Just a total random catch-up here.... and in no particular order, so bear with me....
JAMES:At the risk of turning this into a blog of infestation, I thought I would share the latest invasion with you. James has had nits... Ewwwww!!! Ewwwwww!!! Ewwwww!!! I hate those little beasties. What purpose could they possibly serve on this earth? Are they on God's team??? I don't think so.... Bought a serious nit comb too which seems to work not so much on the principle of removing nits as just pulling the hair itself out by the roots. Whatever works....
James had his pyjama day at school - here he is before leaving, complete with teddy, storybook and slippers.Still no report from his assessment - the two ladies involved have been somewhat under par, with one of them coming down with pneumonia and the other one in hospital with a neuropathy of some description. I don't think either one was James related... probably!
And he's been in trouble at school again. Usual catalogue of misbehaviours. Interestingly, I had a chat with him about behaviour the other day and he admitted that sometimes he likes to be in trouble as it means he gets to spend time on his own. Methinks the boy needs his own room.
ELLA:
Has been as entertaining as ever recently, so here are a few classics...Whilst being dressed by daddy - 'No, not that one.... you silly man...'
After shopping for father's day pressie with me'Daddy, we got you a tree'
(Me) 'Shhhh ! Ella, it's a secret'
'Daddy, we got you a secret tree'
In the pram, out for a walk, Ella is mum, mum, mum-ing and pointing, and pointing, and pointing...
'Ella, what ARE you pointing at?'
'Nothing mum, snot for you...'
This picture is Ella's own choice of clothing for the day. Temper by Naomi Campbell, style by Oxfam...
WILL:
Started Gymnastics on Monday. Absolutely loved it as it ticked all the right boxes of what gymnastics should be, according to Will, i.e. forward rolls and swinging from rings! Ella did the class too, and they both really loved it. Facilities are excellent and they did everything - jumping in a foam pit, a mini assault course, rope climbing, beam walking, trampolining, rolling, landing.... and the Hokey Cokey - Phoebe and I joined in the latter. She liked her first foray into dodgy music-hall dancing so much, she showed her appreciation by letting me have another look at her breakfast... on my cardi! This is what Gymnastics class did to Will....NICK:
Provider number still not here.... Bureaucracy here in Australia is unbelievable, I will never again complain about speed of action in the UK - it's like lightspeed compared to here... He was in Melbourne for a course three weeks ago and handed in additional documentation to the Victoria Medical Board. Phoned them today and they still have not STARTED processing it.
Still no specific theatre time for him either - he is getting really deskilled and demotivated. It is totally pointless for him to go along and observe an operation he is capable of doing from start to finish himself, and soul destroying to know that some of the recently appointed consultants have less orthopaedic experience than him.
But he does have at least one new skill - Asian food is very big here, and Dim Sims (or Dim Sum as we would call them) are a very popular dish. So Nick made some from scratch and they were YUMMY!!
VIC:At the risk of sounding shallow, I will start with a tale of mascara. Men look away now. I have for many years used nothing but Lancome mascara in one form or another. I am aware of the total absurdity of paying £17 for a tiny tube of paint, but it lasts 3 months or more, and gives me happy eyelashes. At only 18p a day it seems a small price to pay to be happy with at least one part of my body... So you can imagine that upon discovering that it costs $55 here ( Good god that's £27.50) I almost needed smelling salts in the middle of Myer department store. So, do I continue with this insanity, knowing that the price of happiness has taken a 40% price hike to 30p a time, or do I buy (and bin) cheap mascara after cheap mascara and in so doing end up spending more than the Lancome in the first place? Ah the wonderful scent of self justification!!!
Have been filling the freezer with purees in varying shades of orange for the Hungry One. As you can see, the plans were mighty, but unfortunately the reality is as follows:
- The freezer is now so full of small bags of ice-cube sized food that there is no room for grown up food.
- Having a freezer full of babyfood does not mean that you ever remember to defrost any.
- That bulb of fennel in the picture is still sitting in my fruit bowl, and now looks much wrinklier. What possessed me to think that fennel, which I have never bought or cooked before, would miraculously turn itself into a tasty baby food without (apparently) any involvement from me?
Mayo - still on the hunt for good mayo - was bemoaning the lack of decent mayo and the sweetness of Aussie mayo to Leanne while over there for Fathers' Day brekkie. 'My mum makes great mayo with condensed milk' she said. I rest my case (sorry Leanne!). This is a picture of Graham and Leanne. She said I wasn't to put it on the blog, so here it is...
