Hi all,
Sorry we've been off the radar for a couple of days. The holiday is officially over and we're all exhausted. We're back at work and the girls are at school.
Despite a wobbly start, Erin now seems to be enjoying herself. She has made some friends. Strangely one of them is called Erin. Just to confuse matters further, Becky has chummed up with Rebecca! Slowly, they're learning the way around the school and the curriculum. Erin had her first history elective lesson today. It was on the Tudors. She loved it. Her form tutor bought the girls pizza and ice pops for lunch on their first day! Becky's pronunciation of the word 'fluffy' has been particularly poplar with the Aussie girls who keep getting her to say it over and over.
As for Nath and I, we're chasing our tails. Those of you who know me personally, know I have absolutely no sense of direction, (talking of which, the girls have been hounded by one direction fans who have asked them if they know the lads personally!). Anyway, I spend half the time wandering around, trying to look like I know where I am going when in reality, I am just about keeping the lid on my panic at being completely lost on the way to a lesson! Nath seems to be distressed by me complaining that my air conditioned classroom is too cold. I wonder what is problem is as his brow pours and his pit rings expand - he has no air con!
We're both enjoying the bagpipes and drums which accompany our entrance to our place of work every morning. Surreal and yet already normality. We're also both enjoying the free tea and coffee, cake, sandwiches and fresh fruit every recess. It's hard work. It's daunting. It's challenging. But it's also exciting and I am sure that a year from now, we'll look back and laugh!
Have a lovely weekend.
Friday, 31 January 2014
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Up, up, up!!!!
I know this is slightly unconventional but I am adding an epilogue to the previous blog entry. The move company got back to us. They apologised for the miscommunication. Our furniture is still due to arrive in February. It is the bikes and lawn mower, which went on a separate container, which will be delayed until end of March.
I can live with that!
You can all breathe again!
Thank you positive psychology!
I can live with that!
You can all breathe again!
Thank you positive psychology!
Ups and Downs. Today = Downs!
I am currently sat here watching 'Friends' in a bid to cheer myself up. This morning, we received an email from the company moving our furniture across the globe. The company who promised they were the best. The company who claimed to have integrity and respect for their clients. The company who guaranteed that our furniture would arrive door to door in 6- 8 weeks.
The email told us that the estimated time of arrival had been delayed.
By 4 weeks.
All in all, their promise of 6-8 weeks has become closer to 12-14 weeks.
We are moving into an unfurnished house in less than 2 weeks and we now will not have our furniture until the end of March.
But that's ok. I mean, after all, we're made of money! Right? Of course we can shell out cash left, right and centre to buy and rent stuff that we were assured would be here by now. We are bleeding cash.
We are awaiting a decent explanation, though short of engine failure half way across the Indian Ocean, nothing else will suffice. I am thoroughly gutted. I can't deny that it has tainted the experience a little.
So, sorry folks, no cheery anecdotes today. I am desperately trying to apply positive psychology. Writing this down is not cathartic. It's just making me more grumpy.
Becky starts school tomorrow and Erin has her orientation so I am going to sign off and spend some time with my beautiful girls, who are both a little nervous.
Sweet dreams.
Xxx
The email told us that the estimated time of arrival had been delayed.
By 4 weeks.
All in all, their promise of 6-8 weeks has become closer to 12-14 weeks.
We are moving into an unfurnished house in less than 2 weeks and we now will not have our furniture until the end of March.
But that's ok. I mean, after all, we're made of money! Right? Of course we can shell out cash left, right and centre to buy and rent stuff that we were assured would be here by now. We are bleeding cash.
We are awaiting a decent explanation, though short of engine failure half way across the Indian Ocean, nothing else will suffice. I am thoroughly gutted. I can't deny that it has tainted the experience a little.
So, sorry folks, no cheery anecdotes today. I am desperately trying to apply positive psychology. Writing this down is not cathartic. It's just making me more grumpy.
Becky starts school tomorrow and Erin has her orientation so I am going to sign off and spend some time with my beautiful girls, who are both a little nervous.
Sweet dreams.
Xxx
Sunday, 26 January 2014
A mixed bag - reading and recreation- National Australia Day.
Today is Australia Day. A day where we remember Captain Philip and the penal colony; the indigenous Australian people and a celebration of those who apply for Australian citizenship.
Last night, we had gone to bed very late. This was on account of a card game. Nathan keeps winning and the girls and I were desperate to stop his winning streak. We plays until almost midnight. Nathan still won :-(
Anyway, I awoke at about 7.30 this morning and decided to let the girls lie in. The plan was to go to Sydney for the late afternoon to enjoy the festivities and watch the fireworks. As I waited for the kids to surface, I showered, got ready and put through a wash load of clothes. I read a book in preparation for my teaching - Hugo Cabret. I had already seen the film - the book is lovely and well worth a read! The kids arose just before lunch. Erin and I read some more 'Animal Farm' and Becky and I read some 'goodnight Mr Tom'. While the girls got ready, I started to read a book on positive psychology; a gift from Knox! Well, if you like reading, it doesn't get much better than that!
We went to the station and discovered that Sunday is 'Funday', which basically means that travel around Sydney is even cheaper and the train tickets you buy can be used for all public transport ( including ferries), around Sydney. Cool! We made a mental note to visit Sydney on Sundays in future.
Sydney was, predictably, amazing. There were street entertainers; karaoke; artists; musicians galore. We wandered through an enormous craft fair. The stalls were all lovely. No tacky chintz or tat. All really good quality stuff. We all stood and watched a glass blower make a beautiful miniature pair of glass slippers. We then observed a spray can artist paint a fantastic futuristic space setting. We watched a number of aboriginal dancers who were covered in paint and playing didgeridoos. There was just so much to see and do. As the sun beat down, we decided to walk through the beautiful botanical gardens. My travelling experience is pretty limited but from what I have seen so far, Sydney is really high up. It's an amazing place and I can't wait to share it with friends and family. As I walk around it, I regularly imagine that I'm here with my loved ones. Take a look at the piccies below.
The fireworks were due to start at 8.45 in the evening. A about 6ish, we thought we 'd stroll over to Darling Harbour, grab a quick bite to eat and settle ourselves somewhere perfect to observe the display. This is where the blog takes a turn for the worse. We are still naive poms and did not realise how nightmarishly difficult it was going to be to get something to eat. Restaurants were out. The queues stretched along the quay. Not to worry. I had spotted a Subway - the girls' favourite. However, as we trundled towards it, we realised that the large group of people, who at first we had mistaken for crowds waiting for the display to start, were actually queuing for a subway. Now, I know we're Brits and experts at queuing but this was beyond a joke. So we decided to head on over to the old faithful Golden Arches.
Today was the first (and last) time that I queued for over three quarters of an hour for a Big Mac meal. There was not much choice. It was queue or starve! The proprietors were, however, very thoughtful and the programme ' The Biggest Loser' was 'appropriately' playing in the background. Predictably, we chose the slowest of the lines and watched as people who had queued behind us outside, we're served before us once inside. It took a lot of positive psychology to remain calm about this. However, the Chinese lady who served us was called Nice, which was nice. It would have been more apt if she had been called Patience. The girls and I had a Big Mac meal and Nathan, keen to maintain his trim physique, ordered a Mega Mac meal. Once suitably replenished, we left the fast food joint to grab a place from which to view the fireworks.
It would appear that whilst we had sit and munched our burgers and fries, the whole world descended on Sydney. Joking aside, it was horrendous. Very frightening. I was really worried that we might get separated. I hate crowds at the best of times but this was well beyond a joke and I grabbed onto Nathan and the girls as if my life depended on them. The crowd began to slowly move and it was becoming increasingly difficult not to be pulled apart. I started to feel a little panicky and started to consider plans and strategies aBout what I could do with Becky if it got too serious. There was a balcony close by and I figured that I could lifte her up onto it if I needed to. A fight broke out. It got seriously scary. The police calmed the situation a little but we were all so squashed; like battery hens. I was so frightened that laying an egg was not beyond the realms of possibility. Nathan took control and continued to push though the crowd. There was more pushing in front of us and a couple of blokes engaged in some macho nutting of each other. Great!
Finally we made our way through to somewhere we could finally breathe. From there we watched the firework display. Whilst it was fantastic, I'm not sure that it was worth the near cardiac arrests I had experienced that evening. As we made our way back to the station to head home, (hoping to avoid more pushing and shoving), we heard the firework display continue. Stupidly, we missed the finale!!
Oh well! There's always next year!
Last night, we had gone to bed very late. This was on account of a card game. Nathan keeps winning and the girls and I were desperate to stop his winning streak. We plays until almost midnight. Nathan still won :-(
Anyway, I awoke at about 7.30 this morning and decided to let the girls lie in. The plan was to go to Sydney for the late afternoon to enjoy the festivities and watch the fireworks. As I waited for the kids to surface, I showered, got ready and put through a wash load of clothes. I read a book in preparation for my teaching - Hugo Cabret. I had already seen the film - the book is lovely and well worth a read! The kids arose just before lunch. Erin and I read some more 'Animal Farm' and Becky and I read some 'goodnight Mr Tom'. While the girls got ready, I started to read a book on positive psychology; a gift from Knox! Well, if you like reading, it doesn't get much better than that!
We went to the station and discovered that Sunday is 'Funday', which basically means that travel around Sydney is even cheaper and the train tickets you buy can be used for all public transport ( including ferries), around Sydney. Cool! We made a mental note to visit Sydney on Sundays in future.
Sydney was, predictably, amazing. There were street entertainers; karaoke; artists; musicians galore. We wandered through an enormous craft fair. The stalls were all lovely. No tacky chintz or tat. All really good quality stuff. We all stood and watched a glass blower make a beautiful miniature pair of glass slippers. We then observed a spray can artist paint a fantastic futuristic space setting. We watched a number of aboriginal dancers who were covered in paint and playing didgeridoos. There was just so much to see and do. As the sun beat down, we decided to walk through the beautiful botanical gardens. My travelling experience is pretty limited but from what I have seen so far, Sydney is really high up. It's an amazing place and I can't wait to share it with friends and family. As I walk around it, I regularly imagine that I'm here with my loved ones. Take a look at the piccies below.
The fireworks were due to start at 8.45 in the evening. A about 6ish, we thought we 'd stroll over to Darling Harbour, grab a quick bite to eat and settle ourselves somewhere perfect to observe the display. This is where the blog takes a turn for the worse. We are still naive poms and did not realise how nightmarishly difficult it was going to be to get something to eat. Restaurants were out. The queues stretched along the quay. Not to worry. I had spotted a Subway - the girls' favourite. However, as we trundled towards it, we realised that the large group of people, who at first we had mistaken for crowds waiting for the display to start, were actually queuing for a subway. Now, I know we're Brits and experts at queuing but this was beyond a joke. So we decided to head on over to the old faithful Golden Arches.
Today was the first (and last) time that I queued for over three quarters of an hour for a Big Mac meal. There was not much choice. It was queue or starve! The proprietors were, however, very thoughtful and the programme ' The Biggest Loser' was 'appropriately' playing in the background. Predictably, we chose the slowest of the lines and watched as people who had queued behind us outside, we're served before us once inside. It took a lot of positive psychology to remain calm about this. However, the Chinese lady who served us was called Nice, which was nice. It would have been more apt if she had been called Patience. The girls and I had a Big Mac meal and Nathan, keen to maintain his trim physique, ordered a Mega Mac meal. Once suitably replenished, we left the fast food joint to grab a place from which to view the fireworks.
It would appear that whilst we had sit and munched our burgers and fries, the whole world descended on Sydney. Joking aside, it was horrendous. Very frightening. I was really worried that we might get separated. I hate crowds at the best of times but this was well beyond a joke and I grabbed onto Nathan and the girls as if my life depended on them. The crowd began to slowly move and it was becoming increasingly difficult not to be pulled apart. I started to feel a little panicky and started to consider plans and strategies aBout what I could do with Becky if it got too serious. There was a balcony close by and I figured that I could lifte her up onto it if I needed to. A fight broke out. It got seriously scary. The police calmed the situation a little but we were all so squashed; like battery hens. I was so frightened that laying an egg was not beyond the realms of possibility. Nathan took control and continued to push though the crowd. There was more pushing in front of us and a couple of blokes engaged in some macho nutting of each other. Great!
Finally we made our way through to somewhere we could finally breathe. From there we watched the firework display. Whilst it was fantastic, I'm not sure that it was worth the near cardiac arrests I had experienced that evening. As we made our way back to the station to head home, (hoping to avoid more pushing and shoving), we heard the firework display continue. Stupidly, we missed the finale!!
