Day 3 (of work that is)

So today, after dropping Rebecca at orchestra and getting to work which takes about 37 minutes, whichever of the 3 ways I go, I went on some more home visits to other parts of the country, nothing too rural yet though. Quite fascinating doing visits sat outside in the shaded heat, although this house was right on the corner of a really busy plaza and Rhona was trying to listen to this guys chest but found the traffic was competing for her attention. Certainly a different working environment. We then went up to the hospital where we go and check all the respiratory admissions, as to whether they need to be seen by lung health and if so, go and say hello and introduce ourselves and arrange to see them post discharge. Its quite a big hospital with about 330 beds, with some beautiful views of the mountains in the distance. We then went to (almost the basement) to the sewing room to order my uniforms of which I get 5, all free! So I have 1 dress, 4 blouses, 1 long skirt, 2 knee length skirts and 1 shorts, and the best is that I'm a size smaller here - even though I'd like to think I'd lost weight!! Its quite a nice uniform - dark grey with a very fine blue stripe and pale blue and white striped tops. What I find strange is that  its the same uniform for all QLD Health staff, including all ward staff. We eventually made it back for lunch at 2 pm and was starving by then. After lunch was admin for the girls and I spent the afternoon trying to work out the computer system and managed to lock myself out putting in the wrong password as there are different passwords for different areas (- obviously not as disastrous as the computer problems at Abbey - am so sorry guys!) it's confusing but my bigger challenge is that all the notes are handwritten AARRGG!!! I need to go back to school and learn to write legibly and bigger, maybe!! Still, maybe the others will learn to read my tiny writing.

Other news of the day - my car keeps misting up in the mornings  - except its on the outside!  weird - but the insides cooler than the outside - makes a change from dripping on the dashboard :)

Mark has sent his first application off, so please pray it's a positive response as he is very anxious about it. Rebecca's finding orchestra good but easy as there is no minimum standard, unlike Big Band at Oke, so all fairly straightforward stuff at the moment, she also enjoyed drama tonight too. Josh has finally started work on his CV so he can try and get a job - will make a change him earning rather than spending money :)

Have spent some of the evening looking at more house designs... one day I'll tell you we've decided!!!

Reality!!

sorry no update yesterday, had a bit of a crisis with the Nat West last night, up till just gone midnight awaiting phone calls from the UK trying to transfer money while the exchange rate had improved a bit! Was told sorting our finances out from here would be easy... which it was after 2nd attempt when got somebody sensible... but very stressful in between, however was worth it as it's dropped again today. Anyway, was not what I needed after starting the day at 5.30 am when getting up to take Josh swimming to find he'd slept through his alarm - not a great start or end to the day, however the bit in between was pretty good.

So I started work at 7.30am, now's the time to switch off or bypass the next paragraph while I talk a bit of medical spiel if you're not interested in it. So I started off by getting a conducted tour around the building by Rhona (a lovely scottish nurse practitioner) and some introductions to staff, then spent a couple of hours with Fay (the nurse unit manager) going through admin stuff, explaining pay slips, giving me an overview of the service, explaining who's who, sorting out ID cards, computer access and a tour of the corporate parts of the building which is over the road. Then after lunch sat in on a COPD clinic with Rhona. So that was the day, however found out loads of stuff. The Chronic Conditions service is made up of Lung Health, Heart Failure, Diabetes and cardiac rehab (that elusive rural Devon service), within lung health there is Rhona, Jo (the clinical nurse from Solihull), 2 other clinical nurses that job share (band 6s), Natahlia (band 5), then wait for it.... a psychologist and an exercise physiologist (ie. in UK = sports science) who does one-to one sessions and pulmonary rehab. Today I went on a home visit and then to pulmonary rehab where the education was done by a speech therapist (another rare UK species), who had no waiting list!! Allied Health professionals are more respected than nurses here, both in pay and in numbers than in the UK which is weird. Anyway I have a 4 week induction period, a week each with each team before I get stuck in with the palliative care role. Encouragingly the lung health team didn't know I was doing that until very recently and aren't too happy with it either... so I get the feeling anything could happen. The Health care system is very different here and all seems to revolve around money and as for training and having highly qualified staff, there aren't any and there are no incentives at all for self development, no nice drug reps sponsoring training and minimal funding and time off available. Lung health is really a crisis service, we get them either unmanaged or post admission, sort them out, then refer them back to the GP's who are really dire at managing them (no nurse management in GP land at all). One comment I heard was that GP's are a 'how many bums on seats service' as they get paid per bum on a seat. However our lung health team seem to be pioneers in high quality service provision in Qld, so I've started in the right place. Another snippet of info (particularly for you Emma & Jill) diabetes care only involves HbA1c....no hypertension, no microalbinuria, no neuropathy etc, can't wait to spend my week with them!!!

