We are on the verge of throwing a third housewarming as we are moving house next weekend to another house down the road and will no doubt have housewarming drinks within a few weeks!
We will only be there for 5 months, so come September we will be moving again so in a 10 month period, we will have excuses for having had four house warming’s.... can you believe it?!
The owners of this house have split up and are arguing about it, so we can't stay. We have to say goodbye to the pool and the rainforest and say hello to another lovely house down the road with a pond and stream (and only 3 doors along from our friend Caroline or staggering distance) and still with room for people to visit (phew!). It is nearer the school and only one road to cross which is the school crossing, so it's safe for the kids to walk themselves and home again. The gardens are lovely with banana's and macadamia nut trees, lemon, lime and orange trees and pumpkins growing which we can use. It has a huge open space so you can see the stars, which I am really looking forward to enjoying. The house is older, over three floors and the living area is lovely with a wood burner which will be great for the winter evenings. I looked up average weather in June/July here, which is winter. During the day it's about 21 degrees, but the evening drops to about 9 degrees!! Brrrr. I might just have to put a cardigan on!!
Alex's birthday went really well. He worked on his birthday and came home to friends who had arrived from Sydney and he opened lots of pressies. We had some local barramundi for a birthday supper and went to bed about midnight after a few glasses of wine! We woke about 4.30 as I had a birthday surprise for him so we drove down off the mountain range to Beerwah and met a couple of fellas with a van and trailer at about 5.15 in the morning. Alex only knew what he was doing when he saw the basket on the back of the trailer and realised he was going up in a hot air balloon. It was stunning. We went right over the Glass House Mountains, which you can see at the top of this page. There was another couple in the basket with us plus the pilot who was a lovely chap called Andy. After the flight, we landed with quite a bump and as the rain clouds headed our way, we realised how lucky we were as we had enjoyed a dry clear patch before it bucketed down later on.
We enjoyed a cooked breakfast with champagne and heard about the history of ballooning and were 'christened' with a bubbly dunked cork as pronounced 'balloonatics'! We made our way home where Iain and Anne had got the kids off to school in our absence. We took them for a drive and went to show them the mountains we flew over and then stopped off at the Cheese Factory at Maleny, just 15 minutes from here. It was, by this time, pee-ing down, so you couldn't really see very far but it was still nice to get out. We went for lunch at The Spirit House which is a fairly famous Thai restaurant. I emailed Sherri, at the Mistley Thorn the link to the website when I discovered it was just up the road. She already knew about it and uses their recipes sometimes at the Thorn! Small World eh? The food was divine and we had iguana's coming up to the table just in case we dropped anything. We will certainly go back there soon.
On Saturday, Alex picked up his friend Jeff from Melbourne who flew up to our little Sunshine Coast Airport to see us. Three of Alex's friends from Hassell also came up with their wives and so Alex, Iain, Jeff, Fraser, Mac and Matias all went on a pub crawl for the afternoon, leaving me and the wives here with a friend of mine who is a beautician. She massaged us, painted toe nails, tinted eyelashes and waxed whilst the boys all enjoyed a tour of the area and pints in about 4 pubs. When we met up again about 7pm, it wasn't long before lots of other people joined us for the evening and of course food and drinks were served. I made my Javanese chicken and coconut curry prawns with rice and salads friends brought, which all went down really well. Apart from overdoing the rice, everything else went which was great. There must have been about 30 people here with kids, so there was a fair crowd.
As the evening got going, after everyone had eaten, I did my song for Alex. I changed the words to Kid Rocks All Summer Long and if I can download the video to you tube, I can hopefully put a link on this page to it for anyone who feels the urge to see it. We continued doing singstar until 3.30am, then fell into bed after an exhausting 48 hours!
Sunday after a cooked breakfast and a hangover cure of a dip in the pool, we took Iain and Anne to the airport then took Jeff to Mooloolaba for some lunch and showed him the cosmopolitan part of the area. On Monday he went down to Brisbane with Alex as he had a meeting and then flew home from Brisbane that afternoon. So all in all, it was an excellent weekend and now back to reality with a big thump!
This week, I have mostly been packing boxes. We are keeping the cost of moving down, so I am packing the boxes myself. Harvey is working regularly at the pizzeria washing up and doing the pizza orders, taking the orders, taking the pizzas out of the oven, cutting them up, making boxes, dough, all sorts really. He is enjoying it, though sometimes it is just plain old washing up! But he gets paid well so he is chuffed. At the moment he is earning more than me as with an impending house move, I haven't promoted 'Paddle' as if I got anything; I wouldn't be able to give it time until after we are settled and unpacked.
I will email everyone with our new address and luckily our telephone number remains the same. It's Easter the week after we move and the kids are off school for about 9 days so hopefully we will have time to get sorted and maybe enjoy a night or two away somewhere.
If I don't blog before (we are without the internet for 5 days after we move) I wish you all a Happy Easter and hope you have fun over the holidays too.
