Aussie Jingle bells

Dashing through the bush, In a rusty Holden Ute, Kicking up the dust, Esky in the boot. Kelpie by my side, Singing Christmas songs. It's summer time and I am inMy singlet, shorts & thongs
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT, OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE
Engine's getting hot, Dodge the kangaroos, Swaggy climbs aboard, He is welcome too. All the family's there, Sitting by the pool, Christmas day, the Aussie way, By the barbecue!
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA ON A SCORCHING SUMMERS DAY, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT, OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE
Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze. The kids and uncle Bruce, Are swimming in their clothes, The time comes round to go, We take a family snap, Then pack the car and all shoot through, Before the washing up...................

OH, JINGLE BELLLS ETC

Buying and selling

Guess what we did today???

We have just put a deposit down on a block of land! Very exciting!

Earlier this year we decided to sell our house in Southampton, England, and completion is imminent, so we've taken the plunge. We're so excited! Having watched some friends of ours build their dream home, we're about to do the same. We have even chosen the same builder!

Our first visitors

We've spent the last five weeks with relatives....Kev's Mum was here for a week at the end of September, and although travelling with her Sister and Brother-in-law and based in the city centre for a week, she has spent most of the week with us. It's been great to show them all the Aussie lifestyle.

My Mum was here for the whole of October along with my Brother Chris. It's been a pleasure to share our new lives with our family.


Some highlights of the past 5 weeks include: Aussie BBQ's and meeting the locals.

Illness

It's been a busy few months.
Unfortunately our Grace has been unwell for a number of weeks. It all started on the Queens birthday public holiday back in June when Grace was unwell with gastroenterits. The vomiting subsided after a few days, but unfortunately Grace continued to have a very sore tummy, and after several visits to the doctor, we took her to hospital. Many investigations took place, and for a number of weeks, it was thought that Grace was suffering from crohn's disease. Poor Grace was very sore, couldn't eat and lost a lot of weight. Investigations concluded at the end of July with an endoscopy and colonoscopy and this confirmed that Grace did not have crohn's. Praise God! What a relief. The pain was caused by something called 'Nodular Lymphoid Hyperplasia' of the Terminal Ileum. Basically the glands in her bowel had gone into overdrive in response to a virus, causing swelling of the lining of her bowel. It had occured in the part of the bowl called the terminal ileum (where the small bowel joins the large bowel) and this is a very common place for crohn's to start.
Grace's tummy aches have gradually started to settle down now, although she remains tender at times. She is also picking up lots of colds and sore throats as her immune system has taken such a whack, but we're so pleased to see her on the mend, and we're all looking forward to welcoming our first lot of visitors in a few weeks.