Adverts - Nick and I were hooting with laughter the other night. There's a bit of a campaign here at the moment to get people to realise that generic drugs are the same as branded - only cheaper, so when an advert came on for generic paracetamol vs Panadol, that's exactly what we thought it was going to say... Oh no - aparently the generic is Australian and the Panadol is (cue voice of horror) FOREIGN!!! Surely that's racist? Or is it only racist if you hate another country specifically, rather than just the rest of the world...?
I read this back and realise that, in spite of not even being English, I have turned into the proverbial 'whingeing pom', so here are some good things: I am making friends and almost having a social life. My weeks are getting busy, the weather is improving (hence the children outside on the deck) and I love the new house. It's really not all bad at all, and Geelong is growing on me. And talking of Geelong, there is a street in Geelong called Bonza View. I kid you not.
Thought of the day, for the ladies:
If it's got testicles or tyres, you're going to have trouble with it...
Well, I could fill an entire blog with the debate over whether including only Christian doctrine in Religious Education classes in a secular school system is justified, but instead I will leave you comforted by the knowledge that God has a new team member.
My son is evidently more inclusionist than the Australian religious curriculum and has decided to incorporate ex-Jedi, Sith Lord, Dark side head-honcho and all round bad guy Darth Vader into God's Team. Gotta love that....
Haven't had the results from James' assessment yet, though they are due this week, but he does seem to be settling in better at school, he has not become a social outcast and in fact has a wide circle of friends (who may or may not also be on God's Team - who knows?) The latest craze is or Bakugan toys (kind of Top Trumps meets Transformers) and James is now in with the in crowd having spent three weeks worth of pocket money on them last week. Think this is the first time he has really got why pocket money is something worth having.
This week James was Pupil of the Week in his class and got to stand up on stage during assembly - parents get to attend assembly too and I confess to having a small speck of sentiment in my eye when he was up there... He was trying to look nonchalant, but secretly I think he was chuffed to bits too.
This is his class photo too - hadn't occurred to me that we don't seem to get these in Scotland anymore, though I still have all of mine from primary school.
His best friends are Marcus, Ben and Lachlan, but mentions most of the boys on a regular basis. Mairead (two to the right of James) is also Scottish - her parents moved here in January - and Lachlan's dad is Scottish too, and Lachlan also has a 7 month old sister called Phoebe!
OK, OK, I know it's been ages since my last post, but children just keep getting in the way, and there's so darn many of them. I'm not even sure they're all ours... Anyway, I am determined to get this blog up to date today, so first of all, Nick...Nick's job is not going according to plan so far. In theory, a visiting fellow should (a) have at least one operating list a week which is all his, (b) be attached to one specific surgeon and (c) ideally be able to contribute to the on call rota in order to supplement income.
Sadly, in Nick's case, none of the above is true. As it stands now, he is pretty much only observing in theatre as every time he goes to an operation, there is an Australian registrar in attendance at the public hospital and a 'surgical assistant' (bored GP) in attendance at the private hospital. No-one has indicated that he has any kind of priority to assist, in fact one surgeon said when he turned up 'What are you doing here? You don't need to be here.' I don't think it was meant in a nasty way - but still...
I think he has wielded a scalpel once so far, and this was for an ACL (soft tissue knee repair) which he has no interest in doing long term and is not supposed to be focusing on here.
He is not attached to one single surgeon, but rather gets a list of what three or four of the main surgeons are doing each week and where he might want to go (clinic and theatre)
There does not appear to be any possibility of contributing to the registrars' on call rota.
In addition to all of the above, - we discovered after arriving that Nick is actually working on a self-employed basis, and therefore we had to wait for his ABN (Australian Business Number) to be issued before he could bill for his time
- in addition to the ABN, it took a month to get a tax file number before he could bill...
- because of this status, he is taxed at 30% on 100% of his income - which we are responsible for putting to one side (oh heck..)
- after finally getting state registration, turns out they have mistakenly only listed him as working at two out of the three hospitals and have missed Geelong Private - without registration he cannot get a provider number, without a provider number he cannot bill for any private assisting...
- under the terms of Nick's visa, he can only work at the three (two!) Geelong hospitals he is registered for, so therefore can't do locum shifts elsewhere though they are desperate for Orthopaedic surgeons here
- they have just employed a locum GENERAL surgeon for a week to cover staff absences here in Geelong because they couldn't get an Orthopod and never thought to ask Nick. Though of course with no provider number, he couldn't have done it anyway...
