April Update

So we think that it is about time for another epic email. Quite a lot has happened over the last few weeks so it should be a good read!

The first thing is that we now have all of our things in Australia! It all arrived just before Easter so we had a busy Easter weekend. There was not too much damage. My PC suffered the most as the monitor and one of the hard drives died on the way over. Not too bothered about the monitor as it was 4 years old and I'd been thinking about getting a new one anyway. The hard drive was more of a pain as it has meant re-installing everything - thankfully I backed up all our documents and pictures before leaving. We thought that one of our phones had been left in a box that the removalists took away, but I did have a niggling thought that it I'd put it somewhere safe. Finally found it this weekend in a chest in our lounge! Just got to remember which safe place I put the key to our filing cabinet in now!!! (rather amusingly since writing this, I had to jemmy open the filing cabinet to get a document out of it. One of the files was stuck over the back, meaning it didn’t open properly and I ended up lifting out the cabinet, only to discover keys taped to the back!! Like father like son...)

The lounge looks about 1000% better than before and it is fairly homely - but lacks the cats and open fire to finish it off. (I'm not suggesting that the cats on the fire would finish it off - they should be kept away from one another.) We have bought a couple of bookshelves which required not one, but two trips to the Purley Way Ikea. Sorry, I mean the Supacenter (why, oh why can't they call it a Super Centre???). First trip was to purchase the bookshelves, the second to take them back and replace them with ones that hadn't had the fork of a forklift truck put through them. Thankfully it's only 15 mins away and we were also able to get a very cheap computer desk too. Emma will be please to know that we have both her paintings up in the lounge now. I really want to put up grandpas ink woodcuts, but I'm worried about the weight on the flimsy hooks we are allowed to use. So that's all in the lounge.

The kitchen/dinning room is well organised now and we've even had some people over for dinner. Chris, Niccy and the childerbeasts were over for Sunday lunch - The house remained relatively unscathed, so we must have got something right! And our bedroom is looking good too. Now the spare bedroom, that is a room of denial. There are about 8 boxes of stuff that is yet to be unpacked. Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to take it all to the tip - we've done without it for 3 months anyway! Either way, we'll have it sorted for our first house guest. We are really looking forward to seeing some more familiar people!

Speaking of which, I met up with Simon (my old boss at UK Skandia) for lunch. It was really fantastic to see him and good to meet his two oldest daughters. We went to Doyle’s which is a very good fish restaurant in Circular Quay, overlooking the bridge on one side and the opera house on the other. It is arguably one of the finest locations in the world, but the reality is that we don't spend every lunch at Doyle’s! Most of the time it is at one of the many food courts where the selection is vast - certainly beats ASDA sandwiches. Still, it was great to catch up on what the IT department in the UK is up to - certainly exciting times - and always good to hear that those with talent are being given the chance to excel. I do miss being part of that team...

I suppose that does bring me onto my work here... Firstly getting to and from the office - I'm still struggling to understand how the train system can possibly be worse than the UK's offering, but somehow they manage it! Twice last week I gave up and caught a cab home. In terms of the actual work, being a team leader is not my strongest skill, but I’ve found some of it easier than I thought. The motivational and commitment levels of the team are relatively low and I’ve struggled to know how to raise them. One of the other team leaders gave me some advice on the way home - you can’t change people. I was really lad to hear that they agreed that I was doing all the right things with them - he has a lot of experience so I guess I trust his judgement. There should be an interesting project coming up which gives some glimmer of hope in terms of having something I might be half good at! I’ll be picking the brains of people back in the UK so you’ve been warned. Possibly the most worrying incident was that I caught myself last week saying 'no worries mate'. Very concerning!!

So, after my nice long lunch with Simon, I actually headed off a little early to go and pick up our new car. We finally made a decision, after hours of procrastination, to get a Subaru Forester. It is a really good car - robust enough for most Australian conditions (but as you'll read later, not all) and they don't depreciate very quickly, which is obviously important. It's odd having a big car, but it has earned its keep by being filled up with bookshelves etc. I find it hard to park in our garage, but Libby has no trouble at all.

Having a car has meant that Libby has been able to do some care work, which I'll let her talk about...

All the people who need home care here are, it seems, old Italian women who speak very little English. I wish that I spoke Italian, but I don’t, although I now have an English-Italian dictionary that I take with me each day I work... Conversation is limited and any kind of communication is mostly very long-winded and laborious. We knew before we came out here that my UK qualifications weren’t accepted in Australia, but I think I wasn’t prepared for all my training to apparently count for nothing. The work I’m doing is a little personal care and a lot of housework. I am a little intimidated by usually having my efforts closely watched over - and, of course, everyone wants things done slightly differently, but when effective communication isn’t possible, neither is discussing the finer points of how they would like their house cleaned. One of the more amusing moments was not even being able to explain what country I’m from:

Mrs F: 'You Australian?'

Me: 'No, I’m English'

Mrs F: 'You speak English good'

Me: 'Yes, I’m from England'

Mrs F: 'They speak English in your country?'

