More good news!

It seems to be the time for good news in the Font household ("at last" I hear you cry!). There were two viewings on our UK house yesterday and Gemma phoned this morning to say that one of them had gone for it! Over the moon to say the least. We had decided to reduce the rent to 560 per month but the couple who viewed it had seen it advertised at 580 and were happy to pay that. Gemma has also reduced her fee to 7.5% which is great - anything is a help at the moment. The couple who are taking it sound really nice. The woman is a lecturer at Uni and her husband is a full time Uni student. They've just sold their house in Bridgend (not sure of the reason behind that) and are looking to rent for a couple of years - excellent! They're due to complete on the sale of their house on 24th August and will possibly move in slightly earlier than that. The sooner the better for us obviously.

Still smiling with the good news!

Well its still all smiles in the Font household after mums good news last week. I had been living on a lot of 'what ifs' over the last few weeks (as I'm sure my mum had!) and its a big relief to be able to plan things with that worry. I had planned to get the next flight home with Danielle if the results were negative so that I could drive mum back and forth the hospital etc for treatment and to basically be there for her. Grays mum and dad are due out in 6 weeks and I wasnt even sure if I'd be here for that. Thankfully now we can really start planning things. I'm gonna try and get mum back out as soon as possible too. It'd be fantastic if she could come out for Christmas but I dont know how realistic that is. Flights are costly at that time of year and I know that mum might worry about how she would cope with the heat (although last Christmas wasnt hot at all - more like a UK summer!).

TAFE is going ok. The course is split up into 4 modules with 4 different teachers. Two of the lessons I'm really enjoying, one of them I've decided to study full time from home (project management) as I cant spend enough time in the classroom (have to leave early to pick up Danielle) and the other one is a bit of a nightmare right now. Matthew (the teacher) is very very bland - your typical computer geek actually - and his teaching leaves a lot to be desired. We've only had two lessons so far and both of them were spent the same way - the first 30 mins doing a question and answer session (I liked that) but then it went drastically downhill. He just sat us all in front of an online tutorial for the next 3 hours. The tutorial itsself was very basic and it would take a lot for someone to actually 'learn' from it - plus you could work your way through it in a max of 30 mins but we were sat there for 3 hours - not good at all!

Its Sharons daughters 19th birthday today. For her 18th Sharon & Noel had a big get together at their house and I really cant believe that a year has passed since then. The time here has flown by.

27th July - Fantastic News!

The results are in and they’re ALL GOOD! Mum is now CANCER FREE! Over the moon to say the least. She has to take tablets for 5 years to reduce the risk of it returning in the other breast but apart from that she’s all clear. No sign of cancer in any of the lymph nodes. They did confirm that the lump was cancerous and also that the tissue around the lump was cancerous too so it was definitely a good move for her to have had the entire breast off.

26th July - "D' Day has arrived for Mum

Well today is the day that mum gets her results. I’m feeling as nervous as hell so I can only begin to imagine how she must be feeling. It’s the longest day ever too because I’ll have to wait until about 1am until I know how it went (this time difference sucks!).

I’m gonna give her a call in a minute and then I’ll update here I think. The update after that will be when we’ve had the results! Fingers crossed its good news.

25th July - Second week in TAFE

Well this week has been a bit up and down so far with TAFE. Yesterday I had a blinding headache all day and so the teachers just really pissed me off. Both Tuesday teachers are really boring so that wasn’t helping. Today has been better though thankfully and I feel as though I’ve learnt a lot (which is more than I can say for yesterday!).

Mum gets here results tomorrow so fingers crossed for that – not really much else I can say about that. Obviously I’m dreading it but also looking forward to knowing what the situation is.

Mum had some great news this week. Shes finally been accepted as a registered child minder. It was really all down to the doctor saying she was fit enough to work (this was before the cancer was diagnosed) which he obviously did. It’ll be a while before she gets some kids to look after but the great thing is that this will give her the ability to earn her own money and give her a bit of independence which is exactly what she needs.