Holiday, study and sick leave is accrued and is rolling so none allocated for the year, so you can only take it when accrued, which is on your pay slip every fortnight. If you want to take a longer holiday you can double the time accrued and take it at half pay (maybe useful when we come back to the UK), so some things better, some worse... more info will come as it unfolds, I'm sure. However I have enjoyed my first 2 days and everybody is really friendly.

So.. for everyone else's news. Mark spent most of the last 2 days looking at exchange rates, and searching for jobs and filling in some application forms. He has now reduced his painkillers to 35mg (started at 60mg) and doing really well. He has quite enjoyed himself and didn't mind too much being on his own. Rebecca has had a stack of exams and awaiting results and is getting rather excited about Saturday (her birthday). Josh had his chemistry exam part 1 today ... wasn't too bad... but we'll wait and see.

We had a visit from the pastor and his wife tonight, they are lovely and we had a nice time with them, turns out that the Youth Pastors sister has CRPS and is really struggling with it, so of course Mark has offered to see her if she'd like. I think it will certainly be a good church to settle in though. 

Anyway, need to go to bed as rather shattered after yesterday's long day... more to follow tomorrow!

the weekend

actually this is from the last 3 days...been swamped with house stuff this weekend as needing to try and make some decisions, the government are currently giving $10,000 to anybody who builds / signs the contract to build before 30 th April, so need to get a move on to get that back. However we also get another $7000 back for being first time buyers in QLD so all helps. So Friday we discussed our plans with two builders - 1 of them putting two storey back into the picture, as they are such a big company their costs are much lower and makes it possible. However, although structurally they are better, their final fixtures and fittings are not quite a nice as the others, but the question is...is it worth forgoing that to get the 2 storey and bigger garden? So we are now down to 4 builders - 2 with 2 storey (the other a smaller house though) and 2 with single storey!!! So more emails sent today to answer some more questions but the decision must be made soon, and of course Mark prefers the structure and I prefer the aesthetics... so watch and wait!

So what else... Friday morning we went to get our QLD driving licenses which was dead easy except that because the lady dealing with mine found my name on their main system she kept asking if I'd had any parking tickets or been caught speeding !!! How dare she! I've been very good since being here, honestly!!! anyway, we worked it out that the salesman had entered our data when we bought the cars, gave me a chuckle anyway. Anyway after coughing up $119 each and finding out we have to renew it every 5 years we departed.

Yesterday Rebecca did her scholarship exam, thinks it went ok but we'll wait and see, there were 15 in her year doing it and they only give 2 scholarships to the 2 with the highest marks, so unlikely, but you never know, still she did her best and that's all we asked. 

Today we did church this morning and got invited out for lunch by a lovely couple. When we arrived they had also invited about another 8 young people for Josh & Rebecca to meet, although they were the youngest, most of them were age 17 - 22yrs (ideal for Ceri) but they were real friendly. So we had a proper Aussie BBQ and sat out by their pool all afternoon and had a lovely time, finding out all sorts of useful things. After eventually getting home it was finishing the washing, homework etc. and now the ironing looms.... those shirts & skirts :(((   Then need to get ready for work tomorrow!

nothing exciting

so if the boring title doesn't put you off reading, it's true, not so much as not exciting, but lots of the same - builders, house plans, costs, size.... who thought building your own was easy! You look at the price of the design and then add $30000 to that for soil inspection, ground works, water tanks etc., and then some more for facade changes, for moving walls, for adding bathrooms etc. and quickly the budget escalates, then discuss with the kids and it doubles!! This has been life for the last 2 days along with chatting to a financial chap about bringing my pension over from the UK, and Mark watching the exchange rate (not pretty!). However he has had fun cutting out room sizes and playing around with them and pouring over plans. 

So the upshot is that it is a complicated process and unexciting to write about in a blog, sorry, and no decisions made yet!

One exciting thing is that we got our digibox so we now have a fab TV picture, although strangely it doesn't make the programmes and better, seems to be just as rubbish as UK TV. 

So what else can I tell you about... oh it rained today, proper rain and dare I admit it I had to put a cardi on, much to Mark's disgust.. but it went chilly, 28 degrees!

Josh has swapped subjects from Tech to Music - apparently he has decided that he's missing it, (but not going to admit we were right when we said he should do it in the first place) and to be fair came back full of it, looking forward to writing a 16 bar composition, met the brass teacher and is going to stage band at 7.15am tomorrow after swimming, and then may restart his trumpet lessons (when it gets here), did you ever...

