Twitch watch:

The twitch is still here. It seems to be triggered by involuntary actions, like sneezing or yawning or moaning at the kids! It no longer seems to be connected with money, so at least I can do the grocery shopping without the worry of being sectioned for my juddery eyelid action :o)

Pentley is settling in nicely, although still fails to distinguish between our lounge and a public convenience! I’m sure we’ll crack it, but I feel like I spend my whole day cleaning up wee and faeces. So far, he has also ingested three snails, half a pound of gravel and the property section of the weekly newspaper; which means he could travel slowly to a ‘home open’ and lay a gravel drive when he got there ha ha!

Adam affectionately 'cuddles' Pentley in a Giant Haystacks hold.

He goes to work with us and spends the day asleep under the desk. He’s becoming more inventive in finding places to hide from the constant poking, prodding and teasing which is the kid’s total reason for living. I'm just grateful the dog gets it now and not me!

The house is coming on in leaps and bounds – we now have a partially-rendered exterior (that sounds funny – should that be a partially-rendered posterior!).

The pipework is in for the bathrooms and the electrical cables have all been channelled in preparation for the internal plastering. The air con has been first-fixed, as has the alarm and the hot water system.

OK, it may not be exciting for you - but they are future taps! **Gasp**

It certainly has moved on since Mum went home – perhaps it was her holding things up. Maybe the builders were worried that she’d find something to criticise (shock, horror – surely not).

Look at the state of my kitchen - pop round for tea; I'll put the wheelbarrow on!

The kids have asked that I put photos of their rooms on the blog. They tidied them especially for their centre spread in ‘Blogger Homes and Gardens’ – they will probably never look this good again (especially Darcie’s room as she is a slut with old pizza in her room and dirty knickers everywhere!).

Darcie's boudoir. I've hidden the knickers under her duvet.

Sam with his Arsenal inspired room.

Sam is particularly good with his room; he often goes off for the night and I go to tuck him in and he’s completely rearranged the layout. His bed has had every configuration within his room possible and desks and lamps move round as if he has his own personal poltergeist.

Rock star in the making.

No word of a lie - he arranges his pens and pencils into rows like this before he goes to bed at night! And I thought I was anal about WH Smiths.

Currently, he has converted his wardrobe into a ‘library’ and sits, shut in his wardrobe, reading by torch light. Yes, I’m sure a psychiatrist would have a great deal to say about that, but I’d rather not know – about either of them. Adam’s room is usually a pigsty. You have to tip toe through the cast of Thomas the Tank Engine meets Bob the Builder, just to kiss him good night; just heaven help if you manage to accidentally tread on one of his talking toys, which then launches into a dialogue for the next five minutes, waking him up in the process…..

Paul’s making slow progress. To be honest, I think the whole episode has knocked him for six. The operation has been massively more involved than either of us first anticipated. The Doctors have since told him just what was involved and it’s pretty nasty. The nerves all run the side of your nose and they have all been stretched to allow the surgeons access to the tumour. If they are stretched, they take a few months (well, up to a year, I think) to go back to a normal function. If however, the nerve was broken, they grow back at a rate of 1mm per month. So if you can imagine the length between the bottom of your nose and the inside of your eyebrow – that’s a lot of months to fully re-grow.

Paul is starting to get some feeling back around his nose and cheek, although his front three teeth are still numb and he could put a skewer through his nostril and not feel anything (oh, the fun I could have whilst he sleeps :-) He could potter off for a little snooze and wake up kebabed! The tablets he’s on are still sellable on street corners, although the dose has dropped. The downside is they give him really vivid, hallucinogenic dreams – almost to the point where he doesn’t want to sleep as the dreams are so bad. Mind you, all this considered, I’ve told him to save me at least two to try. I want to have a bit of a mind-bending experience too out of this! Knowing my luck, nothing will happen. Drugs never seem to work on me as I always seem to have one eye/ear out for the kids which medically counteracts any relaxant I dare to try. Even G&T is losing its effects (I know – how awful!) I have to drink more just to get the same effect :o)

The weather’s supposed to be a bit pants this week – typical kid’s school holiday weather! I might see how Paul goes and if he’s feeling better, he can escort Miss Parcel et al to the pictures and I can scrub the wee from the lino with LBC on my iPod for an afternoon’s unbridled pleasure!

Sam’s just mentioned that the Perth Motor Show’s on too this weekend, so I might dose Paul up on Sanatogen and Ralgex (no, I don’t know why Ralgex – but it’ll make him smell as old as he looks when he shuffles along) and see if he and Sam can manage a more successful trip than they did last year – I don’t know if they actually made it in through the doors before Sam announced that he felt bilious (Mum’s favourite word) and they had to come home. Never mind - it's only Monday. A great deal can happen between now and the weekend.

Bummy cream, mangoes and a twitch.

No, not my shopping list, but my life over the last 12 hours (o:

Adam’s got this thing about bummy cream…. When Mum was over and we’d have a coffee, every time he saw the froth on the top of a cappuccino, or the cream they add to an iced coffee, Adam would let out a loud ‘Eeerrrr, you’re eating bummy cream!’. It came to be a bit of a catchphrase with him, so now every time we make a coffee, it has to have extra bummy cream. Honestly, the people in the local coffee place must think we’re barking!

