Thirteen days down, three hundred and some to go.

36C today!

Friday was a lovely day. Rachel finished at two pm and we collected her from work and drove out of the city westwards to the aptly and geographically correctly named West Beach. We have been toying with this place as a potential for living at it is quieter than Henley Beach. It has great parks for the kids and the prerequisite beautiful sandy beach which is already showing it's downside. Being an avid  DIYer I've heard of sandpapering over the cracks but sand in the cracks is a different thing altogether. It really does get everywhere. The car boot is something akin to a bunker at St Andrews and every shoe, sock and pant feel like that they have had a Jamie Oliver sized 'liberal sprinkling'. I'm not saying a pebbly beach is better but at least you don't need a Karcher pressure washer to feel clean again afterwards.
Anyway I digress.
We had a great time, all in the water, the kids swimming with armbands on, playing in warm sand pools generally having a ball. Today we get told about the 'blue ringed' octopus. Only four inches in size but is known to render humans unconscious and/or dead. Sounds like Ronnie Corbett. It resides in shallow rock pools and sand pools, not Mr Corbett, the octopus and it doesn't actually have blue rings until the moment it kills you. Which begs the question who survived to report the blue ring bit???
Any more nasty killy things we ought to know about, please let us know sooner rather than later.

Today we bought Car seats for the kids which was just as well as the sticky on the gaffer tape we had been using to hold them in their seats was wearing them off. They are much more comfortable now and we got a great deal at a lovely place called New Mothers Cupboard and the lady will buy them back when we go for 60% of the price. Fantastic - That's what I call service.

Tomorrow Rachel is on-call again but we are meeting our lovely friends Wes and Allie and their four kids and all going to the Zoo. The Adelaide city planners kindly put the Zoo and Botanical Gardens behind the Hospital so Rachel can be on-call whilst looking at monkeys, much like when she's at home on-call.

Tom has decided that he wants to be a Police Diver like Uncle Rick so we have made a diver suit and kit from stuff out of our recycling bin. Sometimes a Dad's gotta do what a Dad's gotta do. We were a bit stumped when it came to making a mask but Tom was insistent that we use a margarine tub despite it being distinctly lacking in transparent qualities. It wasn't his wisest decision to date but the bruises will heal and sometimes you've got to learn things the hard way!



Tom in his 'Police Diver' gear.

 Anyway it's late over here. Half past midnight and god knows I need some beauty sleep!
Good night one and all x

Magister artis ingeniique largitor venter

Oh...so you're an Internet PROVIDER!!!!!

So the Laptop works, the Router works, the Cable works, I work and even the Electricity works. So Lucy and Tom after a brief confab were able to deduce that it was the Internet Provider (and I use this term loosely)  that was at fault, it's just a crying shame that they don't actually work at 'ADAM Internet' - "Internet Service Provider, specialising in Internet Connections, Telecommunications and Hosting." !!!!!
Over the last two days I have spoken to two "ADAM's" boys likely in their early twenties, probably highly qualified, undoubtedly technowizards and definitely still wearing shoes fastened with velcro and living with their mums and they seemed to be unable to not only source the problem but also to not be able to use something as basic as a telephone to let me know any of this. Tomorrow I shall...how did that famous Australian Actor Mr Russell Crowe put it....?.... Oh Yes......Unleash Hell.   Moving on.

During the night we were woken by a huge crash and whilst my first thought was that the engineer from ADAM's internet had actually arrived and broken in in his keeness and haste to rectify our problem it turned out to be one of those shower shelves that are held on by suction coming crashing down. It was no longer held on by suction and the law of gravity came into play causing it to fall and it managed to break the ceramic soap dish holder that is tiled into the wall on its way down. So I travelled thousands of miles to get away from DIY but I shall now be spending this Saturday morning doing just that. It took about an hour to get back to sleep with the excess adrenaline pumping round my system.

Today my quest for housing continued and I am pleased to say that the Australian Real Estate (as opposed to the Phony Estate????) did not disappoint. It still took me four calls to be able to leave a message and eventually I was called back by Nathan the agent twice to arrange a visit for the same property on two different days. I suggested he get a job at ADAM Internet.

We have started looking in an area called Henley Beach (for those of you with Google Earth) as it falls within the 'time zone' for Rachel being at home whilst on-call. It is less touristy which is great now that we are locals, what with having been here a week and the beach is lovely. I took the kids there today and there were only four other people on the whole beach. We spent an hour splashing in the shallows and then dug deep holes being careful not to dig too deep as we would end up in England (ha! never said that before!).

Rachel rang at ten to five saying she was just leaving and was getting the bus home. Forty minutes into her thirty minute journey she rings to ask "Where is Daniels Street?" 
"Why?" I ask.
"Because I just got off the bus there"
"Pray tell me why my love?"  "
"I thought it was my stop but it wasn't"
"hmmmmmm (say nothing, say nothing, say nothing)"
"I'll have to walk, see you soon"
She arrived at ten to six. Oh dear

At bedtime Lucy refused to stop singing despite Tom almost pleading with her, which only made her sing louder. We were in hysterics listening to it all. Eventually Tom appeared at our door clutching his menagerie of soft toys and asked if he could sleep in the spare room as Lucy would not stop singing. So he went to sleep there and I carried him through a little while later when Lucy had finally dropped off.

Good night all x

Maxima omnium virtutum est patientia

For your entertainment....

 

If you dip the lolly in whiskey......

Some pics for you....

Is that our plane Dad?

Day one - Toes in the water - lovely!

These are NOT the ones we ate.

Tom trying to squirt me - Lucy shocked at such behaviour.