Friday, 27 March 2009
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Boxes, Parties and a Bare-Bottomed Barbie*
It's been two weeks since the container arrived and my brown flip fop turned up. As did all the other things in the list so we are now a lot more settled. Sadly the company lost a box and the agents this end are taking no responsibility for it. As some of our boxes were not labelled at all, we cannot find a number which corresponds to the missing box (as it too was probably not labelled) and therefore can only go by what we are missing, such as our kettle, various pots and casserole dishes, salt and pepper grinders, baking stuff and plastic containers with lids, cake tins, wok and other kitchen items.
It was one of the last boxes to be packed (hence the kettle being put in at the last minute) and so lots of last items around the house went in so it is so difficult to confirm exactly what was in there other than by process of elimination and trying to remember what was in the cupboard under and to the right of the sink and items on top of the fridge. Some things we will probably not realise we have lost for months.
We have a few things that are bumped and bruised which are just A hassle to put right or replace, but we did pay a lot for insurance so hopefully they will fork out to replace the missing items and repair the damaged ones.
So the kids rooms are full of their rubbish from home, our room still has boxes with clothes and bedding to find a home for but on the whole, we are pleased to be surrounded by familiar things.
Sophia's birthday was lovely. She turned 6 on Monday the 16th so we had her present opening on Sunday evening out on the veranda before tea. She had a party the following Saturday where we must have had 15 of her friends plus various siblings (about another 15) plus mums and dads, so around 50 or so people in total. The kids all swam and the mums and dads chatted and drank beer and wine! It was great. I made a Barbie Mariposa (butterfly) cake which I was extremely proud of. Decorating one of Sophia's Barbie doll in an icing dress and putting it in the middle of the cake.
After Sophia's party, we continued on with our own party as we had invited our neighbours in for a BBQ. We met the two families to the left of us and the couple to the right, a couple of families from round the corner and a few other families came along from the village, and with various children in tow, there must have been about 35 to 40 people here well into the night! I think the last people left around 1.30 so we enjoyed a lie in in the morning and a rather subdued Sunday recovering...!
* PLEASE NOTE: THE BARE BOTTOMED BARBIE REFERS TO THE BARBIE DOLL WITH THE ICING DRESS ON THE FRONT AND NOT THE EVENING EVENTS OF A BBQ WITH THE NEIGHBOURS!! I KNOW WE ARE VERY FRIENDLY AND THIS IS AUSTRALIA, BUT WE'LL LEAVE THAT FOR ANOTHER TIME!! ...... Next party is in 3 weeks when it is Alex's 40th! I would say what I am doing but as Alex looks at the blog, I can't say anything. You will have to email me if you want to know what I am up to!
This week I have started working for myself. I have started up as a sales and marketing consultant. I will work with small businesses around this area offering support to help them promote their wares. I had my first appointment this morning and from that I am rebranding the business by sourcing a logo, which they can use on their paperwork, business cards and promotional literature and then running events to build their business and gain more customers. Just my cup of tea! I have called my company 'Paddle' as I am 'a tool which helps you propel forward' and that is my aim!
Madeleine starts netball tomorrow morning before school. Her and a group of her friends in grades 6 and 7 will practice and compete in local Saturday morning tournaments. Hopefully it will be something she really enjoys as I loved netball as a kid.
Harvey was going to join the Nambour Toads (Rugby team) but they train on a Friday and he works at the pizza restaurant on a Saturday night so when would he have a sleepover or catch up with his mates? So I think the rugby is going to be missed. He will still do it at school but outside school, he just like hanging with his mates.
The visitors are lining up now. Alex's dad and step mum have booked to come out in June, and my dad and step mum are coming in November. We hope some very special friends will be visiting in May and Harvey and Madeleine's dad, step mum, nana and grandad, later in the year, plus my friend Anna, who works for BA is hoping to come for Christmas. One reason why I thought working for myself would be better otherwise I would keep needing time off!!
Mapleton has a market this Sunday from 7am so we are going to venture down to that nice and early before heading to Brisbane for a BBQ and Family Day at Alex's work. It is a chance to meet colleagues and see where he works which is a really nice idea. Saturday I am taking Mads and a friend to the cinema and doing a bit of shopping in the big shopping centre in Maroochydore.
It is quite hot today so I might just go for a dip in the pool before I start tea and get off the laptop so Mads can do her homework. She has to write a news report so is going to write about Princess Anne visiting for the Victoria Fires Remembrance Day last Sunday.
Just to end on a light note, in Madeleine’s class they were asked to write on the blackboard, a subject they wanted to learn about. Suggestions included 'space', 'wildlife', 'government', and 'Egyptians' but when Mads went up and wrote 'Victorians' she had kids asking her why would you want to learn about the people who live down in Victoria?!!
It was one of the last boxes to be packed (hence the kettle being put in at the last minute) and so lots of last items around the house went in so it is so difficult to confirm exactly what was in there other than by process of elimination and trying to remember what was in the cupboard under and to the right of the sink and items on top of the fridge. Some things we will probably not realise we have lost for months.
We have a few things that are bumped and bruised which are just A hassle to put right or replace, but we did pay a lot for insurance so hopefully they will fork out to replace the missing items and repair the damaged ones.
So the kids rooms are full of their rubbish from home, our room still has boxes with clothes and bedding to find a home for but on the whole, we are pleased to be surrounded by familiar things.
