More cycling and my new kitchen

Sunday brought a further trip to Bunnings to return half the stuff we bought on Saturday. We're on the other side of the world and it's almost comforting to know some things don't change. We still managed to come away without 2 items that were on the list, but did have some rather scrummy hot dogs that were being peddled by the local lions club outside the door. This seems to be very common here. Rather than the traditional "greasy spoon" caravan that seems to be in many a B&Q car park, they have local charities raising funds by putting on a barbie. The smell is too tempting for all but the hardiest soul and, safe in the knowledge that its all for a good cause, virtually no-one walks on past. They must make a fortune. Meanwhile, the cafe inside the store is empty with a green-aproned teenager lolling on the counter waiting for something to do.

Once home we abandoned the DIY idea and went up to the playground with the boys.

On the way we saw some more of the local parrots.These ones are called Rainbow Lorikeets.

The boys had ice creams....

Alfie's one turned his tongue a bit yellow....

...and I had a coffee and a muffin.

Then the boys cycled some more.....

..with a quick go on the biggest slide before we went home.

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The newest challenge for me is using our kitchen to the full. I am not on this occasion talking about cooking either. Now that we actually have all our own belongings rather than the half dozen cups, plates and cutlery settings which we hired before, I have to store the things. This involves using most of the cupboards in the kitchen. So what?? I hear you cry. Well, whoever designed the kitchen in this house was either a) a giant or b) spiderman. There is a c) option but I'd get done for sexism so I'll leave it out. Basically all - and I do mean all- of the wall units are so high that I hadn't been using them till now. Even one of the removal men on Friday commented on the fact, and he was just over 6 foot, so imagine my dilemma at 5 foot 3! Since I no longer have a choice but use these cupboards I am reduced to using the boys ikea plastic step which was bought so they can reach to wash their hands after the loo. I kick it from place to place around the kitchen and periodically trip over it when my tea levels are getting low. For the top shelves I actually have to get the steps out so I've only put things up there that we basically never use. I did think of one massive advantage in all this. At last I will have somewhere to put stuff the boys aren't supposed to find ( treats, chocolate, toys that have been confiscated due to beating the sibling over the head with them etc). Only problem is, they take after their ex-mountain rescue Dad in the climbing department so I could, as ever, be fighting a losing battle.....

Our stuff arrives.

Well the removals men came and went, both lots of them. I'm fairly sure at this point that pretty much everything that came in the door stayed here. The boys watched much of the comings and goings from the back of the car. This house, you see, doesn't actually have any road facing windows. The majority of the frontage is a double garage. I actually recognised this slight fault with the place last week when I had to sit in the garage for over half an hour with Ru. There's a house being built over the road and a crane was working, then being packed up to leave. Ru couldn't bear to go indoors, and I couldn't leave a 3 yr old on the front drive. I think the builders thought I was having an ogle at them, but sadly none of them was really worth the wait. So, anyway, back to yesterday, the car boot it was for the boys.

Ru watches with a sunshade styled from our picnic blanket.

How cool was the truck? No wonder the boys couldn't leave.

Just some of the boxes.

The men helped unpack the boxes but it was very much up to me to try to find places for everything. I'm still working on much of it 24 hours later but no matter. In theory the service included reassembling beds, sofas etc that had been taken apart for the move. In reality they "don't have a long enough socket for those legs" (sofa), "don't do ikea-type furniture" (Alfie's Flexa high-sleeper) and I think the truth was they generally couldn't be arsed taking the boxes of books upstairs to the room pointed out as the study. Never mind, the boys were so delighted to have their beds, bikes and toys back it was very sweet.

Ru's beloved Noddy car bed that the men did assemble...

...and Alfie's mid sleeper that they didn't!

Come evening we had the obligatory take-away curry that one always has on moving-in day and I must say it was great, so coupled with the fact that we all had our own bed to sleep in things didn't seem bad at all.

The only slight hitch was a mad search for my set of keys this morning. I knew I left them on the hall chair, and they weren't there. We tried ringing both companies in case they'd been picked up by accident, then B started researching replacing them all. After 2 hours of searching house and car and me worrying about the consequences ( car keys, house keys and garage door remote thingy were all on the bunch), they turned up in a previously undiscovered cubby hole inside the car itself. Clearly it was only we adults who had not previously seen this hiding place, but at least one little boy must have. No idea which boy, and by that time we were so grateful to have them back that we didn't care much.

