection day.
 Only rubbish contained inside the cart will be collected.
 Ensure the rubbish cart lid is closed.
 Ensure your cart is positioned with the wheels and handle facing away from the street and within one metre of the road.
 Ensure that your cart is at least one metre away from cars, obstructions and other carts.

We're scared!!!!!

Yesterday afternoon was just the way we expected life out here would be.

I persuaded OwieB to take me out on my rollerblades in the park. It was great, and the wind was so strong it was blowing me along most of the time so all in all very enjoyable.

When we got back one of our friends, J, popped round and we decided to go for lunch at the harbour. After a delicious and leisurely meal we headed up to the Swan River to watch J’s husband windsurfing and then, as if by magic, a café appeared, and what else could we do but succumb to the lure of coffee and cakes.

All very bohemian.

J and her husband S live two roads up from us, or a minute away through the park. This is very useful as J is also a roller blader and windsurfs as badly as I do by the sound of it. We have made a pact to get ourselves windsurfing like the big boys. Apparently J missed all of last summer as she was looking after ‘the girls’ – her two dogs of indeterminate breed, M and M.

Oh, I have just been reliably informed by OwieB that the dogs are ‘little hairy ones with short legs’. Thanks (mate)!

(OwieB's note: MrsOwieB is already picking up Australian slang, we now get 'no worries', 'ah yeah' and 'mate' on a regular basis!)

PS Just saw on the news that Posh has had a baby boy called Romeo. Is this true?? We suspect that the news here is mostly made up but we are going to check the Sun online to find out.
That’ll be a much more reliable information source then!

We have just realised that if you are reading this on Monday morning, you are reading about the day before it has happened!! So give us a call if you want to know what’s in store for the day ahead……………

Owieb's Note: Just to keep everyone update on certain details that MrsOwieB skips over, I will be making guest appearances to ensure that you get the full story!

And the first story relates back to Saturday night. As you have already read, MrsOwieB was somewhat ill after drinking 4 bottles of Redback Lite beer. This beer is a low alcohol beer, infact it is less than 3%, what's more the adverts for this beer claim that you can drink a bottle of Redback Lite every hour and still never be over the drink-drive limit! You cannot get drunk on Redback Lite. This has amused everyone out here and poor MrsOwieB is getting so much stick. People can't wait until she goes out drinking again, when they might give a full strength beer!

owieb

Monday, 08 September 2002 - spring has arrived!

I have just realised that I must have not saved the last entry I wrote – it’s disappeared so now I’ll have to start all over again from my birthday.

Sooooo…….

Tuesday (my birthday – just in case you weren’t concentrating)
Thank you all so much for the cards, e-cards, emails, singing and the fantastic basket of choccies from R and Z that was sitting on the doorstep on weds (tomorrow if you’re reading this as if it was today (although it’s really Sunday by now – poetic license and all that!)). My birthday was interesting. I had had a job interview the day before (Monday) and after waiting in all day to hear back we went out for a jog at about 5ish and missed the *@?* phone call from the agency. So I didn’t sleep on Monday night and was exhausted by Tuesday. After a few more hours of anxious waiting I found out I did get the job so had to rush around and get ready for starting the next day!

That evening we went for a fantastic dinner at a café on the beach – and managed to muster up a total of 10 people from somewhere. The food here is fantastic – we’ve not had a bad meal yet and the salads are to die for – none of your limp lettuces and empty tomato skins, oh no! In 4 days time I have a fabulous pumpkin and blue cheese salad but I can’t tell you about that as it hasn’t happened yet.

Wednesday. We both started work today and I’m not sure who was more in shock – OwieB due to not having worked in an office for 13 years or me for not having driven for 9 months!

My drive to work is fab – all the way along the sea road, and on the way back the sun is usually breaking through the clouds in fingers, over the sea, just like you see on the films. Which films I’m not sure but you must see it sometimes. I just have to remember to keep the sea on my right on the way there and my left on the way back and I can’t possibly get lost. In theory.
The traffic lights change from red straight to green on the Other Side of the World – talk about having to be on the ball!!