Sophia's birthday was lovely. She turned 6 on Monday the 16th so we had her present opening on Sunday evening out on the veranda before tea. She had a party the following Saturday where we must have had 15 of her friends plus various siblings (about another 15) plus mums and dads, so around 50 or so people in total. The kids all swam and the mums and dads chatted and drank beer and wine! It was great. I made a Barbie Mariposa (butterfly) cake which I was extremely proud of. Decorating one of Sophia's Barbie doll in an icing dress and putting it in the middle of the cake.
After Sophia's party, we continued on with our own party as we had invited our neighbours in for a BBQ. We met the two families to the left of us and the couple to the right, a couple of families from round the corner and a few other families came along from the village, and with various children in tow, there must have been about 35 to 40 people here well into the night! I think the last people left around 1.30 so we enjoyed a lie in in the morning and a rather subdued Sunday recovering...!
* PLEASE NOTE: THE BARE BOTTOMED BARBIE REFERS TO THE BARBIE DOLL WITH THE ICING DRESS ON THE FRONT AND NOT THE EVENING EVENTS OF A BBQ WITH THE NEIGHBOURS!! I KNOW WE ARE VERY FRIENDLY AND THIS IS AUSTRALIA, BUT WE'LL LEAVE THAT FOR ANOTHER TIME!! ...... Next party is in 3 weeks when it is Alex's 40th! I would say what I am doing but as Alex looks at the blog, I can't say anything. You will have to email me if you want to know what I am up to!
This week I have started working for myself. I have started up as a sales and marketing consultant. I will work with small businesses around this area offering support to help them promote their wares. I had my first appointment this morning and from that I am rebranding the business by sourcing a logo, which they can use on their paperwork, business cards and promotional literature and then running events to build their business and gain more customers. Just my cup of tea! I have called my company 'Paddle' as I am 'a tool which helps you propel forward' and that is my aim!
Madeleine starts netball tomorrow morning before school. Her and a group of her friends in grades 6 and 7 will practice and compete in local Saturday morning tournaments. Hopefully it will be something she really enjoys as I loved netball as a kid.
Harvey was going to join the Nambour Toads (Rugby team) but they train on a Friday and he works at the pizza restaurant on a Saturday night so when would he have a sleepover or catch up with his mates? So I think the rugby is going to be missed. He will still do it at school but outside school, he just like hanging with his mates.
The visitors are lining up now. Alex's dad and step mum have booked to come out in June, and my dad and step mum are coming in November. We hope some very special friends will be visiting in May and Harvey and Madeleine's dad, step mum, nana and grandad, later in the year, plus my friend Anna, who works for BA is hoping to come for Christmas. One reason why I thought working for myself would be better otherwise I would keep needing time off!!
Mapleton has a market this Sunday from 7am so we are going to venture down to that nice and early before heading to Brisbane for a BBQ and Family Day at Alex's work. It is a chance to meet colleagues and see where he works which is a really nice idea. Saturday I am taking Mads and a friend to the cinema and doing a bit of shopping in the big shopping centre in Maroochydore.
It is quite hot today so I might just go for a dip in the pool before I start tea and get off the laptop so Mads can do her homework. She has to write a news report so is going to write about Princess Anne visiting for the Victoria Fires Remembrance Day last Sunday.
Just to end on a light note, in Madeleine’s class they were asked to write on the blackboard, a subject they wanted to learn about. Suggestions included 'space', 'wildlife', 'government', and 'Egyptians' but when Mads went up and wrote 'Victorians' she had kids asking her why would you want to learn about the people who live down in Victoria?!!
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Our container arrives!!
10 things I can't wait to get out of our container
1. My left, brown flip flop. Brought one with me, the other got packed.
2. My steamer. Having survived with two saucepans for the last 6 weeks, I can't wait to get my saucepans and steamer
3. Ironing board. I have been ironing on the work top so v. excited about the arrival of my big board!
4. Bedside Cabinets. Currently Alex's is a is an upturned wine box and mine is a leaf blower box
5. A decent Potato masher and peeler.
6. Our sofa and surround sound tv and dvd system. We are currently have a sofa bed, purchased from a Charity shop and a tv with bad sound from someone who was moving to Tasmania.
7. Our dining room table and chairs
8. Pictures. Can't wait to get the place personalised with our pictures from home.
9. Feather pillows
10. Big glasses (not to look through but to have a generous G&T's in!)
Things we shouldn't have brought with us
1. Alex's raincoat
2. Ali's raincoat
3. Madeleine's raincoat
4. Harveys raincoat
5. Electric toothbrushes
6. Most of my make up
7. Alex's suits
8. CD walkmans
9. My flute
10. An inflateable whale
A car boot is inevitable... I am sure lots of stuff we unpack tomorrow we will ask ourselves why we packed it in the first place!!
Of course I will get my address book which was accidently packed and put in the container, but we have managed to survive on very little and not fall out which is great, so anything extra is now a bonus!
Off to bed to get an early night as have to empty the house in the morning of borrowed stuff before we can fill it up again! Night Night!
