Anyway, I have got so behind with the blog that I thought I would take this opportunity to give you an update on me and Nick, accompanied by photos of our children as that's much easier in the eye that photos of us!!Well, my news in no particular order:
(1) I am now 38. This is not a good thing. But it is better than the alternative. And, for the first time in my life it was sunny and warm on my birthday. Quite liked that bit...
(2) I have been responsible for the global financial crisis. I moaned about the Aussie dollar. I wished it was worth less as everything seemed so expensive. And now my wishes have come true. The Aussie Dollar is now basically worth two peanuts and a fag-end, and of course now that Nick is earning dollars, I am, as they say, hoist on my own petard... Nevertheless, those of us with no savings and a huge mortgage are reaping the benefits, but not so good if you were nearing retirement and have now had to put it off (again) till your mid-nineties. Erm, sorry about that Dad...
(3) I have discovered that my alter ego is apparently Mrs Tibbles. It must be, because people keep phoning here and asking for her. Surely no-one is really called Mrs Tibbles? That's a cat, right? I am still working up the courage to miaow at the next person who calls...(4) I still have tennis elbow. This is most likely not clearing up because I am old. See (1). According to Nick, it will probably not get better till I rest it. Hmmm. In about 2015 then.
(5) I have joined a gym. This is because I am still wearing four children and would like to return to a less rotund state, but have struggled to get myself moving. This is because I am old. See (1). I will, of course, only be able to do exercise not involving my right elbow. See (4)... The gym has a creche. This means that I will have no excuse not to go. Except for the elbow - see (4)... and being old - see (1) again...
(6) I have managed to fill my diary to bursting point and am now moaning about how many things I have to fit in, rather than the fact that my diary is empty. This leads me to believe that I am just an old (see 1) moanbag. But it's good to be busy and life here has taken on a turn for the normal - I feel like I could quite happily stay here, or at least give it longer than a year, but equally I'd be just as happy if we decided to go home. Life from January will be very different with Will at school and Ella at kinder two half days a week. Should be able to make the most of that gym membership!! (7) Ah yes - forgot to mention that the kinder gods have been smiling and Ella has been offered a place at St Lukes Kinder, which is where Will goes just now. It was totally unexpected as we had basically been told that we were too far down the list to be likely to get one, but we jumped at the chance when offered. The fact that it's in Highton makes it a bit further to drive (less than 10 minutes) but if we do stay here, I'm fairly confident that Highton is where we'll go, as it's got bigger houses and plots for less money than here in town, but also has a village atmosphere with all the shops and services you could need. And we know lots of people who live there already. OK, lots is an exaggeration, but a few!!
(8) Australia is full, apparently. I know this because a ute parked around the corner has a bumper sticker which says so. Actually, it says F*** off, we're full, which is nice. And patently untrue. This place is bloody empty!! Even the busy bits are, well, not that busy. Anywhere that still mostly builds one storey homes is not full. OK, there are plenty bits of Australia you might find it challenging to live in, but then the bumper sticker doesn't say 'F*** off, the easy bits are full'. Actually, maybe I'm attributing punctuation beyond his capabilities to this muppet, and maybe it's 'F*** off were full' (so I had to come and live in Geelong). Either way, Nick reckons it's more racist than South Africa here. I'm not so sure about that ( I think in SA they've just stopped saying it out loud) but I will agree that the lack of political correctness here makes me wince. And generally I hate all things PC, but some comments here have had my jaw hitting the floor...
(9) I can no longer bake ANYTHING. Everything I have tried to bake here has pretty much been a disaster. Sunken cakes, burnt flapjacks, floury fairy cakes..... I think this is either (a) the fact that there is no baking marg here and they bake all their sponges with butter or (b) cake karma, as I can clearly remember Nick's mum telling me about 15 years ago how when she moved from SA to the UK that none of her baking worked out, and I can remember thinking 'and this has WHAT to do with me, exactly????' (Sorry J!) So now it's payback time. And even Mary Berry's cake book has failed me. And sponge cake made with butter is horrible and greasy and even James won't eat it... So I announced that I was going to buy all my cakes from now on and Nick was so outraged that he bought me a KitchenAid mixer for my birthday - pink, of course... A dream to use, but Ella's birthday cake still sank and was greasy.... Methinks I need an Australian recipe book and to investigate margarines here to see if any will do the trick.
