Happy New Year!

New Years Eve and the temperature soared today to about 34 degrees. Mads, Sophia and I went down to the local swimming pool which consisits of 4 pools, three outdoor and one indoor (covered) and believe it or not, heated!! The girls spent 3 hours in the water getting shriveled and exhausted and then returned home via a pizza in the local pizzaria. Harvey has gone round a mates so A;ex and I came home to have a few glasses of vino and celebrate the end of 2008.

With a few seconds to go and another 10 hours until the UK raises it's glasses to celebrate the start of 2009, I would like to say Happy New Year to everyone and just because we are far away, doesn't mean we don't think about you all back at home.

Lots of love

Ali

"I am Very Good at Not Sinking"

For those of you who are aware of Charlie and Lola, we did laugh when Sophia came out with this Lola-esque comment whilst on the phone to Granny. We went to the beach on Christmas Day. It had to be done really! I took a bottle of bubbly down and after a swim, sat down and poured a glass or two whilst watching everyone else enjoy the waves. We took the body boards and Sophia in particular was enjoying hanging on, riding the waves, falling off and swimming back. For 5 she is pretty fearless, so we have renamed her No-Fia! There were lots of other people down the beach with gazebos and tables who looked like they had made a good day of it.

So our first hot Christmas Day started with Madeleine, who was up from about 5, and Sophia managed to wake us about 7. After stockings were opened and the children saw what Father Christmas had left each of them, (books, dvd's socks, sweets, games, colouring books, calendars etc etc) we had some breakfast and got up and dressed and then started on the pressies under the tree. The kids got a dvd's each, plus a board game each (thanks Grandma and Grandpa) a big box outdoor and pool games for the new house (thanks Nana and Grandad) electronic games, craft set and pyjamas from Shaun and Jitka and t-shirts and cookery books from Melinda and family. We got Harvey $40 top up for his phone and gave Sophia a Barbie with a horse and a game for her DS.

Madeleine saved up lots of money before we left England and we put in some extra and got her a camcorder which is what she wanted. I am sure once I get the hang of it, we will put some footage on the blog for all of you to see! I have managed to download it from the camera to the laptop, but once I move in into Picasa to download to the blog, I lose the sound.

For my present, Alex arranged for us to have two nights away in a tree house beside Lake Baroon. After the organisation of getting us all here, into schools, the house sorted, finding another house etc etc, it will be lovely to just chill and spend some time together. Mike and Bec are going to sit for us, which the kids will just love!

For Alex's present, I got him tickets to see Coldplay in Brisbane in March. I haven't arranged sitters for that night yet, but may call on the M&B sitting services once more. We did get books, singstar games, Alex got new sunglasses and a t-shirt and I got a beautiful vase of shells to replace my life long collection which I have had to leave back in the UK because of customs. I also got a glass ball in a metal spiral which hangs outside and twirls in the wind. It give the illusion that the ball is spiralling down but it never reaches the bottom. It is lovely to watch.

So after an evening meal of roast duck, (which I cooked in my bikini) we chilled out and watched Prince Caspian before finishing off the wine and retiring.

Boxing Day, we just stayed round here, playing on all the games and watching the DVD's we had got (Dark Knight, 27 dresses, Barbie, Kath and Kim) in Harvey’s room and the living room depending on age and suitability! I had a go on my singstar and Sophia tried her Disney singstar too!

So all in all, a fab Christmas. In nothing more than t-shirts and shorts!

And I will leave you with a couple of jokes from our crackers we enjoyed.

Q. Who invented the Round Table
A. Sir Cumference!

Q. What do solicitors wear to court?
A. Law Suits

Ho Ho Ho!!

Twas the night before Christmas

Yes, it's Christmas Eve and today is going to be a pleasant 27 degrees! We are going to head off to Emundi Market which is a village half an hour from us which gets taken over by colourful stalls, street performers, lovely food and we suspect will have a Christmassy feel to it today. Sadly I still have to do the food shopping for tomorrow, but it will be easy as we are having a very simple Christmas dinner of roast duck (if I can find it!) with icecream for pud! Tonight we are going round to Ed and Nicoles with Mike and Bec and have a meal and exchange a few pressies.