1. My left, brown flip flop. Brought one with me, the other got packed.
2. My steamer. Having survived with two saucepans for the last 6 weeks, I can't wait to get my saucepans and steamer
3. Ironing board. I have been ironing on the work top so v. excited about the arrival of my big board!
4. Bedside Cabinets. Currently Alex's is a is an upturned wine box and mine is a leaf blower box
5. A decent Potato masher and peeler.
6. Our sofa and surround sound tv and dvd system. We are currently have a sofa bed, purchased from a Charity shop and a tv with bad sound from someone who was moving to Tasmania.
7. Our dining room table and chairs
8. Pictures. Can't wait to get the place personalised with our pictures from home.
9. Feather pillows
10. Big glasses (not to look through but to have a generous G&T's in!)
Things we shouldn't have brought with us
1. Alex's raincoat
2. Ali's raincoat
3. Madeleine's raincoat
4. Harveys raincoat
5. Electric toothbrushes
6. Most of my make up
7. Alex's suits
8. CD walkmans
9. My flute
10. An inflateable whale
A car boot is inevitable... I am sure lots of stuff we unpack tomorrow we will ask ourselves why we packed it in the first place!!
Of course I will get my address book which was accidently packed and put in the container, but we have managed to survive on very little and not fall out which is great, so anything extra is now a bonus!
Off to bed to get an early night as have to empty the house in the morning of borrowed stuff before we can fill it up again! Night Night!
Monday, 9 February 2009
Heatwaves, Bushfires and Floods
The bushfires in Melbourne and the floods in north Queensland have affected everyone in Australia. People have lost houses, family members, pets and all their belongings. It is just so difficult to comprehend how they must be feeling and the devastation they have left behind. Donations are being made to the Red Cross and adverts and links are on tv, radio and various websites to encourange people to give.
People are also donating beds, bedding and clothing and other items which might help through the Salvation Army. It's amazing to think that at one end of the country it is so wet, houses have been covered and in the opposite end, it is so dry that a cigarette butt thrown out of a car window could be the cause of a horrendous fire which has killed over 130 people.
The sheer scale of Australia is hard for us poms to understand unless you have been on a road trip here or studied maps for hours on end. Adelaide where the heat wave was last week, is as far away as Gibraltar is to Colchester. Where the floods are is the distance between Cambridge and Prague. So although we are no where near either a lot of people round here know someone directly or indirectly who has been affected by these two disasters. It makes you feel very lucky.
The weather here has been warm, but we nearly always get a lovely breeze so the heat is manageble. It helps having a pool. I have been in it to cool down a couple of times today and it's the first thing Alex does when he walks through the door at night. The kids have an icelolly when they get in from school followed by a swim. Makes a nice change to a handful of biscuits and flop in front of CBBC or a playstation! Sophia and Mads ended up having a dip with Alex at 7.30pm which means going to bed with damp hair and having fun detangling in the morning!!
Our container is going through customs tomorrow and as long as everything is ok, will be delivered on Friday. Alex is taking the day off so hopefully between us we can make the most of the unpacking service we have paid for and put away things as fast as the men can unpack!
We cleaned the annexe at the weekend with the help of Harvey and 3 of his mates. I washed curtains, windows, the boys mopped the floors and hoovered and Alex cleared up broken glass from a window and put all the stuff the owner still needs to dispose of to one side. We hope to put all our borrowed furniture there on Thursday so we have a clear house on Friday when the container arrives.
Alex and I went for an explore in our garden yesterday, all 3 acres of rainforest. We found an overgrown path which we cut back about 300m, of, but the path is probably over 1km or so it will take us some time to tidy the rest. Didn't see any beasties, but it so peaceful in there. Some of the Gum Trees were over 40 metres tall and they were just beautiful to look up at with the blue sky behind. We picked up enornous palm tree frongs which have fallen down and put them along the edges to show where the path was.
We've met a few neighbours now and we are having housewarming drinks after Sophias party on the 21st. Lots to organise over the next few weeks but we are getting there.
Off to make the bed as I had a massive washing day today, which I don't mind, it's just all the blooming ironing I have to contend with. Especially as everything dries quite stiff here. Still I am using the elements and not the tumble drier so I am being green and then I don't feel so bad when I put the air con on to cool our bedroom down!!
People are also donating beds, bedding and clothing and other items which might help through the Salvation Army. It's amazing to think that at one end of the country it is so wet, houses have been covered and in the opposite end, it is so dry that a cigarette butt thrown out of a car window could be the cause of a horrendous fire which has killed over 130 people.
The sheer scale of Australia is hard for us poms to understand unless you have been on a road trip here or studied maps for hours on end. Adelaide where the heat wave was last week, is as far away as Gibraltar is to Colchester. Where the floods are is the distance between Cambridge and Prague. So although we are no where near either a lot of people round here know someone directly or indirectly who has been affected by these two disasters. It makes you feel very lucky.
The weather here has been warm, but we nearly always get a lovely breeze so the heat is manageble. It helps having a pool. I have been in it to cool down a couple of times today and it's the first thing Alex does when he walks through the door at night. The kids have an icelolly when they get in from school followed by a swim. Makes a nice change to a handful of biscuits and flop in front of CBBC or a playstation! Sophia and Mads ended up having a dip with Alex at 7.30pm which means going to bed with damp hair and having fun detangling in the morning!!