So anyway, he has spoken to his boss (R), shown him the volume and complexity of surgery he has been doing at home and told him that the fellowship as it stands neither lives up to its description nor meets Nick's requirements. R said Nick can expect to be first assistant or lead surgeon anytime a consultant does not have a local trainee, otherwise just to go to whichever surgeon's list has the surgery which interests him and observe. Unfortunately, when Nick told one of the other surgeons last week that he would be joining him at his hip list, he didn't seem too chuffed and said he would need to speak to R... So obviously the message isn't filtering through the department.
Doesn't seem to me like there is any buy in from any of the surgeons apart from R - no-one seems to know what to do with a fellow or even seem to want one. I don't see why Nick should have to muscle his way into theatre and I don't see why the unit should get the kudos of offering a fellowship without everyone supporting it. Nick is getting mighty cheesed off - as he said, he is supposed to be honing his skills, not becoming de-skilled, but he is going to see how the next couple of weeks go and take it from there.
It's not possible to change hospitals on the visa we are on (and I don't think my sanity could take another Australian visa application) but we could of course go elsewhere - like New Zealand!! - so anyone planning a visit, hold off for a wee while till we know what country we are going to be in!!
So, what's been happening to me? Well, pretty much just like home, without the enjoyable chat...
Have been mostly settling into normal life with school runs, nursery runs and playgroup, swimming, shopping... and the weather is still pretty much shocking, so not really 'gone Aussie' yet in terms of spending more time outside.
But something marvellous happened yesterday - we got FIVE care packages from Auntie Kim with DVD's and other bits and bobs for the children and (woo hoo!) Pampers Active Fit nappies for Phoebe. I can happily confirm that she has fully tested them already and they have passed with flying colours. Auntie Kim also sent me Aussie Mega shampoo and conditioner. Kimmie Lou, I love you more than is wholly appropriate at the moment!!
Still haven't really managed to meet anyone else socially, but playgroup on a Tuesday is looking promising - lots of lovely ladies, Ella and Phoebe fitting in nicely, and tea and cake to boot. Still haven't exchanged a word with anyone at school - because there is a 15 minute drop off and pick up window, it's impossible to tell who might be another parent from James' class - there is no standing about like in Dunbar. And they don't come out in their classes after school - so James is as likely to appear out the door with someone in Grade 6 as someone in his own class. But he at least is starting to settle - he seems a lot happier and apparently his behaviour is greatly improved too.
One of the other mums at Will's kinder introduced herself the other day too - it was like a miracle!! And in addition, I decided to take the bull by the horns and find my own friends by placing an advert on the expat forum, and am meeting up with an Irish girl next week.
Apart from that, I have tennis elbow. No really, stop laughing, I do. Those of you who know me will know that the likelihood of me picking up a tennis racquet at all is not high, let alone wielding it long enough to cause any damage. I did in fact manage to injure myself during a high speed dash through Vancouver airport carrying a heavy baby in a heavy car seat, and it's been getting worse ever since. Husband dearest has procured me a support bandage which is apparently known as a w***strap. Nice...
And apart from that the latest news is that we may be moving (within Geelong for the time being) as the people who own this place want to sell. Nick and I think they want to sell as they have had to cough up for a new oven, microwave, kitchen cabinetry, locksmith and heating engineer because of issues we have raised since we moved in. But hey, it's not like we are making up problems - the house is lovely, but certain things have not been maintained and now need fixed or replaced. And anyway, it's all a bit suspect as apparently they have a buyer though the house is not actually on the market. Because we have signed a fixed-term lease, they cannot actually throw us out before June 09, but I don't think we really want to stay somewhere the landlords want us out - it's asking for trouble and nit-picking I think. So anyway, we have said that we will move if they cover our removal costs so we will wait and see. We saw one place at the weekend which was superb but of course we will have to be approved as applicants and I think there will be a lot of competition! - fingers crossed.
And finally, went to see Mamma Mia a couple of weeks ago. Feel it is entirely possible that this may be the best film ever made. God I love Abba.
So, here (finally) are all the pics from the visit of my Dad, Susan and Rebecca in July. They flew out on my Dad's 60th birthday - and after 24 hours on a plane, he almost looked it!!!
