(A belated) Merry Christmas!

I know this comes two days after the event but we hope you are all had / continue to have a great time!

We have sweltered in 40+ degree temperatures on Christmas Day and yesterday. It's been as hot as the only other time we came here at Christmas 8 years ago but we coped! Christmas Day Isabel and Katie woke us very early to tell us Santa had been so we all got up to find out what goodies he had left! They were so excited over everything they received (and thanks to all who sent them gifts). Unbelievably we still managed to leave the house at 9am to go to the beach and just as well we did because Cottesloe Beach was heaving. We've never seen it so busy. As we arrived and walked down to the sand we passed loads of families sitting down and toasting the morning with Champagne, it was a great atmosphere.

The weather was on top form and not trying to rub it in to all of you readers in the UK but the beach was gorgeous..... turquoise blue sea and golden soft sand :o) Well as soon as we'd set our shade up the girls were in the water on their body boards. Both of them have got very confident in water thanks to their weekly swimming lessons which they've had from the very first week we arrived in Perth. We all had a great time in the water and more or less had to drag ourselves out so that we could drink our champagne with Jane and Tony when they arrived.

We finally left Cottesloe at 1pm when it really was feeling pretty hot. When we got in the car the temperature reading was 41 degrees (so thank goodness for air con!)

The rest of the day was divided between eating a traditional turkey roast (at Isabel's request) and more swimming in Jane and Tony's pool before we all collapsed into bed on Christmas night. All in all a fab day.

Yesterday was much the same although being mad we went out for a picnic so that we weren't in the house all day! When we arrived at the park (one which neither Jane and Tony or us had been to before) it was 45 degrees. It was like stepping into a furnace when you got out of the car. We couldn't stop there anyway because we discovered that dogs aren't allowed and we had their dog Red with us, so we went to another park close by which was about 2 degrees cooler. Well, we managed to sit in the shade for about 40 mins before we packed up, shot back to Jane and Tony's and literally (for me) jumped back into their pool. It was bliss.

The air con has stayed on all night as even at 10pm the temperature was 32 degrees outside. It's certainly a test to see how well we can cope. We've definitely acclimatised to the weather here as although it's extremely hot we're not wilting in the corners and obviously air con in the houses and cars makes a HUGE difference :o) According to the Western Australian newspaper we've had the hottest 3 days on record for 95 years.

Today (27th) it's going to be slightly cooler but we're spending time inside one way or another. The news yesterday said that $6 billion is predicted to be spent in the next 3 weeks in the Australia sales. I think our contribution will be a couple of hundred! We're hoping to decorate our family room in the next few days before Rich goes to work and I'm sure another visit to the beach will be on the agenda at some point too.

So, life continues as normal. Rich is watching "Have I Got News for You", the girls are busy drawing with their new colouring pencils and I've just spent an hour on the computer.

We hope you've all had a fab Christmas too. Thank you for our Christmas cards and for those of you who have sent emails in the last week or two you will hear from us soon!

Take care all,

Love The Ramshaws xx

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Well, the warm weather has arrived as of 8 days ago and we're getting a feel for how summer will be. Last Friday afternoon we decided to take a drive over to Cottesloe beach for a stroll and a fish and chip supper looking over the ocean....

It was windy as you can tell. Here's me and the girls (with me doing my "Posh" look!)

And here's the view we were admiring....

Otherwise, the week has continued as normal, with work, school, etc, although the girls are now making full use of their 3m pool we bought for them. It's now a permanent fixture in the garden (as it's chlorinated water with a pump), along with the trampoline. Yes, our garden is a bit different from our last one!

This weekend we're chilling out a bit, although tomorrow we're up early to go to the Cottesloe Life Surfing Club as Isabel is starting a surf awareness course to get her more confident with swimming in the sea. She's not learning to surf but playing games on the beach and learning about staying safe in the sea. We're all looking forward to it (apart from the early start!) I'll let you know how she gets on.

Well, it's gone 10pm here and about time I put the coffee machine on. So g'dnight all and keep watching this spot!

J,R,I & Kxxx

More Photos

Thought I'd post up a few more photos of the Bull Air Race for you to see. (I did try to add more when I posted last time but Blogger stopped working.) Anyhow, here they are.....

Can't claim credit for this one but it's a great shot...

Or this one but it gives you an idea of the day. By the way, these planes were flying at over 400 kms an hour!

