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!

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.