The Carraghers In Oz

We're here !!!

 

Flights were great. No delays, crew fantastic, kids behaved well, extra row of seats on 1 leg so lots of sleep!!  Still bloody long, but we survived.

 

First thing that hit us was how humid it was (although that familiar grey sky was waiting to greet us) and how green everything is.  Our parents were all waiting for us at Arrivals so the kids were all happy (mind you, even though she was hand in hand with both her Grannys, Becca still felt it necessary to start crying and tell us all she only wanted her great granny!!!!!!!!!  Can't please some people eh?

 

We had a pleasant but weary afternoon catching up and the girls managed to stay awake till 7pm which was great.  Mike followed them to bed about 8pm and I wasn't far behind him.  Don't actually remember my head hitting the pillow that night so I expect I was asleep before then lol.

 

Waking at 5.30am I heard the familiar sound of the kids footsteps downstairs so thinking I was being very good, I jumped out of bed to get them before they woke my Mum and Dad.  I walked into the kitchen to find the kids arm deep in drawings and my Mum who informed me they'd been up since 2am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oops.

 

Anyway, our first day was lovely,  I went with my Mum to collect my nieces and nephews and briefly saw my sister.  The kids played all day in the garen with the hose (which was a major novelty for our 2 given the water restrictions in place in Aus).  The sun shone and it was a glorious day.  Late in the afternoon, Mike and I popped down to Asda to pick up a few bits and pieces and to check our old Nationwide cards still worked.  We actually bought a few clothes in George, marvelling at the crazy prices.  I even picked up the girls a HSM dress up outfit each for £10 which Target were selling last week for the equivalent of £18.

 

Caught up with my brother too when he collected Bethany so not a bad day at all.

 

The girls were amazing, despite it being the longest day in their lives.  However, at 5pm, Becca was trying to fall sleep sitting upright so we fed her some chicken quickly got her into bed around 5.45.  I think Ellie was about 15 mins behind her and they were both asleep in record time.

 

I had asked them not to wake Gran up again so thankfully, when Ellie woke at 4.30 this morning, she came upstairs and got us which is great.  So, today we had planned to head into Edinburgh city centre and take in some of the sights and sounds of the Festival but guess what???????  it's raining!!!!!  Not just a little bit either, GMTV have just shown a weather warning for Central Scotland!!!!!!!!!!  Oh it's good to be back lololololol.  Day 2 and already the weather is depressing us.

 

Thoughts on being back Day 2 - it's green and beautiful, it's wet, lots of miserable faces, can we take Asda & our families back in our cases, the money s huge - a £20 feels massive, it feels like we've never been gone, except that we feel happy we don't have to stay, we're converting all the prices back to Aus $s, never thought that would happen, Aus feel like home now, but it's nicely familiar and cosy here, nothing has changed here at all, expect perhaps us!!!!!

The cases are packed (with way more than we thought we'd be bringing), and we're all checked in (don't you love the internet).  We've a few loose ends to sort in the morning but other than that we're ready to go.

 

Of course, no holiday would be complete without the obligatory illness and this one is no exception.  Ellie and I are full of the cold and Becca has an awful cough.  Actually, she's been at the GPs twice this week and due to her cough keeping her, and us, awake most of last night, the GP has prescribed her a course of antibiotics and steroids.  Normally, he wouldn't give her anything, but she was particularly wheezy when he saw her today and with such a long flight ahead of her, he thought it best to treat it aggressively to avoid her being uncomfortable.

 

Mike finished work at Superpartners today and they're happy that he doesn't go in tomorrow morning.  So, the girls will go to kinder and school as normal and when they come home, we'll drop the cats off and head straight to the airport. 

 

Nights are still fairly chilly here just now but during the day, it's usually bright and sunny but it's still a nice thought thatwe're heading into the Scottish summer for a few weeks.  Then, when we get home, it'll be nearly Spring which is a lovely time here so tonight might be the last chilly night be have til May or June 2009  yyeehhhaaaaaaaaaa.

 

 

 

 

One of the nice thing about this year's Olympics beig held in China is that it' sa closer time zone to us here, and therefore, we can watch it at a reasonable time of day.  Saying that, we'll be in Europe for most of the games this time round so we'll be catching up whenever we can. 

 

The dilemma this year though is who do we support?  We are British but all the coverage we've seen in the lead up to the games is from an Aussie pov and therefore we've come to know some of the Aussie competitors pretty well.  Hhhmmmm, I guess it'll need to be a bit of both lol.

 

Anyway, here's a nice link for you, it's a track called Ready To Fly by Amy Pearson (who incidentally is a british expat in Aus too).  This is the Channel 7 Australia Anthem for the 2008 Olympic Games.  Enjoy...........and don't forget to turn your speakers on (or off it you're at work).

