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Sunday 29th May 2005

Another day of DIY and catching up on sleep in the house. I finished painting Thomas' MDF changing table that Liam made for us, and started on preparing the laundry for painting with the small amount of left-over yellow paint that we found in the shed.

We decided to go to the Botanic Gardens on the edge of the city. It's autumn, and we wanted Thomas to have a run around in the leaves from the plane trees that are in the gardens. Thomas took one look at the leaves, and then started running round and around, crunching them into the ground, and picking up the largest ones to show to us.
We were meeting with Cathy, and Thomas was very upset to be put back into his pushchair, so we took him to see the ducks to calm him down. A little girl came up to us and offered a little bit of bread for Thomas to give to the ducks, but Thomas tried to eat it instead.
When we met up with Cathy, we had a cappucino and a chatter - Thomas had a nice foamy babycino (no coffee, just milk).
After coffee, we took Thomas for another run on the grass, and tried to ensure that he did not run away from us.

This evening was the first time that I got my telescope out and had a look at the stars since we moved into this house. It was a very cold night as it was cloudless, but that meant I got a good view of the Southern Cross, as it is very high in the sky at this time of year. I wanted to have a look at Omega Centauri, which is a big cluster of stars, but in the past it has always been too low in the sky for me to see effectively. It was obvious as a fuzzy blob, but when I put in a higher magnification lens on, I could see the white haze become individual stars. I found a part of the garden that is in the shade of the streetlights and not immediately below the palm tree and gum trees. I don't have as wide a field of view, but stars look better when you look at them straight up - less atmosphere to look through.

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Monday 30th May 2005

I was sick today, so did not go into work. Not to go into gory details, but we have got through a couple of toilet rolls! Ann has been marvelous, looking after both Thomas and me, and still managing to do most of the ironing and cook all the meals.

It was extremely cold this morning - it was 3°C at 7am this morning, the coldest day on record. It's been unseasonably dry this Autumn, with the driest and warmest May for over 50 years, and second driest autumn since records began 166 years ago. The farmers are panicing, as the forecast is that the winter will be 65% drier than usual.

I called the plumbers to complain about the tiles being left open on the roof after the new hot water system was put in, and the answer was a bit dismissive. The guy expressed suprise that it had happened, and assured me that it was not something that would have normally been forgotten, it took a long conversation before he managed to slip the word 'sorry' in, and he didn't ask if the roof was fixed now or if there was any damage. I told him about the water that had run down the wall on the inside of our bedroom, and he didn't really answer. The way I left it was "I understand that this was a mistake, but if there is any damage, that is a cost that we are not willing to bear". He told me that he would speak to the men who did the work, but didn't really give me anything more than that.

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Tuesday 31st May 2005

I decided to have another day off sick today, as I was still not feeling so good. It allowed me a bit of time to prepare some more photos of Thomas - our visit to the Botanic Gardens when Thomas was playing in the leaves.

Ann had an interview today, and we were both hopeful as the interview was directly with the employer and not an agency. After dropping Thomas off at daycare (I was still resting in bed), Ann made herself look lovely (not much work) and then went to the interview for the audio typist position for 3 days a week.
When Ann came back from the interview, she said that she liked the company and it seemed like a good job, but was a little concerned that the interview had not gone well.

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Wednesday 1st June 2005

One year ago, we left England to start our new life in Adelaide. It seems like we have all achieved so much in the last 12 months!

Ann has had a busy day today! After taking Thomas to daycare, she went in to Modbury to go to the Transport SA office to change the address on her driving license. Being so well organised, Ann got there before it opened, and joined the building queue. I still need to go in and take a test so that I can get an SA driving license, but I don't need to do that for another year, although I can do it at any time.
After sorting out her driving license, Ann got to her bank to pay in her paycheck from last week's work into her personal account, and again arrived just before it opened.
Then, the next task was to go to the library and register and see what was available - again Ann arrived before it opened, but this time there was no queueing for her as there was a helpful coffee bar with newspapers and magazines to kill some time.

After a successful morning, Ann did some housework and then had a visit from Liam. I turns out that Liam and Shirley's fridge has suddenly stopped working, and Liam had been looking for somewhere to keep their frozen food! He had tried Ann earlier, but no-one was home as Ann was doing her chores, and Linda was not in either.
We are looking forward to eating all of Liam and Shirley's food before they get a chance to replace their fridge.

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Thursday 2nd June 2005

Winter officially started yesterday. The temperature dropped to 6°C overnight, but it's been an otherwise warm day. One of the benefits of having more cloud is that the sunsets are even more stunning - with fabulous reds and oranges over the sea.

South Australia won the $6 billion contract to build air warfare destroyers in Adelaide. Most of Adelaide is really pleased about it as it will have a significant effect on the economy for everyone. The benefit for me is that there will be 1000 new jobs - mostly high-tech jobs - for the design and building of the ships and related industries. I won't be able to work in any job that is related to Defence as I am not an Australian citizen, but this does decrease the number of other candidates that are applying for other jobs that I am going to go for once I finish at the University.

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Friday 3rd June 2005

It's been a year since we arrived in Adelaide. Only one more year to go before my visa becomes permanent. To celebrate, I bought a round of beers at the pub at lunchtime.

It's been a weird day at work for me today. I have taken on the role of 'skivvie' and have started cleaning out the cupboards and store room. As with all other IT organisations, they have lots of really old (and useless) equipment in storage, and I was going through it and sorting it all out. It was hard and dusty work lifting out old and heavy equipment, but it was rewarding and I enjoyed it.

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