We have a mortgage advisor come to the house last night. Its looking more and more likely that we will have to sell the UK house as we have no tenants still, so we wanted to check out our options. We were surprised to find that we are in a position to be able to buy an investment property if we wanted to (the rules are all different in Australia) so we’re seriously considering that. Needless to say as soon as the bloke left I was on the internet checking out properties. If I hadn’t have had to go to TAFE today I have no doubt in my mind that I would have been viewing a few too. I’m in TAFE again tomorrow but Friday I might give it a shot!

Grays back on days now – YAY! He did have Monday and Tuesday off though. Monday was just a recovery period – he hardly slept over the weekend as he was so used to doing nights. Tuesday he took off to take Danielle for an Xray. She fell off the horse on Monday night while doing her first proper jump, and the flaming horse stood on her arm bless her. Alls good though, its just swollen and bruised. She got to go to school with a sling today (just to rest it) which she was obviously very happy about!

22nd July - Grays finally finished nights!

Its Grays first official day off nights tonight and its nice I must admit (if not a little strange!).

I took Danielle swimming today with Sharon & Katie while Gray stayed at home and sorted the garden out (which desperately needed doing!). We then popped into town and picked up a couple of sweater (2 Puma Sweaters for $60 – bargain), and later on we went to Sharon & Noels for tea (and a few beers – very nice!).

I’m just updating this and then I’m heading to bed. Grays gonna throw a sicky tomorrow and hes promised to take Danielle to school in the morning so I can have a lie in (I cant see it happening myself but we’ll see!).

Bed time for me!

21st July - a quick catch up

Gray worked his last night shift last night – thank god! Its been driving me nuts – although I must admit that its gonna be weird having him here in the evenings again.

My first week in TAFE went well. Pretty boring because it was just orientation but I’m sure next week will be better when we start getting into the nitty gritty of it all. Initially I was going to be finishing at 2.45pm each day so that I could pick Danielle up but I’m a bit worried that I’m going to miss too much work. It would mean me missing over 7 hours per week of a 16 hour course – not good. I’ve managed to work around this a little bit though. Sharon is going to pick Danielle up from school on Wednesdays, take her home and then I’ll finish TAFE at 4.30pm, pick them all straight up and take them to gymnastics. That’s a big help. Also when I went to TAFE on Thursday I found out that that teacher teaches exactly the same class in the mornings, so hes said that I could go to that one if it makes it easier – excellent! So, the only day I have to finish at 2.45pm now is Monday and to be honest I don’t really like the bloke whos doing that lesson so its no real hardship!!

Not long now until mum gets her results – Thursday 26th is the big day. I’m fairly positive that things will go well – haven’t got a clue how I’ll react if they don’t but the chances are I’d be on a plane as soon as I could to ferry her back and forth the hospital and to give her the support she’ll need.

Danielles swimming is going well still. After Tuesdays squads she asked if she could go back down the Sharks because it was such hard work. Thankfully she stuck with it and did really well Thursday – she did an entire hour without using her flippers (very hard work!). She also got to try out her new hand paddles which she was very impressed with.

Gray slept until 1pm today and then we all went for a quick bike ride at Penrith Lakes. That’s where Steve Redgrave won his gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Its lovely there – very peaceful.

Had UK visitors at the weekend

Well we had a lovely weekend this weekend. Paul Lounds and his girlfriend Paula are travelling around Australia and so they stayed with us for a couple of nights. It was really nice to catch up with someone from home. I showed them a few sights - not much though as its pretty cold here right now plus they werent here for long.

I heard yesterday that I didnt get the job I applied for. Probably a blessing in disguise really because the hours just werent suitable. I've decided to remain focused on my TAFE course now (which I started today). Web design is the way I want to go to try and make some decent money so thats what I'm going to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit of freelance work while I'm doing the course plus my websites will hopefully benefit throughout the course too and start brining a bit more cash in.

We were hoping to get mums results through today but unfortunately they're not ready. We've got to wait until next week now which is horrible. Not much more I can say about that really - its just a case of waiting and seeing. Mum seems to be coping pretty well with it all though and appears to be positive. I hope thats not just a front though.

The cold has really set in very quickly here. We now have the fire in the living room on pretty much all the time that we're in the house, plus I've just started to put the oil burner heaters on in the bedrooms too. Grays still on nights at the moment and he struggles to get to sleep when he gets in in the mornings because it is so cold. It was minus 3 this morning and is due to reach minus 7 tomorrow apparently! Not looking forward to that at all I can tell you.

