Blog

July 6th until July 12th 2004

Settling in to Australia

Tuesday 6th July 2004

Moving Day!

Me being me, I had planned much of the day ahead of time. Ann being Ann, we ended up changing the plans and taking it as it went. Ann went up to the new house at 8am, because the deliveries were "morning" and could be any time between 8am and 1pm. I fed Thomas and got him ready, and finished off boxing up our belongings so that they could be taken away in the truck that we had ordered. Of course, I was dying to get up there and be in the house, but there was too much to do in Liam and Shirley's house.
Around lunchtime, I got a call from Ann that I had been waiting for. She called to say that the two deliveries had both arrived - the sofas and all the electrical goods. But, there was a problem with both deliveries. The sofas were too big to get in to the house, and so were both the washing machine and the TV. The washing machine just needed to be unpacked from the cardboard, and the TV managed to fit through another door. But there was quite a bit of head-scratching when it came to getting the sofas in. The corridor from the front door is too small to take them up, but there are french windows in to the lounge room that the sofas could fit through. They ended up having to take the sliding glass doors out of their track so that the sofas would go through. Something for us to bear in mind for when we move into our own place!

Linda leant us two children to help out, and so I used Brendan to assist moving my first trip up to the new house, where I could see the size of the sofas and the huge box with the TV in it. I am really looking forward to getting the TV out - I have always wanted a big, flat, widescreen TV - and now I have one!
As we have no food, and almost all of our stuff is still packed, we got a chinese takeaway from the nearest shop to the house. They deliver, so it will be heavily in use when we have a busy day!

Wednesday 7th July 2004

Work let me have another day off to get everything sorted. Not a bad idea, as we had to go out shopping for food and basics (like a bin, extension leads etc.) and we could have a really good look around the local shopping centre. Luckily, we got there quite early, had a nice coffee and breakfast, and then managed to get most of our shopping before the place got busy.
We got lots sorted out at home, and the place is feeling more homely and lived in now. We still have three rooms that have nothing but boxes in them, so it will be good when the furniture arrives from England. Liam and Shirley dropped in, brought us their vacuum cleaner and some of our mail that is still being diverted from the UK. Linda also dropped in and it was a good chance for me to be able to show off my lovely new TV. I put on a DVD, because I could not get to the arial socket, which is conveniently located at the other side of the room. The picture from a DVD was fantastic, but the signal from my home-made aerial is terrible! Can't wait until the cable guy turns up to install digital TV. The funny thing about the digital TV is that it is almost exactly the same as Sky TV in England - the same remote and same menus. Then again, they are both owned by Murdoch, so they probably did a deal worldwide.

Using our new pans, our new chopping boards, our new utensils and in our new kitchen, I cooked one of my usual curries. It was wonderful to get back to looking after ourselves after nearly two months of being looked after by parents (first mine, then Ann's). We relaxed on our new sofas and watched our new TV (with a bad signal) and felt more settled in Australia.

Thursday 8th July 2004

Now I am back at work.
This morning was a bit funny, because I did not know where a lot of stuff was, so I was rushing around looking in cupboards for sugar and coffee, which made me leave at 8:40. The trip to work is 22Kms, but it only took me 20 minutes.
It's funny, in England there is no real point having a fast car for commuting, because the average speed is only around 10mph, but here in Australia, I can choose the best way to work by the speed limit on the road - not the traffic. So now, I have the car at work, and Ann is left in the house and has to walk everywhere - or call on Linda or her dad to visit.

Work went well today, I did some planning of what I am going to do over the next few months, and showed it to Tiffany to ensure that I was not going to do too much work that was along the wrong lines or in the wrong direction. Tiffany was really happy, and somewhat excited, by the work that I had done already - it seems that we are really thinking along the same lines and we will work really well together.
By the time I had driven through the dark and the rain, I got home to find my dinner had been cooked by my darling wife. There was a cold beer and a meal ready within a few minutes of me arriving, and the house was warm and clean - what more can a man ask for!

Friday 9th July 2004

Another successful day at work. The most technically experienced of the technical team is going on holiday for two weeks as from Monday, and there is going to be a serious lack of capabilities, with the remaining two people being not as experienced. I was expecting to get a desk today, but it didn't turn up - I have a desk phone but no socket to plug it into! I am still in my temporary location, and using the worst chair in the office - I have a bit of a sore bum and lower back because of the little chair.
Normally, Ann and I either go out for dinner or have a take-away on a Friday night, but we don't know any restaurants around, so we decided to use the new pots and pans to make a stir-fry - but then realised that we don't have any real seasonings yet, and so it was a little plain.

Saturday 10th July 2004

Saturday and a nice bit of a lie-in. It has been around a year since we both had a lie-in, and Thomas had not woken up for an extra hour, so we were all a little suprised at the time when we all woke. Strangely, we decided that after the lie-in, it would be a good time to do some cleaning - I did the shower and Ann did everywhere else... After a bit of shopping in the Village, we went for a walk around the parks near to the house. We are nearly at the top of a hill, overlooking a valley (Cobbler Creek), and a view down to the sea past Port Adelaide.
This time, as we had gone out and bought a whole load of spices and seasonings, so we had a proper chinese stir-fry tonight. It is good to have an opportunity to make our own food again. Strangely, even though I had bought the same ingredients as I would have got in England, everything just tasted so much fresher, more full and with a deeper flavour that made every ingredient so great. I thought that Shirley's cooking brought out the real flavours of the food, but even my own cooking tastes better - that's why my mother-in-law's cooking was so great...!

The weather today was absolutely loverly. The sky seems so much bluer than I ever remember it being in England, and the clouds (although they are the same) just look so much more appealing and make the sky look bigger. The sun was warm and bright, and there was a gentle breeze that made the fluffy white clouds tumble across the sky, just skipping over the tops of the distant Adelaide hills. As the gum trees swayed in the wind, and the view across Golden Grove was kissed by the sun, showing that there are more trees than houses, I had a feeling of being at home.

Sunday 11th July 2004

Even though we have been in the house for almost a week, we still had stuff in boxes and cases that needed to get sorted out.

Monday 12th JuLY 2004

Now that I am working, it's difficult to find time to write anything in this Blog. What happens in my days would not really be very interesting to most people, and Ann's days are tied up with looking after Thomas. We are thinking of getting a second car so that Ann can get about during the day, and do things like go to a gym or take Thomas to a kindergarten.

The choice about cars started with the thought of buying a car for me, and Ann using the existing car that we have - but I only use my car to get to and from work, and at the weekends we need to be able to take Thomas around with us. So, we have decided to get a good quality car for Ann's everyday use, something safe and large enough for our children, but economical at the same time. Anyone got any suggestions? Post a message in the messageboard if you have an idea.

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