Our container is going through customs tomorrow and as long as everything is ok, will be delivered on Friday. Alex is taking the day off so hopefully between us we can make the most of the unpacking service we have paid for and put away things as fast as the men can unpack!
We cleaned the annexe at the weekend with the help of Harvey and 3 of his mates. I washed curtains, windows, the boys mopped the floors and hoovered and Alex cleared up broken glass from a window and put all the stuff the owner still needs to dispose of to one side. We hope to put all our borrowed furniture there on Thursday so we have a clear house on Friday when the container arrives.
Alex and I went for an explore in our garden yesterday, all 3 acres of rainforest. We found an overgrown path which we cut back about 300m, of, but the path is probably over 1km or so it will take us some time to tidy the rest. Didn't see any beasties, but it so peaceful in there. Some of the Gum Trees were over 40 metres tall and they were just beautiful to look up at with the blue sky behind. We picked up enornous palm tree frongs which have fallen down and put them along the edges to show where the path was.
We've met a few neighbours now and we are having housewarming drinks after Sophias party on the 21st. Lots to organise over the next few weeks but we are getting there.
Off to make the bed as I had a massive washing day today, which I don't mind, it's just all the blooming ironing I have to contend with. Especially as everything dries quite stiff here. Still I am using the elements and not the tumble drier so I am being green and then I don't feel so bad when I put the air con on to cool our bedroom down!!
Saturday, 31 January 2009
Time Flies!
I cannot believe it has been three weeks since I last updated the blog. We have been enjoying the last couple of weeks of the school holidays and making the most where we can of our weekends. I will try and upload our latest photos on the left.
The weekend of the 17the Jan, Alex and I went away to Secrets on the Lake in Montville, a lovely tree house hide-away for two nights. It is the first time we have had two nights away on our own since before Sophia was born. We have only snatched a night away on our anniversary each year so it was lovely to wake up somewhere and realise you haven't missed breakfast and you don't have to check out and go home! This break was my Christmas present and it was beautiful.
The tree houses are all built on stilts and have lots of carved wood along the themes of each house. We stayed in Possums and there was even a possum carved into the toilet roll holder!
We were quite high up and possums and birds come and join you on the balcony when you are having your breakfast and bbq.
I read in the visitor’s book of a guest who heard rustling in the kitchen and went to investigate and found a mother and baby possum that had come in the window and was helping themselves to the bread. Another guest wrote of the possums coming in and going straight to the two wrapped chocolates next to the spa bath and finishing them off! We went out the first night and the second was raining so we didn't have any visitors, but we did enjoy sitting in the spa bath, drinking champagne and watching a DVD.
Our friends Mike and Bec came and stayed here at the house with the kids. We ended up coming back here on the Saturday to pick up my phone charger as the battery died. When we walked in, Sophia started to get really upset and said "you are meant to be away for two nights". So we picked up our stuff made a swift exit! They all played games, made pizzas, went for a walk in the rainforest swam and Mike I think enjoyed a bit of the Xbox and PS2! So a huge thank you to them for enabling us to go away and relax.
Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend with Australia Day being on Monday. It rained a lot so it was just like the UK Bank holiday weekends!! Over the week, our friends measured over 30mm on a couple of days and just under or over 20mm on the other days which totalled about 130mm of rain in a week. So the pool was topped up, the water tanks were overflowing and the tree frogs decided to mate, so the noise was incredible! We planned to go away in our 4WD and drive up the beach above Noosa to Rainbow Beach and then stay overnight in a bay where you can feed dolphins in the morning, but with there being so much rain, I didn't want our first 4WD adventure to become a real 'adventure' and end up with us getting stuck in the sand, so we postponed that for another time and went and got a load of DVD's and went down to the coast and did rock pooling when it was dry.
On Australia day we went to Caroline's house for an Aussie Day meal. Caroline lives down the road and has 4 kids from 12-18 and she is lovely. There always seems to be loads of children there, plus various mums, dads, dogs, flowing beer and wine! There must have been about 20 kids there from Sophia's age up so they had enough to play softball on the sports field behind and they all seem to look out for each other which is lovely. We turned up with our contribution for the table as did the other mums and dads and had a lovely evening. It wasn't too late an evening either as all the primary school children started the next day and that included Madeleine and Sophia.
Madeleine is now Maddy and has already made best friends with two other girls and just loves school. She thinks it is the best school ever. Sophia is in Grade 1 and plays with Charlotte, Angelique and Milly. We are doing her birthday invitations this weekend as it's her birthday on the 16th Feb. Her teacher said her reading is really good and quite advanced compared to all but a couple of her classmates. Sophia is also an extremely good swimmer. She is in the pool as much as she can be and is under the water most of the time, diving down for leaves at the deep end (6 foot) and can do three somersaults without coming up for air!
Harvey started school on Thursday looking very smart in his school uniform. He doesn't want me to put the photo I took of him on the blog, which is a pity because he does look good! Along with his core subjects he is doing Indonesian and Travel (1 subject) and metalwork. Although I would have loved him to do Drama and Music the last thing I want is to make him do something he won't enjoy.