Cheeky Chics

KL Airport - tired with 12 hrs to go.

I wish I'd kept the receipt...

Rain! Rain! Rain! We did not travel 11000 miles for RAIN! I want my money back but I have scoured the small print and I can't find any guarentee of sunshine but I'm sure that's what they said. 

So today was a little damp and dull until Tom asked from the back seat of the car, "Daddy, why have I got flowers and pink writing on my trousers" "You haven't" I said, "Lucy has" but tom persisted. It suddenly dawned on me that I had actually put Lucy's trousers on Tom. I even remember thinking they were smart 3/4 length trousers, very surfy and cool I thought, a bit Julian Clarey it turns out. I'm worried he may be scarred for life.

We sampled the local wildlife tonight and by that I mean we ate Kangaroo. Quite Gamey in flavour. Apparantly only 2% fat, Nice.

Rachel is on call again tonight from 7pm until 7pm tomorrow night and this time she has already been called in and is likely to have to operate so may be back at midnight. On a positive note however the TV has come back to life. Yippee.

Cheers!

Caveat emptor

FRCS......

FRCS I hear you cry, what is he babbling about, the man has gone mad! No I haven't (but it would be madder not mad) but my wonderful wife has passed her exam so she is now a FRCS, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and a beautiful Fellow she is Hurrah! So no more exams and on to the land of Consultants for her upon our return. It will be time for her to start looking for positions and then given the law of averages, probably time for us to move house to follow the job. ;-(
On the matter of houses.....
I checked out a few houses to rent today. Well if you thought British Estate Agents could buff and shine pictures and detail, they are streets behind the lot I saw today. One of them had electrics fitted by a bloke called Noah from Arky Sparky Electricians if you know what I mean. They were frightening and to think of them in a house that is built nearly completely out of wood, well don't think about it, really don't. The second was just missing a burned out Capri to complete the look or I suppose a burned out Ute being that we're over here. Oh well better luck tomorrow.
Still did find some good childcare today but it is all expensive, about £45 quid each per day and that is for whatever time they are in for, one hour or ten........yeah ok I know what you're thinking...so it will be ten then! There was one cheaper one but by the look of it, when you've dropped the kids off and left they would start getting the children pressing license plates, sewing mailbags or peeling spuds if you catch my drift.
Rachel was on-call last night....one phone call about 8pm and that was it, nothing, nichts, niente, nada! That is what being on call should be about, let's hope they continue on that form.
She is on a late finish today, and every Thursday, should be home by 8.30 but she will finish at 12.30 tomorrow which is lovely. We're off to the Bank to activate our accounts, they have set aside an hour to chat to us so I have primed Tom and Lucy to start playing up after about 20 mins so we can get out and enjoy the afternoon instead.
Anyway, would you believe it, Kids down and out by 7pm tonight, Dinner all ready, Rachel in late, coffee in hand and.....'DINK' ...the telly makes a strange noise which I believe was it's swan song as it is now blank and humming hence this rather long Blog. So apologies for that and I will now drink my cold coffee staring at a blank TV with a low and strangely comforting hum waiting for my lovely wife.
Good Night x

Cacoethes scribendi

I've got a dongle.....

Apparantly I now have a dongle. I know I'm nearly forty but really! I asked if I needed an operation to remove it or would a simple cream suffice but I am assured that it is necessary for me to keep it so I can connect to the inter-web, so keep it I will.

Rachel's first day at worked went well. She remarked how friendly and helpful everybody was (I assured her it would wear off) and how efficiently the department was set up, a world away from the NHS it seems but there maybe some element of rose tintedness but let's hope not.
I took the kids to a 'soft-play' place and they had a great time and then we paddled in the sea. The water was tepid and the sun was scorching. Hats and factor 50 all the way. 36C today.

We then went to the supermarket....Woolworths of all places. Madness. Everything lookes dated. The packaging looks kinda 1950's ish and we then got lost in the HUGE mall.

What was really lovely was that we picked Rachel up from work at 5pm.....THAT IS FIVE PM... sorry got a little excited then and we all went to the park to play and saw all the 'parrotts' in the trees. Lovely.

We put the kids to bed and both promptly fell asleep on the sofa at 7.30.

And so endeth day two.

love to all

Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit

So that is what the sun looks like!

We have arrived in Oz and very nice and sunny it is. The whole flight thing was not as bad as we had worried about but we wouldn't want to do it again too soon. Our internet is not working at the house we are in so we have yet again put upon Wes and Allie and driven over to their lovely house to use their internet.
It should be fixed by Wednesday so I'll give more details then.
Good night for now xx

By the skin of our teeth!

At about 22.00 tonight we finally got confirmation that we have a Visa to enter Australia. Ripper!
Nothing like taking it to the wire. It is 72 hrs before we fly and less than 24hrs before we would have had to change our flights at great cost, so smiles all round.
Currently Rachel is in Cardiff some 10 hours away from the biggest exam of her life. She has a day of being subjected to practical evaluation and then on Thursday morning a written paper. It should all be over by noon when she will meet me in Clevedon to say goodbye to our house for a year which we and our family and friends have been frantically working ourselves into an early grave to get it ready to rent out. Thank you to you all that helped, we really couldn't have done it without you.
Then simply jet off to Oz for a 'rest'.
Lovely.

Audere est facere

Oh where is our Visa??

Due to a 'clerical error' our visa is unlikely to be ready for us to go on time so we may have to enjoy another week or two of our lovely weather. It will also cost us one arm, one leg and a kidney or similar internal organ for them to change our flight. Could be worse I suppose.