My job seems fine – I am working in the finance department of a university so at least I understand the environment which is a bit of a novelty for me. I have also managed to avoid any significant number involvement which also makes things a darn sight easier. My hours are supposed to be 8am – 4pm which leaves plenty of time for playing afterwards.

OwieB is a tad miffed at being expected to work a 40 hour week (but has worked out that he can also be home by 4.30pm if he starts at 6am. He seems to be fairly happy and is managing to ruffle lots of feathers with his opinions on the government’s computer systems which is always good for a giggle (and probably not advisable on your first day!).

Thursday. After our post work jog (lots of virtuous point for us!!!) we headed up to the local shopping centre. Thursday night is Late Night Shopping on the Other Side of the World. It is THE social event of the week evidently. OwieB’s mind was blown by the number of nubile young ladies dressed in skintight clothes for the occasion – he is now eagerly awaiting the increase in temperature in the hope that the said young ladies might venture out of the shopping centre and on to the beach……….

Friday. We had planned a romantic dinner a deux as we have been so busy having a social life we haven’t really had ‘quality time’ together. This is quite reable as a) we have never had a social life before, let alone such a consistent and manic one and b) OwieB is adamant that he doesn’t do romance (even though I think he secretly enjoys it and is actually rather good at it).
However…….

The minute we walked in the door on Friday, J and S and ‘the girls’ (M and M the two random breed dogs remember!) arrived for a cup of tea. M, apparently, is on puppy Prozac due to a disturbed childhood!!! They (J & S, not the dogs silly!) invited us round to theirs for dinner followed by champagne in the outdoor hot tub. Well how could we refuse an invite like that! Romance was put on hold after all. As they were leaving, N, from over the back fence, came round to invite us out to dinner. She and her boyf R had made lots of money at work and were going out to celebrate. See what I mean about the social life! I’m exhausted just thinking about it!

Saturday. J invited me out for brekkie and rollerblading so how could I possibly decline! We had breakfast at a café called the ‘Wild Fig’ which overlooks the beach. YUM! Then off to a nearby lake for four energetic laps during which I didn’t fall over once. Result!!! J carries a bicycle bell with her for use in emergencies – and once I got going I couldn’t stop – you should have seen the pedestrians scattering in our wake!

Obviously much cake and coffee was required afterwards, combined with a little browse around the shops. All in all a very enjoyable morning. I arrived home to find OwieB had very much enjoyed his morning with the boys and was proudly displaying his first surfing injury (see it in the photo section) – a nice gash on his arm. It looked a lot worse than it was but he assured me all the other boys were very impressed and he did manage not to cry.

That evening we went out AGAIN, back to the Wild Fig in fact, where the food was once again top notch. I had the famed pumpkin, blue cheese, pine nuts and cherry tomato salad followed by the most melt in your mouth fillet steak you can imagine. As a rule you only have 2 starters OR a main course out here as the portions are so big. Many restaurants are BYO (bring your own alcohol) so you can have whatever alcohol you want and as we weren’t drinking our starter and 2 mains came to less than £20. No, its ok, we also went for a jog earlier on and didn’t have lunch so we were more than capable of eating that amount.

Sunday. Spring has arrived! (isn’t this where I came in???) Today we finally had our romantic quality time together. The hot weather seems to be here – we haven’t had any rain for a good few days now and the sky has taken on that amazing deep blue hue without a cloud in sight. We drove down to Fremantle, a port just south of Perth that is famous and touristy but there are loads of good places to eat and trendy shops. It is also about the only place open on a Sunday. After a bit of a mooch we had lunch (food was great obviously) and drove back home. We decided to forgo our jog (Sunday is the day of rest after all) and instead walked down to the harbour for an ice cream.