The best day!

We've had the most fantastic day - Perth is host to the finale of the Red Bull Air Race. This is a free event over the weekend. The contestants, 13 pilots today, tested their skills along the Swan River, flying as fast as possible around a course of inflated pylons. It was absolutely FANTASTIC. We were some of many thousands on the river banks, watching the event right in front of us and on the huge tv screens. The weather was perfect, 30 degrees C, blue, blue sky (not a cloud to be seen just to rub it in) and everyone there was out to have a good time so it was a great atmosphere.

We moseyed on down by bike - 15 mins from our house to almost the city centre - and finished our day drinking wine on Richard's parent's balcony watching more stunt flying (they live a stone's throw from the foreshore) and Iz and Katie cooled off in their pool. I'm sitting at home now looking through our 198 photos, the best of which I'll post for you to see along with some from the official site so you can get an idea of what it's all about.

Before I finish, if any of you fancy coming over for a holiday, this time next year would be a good date for your diary as the Race returns to Perth for its third year. Now onto the photos.....

Countdown to the race.....

Watching the action

It's been a while....

Okay, okay we're very overdue for an update on here (aside from posting up news). Well, in 4 days we'll hit the 6 months mark. Rich has been at work for 3 and a half months, I'm doing some web site work again (for my old UK company) and for those of you who don't know, I'm also a Tupperware demonstrator! Yes, you really have read that right, and no, I'm not pulling your leg. Tupperware is BIG business over here like you would not believe. Even single guys order the stuff and Rich has realised that the money I earn is quite useful.... Enough said about that.

So, what have we been up to? Well, with the warm Spring weather (30 degrees C this week - just to rub it in), we've been to the beach a couple of times, visited Rottnest Island with it's 63 beaches (not that we managed all of those in 1 day!), Rich has had a go at kite surfing and decided he wants to take it up as a hobby. Katie had her 3rd birthday back in September. The photo above is of Katie and her friend Imogen at her birthday party. Our first birthday party at home, great fun but exhausting!

We're all seriously into our coffee which we've probably mentioned before. I took this photo of Katie when she had her first baby cino (it's actually hot chocolate but she thinks she's drinking coffee!) Cafe culture is very much part of our life here and the girls have totally taken it for granted that that's what we do. I was told by Tony last week that when Katie spent the morning with them, not only did she dictate exactly what they were going to do but it included a trip to their local cafe for lunch :o)

One of our favourite things to do here is to go out on our bikes as there are cycle paths everywhere. We've bought trail-gators which attach the girls' bikes to ours so that we can move along at a sensible speed. Rich took this photo of me and Katie weeks ago, probably to show you that I do do a bit of exerise....

And in case you're worried that the rest of the family don't exist, here's one of them at Mandurah beach...

So, reading back that's not a lot of news but it's really hard to remember what we've been doing! Anyway, I hope this gives you a bit more of an insight.

Hope you're all well and aren't thinking too much about Christmas. I was told today that it's only 8 weeks away, I don't think that we'll ever be ready for it as it's soooo not like Christmas time over here. Even the shops having Christmas departments haven't convinced me, although I think Isabel and Katie would complain very loudly if Father Christmas missed them out!

Take care all and when you get chance, please get in touch!

Love

The Ramshaws in Oz xxxxx

They're a rough lot here.....

We've laughed out loud at one of today's news stories and felt we had to share it with you....

"CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian barmaid has been fined for crushing beer cans between her bare breasts while an off-duty colleague has been fined for hanging spoons from her friend's nipples, police said Wednesday.
Police in Western Australia said the 31-year old barmaid pleaded guilty in the local magistrate's court to twice exposing her breasts to patrons at the Premier Hotel in Pinjarra, south of the state capital, Perth.
The woman "is alleged to have also crushed beer cans between her breasts during one of the offences," in breach of hotel licensing laws, police from the Peel district of Western Australia said in a statement.
The barmaid and the hotel manager were both fined A$1,000 ($900), while an off-duty barmaid was fined A$500 for helping to hang spoons from the woman's nipples, police said.
"It sends a clear message to all licensees in Peel that we will not tolerate this type of behavior in our licensed premises," local police superintendent David Parkinson said."

We'd just like to point out we don't know them, honest!

Where have 15 weeks gone?

