rach macadie

hi mandy

sounds like your settling in nicely! cant believe how times moving so fast, my husband has just had his flight sorted out and will be moving to darwin in the new year, me and the childen are following on in march, half of me is excited the other half is hating the idea!!! good to keep reading your comments tho! im having a week in Darwin (yes a week!) around the 16th jan, to help the hubby sort a house out! do u recommend any areas or are there any to stay away from ??!
good to hear things are working for u, our paths may cross soon!!!

rachel x

geordie mandy

Back from holidaying in Cairns and starting back to work when i got back has left me with little time.
Just a short up date, the wet season is definatly here in Darwin, had to change clothes 3 times today , got soaked walking from my car to the office, so bad the boss send me straight home to get dried and changed into to dry stuff. Got caught again when i left the private hospital after an appointment and getting back to the car i had enought time luckily to go home and change before another appointment at the public hospital. Luckyfor me i live very close to the hospitals.
Ive been driving in rivers going to and from work as when the monsoon rain starts its very heavy and the roads just become rivers. Very scary stuff indeed. Last night got no sleep as we had a hell of a storm and it felt like the whole house was shaking. according to the forecast its going to be like this all week, so im taking a rucksack with a towel and spare clothes with me to work as i have lots of clients to visit in between office work.
Im so exhausted now so im off to bed but will give more of an update at the weekend
Mandy

moneypenny20

Stick the back pack in a bin liner. Tropical rain, as you've found out, gets through everything in seconds.

Meggzie

Really enjoying reading your experiences in Darwin....We have spent a couple of holidays there with our eldest niece & we loved it...we fed the fish at Doctors Gully & swam in Wangi Falls in Lichfield Park...just perfect & we will never forget swimming in the pool in the pouring warm rain at our neices house...also a visit to Crocodylus Park which is near to where our neice & her family live.

geordie mandy

As promised a much longer update. Been living in Darwin 7months now. That has flown over.
I must admit working has certainly made a difference in our household. Im still buying mainly homebrand value foods but i can afford the odd treat now as well. The school holidays have near enough taken my wages from me, a the kids have had to go into to childcare. Intially i had all 3 boys and was $450+ a week, down to $365 now. Thankfully the OH had some time off and over the festive period we were away on holiday any way. The 2 younger boys went back to childcare last Monday, my 12 year old against my judgement stayed at home. I only work till 1 most days so after he woke up only had an hour or so on his own. Working partime but having to pay for full time childcare does not seem fair. The kids have another week in childcare before school goes back and im scraping the money together to pay for that.
My money will be spend getting school uniforms on Friday, ready for them going back on Monday, yeah lol(going back to school that is lol).
Im also setting up a fortnightly payment with the boys new school, so that i wont need to worry about big bills.
The boys have been quite enterprising during the holidays as they have been cutting peoples lawns for $20 each, mostly at the weekends but sometimes during the week too. As kids do they spend it doing fun stuff like going to the pictures.
Ive got to admire my boys for 10 and 12 year old cutting grass is a difficult job specially in the humidity of Darwin. They are slowly building up a customer base.
Im really enjoying work, im still learning about the various organisations i have to deal with but im getting there. I do have a variety which is great, Friday for example i had to go early to assist a support worker with showering an elderly client. I had heard he was frail and needed more assistance than curantly allocated. So what better way than being hands on to get the best picture. It took me back to my nursing roots and i loved it. I also ended up writing up a lengthy report to hand to my manager when i eventually got bac to the office. After doing physical hard work, i had time to nip home shower and put my office gear back on as i then had a case conference for a potential client along with my area manager where i had to be dipolmatic and assertive and say what my service could provide. I ended up being in my office for all of 40 mins before it was time for me to knock off.
The major problem i am facing up here currently is trying to dry my clothes, ive got clothes airer's everywhere as i just cant seem to get them dry outside at the moment. My collegues have told me this is normal for this time of year and should improve by March when the dry season starts.
The aircon has been on a lot more since we got got back from Cairns as the humidity has hit us all over again, thats what i get for leaving Darwin for10 days lol.
Off to take the dog for a walk now
Mandy

smiling4

well done boys on your entrepreneurial skills - pleased to hear that there is a client base. Glad things settling for you Mandy - hope that in the near future (if we ever hear from DIAC) that we might be joining in with the fun of drying laundry!!
Take care Ems x

