Happy Australia Day, mate!

Well guys, it's the eve of Australia Day (well, no - actually it IS now officially Australia Day as it's 12.20am), and I can't go to bed yet as I'm waiting for the beetroot I've just cooked to cool down. Oh, the glamour, eh?

Australia Day is a national public holiday where lots of people are awarded their citizenship (one day, we hope (o: ) and everyone just has a barbie, a few beers and relaxes for the day, giving thanks for the lifestyle which is.... Australia. It's a good idea, I think. Can you imagine having something like that in the UK? I don't think it would take off, do you? Too much criticism for one thing - oh, and the weather would be pants, no doubt! Although, speaking of weather, it was VERY hot today. We went to the site to check on the house tonight and it was 7pm and still 29 degrees! The bricks were as hot as if they'd been under the grill. It's forecast to be very warm tomorrow, too, so as we are going to be under the sun all day we'll have to be very careful. It shocked me today to realise that Adam has spent all three Australia Day's here in Oz. He's not three until next week, but he had the first one when we were over on holiday, his second was last year (our first AD as 'residents') and now tomorrow's will make three! Go Adam!

On a slightly less up-beat note, Paul had his follow-up appointment with the Doctor today and it's as we had feared and he needs the 'plan B' attack; which is basically, to cut him from the eyebrow to the top lip, peel his face open and remove the benign polyps that had formed under his cheek. They had hoped to maybe be able to use the less-invasive way of using scopes up the nose, but the polyp is too big and spreads too far over towards his ear for that to be an effective method. We got to see the images from the MRI last week which are pretty amazing and it's clear to see the difference between the right and left nostrils.

Apparently, they remove most of the sinus too, so Paul will effectively have a 'hole' where his sinus should be which will leave him slightly vulnerable to infection. They are anxious to remove it, as if left, there is a slim (5%) chance that it could turn cancerous. So, all that being said, they have booked him in (provisionally - subject to any emergencies cropping up) for 15th March - exactly ONE DAY after his birthday. WE'll have to have an early cake if he's fasting after 6pm! (o:

Well, what can we say after that, apart from 'fasten your seatbelts, the Delaney rollercoaster is off again.......'

Catch up soon. Ju xxx

What a difference a day makes…….

What have we been up to since the last update? Quite a lot really. Mum asked if we could take Mr Cheese on a train as he loves them so much and I remembered a place we went to on our Reccie where you took a train ride into the bush. I did some research on ‘tinternet’ and found the place and we headed off on a Wednesday. Trouble was, it was a bit wet and rainy and I seemed to remember that the carriages were quite open to the elements……..

They don't look impressed - and this was the beginning!

It was a very funny day, all in all. Sam was very unimpressed, Adam was more taken with the raindrops hitting his nose and Darcie was the only one putting on a brave face and smiling for the camera. Mum has finally admitted that she doesn’t want to visit any more ‘poxy’ train lines and I have to admit, we have dragged her to a few in our time: Nene Valley, the Isle of Wight, the Dawlish Donkey, one in Skegness near to Butlins…. The list is almost endless and the trains are all the same; run down and musty and operated by old gits with no life. Perhaps we’ll stop here and this will be our last ever train visit. Then again……

The builders finally came back from their Christmas break and we have seen some movement on the site (hurrah!). We have bricks and first floor rooms are starting to appear and today the roof trusses were delivered. You know what that means? Yep – they’ll want more money! The house is beginning to take shape though and looks mahooosive! Not looking forward to the thought of hoovering it all, I must admit.

Lookin' good!

View from the first floor - the very small strip of blue on the horizon is the sea.

Oh, Darcie has lost another tooth. It held on for so long, I thought she was super-gluing it back in every night at Mums, but eventually it must have sucumbed to one of Mum’s burnt fish fingers (o: ha ha! Darcie left a note for the tooth fairy at home and then buggared off back to Mums for the night! Her note said something along the lines of ‘I’m not here right now, please leave a cheque’.