Well, today marks our 15th week here. You could not imagine how fast the time has gone since we first arrived. I thought I would be updating this blog much more frequently than I have been doing but I always seem so busy!

Anyway, enough of my excuses, I thought I should share with you some of the local ways that are a bit different from here.

Well to start with, the lingo is a bit different. Obviously it's English but common words we've encountered are:
Manchester - all forms of linen. Why "Manchester" I have no idea. Oh, and a duvet is called a "doona"
Snags - sausages
Eggplant - aubergine
Zuchini - courgette
Capsicum - pepper
Router - Rich has discovered that this is pronouced "rowter", as "router" means to shag :oD (Cause of embarressment at his office!)

I'm sure Isabel knows more (she's determined to learn them all) but she's in bed so I can't ask her to fill me in on the ones I've forgotten. If you really want to know, then let me know :oD

So, what else can I tell you. Well, postie does his round on a motorbike. Houses over here don't have letterboxes in their doors, but letterboxes at the front of their garden. Newspaper delivery people do the American thing of throwing the paper on the lawn.

Customer service is great in the shops. You are greeted with a genuine smile and even on the phone people greet you with "How's it going?" and always end with "Have a nice day". I still find it amusing.

Driving.. Hmm, this is an experience. It's left hand driving as in the UK BUT you can overtake on the inside as well as the outside. Lorries can drive in any lane. As a generalisation most Australians will automatically zoom up to the car in front if you indicate that you would like to move over to their lane. This means that you have to negotiate changing lanes a good few minutes before you need to in order to guarantee you can swap lanes in order to turn off. Supermarket bumps on car doors is common. We have already been scraped twice. Grrrr.

However, despite the 4 weeks of almost continuous rain, we are not complaining. We've filled our weekends without any effort and staying in the house to "get on with stuff" is a rarity despite wanting to make lots of changes to put our stamp on our new home. Going out is always so much more appealing.

I have got through the first school holidays which loomed upon me without too much thinking about. I have become network queen and met lots of great people :o) Isabel even went on Guide Camp in the holidays (yes, aged 6!) for 4 (blissful days). Harsh you may think but it meant there was no rush for getting to school and she loved it anyway!

Last week I went to see Gwen Stefani on her only night in Perth. She was fantastic. It was my first concert in nearly 10 years so to make up for lost time I'm already planning my next one to see Justin Timberlake in November.

We're off on our first minibreak in a couple of weeks to a place called "Billingup". I have learnt this week that any place that ends in "up" means that it is an Aboriginal place name that means close to water.

Photos - we have taken some, just been useless at checking them out. But I can assure you that there are some beautiful spots here and Iz and Katie are growing fast. In fact, Katie is 3 in less than 4 weeks (gasp!) and Rich is another year older a couple of days earlier. So birthday celebrations are being planned.

Anyway, I hope the sun is at last shining in the UK and that you mums are managing to do more than soft play in the school holidays.

Take care. We miss you all. Drop us a line when you get time.

Jennyxxxxxx (and co)

No longer unemployed!

Yep, you read that right. Rich has joined the ranks of the Perth employed and is now an IT Consultant for DSC-IT. He's valiantly opted to commute by bike but rain has thwarted his attempts this week (well that's his excuse for getting me to drive him in!) So a second car is on the cards....

Off to bed now as it's late but will post more soon.

Recent photos

Katie enjoying herself at the Ivy Watson playground

Isabel in her school uniform

It's been a while.......

Hi All

It's been a while since we updated the blog. Apologies, etc, etc but let me get on and tell you what we've been up to. Well, since Rich added the photos of our house to this blog we moved in 4 weeks to the day from when our offer was accepted! So a little quicker than how things went in the UK and we've now been here 4 weeks and 2 days. Isabel and Katie are really settled in their new home. Rich and I have done 90% of the unpacking, most of what's left is garage stuff and "lets just shove it in the spare room for the time being" stuff which will get done eventually :o)

We've finished moving our furniture around to fill in the large gaps that this house has provided and now have a long list of desirable things we'd like to buy as and when we can afford it. All donations gratefully received.....(!)

We've got very used to our new home now and particularly enjoy the fact that when we're at one end of the house and the girls at the other, it's still so peaceful! Having such a long house also has its drawbacks, particularly when unpacking a 100 or so boxes whose contents need to be carried from one end to the other. It also meant that on discovering that we had no loft insulation (gasp!) and were all freezing in the cold winter mornings (yes, it's true, it gets cold at night and before the sun comes out) it cost a lot more than a square 2 storey house to insulate. But hey, it's one of those things and we're now not shivering in 2 layers of clothes at night.