The last couple of days we have managed to get all the shopping done, whilst doing other things such as searching for cars, buying and taking delivery of a fridge, changing car hires, surfing lessons and generally remembering to cook, clean and do the washing!

On Monday we headed off to the Sunshine Plaza which is our version of Bluewater and Lakeside. Lots of shops all under one airconditioned roof and also a cinema, so the girls went to see High School Musical 3 then Harvey joined them for Madagascar 2 which gave Alex and I about 4 hours of kid free shopping.

Yesterday we dropped Harvey off at the beach for his surf lesson and then he met up with some mates and played for a bit, went and had some chips, walked around the plaza then caught the bus back to Nambour and then changed busses and came up to Mapleton. He said the bus was really cheap and it is great he is already exploring the area with mates and really confident about getting about. We have peace of mind as long as he has his phone.

We have signed the contract for our new place and plan to move on the 5th/6th January. Can't wait to have a pool!!

So if we don't manage to speak to you or Skype you over the next couple of days, have a fantastic Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day and we will update you again with all our Christmas pressie and activity news in a few days.

Merry Christmas to you all.

lots of love

Ali, Alex, Harvey, Mads and Sophia

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, Decorating in a Bikini!

Our tree is now up. We did it yesterday, Madeleine in her bikini with her santa hat on! Have downloaded the photos so you can see! Alex went to his work do last night and then rang to say he was staying over with an Irish guy who had offered him a bed! Think he got to bed about 4am, after going clubbing. There is still life in the old dog yet!!

Keith (the Irish guy) is also an associate and has been here for seven years. Although Alex hasn't met anyone else who lives up this way, he has met a few people who say they want to and so his commuting is being monitored by workers (and wives) to see if he remains happy and on time! If Alex proves it's possible to commute, some of his colleagues may move here too! Keith is one of those whose wife wants to live up here. There is another chap who comes up this way to go Kite Surfing and his girlfriend keeps saying they should move here.

We haven't bought cars yet. Next on our list of things to do. I have extended our car until Monday and then have to change companies and hire another car until 3rd Jan. Hopefully by then we will have found at least 1 car. Am tempted to hang on until January sales.

Harvey had another surf lesson this morning. He is doing well, learning to turn and we may get him a board for Christmas. We were going to a BBQ this afternoon, but it is raining and colder outside so we are going to postpone it. We don't mind the rain as at least it is still quite warm, but we collect the water and our house is all hooked up to the water tanks. It is great for drinking and washing. You get heaps of bubbles and my hair is really soft. The best bit is that there are no water rates!


Alex is off for a massage at 5pm and we are just having a nice quiet afternoon. May make some rocky road later. Lovely with a cup of tea!!

Photo's

I think I have mastered the web photo's thing so you should be able to click on the links to the left to see our albums.

If you double click you should see our captions and descriptions.

Am tired today. We had possums arguing and clicking around on the roof so we woke up a few times.

Alex has been enjoying his work for the last couple of weeks. He has settled in and now has a couple of challenging projects to work on. He ended up going to a meetings on behalf of someone else and soon had problems solved. I am sure his experience and skill will be recognised in due course and he will end up running the department! He has met some nice colleagues and hopefully in time, we will invite some round and get to know them too.

He is off for two weeks after tomorrow so it will be great to have some time together and sort out some more stuff and go car hunting. Christmas is just a week away and so I need to sort tree, presents and food.

Just remembered I need to hang some washing out and do the washing up so that's all for now.

Broadband Skype and Getting in touch

We are connected! We have broadband, our laptop works with skype so I have already had conversations with my dad, Margaret and my sister Melinda. It's great. They even got a tour of the house as I carried the lap top along the deck. If you fancy downloading it or already have an account add me as a contact. You will find my name in the search.

Just a quickie as Harvey has a surf lesson in just over an hour. Apparantly he is a natural!

Surfing the net & the sea!

