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