Oh well! There's always next year!
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Cloth Ears Lewis!
Hi all,
Well, I am ashamed to admit that the Lewis clan did not even surface until 9.00am this morning! I am utterly disgusted with myself but it is, indeed, a measure of how tired we all are. It's a 'good' tired though. Life is so busy. But busy in a proactive, constructive kind of way!
Today, we decided to pop into Castle Hill to finalise the purchase of a sofa bed that we had seen a few days ago, as well as attempt to buy a couple of books that the girls need for school. On our way to the furniture store, we passed a 'boutique' style furniture store. You know the type - smells like scented candles and Body Shop! It was the smell that lulled us in. Like the Bisto kids, all four of us inhaled and simply followed our noses. It was a lovely shop - so of course that meant more expensive. (Well, scented candles cost a lot to burn continuously!)
We asked the chap inside if there were any sofa beds. He walked us to the back of the store and pointed them out. Yes, they were more expensive, but they were also significantly nicer than the one that we had intended to buy. Some of you reading this may well end up sleeping in it- it will be the guest bed. Thus you can count yourselves lucky. It is a seriously good sofa bed. As a sofa, it looks like a really decent piece of furniture and is very comfortable. So we 'sucked it up' and spent a little more.
I hope you appreciate that!
Nathan managed to embarrass us and himself again with his hearing (sorry, his lack of hearing). When we discussed the delivery, the man asked us if it was going up or downstairs. He explained that it was very heavy. Nathan, doing his 'ram man' impression ( only fans of the 1980s cartoon 'He- man' will appreciate this allusion), said that it didn't look too heavy. The man said ( quite clearly) "Sir, why don't you try and lift it?" I have absolutely no idea what it was that Nathan thought he said but he flapped his arms around a little and then started to lift up the corner of the mattress. Erin and I looked at each other, wondering what on earth he was doing. I had a horrible feeling that this was a repeat of the breathalyser embarrassment. The man said, "No sir. From underneath. It is heavy." Again Nathan did some kind of weird Aboriginal dance routine and fiddled about with the back of the sofa bed. "Lift it from underneath."
Poor Nathan admitted defeat and said, "I don't know what you mean."
Erin and I hurriedly explained the difficult and complex suggestion that he should try and lift it from underneath to see how heavy it was. He got there eventually.
Note to self - purchase some industrial cotton buds from 'Discount Chemist' for my beloved.
After this, we trundled over to the 'Good Guys', an electrical store. We put down a deposit on a smart tv for the girls. It cost around about £200 less than it would have done in the UK - which goes some way towards the adverse price difference in hair colouring!!!
The day was rounded off with Erin reading the first 2 chapters of Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and the study guide on the novel's first two chapters. She loved it....not!
I read some Knox admin and drunk fizzy rose wine.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Well, I am ashamed to admit that the Lewis clan did not even surface until 9.00am this morning! I am utterly disgusted with myself but it is, indeed, a measure of how tired we all are. It's a 'good' tired though. Life is so busy. But busy in a proactive, constructive kind of way!
Today, we decided to pop into Castle Hill to finalise the purchase of a sofa bed that we had seen a few days ago, as well as attempt to buy a couple of books that the girls need for school. On our way to the furniture store, we passed a 'boutique' style furniture store. You know the type - smells like scented candles and Body Shop! It was the smell that lulled us in. Like the Bisto kids, all four of us inhaled and simply followed our noses. It was a lovely shop - so of course that meant more expensive. (Well, scented candles cost a lot to burn continuously!)
We asked the chap inside if there were any sofa beds. He walked us to the back of the store and pointed them out. Yes, they were more expensive, but they were also significantly nicer than the one that we had intended to buy. Some of you reading this may well end up sleeping in it- it will be the guest bed. Thus you can count yourselves lucky. It is a seriously good sofa bed. As a sofa, it looks like a really decent piece of furniture and is very comfortable. So we 'sucked it up' and spent a little more.
I hope you appreciate that!
Nathan managed to embarrass us and himself again with his hearing (sorry, his lack of hearing). When we discussed the delivery, the man asked us if it was going up or downstairs. He explained that it was very heavy. Nathan, doing his 'ram man' impression ( only fans of the 1980s cartoon 'He- man' will appreciate this allusion), said that it didn't look too heavy. The man said ( quite clearly) "Sir, why don't you try and lift it?" I have absolutely no idea what it was that Nathan thought he said but he flapped his arms around a little and then started to lift up the corner of the mattress. Erin and I looked at each other, wondering what on earth he was doing. I had a horrible feeling that this was a repeat of the breathalyser embarrassment. The man said, "No sir. From underneath. It is heavy." Again Nathan did some kind of weird Aboriginal dance routine and fiddled about with the back of the sofa bed. "Lift it from underneath."
Poor Nathan admitted defeat and said, "I don't know what you mean."
Erin and I hurriedly explained the difficult and complex suggestion that he should try and lift it from underneath to see how heavy it was. He got there eventually.
Note to self - purchase some industrial cotton buds from 'Discount Chemist' for my beloved.
After this, we trundled over to the 'Good Guys', an electrical store. We put down a deposit on a smart tv for the girls. It cost around about £200 less than it would have done in the UK - which goes some way towards the adverse price difference in hair colouring!!!
The day was rounded off with Erin reading the first 2 chapters of Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and the study guide on the novel's first two chapters. She loved it....not!
I read some Knox admin and drunk fizzy rose wine.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Friday, 24 January 2014
Teacher training - Aussie style
Hi folks
Today was a day of teacher training which began for around 250-300 teaching staff in the school chapel for an hour of prayers, sermons and very jolly sing-along hymns. I was in my element, singing to my heart's content. Nathan was slightly less comfortable; though it is questionable as to whether or not he even heard any of it! The 'Rev' delivered a great sermon and then it was over to the Great Hall (I emphasise the adjective 'Great' here! an absolute feat of architecture which seats 2500 people comfortably and 3000 at a push!)for an inspiring talk from the HeadMaster to reflect on the School's performance and the transformation it's been through over its 90 year existence. We learnt that Knox comes from John Knox, the original Scot who set up the School. It has grown from 3 staff and 24 students to nearly 300 staff and over 2500 students in 90 years.
After the meeting it was time for tea/coffee, fruit and cakes. This is bad for our waist lines and I envisage Nathan's svelte figure to expand rapidly if he is not careful.
We then had a couple more enlightening meetings which highlight the subtle differences between attitudes here and in the UK.
We were then really surprised to be given a full sit down meal. It was a lovely Italian chicken in tomato sauce dish, with tagliatelle and Parmesan. Nathan avoided the side salad. After all, he is watching his weight and lettuce leaves are so calorific!
We both now have our laptops, although Nath opted for a MacBook Air. He is like a kid in a sweet shop. I will have to drag him away from his work! Most of the children themselves use MacBooks, and the rest are on normal laptops.
We're slowly picking up our resources, schemes and settling into our new environment. Although, teaching doesn't start until Thursday next week. It is very exciting and very busy. We feel very privileged!!
Lots of love.
Today was a day of teacher training which began for around 250-300 teaching staff in the school chapel for an hour of prayers, sermons and very jolly sing-along hymns. I was in my element, singing to my heart's content. Nathan was slightly less comfortable; though it is questionable as to whether or not he even heard any of it! The 'Rev' delivered a great sermon and then it was over to the Great Hall (I emphasise the adjective 'Great' here! an absolute feat of architecture which seats 2500 people comfortably and 3000 at a push!)for an inspiring talk from the HeadMaster to reflect on the School's performance and the transformation it's been through over its 90 year existence. We learnt that Knox comes from John Knox, the original Scot who set up the School. It has grown from 3 staff and 24 students to nearly 300 staff and over 2500 students in 90 years.
After the meeting it was time for tea/coffee, fruit and cakes. This is bad for our waist lines and I envisage Nathan's svelte figure to expand rapidly if he is not careful.
We then had a couple more enlightening meetings which highlight the subtle differences between attitudes here and in the UK.
We were then really surprised to be given a full sit down meal. It was a lovely Italian chicken in tomato sauce dish, with tagliatelle and Parmesan. Nathan avoided the side salad. After all, he is watching his weight and lettuce leaves are so calorific!
We both now have our laptops, although Nath opted for a MacBook Air. He is like a kid in a sweet shop. I will have to drag him away from his work! Most of the children themselves use MacBooks, and the rest are on normal laptops.
We're slowly picking up our resources, schemes and settling into our new environment. Although, teaching doesn't start until Thursday next week. It is very exciting and very busy. We feel very privileged!!
Lots of love.
Thursday, 23 January 2014
And so it begins!
Hi all.
It's 10.30 pm and I am writing this in bed - very tired. It's a good tired. The kind of tired that results from mental exhaustion.
Learnt a lot about what our jobs will entail - we're gong to be very happy here. Mind you, that's if we ever get my paperwork sorted out. Small glitch in terms of accrediting my qualifications.
Sorry, but in the words of the old cartoons,
That's all folks!
I am so tired.
Lots of love.
It's 10.30 pm and I am writing this in bed - very tired. It's a good tired. The kind of tired that results from mental exhaustion.
Learnt a lot about what our jobs will entail - we're gong to be very happy here. Mind you, that's if we ever get my paperwork sorted out. Small glitch in terms of accrediting my qualifications.
Sorry, but in the words of the old cartoons,
That's all folks!
I am so tired.
Lots of love.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Lots of spending and a police run in!!
Hi all!
Today we bled money! The day started at Parramatta, signing the tenancy agreements and contracts. This made it feel so real; I am so looking forward to moving in to the new place. I cannot explain how desperate we are to leave this one bedroom apartment. Don't get me wrong. We are a loving family but my God, we all need space! We are all driving each other mad.
Following this, we went into the Westfield to buy the girls' school shoes. Oh dear. What a culture shock! It is not just the private school system, all school kids wear the most repulsive footwear imaginable in Australia. Picture this; NHS orthopaedic shoes combined with something worn by the Tweenies and you might come close to visualising the dainty little beauties! I take my hat off to the girls (that's a straw boater in Becky's case). They 'sucked it up' (sorry, that's an Aussie phrase for 'accepted and got on with it') and tried them on without any silly jokes or comments. It is their maturity which made my reaction appear even worse. I will admit that I would rather pull my hair out one strand at a time than have to wear those shoes. When the lady in the shoe shop measured their feet, I had to walk away because an uncontrollable urge to collapse in a fit of giggles hit me. What is wrong with me? I am the mother! I am supposed to be the one who insists they act sensibly. Thank goodness for Nathan. He was fine, until Becky tried her first shoe on. That was it. The pair of us could not contain ourselves. Poor little Becky looked like an old fashioned clown, or someone playing dress-up and wearing their dad's shoes. She looked like a seal, kipper foot! I eventually managed to pull myself together. I told the shop lady that I thought that these were too big and I wanted her to go down a size. (Because of the cost of these shoe shockers, it is common practice to wear a size too big with an insole and simply remove the insole when the kids' feet grow a little). I got my way. No daughter of mine was going to go to school, looking like Charlie Chaplin on foot steroids! I reckon at least now I could reverse a truck over her foot in these shoes and she would be fine - I guess they do have their benefits.
Following this, we went and bought Nathan some school shirts and a tie and had a spot to eat. Next, we needed to buy some bits and pieces for the house. We move in 3 - 4 weeks before the furniture arrives and the house is unfurnished. We knew we had to buy a double bed for Nathan and I anyway, as well as a sofa bed because our sofa bed did not fit onto the storage container. We figured that the girls could make do with a sofa bed until their beds arrive. We thought that we could buy some
garden furniture - the whole point of moving to Australia was making the most of an outdoor lifestyle - and use it as a dining room suite until our stuff arrives. A washing machine is also a priority. We gave our one away at home. So, we drove over to a home/garden/lifestyle retail outlet in Castle Hill.
We drove along happily singing along to Coldplay and we get pulled over by some police, doing random breath checks, (that's alcohol not halitosis). The policeman asks Nathan;
"Can I have your licence Sir - I need you to do a breath test."
Nathan fumbles around for his licence, slightly nervous and uncomfortable. The policeman holds out a breathalyser and says to Nathan,
"Count aloud 1 to 5 please Sir."
Nathan starts to try and blow at the officer.
A little exasperated, the police man repeats;
Count 1 to 5 Sir".
Nath blows again, thinking he had been asked to blow for 5 seconds. I am sat next to him thinking, 'Oh no', his cloth ears have let him down again. I willed him silently to just count aloud.