Mangoes! Well, the excitement. Sam came in from the garden today, carrying a mango! ‘What’s this Mum?’ he asked. It was a lovely, juicy, ripe mango, fresh from our garden! How exciting’s that? We didn’t even know it was a mango tree – it looks a bit dead to us, but Sam found it, in all its glory lying on the ground by the side of the tree. We took it in washed and peeled it and devoured it in minutes! When we took Pentley out in the garden later on, you could almost hear the mango tree complaining…..’four months I was blooming nurturing that. My one and only fruit. My beloved. The Fruit of my loins, and you piggin lot take it and scoff it with no thought for me in less than 30 seconds!’ It was delish though. Even Adam thoroughly enjoyed it and had juice dribbling down his chin. I’m hoping Sam will come back in tomorrow having discovered a prawn tree or a chocolate bush. We do have an olive tree that we bought when we first arrived. This is growing well, but I’ve no idea what to do with the olives to make then edible? There was a man harvesting olives on the roundabout on the way to the supermarket today. I should have pulled over and asked him what he does with them – I love olives! We also have another tree that we bought that’s a cross between a lemon and an orange. I only wanted these to go in my G&T. I’ll have to find a recipe for a alcoholic smoothie that I can use my mango in (who am I kidding, the tree looks half dead and we’ve just eaten it’s one and only fruit…. Next year’s harvest doesn’t look too promising (o: )

Oh, and I’ve got a twitch. Forget about all this moaning that Paul keeps doing about his ‘major’ operation; I’ve got a twitch and it’s driving me mad! I’ve had it since before Mum arrived and it rears its head from time to time. At first, it only ever happened when I was talking about spending money! Very strange. When we first discussed buying this house, when Paul and I discussed mortgages or finance, my twitch would come out to play. It also started in times of stress, so over the last few weeks, I’ve been twitching more than a professional bird watcher! It’s very annoying and whilst Paul’s may be a definite, treatable medical condition, mine is just as troubling! I’ve even googled it and a twitch may last as long as 12 months before disappearing as quickly as it arrived. I didn’t ask it to come. I almost interrupted Paul’s consultant the other week to say ‘ignore all this crap about a tumour – what do you know about minor twitching?’ A valid question, I think? I’ll let you know how it progresses through a new segment: Twitch watch (that’s twitch – NOT twit!). Stay tuned for regular twitch updates and feel free to contact me with any home made cures – no Mum, I’m not using your poultice before you offer – I’d rather have a twitch than smell of onions.

Well, the Easter Bummy (sorry – Bunny) came for a visit. It was touch and go for a while as the stupid bunny delivered to the front garden and not the back! A little confusion occurred for a moment; coupled with lots of cursing and shoulder shrugging, until we realised that he’d obviously mis-read the delivery instructions! Darcie was most put out for a while and told me if he hadn’t been, she was going to ‘write and complain to the council’ Can you imagine the fun the council would have explaining that one to a six year old…

‘ Dear Miss Delaney,

I write with reference to your recent complaint regarding your lack of delivery by the Easter Bunny. We regret to inform you that due to council cut backs and the wrong kind of leaves on the line, the Bunny was decommissioned from service back in August 2006. We are making plans to replace the bunny with the Mandurah Crab Fest crab – however, progress has not been as forthcoming as we had hoped, due to his inability to distribute eggs with his pincers. A great number of eggs have been culled due to his fumbling.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write to us with your concerns. May I take this opportunity to assure you that the council are making every effort to ensure that normal service is resumed for next year. Should all else fail, we will be putting the contract out to tender; previous rodents need not apply.

Kind regards,

The council’

Luckily, disaster was diverted with a scattering of eggs on the front lawn that the kids collected in the rain – yes, I said rain! I also devised an egg hunt in the house where Sam and Darcie had to solve clues to find their eggs. This went down well and I have already had a repeat order for next year!

Paul is still poorly and continues to sleep all day; if he slept any longer within a 24 hour period, I think it could be medically diagnosed as a coma. He only wakes to:

(a) visit the loo – sometimes he doesn’t even bother waking for this (o:

(b) moan at me or the kids

(c) take more painkillers to put him back to sleep

I get more conversation from the goldfish at the moment; and certainly no help on pooper scoop duty. I tell you, if it’s not Pentley poohing, it’s Adam weeing on the carpet. They’ve started to blame each other now and just eye each other as if to say ‘that one was definitely yours’! The house smells like dog and detol – lovely! Perhaps I should write to Airwick and suggest it as a new fragrance.

Speaking of dog. We broke Pentley. We had him three whole days and had to take him to the vet. It was really quite serious yesterday….. He’d been out in the garden playing with the kids when Sam came in and said Pentley was ‘wobbly on his feet’. I went to see him and soon realised that all was not ‘normal’. His eyes were darting constantly from side to side like windscreen wipers on full speed and he was disorientated – moving his head around like Stevie Wonder. When he tried to walk, he wobbled about more than a drunk on a Saturday night. Not good )o: So, being a public holiday weekend, I had to phone around and see if I could find a vet open on Easter Saturday. Luckily I managed to raise one not too far away and Sam and I bundled Pentley in the car and sped off.

You can imagine my upset when the vet said that he’d have to stay in whilst they did some tests. Basically, he was concerned if Pentley had been bitten by anything’ snake / spider / Adam…. The symptoms he was displaying were in line with damage to the nervous system like a bang to the head or a ‘sting’. I just instantly felt like a parent in front of social services! Had we squeezed him too hard? Should his eyes have popped out like that when Adam hugged him? I felt SO bad )o:

The vet kept him in and gave him antibiotics and a cortisone injection and told me to phone back in two hours to see how he was going. I cried in the car on the way home. Three days we’d had him and he was already broken! Did we still have the receipt? Could I exchange him for a different size or colour? Anyhow, two hours later I called and they said there was some improvement, but they still weren’t sure if he would be allowed home and could I phone back at 4.30pm? So I waited and called back and they wanted to keep him in overnight to ensure that he recovered fully )o: Poor Pentley.