It was no match for a hard fish finger!

The Friday night BBQ’s have started down the golf club again and it’s an enjoyable way to end the week. Paul usually finds some blokes to chat to whilst Barbie-ing and Mum and I quaff our way through a bottle of wine. The kids are happy playing and collecting golf balls and we’re all back home in bed by 9.30pm (believe me, we’re the last to leave!).

A few Sunday’s ago, we took Mum and the kids for a picnic at a local Dam. Lovely, you may be thinking…. Only we picked the hottest day of the blooming year. In the car on the way there, the temperature peaked at 44!!! It was so hot, Mum described it like sitting by a camp fire. There was a slight wind, but even this was hot – like opening the oven door when it’s fan assisted (o: There were parrots there that came to feed on your hands. It was a nice afternoon, but after a while, we resorted to a water fight to cool down.

Happy Campers.

In front of the Dam.

The famous three off on another adventure....

Then, this last week’s been a bit of a saga.

On Thursday, Paul had an unscheduled hospital visit, after they telephoned the day before to check he was OK for ‘tomorrow’s appointment’ which he knew nothing about! Turns out he had to go for a CT and MRI scan as the appointment he knew about for next week was with the Consultant to discuss the results! Sam offered to go with him and kept him company in the waiting room. He was fine for the first twenty minutes, after which the battery ran out on his PSP and he moaned! He was there for four hours and it cost him $20 in Subway afterwards to placate Sam. He admitted that had he of known what the MRI involved, he would not have been as keen to go )o:

We were booked on the ferry to go to Rottnest Island for the day on Saturday, but it all went a bit Pete Tong. On Friday, I popped round to Mums to pick them up with the intention of heading into Mandurah to do some errands, only Darcie was complaining that her ear-rings hurt. Basically I thought the butterflies on the back of her ear-rings had fallen off. Her ears looked a bit puffy and sore, so I thought I’d change the ear-rings for her. Only to start fiddling and realize that the butterflies were actually right in her ear lobe! It was really sore, so there was no way I could get them out myself, Darcie and I trotted off to Peel A&E.
The staff were lovely there (although they gave her an injection and didn’t DO anything to her – only look! What’s that all about!). They decided that she’d maybe need a small operation to get them out, so referred her to Princess Margaret’s children’s hospital at 8am the following morning (Saturday!).

So our trip to Rottnest was put on hold and we went to Perth’s children’s hospital. They were SO lovely there considering I felt so guilty- putting her through all that for a lousy pair of ear-rings! In the end she had Ketamine (a horse tranquilser!), that knocked her out completely for 2 hours whilst the Doctors removed the ear-rings that had grown into her ears! Nightmare! The trouble is that Darcie gets herself into such as state that she won’t let anyone go near her. She just screams and won’t even let them look. Just before Xmas she had a dentists appointment for a polish and we had to come away without the dentist even looking in her mouth as she was so distressed! The dentist has arranged for some trauma counseling for Darcie in the new year, just so she’ll be able to have some dental care!!

She slept solidly in the hospital for 2½ hours and then they had to keep her in for a further two for observation. She was in her element there with computer games and DVDs. The nurse even made sure she had an ice cream before she was discharged.

So, to cheer everyone up and diffuse Sam’s disappointment at missing Rottnest, I booked a table at the C Restaurant (a revolving restaurant at the top of the AAPT building – one of Perth’s tallest buildings with a fantastic view) for afternoon tea on Sunday. We’d just got our bums settled and were waiting for our sandwiches when the fire alarm went off. We had to evacuate and walk down all 33 flights of stairs!! 722 steps Paul calculated it out at and none of us can walk today (apart from Adam who was carried). Sam was really frightened and would only go back in again after a talk from a Fireman. God – nothing goes smoothly for the Delaneys.

Strike a pose, Miss Parcel.

Should have known really – just before the fire alarm went off, Mum actually said she liked it! She eventually finds something she can’t complain about and then she jinx’s it!