It was great to have visitors here, and we only wished they could have stayed longer. The kids loved seeing Papa, Nana Suze and Auntie Rebecca - you can see how excited Ella was here.
Didn't do too much during their week and a bit here (obviously had to consider my dad's advancing years), but did investigate Barwon Heads which is a little seaside town down the coast from Geelong. They were staying at a golf resort just outside Barwon Heads (didn't want to get too close to us...), and we had dinner in the town there one night - our first night outside Geelong!!
Also went for a quick walk along the shore in Geelong and my Dad found a new woman... She looks a bit fake if you ask me!
Packed them off on a tour of some local wineries in a 1935 Buick Sedan as my Dad's 60th birthday pressie - it looked awesome, and it's something that I hope Nick and I will get to do before we leave. This did mean we got to keep Auntie Rebecca for a sleepover and let her get jumped on by small children at an ungodly hour of the morning.
We went off to Melbourne on the Saturday and absolutely loved it. It's a spacious, attractive, vibrant place with a really great feel to it. We particularly loved the Victorian (era, not State) shopping arcades with the domed ceilings and stained glass. Reminded me a lot of Leeds, or a posh Argyle Arcade if you like! Also really enjoyed the little narrow lanes running between the main shopping streets which are stuffed full of little bistros and cafes of all nationalities with tables and chairs (and patio heaters) for eating outside and watching the world go by.
On the news here the other day they were discussing whether the staff who stand outside trying to entice you in are too 'in your face'. Now, all they do is say something like 'Good afternoon, looking for lunch, would you like to see a menu?' I'm guessing that whoever finds that too much to cope with hasn't been to any of the Mediterranean tourist islands where it's nigh on acceptable to scoop family members off the street to get you to eat at their restaurant... but I digress...
Took just around an hour by train from Geelong and was cheap for all of us to get there, so bound to be an exercise we will repeat over the course of the year. Ella, of course is the unstable element in the train equation... To be fair, my Dad and Suze were sitting opposite (black) Sideshow Bob, but Ella staring at him, silent and unwavering, for the best part of an hour is bound to have given the poor man a complex which he may take some time to get over.
Decided we had to go to the top of the Eureka Skydeck
- the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere with a viewing platform on the 88th floor... which (considering that my Dad has always hated heights and I'm going the same way) was quite an undertaking. To be honest though, unlike, say, going up the Eiffel Tower, where you feel every clanking inch-by-inch rise, the lifts are so quick and smooth to the top that it feels very surreal when you step out on the 88th floor. But the views are amazing...
And finally, Fat Sponge and Rose Bigsie: Two dollies of freakishly real looks and the same size as Phoebe. Only one, I should point out, belongs to one of my daughters. I am saying no more... And, I would explain their names, except that it was so funny when it happened, and so not funny when I write it down that I don't think I'll bother! But you can be weirded out by the pictures anyway. Just imagine how I feel every time I walk into a room and find Rose Bigsie face down on the floor/under a chair/limbs akimbo. Sometimes I leave her in the driver's seat in the car to freak out passers by...
James had his pyjama day at school - here he is before leaving, complete with teddy, storybook and slippers.
ELLA:
'Ella, what ARE you pointing at?'
Started Gymnastics on Monday. Absolutely loved it as it ticked all the right boxes of what gymnastics should be, according to Will, i.e. forward rolls and swinging from rings! Ella did the class too, and they both really loved it. Facilities are excellent and they did everything - jumping in a foam pit, a mini assault course, rope climbing, beam walking, trampolining, rolling, landing.... and the Hokey Cokey - Phoebe and I joined in the latter. She liked her first foray into dodgy music-hall dancing so much, she showed her appreciation by letting me have another look at her breakfast... on my cardi! This is what Gymnastics class did to Will....
Still no specific theatre time for him either - he is getting really deskilled and demotivated. It is totally pointless for him to go along and observe an operation he is capable of doing from start to finish himself, and soul destroying to know that some of the recently appointed consultants have less orthopaedic experience than him.
Have been filling the freezer with purees in varying shades of orange for the Hungry One. As you can see, the plans were mighty, but unfortunately the reality is as follows:
Mayo - still on the hunt for good mayo - was bemoaning the lack of decent mayo and the sweetness of Aussie mayo to Leanne while over there for Fathers' Day brekkie. 'My mum makes great mayo with condensed milk' she said. I rest my case (sorry Leanne!). This is a picture of Graham and Leanne. She said I wasn't to put it on the blog, so here it is...
