Five years ago.....

Hello, good evening and welcome.

Good Aussie Carpentry!

STOP PRESS : We had an earthquake here last night! 3.4 on the Richter Scale at 2.20am for about 8 seconds. I had just got up to Lucy and as I was getting back in to bed when Rachel asked how Lucy was and there was a really low rumble like a train type noise and the place started to shake. "I hate it when you've had Chili for dinner" says Rachel but I was not taking the blame for that one. Now I know I've said a few things about Australian building standards but I wasn't overly worried about collapse. I knew it was an earthquake. I have previously experienced a quake whilst living in Tirane in Albania in 1999 which was 4.2 and it was exactly the same sensation. And who says lightening doesn't strike twice! But don't worry, the Richter scale is Logarithmic so 3.4 is barely a tickle when you consider New Zealand was 6.3.
Anyway, I digress.
(that is not really our house in the picture)



The weather is warming up nicely. It was 31 degrees today for Tom's first proper day at school which was a little warm.
We all went as a family and Tom was a firework with the blue touch paper already lit. We took him into his classroom and Lucy immediately ensconced herself. We did consider sneaking out and seeing how long it took the teacher to notice her but thought better of it.
We think he had a wonderful day but he kept saying he couldn't remember anything but we did manage to finally get something out of him. He is not normally a boy of few words!

Mrs Carmichaels Class. Tom is front row middle. Note his feet are in the starting blocks, ready for the off!

Rachel had a week off last week which she needed and we had decided not to go away which was fortunate as it turned out that I had to attend an induction at the hospital for a couple of days at the beginning of the week for my new job. That went just as all other hospital inductions go, dull, mildly painful but necessary.

The Royal Adelaide Surgery Department was in dire straits.

During the week we took the kids to a place called Old Tailem Town which is a reconstructed old pioneer town. They have collected old buildings from all over Australia many from the early 1900s and faithfully reassembled them at this place. There are over 110 buildings in 11 streets including a fully functional 65 year old cinema, which the kids loved, hospital, post office, garages, shops and so on.

A phone with WIRES!!!

Tom found Uncle Rick a new boat. We'll sail it back for you.

 The kids loved having the run of the place and unlike so many places nowadays they were able to touch and feel many of the exhibits. We thought they might be a bit bored but they both had great fun.

A fixer-upper!

Mum, I've got room for another ice cream!

Rachel considers a career change, the kids are not so sure.

It was Tom's birthday last Sunday and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that sent their wishes either physically, verbally or even telepathically. He had a great day and a fantastic 'Pirate and Princess' party with all his Kindy friends. He has made some lovely friends here. As Tom is LEGO obsessed and currently wants to watch the LEGO 'Clutch Powers'  Movie all the time, 'Team Croughan' decided to make him a Clutch Powers Lego man birthday cake. The first time in five years our little man has been lost for words! 

Mr Clutch Powers

I think his face says it all!

We had hidden Tom's presents all around the house and gave him clues as to where he might find them. This enabled us to string things out for an hour and a half whilst we drank tea in bed and Tom brought each present into us in turn for opening.
Tom decided that Lucy might be sad as she wasn't going to get any presents so he let her open every other one in turn. I doubt very much if the reverse will happen come December 8th!!!!!




First job of the day LEGO!

The Space Shuttle lives on  ....5....4....3....2....1....BLAST OFF!

 

The day after his Birthday we went to Monarto Zoo which is about an hour from Adelaide where it it is actually more of a safari park than a zoo. Lots of Animals in 1000 hectares or about 2500 acres. They have Giraffes, Lions, Rhino, Bison, Cheetahs......not all in the same enclosure! Our lovely neighbours Graham and Joylene who adore the kids and in turn are adored right back, met us there for the afternoon which was great. It was really hot and being away from the coast it was devoid of any cooling breeze but we all had a great time.

Joylene and Graham join us at the Zoo.

We hope you are all well and preparing to batten down the hatches for winter. We have just bought an industrial size vat of Factor million sun block and I am genuinely not looking forward to the month of 40 degrees Celsius that all the natives keep going on about. I fear for my scalp! But hey you gotta try everything once, right?

Look after yourselves, and much love to you all.

Night Night xx

Vita non est vivere sed valere vita est

 

All good things......

It seems that I have been starting my Blogs recently with apologies for the delay in Blogging. Well this Blog will be no exception. I beg your forgiveness for the one calender month of silence. Whilst I am sure that you haven't all been waiting and holding your breath for an update, I have been told that some people are keeping at least one eye open for the next installment, so here we go!


It was Fathers Day here again! I had the UK one and have just had the Oz one which was great. Tom simply bursts with excitement about these sorts of things. I had breakfast in bed and some beautiful cards and things. Tom had made me a......um......er.......a....oh just look at the pics below.