"Will you just count aloud from 1 to 5 please Sir", the police man repeats.
Thankfully, Nathan understands this complex instruction and does as he is told. Eventually, we are allowed to leave and drive on, feeling like complete idiots...again.
We then bought:
A double bed, mattress protector and 4 pillows;
A washing machine;
A sofa bed;
A beautiful set of alfresco furniture.
All to be delivered the Saturday after we pick up our keys! That will be a busy weekend!
Whilst in the bed shop and deciding on an appropriate mattress (we prefer different types!!!), we were given the opportunity to be 'matched' to a 'firmness' rating. This involved lying on a special bed and being told to move in different positions while a computer spoke to us. That was a novelty!
Anyway, I am sure that you have had enough of today so I'll sign off. Tomorrow is mine and Nathan's first day at work. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!
Today we bled money! The day started at Parramatta, signing the tenancy agreements and contracts. This made it feel so real; I am so looking forward to moving in to the new place. I cannot explain how desperate we are to leave this one bedroom apartment. Don't get me wrong. We are a loving family but my God, we all need space! We are all driving each other mad.
Following this, we went into the Westfield to buy the girls' school shoes. Oh dear. What a culture shock! It is not just the private school system, all school kids wear the most repulsive footwear imaginable in Australia. Picture this; NHS orthopaedic shoes combined with something worn by the Tweenies and you might come close to visualising the dainty little beauties! I take my hat off to the girls (that's a straw boater in Becky's case). They 'sucked it up' (sorry, that's an Aussie phrase for 'accepted and got on with it') and tried them on without any silly jokes or comments. It is their maturity which made my reaction appear even worse. I will admit that I would rather pull my hair out one strand at a time than have to wear those shoes. When the lady in the shoe shop measured their feet, I had to walk away because an uncontrollable urge to collapse in a fit of giggles hit me. What is wrong with me? I am the mother! I am supposed to be the one who insists they act sensibly. Thank goodness for Nathan. He was fine, until Becky tried her first shoe on. That was it. The pair of us could not contain ourselves. Poor little Becky looked like an old fashioned clown, or someone playing dress-up and wearing their dad's shoes. She looked like a seal, kipper foot! I eventually managed to pull myself together. I told the shop lady that I thought that these were too big and I wanted her to go down a size. (Because of the cost of these shoe shockers, it is common practice to wear a size too big with an insole and simply remove the insole when the kids' feet grow a little). I got my way. No daughter of mine was going to go to school, looking like Charlie Chaplin on foot steroids! I reckon at least now I could reverse a truck over her foot in these shoes and she would be fine - I guess they do have their benefits.
Following this, we went and bought Nathan some school shirts and a tie and had a spot to eat. Next, we needed to buy some bits and pieces for the house. We move in 3 - 4 weeks before the furniture arrives and the house is unfurnished. We knew we had to buy a double bed for Nathan and I anyway, as well as a sofa bed because our sofa bed did not fit onto the storage container. We figured that the girls could make do with a sofa bed until their beds arrive. We thought that we could buy some
garden furniture - the whole point of moving to Australia was making the most of an outdoor lifestyle - and use it as a dining room suite until our stuff arrives. A washing machine is also a priority. We gave our one away at home. So, we drove over to a home/garden/lifestyle retail outlet in Castle Hill.
We drove along happily singing along to Coldplay and we get pulled over by some police, doing random breath checks, (that's alcohol not halitosis). The policeman asks Nathan;
"Can I have your licence Sir - I need you to do a breath test."
Nathan fumbles around for his licence, slightly nervous and uncomfortable. The policeman holds out a breathalyser and says to Nathan,
"Count aloud 1 to 5 please Sir."
Nathan starts to try and blow at the officer.
A little exasperated, the police man repeats;
Count 1 to 5 Sir".
Nath blows again, thinking he had been asked to blow for 5 seconds. I am sat next to him thinking, 'Oh no', his cloth ears have let him down again. I willed him silently to just count aloud.
"Will you just count aloud from 1 to 5 please Sir", the police man repeats.
Thankfully, Nathan understands this complex instruction and does as he is told. Eventually, we are allowed to leave and drive on, feeling like complete idiots...again.
We then bought:
A double bed, mattress protector and 4 pillows;
A washing machine;
A sofa bed;
A beautiful set of alfresco furniture.
All to be delivered the Saturday after we pick up our keys! That will be a busy weekend!
Whilst in the bed shop and deciding on an appropriate mattress (we prefer different types!!!), we were given the opportunity to be 'matched' to a 'firmness' rating. This involved lying on a special bed and being told to move in different positions while a computer spoke to us. That was a novelty!
Anyway, I am sure that you have had enough of today so I'll sign off. Tomorrow is mine and Nathan's first day at work. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!
Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Bennies Girls (Nothing to do with Benny Hill!)
Hi all,
Today was the day we had our interview at the girls' school - Mount St Benedicts. We were there for nearly four hours! We had a chat with the Head Teacher, who explained the school's ethos and values and its expectations of the students. She then had a 'chat' with both the girls. Erin chose this time to turn into a mute who looked like a terrified rabbit caught in headlights. Becky, similarly reverted to 'not sure' or 'I don't really know', so they managed to make them selves look like intelligent and eloquent young ladies! Simple questions like, 'So what have you done this holiday so far girls? Did you like Sydney, what have you done in Sydney' fell like a proverbial sack of potatoes. Now, those of you have been following our Aussie Adventures know that we have made the most of the city's cultural opportunities. We have visited the opera house and taken the boat across Sydney Harbour. We have visited Madam Tussauds, the Aquarium, Sydney zoo. But no, when faced with the opportunity to talk about such exciting experiences with enthusiasm and confidence, Becky simply replies; "we went to the Guylean cafe." Never before have I felt so let down by my little angels who said that they experienced memory blocks. Unfortunately they also seemed to experience personality blocks and quite frankly, at one point, we needed to remind them how to breathe.
Anyway, thankfully, they were accepted! Becky will have to do a test in her first week and Erin will be put into particular sets to start with and we'll see how she gets on. Erin has to choose two electives for Year 9. The choices ranged from business and commerce to visual arts. It all looked brilliant. Erin, with her usual fizzy energy, demonstrated real enthusiasm and eventually made her choice (you may be detecting a little sarcasm here). She decided to drop French, which I think is a real shame but its her choice. She has to do Maths, English, Science, RE, Australian geography history and PE. She opted to do PASS (which is physical activity and sport science) and History (which is in addition to the Australian History). The history elective includes topic like: crime and punishment, medieval and early modern Europe, the history of film, heroes and villains and myths and legends. It looks great!
We then spent an extortionate amount of money on the enrolment fees and their uniform. Please see pictures of them in their uniform below. They have to have everything with the school crest and logo - even the school bag and PE bag! I think they look lovely but they were suitably unimpressed. We're off to buy some lovely black lace up shoes and white ankle socks tomorrow. Erin's joy is a joy to behold!! Becky will also have to wear a straw boater - Erin has escaped that.
Some good news is that the girls qualify for free transport to and from school - the bus stop is very close to our new home.
Today was the day we had our interview at the girls' school - Mount St Benedicts. We were there for nearly four hours! We had a chat with the Head Teacher, who explained the school's ethos and values and its expectations of the students. She then had a 'chat' with both the girls. Erin chose this time to turn into a mute who looked like a terrified rabbit caught in headlights. Becky, similarly reverted to 'not sure' or 'I don't really know', so they managed to make them selves look like intelligent and eloquent young ladies! Simple questions like, 'So what have you done this holiday so far girls? Did you like Sydney, what have you done in Sydney' fell like a proverbial sack of potatoes. Now, those of you have been following our Aussie Adventures know that we have made the most of the city's cultural opportunities. We have visited the opera house and taken the boat across Sydney Harbour. We have visited Madam Tussauds, the Aquarium, Sydney zoo. But no, when faced with the opportunity to talk about such exciting experiences with enthusiasm and confidence, Becky simply replies; "we went to the Guylean cafe." Never before have I felt so let down by my little angels who said that they experienced memory blocks. Unfortunately they also seemed to experience personality blocks and quite frankly, at one point, we needed to remind them how to breathe.
Anyway, thankfully, they were accepted! Becky will have to do a test in her first week and Erin will be put into particular sets to start with and we'll see how she gets on. Erin has to choose two electives for Year 9. The choices ranged from business and commerce to visual arts. It all looked brilliant. Erin, with her usual fizzy energy, demonstrated real enthusiasm and eventually made her choice (you may be detecting a little sarcasm here). She decided to drop French, which I think is a real shame but its her choice. She has to do Maths, English, Science, RE, Australian geography history and PE. She opted to do PASS (which is physical activity and sport science) and History (which is in addition to the Australian History). The history elective includes topic like: crime and punishment, medieval and early modern Europe, the history of film, heroes and villains and myths and legends. It looks great!
We then spent an extortionate amount of money on the enrolment fees and their uniform. Please see pictures of them in their uniform below. They have to have everything with the school crest and logo - even the school bag and PE bag! I think they look lovely but they were suitably unimpressed. We're off to buy some lovely black lace up shoes and white ankle socks tomorrow. Erin's joy is a joy to behold!! Becky will also have to wear a straw boater - Erin has escaped that.
Some good news is that the girls qualify for free transport to and from school - the bus stop is very close to our new home.
Monday, 20 January 2014
Darling, it's all about the chocolate, koalas and Thomas Macaroni!
So, today was pretty great!
Our Aussie friend Beth is up in Sydney, enjoying watching the Brits getting an absolute pounding on the cricket ground, so we arranged to meet up with her at Darling Harbour, for breakfast. Oh, darling, how very civilised! We went to the Guylian Chocolate cafe for a spot to eat.
(Cut to scene where I literally dive into a chocolate fountain and live happily ever after).
Ok, so not quite, but not far off. The girls, Nathan and I ordered pancakes with banana, strawberry and Guylian chocolate sauce with chocolate shavings.
(Cut to scene where I metaphorically dive into fruit, chocolate, pancake heaven and live happily every after).
Actually, that's pretty close to the truth. It was the most heavenly breakfast I have ever eaten in my life. People stopped and stared as I closed my eyes and lifted each sumptuous bite up to my eager mouth in slow motion. Guylian could do worse than employing me to advertise their product. I wouldn't expect any money. I would be quite happy to be paid in chocolate. It is a sacrifice I would be prepared to make.
This was accompanied by freshly squeezed chocolate, whoops, I mean orange juice, and a lovely catch up with Beth about our adventures to date. We even managed to wangle an invite to Tathra in the Easter Holiday. We finished our chocolate feast with a coffee, (accompanied, of course, by a Guylian chocolate).
( I have just noticed that by arranging our Easter holiday, we were actually discussing a chocolate related holiday).
After this chocolatey encounter, we waved good bye to Beth and headed off to Sydney Zoo and Aquarium. Both were brilliant! Our favourite part of the day was observing Rex, the biggest crocodile in captivity. He is over 5 metres long and weighs over 700 kilos. He likes to eat raw chickens. And he didn't seem to mind that they still had their head and feet intact. The feathers didn't seem to bother him either. As I watched Rex wade from one side of his enclosure to the other, I felt sorry for him in his isolation. He had no mate. However, we soon leant that the zoo had introduced two female crocodiles in the past and he had killed them both. He is a grumpy crocodile and clearly prefers his bachelor status. He will live out the rest of his life alone - eating raw chickens 3 times a week. It's not quite chocolate pancakes is it?
The wallabies, kangaroos and koalas were, of course, cute. The Tasmanian devils were pretty placid - no growling or snarling. The snakes, lizards and spiders were fascinating. Here comes an interesting Aussie fact - 90% of Australia's reptiles are only found in Australia! I wonder if they will release interesting reptile stamps for my interesting Philatelist!
We saw a family of Thomas Macaronis ( that's duck billed platypus for those of you who aren't in the know). Very cute but smaller than I expected - 45cm long fully grown.
Last but not least, I thank all of you who had everything crossed. Our application was approved so we are no longer going to be homeless.
Yippee!!!
Our Aussie friend Beth is up in Sydney, enjoying watching the Brits getting an absolute pounding on the cricket ground, so we arranged to meet up with her at Darling Harbour, for breakfast. Oh, darling, how very civilised! We went to the Guylian Chocolate cafe for a spot to eat.
(Cut to scene where I literally dive into a chocolate fountain and live happily ever after).