geordie mandy

Almost 8 months and time is whizzing past, the kids love their new schools and are coming home happy and with decent amounts of homework.
Im increasing my hours at work slightly to take on case management while my collegues goes on maternity leave, im only taking over for 6 months doing 30 hours then when she returns will go back to 25 hours and my rather cushy job lol.
WE have had some really bad storms that scared the living daylights out of me and the kids, the house shaking during the night had the youngest screaming down the corrider to our room.
The humidity is causing a few problems with tiredness, i often need a nap when i get in from work.
The kids are getting more involved in the community, the middle one is trying out for NT soccer league tonight, the youngest will be invested as a cub scout tommorow. The eldest is biding his time for a few months till he is old enough to join the air cadets.
Hubby is enjoying playing golf in his spare time with his mates. AS for me im enjoying having coffee with my freind on a friday afternoon when i manage to get off at lunch time.
My social circle hasnt increased loads but ive got a social life now which in the UK i never managed.
With the extra money coming in we can afford more family time for trips out and towards the tail end of the wet season we are planning on taking a few trips around the area, places like Katherine to see the gorge and litchfield for the national park. Having family membership to the territory wild life park has been fantastic as we often go there for an afternoon out, we did this on Australia Day and found it most enjoyable.
Life is just plodding on now for us, we are all more settled and happy yet are looking forward to when we can move to a less humid place.
Mandy

lou1003

Don't worry Mandy, Darwin is through the majority of the wet now.... things can only get better!

Nice to read your updates every now and again. Especially as I kinda just ended up here, as opposed to making the big move from the UK. After spending time here, in other parts of North Australia and SE Asia, I guess I am acclimatised to the heat. I get cold in the dry season, in the mornings (and it's like 18 degrees at 7am!).

If you go down to Katherine, Edith Falls is gorgeous. There's a waterfall and a pool at the bottom (which I don't think you can swim in), and you walk about 30 minutes up to the top pool, with another waterfall and a big swimming area. It's beautiful - I think it's a lot nicer than the Litchfield waterfalls, and it's less crowded. Definitely worth a look. There is a nice camp ground there too.

If you're heading down to Katherine Gorge, the shortest walk there is still quite long (I think it's three hours, but don't quote me). It is very nice though, and you can do boat trips too if the walks are a bit too much in the heat. (Get there early to avoid the heat!)
Katherine also has an information centre - there's a lot more to do in Katherine than you'd think for the size. There's some hot springs (I think), a bit like Mataranka I presume, but I've not been.

I've not been to Territory Wildlife Park - I was going to take my dad when he was here in Dec, but we ran out of time and I wasn't 100% it was worth going.

Anyway, good to hear that things are ok for you here.
:-)

Bernieboy

smiling4

Hey sweet great post again.....just don't move before we have had time to meet! LOL!!!! Ems xox

geordie mandy

We have survived our first tropical cyclone. Carlos did give us sleepless nights, the noise was deafening as the winds and rain battered our house. However it was a good expereince and a one to learn from if ever we have to face a cyclone higher than cat 1. Things are starting to get back to normal, had the dog out for a walk earlier and apart from a few fallen trees there is little damage to our suburb. However my freind who lives closer to the city suffered really bad damage to her garden as massive trees crashed down around her house.
The flooding is the main worry now, some of my clients live in trouble spots so tommorow when i get back to work im going to be busy establishing that they are ok.
Ive seen some of the devestation on the news and i truely believe some one was watching over us the past few nights.
I wont deny i was scared on Mon, driving home from work in gale force winds and rain so heavy i could barely see, yet some drivers were doing 60kmh and plus, i was lucky if i got up to 50kmh as any faster and i know i could not have braked sharp had the need arose. I got home and placed the patio furniture in to the u shapped patio recess we have, eventually when the boys got home we also managed to get the trampoline into the recess too. Its still there till i know the winds are gone.
I went to the bus stop where i pick the boys up from and the car was rocking so hard, the dog was with me as he hates being on his own in bad weather and he looked so scared the same as me.
The boys got in and just running less that 2 mins from the bus stop and they were so wet it was not funny.
I then found out my freinds son hadnt got back from school and the weather was getting so much worse. So leaving my older boys at home, taking the youngest and my freind we drove round looking for him. Lucikly he had made it to the local shopping center and was sheltering at the entrance of the under ground car park. Driving back home we saw trees come down and the queues for fuel at the garages were horrendous. I dropped my freind and her son off and had to dodge flying debris. I was so happy to get back home. My husband was late getting home as the roads were starting to get dangerous. At this stage it was only a cyclone watch.
The kids were terrified that night and found it hard to sleep we put matteresses in our walk in wardrobe, its basically a wall behind our bed with 2 openings, so we felt it was the safest place. We told the kids if they wanted they could sleep there. They did in the end fall asleep in their own beds and woke up around 10 am.
Yesterday was so wet and miserable at one point it was eerily calm and according to the bom tracking we were right in the eye of the cyclone, in total we had 3 bouts of very heavy rain and wind battering our house, it was frightening mainly cos wernt sure how worse it was going to get.
It was also boring too being stuck in the house with 3 kids thankfully we never lost power so the kids could go on the xbox and we could watch tv etc.
Today is much calmer and the sun has made an effort lol. Life is back to normal, the bin mans been and the kids will be back to school tommorow and back to work for me.
So i can proudly say ive been through a cyclone and survived even if it was only a little one lol.
Off to clear some leaf debris from the drive and path ways now.
Mandy

