Monday, 24 February 2014
Koalas are cool!!!!!
Hi all,
Sorry it's been such a long time. Irony of ironies; we move all the way to the other side of the world for a less hectic and calmer lifestyle and lo and behold, we have never been so busy in all our lives!!
Excuses, excuses....I know , I know but it's the truth. However, several people have guilt tripped me into posting the latest Lewis Blues, whoops, I mean News,
Well, the furniture, sorry ' lack of furniture ' situation remains a constant pain in the proverbial. We are sick of having nowhere to sit and having to wash up after every drink or snack because we only have enough cutlery and crockery for four people. Actually, scrub that, thanks to Bexmeister, we don't even have that! A glass on a wooden floor tends to smash into a million shards when it is inadvertently kicked! So one of us has to go without a drink until the fastest gulper has finished their drink and washed it up ready to be reused. Joy!
The girls are still loving school. Bex had a reflection day today. Basically, she went to Sydney Arcadia, sang a few religious songs and had a lovely time. This evening, We all attended the parent meeting about the upcoming camp ( oh yes - we get to get rid of both girls for the same three days - cinema and meal out it is then!) at the end of March. Looks like it'll be fun. However, it is likely that our belongings will still be in limbo, meaning that we may well have to purchase another 2 sleeping bags, holdalls, outdoor activity clothes etc etc. I cannot recommend highly enough who NOT to go with if ever you up sticks and move to the other side of the world. Watch this space!
So Becky's birthday has been and gone..... Though it still lingers. The weekend before last we took her into Castle Towers and spent her birthday money on clothes and shoes ( she must be growing up because Nathan didn't approve of any of her fashion choices!)
This weekend, the plan was to take her to the beach, buy her a body board, spend some time on the surf and take her out for a slap-up lunch. Of course Sod's law reigned and the weather decided to cool off on Saturday. We agreed that we would wait for a hot day and do it then. This made us feel a little bad for her so we decided to take the girls to Koala Park to make up for it. Koala Park features mainly nocturnal animals. Going during the day is therefore kind of pointless! I think that there may have been one other family there .... Certainly not the busiest or most well run place we've ever been. However, it proved to be a real welcome relief from the intense and daily grind that is a new job, in a new country. (Yes that is violins you hear playing in the background....or is it a didgeridoo??). Anyway, joking outside, we had good old fashioned fun and the girls and I spent the morning laughing and joking. The echidna (yes, that is one echidna) had buried itself underground so we didn't see that; just a mound of earth moving up and down as,presumably, it breathed? The possum ( yes, that's one possum) slept inside a pipe with its bum facing us. So I have seen a possum bum and witnessed the breathing patterns of an echidna. The kangaroos were super cool though. They were very cute and there was plenty of them. There was an enclosure where you could go, and feed them and stroke them. Two of them had babies in their pouches. Very cute. The girls loved it! The koalas were brilliant. How on earth they manage to sleep wedged between a forked branch, I'll never know but they are certainly entertaining when they are awake. We watched one of them eat eucalyptus leaves for a good quarter of an hour, cracking up laughing at every facial expression and mouth manipulation.
The long necked turtles were just weird, like elongated poos which stick up,out of the water. The birds were all impressive, particularly the emus. We were even fascinated by the insects and worms that were not intentional exhibits!
Sunday was spent working, helping the kids with their homework and then we had a 'baked dinner' at the home of one of Nathan's colleagues. A lovely evening was had by all - though the Aussie 'bake' just doesn't have that artery blocking, waist expanding satisfaction of a good old pommey roast.
Well, it's 10.10pm and I am typing this in bed, absolutely exhausted but content all the same.
Good night and talk soon.
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Home sweet home ... At least for a little while.
Well, we have now left the hotel and moved into a beautiful house. Hallelujah! No more ant infestations!! There are only so many times that watching a convoy of ants moving a crumb of Danish pastry from one end of the apartment to the other is entertaining. After a while it gets boring; not to mention itchy and uncomfortable. Waking up to a sink surrounded by ants as they gorge themselves on grains of sugar that have leaked out of the bottom of the sugar bag is, frankly, awful. We couldn't even escape into the corridor because that smelt so bad that heaving became a reflex action as you left the apartment every morning.