Four weeks down the line from the move, Rich has been busy job hunting (more of that in a moment), while I've been busy shopping, seeking out the variety of shopping centres to buy the food basics, furniture and general house stuff. Katie has become my number 1 shopping buddy, although her favourite question is "Mummy.... can we buy this?" Unfortunately for her, most of the time I say "no".

Shopping is a different experience here as it is the norm to haggle on price. You always, always ask for their best price and in most cases they'll knock some money off. Money here is different too - aside from it being dollars and cents - there's no paper stuff, only plastic "monopoly" notes plus coins. There's no 1 cent coin either, so if something is priced at 99 cents it gets rounded up to the dollar. It works both ways so for instance if a bill came to 9 dollars and 96 cents then you'd get the 5 cents change from a 10 dollar note.

As someone pointed out having plastic money means that if you do accidently leave some in your pockets then they don't disintegrate in the washing machine and you can take it to the beach without having to remember to leave it somewhere dry.

Some of you will know from our emails that we still don't have broadband. A strange concept for us especially when I tell you we've only had a phoneline for 10 days (a long and frustrating story). WA really does stand for Wait Awhile..... so we're currently dialled into the net via R's mobile phone, a useful add-on to his mobile contract and pretty cheap compared to UK prices.

Anyway, back to R's job hunting. He's been offered 4 jobs from 5 interviews (the fifth company said that if they had the right project they'd employ him but currently they couldn't place him in the firm), so finding a job isn't exactly a problem. Clearly he's a picky so and so but fingers crossed we'll have some great news later in the week.

Right folks. That's all for now. More news and photos coming soon.

Our new home

By popular request here are some photos of our new house, we get to move in on the 8th June just 4 weeks after seeing it - houses move fast here.


It's a fairly standard Ozzy house, 4 beds and 2 bathrooms with a big open plan area for the kitchen and lounge. There is also a formal lounge and dining room that we don't know what to do with, so suggestions welcome!


To shatter the Ozzy dream though there's no pool, spa or inbuilt barbie :o( This does give us a blank garden canvas to play with so I'm sure that will keep Jen busy......

Rich

Thoughts and feelings

We've just moved into a holiday apartment for the next 10 days to give Richard's parents a bit of space, the sparkling Shiraz is about to be opened and Rich is taking photos of the cityviews from our balcony to share with you.


So, now that we're in our fourth week I thought I'd give you a bit more of an insight into the way of life here. As expected there are benefits and bugbears:

• Banks. The banks are a nightmare (bureaucratic buggers is what I'm now refering to them as). Nothing is simple, everything takes ages, requires lots of form filling / signing and just to confuse the customer even more you don't have a straightforward current account, oh no.... What to you and I is a current account, in the bank they call it an everyday account, if you want to draw money out of said account in the bank you have to select the cheque account button on the PIN machines. If you draw money out of the account at an ATM (which by the way if you use other banks ATMs they charge you a £1 a go) then you have to select the savings account button and if you use your Debit card in a shop you have to select the credit card button!!? Oh and it took a whopping hour and a half for the girl at the bank to set up our account even though we'd already filled out various forms in the UK to speed things up!
  
  So, all in all, Ozzie banks suck.
  
  


• Playgrounds. They are dotted everywhere, you could almost say around every other corner. All the ones we have been to have been well maintained, no cigarette butts, graffiti or litter lying around. The girls love it.
  
  


• Sand in shoes. Grrr. I am already sick of getting sand in my shoes from all of these playgrounds. Enough said.
  
  


• Coffee. Love it. Now have an addiction that I was just about controlling in the UK due to lack of coffee shops in the vicinity. There are cafes EVERYWHERE here (that really is not an exageration) and 99% of the coffee we've had has been really good. (We like to try it out daily, just to be sure.) The other bonus is that if you sit in for a coffee then it's the norm for the cafe to have a pile of reading material for its customers which includes all the trashy but necessary celeb gossip magazines which keeps me up to date with what's going on! (And it's free!)
  
  


• Supermarkets. Sadly I am missing Asda. Food shopping is more expensive here and as we've only done 2 major shops we're still testing the various brands. (There's no George!!)
  