The night was very quiet. It’s amazing how quickly you get used to a pup around the place. We were up early with the kids this morning seeing as it was the great Easter Hunt, so we were all really pleased when the vet confirmed he would be allowed home. He’s on antibiotics and we are supposed to keep him ‘quiet’ (yeah right; puppy + 3 kids = hyperactivity squared!), but he seems fine and it’s lovely to have him back home.

The vet seems convinced that ‘something’ bit him (says a lot about my kids if it was Adam; he’s fine, but the dog needs antibiotics! Ha ha ). It’s a one-off, freaky chance in a lifetime thing that will hopefully never happen again, but even he admitted that his signs were ‘quite concerning’ when we took him in yesterday.

We had three disasters yesterday: the freezer was leaking when we woke up (the door hadn’t been shut properly and the ice cubes had melted and pooled on the floor), we broke Pentley and then I broke the patio door and got he key stuck in it (on the outside – no, I don’t really know how I managed that, either!). The locksmith wanted $140 just to come out and said if it was a ‘so and so’ type he wouldn’t be able to fix it any how! I said it could wait until Tuesday when his call out rate would drop to $70 and if he looked and couldn’t fix it, he wouldn’t charge us. I suggested trying WD40, at which point Paul lectured me on the fact that it wouldn’t work; before wetting the bed and falling back asleep (o: - not really!). But I thought I’d buy a small can and try it today whilst he was asleep; and guess what – it worked!!! Good job really as I spent the locksmith’s money at the vets! Actually, the vet's bill was quite reasonable - $180 (about £80) all in, including a course of strawberry flavoured antibiotics and a night’s b&b. (The vet told Darcie not to take the dog’s medicine or else she would start barking. How gullible is she? She wants to just have a sip to see if she can talk like Pentley!).

So, how exciting was your Easter weekend? Bet it wasn’t as exciting as ours and we’ve still got a day to go. Must go – the vet gave me an instruction manual for Pentley, so I’m off to find out where his replacement batteries go and where the ‘reset’ switch is. See you next time for twitch update!

Pentley Bl**dy Bark!

Well I have reverted back to motherhood and by that, I mean motherhood of a young baby that needs constant reassurance, cuddles and bottom wiping. Welcome to the world of Puppy-dom.

Yep, Pentley Bark has arrived in the Delaney house and boy do we know it. The house smells of Dog (at best!) at worst, something far less savoury (o; He is a very placid little fella though. Spent the whole journey home sitting on Sam’s lap and we didn’t hear a peep out of him. He cried last night a little – which is to be expected – in between shi**ing on the floor. THREE TIMES! I ask you, he’s only little. Where does it all come from? Perhaps he has it delivered in a concrete mixer and dumps it on the floor when we’re not looking. He hasn’t got the hang of things at the moment as he goes out with the kids in the garden and then poos/wees when he gets back indoors. Typical Australian dog ha ha.

Ssshhhh, don't tell them I'm here!

The only peace he gets any salvation from the kids is under the table. They are constantly following him round the house, calling / tugging / tormenting him, so he takes refuge under the table where their bony little fingers find it hard to reach him.

Darcie is still a little nervous of him – you should have seen her when she met Pentley’s granddad prior to coming home. She didn’t like him much, I can tell you. Sam thinks they are best buddies already and Adam has already told me that he loves his puppy. It’s a bit of a popularity contest at the moment and they all get upset if Pentley chooses someone else to play with. Give it a week, they’ll be sick of him and wanting him to choose someone else!

The kids broke up for Easter on Wednesday. Adam and I went to their special Easter Assembly where the Easter Bunny came to draw the raffle. Sam and Darcie didn’t win this time, but enjoyed watching the other children go up to claim their prizes; one child won three, but chose to re-donate. I don’t think Darcie would have been that generous; when it comes to chocolate, it’s each man for himself in this house.

Here’s a picture of Darcie in her Easter bonnet with her card that she made for us. No – I don’t know what the Teletubbie antenna is for either!

Tinky Winky wishes you a Happy Easter.

The house is looking good. They’ve dropped the scaffolding down now the tiling has been finished and they’ve chased out all the walls for the electrics and all the plumbing is now in. They’ve also fitted two skylights for the upstairs bathrooms and the air conditioning ducting is in situ, looking like a giant silver spider stretching his legs throughout the roof space.

Can you see the silvery legs of our house spider?

We’ve also had to sign off on the colour of the render this week. It’s ridiculous really – look at the size of the house against the size of the sample. Like choosing what colour to paint the opera house with a thimble full of paint. Hope it looks OK.

Er..... needle / haystack. What hope do we have?

We’ve signed it off now. It’s a coffee/cream colour although for some reason, both Paul and I were convinced we’d chosen a MUCH darker colour. Oh well…… my memory’s not what is used to be, you know. So hopefully after Easter, we should have the plasterers in to plaster the inside and have the render put on the outside. This will change the way the house looks totally – hope we like the change!

You can really see the dimensions of the house now the scaffolding's moved down.

So, now on to Paul’s news. Well he’s had a really tough week. He was due to go into hospital to have his stitches removed on Tuesday and he was in such a state when he arrived, that he ended up in a wheelchair. So looking like characters from Little Britain, I wheeled Paul up to the clinic, whilst Sam wheeled Adam in his pram and Darcie walked along looking terrified.

It turns out that the agony he was experiencing was due to the packing that they’d placed in the nasal cavity where they had removed the tumour. The Doctors were convinced that he would feel better once the packing was removed, but was anxious as he was told it was so painful he would need a general anaesthetic. They had him take one of his painkillers (which are hard-core, could make a living selling them on street corners, whoop arse painkillers), gave him half an hour for it to take effect and then preceded to start to remove the packing. Apparently Paul physically screamed, the pain was that intense. They managed to remove a length of it, before the pain got too much and he begged them to stop before sobbing for 15 minutes with the pain. Bless. They even considered taking him down to theatre there and then to remove it, but he’d had something to drink, so they refused. Instead he’d have to return next Wednesday to have a small general anaesthetic and have the packing removed. He did manage to have his stitches removed though, so that’s something /o:

Look - no stitches

So, this was all on Tuesday, then on Wednesday I got a phone call from the hospital to say could he go back to the hospital on Thursday for another pre-admission appointment. Sh*t. So we trundled off again on Thursday to sit for another 3 hours whilst he went through the same procedure that he went through last week prior to his first operation.

I'm more tired than you...........ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

As you can see, I think Paul and Pentley have a shared mutual interest. The duvet is Darcie’s by the way – my taste isn’t that dodgy for the double bed.

Have a great Easter gang. May your hunts be full of eggs, may your bunnies be full of bounce and may your buns be hot and cross.

Love to everyone x

In the words of the old kids programme, ‘You and me’, this week there’s ‘lots and lots for you to see’ on the blog – some of it good, some not so good )o:

Firstly, let’s start with the school beach carnival which took place last Friday on Secret Harbour beach.

Darcie, raring to go. That shine isn't from sun tan lotion, it's from the lard with smothered her in for the cross-channel swim!

It was the school’s first ever beach carnival to take advantage of the wonderful facility that’s right on the doorstep in SH. The entire school de-camped to the beach for the day with years one through to seven all enjoying the games on the beach and in the surf. The school was split into two halves – juniors and infants and each group did a circuit of about 6 activities. The school had two huge marquee thingies on the beach, along with a PA system that the Principal used to announce the activities and move things along. In between his ‘MC-ing’ they played 80’s tunes to keep the parents happy. It was fab and a great time was had by all.

See, the whole school was there!

Even though the weather was unseasonably cold that day. The wind came hammering in off the ocean and the temperature was only about 22 degrees (I know – you’re all shouting ‘Heatwave’, but when you’re used to temperatures in the mid 30’s, let me tell you, 22 feels blooming cold!). The kids were really shivering when they came out of the surf and with the wind, they were instantly turned into little sandsickles.

Darcie 'Iron Man'

The kids enjoyed the day. Sam loved the game where they had to run into the surf with a surf-lifesaving board and navigate round a volunteer in the water, before turning to paddle back and hand the board to the next team member. Darcie liked the tug of war, especially when Daddy helped her team win.

Sam enjoys the day.

Sam's in the surf somewhere with the man in the funny hat!

Last weekend we visited an animal shelter looking for a dog. We had discussed the matter time after time and agreed that now we were in our own home and felt much more settled, we could get a dog to complete the family. We’ve been keeping our eye on the papers for a few weeks, looking for puppies, but nothing took our fancy. There are lots of cross breeds here and breeds like Mastiffs and Pit Bull-type dogs are very popular. Obviously with the kids and Adam’s probable desire to use the dog’s rear end as a pencil sharpener, we wanted to get an animal with a high level of tolerance (we called it the ‘ear-pull scale’). The shelter had older dogs, but the staff were really pushy and kept on until we took one out of it’s cage for a ‘walk’. To say it was ‘hard; was an understatement. It looked like an alcoholic who smoked 40 a day and I’m sure I saw ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on his knuckles. He even tried to do a deal on an early release for good behaviour. He was a lovely looking dog, but after he jumped up at Adam twice, we just had to say no and he wasn’t for us. They did have some puppies there, but they were Collie crosses and no-one knew what they were crossed with; might have been Shetland Pony or dingo. So with all that in mind, we decided to get a puppy – at least then he could get used to the kids slowly and grow up with them and have more tolerance for ear pulling, tail flicking and pencil sharpening incidents!

We also decided to go for a pedigree so we knew what we were getting in terms of breed and temperament. It means more money for the dog, but it will be worth it if we can trust him with the kids. So, with all that info, we were left with a shortlist of three breeds: Dobermann, Dalmation and Weimaraner. I did some searching on the internet and found puppies for all three breeds, but Paul and I decided to go and see the breeder with the Weimaraners. We took Sam and Darcie to school and whizzed off with Adam to see them………. And fell in love instantly.

Given that, I would like to introduce you all to.........

Mr Pentley Bark
(those of you who know, we used to live in Pentley Park in WGC and Pentley BARK just seemed like the perfect name for him).

We can’t pick Pentley up until Thursday after the kids break up from school because…. Paul’s operation was brought forward. The hospital phoned on Monday to see if Paul would be available on Thursday, so we trundled off to Fremantle at 5am on Thursday to take Paul for his surgery!

The operation went well and the surgeons are happy that they managed to remove all of the tumour; they’ve sent it off to pathology, so fingers crossed it will all be ‘normal’. It was quite a nasty operation, so you can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from Paul this morning (Friday), to say ‘can you come and get me? I’m allowed home.’

He looks like he’s had a run-in with the back end of a London bus and has VERY stong painkillers that he’s abusing when he can take no more, but all things considered, I think it looks better than I thought.

Oh dear )o:

He’s got to go back to have his stitches out on Tuesday (all 15 of them!) and then (what we didn’t realise), he’s got to have another general anaesthetic in about 10 days where they remove all the packing that they’ve stuffed his cheek with. At least it’s done now and hopefully following the removal of all the packing, this should be the end of things – apart from the constant checking he will have to go through to keep an eye out for any new tumours.

Get a load of that hooter!

The staff were absolutely fantastic. As it was a teaching hospital, everything was explained over and over and nothing was too much trouble. It has to be said that all the nursing staff Paul has come into contact with have been amazing and it’s been wonderful that the care has been so good. He’s sitting here tonight though, looking pathetic with a device like a tampon in a sling hung over his ears and resting under is nose. I really thought that the nurses had improvised this dressing until Paul produced a new one, in sealed packaging that was exactly the same! His tampon’s not that good though – he can’t roller skate or go paragliding, or anything!

The house has moved on again – we have plumbing pipes installed now and they have run all the electrical cabling for switches and sockets. I haven’t got any photos of that stuff as we had to limbo under all the scaffolding and dice with death to go and have a look the other week whilst we lassoed the kids in the car – otherwise they’d be out and climbing all over the scaffolding like a bunch of naughty monkeys from a safari park! The solar hot water system has been fitted now to the roof and they want us to OK the render colour so that this can be done. Next step is plastering inside and render to the outside. Amazing really to think that if they got their finger out, they could probably get it done very quickly, but they still anticipate it’ll take the best part of 12 months to complete.

Great! Hot water - no bath yet though!

The council have also been out and approved the planning for the swimming pool, so that’s another job jobbed.

Adam’s potty training is complete, apart from the very odd accident. He’s still very clingy though. Here’s a photo of him after he barricaded himself in my bedroom and cried himself to sleep when I popped out to pick Darcie up from school today.

Ar*e!

He got very jealous when we went to see Pentley. I gave Pentley a cuddle, only to have Adam tug at my arm, saying ‘put doggy down Mummy – cuddle Abam’. He seems to have warmed to the idea though and now every time we get in the car, he asks if we’re going to pick ‘Pegley’ up. We’re off to the supply shop tomorrow to get his basket, bowls and all the associated goodies. Can’t wait!

Anyone for crabs?

This weekend was the Mandurah Crab Fest. It's an annual event; food and wine based to celebrate everything good in WA food. There are lots of fairground rides (although at $7 a pop, I'm glad my daughter was considered a midget and unable to ride (o: )

Darcie and Adam try to hook a duck.

We met up with some friends, so wandered around, let the kids spend a few bucks and then settled down ready to watch the fireworks at 9pm. As it turns out, the firworks were very good; they were let off from both sides of the river and they had fireworks that exploded in the shape of a heart and ones that looked like they'd gone horribly wrong and just fizzed and landed in the water... until 30 seconds later, they started into life and spiralled round, letting off lovely colours into the night sky. This was much better than the 'parade' which took place at 5pm. It was billed as 'filling the streets of Mandurah with all the life and colour of carnival'..... it was pants! It was full of teenagers full of attitude, dressed up as little lolitas with faces plastered in make up supposedly masquerading as 'dancers' and a local radio PA van, a few sad looking floats and a man dressed up as a crab!

I ask you; hardly Mardi Gras!

So, apart from the excitement of crabs...... well, as you know (OK, belatedly!), Paul's op has been postponed until 29th March - just as well really, as work was REALLY busy last week and I'd never had coped! The kids enjoyed wacky hair day on Friday and went off to school with red and blue hair in 'free dress'. This Friday we have the first ever Secret Harbour Primary School beach carnival to look forward to. The kids walk to the beach and spend the day there playing 'sports-day' type games in and out of the water. They'll then have a BBQ for lunch and more fun and games in the afternoon. Hopefully they'll then be knackered for the weekend (o:

I know I've got loads more to tell you, but my mind's gone blank! So I'll just post this little update with a few pictures and post another entry soon.

Take care guys - email me )o: I'm lonely (o;

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Arthur (as in 'arfa house) now has his roof tiles on.

We worked really hard in our garden this week and shifted two and a half trailer loads of gravel to make the garden look nicer. What do you think? Fancy a PIMMS?

And this is how well the grass came back after we fertilised it and treated it. We had it cut on Thursday and it looks cool.

Sorry :o/

.... to the woman in the corner going purple with her legs and everything else crossed for good luck for Paul's op..... it was postponed. Should have told you lot sooner, but it's been a really busy week - sorry!

We got a phone call on monday to tell us that an urgent case needed Paul's slot - always a possibility as Paul is being treated as part of a cancer unit, so god bless to the poorly patient who took Thursday's slot )o: So, the op has now been rescheduled to 29th March, which might be a good thing as it's the week before Easter and hopefully things will be a little quieter business wise (plus I won't have to rush from pillar to post with the kids). Business has been fab this week, which is great! Paul's birthday in particular was a very good day. Just as well I didn't plan on taking him for lunch somewhere! We all went out to dinner in the evening instead (I'm getting too long in the tooth for lunch...... I just know what happens when I try and plan things during the day).

Hooray, horray, it's a holi, holiday!

It was labour day here in WA and as such, we had an extra day off - woo hoo! Mind you, the rest of Oz wasn't on it's hols, so Paul had a few phone calls to deal with , but all in all, not a bad sort of day.

On Saturday we went to do a bit of shopping; returning faulty lights, food shopping, that sort of thing, then on Sunday, we went up to the 'big smoke' of Perth to get a better selection of stuff. We were after two little coffee tables and a sofa bed......... Six hours later, we retuned with (well, not literally - it's all being delivered - a bedroom suite for Paul and I, three bar stools for the breakfast bar (god, how 1980's!) and a microsuede sofa with a chaise - basically, one seat is longer than the others and the kids can fight over who gets to lounge with their feet up, getting sand all over the upholstery! So - a successful shopping trip in one way, but not in as much as the one shope we were headed for (Ikea) wasn't even bl**dy well open! Never mind. We were very decisive and came away with a few bargains. The sofa only cost us $475 - that's less than £200 for a brand new sofa! You'll love it when you see it, I'll post a picture when it arrives (o: the bedroom suite is huge. It's a hardwood sleigh bed (King size, so I never have to even so much as be breathed on my Paul in bed anymore!) with two bedside tables, a double chest of drawers and a mirror. This was a bit of a bargain too at less than £800! Gorgeous!

Today, however, we gave the kids the day off from shopping and took the boat out. We tried a new route today and a new boat ramp. We actually went out into the sea! and headed for Penguin Island where we went with Mum the other week. It went very well - although the boat ramp was very busy and people were up our chuffer whilst we were getting the boat on and off the trailer; but we sped round to the Island and came into close contact with lots of dolphins. After a year of taking crappy photos of the sea, I managed to get this today, and I am SO chuffed!

You don't know how long I've waited for a picture like this!

We waited ages with the dolphins; there must have been about 8 at one point, all playing and fishing, then we pulled up near the island and actually used our anchor for the first time. It was failry successful, although our technique could probably use some work! The kids and Paul hopped out for a snorkel and splash about and then we headed back for home. Lovely! As we were drifting along watching the dolphins, another boat owner shouted out 'it doesn't get much better than this, does it?' and he was quite right. Moments like that are magical.

This was on my camera from Mum's visit. We went to another Dam on a reccie trip to see about taking the boat there. It's quite a large dam that they allow boat-owners to use and it's very safe if we ever wanted to learn to water ski, or something. Although it's a good hours drive from our house and I think we'd loose the will to live in that journey time and go off the idea completely - probably pull in to a McDonalds, forget where we were going, have a shake and a burger and turn round and head for home again!

The house has got it's hat on; hip, hip, hip, hooray!

And finally for today; exciting news of the house variety. We now have a roof! OK, it's not very water-tight, but hey, we're easily pleased! That bit only cost us another $68,000, so please look impressed!

Well we're in!

If this is gibberish and makes absolutely no sense, then please forgive me! It's 11.30pm and we moved house today! I am absolutely knackered and should be asleep in the lovely land of nod, but my gorgeous little three year old is still wide awake and watching Blues Clues )o:

The move went well really; we had two guys and a van from a local removal company and they were lovely (had to do three trips, mind - although I'm convincing myself that it was a small van - not that we've just got loads and loads of crap - OK, humour me, all right?)

It 'feels' right all ready and really homely. We've bust our ba**s painting and carpet cleaning and getting everything organised for the move and it's been worthwhile. We've been able to have a few nicities - like being able to connect our fridge to the water to get ice; like a 'bing bong' door entry system on the front door; like an alarm system. It's SO lovely to know that we can hang a picture where WE want to, not where there's an existing hook only! I think it'll really make this place feel like home, now we're able to put some roots down.

We've had another shi**y letter from the Estate Agents, informing us AGAIN that we're in arrears with our rent and we haven't paid anything since 17th of last month (OK, so what was the $500 cash we've got the receipt for then - scotch mist?), so it will give us great pleasure to shove their keys where the sun doesn't shine tomorrow!

The kids are all well and ploughing on with school. Darcie's loving the reading books (they are completely boring me to tears though - they are just SO repetative). Sam finishes his two weeks of school swimming tomorrow and all I can say is thank god I bought my Tumble dryer with me! The weather's not been too good this past week and the house is full of the smell of tumble drying chlorine - lovely! Sam's doing really well with his swimming (having said that, both he and Darcie had a day off from their lessons today - although I did have a legitimate excuse (o: ) and his teacher has told him he's passed level 5, so that's great.

I've got to try and wean Adam back into his own bedroom now after 3 months of bedding down with Paul and I! The conversation I had with him today went along these lines:

Me: 'Adam, do you like your lovely new bedroom?'
Addy: 'Yes'.

Me: 'Do you like your lovely new truck light in your room?'
Addy: 'Yes, it's brill yant'

Me: 'How do you like your duvet cover with Thomas on?'
Addy: 'It's tanstic'

Me: 'What do you think of your big-boy bed?'
Addy: 'cool'

Me: 'So where are you going to sleep tonight?'
Addy: '..........With Darcie'

I give up! I'm sure it'll work out in the end /o:

We'll the lights have dimmed, the credits have rolled on Blues Clues and my day seems to have finished. Got to be up early for the carpet cleaner at the old house; he's coming at 8am! Obscene! I'll let you know how we get on with the Estate Agent and how many firemen it takes to extract the keyring :D :D :D

Night night xxXXxx

Just a quick update as we're putting in 14 hour days at the moment, but I just wanted to tell you that we 'completed' on the house purchase today! We now own this:

Woo Hoo!

We've spent the last week painting. The entire house was a very cold blue, so we're painting each room in turn a warm, parchment colour. It looks much better and makes the rooms appear a lot larger. I'll post some 'before' and 'afters' once I scraped the paint off my hands.

We're not doing too badly; so far we've painted 6 rooms, had air conditioning installed, had a new hob fitted, an alarm installed, a dishwasher installed and plumbing for a fridge. Tomorrow we've got an electrician coming to put lights up and install a new oven, Mr Foxtel coming to connect us and a man is coming to fit an automatic garage door. We've got the carpet cleaners booked for Wednesday and we're supposed to be moving in on Thursday. We've then got a couple of days to get the rental tidied and a few repairs (after Darcie put a hole in the fence with her scooter !!!). Can you see why we're a little tired?

Paul also went to the hospital today to meet with the anaesthetist to get everything ready for his op in a few weeks. They shocked him by saying depending on how well the scars heal, he could be in hospital for 6 DAYS! ARGH! I resign now! Apart from a little confusion over what side of his face the tumour was nestling in, decisions were made and her was sent on his way. Kind of took the shine off completing on the house really - always the same with us, whenever we get good news, something major comes along to wee on our sparkler!

Just a very quick one tonight - I'm knackered!

Wednesday’s pants on a Monday?

Well, we’re on the count down to Mum’s return now. Two sleeps to go and she’ll be at the airport waiting for her business class pampering (what do you mean, it’s the only rest she’ll have had in 3 months?).

The Australia Day celebrations were cool. We watched the fireworks from a suburb called Applecross, across the water from Perth. We arrived there early (probably WAY too early as it was a roasting hot day), packed up with our little sun tent, bbq stuff and cooked meats for later on.

Darcie glows in the evening on Australia Day.

The kids played on the park and entertained themselves quite well for the length of time we sat there waiting (o:} The fireworks were amazing and all set to music and commentary which was played over a local radio station. It was a fab day – very emotional to think that three years ago we were there at the same place and we hadn’t even applied for the visa. There was a massive thunderstorm at the same time as the fireworks, so the natural backdrop was beautiful too.

Sam sports his Aussie tattoos.

The kids are now back at school. Sam was a little upset when he realised that he wasn’t in the same class as his ‘best mate’ last year, Chad, but perked up a little once he recognised a few names in his class. Darcie was happy just to be in Year One, and floated back into school like the little poppet that she is. Amy is in her class this year though, so I suppose that helps a little.

Adam celebrated his birthday and is now the ripe old age of 3!

The fastest opener in the West - Mr Cheese.

Thanks to everyone for his cards, it was lovely of you to think of him. He enjoyed a day playing in the garden with Nanny whilst Darcie and Sam went to school. In the evening, we went to the BBQ at the golf course and had a few bevvies to celebrate (didn’t we Mum???).

At the golf club. Can you remember this bit, Mum?

Mum got well and truly blotto and fell asleep on a chair overlooking the golf course. We had to pour her into the car at the end of the evening and stop abruptly twice one the way home……… OK – enough of embarrassing Mum (although Sam’s got a LOT of mileage out of that event!). The worst bit was she couldn’t remember any of it the next morning – but at least she didn’t have a stinking hang over.

We all had a bit of a laugh and let our hair down, so didn’t do much on the Saturday – just took the kids swimming for a couple of hours. Adam got very confident in his arm bands. He must have decided that 3 is going to be his year and he is going to conquer the water (and the sand – both his pet hates!). He got a lovely Percy ride on-train, some more trains for his track and a sleeping bag to keep him warm on the boat. He also got another present that Mum has subsequently reminded me that I’ve left in the garage. I completely forgot all about it (if you knew how hectic our life was at the moment, you’d understand why…..), so he has an un-wrapped gift that I’m left wondering what to do with. How long til Xmas?

We took the boat out again on Sunday and there were lots of bushfires blazing out of control around the area. In fact they are all centered around Dwellingup where we went on the train ride into the bush. This area was devastated by bush fires back in the 60’s, so it’s real shame that the area’s been struck again. As we pootled up stream, we were flagged over by a couple who wanted a lift to the other side of the river to a boat ramp further down. Apparently they had been left stranded by the fire and had no way of getting back to their car. Paul obliged and took them back – glad he was driving as it was really windy which makes it harder to steer the boat.

It’s been a real week for realising the power of mother nature. The bush fires are blazing all around Perth, knocking the power supply out and devastating communities and on Friday we heard that an ex-pat lost his life in Mandurah whilst swimming with his boys. One of his children got caught in a rip and he went in to save him, only the tide got the better of him and he drowned. The worst of it was, their Mum was overseas and they were at the beach with family friends. The family post on the ex pats site that I’m a member of and it’s left the whole site devastated. The tragedy of it just doesn’t bear thinking about. Moving your life to the other side of the world, knowing no-one, only to lose your husband after a family day out on the beach. God bless them – what a dark, dark time.

Oh and the opening title refers to Adam’s big boy pants of the day. They are yellow and have Wednesday on them even though it’s only Monday – god we like to live dangerously in this house! Sam however, could wear Wednesday’s for a week and it’s guaranteed that they’ll be correct for a whole 24 hours!

Ready for school and raring to go

The kids are now back at school and appear to be enjoying it now they have got back into the swing of things. Darcie is lucky enough to have her best friend Amy in her class again this year, although Sam was a little upset when he noticed that Chad is in a different class to him. Sam was quite upset about it for the first 24 hours, but has since bonded with a Pommie kid in his class called Robbie and they are the new ‘Sam and Chad’ – getting separated by the teacher for giggling and being disruptive…… same old, same old! Sam has swimming again this term for two weeks starting on Monday. Darcie escapes as it’s only Years 4 and above that swim in term 1. Just another thing to remember in the mornings. Now they both have homework and reading and library on different days, I’m having to rely on the name of the day on Adam’s pants to let me know what’s happening (that’s where I’m going wrong then!).

Last week, Mum did her souvenir shopping and bulk bought koalas, kangaroos and kangaroo scrotum (is that the plural) made into little purses which she is stuffing with badges and fridge magnets etc. Took us 2 hours on the floor in Mum’s bedroom to wrap it all in clingfilm so she know’s which koala is for who when she returns, so please don’t complement Mum on her wrapping – it’ll be me who needs plastic knees at the age of fifty as Mum only peeled off the pricetags (o: I hope you enjoy your souvenirs (if you were on the list (o;). I know it’s all crap – but it’s Australian crap (made in China!). I think it’s funny that a few of you asked for a Aussie koala brought back – they don’t actually live in Western Australia and the only place we see them are wildlife parks or zoos!! A typical ‘Aussie’ icon though I guess.

Last Sunday, we decided to take a trip to Penguin Island. As we ran out of time to go over to Rottnest (weather was against us a few times), we thought we’d try this place. It’s literally only half an hour from our house and is a small island (well – about 5 in fact) that can be reached by walking over a sand bar – although very dangerous! We chose to hop on the little boat that takes you over and then had a trip on a glass bottomed boat to see more wildlife around the island. How lucky were we? In the space of two hours we say seals, a dolphin, pelicans, penguins, terns…… loads!

Pelicans (or Stephen, as Sam calls them all - don't ask!).

Aaahhh - little Fairy penguins.

Seals having a rest on the beach - hard life, eh?

A close up dolphin shot....... or is it?

The island was beautiful and SO close – I can’t believe we’ve never ventured there before! You can’t moor your boats actually on the islands, but you can anchor slightly off-shore and swim in, so we’ll do that one day with our boat. I think you’ll agree, it was absolutely stunning!

Adam walks home along the bridge of poo.

The island is home to about 1500 penguins. They are ‘Fairy penguins’, one of the smallest breeds in the world. They were just shedding their feathers which meant they had 3 weeks where they couldn’t leave the island to eat or drink, so they were a little stressed. They can travel as far as 125km from the island in ONE day!!

It's gorgeous!

It was a lovely trip out and just affirms how beautiful this place is. Sometimes we feel very lucky to be living here………. And other times……well, we just don’t (o:

I'm feeling a little peckish - I know, I'll munch on an Adam!

Darcie is today celebrating her 6th birthday! Happy Birthday sweetheart! She’s had a fab day (I think) with some lovely pressies and a party at the Fun Fact’ry in Rockingham with 7 friends from school. It’s very similar to Castaway Kids, but they have ‘themed‘ party rooms.

Darcie and Adam ride the little train at the Fun Fac'try.

Darcie had hers in the fairy room; they also have a Bob The Builder room, Harry Potter room, Haunted House and Superheroes rooms. They are all painted with murals and fabric hung from the ceilings and look fab! Adam invited Oscar (Amy’s younger brother and Adam’s idol) and Sam invited Robbie. Darcie got a purple rechargeable motorbike/scooter that she now uses to terrorise the neighbourhood. She loves it and whizzes off.

She starts her job for Australia Post on Monday (o:

Unfortunately, the first time she tried it, we forgot to tell her to try the brakes and she went off at such a rate of knots, I was terrified she’d end up in a heap at the end of the street! Luckily she managed and is getting the hang of it really well. I’ve got her a job as holiday relief for our postman (who never leaves his bike on his round!). She also received a Barbie sleeping bag, Bratz dolls from Nanny D, a slush puppy maker from Uncle Michael and family and a basketball net from Nanny B. Very lucky girly!

So, on to other news. As from this Wednesday (an Australian Wednesday, so it might actually be the following Tuesday), we will be the proud owners of a new house. We have been so hounded by the real estate agents (they truly have treated us apaulingly!) and the builders seem to be taking forever to build the new one, that we’ve bit the bullet and bought somewhere that we can call home for the ‘interim’.

Our 'new' house.

We got a bit of a bargain in as much as the house has been on the market for ages and needs a little tlc. We’re due to ‘settle’ (Aussie form of completion) on Wednesday and we have the air con people geared up for Thursday, the carpets cleaned on Wed, new dishwasher (thanks, Mum (o: ), hob and oven being delivered on Thursday and an alarm installed on Monday! In the mean time, we will be painting it to make it more ‘ours’. I’m excited at the thought of being able to have something that’s ours after such a long time, although as soon as the new house is finished, the Aussie government are demanding that we sell it, rather than rent it out /o: If, however we got our permanent residency in the meantime – we can do what the devil we want with it. We are able to carry on living in it though and rent out our dream house - (makes no sense? Welcome to Australia!!!) ARGH! They reckon this will increase housing stock – what difference does it make which house we rent???

So, I think Mum is looking forward to returning home to get away from our stress! I think it’s made her realise just how stressful our little lives are – what with moving, the business and the kids (OK, I know, we don’t help ourselves with some of them (o:), our lives are just a whirlwind. The days just fly by and the weeks pass just as quickly. I don’t think Mum envies our lifestyle, but then, it was equally stressful in the UK. The only plus side was at least Paul had a few mates to go and sink a few beers with. It’s hard to make friends over here and when you do, they’re all in bed by 9.30pm! It’ll be sad to see her go though and I know the kids will miss her hugely. Never mind – we’ll have to plan her next visit and I’ve done her a nice photo album of her time here to cherish the memories.

So, consequently, as of 1st March 2007 we will have a new address. I will email as many people as I can think of with the new details, but if I forget you, or can’t get through, just email me and I’ll send you the details. I’m going to try to keep the ‘local’ call number from the UK the same, but it may go a bit Pete Tong whilst we get the new phone number sorted and transferred, so bear with us.

Here’s a little update on the build as well. They have done some work on it this week and the roof carpenters are due next week – but we’ll take that promise with a huge pinch of salt too!

Slow.........

Hopefully I’ll be able to update you once we’ve moved into our new house and before Paul’s operation, but don’t hold your breath…… there are boxes to be packed and then unpacked and I’m losing the will to live……. If you hear on the newsheadlines that a woman in WA goes mad with packing tape and binds her families gobs shut in a blind fury, that’ll be me!

Until next time…….. come and pack a box for me?

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