Saturday was seriously busy. The double bed, washing machine, the rented fridge freezer and garden furniture (which is currently doubling up as dining room furniture) arrived in dribs and drabs throughout the day. We had to purchase a kettle, toaster, 4 lots of cutlery, 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 glasses, etc etc, you get the picture. We had to get towels and tea towels; an iron and ironing board and cleaning utensils. All of our stuff is still gaily making its way across the Indian Ocean, blissfully unaware of how much pain and misery it's absence is causing. Ok, maybe a little melodramatic but still...
Sunday was foxtel (equivalent to sky set up) and sofa bed was delivered. Food shopping followed by the purchase of an office chair and filing cabinet. All of this had to be fitted around planning lessons for curriculums with which we are completely unfamiliar.
The house is beautiful and after spending 5 weeks in a hotel, it seems huge! 4 bedrooms - one with en suite, plus 2 bathrooms, office, rumpus, laundry room, lounge, kitchen/diner. Because it is mostly wooden flooring and empty, it echoes like mad. Seriously great acoustics. Especially in terms of the girls' herd of elephants routine.
Girls have to get a bus to school now but they get a free bus pass and the bus stop is about 20 metres from the house so that's been pretty good. They're both loving school. Unbeknown to us at the time, their school fees have included all of the camps and religious retreats; the carnivals;,the obscure pdhpe classes such as rock climbing and water polo, all ingredients for food tech. Not bad eh?
They have a big swimming carnival next week, which they're both really looking forward to.
Work for us is absolutely mad and hectic but cool too. I still stand and stare in awe at the boys as they play the drums and bagpipes, accompanying our entry to school every morning. A little Scotland in NSW!
Talking of Scotland, I am off to take a little nip of whiskey.
Talk soon
Xxx
Saturday was seriously busy. The double bed, washing machine, the rented fridge freezer and garden furniture (which is currently doubling up as dining room furniture) arrived in dribs and drabs throughout the day. We had to purchase a kettle, toaster, 4 lots of cutlery, 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 glasses, etc etc, you get the picture. We had to get towels and tea towels; an iron and ironing board and cleaning utensils. All of our stuff is still gaily making its way across the Indian Ocean, blissfully unaware of how much pain and misery it's absence is causing. Ok, maybe a little melodramatic but still...
Sunday was foxtel (equivalent to sky set up) and sofa bed was delivered. Food shopping followed by the purchase of an office chair and filing cabinet. All of this had to be fitted around planning lessons for curriculums with which we are completely unfamiliar.
The house is beautiful and after spending 5 weeks in a hotel, it seems huge! 4 bedrooms - one with en suite, plus 2 bathrooms, office, rumpus, laundry room, lounge, kitchen/diner. Because it is mostly wooden flooring and empty, it echoes like mad. Seriously great acoustics. Especially in terms of the girls' herd of elephants routine.
Girls have to get a bus to school now but they get a free bus pass and the bus stop is about 20 metres from the house so that's been pretty good. They're both loving school. Unbeknown to us at the time, their school fees have included all of the camps and religious retreats; the carnivals;,the obscure pdhpe classes such as rock climbing and water polo, all ingredients for food tech. Not bad eh?
They have a big swimming carnival next week, which they're both really looking forward to.
Work for us is absolutely mad and hectic but cool too. I still stand and stare in awe at the boys as they play the drums and bagpipes, accompanying our entry to school every morning. A little Scotland in NSW!
Talking of Scotland, I am off to take a little nip of whiskey.
Talk soon
Xxx
Monday, 3 February 2014
Smash 'em and fall!
Hi all,
Sorry it's been a while. I guess that moving to the other side of the world, both starting new jobs, uprooting the kids and sticking them in new schools, living in a one bed apartment without any stuff and horrendously expensive yet annoyingly limited Internet, has caused me a little undue stress which seems to be manifesting itself in extreme fatigue! Blogs will continue but probably weekly from now on.