So I'm sorry but not a lot to report today. 

land owners!

yipee ! we got our land. Its a very different process here, once you've put an offer in, it's binding. We had to go to the estate agents, sign a contract which is binding subject to surveys and finance and we complete in 4 weeks! none of the long drawn out process that you get in the UK. So as Rebecca says with great glee... 'no more looking a patches of grass' but little does she know... she'll be looking at solar panels and water tanks now ( be good as she's in the global conscience group!) and if she's really good she can look at paint and maybe a pool!
so we now start the process of choosing a builder and design... what fun, maybe we'll get it a bit right and not have to extend / knock down walls in a few years (at least that's the hope from my children). Never mind, we can always move and try it again... sorry just kidding!
 It's a 700 m2 plot - so watch it change over the next few months.
Below is the view out the front over a park.

so leaving my husband cleaning the house, I went into work to finish signing the starting papers and get all the info I need for Monday. I am going to get a 4 week induction, a week each with lung health, heart failure, diabetes and then cardiac rehab / at the hospital - hopefully by then I might have got to grips with the way the healthcare system works here. The job is turning into something slightly different than I expected which will be good for my development - I am going to sit between all the teams, together with a heart failure nurse and look at service design for integrating palliative care into the service along with some patient care. Different but interesting I hope. I also get paid fortnightly here which will be nice.
So I then went off shopping to get some clothes for work until I can order the uniform as didn't bring anything with me - silly me.

Had an incredible storm last night, talk about loud, and the noise of rain was incredible, had a short one this afternoon too, but at least we haven't had any severe ones like north brisbane. They are so heavy its amazing but at least over fairly quickly, however still 29 degrees so you dry very quickly.

 

hot day

well today clocked a record 36 degrees and that is hot!!! however we did spend most of it inside apart from going to see 2 more show homes and discuss building houses with the sales guys. Having perused all weekend and seeing another house today (which lay out wise was ideal with a separate annex for guests but was overall too small and needed too much updating for our budget) we have finally made a decision... we are going to put an offer in tomorrow for the land in Heathwood and build a huge single storey house as then its no problem for elderly visitors who can't climb stairs:) just kidding, its much cheaper and the plot is big enough to do it. So just need to pray that we get it if it's right for us. 

well we met our neighbours today, they are English, although have been here 20 years, so we had a good chat with him, Rebecca fell in love with their dog - a Ridgeback, just like my sister's and so hopefully we'll get to know them a bit. 

Josh braved the 6am swim again and is really enjoying it, fortunately he has also found a friend who goes who lives just around the corner from here so we are going to share lifts, so only once a week each - much better.

So yesterday we went to the Baptist Church again, the pastor was preaching on topics really close to us - being real church and being in community with each other, he also touched on their views of healing, which are right in line with ours. We also met a couple who have just retired from a christian organisation looking after and mentoring kids in care, guess whose ears pricked up, anyway Mark is going to follow it up as they currently have vacancies. We have also got ourselves a visit from the pastor next week - so 3 weeks of going there and we're getting more drawn to it, they are also about to launch 3 new housegroups, so would be good to be part of that from the start... but we'll see, don't really want to jump all the way in straight away and then find it was wrong.  so other than that yesterday we didn't do much else as Josh had homework and revision to get done for his chemistry test which is coming up. 

well the other funny thing today was that we got a letter today from Frenchay hospital in Bristol to say that Mark had a bed today for admission on Wednesday this week for trial of a new type of spinal cord stimulation. They hadn't got the funding for the deep brain stimulation that he went for originally last January but this new spinal cord stimulation might be able to offer him some relief - needless to say he's not going, but we did chuckle. 

anyway, short and sweet today, hopefully we'll be land owners tomorrow... wait and see!

trees and more trees...

well today, we started the day with my hair brained scheme to go bush walking in a local forest where the web site promised sites of lots of species of birds, koala's and wallabies. So up we were, out the house by 9am and at the forest by 9.30am ready and raring to go. well we started off with good intentions following the track, but after half an hour of seeing nothing but trees and more trees despondency set in, needless to say when we finally got back at 10.40, all hot and bothered (as it was 30 degrees by then) not a wallaby or koala or anything else other than a couple of crows and trees had been seen. however at least it was a bit of open space , not a house or a shop, but walking in 30 degrees is really tiring, so the coffee shop and air conditioning which followed was a welcome alternative! anyhow, the early start was because we were going back to look at some open houses which was the next activity of the day.

So 4 houses seen, 3/4 had excellent central locations but as usual all either needed updating / walls knocking down / walls putting up / new bathrooms / new kitchens / roads moving... oops I'm getting carried away, mmmm might sound familiar as the kids faces are displaying the 'here she goes again' face!  so back to the drawing board and building our own is becoming more appealing, however did get some more ideas for house layouts. 

The afternoon took a different direction - shopping with Rebecca as she needed some new stuff, while leaving Josh revising and Mark cutting the grass. We then stopped at Blockbusters to try and get a dvd out - 4 types of ID are required to become a member - they are ID mad in this country my Aussie passports been used more in the last 4 weeks than my UK one's been used in the last X years, anyway bought an ex rental and will try again another today. We then went next door to pizza hut for take away pizza, no ID required, and picked up about 5 take away menus from our various take away options in Forest Lake centre... who needs to cook:) Josh has gone out to a party although reappeared about an hour ago requiring towel and trunks, who knows when he'll be home, but he is only 4 roads away. Day over!