  


• Fashion. Hmmm. Very variable. We've been 2 two shopping centres, only one of which we've managed a proper shop without children. Saw some very scarey outfits.... I've not yet been to my favourite suburb Subiaco which has lots of clothing boutiques, so that's something I'm looking forward to doing one day. I think Rich is probably secretly relieved about that! (But I will be going Rich, you have been warned......)
  


• People. They are all so friendly and very helpful when you ask for advice and even when you haven't they will give you details of places to go. Rich has been given contacts for two diffrent IT companies who he has been told about him looking for work!
  
  Everyone's interested in you as a person and how you're getting on, probably because most of them are ex-pats! We can count on 2 hands how many true Ozzies we've met since we've been here. We have chatted to people from England, Scotland, Wales, France, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Phillapeans, Singapore. So, all in all it's pretty multicultural over here.
  
  


• Wine. Mmmm. Tis good and cheap. Nuf said :o)
  
  


• Chocolate. They don't have Minstrels!!! So if any of you feel sorry for me, send me a packet or two. Cadbury's is not the same either :o(
  
  


• Eating out. Cheap, plentiful and generally really great food. The portion sizes are huge, so we rarely order more than 3 dishes for the 4 of us. (It's very important to leave room for the large variety of delicious cakes that are available in the eating establishment.)
  
  


• Gluten Free Food. Rich is being spoilt. Eating out is far easier as everyone understands what the gluten free diet means. It's common for there to be a number of cakes marked up as gluten free just in the one establishment. R's dad and I counted 6 different types of gluten free bread just in the local supermarket.
  
  


• The weather. It's coming into winter and believe me when I say the mornings are freezing. The nights aren't much better either! We have noticed that the appartment is much warmer than Richard's parents house mainly because we're in a relatively new building and I haven't had to resort to my dressing gown!
  
  The days however are still in the low 20's, so going out during the day is still lovely. Although it's funny seeing some of the locals dressed in coats, hats and even scarves as they think it's cold!
  
  


• Scenery. There are many beautiful parks and other places all over Perth and as you'll see from the photos, the city at night is pretty stunning.
  
  
• Television. In a word - rubbish! Not that we've had much time to sit back and watch much but it has homed in on what great TV there is in the UK. There is no Cbeebies on demand, Katie still asks hopefully in case I can make it happen!
  

Well, I shall leave it there for now. I'd love to hear your news, so if you've time to drop us a line please do. (I'm missing my Nottingham friends.......)

I'll write more soon

Jennyxxx

Poms in Perth

Hi All

Well, we're in our 3rd week in Perth and finally I have time (and the energy) to tell all on what we've been up to.

As you can probably imagine we've been running around like mad organizing a gazillion things but our hard work has paid off. Tomorrow we collect our car (ended up buying new as the price difference between a 2 year old car versus new is negligle) so we're both quite excited about having our own set of wheels.

We've spent days and evenings researching the suburbs (of which there are so many you wouldn't believe) deciding where we wanted to live and after deciding to go for South of the River we began the property search. We jumped right in and after viewing only a few properties we had an offer accepted on a house last Wednesday in the suburb of Como. It's about 6kms from the City, so will be a short commute for Rich when he gets a job (that's next on the list). The house is 4 years old and doesn't need anything doing to it apart from some plants adding to the garden, although being us we already have some ideas of how we'd like to "improve" it. Anyway, we hope to move in on the 7 June as our container should have passed through Customs the day before.

Buying property here is very different to how it works in the UK. It's the norm to have a "house open" whereby the real estate agent opens the house to viewers for a couple of hours at the weekend. It's great as you simply pick out the houses from the weekend newspaper that are listed as open and simply drop by and wander round. It meant that we were able to see a few properties in one day which was a huge time saver.

Once an offer has been accepted it's also legally binding, so you get none of this messy ultimatum business that happend to us in our chain and the conveyancing part is so much more straightforward. The only downside is that we totally blew our budget (nothing new there) but the house is fab. We'll post up some pics when we've moved in.

So, having found out that we got the house last Wednesday we went visiting the schools and Iz started at a local primary yesterday. It's also only 5 mins drive from Rich's parents house in South Perth which is very convenient. Her school starts and finishes almost the same time as Jesse Gray, so now we're having to get up with the alarm, and that's a shock to the system!