Friday 11th December

G’day! We have been here two weeks tomorrow and are celebrating with a BBQ at Mike and Bec’s house.

Madeleine and Sophia spent the week at school breaking up yesterday for the summer holidays. They have both been invited to parties with their new friends next week, which is lovely.

Harvey was accepted into St Johns Catholic College, which is one of the independent schools in Nambour. It came highly recommended and he has spent the last 24 hours with new friends who go there as well and will be his mates on the bus journey down the hill. I dropped him off yesterday before spending the day in Sophia’s classroom with her and other parents. He called later and asked if he could sleep over and I probably won’t see him much today!

At least it gets him out of his room playing with his new Xbox which he got on Tuesday.

We now have internet access from home but it is only temporary dial up until we get broadband next week. Hopefully I can learn how to put pictures of where we are onto an online album which is accessed through a link on this blog. Love to share stuff with all our friends.

Madeleine went to surf awareness yesterday at school. Can’t believe they do this as part of the curriculum! I am booking Harvey and Mads into a surf school next week which should be good fun, it’s a kids summer camp so they play games, learn to stand and also learn about the surf and how to be safe. It’s just a 90 minute lesson with about 10 kids each morning and the guy said they are normally standing by the end of lesson 1 and by the end of the week; they are catching waves and surfing!

So it will be surfboards for Christmas perhaps!!

Talking of Christmas, we are going in search of a tree today. Haven’t found anywhere that sells real trees, so will go on a search for an inoffensive fake one. We didn’t bring any lights or decorations, so we need to start completely from scratch and pick a colour & theme.

Off to do some cleaning. Aren’t Friday afternoons fun!

Fitting in at school and locally!

Just a quickie... Madeleine started school yesterday and came home having competed in the swimming gala and winning 3rd in back stroke, 2nd in front crawl and 1st in breast stroke! She thinks the school is great and is upset she will only be there a year!!

Sophia came home singing Waltzing Matilda. Classic!

Harvey got his X Box today so is busy shooting people in his bedroom.

Telstra (BT equivalent) have lost my broadband order. Funny, but I was in their shop an hour, then on the phone the following day for an hour so now to find out when I queried where my modem was, that there isn't an order for me, I am spitting feathers (well worse than that, but I can't write it on a blog!) So another week without internet which is really frustrating.

Thank you so much Ed and Nicole for letting me use their internet café (the tea and fresh blueberries are really good) and also their exclusive Laundromat service as my machine is playing up and being looked at tomorrow.

Booking kids in for surf school next week. Will keep you all posted on how they get on.

We also have Spangled Drongos in the garden. I will leave it up to you to google and find out what they are!

Beasties, Bites and BBQ’s

Monday 8th December 10.10am

It's a long Blog so grab a cuppa and have a read!

We have managed to get lots of stuff sorted and feel far more settled in our new home. Should get our modem in the next couple of days so we will be online and it will be much easier to do some emails and get in touch with people in the UK, both friends and people such as banks etc to tidy up a few things which still need doing.

On Weds, Alex started his job and the trip down the mountain range was just stunning at 6.30 in the morning. Brought tears to my eyes. Out to the left you look over the valley to the sea with the sun coming up and reflecting on the water. To the right, you pass views of Lake Baroon and then as you turn the corner in Maleny, spectacular views of the Glass House Mountains (picture above) I don’t think we will ever bore of this spectacular scenery.

Alex’s has now spent 3 days at his new job and has joined a team working on a new college campus just south of Brisbane. The team has some others from the uk and an American and some of them are newish too. His journey into Brisbane on the train is smooth, air conditioned and takes 1 hour 10 mins. There is free parking at the station and costs just $19 which is less than £8!

Harvey had an interview at a school in Nambour which is independent and been highly recommended. They liked the fact he enjoys music, drama, singing and rugby. He has met a few kids who go there already and so we are waiting for an offer letter to see if he has been accepted. Fingers crossed.