Ok, so not quite, but not far off. The girls, Nathan and I ordered pancakes with banana, strawberry and Guylian chocolate sauce with chocolate shavings.
(Cut to scene where I metaphorically dive into fruit, chocolate, pancake heaven and live happily every after).
Actually, that's pretty close to the truth. It was the most heavenly breakfast I have ever eaten in my life. People stopped and stared as I closed my eyes and lifted each sumptuous bite up to my eager mouth in slow motion. Guylian could do worse than employing me to advertise their product. I wouldn't expect any money. I would be quite happy to be paid in chocolate. It is a sacrifice I would be prepared to make.
This was accompanied by freshly squeezed chocolate, whoops, I mean orange juice, and a lovely catch up with Beth about our adventures to date. We even managed to wangle an invite to Tathra in the Easter Holiday. We finished our chocolate feast with a coffee, (accompanied, of course, by a Guylian chocolate).
( I have just noticed that by arranging our Easter holiday, we were actually discussing a chocolate related holiday).
After this chocolatey encounter, we waved good bye to Beth and headed off to Sydney Zoo and Aquarium. Both were brilliant! Our favourite part of the day was observing Rex, the biggest crocodile in captivity. He is over 5 metres long and weighs over 700 kilos. He likes to eat raw chickens. And he didn't seem to mind that they still had their head and feet intact. The feathers didn't seem to bother him either. As I watched Rex wade from one side of his enclosure to the other, I felt sorry for him in his isolation. He had no mate. However, we soon leant that the zoo had introduced two female crocodiles in the past and he had killed them both. He is a grumpy crocodile and clearly prefers his bachelor status. He will live out the rest of his life alone - eating raw chickens 3 times a week. It's not quite chocolate pancakes is it?
The wallabies, kangaroos and koalas were, of course, cute. The Tasmanian devils were pretty placid - no growling or snarling. The snakes, lizards and spiders were fascinating. Here comes an interesting Aussie fact - 90% of Australia's reptiles are only found in Australia! I wonder if they will release interesting reptile stamps for my interesting Philatelist!
We saw a family of Thomas Macaronis ( that's duck billed platypus for those of you who aren't in the know). Very cute but smaller than I expected - 45cm long fully grown.
Last but not least, I thank all of you who had everything crossed. Our application was approved so we are no longer going to be homeless.
Yippee!!!
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Home of Home and Away
Hi all,
Having finally recovered from last week's sunburn, we thought it would be a great idea to go to the beach again. Only this time, we were ALL coated in factor 30. I sat on the beautiful beach and watched Nathan and the girls frolic in the sea; or rather, Nathan attempting to 'ride' the waves and emulate a bronzed surfing dude,(and nearly pulling it off), while simultaneously ducking Becky under the surface. Well, the two of them needed to come up with a way to burn off the egg and bacon buttie that they'd consumed this morning. It was a special deal. Bacon and egg butties were on sale until 11.30 at the Dunes kiosk and you know how Nathan has to take advantage of such good deals!
Erin and Becky dug a few holes and splashed about and I simply sat in the sunshine, gazing across the sand and the waves and wondering if I would always be so awe struck. Or will I take this for granted one day?
We drove home and spent the rest of the afternoon watching Neighbours. Well, when in Rome and all that!!!
The girls did a bit of writing and reading and I looked over the Y8 english curriculum at Knox.
A pretty quiet but, thankfully, nearly normal day!
Having finally recovered from last week's sunburn, we thought it would be a great idea to go to the beach again. Only this time, we were ALL coated in factor 30. I sat on the beautiful beach and watched Nathan and the girls frolic in the sea; or rather, Nathan attempting to 'ride' the waves and emulate a bronzed surfing dude,(and nearly pulling it off), while simultaneously ducking Becky under the surface. Well, the two of them needed to come up with a way to burn off the egg and bacon buttie that they'd consumed this morning. It was a special deal. Bacon and egg butties were on sale until 11.30 at the Dunes kiosk and you know how Nathan has to take advantage of such good deals!
Erin and Becky dug a few holes and splashed about and I simply sat in the sunshine, gazing across the sand and the waves and wondering if I would always be so awe struck. Or will I take this for granted one day?
We drove home and spent the rest of the afternoon watching Neighbours. Well, when in Rome and all that!!!
The girls did a bit of writing and reading and I looked over the Y8 english curriculum at Knox.
A pretty quiet but, thankfully, nearly normal day!
Saturday, 18 January 2014
Apologies for temporary absence!
Hi all,
Internet is now back and we are up and running.... Or should I say 'choking', on the extortionate cost of prepaid data usage. Can't wait until we are in a house and can sort out a broadband contract which is much more affordable!
Anyway, you'll be relieved to know that I am slightly less grumpy. My feet are no longer sore, my neck and head have peeled so much that there can't possibly be any skin left to peel and we may have resolved the homeless crisis ( that's ours, not the third world one I'm afraid).
Yesterday we had a very exciting day; we traipsed around various real estate agents and picked up application forms. We have been told that the rental market is cut throat and properties go before you can say 'I want that one!' Therefore, it is worth filling them in and taking them to the 'open house' viewings. We booked up 7 viewings for today. However, after filling in just one of the hundreds we had collected, Nathan was losing the will to live. The questions required your life history, inside leg measurement etc etc etc.
We went and looked at one property. It was ok but I wasn't prepared to sing and dance about it!
This morning we got up and left the apartment early: we arrived at the first address in Castle Hill. We waited for the real estate agent. She arrived ... And told us that the viewing had been cancelled. The excitement was too much to bear and we drove to the shopping centre to visit the toilet - a famous Lewis family outing. We then went to the second viewing if the day. This one was actually really nice. Huge lounge and plenty of space but it was a fair way out and I was not convinced that the girls would be happy to rise at the crack of dawn and get 2 or 3 buses to school.
House number three today was amazing. Practically perfect in every way (though Nathan wasn't completely sold on the external aesthetics). Lots of space and lovely views from the lounge windows. Seriously nice area. Much closer to the girls' school. We picked up application forms and told the agent that we were very interested. However, we were not the only interested party! The property is available from Feb 5th, which is ideal. We went home, threw some lunch at the girls, (it's ok, it was toast not soup!) and filled in the application forms. We got together the mountains of paperwork and id that is required and phoned the agent to arrange a meeting with him. Then it was back off out to the real estate agent office, about half an hour drive. He seemed convinced that the landlord would be happy with us as tenants but we won't know until next week. Nail biting times ahead. The property is worth over a million dollars, which goes some way to explaining how great it is. We paid the holding bond of $800. And that was a Tom Cruise style mission impossible as well - though Nathan made a life long friend of the lovely lady at the bank on the end of the phone as we tried to transfer money and kept failing!!! Very little seems to be going smoothly at the moment. Still, we have had a lot of luck up until now.
So now, I need everyone who reads this, to cross all your fingers and toes that we are able to secure this place.
Off to Palm Beach tomorrow.
Lots of love.
Internet is now back and we are up and running.... Or should I say 'choking', on the extortionate cost of prepaid data usage. Can't wait until we are in a house and can sort out a broadband contract which is much more affordable!
Anyway, you'll be relieved to know that I am slightly less grumpy. My feet are no longer sore, my neck and head have peeled so much that there can't possibly be any skin left to peel and we may have resolved the homeless crisis ( that's ours, not the third world one I'm afraid).
Yesterday we had a very exciting day; we traipsed around various real estate agents and picked up application forms. We have been told that the rental market is cut throat and properties go before you can say 'I want that one!' Therefore, it is worth filling them in and taking them to the 'open house' viewings. We booked up 7 viewings for today. However, after filling in just one of the hundreds we had collected, Nathan was losing the will to live. The questions required your life history, inside leg measurement etc etc etc.
We went and looked at one property. It was ok but I wasn't prepared to sing and dance about it!
This morning we got up and left the apartment early: we arrived at the first address in Castle Hill. We waited for the real estate agent. She arrived ... And told us that the viewing had been cancelled. The excitement was too much to bear and we drove to the shopping centre to visit the toilet - a famous Lewis family outing. We then went to the second viewing if the day. This one was actually really nice. Huge lounge and plenty of space but it was a fair way out and I was not convinced that the girls would be happy to rise at the crack of dawn and get 2 or 3 buses to school.
House number three today was amazing. Practically perfect in every way (though Nathan wasn't completely sold on the external aesthetics). Lots of space and lovely views from the lounge windows. Seriously nice area. Much closer to the girls' school. We picked up application forms and told the agent that we were very interested. However, we were not the only interested party! The property is available from Feb 5th, which is ideal. We went home, threw some lunch at the girls, (it's ok, it was toast not soup!) and filled in the application forms. We got together the mountains of paperwork and id that is required and phoned the agent to arrange a meeting with him. Then it was back off out to the real estate agent office, about half an hour drive. He seemed convinced that the landlord would be happy with us as tenants but we won't know until next week. Nail biting times ahead. The property is worth over a million dollars, which goes some way to explaining how great it is. We paid the holding bond of $800. And that was a Tom Cruise style mission impossible as well - though Nathan made a life long friend of the lovely lady at the bank on the end of the phone as we tried to transfer money and kept failing!!! Very little seems to be going smoothly at the moment. Still, we have had a lot of luck up until now.
So now, I need everyone who reads this, to cross all your fingers and toes that we are able to secure this place.
Off to Palm Beach tomorrow.
Lots of love.
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Bah humbug!
Too grumpy to blog today.
1) got $236 parking fine.
2) homeless in 3 weeks as hotel already booked beyond that time.
3) appointments to view rental properties on Saturday - our stuff doesn't arrive till late February so will be living in an empty house......if we can even get one! We may be sleeping on the beach. At least it's warm.
4) feet still hurt.
5) neck is peeling.
1) got $236 parking fine.
2) homeless in 3 weeks as hotel already booked beyond that time.
3) appointments to view rental properties on Saturday - our stuff doesn't arrive till late February so will be living in an empty house......if we can even get one! We may be sleeping on the beach. At least it's warm.
4) feet still hurt.
5) neck is peeling.
We Went to Wentworth Falls Part 2
Continued from part 1.
Where was I? Ah yes, Erin being inconsiderate and feeling light headed and ill. So, like a responsible parent, I sent Becky off up the mountain alone to meet with Nathan, who by now was worried that we had been eaten by wild dingos or attacked by emus.
I stayed with Erin. When she was suitably recovered, we made our way back up... Very slowly. To be honest, I was half expecting to have to catch her as she collapsed a third of the way up but luckily nothing so dramatic. And all the while, the sun is beating down. When we eventually got back to the car, the temperature was climbing up through the thirties! With the air conditioning blasting out at full capacity, we drove to Wentworth village to get something to eat. Admittedly by now it was nearly 3.00pm but even so, the 'closed' sign on the door of the village cafe was a real slap in the face - and that's putting it politely.
There was nothing else for it.
McDonalds it was.
As we drove up to the Golden Arches, the temperature was 42 degrees. Trust me, that feels pretty warm.
Anyway, enjoy the piccies and lots of love.
Where was I? Ah yes, Erin being inconsiderate and feeling light headed and ill. So, like a responsible parent, I sent Becky off up the mountain alone to meet with Nathan, who by now was worried that we had been eaten by wild dingos or attacked by emus.
I stayed with Erin. When she was suitably recovered, we made our way back up... Very slowly. To be honest, I was half expecting to have to catch her as she collapsed a third of the way up but luckily nothing so dramatic. And all the while, the sun is beating down. When we eventually got back to the car, the temperature was climbing up through the thirties! With the air conditioning blasting out at full capacity, we drove to Wentworth village to get something to eat. Admittedly by now it was nearly 3.00pm but even so, the 'closed' sign on the door of the village cafe was a real slap in the face - and that's putting it politely.
There was nothing else for it.
McDonalds it was.
As we drove up to the Golden Arches, the temperature was 42 degrees. Trust me, that feels pretty warm.
Anyway, enjoy the piccies and lots of love.
We Went to Wentworth Falls!
Hi all,
Well I hope you appreciate my attempt to play on words in today's title? I know it's a little pathetic for an English teacher but, quite frankly, I am exhausted this evening and it is the best you're going to get!