(10) and finally - we have escaped the clutches of the Australian police. We got a speeding fine the DAY we arrived in Australia for doing 114kmph in a 100kmph zone and it eventually caught up with us, having been sent to Dunbar, redirected to my dad and sent back to Geelong. Well, I was all set to cough the $220 till I spoke to a friend at playgroup who said 'No mate, you don't wanna do that, you wanna appeal. It'll be roight' Or something like that. So I appealed on the grounds that we had just arrived on an overnight flight, were in an unfamiliar car, on unfamiliar roads, with unfamiliar speed limits and were trying to navigate our way into Geelong at the point we were zapped. And I though about adding the fact that their speed limits are ridiculously low (100kmph is the top) but felt this might not help.... So anyway, two weeks later, we get a lovely reply telling us that our infringement has been withdrawn in favour of an Official Warning, and a reminder that road laws are for the safety of all road users. Which I agree with, except for the fact that, as far as I can see, the speed limit is the only road law in Australia. The rest of the time it's pretty much a free-for-all where half the cars are neon utes driven by testosterone-fuelled 20-somethings, and the other half are 1970's saloons driven by old folks on a day pass and held together by prayer and denture paste.And now for Nick's news:
(1) He has been to two conferences. One in Sydney, one in Hobart in Tasmania. Now, I'm sure bits of them were interesting, and bits were boring, but I'm also sure that at no point did he have to accompany anyone to the toilet, wipe someone else's drool off his clothes or rock someone till they fell asleep, so sounds like a good deal in my book. He really enjoyed catching up with some old friends in Sydney, and said that Tassie was gorgeous, so I think we will try to get over there as a family sometime soon - we can go by boat and take the car, or fly, so will see what the cheapest option is...
(2) He has (wait for it) Medicare number for all three hospitals, provider numbers for all three hospitals and a spot on the on-call rota for the odd shift here and there. So this means that he can bill for private assisting and also get paid for on call. Result! He would still like to be doing more on a day-to-day basis, but things have settled down into somewhat of a routine and we are loving having him home for tea every night and around for the odd afternoon too. He changes rotation after Christmas and is hoping that he will be able to do more operating from then on.
(3) He has been cycling to work every day - takes less that 10 minutes door to door, though I think it's a lot easier on the way home as that is mostly downhill!
(4) He has gone Aussie and purchased a black leather 'swagman's hat' to keep the sun of his shiny bit (yes, yes, I know, he's not bald, it's a solar panel for a sex machine...) Sounds dodgy, looks rather dashing. But obviously I will keep taking the mick.
(5) He is the world's best husband for taking the kids out to let me get the blog done!!
And finally, some quickies:
Phoebe is crawling
Ella is toilet trained
James and Will have started cricket We have booked most of our January roadtrip - details soon...
(1) He has been to two conferences. One in Sydney, one in Hobart in Tasmania. Now, I'm sure bits of them were interesting, and bits were boring, but I'm also sure that at no point did he have to accompany anyone to the toilet, wipe someone else's drool off his clothes or rock someone till they fell asleep, so sounds like a good deal in my book. He really enjoyed catching up with some old friends in Sydney, and said that Tassie was gorgeous, so I think we will try to get over there as a family sometime soon - we can go by boat and take the car, or fly, so will see what the cheapest option is...(2) He has (wait for it) Medicare number for all three hospitals, provider numbers for all three hospitals and a spot on the on-call rota for the odd shift here and there. So this means that he can bill for private assisting and also get paid for on call. Result! He would still like to be doing more on a day-to-day basis, but things have settled down into somewhat of a routine and we are loving having him home for tea every night and around for the odd afternoon too. He changes rotation after Christmas and is hoping that he will be able to do more operating from then on.
(3) He has been cycling to work every day - takes less that 10 minutes door to door, though I think it's a lot easier on the way home as that is mostly downhill!
(4) He has gone Aussie and purchased a black leather 'swagman's hat' to keep the sun of his shiny bit (yes, yes, I know, he's not bald, it's a solar panel for a sex machine...) Sounds dodgy, looks rather dashing. But obviously I will keep taking the mick.(5) He is the world's best husband for taking the kids out to let me get the blog done!!
And finally, some quickies:
Phoebe is crawling
Ella is toilet trained
James and Will have started cricket We have booked most of our January roadtrip - details soon...
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