Sophia and Madeleine visited a lovely primary school on Thursday in Mapleton. Its slogan is ‘Top of the Range’ and it has huge grounds. Sophia started on Friday for the last few days in reception, so when she returns in the New Year, she will be in year 1. Madeleine is starting tomorrow and is joining in with the swimming gala. Watching first then swimming with them when the inflatable comes out after the races.

Thursday was an eventful day with the local wildlife. First I got bitten by a jumping ant which really hurts and then we had a huge huntsman in the car on our way out in the morning. Sophia was in tears. It was the biggest one I have ever seen and it was on the roof of the car on the inside. I got out, opened the boot and it took a few steps and ran out the back. We then want for a walk in the rainforest and met a lady who took us off the beaten track to a rock pool with a little waterfall. I got bitten by a baby leech, we all got eaten by mozzies and for a few moments, I thought how nice it would be to have a crisp white luxury apartment down on the coast with a pool, rather than be up some hill with nasty things that bite and frighten you. But then looking from our veranda you can see wallabies, we have a bush possum who sleeps on a cupboard on our deck, which jumps down when dusk comes and wanders across the deck and climbs up the railings and onto the roof. We also have a bush Turkey who trots about and all sorts of birds and bird song to entertain us.

Even though it’s summer, where we are is the rainy season. This means fantastic thunderstorms which light up the whole sky and valley. We collect our rainwater so after a few days of rain our water tanks are full.

We got a phone line on Thursday so we are now contactable and our modem should be coming any day now which means emails! Wahay!!

On Saturday, we had a BBQ with Ed, Nicole, Mike and Bec and their friends Scott, Cathy and daughter Maggie. Maggie will be in the same year as Harvey, so it’s nice for him to get to know a few kids his own age. I found some pink fizz which was a bargain at $5.99 (about £2.50) and extremely drinkable and we managed to get through 5 bottles as well as a few beers! Mike took charge of the cooking and Bec’s burgers, salads and other delights were rustled up in the kitchen. We even threw prawns on the barbie!

Today (Sunday) we went down to Mapleton to a Christmas fair in the village. Quite odd as it was glorious sunshine! There were Morris dancers with bells on their legs clacking sticks and doing their stuff and lots of stalls selling their wares. We were drawn to a stall with watercolours on, in the same style Alex’s grandfather had painted. When we spoke to the lady and looked at her details, she is from the UK and moved 8 years ago. Alex explained he grew up in a Camphill community where this style of painting is common and it turns out her and her husband were part of the Camphill and know his dad! What a small world!

It gets dark here about 6pm so we end up going to bed early. Queensland doesn’t have daylight savings, so it gets light about 4am. We are all up early for breakfast and can see Alex off before he goes to work. When Harvey starts school, the bus goes about 7am. That will be tough for him!

Just had a Skype conversation with Dad and Margaret which was great. I used Nicole's PC and headset and chatted for about half an hour. Once we are on line, we will get this too so can chat too, to anyone else with it.

Lack of Communications!

Tuesday 2nd December

Please don't worry if you haven't heard from us for a while but we have no landline telephone so no internet access, no emailing, no calling people and only one Aussie mobile, which Harvey has nabbed so he can text his mates! As soon as we are hooked up, there will be calls for all.

Happy Birthday Mike! Tonight we are off to the local pizzeria for a birthday meal with Mike, Bec, Nicole and Ed. Madeleine is having a little snooze before we go.

After staying at Ed and Nicole’s for a couple of days, yesterday we arrived at our home for the next 3 month. It is idyllic. The house is on a 2 acre plot, built into the slope and the owner Jamie is a landscape gardener so the gardens are lovely. Very different to the UK as there is no lawn just lots of bushes, shrubs, features, bamboo, paths, rocks and pebbles.

On the ground floor, there is a huge veranda sweeping all around the house with the most wonderful views across a valley over to Kondalilla National Park. There is wicker furniture and a huge gas bbq which we are going to try out this weekend. There is a fully equipped kitchen with a gas range fridge freezer, lots of work surface, a small pantry and even a jar of vegemite! The main living and dining area with wood burner, settee and chairs, a tv and CD player. The beds were all made up so we unloaded our stuff, had tea and then crashed out about 8pm.