Very arty photo from Paul, don'tcha think?

Today we have all been so stiff, it’s just not funny! We’re all in agony and are walking like we have sh1t ourselves! Not funny at all! Mum and I took the kids into Mandurah and bought them an ice cream today. As we were sat on the foreshore, some dolphins swam by. Lovely. The weather was good today and is forecast to get hotter throughout the week, so it should be great for Friday ‘AUSTRALIA DAY’. We’re going to see if we can find the place we went to when we came out on holiday and take a picnic and watch the fireworks over Perth. It was fantastic last time we saw them, when we were on holiday and only hoped we would one day be living here. Fingers crossed they are still every bit as spectacular this year.

I would just like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY for this week. Have a great day mate, wish we could be there with you, but we haven’t got any warm clothes! :-p

Even after all these years, they're still working on the railroad.

And could you all keep your fingers crossed for Thursday when Paul has his meeting with the consultant.

Gotta go - it's 11.30pm and Paul and Sam are watching a recording of the Arsenal/Man U match. I need to get the half time oranges ready. If they shout one more time for a goal, I think I'll expire with shock. Take care guys, don't get blown away in the wind and keep your extemities covered in the snow. Less than two weeks until Mr Cheese's birthday...... can't wait xx

I can’t believe we’re a week into 2007 already!

Mum is enjoying her 'rest' in her holiday home. Ha ha!! Mum said she’ll need a week in Spain when she gets home to recover from the exersion of looking after two kids. She’s even had to peel potatoes and cook (IN AN OVEN!) for the first time in years! She’ll need trauma counselling when she gets home, I think! The kids love it though – they can eat what they want, when they want and I don’t even want to know what time they are eventually falling into bed at night! Still, they’ve got until the end of January before they go back to school, so they may as well enjoy their freedom!

It's a hang ga oooo (as Adam calls them)

On Friday, Mum, the kids and I went to a local wildlife park. It’s a little unloved, but you can feed the kangaroos and they have koalas there, so it’s a good place to spend a few hours. Adam took quite a shine to the Wombat. Darcie however, always finds an animal that takes a liking to her at this park (for all the wrong reasons!). The first time we went, it was a very ugly duck with one of those red, floppy things on the top of it’s beak that make it look as if it’s run headlong into a closed patio door. It decided Darcie looked more tasty than the food in her bucket, so decided to peak away at her instead!

Darcie with her finger up a Koala's bum!

The second time we went, she was harassed by a Dingo. This time, she was followed round the park by a very fierce looking goat – complete with horns! It looked like it had gone ten rounds with Tyson; it had half it’s ear bitten off and everything! Evil. Apart from that, animals were fed, patted and humiliated and we came away happy.

Ride that dinosaur! In King's Park.

Saturday we went to King’s Park in Perth for a BBQ. I was very organised and took with us a flask of coffee, beer and wine and lots of yummy food for the BBQ. The weather was lovely; not too hot, not too cold….. just right! So we sat there and let the kids play all afternoon. It gets very busy there, so there is lots of fun to be had people watching.

Something else to climb all over - hooray!

Sunday, we took the boat out again. We dropped it in Mandurah and went for a blam along the estuary before crusing down the river. We stopped for a picnic and the kids played on the park for a while before heading off again and letting Sam and Darcie have a go on the Donut.

Wwweeeeeeee!

Speed Queen Darcie just wanted to fo ‘FASTER’ all the time. Very difficult on the river where there’s a speed limit of 5 knots! We then pulled up at the pub in Ravenswood and stopped for a beer before heading back down the river towards Mandurah. Just as we passed under the old Mandurah bridge, we bumped into four dolphins and watched them feeding in the shallow water for about 20 minutes. I did manage to get a few pictures, but it’s very hard trying to predict where they are going to appear!

Follow my finger.....

All aboard the Skylark.