Six months Down Under

We are now into our sixth month and are continuing to enjoy all Brisbane has to offer. It seems like we have been here ages, and the sun has been shining constantly throughout that time. The weather is just fantastic. Autumn is in full swing, minus those leaves all over the floor like in Southampton, and the climate is just perfect. The temperatures are around mid 20's most days and at night it is dropping to around 12-15 degrees. This means that it can actually feel quite cool (believe it or not) at night time because the houses are not insulated and are obviously designed for the heat! We are not feeling cold compared to the Aussies though, who have their electric blankets on at night and are wearing long sleeves during the day!!! Unfortunately although temperatures are still quite warm during the day, it is no longer warm enough to swim outside. This is because the water is so cool as the temperatures drop down at night. During the summer here, the temperature is very constant and even at night it is 28 degrees plus, therefore the swimming pool water stays warm. Still, there is still plenty to do and see:
Every weekend is like a holiday: because of the weather, the least we do is go down to the sea front for ice cream. One of our favourite pastimes is to go there for fish and chips for dinner. I've also taken a liking to the many cafe's who serve "thick shakes" or "super shakes" with ice cream floating on the top! (Bit like the Americans serve), so much for that healthier life style!!!
Yesterday was Mother's day here in Australia. We went to a special service at Church yesterday where the kids lead it. Grace was a bit shy to stand up and sing, but Anna, bless her, stood on the stage with a group of boys who were much older than her to say her own Mother's Day prayer. She was fantastic and we were so proud of her!
Both Grace and Anna are doing very well at school and we have nothing but compliments from their teachers. Grace knows all of the grade 3 spelling words and half of grade 4's too! Anna's teacher called me in to the classroom after school one day last week and told me that Anna had got the top mark in a maths test they had. She got 106 out of 107!!!! She also said how well Anna reads: At the end of grade 2, the average reader should be on level 16 books. Anna is on level 20 only half way through grade 2!!! Both girls are very much book worms and go to bed with a pile of books most nights.
Last week Grace had a Mother's day assembly at school. It was really well done. When speaking, Grace had a very broad Australian accent just like her friends. If you didn't know, you'd think she'd been in Australia all her life!
Grace's teacher asked me to help out on a school excursion last week to the Port Of Brisbane. At first I thought it might be a bit boring but had agreed to go, particularly as each class was only allowed to take one parent and I had the first offer (I took this as a compliment!) Well, the excursion was fantastic! The Port is a hive of activity 24 hours a day and has a lot of learning opportunities. We had a guided coach tour of the land based activities, including a stop off at one of the loading terminals to watch some robots loading, unloading and moving containers around the port. Absolutely fascinating. These robots are completely un manned and are controlled by email from Sydney!!! We also took a boat trip up the river past the container boats to see all the exports such as coal, grain and caltex oil. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day out. The children were all very well behaved and of course the weather, as usual, was sunny and warm! I never did find out why it took our furniture as long to clear customs as it did to sail across the world though?!
Kevin and I are still enjoying work at the Mater children's Hospital. (I've been working there as a casual employee for the last couple of months.) It's just so much less stress than working at Southampton General! The nurses here think they are really busy, but in comparison, they really aren't, but then I guess they've not known any different! Kevin is currently doing a chemotherapy course so that he can administer chemo to the kids. I am still just plodding along doing one or two days a week as time allows. I'm also involved at church with a few activities during the week, bible study, craft mornings and I'm also going to start helping with one of the parent and toddler groups. I'm now on the Sundays school rota too, which has been fun.
We finally have a TV too!!! It took a while to get the insurance money, but we got it and then ordered a TV over the internet. It was delivered from Sydney and when it arrived, it too was damaged!!! AAARRGGHHHH. Anyway, we now have one which we bought from a shop at the weekend.
This evening, Grace and Anna took me to a "Mum's Evening" at Girls Brigade. It was lovely. We were served drinks, snacks and we all sat and watched a movie "Princess Diaries". I was once again showered with Mother's day gifts, so I have done very well this year!
Anyway, I think that's probably all for now.

Two months in.....

And we love it!

I don't know where the two months have gone really. I guess with so much to do when we first arrived, the time has flown.

Kevin has now had three weeks at work. He is enjoying the job with it's familiarities and also the new challenges it is bringing.

The girls have had two weeks at school. They seem very settled too. The opportunities they have out here are brilliant. They are starting swimming lessons at school this week. They love the catholic approach with the prayers and the way they greet their teachers with "Good morning......may the angels watch over you". I went in to Anna's class this week to help with reading. It was lovely to be read to by all Anna's little friends with their broad Australian accents. Talking of which, Grace and Anna seem to be picking it up. They definitely come home from school some days with a twang, and the intellection where all their sentences are starting to go up at the end!!!