Today we had to do some essential organising such as a phone line, sim cards for the phones. My phone works, but the rest need to be unlocked so we can use Aussie sims. We went to the bank to smile at them and show them our passports. We filled in forms for schools and bought some bed side lamps from a charity shop.

We are nearly recovered from our trip, though the tiredness hits at really strange times such as half way through filling out a form and you wonder what you were writing, or halfway through a sentence. Or is that just me getting on a bit!!

Hopefully the phone line will be working in the next 24 hours and broadband by early next week. We will then be able to email, talk and download and send pictures and will then sort out Skype and Harvey’s X-Box.

Alex is going to start his new job tomorrow and so we did a dry run drive to Landsborough Station earlier this morning. It takes 20 minutes and was quite easy.

I am sitting with my laptop on my knee on the veranda with the birds and cicadas chirping away. Think this is the way to live. We have possums scattering about on the roof, tree frogs croaking at night so it sounds like a machine humming and rainbow lorikeets flying around at dusk and sawn. The natural peace is only broken by Harvey shouting at the PS2 inside.

Off to shower, put on my face and wrap a present before we go to meet the birthday boy.

Good Morning Sunshine Coast!

SUNDAY MORNING 8.15am

Good Morning!

We are here! After a wonderful sleep last night, we woke up to glorious sunshine, the sound of laughing kookaburras, king parrots and lorakeets just outside the window and fried eggs a la Nicole! Yesterday afternoon we touched down in Brisbane and had a smooth transit through an otherwise empty baggage reclaim hall. Customs was easy and the staff friendly with a number of "G'days" and smiles and then we picked up our car and drove to Flaxton to Ed and Nicoles.

We were met by smiles, hugs and bubbles and a few tears from me. Sort of "Can't believe we are here" tears.
We had tea and more bubbles and beer and collapsed at about 10pm, which would have been 8am UK time on Saturday morning. Mike and Bec are also here having returned to Flaxton earlier in the week after their 18 month tour of Europe, so they too are camping out in Flaxton until they get their house in Mapleton back in a few days.

We all awoke about 6am with Sophia sleeping a bit longer, so if we can survive today with no naps needed, we'll be over any jet lag by tomorrow morning ready to move into our home for 3 months.

We are just debating which beach to go to. Has to be done really doesn't it!! Moolooaba is looking tempting so we will slap on the sunscreen and go via Big W (Woolworths) and pick up some boogie boards. We will relax today and move tomorrow and then Alex starts his new job on Tuesday morning.

Singapore Slings!

Friday 28th November

UK 14.45pm
Singapore 10.45pm
Brisbane 0.45am

Hello from Singapore. Our flight to Brisbane is delayed so we have been put up in a hotel until the early hours when they hope to take us washed rested and stuffed (from the complimentary buffet!) back to the airport.

Kids went to school today (Thursday) and came home after a few tears and said goodbye to Shaun and Lynn and Steve who kindly put us up for the last three nights.

The taxi journey to the airport was emotional and we are all a little confused as we don't know how to feel. We were met by Anna, our very good friend who works for BA as cabin crew and with a little jiggery pokery and because we couldn't get seats together we were upgraded to Premium Economy which was just fantastic.

The flight here to Singapore was great. Nice staff, food and good films and we all managed to sleep and we are now going to put our heads down for a few hours until our wake up call.

A big thank you to everyone at school as well, for the cards and going away gifts we received. I am sorry we had to dash away so quickly to get the taxi and also to avoid a flood of tears in Ardleigh!

Will write again when we are in Oz.

House in a Box and Car to Sell

2.30pm Tuesday 25th November

Our house is now all contained in a 20 foot container! It headed off to the port at 11am this morning.

The house is now empty apart from a few things we need to dispose of and/or donate to a charity shop.

We still have our Golf to sell if anyone is interested. Feels quite strange sitting here at the laptop, doing some admin in an othereise empty house! I am holding for Qantas just held for 10 minutes, then the battery cut out on my phone as I am trying to find out if we are allowed to take excess baggage. I hope so!!

