Another visitor from Blighty

On 21st May, my Mom arrived in Sydney from the UK. Mom was obviously a bit dubious of the long haul flight but after travelling for almost 24hrs she seemed remarkably fresh and happy.
It was great to see my Mom again after almost a year apart. We speak practically daily via Skype but It's not the same as face to face contact.

Mom had had a great journey over and taken it all in her stride. To think before my Dad passed away, I don't think she would have entertained the idea of solo travel, let alone the other side of the planet.

I had booked a room at the Holiday Inn located at Darling Harbour for the night, so after a good nights rest we set off to explore the "Big City"

We had a wander around darling Harbour and then took a ferry round to Circular Quay travelling under the bridge to the wharf. We went round the Opera house and then to "the Rocks" where there was a street market selling lovely hand crafted items.

The weather unfortunately wasn't too kind to us but didn't dampen our spirits.

I took Mom to the Queen Victoria building and round some of the main streets before we set off on the five hour return journey to Port Macquarie.

Rachel's weight update

Since we arrived in Australia I've managed to lose 20kg (a total of 36kg since October 2008 when Jessie was 3 months old). I've still got more to lose, but at last it feels achievable!!!!

Boys weekend at Diamond Head

Both Will and Ray have boys about the same age as Jacob. They decided to have a "boys" weekend at Diamond Head.

Diamond Head is a National Parks camping ground about 30mins from our house near Laurieton. It is a lovely little spot, in the middle of a clearing with camp spots where you can have a fire and pitch your tent surrounded by tame Roos. There are clean toilet blocks and a beautifull horeshoe beach where you can drive your 4x4.

The boys had an awesome time. The kids rode around on their bikes and went bodyboarding at the beach. The adults went surfing and took Rays car for a drive on the beach.
The water temperature was about 20 degrees Celcius and the weather was beutifull all weekend.

Ray showed his bush skills by cooking a rabbit stew in the camp oven which was delicious. Unfortunatley the Roos decided to rifle through the bags while we were at the beach and ate the fresh bread to accompany it!!!

Diamond Head is definatley a spot we will be returning to very soon.

Camping at Easter

Through our friends Will and Mel, we met Ray and Kylie.

Ray and Kylie have a son Jacob's age called Jesse and twin boys Liam and Ethan aged two.

Ray is also Nige's new surf buddy.

Ray and Kylie invited us to spend Easter with them at Kylie's fathers farm. The farm is located at Nulla Nulla which is a couple of hours from Port.

We had no camping gear whatsoever and due to go in a few days. Our neighbours who have also become good friends Colin and Karen; lent us an Ice box, water containers, and lots of other goodies. We borrowed a big tent which we have now bought from them and Nigel hurridly bought a cooker, gas lantern and other items to allow us to camp comfortably. Nige borrowed a trailer from work and we packed it all and set off on our trip.

We had an absolutley awesome time at the farm. We had wonderful weather after the forecast were so sketchy, all the days were lovely.

We camped in group in a field at the top of a hill near the farm house. Kylies father cut down a rotten tree and left us the task of burning all of it over the weekend which gave us a terrific camp fire. The old horse bundy came around to visit and was promptly saddled and ridden around the paddock with the children first and then Nige took a ride on him which was his a new experience.

There was an old Ute which ferried us all around and down to the river, the kids loved travelling in the back of that!!!

At the end of the lower field, there is a river, the river is quite shallow with little rapids. The kids jumped on body boards and surfed off down the river loving ever minute of it.

Will and Nige, decided to check the crudentials of their 4x4's and went off playing climbing hills and ruining the grass. Oops!!!

Easter morning, the kids had an easter egg hunt and consumed great amounts of chocolate.

We made some great new friends at the farm and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. The kids had a wonderful time too and got on great with all the other children there.

Jacob's birthday

Jacob celebrated his fifth birthday on Wednesday. He had some lovely cards and presents from his Nannies and friends in the UK. It was a pre school day, so he had to take in a big tub of ice cream for his friends.

Pongrass

I find it so amazing here.

I know the UK has lots to offer, for example some fantastic scenery and beautiful historical buildings but I have been in England for over fourty years. Australia is new to me and I want to see and do things that I haven't experienced before.

I have taken up surfing, not great at it but can catch a wave and stand up. So what next?
Port Macquarie has some beautiful water ways, rivers and estuaries. We have admired them from the shore and wondered how it would be to travel around them.

My boss invited me to go water skiing one weekend, so Jacob and I went to Telegraph point. Jacob and I had some fun on a tube and I tried poorly to water ski. I returned home and started the search for a boat. A few weeks later, I picked up our new edition "Pongrass" a fiberglass runabout with a 40hp motor.