After a trip to "Bunnings"  (think B&Q, with green writing rather than orange) for electric plugs to replace our UK ones, we headed out for a trip so the boys could enjoy their newly arrived bikes. They practised first on the drive, to get back in the swing of it:

Then we went up the road to the local playpark and football green (not the big pirate ship I've mentioned before).

On the way back we saw some of the local parrots. There are some white ones which are very common, some beautiful green ones with red/blue and orange markings around their head, and then this kind which I have seen a lot around our area. They're grey with very pink necks and white heads and they're called Galahs. They're renowned as being rather stupid, though heaven knows if they deserve this claim.

(not the best picture I know)

The last 2 days have also been somewhat cooler. The morning and evening are really the only time you might notice this, but the boys happily had a bath this evening for practically the first time since our arrival ( they have been showering before you ask!).  It's also been just a little too breezy to tempt the boys in for a dip, but they've always been desperate to play with a sailing boat Brian got for Fathers day last year, which we've never tried out for one reason or another. So when the guys unpacked it yesterday at last they got their chance to use the pool in a different way:

Ok, I'll sign off at last. But before I go, I'll share this. Because I was tired I made the simplest pasta for dinner tonight. Literally 4 ingredients. Pasta, garlic, spinach and olive oil. Both my kids came back for seconds and said how much they "love this dinner". I think I'll give up on anything more complicated in future, clearly I'm wasting my time!

The chaos begins.

Friday morning here and we've been up since 6am as there's work ahead. Our container arrives today with all our stuff from home, so all the stuff we've been hiring (beds, sofas, kitchen equipment) is being collected. Both companies have said to expect them any time after 7 so we've dressed, had breakfast, and stripped beds to await their arrival. Thankfully the men to remove stuff have just arrived in advance of the men to deliver stuff. With any luck they may even be off the premises by the time the others arrive and it won't be quite the headache it could be( one guy puts down a chair, next guy takes it back out to his lorry is the scenario I envisage). Hold on- I spoke too soon. Got to go and let the next guys in. No room for 2 lorries is going to be the next issue I suspect. More later.....

Whats in a name?

Today I've been out and about doing a few jobs in the car and I had the radio on. Nothing unusual there. The music choice is fairly ok if your an eighties child like me, but the ads definitely highlight a few cultural differences.
First was the McDonalds ad that didn't actually use the word McDonalds at any point. Remember this is a radio ad, so there was no discreetly placed big yellow "M" either. It's just that, this being Oz, they called it by a nickname throughout- so "Maccers" it was, start to finish. I suspect there aren't many other places in the world where The McDonalds Corporation would even tolerate such a casual attitude!
Then there was the ad for the home store with a massive sale on. Doonas and Manchester were among the items marked down. What?? Doona is the Aussie word for a duvet it seems, but manchester is a mystery. From the context I suspect it is a collective term for bedlinens and towels etc. But I'm not sure.
On a similarly geographical note, it would appear that one of the local Aussie rules teams has changed its sponsor. I couldn't really care except that apparently the players "guernseys" will now carry a different logo. Guernseys?? Well, I guess why not?- after all we call them jerseys. I do wonder why the Channel Islands have been singled out for such attention in the jumper department though, and am intrigued to know whether there's a country somewhere else in the world that dons its Sarks or Alderneys on a chilly day.....
So, from doonas, guernseys and manchester to stubbies (bottles of beer) and eskies ( for keeping your stubbies cold in), it seems that there's more to this Aussie language lark than just watching "Neighbours" for a few years in a misspent youth. I'm getting there, but I'm not entirely convinced. To me Manchester will always be a city in the north of England, and towels will remain, well, towels .

The new religion.... followed by an older one.

We heard at the end of last week that our container will be arriving next Friday. This is big news as it means we will at last have our own beds/ toys/ bikes/ kitchenalia etc. Obviously some of this stuff is more important than others, and in some ways it helps to clarify what actually is. Ru and Alfie are very keen to have their toys of course, but interestingly, also want their own beds back (Ru's is particularly worth having as Grandad made it for him in the shape of Noddy's car). Brian will be pleased to have his surf board, although whether he'll feel brave enough to use it much with the threat of sharks in the water remains to be seen. What will I be most pleased to see I wonder? I suspect that my teapots (yes, that's a plural!) will be high on the list, along with our pictures and paintings. Maybe my bike might get a bit more of an airing in this climate too...... well, that's what I'm currently telling myself anyway.