Alex is enjoying his work. He is challenging his grey matter designing a very large complex building in a new academy. He is trying to get to grips with the sun shining from the north as after 20 years of designing buildings to be south facing, trying to keep a building warm and not drafty, he is now having to do the opposite, designing buildings to make them the coolest possible. He has made a few mates at work and Fraser, who sits opposite him and his wife Jess came up a few weekends ago which was lovely. They are also fellow Brits, but Jess was born in NZ, so it means they can both work here. They arrived a couple of months before us and live down in Brisbane.
On Thursday once I had packed off Harvey and the girls to school, it suddenly dawned on me that it was the first day I have had on my own since we arrived at the end on November. It was really weird. Harvey left school in England on the 27th November and was off until he started here on 29th January. I used my newly found time to call Sue in England and talk for about 2 hours (thank you Sue for staying up until midnight to chat to me!) and then do the ironing on our worktop (ironing board is in the container) whilst watching Mamma Mia. Yesterday I caught up with Michelle in East Bergholt in the morning and then went over to Nicoles where we sat and chatted and put the world to rights until I had to go and meet the girls from school. The housework and paperwork on hold until next week!
Our container has arrived in Brisbane. It arrived on the 15th I think. It takes 10-14 working days to first unload the ship and then get through the customs process, so we should be getting a call next week to say when it will be delivered.
We are off to Nicole and Ed’s tonight for a drinks party and we will probably just potter round the house today doing odd jobs. Harvey is at the beach with some mates. He just rang to say the lifesavers had advised getting out of the water as quite a few Portuguese Man o Wars (jellyfish) have been washed up and their stings can be quite painful. He stayed up until 3am the other night, on his Xbox (online games console). He can hook up with his school friends from East Bergholt and has a head set microphone so he can talk to them as well. On Sunday he found Sam Brown, his mate from primary school in Ardleigh playing and then met up with Sam Lowe, who moved from Ardleigh to Canada a month before us. So the three of them, thousands of miles and few continents apart, 10 and 14 hours behind us, were all playing the same computer game and chatting. Isn't technology fantastic?!
Harvey is working tonight at the Pizzeria, where I have been working too. He is working with Caroline’s oldest John and they are doing washing up, take pizza orders, cut up pizzas etc. I have done 5 shifts waitressing but as it is a 5pm start and 9.30-10pm finish, on a school night, it means I either have to ask Nicole to sit with the kids or leave them to have tea and play until Alex gets in at 7pm. So I will find something to do during school hours as that suits the family better.
I have just realised it is lunchtime, so I best go and look in the fridge to see what we have before the girls complain they are hungry! I won't leave it so long to write next time so it shouldn't be such an essay!
The weekend of the 17the Jan, Alex and I went away to Secrets on the Lake in Montville, a lovely tree house hide-away for two nights. It is the first time we have had two nights away on our own since before Sophia was born. We have only snatched a night away on our anniversary each year so it was lovely to wake up somewhere and realise you haven't missed breakfast and you don't have to check out and go home! This break was my Christmas present and it was beautiful.
The tree houses are all built on stilts and have lots of carved wood along the themes of each house. We stayed in Possums and there was even a possum carved into the toilet roll holder!
We were quite high up and possums and birds come and join you on the balcony when you are having your breakfast and bbq.
I read in the visitor’s book of a guest who heard rustling in the kitchen and went to investigate and found a mother and baby possum that had come in the window and was helping themselves to the bread. Another guest wrote of the possums coming in and going straight to the two wrapped chocolates next to the spa bath and finishing them off! We went out the first night and the second was raining so we didn't have any visitors, but we did enjoy sitting in the spa bath, drinking champagne and watching a DVD.
Our friends Mike and Bec came and stayed here at the house with the kids. We ended up coming back here on the Saturday to pick up my phone charger as the battery died. When we walked in, Sophia started to get really upset and said "you are meant to be away for two nights". So we picked up our stuff made a swift exit! They all played games, made pizzas, went for a walk in the rainforest swam and Mike I think enjoyed a bit of the Xbox and PS2! So a huge thank you to them for enabling us to go away and relax.
Last weekend was a bank holiday weekend with Australia Day being on Monday. It rained a lot so it was just like the UK Bank holiday weekends!! Over the week, our friends measured over 30mm on a couple of days and just under or over 20mm on the other days which totalled about 130mm of rain in a week. So the pool was topped up, the water tanks were overflowing and the tree frogs decided to mate, so the noise was incredible! We planned to go away in our 4WD and drive up the beach above Noosa to Rainbow Beach and then stay overnight in a bay where you can feed dolphins in the morning, but with there being so much rain, I didn't want our first 4WD adventure to become a real 'adventure' and end up with us getting stuck in the sand, so we postponed that for another time and went and got a load of DVD's and went down to the coast and did rock pooling when it was dry.
On Australia day we went to Caroline's house for an Aussie Day meal. Caroline lives down the road and has 4 kids from 12-18 and she is lovely. There always seems to be loads of children there, plus various mums, dads, dogs, flowing beer and wine! There must have been about 20 kids there from Sophia's age up so they had enough to play softball on the sports field behind and they all seem to look out for each other which is lovely. We turned up with our contribution for the table as did the other mums and dads and had a lovely evening. It wasn't too late an evening either as all the primary school children started the next day and that included Madeleine and Sophia.