I then had the wonderful task of obtaining my skippers licence.
Never piloting a boat other than two hours on the Norfolk Broads, this was a little daunting to say the least. After studing the NSW maritime DVD numerous times and practicing the test online, I passed with 100% score. Get me!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend at Coffs

Rachels Birthday landed on a Friday this year and we had been talking about having a few days away with our mates Will and Mel.

Mel had found a weekend deal for a beach house in Coffs Harbour which is about two and a half hours North of Port.

We set off Friday midday and after a short journey arrived at Sandy Beach.

The house was amazing, a great modern beach house set back one road from the ocean with a welcoming homely feel.

We had an awesome weekend, I went surfing both days, we went fishing off the beach and the kids had a great time playing in the water and on the sand.

On the way home, we stopped at Nambuka Heads and all had a swim and play in a beautifull idilic horseshoe bay.

Our first Aussie Christmas

Jacob had his Christmas Concert at Cowarra Park Pre school today. It was lovely.

Jacob putting Santa and the reindeer's drinks and snacks out after he had sprinkled the magic dust and oats out on the lawn!
It's just got to be done!!! Christmas morning on the beach while the turkey is cooking. And of course..........champers!!

We had a lovely Christmas. The kids were up early of course!!! Rach and I spent most of Chrismas Eve assembling a 13t trampolene outside without Jacob knowing. Nanny did a splendid job of occupying him!! The presents were open by 7am!!

We went down to the beach to meet Will, Mel, Jackob and Charlie and also Mel's Parents Steve and Joy. It was a lovely morning. I had a dip in the sea with Will.

Rachel's Mum said that she would do the Christmas dinner......little did she know how hot it was going to be!! She was roasting!!! Next year will definately be a barbie!!

Our first visitor from the UK

My Mum arrived at the end of November and it was so great to see her. Lots of catching up to do!! We've been speaking on the phone or on skype, but it's so great to see her in the flesh!! She's here until the end of January, so we've got lots to show her.

It was Mum's 70th Birthday while she was here, so I took her on a whale watching trip. There was only 3 of us on the jet boat and it was amazing!! We didn't see any whales, but lots of dolphins.

We've been to Timbertown, Billabong Wildlife Park, on a sunset cruise on the Chinese Junk, lots of day trips with a picnic at the weekend.

Mum absolutley loved all the fish and meat here, we had loads of barbies at home and at the free BBQ areas around.

Mum had a great time with the kids, she'd obviously missed them loads and spoilt them rotten. Jacob kept her entertained playing the Wii, reading books and plaing games.

Jessie was very young when we left the UK but from the minute mum walked through the door it was as though they hadn't been apart.

We tried to show mum as much as we could while she was here. She admitted she expected Australia to be a bit baron and was shocked how green it was. We took her to a couple of national parks, waterfalls and numerous different beaches.

The time passed so quickly while mum was here and soon Nigel was taking her down to Sydney for her flight back home.

Mel, Mum, Me and Joy (Mel's Mum) taken at Christmas.

Moving in..........

This has got to be the longest wait ever to move in to a house!!! The settlement date has changed so many times!! It's now the 17th November. Luckily, that's a day that Jacob's at pre school, so we'll only have Jessie that day. Mel has said that she'll look after her if we need her to, which is great. All packed up again!!!!!

Buying our house

We decided that we had had enough of renting and started looking for a house to buy. Rach fell in love with a house near town, it's in a quiet cul-de-sac, with a nice sized garden and it's next to a reserve. We put an offer in, which has been accepted, so we're just waiting on a settlement date. The agent for our rental property have managed to get a couple in to take over the rent for us, so at least it won't be empty.

Making friends

Nige came home from work with a phone number....."Hmmmmmmmmm" I thought! It turns out that he's been to a house carrying out repairs on air conditioning and the family living there have just moved to Port from Perth. They have 2 children of a similar age to ours, so we went round to all meet them on. They're Will, Mel, Jakob and Charlie. Will's originally from the UK and Mel from Victoria. The kids had a lovely time playing and we had a good old chat. The kids and I are going to a play group in town with Mel, Jakob and Charlie.

We've had lots of get togethers with Will and Mel and have become good friends.

Our furniture finally arrives

This has got to have been the longest 3 months ever!!!! Our possessions were packed and shipped from the UK in June and today feels like all our Christmases rolled in to one!! At last we'll sleep in comfort and be able to sit on a proper settee and then there's my pride and joy........my Golden Special Lambretta!! I've got to take it for a spin!!

It's such a great feeling having all our stuff around us.

The start of our new life in Port Macquarie

We had booked a cabin on a site in Port Macquarie for 2 weeks. It was a 1 bedroomed 4 birth shoebox!! But it suited us for what we needed! We started buying bits and pieces and also looking for somewhere to rent after the 2 weeks. We really liked Bonny Hills which is on the coast, so we had a look and there was a house for rent that was a stones throw from the beach so we took it. We moved in on the 17th July.

