You've heard of the Yellow Pages - welcome to the Darcie Pages!

It’s been another busy couple of weeks for us all. We’re still working hard at meeting new people and socialising whenever we get the opportunity. There is a BBQ at the golf club every Friday and you buy meat packs from behind the bar, cook your own food and there are two guys on guitars singing and playing. Good fun and there’s a real mix of people that go. We’ve done that for the last two Fridays.

The birthday Fairy at Perth Zoo

So, our little cherub reached the giddy heights of 5 this week. The HRT patches I wrapped for her weren't a hit, but I'm telling you, the way she talks and acts, she'll be in her menopause before I will!

Friday (her actual birthday) was a bitter-sweet day for her as the day before, we had a telephone call from Secret Harbour Primary school to say that a place had become available and did we still want it for Darcie? Well, yes.... fantastic. That means that they can walk or ride their bicycles together and takes alot of pressure off of getting to two schools in the morning..... only for the last two days, Darcie has REALLY bonded with another little girl in her class. I told her the news about changing schools and she jumped for joy "I'll be able to go to the same school as Sam! I'll be able to see him in the playground - and all his friends!" Then her little face clouded over and she got really upset because she wouldn't be able to play with her new friend anymore. How bad did I feel? That's right Darcie, you just put yourself out there, make an effort to get new friends, and I will rip you away from them all again :-( I know it's better to happen now, rather than in a later term, but I really felt bad.

Anyhow, her teacher was really nice and packaged up her work for her to take home. She's done some lovely artwork, it's beautiful! She went to school armed with two cakes, two packs of bubbles to share with everyone and a industrial size package of party poppers. She came home similing!

For her birthday, she got a fish tank, so after school, we took her to the pet shop to pick some fish. It took her ages - she kept choosing the stupid plastic ornaments, rather than the live ones, but we coaxed her and got there in the end! Paul had a scrouge moment when he accused us of buying all the fish in the Indian Ocean (we bought 4!!), but I think she is pleased with her purchases. She's even got a Siamese Fighting Fish in a cold water tank - it's a bully and chases all the other fish.

Darcie and her "Nemo" buddies.

On Saturday, we went to Perth Zoo for her birthday treat. It's lovely there. We went for Adam's birthday last year and everyone agreed they wanted to go back again. They've still got a HUGE crocodile there (350kg / 50 years old's worth!) and the BIGGEST python you've ever seen in your life! The keepers did a talk on snakes and Sam stroked one again - yyuuuccchhh!!

The zoo was fairly uneventful (you know, the usual fun was had watching the animals wee, and the monkeys sticking their fingers up their noses!), until Sam asked in a really loud voice on the African Savanna section, "Mum, Dad, how DO giraffe's have sex?" Urmm..... Errm.......... 'Oh look - over there Sam, it's a Rhino... (quick run!). Where does he get these things from? How does he even know what sex is? Too many worrying questions! Moving on..... Adam loved the penguins and is actually fluent in 'Wark', the penguin language! He stood for at least ten minutes, answering them whenever they called. I must check his toes for webbing later - he can bl**dy talk penguin, but he still can't say 'Sam'!

Darcie waits for the film to start in King's Park:

After the zoo, we went to King's Park to watch Chicken Little at the Moonlight Cinema. I think the people have got even more ostentatious than last year (if that's possible? Australians don't travel light and their picnics could cater for several hundred, rather than the four family members in their party!). The family sitting in front of us, for example, had freshly prepared sushi (with a container of soy sauce, for heaven's sake! - or should that be 'for heaven's saki'?). It does get a bit nippy, but there is something magical about watching a film with several hundred strangers under the stars. They bring bean bag beds, duvets, sleeping bags - you name it - they lug it over car park and dog turd. Mr Cheese LOVED it and as soon as the film started, sat glued to my lap - laughing and clapping at the funny bits.

Sunday we went to the kite festival in Secret Harbour (which was a bit naff!) and afterwards, Darcie had her horse riding lesson. She absolutely loved it. As soon as she arrived, she brushed the pony, they saddled her up together and Darcie was off, on her own! She was steering the pony on her own - I don't even know how to start a horse, (wouldn't have a clue where to insert the key!), she did some trotting, steered in and out of cones and even tackled a little jump. She was fab!

Harvey Smith, eat your heart out!

So, fun over, she's got another new uniform now (I'm not too unhappy - I sold the old one to another parent for $70! :-) I just feel for her having 'another' first day tomorrow. She's such a little star though, I'm sure she'll be fine. I went to the P&C (parents and citizens - like the school association) meeting on Wednesday night and commented on how I had to drive my daughter to a neighbouring school (bah humbug!). I was sitting opposite the Prinicpal, but he didn't comment, but low and behold - the VERY next day, I got the telephone call offering Darcie the place! Coincidence? Probably; but thanks anyway!

Uniform number 2 - do we like this one more? Shall we stick with it?

She had her first dance class this week, too and loved that as well. The first week, I was supposed to take her, but got lost and couldn't find the stupid place. I was really worried that she'd be upset as she was really looking forward to it. I braced myself, turned to her and apologised and asked if she was OK. Her little shoulders were shaking in the back of the car and I feared the worst...... "oh Mum," she laughed, "you're SUCH a plonker!"

Finally, some good news about the house. Mr and Mrs Indecisive have signed up with a builder! Hoorraahh!! We are building a two storey house with Perceptions. It will take approx. eight weeks to get all the plans drawn up and six months for the builders to actually start work on site (has to go through shire planning etc), and completion should be Darcie's birthday......... 2008! Bugger! Never mind - good things come to he who waits. It's fab (we like it). It has a self-contained office for us, so when we do take on staff (for the visa requirements) they will be able to come and go if we are away, but only get into the office and the toilet. It has a home theatre, huge alfresco area and the kids bedrooms upstairs with an activity/fifth bedroom.