Anyway as you can see I have changed blog set up - need to keep you interested now I have competition, or should I say life from another perspective... happy reading.

online at last

It finally happened, we have internet, our modem arrived and we are incommunicado with the world again and we have two much happier children, all is well with the world! (a bit of an exaggeration but you get the gist).

So after finally setting it up, we found the numbers for the transport department to sort out getting Queensland driving licenses, we had read somewhere that we needed to do a theory test but the very nice man at the end of the phone cheered me up by informing me that this was no longer the case as we came from the UK, so another bit of good news. He also gave me the info needed for Josh to get his provisional license - scary!!! so we'll sort that next week. I then phoned my boss to tell her my registration was through and she doesn't want me to start till a week on Monday, so another weeks holiday - very nice but the bank balance isn't quite so pleased. Never mind, we'll make the most of it and go and do some nice exploring instead.

So with houses never being far from our mind we drove around Forest Lake to nosy at some houses we might consider viewing, kept some on the list and crossed off others, so with the open houses going on tomorrow we've about 5 to see. Hopefully this process will help us determine whether a more central location is better with a house we may have to make into what we want, versus building our own a bit further out before the vendors of the land get back to us next week.

We then went for a lovely walk around the lake in the centre of Forest Lake, its really pretty and saw lots of wildlife, from geckos to moor-hens to ducks and lots of really lovely houses overlooking the lake which were huuugggeee!! Its even got it's own nessie :)

Rebecca had had another good result in her maths assignment and has decided she's going for straight A's to see if she can get the academic award this year. She's also going to do the scholarship exam next week to see if she can save us a few dollars next year! Josh has also decided that when his trumpet arrives he is going to pick it back up again and join the stage band ( it's amazing what happens when they find friends doing the same thing) which is something I thought wouldn't happen, I think having a break from it has done him some good.  He loved his swimming this morning despite the very early start and got put in a faster lane which made a big difference.

so all in all a happy day, confirmed by Rebecca singing her head off in her bedroom, haha.

no exciting title.

It’s been a very unexciting 2 days, although yesterday slightly stressful and today frustrating.

Yesterday, we started off by doing the shopping – it takes us ages at the moment, partly working out what’s where but also some things you just can’t find. Yesterday it was pickle and gravy granules I was after, eventually I found a very small jar of Branston’s but no other type at all and some very small pots of gravy granules, so we’ll wait and see what they’re like, but the butter we bought went straight in the bin – it was awful, even made my marmite taste horrid – so no good at all.  So after that I came home to prepare for my interview, read through a few bits and got ready!

Well the interview was almost a repeat of the one I had last summer, I had 15 minutes to jot some notes down for the 3 questions, then firstly to present my poster, then discuss how I would manage a patient from the case study given, and then discuss how I would ensure patient quality and safety are maintained. It was much easier than the first one done on a conference call whilst on holiday the other side of the world. It was weird though, in that I was just as nervous as if it was a proper interview even though I’d already got the job. Anyway, all done and boxes ticked and no one can say I wasn’t appointed properly having had 2 interviews!!

Anyway after picking Josh up (Rebecca stayed to drama club, which needless to say she thoroughly enjoyed) we tootled off to another mall to sort phones out, I got a lovely Smart Samsung Galaxy 2 (which Josh is giving me lessons how to use) and Josh got a contract sim for his phone. I’m so pleased with it, the downside was that when I put my O2 sim back in my original phone it’s lost all my contact numbers – don’t know how or why but they’re gone, however guess I won’t be texting the UK anywayL

So today was supposed to be internet day, I say supposed, as guess what... the modem that we stayed in all day waiting for did not arrive LLL I phoned at 4pm to see what had happened to be told that Australia post had it and it had been dispatched last Friday but she would contact them and phone me back. I eventually phoned them back to be told it had been sent to the wrong depot and that we may get in tomorrow or Monday... I am not impressed!!! So we spent the whole day at home sat around getting frustrated for nothing. I have got the procedure for complaining though... the dongle works but is expensive and the kids are thoroughly cheesed off as all their mates are on half term and they can’t skype them. So we’ve now got to wait in tomorrow as well, what a waste of my last 2 days off as finally I got an email this evening to say my registration has been approved and that I can start work, my tax file number also arrived this morning – so no more holiday and excuses for staying at home, I’ll phone the manager tomorrow but I expect it will be work next weekJ.

Valentines Day

Major excitement has occurred today – not only did I get another bead for my beautiful Pandora bracelet from my gorgeous hubby, but we got a sofa, yeh, no more numb bums, but disappointment in that the internet modem did not arrive. After phoning up we were told the Aussie post takes more than 2-3 days, it’s on its way and should arrive on Thursday, and the TV freeview box won’t arrive for another 2-3 days after that, boo hoo!! So it may be that a blockbuster membership is required as we’ve exhausted the video supply we bought with us fourfold.