ABC Breakfast declared the Sydney temperatures today to reach 31 degrees. ( I apologise for the lack of appropriate symbol as opposed to the full written word 'degrees' but I am on the iPad, and the symbol is on superscript which I can only access on the laptop and, I am exhausted so the ipad will have to do!). Anyway, we felt blessed considering the temperature in Melbourne was to reach 40 degrees and Adelaide, a scorching 44 degrees! I felt a twinge of guilt. Here we are in a beautiful country and the poor girls have been dragged from one admininistrative or government building to another, witnessing us filling in form after form. I wanted to do something fun as a family. The beach was out of the question. Both Erin and I are sporting big, red, raw sores in between our big toe and the second toe. The thought of sand getting anywhere near them makes me squirm. No, it had to be socks and trainers today. Socks and trainers with a swimming costume is not a good look! I suggested that we went to the Blue Mountains, Wentworth Falls, about an hour and a half west of Pennant Hills. I fancied a nice walk with beautiful views and the kids were up for it too.
We set off in the faithful Mazda. We stopped off for petrol on the way. There are 3 choices of petrol!! Decisions, decisions. Even going for the decent stuff, it only cost the equivalent of £37 to fill her up! We arrived at Wentworth and parked up. Having purchased a drink each, we set off for one of the tracks. We chose 'medium' for a 'moderate' walk with a 'slight gradient'. I hope you can tell already by my inventive use of inverted commas that the trek was not moderate and the gradient was not slight! However, joking aside, it was the most phenomenally beautiful hike that I have ever been on and I mean that without even the slightest hint of hyperbole. Please see photos below. Our first stop off point was Prince's Rock. We all stood there snapping away on our phones and gazing in awe at the
beauty of the landscape around us. We continued on to another view point. This time we viewed a
waterfall from the distance; I have tried to capture the resulting rainbow that formed across the waterfall as the sunlight was refracted by the water. Stunning. The weather got warmer and warmer - by now it was around 33 degrees, ( don't panic, this is not going to turn into a story about how Nathan got burned, fried and swollen: he'd smothered himself in factor 30), I am merely relaying the temperature to put the scene in context (and to make you jealous!).
We followed a sign to Wentworth Falls. The trek took us along the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen and it became steeper and steeper as we headed further down. There was lush greenery, there were caves, rock pools and naturally occuring gazebos. At one point we came across a little lake. Stones provided a convenient path across it. The water was cold as ice and crystal clear. We continued on our quest. The path and rock steps beame steeper and narrower and the sheer drop - sometimes on either side - more magnificent. I was so busy pondering the beauty of the world around me that I walked straight into a wobbly Nathan who was suddenly reliving memories of Warwick and Rochester Castle and very high French bridges. Erin suggested that if he was finding the descent difficult, he might find the ascent on the way back even worse. It was at her wise words that we all turned around and looked back the way we had come - I have no problem with heights at all but for a split second, I saw the steep and never ending stair case, carved into the mountains, through Nathan's eyes. To cut a long story short, the girls and I continued on without the head of the family. The stairs got narrower and steeper. The sun beat harder. We kept going, admiring the beauty of the nature around us. Becky led the way, Erin was in the middle and I was bringing up the rear. Suddenly, Erin turned around and issued an exclamation. She told me to turn around too. I duly did.
What I saw will stay with me forever. Even as I write this, I cringe at how cheesy it sounds but the view of Wentworth Falls from where we stood was utterly breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice. We spent some time, taking photos and splashing each other with the ice cold water from the numerous rock pools. Then we remembered that we had abandoned 'dad' so decided to head back up. The sun continued to beat down and Erin decided that now would be a really good time to have a 'woohey'. We are right at the bottom of a mountain, standing in front of this majestic waterfall, in the middle of nowhere with no choice but to climb upwards and Erin decides that she is going to feel faint!
Well I hope you appreciate my attempt to play on words in today's title? I know it's a little pathetic for an English teacher but, quite frankly, I am exhausted this evening and it is the best you're going to get!
ABC Breakfast declared the Sydney temperatures today to reach 31 degrees. ( I apologise for the lack of appropriate symbol as opposed to the full written word 'degrees' but I am on the iPad, and the symbol is on superscript which I can only access on the laptop and, I am exhausted so the ipad will have to do!). Anyway, we felt blessed considering the temperature in Melbourne was to reach 40 degrees and Adelaide, a scorching 44 degrees! I felt a twinge of guilt. Here we are in a beautiful country and the poor girls have been dragged from one admininistrative or government building to another, witnessing us filling in form after form. I wanted to do something fun as a family. The beach was out of the question. Both Erin and I are sporting big, red, raw sores in between our big toe and the second toe. The thought of sand getting anywhere near them makes me squirm. No, it had to be socks and trainers today. Socks and trainers with a swimming costume is not a good look! I suggested that we went to the Blue Mountains, Wentworth Falls, about an hour and a half west of Pennant Hills. I fancied a nice walk with beautiful views and the kids were up for it too.
We set off in the faithful Mazda. We stopped off for petrol on the way. There are 3 choices of petrol!! Decisions, decisions. Even going for the decent stuff, it only cost the equivalent of £37 to fill her up! We arrived at Wentworth and parked up. Having purchased a drink each, we set off for one of the tracks. We chose 'medium' for a 'moderate' walk with a 'slight gradient'. I hope you can tell already by my inventive use of inverted commas that the trek was not moderate and the gradient was not slight! However, joking aside, it was the most phenomenally beautiful hike that I have ever been on and I mean that without even the slightest hint of hyperbole. Please see photos below. Our first stop off point was Prince's Rock. We all stood there snapping away on our phones and gazing in awe at the
beauty of the landscape around us. We continued on to another view point. This time we viewed a
waterfall from the distance; I have tried to capture the resulting rainbow that formed across the waterfall as the sunlight was refracted by the water. Stunning. The weather got warmer and warmer - by now it was around 33 degrees, ( don't panic, this is not going to turn into a story about how Nathan got burned, fried and swollen: he'd smothered himself in factor 30), I am merely relaying the temperature to put the scene in context (and to make you jealous!).
We followed a sign to Wentworth Falls. The trek took us along the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen and it became steeper and steeper as we headed further down. There was lush greenery, there were caves, rock pools and naturally occuring gazebos. At one point we came across a little lake. Stones provided a convenient path across it. The water was cold as ice and crystal clear. We continued on our quest. The path and rock steps beame steeper and narrower and the sheer drop - sometimes on either side - more magnificent. I was so busy pondering the beauty of the world around me that I walked straight into a wobbly Nathan who was suddenly reliving memories of Warwick and Rochester Castle and very high French bridges. Erin suggested that if he was finding the descent difficult, he might find the ascent on the way back even worse. It was at her wise words that we all turned around and looked back the way we had come - I have no problem with heights at all but for a split second, I saw the steep and never ending stair case, carved into the mountains, through Nathan's eyes. To cut a long story short, the girls and I continued on without the head of the family. The stairs got narrower and steeper. The sun beat harder. We kept going, admiring the beauty of the nature around us. Becky led the way, Erin was in the middle and I was bringing up the rear. Suddenly, Erin turned around and issued an exclamation. She told me to turn around too. I duly did.
What I saw will stay with me forever. Even as I write this, I cringe at how cheesy it sounds but the view of Wentworth Falls from where we stood was utterly breathtaking. The pictures do not do it justice. We spent some time, taking photos and splashing each other with the ice cold water from the numerous rock pools. Then we remembered that we had abandoned 'dad' so decided to head back up. The sun continued to beat down and Erin decided that now would be a really good time to have a 'woohey'. We are right at the bottom of a mountain, standing in front of this majestic waterfall, in the middle of nowhere with no choice but to climb upwards and Erin decides that she is going to feel faint!
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Tax can definitely be taxing!
Hi all,
Admin and boring practicalities prevailed today. Firstly, we had to return the rental car to Avis in Castle Hill. Secondly, we had to visit a tax office in Sydney to apply for a tax file number so that we are able to enjoy as many of our hard earned dollars as we are entitled to. Thirdly, we had to go to the bank to collect our visa cards (i have ordered mine in pink and Nathan's in black!). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Nathan needed to purchase the 'native orchids' design set of stamps, (the local post office is simply not prestigious enough to offer them).
After a fairly leisurely morning, Nathan drove the rental car and I followed him in the Mazda, with the new sat nav system all ready to go in case he lost me. No conking out and no bumps, (though I did have to perform a six point turn as I navigated my way out of the car park). I did not hover over an imaginary clutch today so things must be improving! Although the windscreen wipers lurched across the windscreen-every time I went right or left.
An hour later, we returned and pulled up in the hotel car park. As I opened the door, I noticed that there was something black and squashed on the floor. As I bent down to examine it further, I discovered that it was my purse! I couldn't believe it. It must have fallen out of my handbag as I had got into the Mazda an hour earlier. There it lay, waiting for me patiently to pick it up. Nothing was missing. I cannot decide whether I am lucky that I found it or unlucky that I dropped it in the first place. I guess I'll go with the former since that is a more optimistic outlook. And I do want to be a 'glass half full' person as opposed to a 'glass half empty' misery. Talking of glasses, Nathan and I spent this evening wandering over to the liquor store. I needed wine! I am currently supping a rather nice sparkling rose - not bad at $7 a bottle (about £4). While we were there, we perused the shelves to compare prices with the UK; this habit has become annoyingly addictive. Anyway, Nathan was over the moon. Whiskey prices did not vary an awful lot from the UK. This means that he does not have to give up his scotch. I wouldn't mind betting that the cost of pipe and slippers is comparable too! We paid for the wine, which was put in a brown paper bag. Suddenly my guilty pleasure seemed like a sin and we left the store feeling like tramps on the Special Brew.
Anyway, a slight detour there- sorry. Back to the tasks in hand. We took a train ride into the city and walked to the bank, we collected our gender stereotype colour Visa cards and hunted for the Post Office and Tax Office. The walk from the bank to the tax office was a good mile and a half. Thongs are not ideal for long walks across the city - UK readers, please note that I am referring to flip flops not underwear. We were not suffering with wedgies, we were suffering with chafed toes. Even Nathan, with his $99 sandals, was suffering! We eventually arrived and then had to sit at computers and complete the applications online. That took ages. The poor kids were bored to tears so I promised them a meatball and cheese subway - they're easily pleased. But of course, where is a subway when you need one. More chafing and blisters as we trekked across the city trying to find the famous sandwich outlet. After a painfully long time, we found one. A chicken sub has never tasted so good!!!
We received the agenda for the induction days today. There are 31 teachers starting
this year. The teaching staff in its entirety totals a whopping 250!
Whoop whoop!
Admin and boring practicalities prevailed today. Firstly, we had to return the rental car to Avis in Castle Hill. Secondly, we had to visit a tax office in Sydney to apply for a tax file number so that we are able to enjoy as many of our hard earned dollars as we are entitled to. Thirdly, we had to go to the bank to collect our visa cards (i have ordered mine in pink and Nathan's in black!). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Nathan needed to purchase the 'native orchids' design set of stamps, (the local post office is simply not prestigious enough to offer them).
After a fairly leisurely morning, Nathan drove the rental car and I followed him in the Mazda, with the new sat nav system all ready to go in case he lost me. No conking out and no bumps, (though I did have to perform a six point turn as I navigated my way out of the car park). I did not hover over an imaginary clutch today so things must be improving! Although the windscreen wipers lurched across the windscreen-every time I went right or left.
An hour later, we returned and pulled up in the hotel car park. As I opened the door, I noticed that there was something black and squashed on the floor. As I bent down to examine it further, I discovered that it was my purse! I couldn't believe it. It must have fallen out of my handbag as I had got into the Mazda an hour earlier. There it lay, waiting for me patiently to pick it up. Nothing was missing. I cannot decide whether I am lucky that I found it or unlucky that I dropped it in the first place. I guess I'll go with the former since that is a more optimistic outlook. And I do want to be a 'glass half full' person as opposed to a 'glass half empty' misery. Talking of glasses, Nathan and I spent this evening wandering over to the liquor store. I needed wine! I am currently supping a rather nice sparkling rose - not bad at $7 a bottle (about £4). While we were there, we perused the shelves to compare prices with the UK; this habit has become annoyingly addictive. Anyway, Nathan was over the moon. Whiskey prices did not vary an awful lot from the UK. This means that he does not have to give up his scotch. I wouldn't mind betting that the cost of pipe and slippers is comparable too! We paid for the wine, which was put in a brown paper bag. Suddenly my guilty pleasure seemed like a sin and we left the store feeling like tramps on the Special Brew.