Madeleine is now Maddy and has already made best friends with two other girls and just loves school. She thinks it is the best school ever. Sophia is in Grade 1 and plays with Charlotte, Angelique and Milly. We are doing her birthday invitations this weekend as it's her birthday on the 16th Feb. Her teacher said her reading is really good and quite advanced compared to all but a couple of her classmates. Sophia is also an extremely good swimmer. She is in the pool as much as she can be and is under the water most of the time, diving down for leaves at the deep end (6 foot) and can do three somersaults without coming up for air!
Harvey started school on Thursday looking very smart in his school uniform. He doesn't want me to put the photo I took of him on the blog, which is a pity because he does look good! Along with his core subjects he is doing Indonesian and Travel (1 subject) and metalwork. Although I would have loved him to do Drama and Music the last thing I want is to make him do something he won't enjoy.
Alex is enjoying his work. He is challenging his grey matter designing a very large complex building in a new academy. He is trying to get to grips with the sun shining from the north as after 20 years of designing buildings to be south facing, trying to keep a building warm and not drafty, he is now having to do the opposite, designing buildings to make them the coolest possible. He has made a few mates at work and Fraser, who sits opposite him and his wife Jess came up a few weekends ago which was lovely. They are also fellow Brits, but Jess was born in NZ, so it means they can both work here. They arrived a couple of months before us and live down in Brisbane.
On Thursday once I had packed off Harvey and the girls to school, it suddenly dawned on me that it was the first day I have had on my own since we arrived at the end on November. It was really weird. Harvey left school in England on the 27th November and was off until he started here on 29th January. I used my newly found time to call Sue in England and talk for about 2 hours (thank you Sue for staying up until midnight to chat to me!) and then do the ironing on our worktop (ironing board is in the container) whilst watching Mamma Mia. Yesterday I caught up with Michelle in East Bergholt in the morning and then went over to Nicoles where we sat and chatted and put the world to rights until I had to go and meet the girls from school. The housework and paperwork on hold until next week!
Our container has arrived in Brisbane. It arrived on the 15th I think. It takes 10-14 working days to first unload the ship and then get through the customs process, so we should be getting a call next week to say when it will be delivered.
We are off to Nicole and Ed’s tonight for a drinks party and we will probably just potter round the house today doing odd jobs. Harvey is at the beach with some mates. He just rang to say the lifesavers had advised getting out of the water as quite a few Portuguese Man o Wars (jellyfish) have been washed up and their stings can be quite painful. He stayed up until 3am the other night, on his Xbox (online games console). He can hook up with his school friends from East Bergholt and has a head set microphone so he can talk to them as well. On Sunday he found Sam Brown, his mate from primary school in Ardleigh playing and then met up with Sam Lowe, who moved from Ardleigh to Canada a month before us. So the three of them, thousands of miles and few continents apart, 10 and 14 hours behind us, were all playing the same computer game and chatting. Isn't technology fantastic?!
Harvey is working tonight at the Pizzeria, where I have been working too. He is working with Caroline’s oldest John and they are doing washing up, take pizza orders, cut up pizzas etc. I have done 5 shifts waitressing but as it is a 5pm start and 9.30-10pm finish, on a school night, it means I either have to ask Nicole to sit with the kids or leave them to have tea and play until Alex gets in at 7pm. So I will find something to do during school hours as that suits the family better.
I have just realised it is lunchtime, so I best go and look in the fridge to see what we have before the girls complain they are hungry! I won't leave it so long to write next time so it shouldn't be such an essay!
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Top Ten Plus Points
Reasons we like it here
1. Petrol is 45p a litre
2. Strangers ask you if you need help
3. Staff in the local supermarket know your name
4. Direct number to Anne in the local branch of our Bank
5. Free parking at the station
6. Weekly commute to Brisbane costs less than 1 days parking and return train from Colchester to London
7. Going for a swim in the pool in the morning to wake up
8. Staff pack your bags at the supermarket
9. It's normal to have a beer fridge
10. Spontaneous BBQ's
There are other things such as low utility bills. We collect and use our rainwater so no water rates, have a wood burner to warm the house in the winter so we only pay for gas for cooking and electricity.
On 'A Current Affair' two nights ago (which is a weekday programme at 6.30pm covering all sorts of public affairs) Mapleton was voted the best 'tree change' place to live in Queensland. People talk about Tree Change and Sea Change which means moving out of the city to live by the coast or countryside. Of course we are delighted to have picked a place which has such a good reputation but it's also a place which some of the locals want to keep as their secret!
I have put some photos of the house on the page and having had the last week sorting out the house, will hopefully manage to do a few more summer fun things with the kids as they still have two weeks holidays left. Australia Zoo is beckoning as are a few more days at the beach and discovering the area a little more.
Alex has a car now, so I have now been relieved of my duties as a taxi driver every morning and evening.
Off to bed now as it's 11pm. We had a spontaneous BBQ last night to christen the new barbie (bought from a charity shop!) and beer fridge (bought from someone moving to Tasmania) which turned into quite a late evening for us all, so bed is calling!
