We're here, we've landed and we've arrived!

"Our house - in the middle of our street!"

Well, we've officially been in Australia a month now! We arrived on November 26th and Boxing Day marked our one month anniversary. Another eleven and we've done a whole year!

The above shows our house in Secret Harbour. We moved on on 21st December 2005 and after a frantic couple of days assembling garden furniture (to use until our container of belongings is delivered on 4th January '06), beds and variouls electrical equipment, christmas arrived and was enjoyed by all (if somewhat different to what we've been used to in previous years!).

We visited the beach on christmas afternoon (you have to - it's the LAW!!) and had a BBQ for breakfast. Sam finally got to play with his PSP after the torture of buying it in Hong Kong and waiting those four agonising weeks. He also got a BMX bike and a motorised scooter that he whizzes round the streets on, giving Darcie a lift back from the beach when he's feeling generous!

Darcie got a Nintendo DS and a virtual reality dog game that she loves, a bike and lots of dolls and girlie toys. Adam got a motorised car which he scoots about in, abusing ankles as he goes!

For New Year we went down to the foreshore at Mandurah which is about 20 minutes from us. They had free face painting and airbrush tattoos for the kids as well as pony rides and other entertainment. They offer two fireworks displays - one at 9pm for all those with little kids, and then the die-hard party-ers carry on until midnight. We watched the 9pm display, had a yummy fish and chip dinner overlooking the bay and then came home to have sparklers in the garden and ring the UK and wish everyone "Happy New Year" at 4pm in the afternoon!

December 2005 - Oz!!





We are currently living in Ocean Reef which is a very nice suburb to the North of Perth. The house we are renting has a lovely view of the ocean to the back and we sat in the garden to open our Advent Calendars on Dec 1st!

We had really good views of the sea rescue helicopter practise exercise one day (well in truth, we all paniced as we thought the damn thing was going to land on our roof!). It was there for about two hours, going out to sea, winching people up and dropping them back to shore (not literally!).



We have found a long-term rental in Secret Harbour (about a 45 minute drive to the south of Perth) which is where we have our plot of land and where we want to settle. We can't move in though until 21st December, which is obviously cutting it a bit fine for christmas. What we are having to do is buy essential stuff that we will need (as the rental is unfurnished. This includes beds, TV, kitchenware, etc) and store it in the garage at Ocean Reef. We've hired a 'man with a van' to help us move it all down to SH. We just can't afford to leave it until we get down there.



We've bought a car. A silver Toyota Prado. Very nice with lots of mod cons. We looked round a few garages and were convinced we were going to buy a Ford - we just thought we'd have a look in the Toyota garage to explore every avenue and came out having bought a Toyota (after Darcie threw up on the forecourt - but that's a different story!).


So, that's a few things to tick off the list; car - check; house - check; christmas - getting check. There are still hundreds of things left on our list though! It doesn't help that there's no telephone line at the house. For us, with no internet is a bit like losing a limb. Oh well, not for much longer!

We've still had some fun in between the 'work' stuff of getting houses and cars sorted.

November 2005 - Hong Kong!

Well, for all those who never thought we would do it "read it and weap!". We have arrived in Hong Kong. Very strange to think we have visited HK three times now in the space of nine months. This time, however we are going to do slightly different things......

Like DISNEY!! We were so excited about visiting HK Disney, but it did prove to be a bit of a disappointment. For one thing, it's TINY. We thought it would be bigger than Paris, but even Sleeping Beauty's castle in the centre of the park is a mini fun-size one. We went on a Sunday - thinking that although it may be slightly busier than a weekday, the park was open longer hours than a weekday and that would compensate for the increase in customers; however this wasn't the case and when it got to 2pm and Darcie had only been on one ride, we got a bit cheesed off! So we all traipsed down to the Town Hall and complained (not like us really!) and after some haggling and negotiation got three lots of fast passes. So, we all hit Space Mountain and smiles were restored to the kids faces (and mine;-)

Adam LOVES Pooh Bear. He is his new Best Friend. I honestly thought he was going to pop with excitement on the Winnie the Pooh ride - I've never seen him go quite so rigid with glee. Adam also had his picture taken with Pooh (OK - you and I both know it's a very sweaty man in a big suit), and Adam wouldn't let him go. I think if Adam had held onto Pooh's leg for much longer, a Disney worker would have to surgically remove him. Mind you, the locals wouldn't have minded - we were queuing to have our photo taken with Pooh and they were taking photos of Adam in the queue. I thought we'd seen it all when we visited Madame Tussards in HK and people were taking photos of Addy rather than Jackie Chan, but no, even in Disney our son had a bigger photographic pull than Tigger and Pooh!

Paul and I had some clothes made. It was hilarious - like the Emporer's New Clothes, but fascinating too. We went in the first day and after the guy had tied two tape measures together ;-) he took all our measurements, picked out material and discussed styles. We went back in the day after that and the clothes were held together with pins and running stitches (well, the half that we had - Paul's suit only had one sleeve). He looked at me in all honesty and said, "well, what do you think?" I should have been honest and said "how do you think it looks, you've only got one sleeve and that's held on with a safety pin and running stitch in contrasting thread - you hardly look like David Beckham!" But, of course, I didn't. I just smiled and said "looks fab". Two days after that, they were finished and delivered to our hotel room - complete with our names and unique number (for ease of re-ordering!) embroidered into the lining. Paul went completly OTT and ordered two suits (very nice, with the really LOUD satin lining in purple and hot pink!), with extra trousers for each, twelve (yes, twelve!) shirts and three ties and I had a suit made with matching skirt and trousers for 'work'.

















As christmas was descending onto HK, the decorations looked magical. There was something very strange about seeing the 'Santa village' next to the huge skyscrapers. A real mixture of the old fashioned, chocolate box christmas and the brand new hi-tech buildings. It was great to experience. We took a nightime cruise round the harbour and it was warm, the light show was great (as always), the stereo on board was playing Dean Martin chrsitmas songs and the Xmas lights twinkled. It was a lovely moment. The start of our adventure and a whole new chapter in Australia. We all just couldn't wait to get there.