So yesterday was really warm and so we ambled around to see the plots of land again and the one we were most interested in was instantly ruled out due to the noise from the motorway that we didn’t realise was directly behind the bit of bushland that was at the back of the plots – might be why they haven’t sold. Anyway, on our walk we found another plot in a lovely quiet spot opposite some parkland.  Further investigation revealed that it’s been on the market 10 days and due to financial reasons the sellers need a quick sale, however after enquiring what price they would take it off the market for, we have heard today that due to a family emergency they have had to go away and we won’t hear anything until next week. That’s great timing for us as is leaves us time to explore our other option, which is to buy an existing property nearer the school and turn it into what we want while still in rented. God’s timing’s been perfect so far so I’m sure this will also fall into place at the right time as well, so we make the right, not a rushed decision.

So having stayed in most of the day waiting for the sofa to arrive, Mark managed to cut the grass – hideous stuff they’ve put down – it’s wiry like cooch grass, and do some weeding, before he wilted completely, and I did boring house jobs, I’ll never have wet washing in the house again, a whole load dries in an hour – it’s great. We then had a romantic valentines lunch out, went and got some house details from estate agents and picked Josh up as Rebecca had gone round to a friends for the first time.

So they had had a good day – various teachers and students were serenaded by the year 12’s and Josh’s history teacher was serenaded in their class, but the girls had put the request in saying it came from Josh, which he found quite embarrassing. However, he’s turning out to be quite a hit, especially with some of Rebecca’s year, which needless to say she is not impressed with. He’s been nick named Harry as apparently they all think he looks like Harry Stiles from ‘One Direction’ (a UK boy band)J

Rebecca had had a great time with her friend and has now been roped into the Global Alliance group – she’s going to save the polar bears apparently! However she also had her first debate today and stole the show with both her argument and English accent, apparently they were all listening to that and lost their train of thought and thus the opposing argumentJ

However it’s great that they are both settling so well, it’s hard to believe we’ve only been here 3 weeks today. 

another weekend

Well, we’ve survived our second full week in Oz, feels like we’ve been here a lot longer than that. Learnt something new yesterday – that the weathermen are no more accurate here that they were at home – said we would have heavy thundery showers, and after the one last week didn’t relish getting caught in it, and of course they didn’t happen until today!! So we were going to go out and do something Aussie but by the time the kids had finished their homework there wasn’t as much time, so we went off to another area just beyond Springfield lakes to look at some more show houses – there turned out to be 22 of them!! Anyway, didn’t make it around all of them but we did get some good ideas and met some possible builders. Anyway, it did clarify our thoughts doing the drive again that doing that up to 4 times a day could get a bit much. During the morning Mark and I went for a wander around our estate and came across 5 plots of land that haven’t been sold and also an open home so we just went in for a nosy, an alternative way of viewing homes certainly, and at least you only have to get the house immaculate for that day rather than potentially having buyers turn up on spec – would have made selling our last 7 houses easierJ

So this morning we decided that we would try the last possible church in Forest Lakes, an AOG – however as we drove up all the chaps were in shirt and ties and even some of the kids – not a pair of shorts to be seen – so we carried on driving as obviously not appropriately dressed and crossed it off our list. So we went back to the Baptist church again, and really enjoyed it – their annual motto being that ‘Everybody is important to God’ and their mission project for this year is the estate we’re living in... I wonder....

Having been invited out for lunch but unfortunately having to decline, we drove off to Indoorophilly (don’t you just love the names) to drop Josh off to meet some mates from school. We had lunch in this huge mall, had a wander round and then made our way back home, stopping at a furniture shop called PLUSH – a DFS equivalent (even had a sale) and bought a sofa, YIPPEE!! No more numb bums on patio chairs – still another 5-7 weeks till our stuff get hereL, feels like forever when you’re waiting. I then had went back to pick Josh up just as the heavy thundery showers arrived and wow are they heavy – and the traffic crawls, but thankfully my little car made it through and we got home safely.

So another w/e ends, ironing done and I really hate ironing those uniforms already, (did I say that last sunday too, I might have done) they are so full of pleats to be ironed inL and I’m sort of ready for the 5.30 start to get Josh to swimming for 6am, might not feel quite so ready in the morning though. So what adventures will we encounter this coming week, I wait with excitement!

a non exciting day

So today there’s not much to report really, we went to look at another piece of land this morning which was signposted but didn’t seem to exist, then went back to Forest Park to have another look and take some pictures for Ceri to look at. We then went off to Ipswich to do battle with medicare  and I ended up seeing the same obnoxious lady as last week, however this time I met with success, she even thawed slightly  when she saw the kids had been born in Ellesmere Port – as she’d been there on a canal holiday in North Wales – did you ever! Anyway, sorted at last with all the correct paperwork done – so we can be ill now and get some help! So we went and did some more shopping, and got a TV stand, a bin, some shoes (for work), lawnmower and strimmer and collected the 2^nd sat nav which had been on order and finally made it home at lunchtime.