Anyway, a slight detour there- sorry. Back to the tasks in hand. We took a train ride into the city and walked to the bank, we collected our gender stereotype colour Visa cards and hunted for the Post Office and Tax Office. The walk from the bank to the tax office was a good mile and a half. Thongs are not ideal for long walks across the city - UK readers, please note that I am referring to flip flops not underwear. We were not suffering with wedgies, we were suffering with chafed toes. Even Nathan, with his $99 sandals, was suffering! We eventually arrived and then had to sit at computers and complete the applications online. That took ages. The poor kids were bored to tears so I promised them a meatball and cheese subway - they're easily pleased. But of course, where is a subway when you need one. More chafing and blisters as we trekked across the city trying to find the famous sandwich outlet. After a painfully long time, we found one. A chicken sub has never tasted so good!!!
We received the agenda for the induction days today. There are 31 teachers starting
this year. The teaching staff in its entirety totals a whopping 250!
Whoop whoop!
Monday, 13 January 2014
Don't knock Knox!
Hi all,
Today, we went into Knox to meet some staff, ask a few questions and walk around the site. Wow. It is huge! It is going to take me at least a year to learn my way around.
Before I make any teachers who may be reading this, jealous, I'll start with the negative. There is not enough room for all staff to park in the school car park. Your very own car parking space is earned as a rite of passage. 2-3 years at the school and your loyalty is rewarded with a personal car parking space! This is not a wind up! The school is amazing yet staff have to park in the surrounding streets! Still, we learnt today that this is a very small price to pay.
I have my own classroom! Yep, you heard right - no more nomadic teaching and Neanderthal style walking from room to room, carrying a box full of books and resources. No more back ache or knuckles dragging the ground from the weight of the box. My room is clean! It has a carpet that is attached to the floor - no carpet tiles which have peeled themselves away from the floor and rejoice in tripping you up at every opportunity. I have a huge white board and more techno gadgets than you can shake a stick at! It is air conditioned! It does not leak! It does not smell! There are enough chairs for every student! But that is not all...There is an English Department staff room with a kitchen, scanner and fax machine. I have my own desk and book shelf! I kid you not.
Nathan's surroundings in science are not quite as luxurious but still a vast improvement on what he is used to. The school is undergoing a huge rebuilding programme; part of this will be a new Science Block with super labs. There will also be a new library and an extended English suite. So he'll only have to 'rough' it for a little while.
Every morning we are provided with tea. The staff room has a tea lady who apparently prides herself on learning your name, your face and memorising exactly how you drink your tea and coffee. There are Knox cups and saucers and Knox napkins! We spent about 3 hours at the school today, talking about the curriculum and the school. I am both excited and intimidated. It is all so huge and I feel like an NQT all over again. For so long I have been in control and known everything like the back of my hand. I hope it doesn't take me too long to learn the ropes again! Everybody we met loves working at the school and talked about how lovely the students are.
After this, we looked into renting property for when our furniture arrives. This is our next priority. Oh, and last but not least, Nathan bought some Australian stamps for his stamp collection. Oooh, he is a sexy philatelist!
Today, we went into Knox to meet some staff, ask a few questions and walk around the site. Wow. It is huge! It is going to take me at least a year to learn my way around.
Before I make any teachers who may be reading this, jealous, I'll start with the negative. There is not enough room for all staff to park in the school car park. Your very own car parking space is earned as a rite of passage. 2-3 years at the school and your loyalty is rewarded with a personal car parking space! This is not a wind up! The school is amazing yet staff have to park in the surrounding streets! Still, we learnt today that this is a very small price to pay.
I have my own classroom! Yep, you heard right - no more nomadic teaching and Neanderthal style walking from room to room, carrying a box full of books and resources. No more back ache or knuckles dragging the ground from the weight of the box. My room is clean! It has a carpet that is attached to the floor - no carpet tiles which have peeled themselves away from the floor and rejoice in tripping you up at every opportunity. I have a huge white board and more techno gadgets than you can shake a stick at! It is air conditioned! It does not leak! It does not smell! There are enough chairs for every student! But that is not all...There is an English Department staff room with a kitchen, scanner and fax machine. I have my own desk and book shelf! I kid you not.
Nathan's surroundings in science are not quite as luxurious but still a vast improvement on what he is used to. The school is undergoing a huge rebuilding programme; part of this will be a new Science Block with super labs. There will also be a new library and an extended English suite. So he'll only have to 'rough' it for a little while.
Every morning we are provided with tea. The staff room has a tea lady who apparently prides herself on learning your name, your face and memorising exactly how you drink your tea and coffee. There are Knox cups and saucers and Knox napkins! We spent about 3 hours at the school today, talking about the curriculum and the school. I am both excited and intimidated. It is all so huge and I feel like an NQT all over again. For so long I have been in control and known everything like the back of my hand. I hope it doesn't take me too long to learn the ropes again! Everybody we met loves working at the school and talked about how lovely the students are.
After this, we looked into renting property for when our furniture arrives. This is our next priority. Oh, and last but not least, Nathan bought some Australian stamps for his stamp collection. Oooh, he is a sexy philatelist!
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Lazy Day Today
Hi all,
Although this may be the first time for you, it is the second time for me! I had already written this blog once and it did not save! Arrrghhhh! Technology! The irony is that this is very short and sweet anyway. We did so little today that I was not going to blog but then I felt that this would be short changing those of you who are keeping tabs. A short blog is better than no blog at all. Even if you do have to compose it twice? Argghhhh! Not that I am bitter at all.
Today was to be another hot day and Nathan is still suffering with his frazzled neck so we knew that we had to stay indoors. Our morning was leisurely to say the least. The kids and Nathan played with their phones and I read up on the History of the Aboriginal people, the Torres Straits islanders and the Stolen Generation. I also spent some time looking through the programmes of study for Year 7 English at Knox. I know that I am a geek but I was in my element!
After lunch we were all a little stir crazy so we decided to drive over to Castle Hill, Castle Tower (Westfield equivalent) and conduct some serious reconnaissance regarding different prices at different grocery stores. Never let it be said that the Lewis clan do not know how to have fun. This was so tiring that Nathan and the girls simply had to have a chocolate cookie milkshake in order to recover.
After this, we went to the cinema. What now follows is a recommendation to you all. We watched 'The Book Thief', which is an adaptation of Marcus Zusack's novel. I am usually a bit of a 'book to film' hypocritical snob. I read, and thoroughly enjoy the book. I become very excited and animated when the film is released, watch the film and then spend the next hour criticising everything about it because it did not live up to the book. I cannot rave about this film enough. It is extremely sensitive and genuine in its adaptation, including the clever narration. Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush are the epitome of the characters that they play. I cried throughout the whole film - for all the right reasons. If you never listen to anything else I say, listen to this - do yourself a favour and go and watch this film. It is the kind of film that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Beautiful.
Tomorrow we are going into Knox so stay tuned if you're interested in how that goes.
Lots of love.
Although this may be the first time for you, it is the second time for me! I had already written this blog once and it did not save! Arrrghhhh! Technology! The irony is that this is very short and sweet anyway. We did so little today that I was not going to blog but then I felt that this would be short changing those of you who are keeping tabs. A short blog is better than no blog at all. Even if you do have to compose it twice? Argghhhh! Not that I am bitter at all.
Today was to be another hot day and Nathan is still suffering with his frazzled neck so we knew that we had to stay indoors. Our morning was leisurely to say the least. The kids and Nathan played with their phones and I read up on the History of the Aboriginal people, the Torres Straits islanders and the Stolen Generation. I also spent some time looking through the programmes of study for Year 7 English at Knox. I know that I am a geek but I was in my element!
After lunch we were all a little stir crazy so we decided to drive over to Castle Hill, Castle Tower (Westfield equivalent) and conduct some serious reconnaissance regarding different prices at different grocery stores. Never let it be said that the Lewis clan do not know how to have fun. This was so tiring that Nathan and the girls simply had to have a chocolate cookie milkshake in order to recover.
After this, we went to the cinema. What now follows is a recommendation to you all. We watched 'The Book Thief', which is an adaptation of Marcus Zusack's novel. I am usually a bit of a 'book to film' hypocritical snob. I read, and thoroughly enjoy the book. I become very excited and animated when the film is released, watch the film and then spend the next hour criticising everything about it because it did not live up to the book. I cannot rave about this film enough. It is extremely sensitive and genuine in its adaptation, including the clever narration. Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush are the epitome of the characters that they play. I cried throughout the whole film - for all the right reasons. If you never listen to anything else I say, listen to this - do yourself a favour and go and watch this film. It is the kind of film that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Beautiful.
Tomorrow we are going into Knox so stay tuned if you're interested in how that goes.
Lots of love.
Friday, 10 January 2014
Not much to report today folks!
The Lewis clan woke this morning, feeling a little sore and even more red than yesterday. ABC news proudly presented the Sydney High temperatures today and so we decided that today needed to be spent indoors. We watched the Australian news reports on the severe weather of the UK. We watched the footage of UK adrenaline junkies water skiing behind 4x4s on country lanes in Surrey, while we sat in a line in front of the TV, gently massaging after-sun lotion onto our red throbbing shoulders! The scene reminded me a little of Attenborough episodes where apes groom each other!
To be fair, I was the least affected. I had remembered to put suncream on my face and arms and chest. However, I had missed a tiny strip between exposed and non exposed shoulder and the back of my neck. Since my hair was tied up, my neck was also exposed. Yesterday, I had worn my Nana Lana's locket, which has a reasonably chunky chain. Thus the back of my neck is bright red with a pure white line in the middle of it. Erin spent a significant proportion of today walking behind me and intermittently cracking up laughing at the white line separating the top and bottom of my neck.
Nathan has perhaps suffered the most.
Frightening image alert! In his birthday suit, the way mother nature intended, he has a 'white t-shirt'; his head, face, neck and arms are a lovely rosy glow. His neck has even swelled slightly.
We decided that today, we may as well sort out the girls with a phone and purchase a sat nav for our lovely new car so we drove into Castle Hill ( which is where we think we may settle eventually) and went to Castle Tower; a shopping centre similar to Westfield. Australia may have the weather and the beaches, happier people and nice jobs..... But it's not a patch on Britain for mobile phone packages. Lets just say, it's a good job that our wages are higher! Anyway, enough moaning. We discovered that the girls couldn't use their old phones so we had to get new phones for each of them. Belated Christmas presents! They both chose a Samsung Galaxy Express 4G. We decided to buy them outright and go with a prepaid SIM card rather than get tied into 24 month contracts. The phones are unlocked so we can go with any network. I think we'll experiment and see what suits us best. For those of you who know us well, we've been bitten twice by tied in contracts!!
Anyway, the girls are happy now. Even Nathan got a phone - a Samsung Galaxy Y! Watch this space...I'll be impressed if he actually uses it. Those of you who know Nathan, know exactly what I am talking about! The Aussies do not like it when we try to use my phone as a contact on paperwork so we'll use Nathan's for all business and paperwork reasons.
Well, apart from spending an extortionate amount of money, there is nothing much else to report today. So I'll sign off. Talk soon and lots of love.
To be fair, I was the least affected. I had remembered to put suncream on my face and arms and chest. However, I had missed a tiny strip between exposed and non exposed shoulder and the back of my neck. Since my hair was tied up, my neck was also exposed. Yesterday, I had worn my Nana Lana's locket, which has a reasonably chunky chain. Thus the back of my neck is bright red with a pure white line in the middle of it. Erin spent a significant proportion of today walking behind me and intermittently cracking up laughing at the white line separating the top and bottom of my neck.
Nathan has perhaps suffered the most.
Frightening image alert! In his birthday suit, the way mother nature intended, he has a 'white t-shirt'; his head, face, neck and arms are a lovely rosy glow. His neck has even swelled slightly.
We decided that today, we may as well sort out the girls with a phone and purchase a sat nav for our lovely new car so we drove into Castle Hill ( which is where we think we may settle eventually) and went to Castle Tower; a shopping centre similar to Westfield. Australia may have the weather and the beaches, happier people and nice jobs..... But it's not a patch on Britain for mobile phone packages. Lets just say, it's a good job that our wages are higher! Anyway, enough moaning. We discovered that the girls couldn't use their old phones so we had to get new phones for each of them. Belated Christmas presents! They both chose a Samsung Galaxy Express 4G. We decided to buy them outright and go with a prepaid SIM card rather than get tied into 24 month contracts. The phones are unlocked so we can go with any network. I think we'll experiment and see what suits us best. For those of you who know us well, we've been bitten twice by tied in contracts!!
Anyway, the girls are happy now. Even Nathan got a phone - a Samsung Galaxy Y! Watch this space...I'll be impressed if he actually uses it. Those of you who know Nathan, know exactly what I am talking about! The Aussies do not like it when we try to use my phone as a contact on paperwork so we'll use Nathan's for all business and paperwork reasons.