Now these are not just any ice creams. The procedure for Ice Creams on the Other Side of the World goes like this.
1. Choose your flavour (sort of baskin robins stylee – a choice of about 25). I had fat free white chocolate.

2. Choose your 'mix-in'.You can choose an accompaniment to your ice cream – these are usually fun sized chocolate bars, or m & ms, or fruit, or sweets, or chocolates of some description. I chose mango pieces and strawberry pieces (see my halo shiiiiiine!)

3. In the most labour intensive process known to man, your ice cream is chopped & mashed with a blade, then your ‘mix it’ bits are thoroughly chopped as well, then the whole lot is chopped and mashed together in one big ice creamy chocolately (or fat free fruity) mush. Heaven!

We sat on the harbour wall people watching and getting ice cream all over ourselves. Refreshed, we marched home. And here we are!

I am now off to mash my soup with a fork as our blender has not yet arrived. Then we shall tootle off to bed ready for another week of Adventures on the Other Side of the World. Night night.

owieb

Another couple of days for you to enjoy.

Wednesday, 10 September 2002 - the answers to little aussie mysteries.

Well I have been learning lots about everything lately! For example….

Why do we need the Rubbish Rules?
We need the Rubbish Rules because the Rubbish Cart has extendable arms that come out, grab the bin from the side of the road, empty it and put it back nice and neatly from whence it came.

Ergo this proves that men are completely dispensable (presuming you’ve got a woman driving the truck and pressing the buttons).
Also, how do we fill a car up with petrol? (£10 for a whole tank don’t you know??!!)

We fill a car up with petrol by…. Opening the petrol cap with the lever next to the one that moves the drivers seat forwards and backwards (although this is possibly because we have a japanese car).

Then we select the correct nozzle from the pump. We know if we have selected the wrong nozzle from the pump because IT DOES NOT FIT IN THE HOLE!!!!! Thus once again rendering men redundant because even I am now unable to fill the petrol tank with anything other than fuel from the correct sized nozzle.

Oh, we are very organised on the Other Side of the World.

Other interesting facts….

It is actually illegal to park facing the wrong way on the side of the road– you must park in the direction of the traffic flow (well the illegal bit is probably the pulling out across the oncoming lane of traffic).

We have booked to go and see Boney M play at the local theatre!! Hooray. As usual we left it so late that the only seats left were the back row of the dress circle but at least we can stand up and have a good boogie. I am very looking forwards to that!!

Our airfreight should be delivered tomorrow!! Whoopee!
I am now going to put the (top loader) washing machine on. We have found out what that’s all about – it mangles your washing – especially the sleeves – so you have to put everything in mesh bags. But that’s ok as it all dries in ten second flat in the sea breeze and lovely sunshine. We have also (finally) had our airconditioning installed. Bring on the summer!!

I forgot to tell you before – we have a remote controlled garage door in our double garage. This week’s game is how far down the road can you open the door from. I am winning. (well, I know this is a bit sad but 1 bed flats in London like mine don’t tend to come with automatic double garages!).

By the way, people are absolutely incensed when I tell them how much property is worth in London. They want to know why I am bothering to work at all with all that equity sitting there doing nothing. Fools!!

I have just been informed by OwieB that the petrol pump story is invalid as this also happens in England. I don’t believe him and am refusing to remove the story. What are your thoughts?

owieb

Saturday, 13 September 2002 - another day in paradise.

I just wanted to start today’s entry by thanking you all for your lovely comments about the diary. It’s great to know that you are all sitting there on the proper side of the world getting some idea of what its like for us over here. It makes me feel less far away somehow……………..

But what is this obsession with what the inside of our house looks like??? In lieu of the photos that you are requesting (and you will soon see why these will not be so great) I will endeavour to describe the inside of no ********** Retreat.