After picking the kids up we then drove off to give them the guided tour of Springfield lakes and look at the plots of land and have another think. We also had a meal in the town, sitting outside, still feeling like holidays. Anyway, still come to no conclusions, the kids did like it, but the balance comes down to... can we build a house we like on a hill and deal with driving the kids 15-20 mins to and from school every day and to see their friends, with the upsides being living in a town with lots of amenities all within a 30 minute walk, against living somewhere 5 minutes drive from school, nearer their friends, building easily on the flat but nothing but houses within a 45 minute walk? It’s a puzzle with no easy answers.

So we have asked more questions rather than answered any today.

For some trivia I realised that the morning TV show called ‘Sunrise’ is exactly the same as the ITV one, and the entertainment news bit even has the same backdrop – what copy catsJ

car day

We got our cars today, so exciting, just hope we’ve got them right and an even more amazing occurrence that that was that we have them BOTH in the garage tonight!!! Actually that’s only coz apart from cardboard boxes we haven’t anything else in the garageJ, however, it is something we will try to do as it keeps them cooler and hopefully even once our stuff gets here we should still have room as it’s such a huge garage, but good intentions and all that... we’ll have to see.

We started off by picking my car up and then drove into Brisbane to take the hire car back, having made it to Europcar I then went to fill it up with petrol and Mark went off to find somewhere to park as we were going on to the bank and medicare. 25 minutes later he arrived back somewhat cross and frustrated as he couldn’t find anywhere to park and without the documents for medicare which he thought I’d had. So having now missed our appointment with the bank we ambled back to the car walking through Chinatown and the red light club area (good job it was 11am), stopped for a coffee and eventually found the car.  $29 dollars it cost for 1 hour and 5 mins parking... did you ever, won’t be parking in Brisbane again, we’ll get the train in at that price!!! So we drove back to the garage to collect Mark’s car and picked up our freebies – a bag full of car cleaning products and cloths (they obviously don’t know usJ), 2 cool bags, 2 water bottles and 4 baseball caps all bright yellow with ‘Motorama’ all over them, uuummm, still it’s a nice gesture.

Having gone home for lunch, we then went round to a couple who we had met at church on Sunday. They had phoned us while we were out and invited us over before we picked the kids up, as they lived very close to the school, so that was rather nice.

Evenings seem to be falling into the usual pattern of shopping, washing, tea, homework and not a lot else, although having written this I better start on my presentation for next week’s interview. It still amazes me that a whole load of washing can be dry in about 45 minutes – no more wet washing decorating the house. However the second highlight of my day was finding marmite – definitely better than vegemite!!

wednesday

So dropping Rebecca at school for 7am was a great start to the day L which ended with Josh telling me that swimming club starts at 6amLLL. Anyway, the redeeming feature for that time of the morning was that at least it was 24ºC when I left the house. So having at least started the day early we were very organised before we went out to meet the sales lady at Springfield Lakes, and got the washing done in my fancy new washing machine that plays tunes when you switch it on and when the wash finishes – very sad, but it’s the little things that make me smile. Rebecca likes putting it together with the tumble dryer which does the same thing to make a composition!! Ok, back to serious stuff. We tootled off to Springfield Lakes (looking out for any yellow people in the lake) and met the sale lady who took us out in her car to show us the town. It was very interesting and very nice, and very funny that she was stopped and breathalysed although she was mortified; however the police were stopping everybody so it wasn’t due to her poor driving. It’s the complete opposite terrain of where we’re living now (which is really flat), much more like Devon – extremely hilly with some amazing views of the lakes and bush. Anyway, needs more thought and the kids need to go and see it, but the show houses and the geckos running underneath the tables in the coffee shop were worth the visit anyway!!

The afternoon was much more relaxed, Mark stayed in and did some weeding and I went and got my documents certified and posted off to AHPRA, met the kids after school and got caught in an amazing downpour, thank goodness for remote control garage doors is all I can sayJ Finally got the telephone connected, but still no freeview box or internet modem, they should arrive in the post in the next 10 daysL. Then I discovered on my emails that not only have I got to have another interview for my job but I’ve got to do a poster presentation as well!!!! I tell you, this job better be worth it, 2 applications and 2 interviews for 1 job that I’ve already signed the contract for – complete madness!!! (please don’t tell Fay, Rhona, I’ll smile sweetly and get on with it).

So this evening has been full of the mundane – tea, homework, sorting paperwork for picking up the cars tomorrow and hopefully registering with medicare (3^rd time lucky). It’s been a weird day though, with lots of thoughts of home – its Mark’s Dad’s birthday today and my Dad’s having surgery for a knee replacement today, but at least having a proper phone we’ve had decent conversations with Tony and my mum which was lovely. Thank goodness for communication!

another new day

So what exciting things do I want to remember today? We did more shopping – 2 sat navs and 2 telephones for when we finally get connected tomorrow!!! We then went to Ipswich for me to collect an original copy of my job offer for me to send to AHPRA.  I also discovered I’ve got to have another interview to make the ‘job official’ L but on the upside they have offered to pay our first weeks accommodation and my flight across hereJ. We then went and explored a bit of Ipswich – the main town itself appears quite run down in places and looks like it’s still recovering from last year’s flooding, but we then went a bit further and found a huge new shopping mall which was quite nice. So after visiting the bank and a rather obnoxious lady (2^nd rude person we’ve met) in medicare who was decidedly unhelpful we took a trip to Springfield Lakes and looked at more show housesJ.

