Culture Shock

We're noticing things about Australia which are, well, a bit different from home. So we thought we’d make an ongoing list of them before they become so familiar that we no longer see them. So here, in a completely random order, are some the first four observations:

1. Cafes are frankly marvellous in Melbourne, and there are tons of them. Just our little High Street here in Kew has five or six, and none of them Starbucks or Costa! Most of them do mouth watering breakfasts, and so we're getting into a weekend 'breakfast out' habit that's going to be hard to break when I finally stop needing the million extra daily calories that breastfeeding requires. The icing on the cafe cake is the babyccino, a child sized portion of frothy milk often extravagantly decorated with chocolate, marshmallows, or sprinkles, sometimes in dolls house style weeny cups and saucers, and a lot of the time totally free. Thea is becoming a connoisseur.

2. The spiders in Oz are much, much bigger. Thankfully haven't seen any huge ones round the house but down by the coast I saw a colossal* one on the car roof as I was on my way to get Dulcie out after leaving her to sleep there. AND I HAD LEFT THE CAR DOOR OPEN SO SHE GOT PLENTY OF AIR!!!! I wouldn't get in the car the next day till Will had conducted a thorough anti arachnid check.

3. The Wiggles. This is a phenomenon with both positive and negative aspects. For those not in the know, The Wiggles (www.thewiggles.com.au/au/about/) are four mildly irritating middle aged men who have made a fortune by dressing up like the crew of the SS Enterprise (not deliberately, I don’t think) and writing and performing songs for small kids on TV and in live shows. Wiggles endorsed products are everywhere. It’s inescapable, and most Australian kids have an addiction to them. Thea is going the same way, but with pleasing side effects. I bought her some Wiggles ‘toddler toilet wipes’ (pictured). She loves them so much that she keeps taking herself off for a poo with a satisfyingly high level of bum wiping success.

4. People here still use top loading washing machines. At first I thought this was a bad thing, as they look so 70s and use a ton of water, but now I am learning to love ours in an Anthea Turner perfect housewife kind of way. If you forget to wash something and find it lurking in a corner after you’ve set the cycle going, you simply open the lid and pop it in. Marvellous! Also, if you have a really deep hot bath one day when you don’t really need one, you can assuage the drought induced guilt by carrying your used water along the corridor, bucket by dripping bucket, and pouring it in the top loader to do a load of washing (not when you’re washing my clothes you don’t – Will).

*Every time I think about it, it seems bigger. May have been the size of Thea's hand...?

Fab few days

We've been having a lot of fun in the last few days. We had a wonderful long weekend away at Phillip Island, about two hours south of Melbourne. We stayed right by the beach and although the weather was (for the first time since we've been here) a bit iffy, Thea still managed to frolic in the sea quite happily, pretending to be a 'sea creature' for hours on end. But the top stuff was the wildlife: we visited a koala sanctuary where you toddle round a boardwalk up high enough to be able to see the little fellas at the top of the trees really well, and we went to the famous penguin parade one evening. You go to a certain beach at the end of the island where there's a colony of fairy penguins. Every night just after sunset they come waddling up the beach in little groups, and head up the hill to find their burrows. It was pretty magical being on the beach under the stars and being able to observe such endearing creatures at such close range. Thea was spellbound. Dulcie slept through the whole thing. Annoyingly our camera was totally out of charge for the whole weekend, so I've borrowed acouple of pics off the net to give you an idea.

Where's Dulcie?!

Ok, ok, so I totally forgot about Dulcie Grace in the last post. There have been several requests to see a bit more of the little lady, so I will upload some recent pics for you.

She is doing very well. 20 weeks old today! Can't believe that 20 weeks have passed since that painful October morning, seems longer and less all at the same time. She is thriving. She's stuck to her centile lines and is bang on average for weight, slightly taller than average and a bigger head than average: all those brains I expect. She's a happy, healthy and co-operative bub who doesn't seem to mind long stretches of time sitting in a bouncy chair/laying in a buggy/kicking on a changing mat etc while everybody else gets on with their stuff around her. She has gigantic vast huge eyes that are commented on by everyone who meets her. An average Dulcie day involves lots of eating (still on milk but prob heading towards babyrice soon), burping, grinning, pooing, more grinning, napping, grinning; you get the picture. She sleeps well at night, ok-ish in the day, and that's how we like it. Her big sis is mostly lovely to her and recently donated several of her favourite toys, unprompted, to 'cheer Dulcie up.' Aaah. The consensus seems to be that T takes after Daddy's side of the family and D is more like Mummy, but you can decide for yourselves.

Transmission resumes... time for an update

Sorry to keep you all in suspenders, but we have been without internet for 3 weeks and so blogging has been tricky. But we're finally up and running and got loads to tell you. We're nicely settled into our new house (address of which has now been removed from the blog after we read scary article on internet security) with most of the furniture we need apart from poor old Dulcie who sleeps in the travel cot in an empty room. W has purchased his Merida Speeder and now cycles to work. The first week he got it, temperatures were hitting 35-8 most afternoons; we started keeping flannels in the freezer to revive him. The laydeez have got a proper social diary in place with playgroup on Mondays, Thea's kinder on Tues and Weds afternoons, and music group on Fridays. We've just started having people round to play and visiting other people's houses, so it's starting to feel much less lonely for Vics in the days. We've joined a church called Christchurch in Hawthorn which is very welcoming. Homegroup starts with a beer! (See www.christchurchhawthorn.org if you're interested in that sort of thing).

Just before we left the flat it was Australia day and we had a great bank holiday Monday taking in all the free entertainment in town. Several of the major parks were full of merry go rounds, bouncy castles, ice cream vans, antique cars etc etc and we ended up spending most of the day there. On a stage were lots of little girls doing callesthenics (cross between gym, ballet and dance) with glitzy leotards and too much makeup and Thea was enthralled. Since watching she has taken to striking dramatic poses and waving her arms around like Kate Bush.

Feb 16th was T's 3rd birthday and it actually got celebrated three or four times. On the day itself things were quite low key but some clever people got their parcels to arrive from UK so that was excting. On the Saturday she had a party at the home of a family called the Faulks (who are Christy, John, Tessa, Charlie and Millie). Christy was in Kenya in 88 with AIM teaching alongside my good friend Lorna, but she and I never really met then. Lorna put us touch and it's great getting to know them as a family. Anyway, the Faulks provided a spectacular cake which has really set an uncomfortably high standard for future birthday cakes. When T set eyes on it her little face lit up - aaaah. We all had a swim in their pool and a lovely tea. On the Tuesday T started Possums, her kindergarten, and it's the tradition to take little cakes if it's your birthday so all the kids sing to you. She felt very special. Although she was a bit miffed when someone else had a birthday a few days later and she was no longer birthday girly.

We also had our first overnight guest who was Mr Ian Wroe, friend from Bristol now resident in NZ, in Melbourne on Business. Ian wanted it publically recorded that for the first time ever he didn't over order takeaway (which was a fine Malaysian little number.) Photo evidence provided.

All in all we are doing well and enjoying ourselves. Anyway, more updates soon as this is getting a bit long and unwieldy. Great to be back!