Downstairs is completely open plan (except for the garage and laundry room). The walls are cream and the floor is floorboards varnished to within an inch of their life. I have never seen such highly varnished boards in my life before, you feel like you are standing 2 inches above the floor because so there is so much varnish on them. However they are extremely effective for practising roller blading especially as they have yet to be encumbered by any furniture. (Although we do this with the blinds drawn in case we are spotted by Mr Next Door and have our tenancy withdrawn.)

The stairs and upstairs areas have cream carpet on them which means nothing dirty, or potentially dirty, is allowed on them. OwieB is occasionally permitted to flout these rules and bring his mind with him, but I have a sneaking suspicion he may actually have lost this long ago so the carpets remain nice and clean.
Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms, 2 of which are completely empty (more cream walls and cream carpets) and the third one has a mattress on the floor which is our bed. We have 2 bathrooms upstairs which are done out in hotel stylee grey tiles on the floor and walls. At the top of the stairs we have something called a ‘parents’ retreat’ which is very common in Oz houses. It is basically the size and shape of a fourth bedroom but with no front wall so it forms a bedroom shaped landing area. When we get some furniture this will be our office.

That’s it. We currently have no contents except for our two bean bags in the lounge and our (rented) car in the garage. So photos of the inside of our house would be of empty rooms and varnished floor boards. But if you insist I will see what can be done.

Talking of photos our airfreight arrived yesterday (bear with me, the two subjects are connected!) I would not recommend this method of transportation when you emigrate, perhaps you would be better to get a seat on a plane. (Oh, excuse me while I fetch a bandage, I have just cut myself on my razor sharp wit).

Anyway, we were extremely excited to see our two airfreight boxes sitting in the garage when we got home from work yesterday (by the way, contrary to the misinformation currently being circulated by a certain mr m (fav) I am actually working as an accountant in the finance department of a university and not as a university lecturer.). We were not so excited when we saw, on closer inspection, that the bottom had been ripped open on one of the boxes and half of our belongings were hanging out (see photo – told you there was a connection).

Having unpacked the boxes the damage ran to the following: 1 smashed glass, 1 missing flip flop (actually we were discussing dress down Fridays today at work and one of the girls mentioned that in the summer the guys all wear t shirts and thongs. I got very excited until she told me the English translation of thongs was flip flops!)

1 missing cd writer lots of smashed cd cases
2 bikes with lots of bent bits on them
3 (expensive) cooking pans with huge holes gouged in them.

When we emailed the shipping company to let them know, their response was to ask us to send a photo of anything that was missing or damaged. We were happy to oblige for the damaged stuff but couldn’t quite work out how to get photos of the missing stuff! Perhaps I should send them a photo of the un-missing flip flop and tell them to look out for its mirror image?????

But its still nice to have some of our bits and pieces with us.

You will be glad to know that the weather in the last two days has been overcast and showery. But then I suppose it is only spring. Although I understand you have been enjoying some unseasonal hot weather lately (with apologies to those of you reading this in far flung places of the world such as Laos, Canada and Manchester who may well not appreciate being generalised about (but isn’t it nice to know you are part of an international readership community)).

owieb

Wednesday, 17 September 2002 - sand between my toes.

Now that we have been here a little while things are starting to calm down a bit (except at work that is but more about that later).
We have developed a very mellow weekday routine that runs along the following lines…

6.30am (yes I know, but its worth it in the end) we get up, and OwieB disappears to play football at the bus stop. I presume that he gets on a bus at some point and goes to work. However as I have no evidence to the contrary, I can only presume that he stays at the bus stop all day playing football & eating his packed lunch before wandering home, tired but happy, at about 5.20pm (approximately).

I drive in to work along the coast road (as I may have already mentioned at some point) admiring the sea, watching the people jogging, power walking (that’s very big over here), cycling and surfing, looking at the sun (me, not the people) and generally doing everything except concentrate on my driving. I enjoy watching the other drivers as well as we are all usually tuned into the same radio station and singing along to the latest ‘toons’. This is one great advantage of the extremely low speed limits – you are not in such a manic mad rush that you can’t do something else at the same time.