A busy week in the Font Household

Grays been on nights again this week (which is a right pain!), and Danielles on school holidays still (even more of a pain with Gray on nights) so I've been trying to keep us busy outside of the house.

Saturday I took her to watch horse jumping in Castlereagh which is just down the road from us. It was really nice - only trouble was that I spent the entire time there (about 1 1/2 hours) waiting for our burgers - it was shocking! One woman actually threatened to sue them because they'd given her some pasta dish with mushrooms in after she told them she was allergic to mushrooms! Not good. We took Danielle swimming later to practice her turns and then it was a lazy night doing nothing.

Sunday we literally didnt do anything. Gray spent most of the time sleeping and we just hung around the house.

Monday I had an interview at Windsor. It was advertised as part time admin work (office all rounder) so I thought it sounded ideal. I was interviewed by two people (a bit daunting) but they were both really nice. They had over 100 applicants for the position and they cut it down to 9 which I'm really pleased about as it means my resume must be effective. The only problem is that the hours are actually 1-5pm not 10-2pm which would have been ideal for me. Having said that though, if I was offered the job I think I would try and work around the time issue because it sounds great. They're going to cut it down to 4 next, then it'll be another interview with another man, and then a decision will made. While I was there Danielle went to Hayleys for a few hours which she was obviously very happy with.

We have also finally sacked our Estate Agents in the UK. Since Gemma left there (the girl who was managing our property) things had just gone down hill. They didnt reply to emails and when they did it was like talking to a child. The boss (Darren) would email in text talk and it would like as though he was pissed - not good - definitely not professional. I was on the phone to them at 10pm Monday evening telling them to hand over the keys to a friend of mine who was collecting them (who was actually going to hand them over to Gemma (the girl who used to work there) as she has now set up her own Rental business. Fingers crossed we'll get someone in soon because we desperately need the money. We struggle to survive on Grays wage here as it is, having to pay a UK mortgage too is just a nightmare. We havent had any rent in for the house for months. Not good.

Tuesday I did a Market Research group in Kellyville for 2 hours. Basically there are a group of you sitting around a table, they are recording the meeting and we discuss the product they're proposing to market. In this case it was BBQ Sauces. I'd definitely do it again as I got $70 for just talking!!

Today I've woken up with a head full of cold and a cough - its been lingering for a while but has really kicked in this morning. I was awake at 4.30am so got up and watched a bit of TV on the settee - managed to fall asleep for two hours there which made me feel better. I think I'm gonna have a lazy day on the settee in front of the TV all day today - probably take Dan swimming at 4pm but that'll be about it.

Mums still in hospital. She'll hopefully be leaving today if her drip comes out. Its taken a little while longer than normal for it to come out - not sure of the reason behind it - just one of those things I guess. Shes also been on anti-biotics and pain killers because shes got a bit of an infection where the drain goes in. When I spoke to her yesterday she said the pain killers seem to have kicked in as she was feeling a lot more comfortable. She cant wait to get home now which is understandable. I'd be happier with her going home too because with her being so far away (in Port Talbot - about 1 hour 20 mins from home) shes not getting any visitors (well actually Tony & Gill visited her on Sunday but they've been the only ones). When she gets home she'll hopefully have lots of people rallying around her. Dave will be due back on Sunday too so thats good. She seems to be dealing with the fact that shes lost her breast quite well I think. At the end of the day she just has to remember that with the breast gone, so too has the cancer (hopefully for good!). She has to go to Bridgend Princess of Wales Hospital (where Danielle was born funnily enough) on Tuesday to get the results. The signs are looking good so far as they only removed 4 lymph nodes during the op so fingers crossed its good news.

Back to my lazy day in front of the TV now! :)

Danielles such a clever girl :)

Forgot to mention that on Saturday Danielle had her gymnastics grading (while I was getting ready to go into Sydney for a hen night!!!). She did really well and came away with the gold (again!). Very proud of her.

Last night she also went to Squads and was put up into the next group - its full on traning now bless her - an hour of flat out swimming - thats a lot for anyone let alone a 7 year old! She did really well though bless her.

Mums just phoned!