    

Well, if there's one reason why I love living here it's Layby.  For those in the UK reading this here's a brief explanation.....The big Dept stores offer Layby which means that you select the items you want to buy and then they store it for you til you have paid and want to take it home. 

 

Now, I'm not a big fan of using credit for credit's sake, but the beauty of laybys is that you can buy all your Christmas stuff in the July sales and then they keep if for you til Christmas Eve and it's all interest free.  And the best bit, it's not lying around the house waiting to be found by prying eyes.  I've not often got much time to shop alone so what I've had to do is take the kids with me and we then select all the things they want and take it to layby.  I then explain that this stuff is used by the stores to make up Christmas lists which are then posted to Santa, and assuming they are good, Santa will bring some of it to them for Xmas.  Works this year, but there's no way Ellie will buy it next year.  

 

Today Becca and I tackled "Australia's biggest Toy Sale" at Target and OMG what chaos.  It seemed like half of Melbourne was in the one store and it was crazy with people hidden behind massive piles of toys which were often falling all over the place as no one seemed able to find a trolley.  At one point we got stuck in the Lego section and it was complete gridlock.  Why?  Some crazy parent had parked her twin stroller in the cramped aisle and wandered off (leaving the kids in the stroller).  The woman in front of me was saying they'd been there for ages and couldn't believe someone had just left the kids there!!!!  There were women with strollers obviously believing that by owning a stroller meant they could trampel over whatever the liked, including little kids (mine included) with no apology.  We eventually found that our elbows were the best defense and Rebecca did me proud by yelling "excuse me" in her cutest but "don't mess with me, I'm Scottish and I'm hungry and bored" voice which worked a treat.

 

We eventually did find a trolley which was great as Becca could climb in and I wasn't balancing 6 boxes in my hands whilst watching her too.  I've bought Ellie more craft type things this year as she's definately moving away from "toys".  Becca's still at that in between stage but when I picked up an Elmo art set (for age5+) she informed me that "Elmo is for babies and I AM NOT A BABY".

 

Only 5 more sleeps til we fly to Scotland and we're all getting excited now.  Mike's tying up loose ends at work before he leaves so I think he's up to his eyes in paperwork.  I've had a meeting with Ellie's teacher and she has been given a project to work on whilst away and tomorrow we'll pick up some reading for her to take too.  Thankfully, Ellie's way ahead of where she should be at this stage so Lisa has no problems at all with her having the time off.  We've had a peek at what Emirates are showing on the flights and there's loads of movies I've been wanting to see (e.g. The Other Boleyn Girl, 27 dresses) so it looks like between that, my Harry Potter book and keeping the girls amused, the flight should pass quickly.

We're all booked.  Can't quite believe that in 2 weeks we'll be arriving back in Scotland for a 3 week trip.  Mike will fly with us to Scotland and after a day or two will then fly off to London where he'll remain Mon-Fri for the duration of the stay.  He will be flying up on Friday nights and back "Dan Saff" on Monday mornings.

 

We haven't told the girls yet.  We're actually toying with not telling them exactly where we're going til we land but we'll just wait and see.  Certainly we won't be telling them this week as it's still a fortnight before we go and that's a long time for them.

 

School and kinder were back yesterday and it's lovely to be getting back into a routine, albeit a brief one this time around.  Actually, with this trip and then Mike's Mum and Dad visiting, it'll be mid October before we really get back to normal.  But by then Mike will be working from home full time so who knows what normal might be.

 

It's funny, ever since we met, Mike and I have had a "project".  After we got settled in the house here we had a laugh about it one night wondering just what the next project would be, little did we realise it was right around the corner waiting for us.  

 

Having been clever and done some early Christmas shopping which was safely in storage at BigW courtesy of their layby scheme, I've had to arrange to collect it next week!  Why?  With that particular company, Xmas laybys must be paid for in fortnightly installments and can be collected any time up til Xmas Eve assuming the final balance is paid.  However, because we'll be gone for a month, they said there's a chance that if I miss a payment (even though the bulk is already paid for) and am not around to take the reminder call then my stuff will be put back on the shelves.  And after queuing 2.5 hours for it, I'm not risking that.  So, next week when the girls are at school and kinder I'll go collect it and it will just have to sit in the garage with the spiders for a while. 

 

So, if anyone's got anything from Aus that they have a passion for then speak out now and I'll get it in.  We've already filled a bag with koalas and kangaroos.  Sadly, I can't bring over a seedless watermelon (my favourite new food here) but if anyone's got a thing for Caramello Koalas or Cherry Ripes then I'm happy to bring some over.

 

While I remember, in the run up to leaving the UK, the kids were given sweets at every opportunity by loads of people wanting to spoil them one last time.  We've worked really hard on healthy eating since we got here so pplleeeaasssseee don't fill us up with lots of treats (even if we beg) as it's nearly summer here and we've got to get into those shorts soon lol.