At work there is lots to do in the way of looking busy and going to get cups of tea. Getting a cup of tea is a very involved process as it means navigating two flights of stairs and a long and winding corridor. Well actually it’s a straight corridor but that’s not such a poetic image is it? Of course there is always the possibility of getting sidetracked on the way by the café and the library, or perhaps just stopping to smell the flowers – little white ones that smell distinctly like honey grow just outside our (Rolf Harris infested) main door.

And the birds! Well! The first time we saw parrots flying around we thought they had escaped from somewhere. Then we realised they live here. All sorts of them. Bright yellow and green ones, brown ones with bits of red on them, white ones with yellow crests (I think they are cockatiels) and kamikaze ones that repeatedly fling themselves at our office window then totter off in a daze. They are an amazing sight. And those wonderful bird of paradise flowers grow in peoples’ gardens. (Those ones on the tables at the bpp summer bash for those who were there – everyone else will have to look them up on the internet). I am also going to have to scour the thesaurus for more superlatives. Or are they extinct???

After several hours of doing this I drive back (along the coast road) admiring the sun over the sea and the surfers in the water. In the past two weeks I have managed just 5 days without getting lost at some point, mainly because of protracted people watching and sun admiring. I usually only realise I am lost when I look back at the road and don’t recognise where I am.

5.30pm we commence the After Work activity (don’t worry, its not quite as regimented as it sounds) which on most days consists of a jog along the beach front to the harbour and back. We get the most stunning sunsets and by the time we are at the harbour we can look out to sea and all the yachts are silhouetted against the brilliant golden glow of the setting sun. This is one of my most favourite parts of the day (other than eating times obviously) and reminds us why we moved out here.

Today, however, we walked down the beach to the harbour for dinner which took about 20 minutes (the walk, silly, not the dinner – concentrate!).

On the way we passed the doggy beach.

Now you may have got the sense of how obsessed by doggies people here are (remember molly the mutt on puppy prozac?). Well every so often along the beach front there is a designated doggy beach complete with free doggy doo collection bags, doggy doo specific dustbins, and even (get this) special doggy showers!!! The pups love it though as they get to socialise with other dogs and show off their latest accessories (really!). One of the girls we met is having a 50th birthday party for her dog on the doggy beach this weekend – all the local dogs are invited and she is making a doggy birthday cake. Weird I call it! Give me a small furry pussy any day – at least they don’t need entertaining! ;-)

When we arrived at the restaurant they were giving away free oysters at the front door. Now I luuurve oysters (but then I love liver as well and I’m an accountant so obviously I am not quite right in the head) and these were just amazing – so fresh it only took a couple of gentle chews and these babies slipped right down. Mmmm hmmm!

We had a delicious meal of course then meandered back along the beach in the moonlight. The stars are fabulous but we can’t work out what they are yet (where is Rolf when you need him?) as they are the other ones that you never get to see in the UK. It was not even cold as the sea breeze had dropped (due to the land cooling down or something) and we didn’t see another soul the whole way back. I tried to persuade OwieB to have some nooky on the sand dunes but he wouldn’t in case his mother is reading this.

But this is the strange thing - there wasn’t a car on the road either – not even parked on the side of the roads. I think there is actually no one else living in the whole of hillarys apart from us – or maybe they all have some kind of particle teleporter to get them from place to place. Bizarre.

And so to bed (cleaning the sand from between our toes of course), pleasantly full and sleepy and hoping we didn’t get food poisoning from the oysters.

NedKelly63

This is a weblog right? Can you not just post a link for it?

owieb

I could, but that contains a lot more info that I'd rather not have posted in the public domain. Hence the copy and paste!

NedKelly63

Is the other stuff more interesting than this?

owieb

Why? Are you bored already?

It just contains things like contact numbers, family details, personal photos etc.

NedKelly63

Fraid so....