More later. Off to do some vacuuming...

Packed and Pooped!

2.30pm Monday 24th November

It's 2.30 now, and having got up at 5.45 this morning and been tidying and sorting, I thought I would sit down with a cup of tea and watch tv before I get the kids from school. Then I realised the tv is packed up and the setee is wrapped up and on it's end, so here I am updating my blog!

7.30am the boys from AngloPacific were here to pack up the house. We had managed to get a lot of organisation done, but I was panicking a bit as the container is here at 10am tomorrow to put all our stuff in and then will be taken at 1pm once it is full. The chaps worked super fast and unfortunately Alex had to go to work today, so I was on my own, charging for room to room clearing out what we didn't want them packing so we can take stuff with us on Thursday. They left about 20 minutes ago, hence me thinking I will sit down for half and hour!

I now realise what we have put to the side to take on Thursday would fit a small container, so we will cull tonight. When the chaps come back tomorrow to do the study, our wardrobes and the airing cupboard, we will have a few extra bits and bobs so we don't go over our allowance and we can live without for three months.

Yesterday afternoon was very sad. The tears started when we said goodbye to Michelle and Andrew (only to realise I need to drop some more stuff off to her, so we will have do it again!!). In the evening we took Jessie the cat to Helens. Jessie meowed a bit in the car, then had a really good explore, especially in the bedrooms upstairs and later on I got a text to say she was purring so she must have settled a bit. She hasn't met Saffie and Bo, the dogs yet, but they are used to cats and Jess doesn't mind dogs, so hopefully they will get on.

So just off to tart myself up, slap some lip balm on so I can pick the kids up from school and not look like a frazzled mad woman with chapped lips!! We will then head to Lynn and Steve's for that cup of tea and a sit down before returning home to meet Alex and pack our stuff.

Boxes and Take-aways!

Saturday 22nd November 11am

Today we woke up to butterflies in our stomaches. We were up tidying for house viewings today and the realisation that I have to face the mountain of boxes from the loft. Filled with old photos, kids paintings plus awards and mementos, old videos and shells, I will have to sort through and keep, charity or skip. Hopefully I will get them down to a reasonable amount without losing stuff of sentimental value.

Alex is busy working and we have his dad and step mum coming in an hour. Hopefully after some lunch and an update, Alex can clear the shed, I can tackle the boxes and Grandma can keep Sophia entertained.

Harvey and Mads are at their dads in Norwich having a family weekend, seeing grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins so that will be really nice for them, but also sad too. The next time they see each other will hopefully be when Shaun and Jitka come out next Spring (Autumn in Aus) to visit and then we will be back in September to catch up again.

My dad and Margaret came yesterday and helped us get sorted by packing up the trampoline, doing the bottle bank run and clearing out the kitchen amongst other things. Fantastic help to us. We are now down to a few fish fingers and some chops and half a bag of rice and biscuits in the cupboard, so it was fish and chips last night, friends are bringing a curry round tonight and tomorrow it will be chinese. What would we do without take-aways?! Monday evening we are moving out to Lynn and Steve's down the road, so at least I will be able to cook and have plates to eat off!

Off to face the boxes and get a couple sorted before the visitors arrive!

Flights and Bedtime Stories

Wednesday 19th November 8pm

We have booked the flights! Depart 9.15pm from Heathrow a week tomorrow.

We have been much more focussed today and managed to get quite a bit done, including taking the marquee down and writing a proper timetable of what we have to do over the next three days and weekend. Still have to do a few more things on todays list which I will have to do between reading a story to Sophia and saying night night and Desperate Housewives at 10pm!!!

I am being shouted at from upstairs!

WE HAVE A DATE!

Finally, after booking the removal people for next Monday and Tuesday, and the cleaners for Wednesday, we are intending to depart from Heathrow on the evening of Thursday 27th November

We should have opened a bottle of bubbly last night, but we were just too exhausted!