It’s a new town with a 10 year development plan and has a great infrastructure with easy access to Brisbane and Ipswich which would be good in the long term, but with the downside of it being a 20 minute drive to school for the kids now, until Josh passes his driving test. Our other option of Forest Park is purely residential with no shops and a poor bus service, but nearer school. We’re going back tomorrow to look at land that’s currently available and find out a bit more – but it’s such a hard decision to make.

So having picked the kids up, had tea and leaving them wading through their homework Mark and I went out for a walk around the estate (and to get some CadburysJ), it was lovely just to amble around with shorts and flip flops and it still be 20+ degrees out – felt like being on holiday (ok, so technically I still am...), nosing in houses and contemplating our last 2 weeks.

DIY!!

Salvation Army – well what can I say, it most certainly was not what Lake community church was, despite being a Salvation Army church, not a uniform or brass instrument to be seen. We went with a few preconceived ideas but not too worried after looking at their website, to find it was a lively, friendly church, with oodles of community projects going on along with its own internet cafe. Some were friendly, some were not, the youth seems more informal for Ceri’s age group, but they run mentoring schemes for disadvantage kids, they have a couple working as missionaries in a neighbouring very deprived area and minimal paid staff. So it was another notch in our journey settling into Oz and we left muddled as we have two churches so far that we could see ourselves settling at.

So we then braved IKEA (with a debit cardJ) and spent up!!! We had lunch while Mark psyched himself up and got most of the bits that we needed, but mainly kitted Josh & Rebecca’s rooms out with desks, bookcases, storage boxes and rugs, weird – they both chose almost the same just different colours. Having arranged delivery of the big stuff for today we went home feeling very exhausted.

Today we hit record temperatures so far of 42ºC!! It was hot!  We firstly went to visit the land near us to see what prices and plots were like, very taken with one plot but it seems too early to contemplate buying yet. However, the kids really want to stay in the same area and these are the only plots available until the next block of land is released which won’t be for about another 10-12 months. So what do we do? we could leave it and buy nearer the end of our lease, but having knocked so many houses about over the years it would be nice to get it right first time, or we buy the plot now, or we look in other areas and upset the kids? So after a day’s deliberating we’ve decided not to rush and trust God to provide the right plot of land for us at the right time and do some more exploring and praying first.

The second event of the day was DIY – Mark’s favourite, made even easier with almost no useful tools! However he has dome amazingly today, having put 2 bookcases and 2 beds together almost independently. He also reduced his painkillers 2 days ago with no increase in pain so farJ. So we have 2 happy children tonight, in beds, getting their rooms more homely and feeling like their space, which is just as well as they are spending a lot of time in there. They are getting so much more homework than they’ve ever had before and very variable, some is really easy but some is also really hard, still, it’s keeping them out of mischief.

I eventually got a phone call from AHPRA this morning and they are being so picky – they need something certified with my address on and an original copy of my letter of job offer before they’ll send off for the police check, which could take between 1-10 days. So tomorrow I go into work to pick it up and send it off and then wait...

As for waiting... also got a phone call today to say the phone now won’t be connected until Wednesday and  the internet could take another 1-10 days AAARRRGGG!!!!!! Am not happyL

Anyway overall, life is going well, loving the weather, Marks feeling well and life is starting to settle – not bad for 2 weeks work.

another car day!

Well we did finally go and buy 2 cars today, after getting up ridiculously early this morning. For a weekend, you’d have thought we’d be up late, but no, we were all up by 7am, what’s that about??? The sun’s shining, temperatures rising and once one person’s up, we’re all up here, it’s so echoy, and as the bedrooms are all off the main living area you can hear everything, so up we were. Anyway, Mark & I were off to the garage to test drive the 2 cars, having decided overnight that we really didn’t need the Aurion with a 3.6 engine so our first job was to convince the salesman of that. Having finally convinced him, we eventually bought a Toyota Camry and Yaris. Three hours it took... first the test drives, then sorting out our driver numbers, then signing the contracts, then we got passed to someone else to sort out any extras and additional warranties, and finally someone else to pay the deposit!!! Did you ever, we only wanted to buy a car! So we were very good and only bought extra protection finish for the car to prevent damage to the paintwork by the sun and fruit bat poo!! We got the windows tinted for free J which stops arm burns (from the sun that is). Having eventually made it home we had a leisurely lunch and afternoon. Although feeling guilty for not exploring some of Brisbane, we decided to just have a leisurely walk around the area and show the kids the show houses, which in hindsight was probably a bad idea, but they can dreamJ we’ve also got a bit of a reserve at the back of the estate, which made an entertaining stroll – Josh trying to find some snakes / creepy crawlies and Rebecca jumping every time she brushed a blade of grass!!