The weekend was busy. Saturday was great. We had been invited over to a colleague's place by the beach. And I mean by the beach. Spitting distance. A less than 30 second stroll from the front door!
The whole family were absolutely lovely - great company. They put up with us whinging poms for nine hours! We had a delicious barbecue and talked and talked and talked. They had spent 5 years in the UK so we swapped life stories, which was very cathartic. The family had a spoodle. It was absolutely beautiful. He was called Busby - something to do with a Man Utd manager as the family supported Man Utd ( ok, I said that they were nearly perfect!).
After a delicious feast, we headed over to the beach - body board and frisbee in hand. I sat and watched, occasionally dipping my toe in the beautiful clear water. I suddenly realised that I had lost sight of both Erin and Nathan. Considering the pair of them are practically blind (and in Nathan's case, deaf as well), I started to feel a little concerned. After a while, I saw Nathan choking and spluttering and watched as Erin was dragged out of the waves by Nathan's colleague. Apparently, they were wave jumping. Despite both being very strong swimmers, they now have found a new respect for the power of nature. Mid jump, they were smashed by a particularly powerful wave which rolled them under and across the bed like tumble weed. As soon as they were able to come to the surface, they were hit again. They had no chance to take a breath before the second and then third wave hit. In reliving it, Nathan tells me that at this point he began to panic slightly. He had lost Erin and was struggling himself. He had no idea what was up or down. And all of this kicks off while I'm cursing them because I can't see them to take a photo for the blog! Hence the lack of photos!
Anyway, thankfully, they are both fine but a serious lesson was learnt by all. The sea is a mean bitch! She WILL be respected!
Duly noted.
After this, the girls had a go on the body board. They loved it and Becky has already put in an order for her birthday! I tried not to smile when Nathan had a go. Lets just say that the girls were more graceful. They made it look easy. Nathan was not quite so graceful. Nathan did not make it look quite so easy. Mind you, it's not easy, making something look easy when you're wearing a skin tight rash vest!!!
Frisbee followed. Now Nath had his chance to shine. The girls haven't quite grasped the physics of frisbee flinging and our friends were politely diving from one side to the other, desperately trying to hide the fact that my girls can't throw. For toffees!
After fun at the beach we took Busby for a walk by the lake. We came across a moher duck and about 15 fluffy (there's that word again!) ducklings. I have never seen such tame creatures. The mother allowed us to pick them up and stroke them. It may not have been wallabies or koalas but it was pretty cool regardless.
Sunday - not so much fun. We started by heading into town to check hat our new TV would be ready for collection before the foxtel (sky) people arrive at the new house. It won't be. We then headed to,office world to pick up school supplies for Erin. We got everything we needed, including purple, leopard print, suede sticky back plastic for covering books, except for the 5mm grid paper for maths. We could get 10mm, 7mm, even 2mm but not 5mm. Erghhhhhhh! We had to Give up,in the end and admit defeat. The shops were turning into the scene from Friends, where Monica is trying to,buy a wedding dress in the sale. People were prepared to fight over 5mm grid people. Not graph paper, oh no. It has to be 5mm grid paper! Gve me strength!
This was followed by a relaxing shopping trip to the supermarket. (Just in case you're not sure, I was being a little cynical then.) Once at home, the girls spread themselves on the floor with their homework. Nathan got the double bed for his planning and I took the dining table. Did I mention that we are sick of living in such confined space? I had to move all the washing up out of the way so that I could do the ironing.
I think,it was at this point, around about 9.00pm, that I whacked my head on the kitchen cupboard door for a fifth time. Suddenly, making sandwiches became an unearthly chore and I howled like an animal and experienced my first meltdown since arrival. I still had a pile of ironing and the planning wasn't finished. What made it worse was that there was no wine.
Still, not to worry, we had work to look forward to.
See you be t weekend.
Lots of love.