Well, apart from spending an extortionate amount of money, there is nothing much else to report today. So I'll sign off. Talk soon and lots of love.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Beautiful Beaches and Out of way Reaches
In 1768, Captain Cook's the Endeavour, set sail from Plymouth. Among the crew was 25 year old Joseph Banks, a Botanist, whose discovery of a huge array of hitherto unknown plant life in 1770 led to Cook naming the place, Botany Bay.
Now before you get too excited, no, we did not go to Botany Bay today - too much of a trek for us Brits this early on in our Aussie adventures. The reason I have started with this fact is because today we were struck by the beauty of North Sydney and its coastline. Ignorantly, I had always assumed Australia to be a very dry and sparse place. When we had visited Australia back in April 2013, Nathan and I had visited further South of NSW and here the flora was impressive but it lacked the variety of England's beautiful fields, forests and meadows. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the variety of wildlife here. In addition to the expected palm trees and eucalyptus trees, we have seen all manner of plant life - including oak trees! Now that, I did not expect! The colours are stunning.
Anyway, enough of me being old and boring! Today we decided to take the new car for a spin. I'll put a picture of her lower down for those of you who are interested in cars!
We decided to take a drive to Knox Grammar school, to see how long our drive to work will be. Well, it was a whole 10 minutes. If I wasn't nervous about starting at Knox, I certainly am now. It is even more impressive in the flesh than on its website. It is absolutely huge and extremely posh looking. What will they think of me and Nathan ? Will our accents endear us to them or annoy them? Will they even be familiar with the lyrics of Knees up Mother Brown or Chas and Dave's Rabbit? How much Dickens can an Australian lad handle?
We then drove onto see some of the coastline. We spent an hour at Dee Why beach, which was gorgeous. Golden sands tickled by sapphire blue waves, breaking with ivory white froth. I would like to say that I am exaggerating to simply make you jealous but that would be a lie. It really was phenomenal. We walked the stretch of beach and then stopped off for an ice cream.
Next stop, Palm Beach. For the Home and Away fans, this is the beach filmed for the series at Summer Bay. See piccies below. If possible, this was even more picturesque. The sands were more golden and the sea more blue. In fact, Nathan even took his shoes and socks off to paddle!
Amusingly, the girls got a little wet when a rogue wave came at them from behind. Nathan told them off - after all, he had warned them not to get wet because we would be getting in the car soon. Couldn't they even do that? I am sure that they were smugly satisfied when the waves, seemingly in sympathy with the girls, galloped up to Nathan and soaked his shorts!!
We stopped off at a café here, for lunch. Nathan had an Asian dish with noodles, Becky and I had a lemon and sweet chili chicken roll with salad and Erin had chicken and guacamole on sourdough bread. Poor Erin discovered that she hates sourdough bread today. If I was a nice mother, I would have swapped with her but I cannot stand guacamole and instead, I watched her as she did an extremely good impression of the world's slowest sandwich eater. meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken and salad. Still, it is all good character building - well that is what I am going to tell myself anyway!
We took another walk along the beach, drooling at the multi million dollar houses on the way. May be we could afford a beach hut???
On our return to the hotel, we had all turned a lovely shade of pink. Becky, in particular, seems to be pulling off a pretty convincing impression of a boiled lobster. The weather here is crazy; it is so inconsistent. We had a couple of hot days when we first arrived, followed by 2 or 3 very overcast days (jeans and t-shirt weather). Today started off fairly warm and got hotter and hotter as the day progressed. The breeze is lovely and cool so it is extremely pleasant but clearly we have burnt easily.
Blue Mountains tomorrow!!!
Now before you get too excited, no, we did not go to Botany Bay today - too much of a trek for us Brits this early on in our Aussie adventures. The reason I have started with this fact is because today we were struck by the beauty of North Sydney and its coastline. Ignorantly, I had always assumed Australia to be a very dry and sparse place. When we had visited Australia back in April 2013, Nathan and I had visited further South of NSW and here the flora was impressive but it lacked the variety of England's beautiful fields, forests and meadows. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the variety of wildlife here. In addition to the expected palm trees and eucalyptus trees, we have seen all manner of plant life - including oak trees! Now that, I did not expect! The colours are stunning.
Anyway, enough of me being old and boring! Today we decided to take the new car for a spin. I'll put a picture of her lower down for those of you who are interested in cars!
We decided to take a drive to Knox Grammar school, to see how long our drive to work will be. Well, it was a whole 10 minutes. If I wasn't nervous about starting at Knox, I certainly am now. It is even more impressive in the flesh than on its website. It is absolutely huge and extremely posh looking. What will they think of me and Nathan ? Will our accents endear us to them or annoy them? Will they even be familiar with the lyrics of Knees up Mother Brown or Chas and Dave's Rabbit? How much Dickens can an Australian lad handle?
We then drove onto see some of the coastline. We spent an hour at Dee Why beach, which was gorgeous. Golden sands tickled by sapphire blue waves, breaking with ivory white froth. I would like to say that I am exaggerating to simply make you jealous but that would be a lie. It really was phenomenal. We walked the stretch of beach and then stopped off for an ice cream.
Next stop, Palm Beach. For the Home and Away fans, this is the beach filmed for the series at Summer Bay. See piccies below. If possible, this was even more picturesque. The sands were more golden and the sea more blue. In fact, Nathan even took his shoes and socks off to paddle!
Amusingly, the girls got a little wet when a rogue wave came at them from behind. Nathan told them off - after all, he had warned them not to get wet because we would be getting in the car soon. Couldn't they even do that? I am sure that they were smugly satisfied when the waves, seemingly in sympathy with the girls, galloped up to Nathan and soaked his shorts!!
We stopped off at a café here, for lunch. Nathan had an Asian dish with noodles, Becky and I had a lemon and sweet chili chicken roll with salad and Erin had chicken and guacamole on sourdough bread. Poor Erin discovered that she hates sourdough bread today. If I was a nice mother, I would have swapped with her but I cannot stand guacamole and instead, I watched her as she did an extremely good impression of the world's slowest sandwich eater. meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken and salad. Still, it is all good character building - well that is what I am going to tell myself anyway!
We took another walk along the beach, drooling at the multi million dollar houses on the way. May be we could afford a beach hut???
On our return to the hotel, we had all turned a lovely shade of pink. Becky, in particular, seems to be pulling off a pretty convincing impression of a boiled lobster. The weather here is crazy; it is so inconsistent. We had a couple of hot days when we first arrived, followed by 2 or 3 very overcast days (jeans and t-shirt weather). Today started off fairly warm and got hotter and hotter as the day progressed. The breeze is lovely and cool so it is extremely pleasant but clearly we have burnt easily.
Blue Mountains tomorrow!!!
I drove a big car!!!!
More logistics and admin today folks! I look forward to when I blog about Bondi, surfing and the Blue Mountains but for now, I am in Victor Meldrew mode!
Awoke this morning to discover the tumble drier had not worked again!! Still, that's ok because it meant that I got to use my amazing new clothes horse and, after all, there is so much spare room in this one bedroom apartment that a clothes horse bedecked with undies is simply a must have!
After breakfast, the Lewis clan took a taxi ride to the garage to pick up our new car. Just in case I forgot to mention, it is a 4x4!! Nathan's choice. Is he compensating for something? Anyway, we spent some time chatting to our new American friend, Chris, (the finance guy at the garage). After telling us about all of the amazing places to visit, he gave us his number - his personal number - and told us to ring him if we ever needed advice on anything. He emigrated 14 years ago. Such is the culture here. When people tell you that they want to help you and show you around, they actually, genuinely mean it. Everyone has time for everyone here. He and Nathan also engaged in some alpha male bonding, discussing the size of the Macdonalds burgers compared to the Hungry Jack burgers.
Nathan drove the new car back to the hotel and then I had a go. Now, those of you who know me, know that I am not the world's most confident driver. Here I was, about to drive a car that was significantly bigger than my beautiful little Suzuki swift, in a foreign country. Add to this that it is an automatic, and you might have some idea as to the levels of anxiety I was experiencing. My poor little left foot did not know whether it was coming or going! It kept wavering over an imaginary clutch. Thankfully, there was no kangaroo hopping ( the irony of which does not escape me). However, I did keep cleaning the windscreen every time I wanted to turn left or right!
I then drove us all to the RTA so that we could register the car. You'll notice that we are spending a fair bit of time at the RTA - we may as well set up camp there at the moment! I parked, without hitting anything, which was a bonus. We entered the RTA and took our ticket. This time, we were not greeted by a friendly Aussie but a miserable one with a dodgy accent and a voice that barely reached anything approaching volume; a mouse fart; a croaky whisper. Now those of you who know Nathan, know that he is pretty hard of hearing at the best of times. Yes, I know he has selective deafness when it comes to my nagging but he genuinely suffers a little with his hearing. Even more so at the moment with his 'jet lag'. Observing him attempting to listen to this woman across a counter and a glass screen was mildly amusing. More form filling and having to prove our identity ensued. To be honest, this has become a little tedious now.
Boring but necessary fact alert!
In Australia, when you buy a car, you then have to pay a 3% stamp duty, in the same way that you do when buying a house in the UK.
Anyway, after a quick eye test and a photograph, Nathan is now the proud owner of a NSW driving licence! The whole experience was dry and uninspiring. We have 3 months breathing space where we are allowed to drive on the UK driving licence so we'll sort mine out when we're up to it.
This was all so time consuming that before we knew it, lunchtime had arrived. Guess what? Nathan and the girls did not have burgers. Maybe the jet lag is wearing off. Instead we went back 'home' and feasted on scrambled eggs and beans toast.
The afternoon was fairly uneventful. I read about Australian history and Nathan filled in more forms, while the girls remained surgically attached to their laptops.
Chicken curry for tea tonight. This is exciting because Nathan is using his new copper bottomed pans! They are huge; I I struggle to lift them. Nathan is certainly embracing the me man, me big Australian philosophy! Unfortunately, there are only 2 rings. They do not heat up very quickly and there is not enough room to have both pans on at the same time. Thus we have to cook the curry in one pan; put it to one side and then cook the rice afterwards. A hint to any of you who might be in Australia one day and feel like cooking a curry. Australian shop bought nan bread has no preservatives. If you do not keep it in the fridge from the day of purchase ( we didn't), it grows an impressive amount of mould at an alarming rate.
More logistics and admin today folks! I look forward to when I blog about Bondi, surfing and the Blue Mountains but for now, I am in Victor Meldrew mode!
Awoke this morning to discover the tumble drier had not worked again!! Still, that's ok because it meant that I got to use my amazing new clothes horse and, after all, there is so much spare room in this one bedroom apartment that a clothes horse bedecked with undies is simply a must have!
After breakfast, the Lewis clan took a taxi ride to the garage to pick up our new car. Just in case I forgot to mention, it is a 4x4!! Nathan's choice. Is he compensating for something? Anyway, we spent some time chatting to our new American friend, Chris, (the finance guy at the garage). After telling us about all of the amazing places to visit, he gave us his number - his personal number - and told us to ring him if we ever needed advice on anything. He emigrated 14 years ago. Such is the culture here. When people tell you that they want to help you and show you around, they actually, genuinely mean it. Everyone has time for everyone here. He and Nathan also engaged in some alpha male bonding, discussing the size of the Macdonalds burgers compared to the Hungry Jack burgers.
Nathan drove the new car back to the hotel and then I had a go. Now, those of you who know me, know that I am not the world's most confident driver. Here I was, about to drive a car that was significantly bigger than my beautiful little Suzuki swift, in a foreign country. Add to this that it is an automatic, and you might have some idea as to the levels of anxiety I was experiencing. My poor little left foot did not know whether it was coming or going! It kept wavering over an imaginary clutch. Thankfully, there was no kangaroo hopping ( the irony of which does not escape me). However, I did keep cleaning the windscreen every time I wanted to turn left or right!
I then drove us all to the RTA so that we could register the car. You'll notice that we are spending a fair bit of time at the RTA - we may as well set up camp there at the moment! I parked, without hitting anything, which was a bonus. We entered the RTA and took our ticket. This time, we were not greeted by a friendly Aussie but a miserable one with a dodgy accent and a voice that barely reached anything approaching volume; a mouse fart; a croaky whisper. Now those of you who know Nathan, know that he is pretty hard of hearing at the best of times. Yes, I know he has selective deafness when it comes to my nagging but he genuinely suffers a little with his hearing. Even more so at the moment with his 'jet lag'. Observing him attempting to listen to this woman across a counter and a glass screen was mildly amusing. More form filling and having to prove our identity ensued. To be honest, this has become a little tedious now.