1. Petrol is 45p a litre
2. Strangers ask you if you need help
3. Staff in the local supermarket know your name
4. Direct number to Anne in the local branch of our Bank
5. Free parking at the station
6. Weekly commute to Brisbane costs less than 1 days parking and return train from Colchester to London
7. Going for a swim in the pool in the morning to wake up
8. Staff pack your bags at the supermarket
9. It's normal to have a beer fridge
10. Spontaneous BBQ's
There are other things such as low utility bills. We collect and use our rainwater so no water rates, have a wood burner to warm the house in the winter so we only pay for gas for cooking and electricity.
On 'A Current Affair' two nights ago (which is a weekday programme at 6.30pm covering all sorts of public affairs) Mapleton was voted the best 'tree change' place to live in Queensland. People talk about Tree Change and Sea Change which means moving out of the city to live by the coast or countryside. Of course we are delighted to have picked a place which has such a good reputation but it's also a place which some of the locals want to keep as their secret!
I have put some photos of the house on the page and having had the last week sorting out the house, will hopefully manage to do a few more summer fun things with the kids as they still have two weeks holidays left. Australia Zoo is beckoning as are a few more days at the beach and discovering the area a little more.
Alex has a car now, so I have now been relieved of my duties as a taxi driver every morning and evening.
Off to bed now as it's 11pm. We had a spontaneous BBQ last night to christen the new barbie (bought from a charity shop!) and beer fridge (bought from someone moving to Tasmania) which turned into quite a late evening for us all, so bed is calling!
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Moving and Grooving
Hi it’s Tuesday and on Saturday we moved to our new home in Mapleton.
We have had a great time staying at the house in Montville which is about 10 minutes from Mapleton. Our highlights here have included a BBQ on the veranda, having possums, wallabies and goanna’s in the garden, bird watching, cooking on a lovely range, a beautiful spacious bedroom and lovely comfy bed and of course the spectacular views.
We bought a Toyota Prado last week. Thanks to Mike for tracking down one within our budget with good mileage and then giving it a good looking over and test driving it for us. We were able to give the car hire back that we have had for over 4 weeks and now we are on the lookout for a smaller car to run Alex to the station and back.
We packed up our stuff on Friday and did the final bits on Saturday morning. We took down our tree and decorations and Sophia was quite sad that “Christmas is over”.
However, sadness was short lived as by 1pm, we were at our new home and Sophia was in the pool! We went for a dip at about 11pm on Saturday and ended up shooing frogs out as we swam about! The house is fabulous and was built just two years ago by and English couple. It is huge by comparison to houses in the UK and has been built in a clearing of a 4 acre rainforest plot. We are surrounded by high trees, including palms and gums, and a heap of wildlife, hence the frogs. We have been woken to birdsong of a completely different sound to the UK, kookaburras, lorikeets and perhaps a spangled drongo or two!
We have borrowed heaps of stuff from Ed and Nicole, including mattresses, cutlery, sofa and chairs and a tv, so we can comfortably live here until our furniture arrives in a few weeks. My back is aching from the last few days of packing, moving, unpacking and shifting furniture about, hopefully it will recover before we have to pack it all up and give it back!!
Our phone line was reconnected today but we have been given a new number. Our internet won’t be connected until later in the week and once it is all hooked up I can apparantly request my old number back. So please don’t panic if you don’t hear from us for a few days and thank you Nicole for letting me update you all from her PC.
I hear it is -5 in the UK at night and you are going through a cold spell. Just let me know if you want to pop over and warm up!!
We have had a great time staying at the house in Montville which is about 10 minutes from Mapleton. Our highlights here have included a BBQ on the veranda, having possums, wallabies and goanna’s in the garden, bird watching, cooking on a lovely range, a beautiful spacious bedroom and lovely comfy bed and of course the spectacular views.
We bought a Toyota Prado last week. Thanks to Mike for tracking down one within our budget with good mileage and then giving it a good looking over and test driving it for us. We were able to give the car hire back that we have had for over 4 weeks and now we are on the lookout for a smaller car to run Alex to the station and back.
We packed up our stuff on Friday and did the final bits on Saturday morning. We took down our tree and decorations and Sophia was quite sad that “Christmas is over”.
However, sadness was short lived as by 1pm, we were at our new home and Sophia was in the pool! We went for a dip at about 11pm on Saturday and ended up shooing frogs out as we swam about! The house is fabulous and was built just two years ago by and English couple. It is huge by comparison to houses in the UK and has been built in a clearing of a 4 acre rainforest plot. We are surrounded by high trees, including palms and gums, and a heap of wildlife, hence the frogs. We have been woken to birdsong of a completely different sound to the UK, kookaburras, lorikeets and perhaps a spangled drongo or two!
We have borrowed heaps of stuff from Ed and Nicole, including mattresses, cutlery, sofa and chairs and a tv, so we can comfortably live here until our furniture arrives in a few weeks. My back is aching from the last few days of packing, moving, unpacking and shifting furniture about, hopefully it will recover before we have to pack it all up and give it back!!
Our phone line was reconnected today but we have been given a new number. Our internet won’t be connected until later in the week and once it is all hooked up I can apparantly request my old number back. So please don’t panic if you don’t hear from us for a few days and thank you Nicole for letting me update you all from her PC.
I hear it is -5 in the UK at night and you are going through a cold spell. Just let me know if you want to pop over and warm up!!
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