We've also found a fantastic nursery (or Childcare Centre as they call them here) for Katie. I don't know how I managed it but they offered us 2 days a week with an immediate start even though they have an official waiting list! It's as pricey as Scotts Wood nursery but the people are absolutely lovely and they do great things with the kids.

Both the girls had their first days yesterday and both had a great time. No tears from either, Isabel in particular was really excited about starting school and couldn't wait to go in. The uniform is a bit lary - purple, yellow and green - but she looks great in it. (Parent's bias of course!) So all in all we've got off to a flying start. I think we've amazed R's parents that we've managed to do so much so soon.

Talking of whom, they have been brilliant for having us stay with them and we really couldn't have done so much without their help. (And we'd have been totally lost without the broadband connection so that we can research and email people everyday.)

So, by now you probably want to hear what Perth is like. Well, weather wise, the first 3 days here we experienced loads and loads of rain. However, what we've discovered is that the showers are only ever short, even when a bucket appears to have been poured from the sky it stays warm! We've had 2 days of 29 degrees but mostly low 20's as now it's coming into Winter (shock). It does get cold at night and first thing in the morning and I have had to wear a jacket when I go out!

Eating out here is fantastic, there is so much choice and is really good value. Coffee and cake is almost part of the daily routine, as is trying out a different bottle of Ozzy wine each night. However, I think funds and waistlines need to be taken into account so we will have to learn to be good :o)

Iz and Katie love all of the playgrounds that are dotted around everywhere and believe me we've been to a lot :o) The Swan River foreshore is quite literally around the corner from R's parents house and we go there most days. The girls have a bike each and have cycled a fair distance. Katie in particular loves it as she struggled with the hill on Repton Road but around here it's all flat cycle paths with fantastic views of the city.

We're in our honeymoon period of course, but Perth really is a fantastic place to live. Everytime I go out I find myself smiling at the gorgeous views / parks/ sun / yummy food being served up!

Aside from the necessities, we've also had a bit of a social life too. I've met up with a couple of mums courtesy of mumsnet.com (!), met another great mum who I started talking to at the playground last week - the people here really are a very friendly lot - and we've tried out the local pub with our new mate Darin who has just emigrated here too. The girls are having weekly swimming lessons and I've just signed up to a Pilates Course! So, you could say that we've thrown ourselves into it :o)

Now that Isabel is at school my next project is finding a local playgroup of which there are many. The system is v. different to Nottingham as you have to pay a small membership fee to the Western Australia Playgroup Assocation to cover insurance costs but then you can attend any playgroup. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Rich's goal is to start job hunting now that he's got some spare-ish time on his hands, although he's also doing 2 days a week working remotely for Ergo, so at least we've got some money coming in.

So, that's where we're up to. Rich and I will continue to post on here to keep you updated. It still doesn't seem real, that we've really emigrated, probably because we don't have a normal routine yet, so at some point it will hit us. So please don't forget us as we are going to miss you loads!

Keep us posted with your news,

Lots of love

Jenny, Rich, Iz and Katie
xxxx

p.s. If you haven't used a blog before you can add a "comment" underneath our posts. Otherwise please email or ring us!

Katie cycling by the river

Local sparrows......

Monkeys at the zoo!

Izzy in her element at a park.

Hot in the Seychelles!

I was somewhat shocked to discover that the Seychelles was humid! If I'd thought about it I would have worked it out but as I hadn't the time to think beyond moving out of our home, it was quite a shock when I stepped off the plane :o) But apart from the humidity the beauty of the island struck us next. Everywhere is green and tropical with beautiful bays and beaches all along the coastline. Paul and Janet's villa is very open, with a large wooden veranda, swimming pool and 4 bedrooms. It's situated on a hill overlooking a huge tropical garden, the end of which is the beach!

Having landed in the afternoon, we were driven the scenic route to the villa and stopped at their equivalent of Asda which is in fact a very small supermarket (imagine a scruffy small corner shop) selling whatever the Seychellians can get hold of. Back at the villa, we had a quick tour and then hit the beach for a swim, nibbles and wine!

We spent our days mainly swimming or chilling out at the villa. The sea is warm and on the calm days is the most stunning turquoise blue (think travel brochures). Rich and his sister did a 1 day Padi diving course and went on two fantastic dives. I did a bit of snorkelling which was amazing (and I'm quite chuffed with myself for getting the knack of it after my previous one-time experience) and I can't wait to do it again.