Fathers day

Two weeks later......if only it were possible!

The Whispering Wall

  The Whispering Wall is in fact the retaining wall of the Barossa Reservoir. Built between 1899 and 1903, the dam was a revolutionary engineering feat for its day but what draws visitors to the Whispering Wall is its unique acoustic effects: words whispered at one side can be clearly heard at the other, more than 100 metres away. It really is most bizarre. Tom and I walked along the top to the other side (Tom only wanting to walk on the water side as he didn't want to look down the face of the dam) whilst Rachel and Lucy stayed at the start. Tom and Lucy recited their a,b,c,.....song to each other and it was absolutely crystal clear. I don't know if this phenomenon is common for all dams or whether it is unique to this particular one. I guess I'll have to do some google research.


It is the end of term here so it is traditional to have a disco at the Kindergarten as a fundraiser and as I am on the governing council I had to volunteer for a job from a list that was handed out at the council meeting. Sadly Rachel was late coming back from an on-call so I never made the meeting so in my absence I was nominated to do the BBQ. So with a population of 1.2 million in the Adelaide district of which 49.8% are male (according to stats)  all of which consider themselves a master of the Snag (sausage) they choose a Brit to barbecue. I did warn them that barbecued scones and jam with a cup of tea would not go down well but they were insistent. So taking everything in my stride I inspected the BBQ and as is the norm here it is a gas model (they don't ever use charcoal) and it thankfully had gas but it also had about two inches of thick bitumen like grease in the tray underneath so a lot of scraping and scrubbing was in order. To cut a long story short I had an Aussie mentor called Nick and we managed to serve up a couple of hundred hot dogs and a huge pile of burgers to a very hungry crowd.
The whole evening was a great success and we raised $1140 for the kindy kids. Tom sold two books of raffle tickets to two of our lovely neighbours and they won first and second prize in the raffle. He was so excited to give them their prizes.

Princess Lucy at the Kindy Disco

Recently it was the Adelaide Royal Show which is a huge event here in Oz. It is a kind of mix between traditional country show full of animals and vegetables with wood cutting and sheep dog trials and a large funfair full of exciting rides, with lots of stalls and tons of fast food available. Also motor cross display teams and synchronised ute (pick up truck) driving at high speed. It was a really great day and Rachel was able to join us for most of it and the kids had a great time despite the occasional rain shower.

There are lots of stalls where kids can try things out and Tom and Lucy especially loved all the emergency services stalls.

NEEEE NAAAA NEEE NAAA
                Loving it!

We had some friends over for dinner last weekend which was lovely. Marcus and Lara (Brits) and Lisa and her mum Kathy. A bit too much wine but the food went down well and Rachel baked up a lovely Roulade for a finishing flourish...mmm. The evening finished at 2am....ouch but without any form of chemical sedative the kids slept til gone eight which was a nice surprise and a blessed relief.

Just a little bit....

Our little 'big' boy.

Tom is due to start school soon so has had three two hour sessions in the class room to get him used to it. He is so excited he can barely contain himself. He is so proud of his uniform and wants to wear his Legionaries hat everywhere. The phrase 'duck to water' would be appropriate here as he barely nodded goodbye to me before rushing into the class room and sitting down.

His reading is coming on so quickly it is great.                                 As he is off to school he obviously has left Kindy which has caused some mixed emotions, desperate to get to school but sad at leaving Kindy. He absolutely loved going to 'Little Kindy' on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they have been great for him. It has been such a kind nurturing environment for him and they even give them a 'Graduation' which involves singing a goodbye song and as Tom's birthday is in the half term break they also sang Happy birthday to him. He looked fit to burst with pride, as did we.

I have decided to get myself a job and since BIG ISSUE vendors have pretty much got Adelaide covered I decided I had better stick with nursing, so I start at the same hospital as Rachel, The Royal Adelaide this coming Monday in the Emergency Department. Nice. It will be good to get back to using a little of my brain and also to refresh my Nursey skills. It seems that the Hospitals here are going through what the NHS went through about twelve years ago.They regularly have 8 or 10 hour waits in the Emergency Department waiting for things to happen, even when there are beds on the wards waiting. The problems are constantly in the media, it will be interesting to see how it all works or doesn't. They offered me a position of Patient Flow Coordinator but it would involve too many hours than we as a family were prepared to commit to but I sure I'll end up chipping in a suggestion or two if needed. I've never been that good at keeping my mouth shut! - hey - don't be too quick to agree ha! ha!

 Anyway, I hope to not leave it so long next time!

Love to all!

Tam diu minime visu!