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It's really daunting as we get to choose the colour of the render, roof tiles and window frames. I think I'll just let Paul choose - perhaps I've inherited Dad's taste and have a mad moment and order it tangerine colour. I think I should do that anyway - in Dad's honour. What do you reckon?

School, Birthdays and Cars – just a normal week for the Delaney Gang!

OK – the kids have started school. Hoorah!! And what’s even better is they both love it. Double Hoorah! Sam started yesterday and didn’t look back at all as he walked into his classroom. He was ‘buddied’ up with an old hand who helped him find his way round. He was so excited and couldn’t wait to go back today. The door bell rang at 8.15 and it was his mate from down the road, on his bike with his Mum ready to accompany Sam to school on his bike! Day two! Expect him to be on a unicycle juggling to school next week. My baby!

Sam raring to go.

Darcie started a day after Sam and she only stayed for the morning, but she too came out of the classroom with a huge grin on her face. She played with three other girls and couldn’t wait to get home and tell Sam all about it. She was a bit put out when I told her that she’d only done a half day, and Sam still had another three hours to go. She flopped in the car and said, ‘it was really good, Mum. I’ve had a great day, but can you not talk to me now, I’m just too exhausted!’ Great! On the plus side, I now know what to get her for her birthday the week after next – a HRT patch. She’s obviously maturing so quickly, she’ll need one before long!

Darcie outside school on day one! Still smiling!

And, last but not least – Mr Cheese’s 2nd birthday!!! He had a FAB time (I think – didn’t say much, apart from ‘Pooh Bar’, ‘door, ‘burfdeee’ and he can’t say Thomas yet – so he sings the theme tune to Thomas the Tank Engine as he plays with his trains. Very cute! He took Thomas with him when we took Darcie to school this morning and he clutched it all the way there and back. He loved his Thomas balloon, and got REALLY cross with me when I grabbed it off him as he tried to wrestle it through the patio doors. I could just imagine in on the Channel 7 News – ‘……important developments tonight on the Secret Harbour toddler who went flying away on the sea breeze whilst clinging to an over-size character balloon in the back yard of his rental house on his 2nd birthday’. Didn’t want to risk it – although he had such a tantrum, I felt like tying the damn thing to his leg and chucking him in the air…… just to see what would happen – purely in the name of science, you understand.

Happy Birthday Mr Chesterton!! 2 today!

It’s heaven in our house at the moment – it’s eight o’clock and all three kids are asleep – unheard of! Sam played with his friend after school again and his Mum came round too and had a coffee and a piece of cheese’s birthday cake which was nice. Even his cake had a picture of Thomas on! He got the hang of the candle eventually, after one singed eyebrow and a slightly scorched finger. He just wanted us to relight it over and over again after that. I’m really glad we’d eaten the cake by this time and he was just blowing out the candle as he had more spittle than puff. He was singing Happy Birthday to himself before he blew his candle out. It was very sweet!

I was talking to Darcie about her birthday and was joking with her that she wasn’t going to get any presents. ‘But I’ve got to Mummy. IT’S THE LAW!’ She was deadly serious too!

We’ve also had to buy another car. Seeing as Darcie has to go to a different school to Sam about a ten minute drive away, we were worried that with the business, we wouldn’t always have a car sitting on the drive to hop into. We decided on a Ford (eventually) and went to the local dealer in Mandurah. They were really nice and we phoned to say we’d take the car, but as our money is still in the UK, we wouldn’t be able to pay and pick it up until late next week. The Salesman said that was fine. Then, half an hour later, the phone rang. It was the Ford dealer. ‘Can you fax us proof that you have the funds available?’ ‘Yes’, Paul said, ‘but I don’t see what relevance that is to you!’ ‘Well’, said the salesman, ‘if you can show us proof that you have the funds waiting to be transferred over, you can take the car away this afternoon!’ And that was that – they didn’t ask for a deposit, credit card imprint or anything!! So we have a car sitting on the drive that we’ve been hammering around in that we haven’t even paid for. Can you see that happening in England?

Sam poses in his uniform with the new car.

I suppose our life down under well and truly starts in earnest now as we’re into school routine. So far, it’s going well apart from a few small hic-cups (mainly telephone companies ripping us off – but apparently, that’s normal and they do it to the locals too!). It’s strange how quickly you begin to take everything for granted and it was when I was driving on my own to pick Darcie up from school this afternoon that it hit me. We are living in AUSTRALIA!!! Oh my god, we did it! We’ve got a nice rental house, the kids are in school, we’ve got two lovely cars sitting on the drive, bought and paid for (well – almost!), and a 20’ boat to complete the picture. The sun was shining and it felt GREAT! We really do need kick up the bum every now and then to remind us just how beautiful it is here. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to experience life in Oz. I only hope through this blog, you can experience the sights and sounds of Australia with us.

P.S. On a completely off-topic thought – the reason I bought a Dyson vacuum came home to me today as I hovered up a spider. An inferior model vacuum would never have managed to get all eight of those hairy appendages sucked down the tube at such speed as the Dyson. Could you imagine being faced with a big creepy crawlie, only to have it lose suction? I think James Dyson should add that immediately to all his advertising campaigns in Australia. I will email him straight away with this idea. I should imagine that’s why he makes the dust collection chamber see-through – so you can watch them grimace as they whiz round and round at high speed. Like a spidery ‘wall of death’ – only without the motor bike – obviously – never seen a spider on a motorbike (they all take the bus!).

On that note – goodnight!

Oh - have a look at our business website: www.affinity-one.com.au