Mum changed the booking for her flight home yesterday, so she’s now staying for Adam’s and Darcie’s birthdays. Sam looked a little disappointed that she wouldn’t be prolonging her visit for his, but for Pete’s sake, his isn’t until September!! Paul would be bald if he thought Mum was going to be staying that long! She’s now flying home on the 19th Feb - I’ll look to get her a cheapie to Spain for the first week in March (o:

Oh, yes, we had unwanted house guests for Christmas – bloody mice! Honestly, every house we’ve ever lived in has had a visit from the Mickey gang, it’s beyond a joke. We started off being nice and catching them in a humane trap and releasing them over the golf course. But after a while, we realised that they were making it back into the house before we were and by the time we’d dumped them and washed the trap out, they were already seated on the sofa with a cup of tea and a Tim Tam, watching ‘Deal or No Deal’. That was it! The big guns were out and the poison was unleashed. Mice only laugh at us once, let me tell you. I think they may have stowed away in the container – they certainly weren’t local mice. I could tell this as they had sunburn, cork hats and were commenting that the cheese wasn’t as nice as the stuff from Marks and Spencer. Cheek!

Happy New Year everyone!

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a great New Year celebration! We’ve been out and about (as usual), enjoying the weather and taking Mum to new places.

The Motley Crue on the Foreshore on Christmas Eve.

The kid’s had a lovely Christmas day and Santa was particularly generous this year – thank you Santa! Sam received: an electric guitar, a Buzz PS2 game and controllers and a Jungle Buzz game (which provided possibly THE most fun we’ve ever had on Christmas evening!), a LocoRoco PSP game from Nanny D, Lovely lolly to spend in the sales from Uncle Michael (and Nanny D), Ferrari lego…. Honestly, the list just went on and on…. Darcie got: two Furbys (one ‘Funky’, one ‘normal’), an ipod, an iDog, some Polly Pocket stuff and a Pixel chix mall, a fantastic dancing Barbie from Nanny D (o: ) and Mr Cheese received more Bob the ilder and Thomas than you could fit into a Bob and Thomas catalogue, a lovely new ball and a bicycle! Nanny D got him an interactive game for the TV, which he loves (when he gets a turn on the TV!). Thanks Uncle Michael for the money (o: we’ll let you know what they spend it all on. I’ve got a feeling Sam might be spending it all on connector pens:

Sam and his ever increasing pen collection.

So, Christmas dinner involved seafood, seafood and a bit more seafood. We had prawns (in their dinner jackets, as well as naked!), scallops, oysters, smoked salmon… all very civilised and yummy. It was particularly hot, so the kids hopped in and out of the pool all day. We hung around the house and the kids enjoyed their presents – flitting from one to the other like butterflies with ADD.

Christmas lunch!

Between Xmas and New Year, we all went to watch The Wild at the outdoor cinema in Perth. It’s a lovely experience to sit under the stars, huddled up like an old woman with a blanket covering your knees watching a movie. Quite an experience for Mum, seeing as the last film she’d seen at the ‘cinema’ was 50,000 leagues under the sea, which I think she took me to see when I was in primary school at the Campus West!! But it was good fun and Mum managed to sit through the entire film without asking when the usherette would come round with the ice creams and what time the Pearl and Dean advertising would start. Well done, Mum! Adam enjoyed the film (he always loves going to the pictures!), although he was a bit scared by the buffalo thingies. Eddie Izzard was very funny as the koala – it just suited him down to the ground. The fun thing about watching an open air film in Oz is that they have an affilation with a pizza company and just before the film starts, you get a yummy Dominos pizza delivered to the park!

Getting ready for the film.....

Before we got to the cinema, we did a little tour of the Northern Suburbs of Perth. We do like it up there; it’s a lot more developed and has more to offer on your doorstep, but it’s all coming ‘down south’ and the house prices will just rocket after the train line goes live. Mum actually like a place call Hillarys (in the old cliché of Dad ‘having a good day’ on holiday – Mum actually liked somewhere!!!). There’s a harbour where you can sit and people watch with a coffee – it’s like an up-market Southend, but with less effluent being bilged into the sea. We also let the kids have a play at Mullaloo beach. It’s a favourite of ours – always busy and the view is just GORG-OUS!