We will arrive in Brisbane 9.20 on Saturday morning, get through customs, pick up a car and be at our friends Ed and Nicole's (where we stayed in April) for lunch and bubbly with Mike and Bec, our friends who have been travelling Europe for the last 18 months.

Saturday and Sunday will probably be getting accustomed to the time difference, then on Monday we pick up the keys for our house in Montville and Alex will head into work for the Tuesday morning.

So over the next few days We have stuff to do such as inventory of household items for the shipping insurance, removing the final bits from the loft, separating the stuff we want to take with us as opposed to the stuff to be shipped, clearing out the shed, (all those bits and bobs Alex has collected over the years!) doing a bottle bank run, charity shop run and disposing of various items and sorting through boxes to see if we really really need to take it or if we can live without it! We have a skip and I suspect by the end of the weekend, it will be full to the brim and be ready to be carted away!

We will also be sad to part with Jessie our cat, who is going to live with Helen and her family across the field. I am sure Jessie will settle fine with Helen, her 4 boys and Bo and Saffie, the dogs. She will get lots of cuddles and food and she also has a field out to back so she can carry on hunting. She will be fine in no time at all.

Off to sort the airing cupboard out, take stuff to the charity shop and complete the insurance form for the shipping company. This is where you have to count exactly how many DVD’s you have and work out how much you would need to replace an old video recorder picture frame or set of glasses if they got broken.

Just grab my clipboard…..

Visa Visa Visa!

Tuesday 18th November

We received notification that our

visas have been granted!

The 'not knowing' has been really hard over the last week, but this week will be fun too, fitting in everything we need to do to get ourselves organised to go.

I would pop open a bottle of bubbly, but as it is 7 in the morning and I have a lot to do, I don't think it would be wise. Alex and I feel a weird combination of being completely exhausted yet full of energy, lets hope the energy dominates today and then we are able to sleep like babies tonight! Will wake the kids up soon and let them know.

Wombats Winkles and Kangaroo Poo

Monday 17th November - Morning time!
(for some reason the dates are all wrong on this system! )

Thank you to everyone who came on Saturday to have a few drinks and say bye to us. Alex's sister's family came during the day and then my dad and step mum Margaret came for the afternoon and early evening, to be joined by a few good friends and a large handful of kids.

An enormous THANK YOU goes out to Michelle and Andrew, who lent us their marquee for the garden so Harvey and his mates had somewhere to play on the playstation and throw popcorn about. Also Michelle made a FANTASTIC cake (see photo below) and she came with Rolf Harris as Jake the Peg (see photo below) who left halfway through just before Andrew turned up!

Thanks too to Steve and Sue, you know why...! Thanks to Margaret and Dad for the very special gift which I will treasure forever. Thank you for helping us get everything organised and helping with the food. The wallabies in swags (sausage rolls) and dingos dongers (mini sausages) were a hit as were my vegemite and cheese straws and kangaroo poo! (chocolate raisins and maltesers!)

And thank you to all our other friends who were able to spend time with us and make the evening so memorable (yes the Abba Singstar did come out...!!) and the Ryder v Hoffmann Singstar challenge which had been postponed since August was able to take place!

We received news this morning that our contact in Aussie Immigration now has ALL the details they need. She thought she had everything on Friday, but then found something that didn't add up. So last night (Monday day in Aus) they managed to sort it out, despite it being the key persons day off but her colleagues and Tara in Immigration still managed to get hold of her so hopefully the visa will be processed tomorrow. If that happens, we will get the removal people in w/c 24th and book our flights for the end of Nov/start Dec.

Still got a lot of sorting out, packing up and getting rid of stuff to do, but we are winning!

Is No News Good News?

Our news after speaking to Aus late last night, was that everything was in order and they were confident we would receive an email at the end of their working day (about 6am Friday our time)......

So we got up this morning to find they had found the salary Alex has on his job offer is different from the paperwork his employers and sponsors have completed. So that has to be sorted before they can approve everything. And of course it is now Friday night, so we won't be able to sort that until Sunday/Monday night.

We have family round tomorrow day and friends coming round in the evening for drinks, but we still don't know when we are going!