Anyway, we came back and started looking at plots of land as having driven around the nearest one to Forest lakes (where we are) we discovered that a lot of the best plots get sold first, so we need to get on the case and decide the area. Having said that, the kids have decided that they would like to stay in the same area which leaves us minimal choice, but we’ll do some exploring and then make a decision.

One potential problem was that I got a message left from AHPRA (nursing registration board) yesterday evening to say they had finally got my paper work from the Brisbane office but there was a problem with it and it was incomplete. So I need to contact them first thing Monday to sort it out.

So feeling better after a day not rushing around, we’re ready to try another church and attempt IKEA tomorrow, and watch some dvd’s this evening.

cars

Well the last 2 days have been fairly hectic and horrid... we’ve been car hunting which we hate! We are not car people and get confused very easily. We started out on Thursday thinking we’ll get 2 cars about 1-2 years old but by the end of the day had been given the impression that the differential between that age car and a new one was minimal and not cost effective, so me, being excited thought we were getting 2 new cars! So we started out on Friday at another car area of Brisbane and discovered that we had been told porkys the day before and that there is a big difference... who do we believe? what do we get? AARRGG!!! It also took us a while to work out what cars are called, eg estates are called wagons, brands we’ve never heard of, and makes are called different names, eg Commodores are Vauxhall, and to add to the confusion we knew we would get a bigger discount buying 2 cars from the same garage than 2 different garages.  And to cap it all on Thursday we got sunburnt... stupid English people!!! It was cloudy!!! Anyway, we have finally decided to go and test drive a Toyota Aurion and a Toyota Yaris tomorrow and deal with the cheesy saleman.

Well on a different note, the kids seem to have finished the week happier, Josh did really well in the swimming gala, coming 3^rd in his races, which he was pleased about seeing as he hasn’t done any regular swimming for about 3 years, and consequently has been asked to join the swimming club by the kids, except it starts at 6.15 am. Josh & 6.15am don’t fit in the same sentence, so watch this space!!!  Rebecca also seems to be a bit happier too – but it’s still really early days.  We’ve finally got the forms to complete for their school laptops as they all have to have their own, complete rip off, mega dollarsLL, but they use them in lessons and for homework with school software on.  We’ve also had to order them all their own textbooks – the joys of having a debit card (which did finally arrive on Thursday, thankgoodness), means we couldn’t put it off any longer.

So on a high note, houses, our house, build our own.... exciting stuff. We looked at some show houses today, wow... he said we’d struggle to spend all our budget, Mark even did a little dance (don’t think about that too much)! You choose your plot and then find a builder of which the sales offices have 6/7 brochures and then choose the design you like and modify it as much as you wish, I’m in heaven!! Takes about 8-10 months to build. So finding an area we want to live is the next job.

move in day!

So the new month started with us moving in... YAY!! We picked up the keys after dropping the kids at school and our first job was to inspect the house the house for all scratches, dents, scuff marks etc to see if agreed with estate agents assessment. Well most was ok except whoever out the laminate floor down hadn’t got a clue, so you can imagine Mark’s eyeballs rolling at every joint and wrong cut and gaps and chips left! However the overall effect is ok. Anyway after unpacking I left Mark to await the deliveries and tootled off to IKEA, you will be pleased to know that I did not spend a fortune and only got what was on my list... of course this will change once I get our debit cards and I did come home with 2 cataloguesJ. Having said that, I came home to Mark putting the patio table together and looking like a drowned rat as he was doing it outside so as not to risk scratching the floor, lesson learnt – do it with the air con on!! I will add photos next week when we’ve internet back on, it’s very patchy and slow in McDonalds.

So our second event of the day was a proper supermarket shop to stock the cupboards, in Woolworths, but not as we know it! I had taken the kids after school – good idea / bad idea I’m not sure but I’m sure we ended up with stuff we didn’t need, but they liked, it’s amazing how many products here are exactly the same as home and they do Cadburys chocolate, so I’m happy!

Josh seems to be settling in well at school and has started to form a group of friends but Rebecca’s struggling – the works too easy and she’s bored, although she has made some friends. However it’s still early days and the staff probably haven’t sussed out her abilities yet, but it looks like she may have to join the extracurricular clubs to stretch herself. So prayers for them both would be appreciated. They have a whole school swimming tournament tomorrow which Josh has got himself into – 50m backstroke and butterfly, YUK!  but at least only sports uniform, much cooler and only caps to wear.

So it’s off to bed, in our own nice comfy beds, with no traffic noises to wake us, just feel a little lost in our huge bedroom with no furniture in yet, will upload this asap.