Sorry it's been a while. I guess that moving to the other side of the world, both starting new jobs, uprooting the kids and sticking them in new schools, living in a one bed apartment without any stuff and horrendously expensive yet annoyingly limited Internet, has caused me a little undue stress which seems to be manifesting itself in extreme fatigue! Blogs will continue but probably weekly from now on.
The weekend was busy. Saturday was great. We had been invited over to a colleague's place by the beach. And I mean by the beach. Spitting distance. A less than 30 second stroll from the front door!
The whole family were absolutely lovely - great company. They put up with us whinging poms for nine hours! We had a delicious barbecue and talked and talked and talked. They had spent 5 years in the UK so we swapped life stories, which was very cathartic. The family had a spoodle. It was absolutely beautiful. He was called Busby - something to do with a Man Utd manager as the family supported Man Utd ( ok, I said that they were nearly perfect!).
After a delicious feast, we headed over to the beach - body board and frisbee in hand. I sat and watched, occasionally dipping my toe in the beautiful clear water. I suddenly realised that I had lost sight of both Erin and Nathan. Considering the pair of them are practically blind (and in Nathan's case, deaf as well), I started to feel a little concerned. After a while, I saw Nathan choking and spluttering and watched as Erin was dragged out of the waves by Nathan's colleague. Apparently, they were wave jumping. Despite both being very strong swimmers, they now have found a new respect for the power of nature. Mid jump, they were smashed by a particularly powerful wave which rolled them under and across the bed like tumble weed. As soon as they were able to come to the surface, they were hit again. They had no chance to take a breath before the second and then third wave hit. In reliving it, Nathan tells me that at this point he began to panic slightly. He had lost Erin and was struggling himself. He had no idea what was up or down. And all of this kicks off while I'm cursing them because I can't see them to take a photo for the blog! Hence the lack of photos!
Anyway, thankfully, they are both fine but a serious lesson was learnt by all. The sea is a mean bitch! She WILL be respected!
Duly noted.
After this, the girls had a go on the body board. They loved it and Becky has already put in an order for her birthday! I tried not to smile when Nathan had a go. Lets just say that the girls were more graceful. They made it look easy. Nathan was not quite so graceful. Nathan did not make it look quite so easy. Mind you, it's not easy, making something look easy when you're wearing a skin tight rash vest!!!
Frisbee followed. Now Nath had his chance to shine. The girls haven't quite grasped the physics of frisbee flinging and our friends were politely diving from one side to the other, desperately trying to hide the fact that my girls can't throw. For toffees!
After fun at the beach we took Busby for a walk by the lake. We came across a moher duck and about 15 fluffy (there's that word again!) ducklings. I have never seen such tame creatures. The mother allowed us to pick them up and stroke them. It may not have been wallabies or koalas but it was pretty cool regardless.
Sunday - not so much fun. We started by heading into town to check hat our new TV would be ready for collection before the foxtel (sky) people arrive at the new house. It won't be. We then headed to,office world to pick up school supplies for Erin. We got everything we needed, including purple, leopard print, suede sticky back plastic for covering books, except for the 5mm grid paper for maths. We could get 10mm, 7mm, even 2mm but not 5mm. Erghhhhhhh! We had to Give up,in the end and admit defeat. The shops were turning into the scene from Friends, where Monica is trying to,buy a wedding dress in the sale. People were prepared to fight over 5mm grid people. Not graph paper, oh no. It has to be 5mm grid paper! Gve me strength!
This was followed by a relaxing shopping trip to the supermarket. (Just in case you're not sure, I was being a little cynical then.) Once at home, the girls spread themselves on the floor with their homework. Nathan got the double bed for his planning and I took the dining table. Did I mention that we are sick of living in such confined space? I had to move all the washing up out of the way so that I could do the ironing.
I think,it was at this point, around about 9.00pm, that I whacked my head on the kitchen cupboard door for a fifth time. Suddenly, making sandwiches became an unearthly chore and I howled like an animal and experienced my first meltdown since arrival. I still had a pile of ironing and the planning wasn't finished. What made it worse was that there was no wine.
Still, not to worry, we had work to look forward to.
See you be t weekend.
Lots of love.
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