Me: 'Yes! We speak English in England'

Mrs F: Shrugs. Pause... 'Where you from?'

Me: 'I’m English... I’m from England.'

Mrs F: Shrugs and looks blank

Me: A bit desparate 'Angleterre?... Inglese?'

Mrs F: Blank look

Me: 'London?'

Mrs F: Shrugs and looks blank. Long pause 'It is hot in your country?’

Me: 'No. Sometimes it’s warm, sometimes it is cold. It rains a lot. It is in Europe'

Mrs F: Looks blank

Me: Attempt to draw map of Europe with my finger on the table, pointing out Italy, Spain, France and England.

Mrs F: Shrugs again. Long pause 'Your country big as Australia?'

Next week, with my English-Italian dictionary, I managed 'Sono Inglese' and we seemed to understand one another.

A couple of weekends back we headed north out of Sydney to a peaceful river (I think the Hawkesbury) to a little area called Cottage Point. There was a very sweet little café and we watched a seaplane landing and taking off again. Lots of talk of how much fun it would be to buy a little boat to drift around on

This last weekend was the best since arriving. It was ANZAC day on Sunday which meant that there was a bank holiday on the Monday. In addition, it was Chris's birthday on the Friday and mine on the Sunday. As a result we decided to go away. Chris and Niccy very kindly booked a cottage for us all to stay in up at a place called Smith's Lake. It was truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. Our house had a view out over the lake and onto a sandbar that separated it from the ocean, surrounded by bush land. We were fortunate enough to have excellent weather too. It was sunny every day and the temperatures in the mid-twenties. We were woken at sunrise everyday as the blinds were not very effective, but given the view, waking up early was a good price to pay. The nigh time was equally beautiful as the stars were so amazing - just thousands that you never see in the city. Libby, Niccy and the kiddos travelled up on Friday afternoon and got set up. Chris and I after, being foiled by the trains once again, didn't end up leaving until 7pm. After a quick trip back to pick up the directions, we were off! It was about a 3.5 hour drive, so good to test out the car a bit more. The house itself was quite nice, and it was great turning up when it was dark as we had an extra surprise the next morning at sunrise. On the Saturday, we had a lazy morning with a cooked breakfast - Bacon out here is about 18 inches long (not that I had any). We then went out on a boat to try to see some Dolphins, and sure enough, just outside of a harbour there was a pod (so we were told) of dolphins. It was amazing to watch them playing. I guess I always find it amazing that animals have a sense of fun! The boat trip took us off along the coast and there was some more wonderful scenery with a mixture of rocky outcrops, sandy beaches and bush land all mixed in. It really was a lovely afternoon. On the way back Libby and I climbed up one of the peaks where they had built a viewing platform. The views were out across the ocean and the inland lakes and as the sun was setting, it was once again a sight to behold. Bertie was allowed to stay up and have dinner with us all - a real treat (for us as well as him). The following morning, after another glorious sunrise, I opened all my presents - The Barbie King was especially appreciated Jo and I'm looking forward to putting them to good use. We decided to hire a little tin boat on Smith's Lake itself. After pootling around on the lake, we headed out to the sandbar. Chris ended up hopping out of the boat and dragging the boat onto the sand bank and then we all waded onto the sandbar. This beach was idyllic and almost empty - I'm picturing the swarms of people at Bournemouth beach and smiling. The water on both sides was so clear. The waves were up to a couple of meters and thrashing around in them was a lot of fun. After a couple of hours and a sandy picnic, it was time go back to the house for an afternoon nap. In the evening as a special birthday treat, we took another meal down to the beach (via the road this time) and had a little camp fire and kept look out for shooting stars. Then, on Monday, it was time to leave. It was so tempting to stay there forever, but unfortunately the reality was we had to come home. On the way we stopped at a place called Tea Gardens. It was another lakeside town and was very sleepy. I was amused by the "Tea Gardens Industrial Estate" - a huge contradiction! The final moment of the trip was to find a beach to have a drive on. We chose to head to a beach called lemontree and it was again a lovely spot. Unfortunately though, we didn't see much of it by driving around as I managed to get the car stuck in the sand on the way to the beach. Looking back, it was very funny as we'd only got about 10 yards along the track to the beach, but at the time I totally panicked. we walked down to the beach and found a father and son fishing. They had a beaten up old Landcruiser and thankfully had all the kit to pull us out of the sand and back onto terra firma. This only highlights my assertion that the Toyota Landcruiser is possibly the greatest vehicle in the world... Discuss.

We certainly felt very privileged to have seen so many amazing things over the weekend! Had Libby have written about it I’m sure that she would have conveyed the true beauty of the place.

So that's about all really. We have settled on a church (a local Anglican one), and should be heading off to a house group next week as long as we don’t get a last minute babysitting call up like this week! The people seem very friendly

We are still missing home a great deal.

Lots of love from

Josh and Libby.