Boring but necessary fact alert!
In Australia, when you buy a car, you then have to pay a 3% stamp duty, in the same way that you do when buying a house in the UK.
Anyway, after a quick eye test and a photograph, Nathan is now the proud owner of a NSW driving licence! The whole experience was dry and uninspiring. We have 3 months breathing space where we are allowed to drive on the UK driving licence so we'll sort mine out when we're up to it.
This was all so time consuming that before we knew it, lunchtime had arrived. Guess what? Nathan and the girls did not have burgers. Maybe the jet lag is wearing off. Instead we went back 'home' and feasted on scrambled eggs and beans toast.
The afternoon was fairly uneventful. I read about Australian history and Nathan filled in more forms, while the girls remained surgically attached to their laptops.
Chicken curry for tea tonight. This is exciting because Nathan is using his new copper bottomed pans! They are huge; I I struggle to lift them. Nathan is certainly embracing the me man, me big Australian philosophy! Unfortunately, there are only 2 rings. They do not heat up very quickly and there is not enough room to have both pans on at the same time. Thus we have to cook the curry in one pan; put it to one side and then cook the rice afterwards. A hint to any of you who might be in Australia one day and feel like cooking a curry. Australian shop bought nan bread has no preservatives. If you do not keep it in the fridge from the day of purchase ( we didn't), it grows an impressive amount of mould at an alarming rate.
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Topsy Turvy!!!
Today, I am going to talk about ... The events of today. However, I will apologise in advance because I am also going to disrupt the chronological fluidity by regaling some experiences from New Years Eve. It has been far too traumatic and upsetting to even think about it until now but I feel that as each day passes, I am getting stronger and more hardened to the embarrassments that must be endured by the novice traveller. I also take some comfort from the fact that you may all learn from my mistakes and avoid looking a complete idiot when you travel across the world, transcending culture as well as time.
We had packed and repacked the cases the day we were due to leave, ensuring that our cases did not exceed the 30 kg weight and that our hand luggage did not exceed the 7kg weight allowed. Packing your life into cases which are limited by weight (and various other irritating dimensions!) is pretty stressful as it is. I had also scrutinised the airline websites for the rules re LAG in hand luggage - (that's liquid, aerosols, gels to those of you who aren't familiar with the jargon) to ensure that I was not breaking any rules. All toiletries in 100ml packets. All in clear resealable 20cm bags.
However, I was stopped at Heathrow and scanned. Hair cutting scissors can be lethal when used in a threatening manner! They were confiscated and I was mortified and embarrassed. No scissors over 6cm long allowed!!!
Most of you are already familiar with the puking pains of dear Becky on the flights so I'll not bore you with that again - suffice to say that she used up her quota and everybody else's quota of brown paper bags!!!! It's actually quite impressive, the weight those things can withstand!
In Singapore, as we checked through the hand luggage, I was pulled aside again. A stern faced guard took me by the arm and walked me over to another area. He asked me to open my hand luggage. Oh God! Fear overtook embarrassment at this point. Hot flushes, the lot! Apparently, nail scissors can be quite lethal when used inappropriately, even if they are smaller than 6cm. They were confiscated and I received a naughty stamp and had to sign something - why me?????
Anyway, back to today. We went into Sydney to sort out a bankers cheque to pay for the car tomorrow. While we were in the bank, we also managed to sort out car insurance. It includes full roadside assistance etc etc and reasonably priced too! The bloke in the bank was lovely, like all of the Aussies we have met so far, incredibly friendly and helpful and brilliant at hiding his amusement at our ignorance. How they stifle their laughter is beyond me. Perhaps the lopsided smile is a slight give away. No, seriously, we have been truly blessed with the help and advice we have been given.
After this, Nath and the girls were hungry. Because, don't forget, jet lag causes burger urges. It was off to Hungry Jacks for lunch (that's Burger King) to you!
I kid you not ...
Nath and the girls had a Hungry Jacks for lunch on Sunday (I had a strawberry and honey smoothie), Monday saw my kids and beloved chomping on a Macdonalds, Tuesday the pattern continued with a Macdonalds and today......it was Hungry Jacks again. Well, if you can't beat them, join them. I also partook in the absolute filth that is the burger. Yes, I do feel absolute shame! Worryingly, they do not!!
We navigated the train system very well today. We even smiled smugly to ourselves as we watched tourists desperately try to locate a seat that faced forward. Oh small things!!!
We visited Sydney opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour. We took a ferry across the harbour and visited Sydney's Madam Tussauds. Well, lets face it, it's the only way I'm ever going to get my photo taken with the beautiful Leonardo di Caprio, Jonny Depp and Mr Die Hard!!! Nathan, well, he put his arm around Einstein!
...... OK, geek he may be, he also had time to see Nicole Kidman and Marilyn Monroe.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
We bought a car!!
So, where was I? Well, let's begin by explaining the early hours of this morning, which, thanks to Bex, were pretty traumatic! 'What more vomit?' I hear you cry. No, much more exciting than that.
Erin came into my room at about 2am and said that she couldn't find Becky. Now bear in mind, we are staying in a tiny one bedroom apartment. Erin said that Becky was not in her bed or under her bed or in the toilet. I knew that she was not in with us. Maternal instinct and panic set in as I shouted her name at the top of my voice. Not sure what I thought this would achieve. Suddenly, we heard a tiny knocking sound and found a distraught Becky standing outside the apartment - she had no idea how she had got there. So now you can add 'sleepwalking' to the list of Bex ailments! As you can appreciate, this was pretty upsetting at the time. Nath and I were both paranoid that she might do it again so we built a complex obstacle course of dining room chairs in front of the door to keep her in!
7.00am arrived and we got up and breakfasted, showered and left to go to the RTA for a third time! (Oh well, I guess they do say third time lucky). This time, our paper work proved to be acceptable so we were able to set the wheels in motion. We then located the nearest Medicare centre to register for healthcare. 'Complicated' is an understatement. I have told the girls that they are not allowed to be ill until I have figured it all out... That could be some time!
Shopping for clothes for Erin was our next endeavour. This proved to be tricky; Nathan and Erin have very different ideas of what is and is not fashionable!
We then took a trip to a garage, intending to purchase a Kia Sportage. I looked longingly at a beautiful row of brand new Suzuki Swifts in a wonderful array of colours but Nathan was not having any of it! We needed a big car. However, the Sportage is a monster! It is a truck! It is a juggernaut. In short, I hated it. Fortunately it cost more than Nath wanted to pay so we looked around. Finally we settled on a Mazda CX5. It is a 2 litre petrol, 180 bhp. Or, more importantly, it is a lovely silver colour - titanium.
In a scene reminiscent of Monty Python's Life of Brian, Nath conducted some superb haggling. We even got a free koala with it! Not really! That was a joke!
Nath looked at the same car in auto trader in the UK and he reckons we paid about £3000 less than we would have paid for the same car in the UK. So that felt pretty good.
Finally for today, Nath has 'man flu' and apparently, Nathan has discovered that jet lag causes uncontrollable burger urges.
Talk again soon,
Lots of love.
So, where was I? Well, let's begin by explaining the early hours of this morning, which, thanks to Bex, were pretty traumatic! 'What more vomit?' I hear you cry. No, much more exciting than that.
Erin came into my room at about 2am and said that she couldn't find Becky. Now bear in mind, we are staying in a tiny one bedroom apartment. Erin said that Becky was not in her bed or under her bed or in the toilet. I knew that she was not in with us. Maternal instinct and panic set in as I shouted her name at the top of my voice. Not sure what I thought this would achieve. Suddenly, we heard a tiny knocking sound and found a distraught Becky standing outside the apartment - she had no idea how she had got there. So now you can add 'sleepwalking' to the list of Bex ailments! As you can appreciate, this was pretty upsetting at the time. Nath and I were both paranoid that she might do it again so we built a complex obstacle course of dining room chairs in front of the door to keep her in!
7.00am arrived and we got up and breakfasted, showered and left to go to the RTA for a third time! (Oh well, I guess they do say third time lucky). This time, our paper work proved to be acceptable so we were able to set the wheels in motion. We then located the nearest Medicare centre to register for healthcare. 'Complicated' is an understatement. I have told the girls that they are not allowed to be ill until I have figured it all out... That could be some time!
Shopping for clothes for Erin was our next endeavour. This proved to be tricky; Nathan and Erin have very different ideas of what is and is not fashionable!
We then took a trip to a garage, intending to purchase a Kia Sportage. I looked longingly at a beautiful row of brand new Suzuki Swifts in a wonderful array of colours but Nathan was not having any of it! We needed a big car. However, the Sportage is a monster! It is a truck! It is a juggernaut. In short, I hated it. Fortunately it cost more than Nath wanted to pay so we looked around. Finally we settled on a Mazda CX5. It is a 2 litre petrol, 180 bhp. Or, more importantly, it is a lovely silver colour - titanium.
In a scene reminiscent of Monty Python's Life of Brian, Nath conducted some superb haggling. We even got a free koala with it! Not really! That was a joke!
Nath looked at the same car in auto trader in the UK and he reckons we paid about £3000 less than we would have paid for the same car in the UK. So that felt pretty good.
Finally for today, Nath has 'man flu' and apparently, Nathan has discovered that jet lag causes uncontrollable burger urges.
Talk again soon,
Lots of love.
Monday, 6 January 2014
Monday 6th January 2014
Hi all!
Well, I hope you are impressed! Me - blogging! No longer a technophobe. So, for those of you who are following the adventures of the Lewis clan, here is the next instalment.
Today consisted of logistical horrors! We had to sort out various bits and pieces with the RTA. (Motor registry) We also arranged an appointment with the bank to open account and collect cards etc. on arriving at the RTA, we're told that we need proof of address - we have none - and forms of identification with our full names on. Passports and bank cards. Unfortunately, bank cards only have our initials and surnames - not good enough! We need bank cards that have our full names on! Joy! Luckily everyone here is so helpful and friendly. We return to the apartment to acquire proof of address and learn that we'll need to get a train into Sydney to make our bank appointment. No one drives into Sydney!!! Apparently it is impossible to park. Thank goodness we discover that before setting off!
Train ride was an interesting cultural experience. Worried about Bex chundering everywhere, we feel that it is essential that she sits in a seat which faces the direction in which the train is headed. All of the seats seem to be facing the wrong way. We wander up and down the aisles desperately looking for a seat that faces the right way. Eventually, we manage to find one. Imagine our complete embarrassment when commuters alight the train at the next stop and simply rotate the seats to face their chosen direction. Doh!!! God knows what the Aussies thought as they watched us trying to find an appropriate seat!
Anyway, the cost of public transport is cheap and the trains are really frequent so no waiting around. Arrived in Sydney just in time and legged it to the bank - you'll realise that we seem to be pretty good at arriving at places by the skin of our teeth and legging it quickly.
Will continue to keep you all updated!
Lots of love.
Well, I hope you are impressed! Me - blogging! No longer a technophobe. So, for those of you who are following the adventures of the Lewis clan, here is the next instalment.
Today consisted of logistical horrors! We had to sort out various bits and pieces with the RTA. (Motor registry) We also arranged an appointment with the bank to open account and collect cards etc. on arriving at the RTA, we're told that we need proof of address - we have none - and forms of identification with our full names on. Passports and bank cards. Unfortunately, bank cards only have our initials and surnames - not good enough! We need bank cards that have our full names on! Joy! Luckily everyone here is so helpful and friendly. We return to the apartment to acquire proof of address and learn that we'll need to get a train into Sydney to make our bank appointment. No one drives into Sydney!!! Apparently it is impossible to park. Thank goodness we discover that before setting off!
Train ride was an interesting cultural experience. Worried about Bex chundering everywhere, we feel that it is essential that she sits in a seat which faces the direction in which the train is headed. All of the seats seem to be facing the wrong way. We wander up and down the aisles desperately looking for a seat that faces the right way. Eventually, we manage to find one. Imagine our complete embarrassment when commuters alight the train at the next stop and simply rotate the seats to face their chosen direction. Doh!!! God knows what the Aussies thought as they watched us trying to find an appropriate seat!
Anyway, the cost of public transport is cheap and the trains are really frequent so no waiting around. Arrived in Sydney just in time and legged it to the bank - you'll realise that we seem to be pretty good at arriving at places by the skin of our teeth and legging it quickly.
Will continue to keep you all updated!
Lots of love.
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