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.