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.