The 4x4 we bought had a small problem that Nige found out to our peril!! Although the dashboard light stated it was in low range 4 wheel drive, it wasn't!! Nige decided to take it on the beach and guess what. WE GOT STUCK. I had some fab pictures of everyone trying to dig us out, but they were magically deleted!

Luckily the tide was going out but it was very scary and we were stuck on a stranded beach for over two hours until the emergency service rescued us. Luckily we had packed an esky full of food, so the kids were occupied while Nige hitched a lift into town to get help!

Nige started work and I was dreading being on my own, but it was great, I found my way around town and loved it.

We spoke to our Mum's regularly on the phone while we didn't have an internet connection.

We moved in to our rental house with our limited furniture!! The guys at Nigel's work gave us a fridge and a futon to sleep on and we borrowed a TV. We sat on camp chairs in the living room and used to fight over the beanbag we had bought!! Our first weekend, we went to buy a barbeque and an outdoor 7 seater table and chairs (which we used inside!!)

I freaked out one day when I saw the head of a blue tongued lizard poking out from the slab at the front of the house!! It looked like a snake!! So what do I do???? I call Nige in a bit of a fit!!! Eventually the "thing" came out and I was so relieved that it was a lizard!!! My friend Tara told me that they're good because they eat the redbacks!!! So he could stay!

Talking about redbacks.......

This female redback was a resident in the garage. (Not for long though!)

On the 20th July 2009, Jessie celebrated her 1st Birthday. She had some lovely prezzies and cards from our friends in the UK and her Nanny's.

It was very strange being in the Winter in July. We had such lovely hot days. Weekends we would explore the areas around us, go to the beach and parks. I started going for long brisk walks on the beach which was fab.

Jacob started at a pre school not far called Cowarra Park. He went on a Monday and Thursday. The staff there was brilliant and Jacob settled in very well.

Leaving England

Our Good Luck banner made by our great mate Donna

Our last night in Dormer Cottage was great fun!! Well, it actually started quite early on in the afternoon at the beer garden of The Chequers Pub over the road (very handy indeed!!) Our friends had met us over there and then they came back to the house. It was fab! It went on long in to the night!



The next day was hectic to say the least! Jacob's play school was holding a leaving party for him, so Nige had already been to pick up his Mum to spend the day with us and then he dropped Jacob off and carried on into Worcester to buy some trainers!! Can you believe it??!! So I carried on at home working off my "to do" list with a severe hangover!!!



We all went to Jacob's party which was lovely. They made a real fuss of him.




Our friends Neil, Steve and Sue helped immensly by taking stuff that we didn't need to the tip. We were so grateful. The dreaded time came to take the keys over the the village store for them to pass on to the tenants. I couldn't speak! Great, some would say! Dave, Gill, Anneke and Neil came to take us to the airport. It was a very strange feeling driving away from our lovely house, our lovely life. I know that Nige was thinking the same as me.....are we doing the right thing?

We arrived at Birmingham airport and checked in our luggage which was overweight by 30kg! We'd already spent hours swapping things around to make them even weights!! The Manager came over to help and offered to pay half the amount, so we ended up paying £240.00!! We had a leaving comittee waiting for us (I reckon they were just making sure that we actually went!!) We had my Mum, Auntie Lyn, Uncle John there along with Nigel's Mum, Dave, Gill, Anneke and Neil. It all of a sudden seemed real!!!!

Saying bye to everyone was horrible and it was the worst part by far. I remember walking off up the corridor and kept looking back waving and then round the corner and they were gone. I was sobbing and I think I saw a little tear in Nigel's eye! I was still blubbing when we went through security. I looked like a mad woman, but I really didn't care!

We flew from Birmingham to Dubai and then Dubai to Bangkok. As we got off the plane at Bangkok, Jacob developed a really high temperature, so I dosed him up with Calpol and we continued through the airport following everyone else to queue up again to board the plane. As soon as we got on the plane he was sick! So a doctor was called on the plane with other medical staff and he was taken to the front of the plane. Meanwhile the people around us started putting their masks on. We felt like "the unclean"! After an AUD$80 bill, 3 lots of medication and a 2 hour delay we set off. They didn't know what it was, so they gave us meds to cover everything! They said that if he wasn't any better upon arrival at Sydney, we would have to go straight to the hospital!! Great!! What a start to our new life in Australia! We had the air blowers on him to keep him cool and kept giving him water. After the 10 hour flight, he had eaten some food and was looking better. We had to fill out a form to say that he'd been poorly on board and received medical attention, but the guys at Sydney airport were not interested. We flew straight through immigration and passport control and within no time at all we were outside in the glorious sunshine waiting for a cab!