During the week Rich and I also acquired about 50 mosquito bites during the holiday (total nightmare as no-one else got more than a couple of bites), so I don't know why they loved us so much.

All in all the Seychelles gave us the time to recuperate after the stress of moving and was just perfect prior to flying onto Oz. We had a great time (even though we were munched!) and we were ready to hit Perth running.....

Shades of brown...

On the boat for Andy's (Rich's Sis) birthday.

Iz looking normal

Rich diving.

Fantastic Sea

And sunset

Excited girls.

End of a hard day.

Dubai

Hi All

Apologies for not updating this blog sooner but we have quite literally been sooooo busy since we left the UK and this is my first opportunity to tell all...

As you know, we set off to Dubai first. We flew with Emirates who were great, the kids loved being on the plane and for the first time in years us "parents" got to watch the films and read our books as the girls were tuned into the children's tv programmes most of the flight (so they were in heaven!)

On arrival in Dubai I had forgotten what a big airport it is, there were huge crowds of people waiting in the arrivals section but we found Andy (Richard's sister) and were whisked away in air conditioned comfort!

Dubai for me, was a completely different experience since I was last there 5 years ago. The best description I can give is that it is a giant building site. Everywhere you drive there are enormous skyscrapers either finished or in the process of going up. There are hundreds of cranes and HUGE work forces of builders who work incredibly long days. The city will look amazing when it's got further, some of the buildings are so over the top and the money that is being invested there is unbelievable. It's very much a fast paced way of life and you need a LOT of money to live there comfortably but for the tourist it's great. If you're into shopping Dubai is the place to go. There are enormous malls all over the place and the largest one in the world is being built around the corner from where Richard's sister lives - lucky girl :o)

We stayed with Andy for 5 days. She lives on the 22nd floor of a trendy appartment block (I'll add some photos of the view). We met up with some of her friends, chilled by the appartment pool, visited a beach club (very nice) and visited the Mall of the Emirates with the girls and had a great time WITHOUT shopping! At one end of the mall is a massive ski dome - a huge sloping ski slope, it has real snow AND a chair lift inside! The temperature was a constant -4 degrees C (it was mid 30's outside so imagine the cost of running that) and as well as ski-ing there's toboggoning too. It's surrounded by cafe's and restaurants with floor to ceiling windows so that you can watch the skiers inside. Unfortunately, we didn't get to play as it was pretty expensive - they hire out ski outfits and boots but not gloves, you have to buy those, so if you ever go over to Dubai and want go there, my tip is to take your ski gloves!

Anyway, we spent our time there in a huge games arcade which has funfair rides, a climbing wall plus lots of games machines to play on. When we'd exhausted ourselves there we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch on recommedation that they do wicked burgers and chips, 1950s style. Yep, it was great calorific food and well worth a visit.

On our last day in Dubai we went to Wild Wadi. It's a huge water park beside the Jumiah Beach Hotel and overlooked by the Burj Al Arab. We had a brilliant time, Iz in particualar loved it and we had to virtually drag her out at the end of the day :o)

So all in all we had a great time in Dubai and will definitely be going back one day.

1 day and counting

Well, we've finally exchanged contracts at the 11th hour, moved out of our house 3 days ago and are now staying at a relatives house until we fly to Dubai the day after next. Can't wait!

Isabel would like to add.....

We're going to Australia very soon and I am so excited! I'm really looking forward to going in the aeroplanes four times! It will be so exciting because I will have a small television in the aeroplane.

I am also very much looking forward to living in Australia. It will be really hot. I will leave Nottingham it will be quite sad because I will be leaving my friends for a very long time and I won't see them until I come back to Nottingham on holiday but I will keep in touch with everyone on this website.

I hope my teacher, Mrs Gardener, from class 12 won't miss me too much.

Love from

Isabel R.
xoxoxox

3 weeks to go!

Not long to go now. We've sold most of our worldly possessions that we're not taking, even Richard's Audi has got 2 people wanting to buy it in less than 24 hours!

We should be exchanging contracts on the house early next week which means we can confirm and book our flights for the 16th April and book the removal firm.

Isabel has only one more week at Jesse Gray which makes it seem more real.

Will keep you posted on developments.....