Our furniture arrived last week too. It only took 15 weeks after being quoted 8 - 12! It was so good to get all our own things and has made our house a home now. It has been quite hectic with the rebuilding of furniture, rewiring of plugs etc. Unfortunately our TV didn't make the trip unscathed. Fortunately it is insured so we are currently sorting that out. It wasn't wrapped very well, I questioned it at the time, but thought the shippers knew better. It looks like something heavy has been put on top of it, the plastic is all bent and it doesn't work. It wouldn't have worked out here without "Foxtel" (Like SKY), and we can't get foxtel in this area at the moment anyway. (A bit like the broadband issue!!!), so it's a blessing really. Hopefully we can claim and buy an Ozzie TV for the terrestrial channels.

It's been great for the kids to have their toys as they were getting so bored. They love being able to ride their bikes up and down the road too as it's very quiet around here. We couldn't let them do this at home.

As for me, I'm currently looking for part time work, something that fits in with the children, so probably not nursing at this stage. I am very much enjoying being a Mum and housewife, and helping in school etc, but the extra earnings would help us save up for a trip home to see everyone. I am currently considering childminding as this would fit in around the children. The salary is quite good, and apart from a few alterations at home, I have all the qualifications. I have also recently submitted a resume for a post in a call centre. We shall see what happens.

We are continuing to spend our weekends "outdoors". Most weekends involve the beach and/or a picnic/BBQ. We have been very lucky to meet some very nice friends in the same situation (ie, new arrivals) and we are all such a great support to one another. Two couples have bought houses with pools, so we have lots of swimming/cooling off we can do! (Why get our own and have to maintain it, when we can use theirs? Ha ha ).

We have discovered in the last week that Anna has developed a peanut allergy. We had chicken satay for tea last week and Anna was very sick with a puffy lip. We went to the doctors who referred her for skin tests. This confirmed what we knew! We have to go back to the doctor in the week to discuss it further and see whether Anna needs to carry an adrenaline pen.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. Until next time. KEEP SAVING!!!!

A month in!

Well, we've now been here a whole month so I thought it was about time I updated our blog!

The flight was long, but somehow, when we arrived, it still didn't feel like we'd travelled to the other side of the world!

It was very warm when we arrived although it was 8pm. My first memory was the noise....it was like arriving in the jungle!

The first few days were strange, although we didn't feel particulary tired from the long flight and lack of sleep, we kept waking up at 4.30 in the mornings when the sun rose! The days start early here, everyone is up and about before it gets too hot, and people go to bed earlier too.

We spent our first two weeks doing all the necessary stuff: making use of the swimming pool on site, buying a car, finding a rental property, registering the girls at school, registering with tax office, doctor, applying for family tax benefit, etc, etc. It was a very busy and tiring time. We were so lucky to have Jo with us though. Jo came out here on extended baby sitting duties, and was an absolute 'God send' in helping entertain the girls whilst we did all the necessary stuff.

We are now settled in to our own rental property for a year. It is still looking quite empty though, as we are still waiting for our shipment to arrive. Therefore, we are at the "camping out" stage again, borrowing from our new friends here. Last phone call to the port tells me that our worldy goods are currently waiting customs clearance, so they shouldn't be too much longer.

We have tried to explore as best we can since arriving and have taken the girls to a koala sanctuary, been to the beach, made use of all the parks etc, and of course we've had plenty of trips to the pool. We have had to remind ourselves on several ocassions that we are not on holiday though. We are here to live, therefore we have to be sensible!

Our first Christmas was great, although very different. We had BBQ's both days with friends we have met here. It was strange being so hot! Everyone still has Christmas lights up on their houses...it's quite big here. The malls are all playing Christmas carols including "white Christmas" despite the heat beyond the air conditioning of the shops!

We have been lucky enough to meet several families since arriving, two who have only been in the country a few weeks like us. It's great to have the support of each other. We have had some good days and evenings out with each other, including seeing the fireworks on the Brisbane river on New Years Eve.

Overall, we are very impressed. Brisbane is clean, very friendly, has excellent facilities for families, and the sun is always shining.

Kevin starts work next week, and the girls will be starting school on 23rd January, so watch this space for further news!

Love to everyone at home. Please start saving. We want to share all this with you!