However the Good News is that Singstar Abba came out today and so there will be fun in the house tonight!!! Alex is out with some mates at the pub, Harvey is at a party at the school hall in the village and so it's a girls night in for Mads, Sophia and me! We will be singing some classic tracks such as Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, that Australian Visa.... Thank you for the Vegemite and Kan-ga-roo, I'm not defeated by your soft paw, Kan-ga- roo, promise to love you for ever more.

By not having our visas it does mean we will probably have time to to the million and one things we will find we have to do and not have time if we were going sooner.... does that make any sense? Has me convinced anyway!

Still No Visa Grrrrr!!

It's Thursday and this morning we got up, excited we might have received an email allowing us legal entry into Aus, but no.... hopefully tomorrow!!

If we don't by Friday am, our schedule will be set back a week but on a positive note, it means we have more time to do all the things we would have squeezed into a few days.

On another positive note, Harvey was awarded the highest badge in Scouting last night. The award requires that he demonstrated community, faith, self-motivation, personal discipline, and many other qualities including several lots of challenges, including one which meant him and a few others hiked in the rain over two days with packs and set up camp overnight before completing the hike, wet, exhausted and very smelly!

We do hope he will continue scouting when we get to Aus, but will have to see if at 14, surfing and girls become more of interest!

House in the Hills and Xrays

G'day again

The final bit of the jigsaw has arrived in Aus. The medical info for the visa process has been signed for in Sydney, so hopefully over the coming days we will hear when they will be granted.

As soon as that happens, we will be booking flights, removal people and packing up the house as quickly as we can!

We have now found accommodation in Montville, thanks to Bec, our friend from Aus who called someone who knew someone etc etc and we now not only have a roof over our heads, but a fully furnished roof over our heads with a huge deck and views over Kondalilla National Park. Really excited about it.

We dropped Mike and Bec off today as they are heading back to the Sunshine Coast via Helsinki, Thailand. It seemed odd to say goodbye, only to know we will be seeing them again in a matter of weeks on their turf!!

Onwards and upwards (or should that be downunderwards!)

Hoffmann Peels Move to Australia

Hi and G'day!

Everyone keeps asking how we are getting on and whether we have a date or not, so I thought I would start this blog and update it so you all can find out where we are with our visa application and also we can use this page to let you all know what we are doing when we arrive in Australia.


Visas
After sending off all the documents needed to apply for the visa we all went up to Cambridge to have our x-rays and medicals and they were sent off today. So we are hoping to get out at the end of the month in order for Alex to start his new job on the 1st December. We are calling the visa office tomorrow to speak with our contact there and hopefully we will know when our visa may be granted.

Moving our furniture
We are taking a container to Aus and once we get there we will find some temporary fully furnished accommodation and then find somewhere unfurnished to rent from Feb when our furniture and belongings arrive.

Schools
If the timing goes to plan, we will arrive in time to visit schools before they close for the summer/Christmas holidays. We want to see the schools in full flow and for Harvey especially to get a sense of what they can offer him before he chooses where he wants to go and restarts year 9 at the end of January.

Where?
We are moving to the Sunshine Coast which is 2 hours north of Brisbane. On the coast there are towns such as Noosa Heads and Maroochydore. Just inland you will find Landsborough and Nambour which are more industrial towns and then to the west there is a mountain range which runs north-south called the Blackhall Range which is where we are going to live. On the range there is a much slower pace of life and you get great views but you are also only 30 minutes from the beach. We are hoping to find a place in Montville or Mapleton, both places have photos and info on google which will give you an idea of where we will be.

Alex's job
Alex will be commuting to the office in Brisbane each day. It should take him around an hour and 3/4 hours which is made up of a 20-25 minute drive down off the range to Landsborough and then 1 hour 20 on an airconditioned train which goes past the beautiful Glasshouse Mountains. He is working for a large firm of architects and the contract is for two years.

That is probably enough for now.

Hopefully this won't become too addictive, but be a good source of info, pictures and news for everyone!

Ali