macb03

your first cyclone what a experience, it must been scarey. on a bright note could u tell me what is the best time to go on holiday to darwin area please

geordie mandy

We arrived in Darwin in June and when we arrived all the locals told us we had arrived at the best time of year as it was early into the dry season.
I think anytime from June/ July to about August/ September should be reasonable weather with lower humidity and drier weather. Apparently the official dry season is from April but judging by what my freinds told me april was still very wet and unpredictable last year.
Hope this helps
Mandy

Kapri

Glad you're all ok.

P.s I'm really enjoying this thread Mandy

geordie mandy

Not quite 9 months in Darwin and feeling as though we have been here forever. the past couple of weeks has been a bit of an emotional one for us as a family. on Friday the 25th feb our youngest son went missing from school and as you can imagine its every parents nightmare. Id gone to pick my 3 boys up from the school bus stop, but only my 2 older boys were there. I raced to the school to see if he was there. No sign of him, the school secetary immediatly phoned the school transport company to see if he had got on another bus, eventully a call came back saying there had no reports. Immediatly the police was called, they phoned me on my mobile to get a description of him. In the meantime my husband came to the school from his work. a big search party was started with police combing the areas of Darwin, by this time my son had been missing an hour, my husband taking his car and our eldest headed for home , i stayed at the school till the police sergent arrived to take a formal statement, they had told me if he had not been found with in the next 2 hours they would alert the media and we have to do an interview. Inside i was crumbling away but had to be strong for my other son who had stayed with me. The police told me to go home, but to take the route the school bus took, while the head teacher would drive my normal route home. I had also put an alert on facebook in the home my darwin freinds would see what was happening. I could not praise the police enough for all their efforts at looking for my son. It was in this dark hour that i missed having family support, not that my parents would have been able to help me(they never did when my son went missing when i lived only a few miles away) But the fact we were on our own was so hard.
Eventually after another hour and a half i got the phone call that i had so desperatly wanted to hear my son was safe.
The little sod had decided to get on a bus (not a school bus) asked the driver if he went near to where he lived and the driver said closeby, so he got on and then walked for half an hour to get home from the bus stop, finding the house all locked up he went and played a freinds and then my neighbour had spotted him and got him to stay at their house, she had seen my Fb message. By this time my husband was almost home.
when i finally got home i was fit to bursting, the police arrived shortly after as i had contacted the sergent and the head teacher that he was safe. the police made sure nothing had happened to him and gave him a talk too.
My husband and i were emotionally exhausted that night and were so gratefull to all the people who helped search for our son.
It was the little sods birthday on the 4th and he asked if everyone in England would remember and send him a card, wasnt bothered about presents but cards are important to him.
His cards from my parents and my youngest sister had arrived , my brother hadnt bothered , my other sister send a message on Fb to say they were on their way. My husbands family phoned up too speak to him and explain the cards were on the way. He was a little dissapointed that he only had a few cards to show and had wondered if people had forgotton about him. In the most part the freinds we had that used to be in regular touch havent bothered , which is upsetting. It was my husbands birthday yesterday and none of his mates he had known for years had bothered sending him cards either. Its my middle sons birthday on tuesday and he has prepared himself for the fact he wont be getting many cards.
Its a shame for the kids that the out of sight , out of mind mentality appears to be happening.
After the dramas of the past month im hoping that life will just plod along nicely for us all.
Mandy