Mr Cheese in the pool on Christmas day.

New Year’s Eve started with Yum Cha in Northbridge. It’s a Chinese restaurant where you take a seat and mad little Chinese women wander up and down with trays, trying to tempt you to take their food. If they’ve got something on their trolley that you like the look of, you take one and they stamp your card. At the end of the meal, you pay for what you’ve eaten (kind of like the coloured plate thing in sushi bars). It’s very chaotic and busy, but it’s a real experience. Mum’s face was a picture as Adam and Darcie tucked into a plate of octopus tentacles! Adam really likes them. He spends ages with them on his fingers like an extra from a Doctor Who episode!

Tentacle anyone???

After we filled our faces, we popped into Fremantle for a beer in a brewery/pub called Little Creatures. It’s got lots of atmosphere, but was getting a bit rowdy for the kids, so we whizzed back to Mandurah to watch the New Year’s fireworks at 9pm. Like last year, the teenagers were getting loud (and very drunk) after the fireworks; so after witnessing one completely pi**ed teenage boy wee into the river just in front of us (and a hundred other families sitting on the foreshore!), we bid our goodbyes and headed home to see in the New Year in front of the TV with a party popper (who says we don’t know how to enjoy ourselves?) The fireworks in Sydney looked just amazing. It was weird though that we went off to bed and woke up in time to see London celebrating the New Year with the fireworks round the Eye. You were singing Auld Land Syne, we were having cornflakes and a coffee……

So, Mum is now in her little holiday rental. She’s got it for the month, just in case we were driving her mad and she could have a little respite from us. Unfortunately (for her – ha ha!), Sam and Darcie have moved in with her! We pop over to visit during the day and Adam goes over to visit his siblings, but they are adamant that they want to stay with Nanny! I feel bereft and have had to console my wayward emotions in a bottle of wine each night! OK, that’s rubbish – I usually drink to forget about the kids, now I’m drinking in celebration of their absence! Ha ha. What time is it? Pims o’clock? Marvellous! The house is sweet and I’ve spoilt her with an inside toilet this time. I don’t think she realised this was a working holiday and she’d be an au pair for a month. She’ll know to read the small print a bit better next time.

Last night we took a boat trip down the Mandurah canals to see the Xmas lights. Every year, these multi-million dollar houses decorate themselves (i.e. chav themselves up) with tacky multi-coloured lights and the boat operators spend the evenings cruising up and down the canals with a full compliment of people staring straight into their living rooms! Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos as they were just too chavvy! It really put me off the thought of one day ‘moving up’ to a home on the canals. The thought of two months of the year with every pleasure craft on the water pootling up and down the river at the end of my garden passing comments about my choice of soft furnishings, or the colour of my kitchen units??? No thanks! I’ll take my bad taste elsewhere where it can languish un-discussed and un-ridiculed. Plus, there were all these huge houses with only two sad people sat round a kitchen table! It’d cost me a fortune in ‘rent-a-crowd’ fees to hire people to come and sit in my house to make it look like I was popular and had loads of mates!

It also amazed me how competitive the neighbours were. All that money and no taste!!! They were still determined to out-do their neighbour with an extra 20,000 lights in the shape of a Wise man on a donkey! I think if we ever did it again though, we would go before Christmas. It was slightly sad yesterday on the 3rd of January looking at all the Christmas lights with piped Nat King Cole over the PA system. Adam got very excited when he saw his first inflatable Santa though and was convinced that he was coming to visit him again that night. I reassured him that Santa would only be back to remove presents when he had been naughty – kind of like a repossession for when lego goes bad.

Oh and I’ve already broken my New Years Resolution by eating 5 of Adam’s Lindor choccys that were taunting me from the fridge. Note to self: must got to the Doctors about these voices in my head telling me to do stuff (o: