House!

After weeks of traipsing round dodgy houses (hence learning to read between the lines of aussie estate agent blurbs – low maintenance garden = concrete yard) and applying for nice ones which we didn’t get, we’ve finally hit the jackpot. From Saturday we will be the proud tenants of a house in Peel Street, Kew, Melbourne. It’s a typical Melbourne house: a long, thin Victorian bungalow with three bedrooms off the hallway, bathroom and separate laundry, opening out on a big open planning kitchen and living area with polished boards and lots of light. Plus a compact bijou (teeny tiny) backyard. I’ll upload some of the agent’s pics so you (and we!) can start to visualise it.

Kew is a leafy suburb to the NE of the city centre. It’s not exactly where we imagined we might live but it’ll do nicely. It has all the right local amenities for our stage of life: parks with exciting equipment, cafes, YMCA swimming pool and gym, an apparently lively local church or two, trams into the city centre, etc. (This whole blog is starting to feel a bit estate agenty, apols …) W will be cycling an estimated 30 mins to work at Heidelburg once he buys a new bike.

The next few days will be busy (so what’s new) with choosing & buying furniture, white goods (rental houses come with nothing), bedding etc. We expect to spend most of Saturday in IKEA and then most of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, swearing at flatpack instructions. We are really excited about having a home, getting out of the apartment (or ‘hoe-tail’ in Thea speak) and getting on with life. There may be a break in communications while we get our broadband set up. Be grateful for rip off Britain: broadband is twice the price over here.

City life

For the last 10 days we've been staying in the Quest Serviced Apartments, Southbank, Melbourne. Here's the view out of our 10th floor window. I can't believe how quickly we've adapted to being here, developing our own little rituals. There are three lifts and we always play 'choose your lift' whereby V, W & T go and stand in front of the door they think will open first. Amazingly, 95% of the time, Thea gets it right. When she gets it wrong she tends to throw a wobbly. W has started work. His first project is on a hospital to the north of town in a place called Heidelberg ('You've gone all that way to be sent to work in GERMANY???' W's mum). It's on site which means lots of liasing with client, contractors, etc plus learning the ropes from colleagues. We're all missing each other loads as we'd got used to being togther as a family 24/7 for the last month. The laydeez have done trips to the Botanical gardens, the Aquarium, the shops, and the galleries where we chanced upon an acrobatic show for kids called a Barrel of Monkeys which Thea loved so much we went to see it the next day too.

We are really hoping to get our own place to rent soon. Turns out there are more people wanting to rent than houses at the mo and we've had a couple of disappointments, applying for houses which we didn't get or had already been let. So it feels a bit like limbo land: once we know where we are going to be settled we can start playgroups, swimming, library trips, etc and get established. Patience required! Anyway, this Friday is Australia day which means everyone gets a day off work and we can all have some fun. Hurrah.

Jetlag and holidays

Not only did W's new boss Jenny come to the airport to pick us up, she also lent us a company car for our week's jaunt to Morninginton Peninsula, an hour or so from the city. Promising start eh? We based ourselves in a small seaside town called Rosebud, at Mirrabooka appartments (owned by a lovely couple who made us feel very welcome). Having jetlag with two small kids was a nightmare initially: we found ourselves overwhelmed by that 'falling asleep at the wheel' feeling at the precise times when T & D needed lots of attention or supervision - bath time was the worst. But within a few days we were all into the swing of it and having a ball, visiting a different beach every day, exploring trendy Sorrento, exclusive Portsea, dramatic Blairgowrie. We discovered that Ozzie Dads don't normally make sand constructions for their kids, cos everytime W built T a beach boat, car, plane etc, passers by reacted like it was a work of art. We drank a lot of iced coffee (W & V) & milkshake (T). Started to get the hang of Melbourne weather, which can change by 10 degrees from day to day. Dulcie didn't dig 37 degrees tho...

Big journey

Heathrow to Singapore. Will watched 'The Departed'. Thea watched Dora the Explorer (one episode, back to back, 17 times). Vics watched the seatbelt sign light up repeatedly as an over zealous captain judged a few tiny bumps as ‘turbulence’. Each time a sleeping Dulcie had to be oiked out of the bassinet and strapped onto Mum’s lap. On a couple of occasions the seatbelt sign was off again by the time Vics had completed the challenge. Singapore. Hot. Wet! Very groovy hotel (Siloso Beach Resort) tho not so groovy sharing room with children whose body clocks said morning began at 3am. Much administering of Medised. Spent our day in the swimming pool, then visited Underwater World where Thea was thrilled to spot Nemo, plus a few of his stunt doubles. Singapore to Melbourne. Another night flight, but shorter this time so whilst D & T snored the hours away, V & W got no sleep at all.