Anyway, with the imminent arrival of the container came the realisation that some stuff won't be coming because we left it behind. You see, we have been renting all the basics in the meantime. That'll all be going on Friday and we'll be without a fridge, freezer, washing machine, kettle, and lawnmower, to name but a few. I'm hoping to pick up a second hand washing machine and drier by scouring the local paper and "gumtree" but I don't fancy putting my food in anything less than a new fridge. So I had to convince B to not only go into some shops, but also to actually buy stuff in them. Never an easy task, it took quite some time to complete and left him so shaken that he very nearly crashed the car on the way home! The poor boys had had enough too by the end of it, so we went back to the lovely playground near home and Brian treated them to an ice cream and steadied his own nerves with a coffee.

On Sunday we decided to go to mass at the church next to Alfies school down in Myaree. We haven't been for a few weeks and the last visit was to our local church here in Applecross. Oh my, that one was sooo happy clappy that we were itching to get out. The musical leader played guitar and warbled "Hallelujah" till our eyes nearly rolled back in our heads, and we knew that it was not to be the place for us. So this week we tried Alfies school and it was good. 1) not too long and drawn out. 2) they have a childrens liturgy which involves sending the young ones to a soundproof room down the back to hear a reading and do drawings  3) one of Alfie's school friends was there so he had someone to play with  4) they serve tea and biscuits after. HOWEVER, I managed to disgrace us on our first outing. Not the boys, which is my usual fear as they get bored, but me. My phone, which it didn't occur to me to switch off because the only person who usually rings is Brian (and he was with me) rang loudly in the middle of mass. Arrgghhh. And, worse, it was only someone calling me back to tell me their bargain washing machine was already sold. Two blows for the price of one.

In the afternoon our friends came visiting and we conjured up hot dogs and ginger beer -in retrospect it sounds like a Famous Five picnic. I discovered from them it is Mothering Sunday in the UK (it's not till May here) and panicked that I hadn't sent anything to my poor Mum. Then I remembered that she's only due back from a mad "girls" trip to Vegas tonight, and didn't feel quite so bad as she wouldn't have been home anyway. I rang Dad and left a message for her and I'll call her tomorrow, wish her a belated one and see how it all went. Might even have time to send some flowers. But I won't ring her mobile in case they decided to catch mass en route!!

A nice cuppa tea.

Friday comes again and Alfie had to do "news" this morning at school. They have to draw four pictures and then do a little presentation to the class, recounting a story that has happened to them recently. Alfie decided to tell about the chicken from last week, and I must say it went down a storm. He's been struggling a little as he missed the first 6 weeks of term and he's been exhausted from all the moving around and the heat. We get to stay and watch on these mornings if we want to and I have to admit I was feeling a bit nervous for him, but by the end I felt really proud of him.
On the way home I went to get Ru some passport pictures taken at the shopping centre. While we waited for the pics I gave in to Ru's regular cries of "I'm hungry" by going to a department store cafe . I had a pot of tea and Ru a "babycino" (which here is a milky hot chocolate in an espresso cup with lots of froth). Between us we shared a blueberry muffin. Very civilised and he behaved very well, but he made me (and the people at the next table) chuckle when he put down his spoon, picked up his cup and announced with a grin "I drinking it like a cuppa tea"  and swigged it back like a navvy with a pint.
After school I let the boys do some crafts. I'm always a bit nervous of such things in a rented house, so we went into the little internal courtyard off the kitchen. We do have to live here for 2 years after all so I can't draw a total halt to such activities. Anyway, as predicted, the boys and I all got thoroughly covered in paint and the recycling box was raided of any interesting looking items. Ru made an aeroplane out of an egg box and some card, Alfie made a fish out of an old milk carton. I'd love to post pics of the finished products, but you may not recognise which is which so I'll just let you see the work in progress!!

A serious job to do.

On a final, and completely different, note, I have an observation to make. You know you've been watching too many cooking programmes on TV when your kids start referring to you as "Chef"...... (Oh for the talent....) ;0)

Thought for the day

 (This was yesterday but I forgot to press "post")


I tried to teach my child with books

But he just gave me puzzled looks.

I tried to teach my child with words,

But “blah, blah, blah” was all he heard.

And so please tell me what to do?

Does anybody have a clue?

“ A child will watch” spoke up the man,

“So let him copy where he can.

Play, listen, show him kindly deeds

To be his guide is what he needs.

Have patience, show him that you care,

And you will see him follow there.”

This made me weep a little this morning. I was having a bit of a low morning missing friends a bit and going head to head with Alfie on silly things before school. I sat and felt that I'm not always the best example by any means if I want my kids to be tolerant and patient human beings.
Think we were all just a little tired, and things got better later in the day. But I'll still try to bear the little poem in mind where possible.