Mums not long phoned - great to hear from her. She sounded really well. Apparently they only took 4 lymph nodes (which is a good sign!) and only has one drain. Others on the ward have had far more removed - one poor woman actually had all of hers removed.

I'm a little concerned that they've told her she might be able to leave tomorrow or Saturday - thats only 2/3 days post op. I wouldnt mind if someone was gonna be there with her at home but Dave has gone on holiday and wont be back for another 10 days. She does have lots of friends to keep an eye out for her but I just wish I could be there to take care of her (mind you my cooking probably wouldnt help!! haha)

Mums just text

Well after sending 8 texts to mum while she was out of it she finally replied today :)

The op went as well as they expected which is great. Hopefully I'll get to speak to her later on.

Mums up and about!

I phoned the hospital again this morning (6.30am our time - 9.30pm UK time) but couldnt get an answer. Thankfully my Auntie Carol managed to get through to them and text me to tell me she was doing fine and had just gotten up to go to the toilet :)

The next two weeks are going to be pretty difficult waiting for the results. God only knows what I'll do if it comes back to see its in the lymph nodes - I cant even think about it. For now I'm just happy that she had those horrible cells cut off her! :D

Managed to get through to the Hospital

I phoned the hospital again at 9.30pm Aus time (12.30 UK time) and mum was sleeping off the anaesthetic in the Ward. I didnt ask any more than that as I assumed that they wouldnt really know anything - plus I want to speak to mum first. It was nice to hear that she was back though.:)

The Big Day has Arrived for Mum!

Today is the day. Mum is currently in surgery having her breast removed. I've just phoned the hospital to see how shes got on but shes still in surgery. They trying out a new procedure with mum regarding the lymph nodes and injecting dye into them the night before. Apparently this then gives an indication of those which may need to be removed and tested. As its a new procedure theres also a professor from Cardiff there checking it out which is why they believe it may be taking a little longer than normal.

I'll update as soon as I know anything.

Busy Day Today

Grays still on nights this week (and will be next week too) so I've been busy on the website. Decided to register for an ABN today (Australian Business Number) - been meaning to do it for a while but I finally got around to it. Only took about 10 mins and didnt cos anything so I dont know why I havent done it sooner. I also realised that the Shops in Oz website I've set up is set up using a US server and is .com rather than .com.au - not ideal when you're trying to hit the Australian market. Anyway to combat this I decided to sign up for the domain name shopsinoz.com.au and completely re-do the site - well that was my plan! The web hosts advertised as having a great Site Builder but I was soon to find out that it wasnt that great - not for someone like me with very little website building knowledge. I thought that I actually knew more than I did. Needless to say I'm going to get my money back from the Web Hosts but that means that I now have a .com.au URL but dont know what to do with it! Queue my next bit of info!

I enrolled at TAFE (college) today for Cert 4 Web Design. Its classed as full time (16 hours per week) but I'll only actually spend 10 hours there because it runs over after pick up time for Danielle. They've said it'll be fine for me to finish early each day though and work on what we've learnt at home - that works well for me. Hopefully I'll pick it up quickly and be able to do something with my new domain! Initially I want to just redirect the URL but I'm not even sure how to go about that! Its all fun eh?!

Danielles been off school the last two days too. Just had a bit of a temperature - nothing much but all her class have been having time off ill so I thought it best to keep her off. Its also her gymnastics grading on Saturday and I really want her to be well enough for that because she was ill last time and missed out. Chances are she'll be moving up a grade this time - the down side to this is that it'll probably mean me sitting around for 2 hours on a Wednesday while shes training rather than the 1 hour I have to do now!

That'll do for now anyway!

Danielles had her first sleepover party!

Mums op is scheduled for 3rd July so until then (the wait is awful obviously) I'm trying to get on with life as normally as possible. She seems to be pretty upbeat whenever I speak to her, and she tells me shes fine, but I know that deep down she must be in turmoil (as we all are). All we can do is hope that things all turn out good.

Danielle was invited to a sleep over party a few weeks ago and got upset at the fact that she couldnt bring herself to go (shes very clingy to me at night time) so as a way of making her feel a little better I told her we'd have a sleep over party here. Initially she had 5 friends coming but due to two of them not feeling too well yesterday it ended up with just 3 of them. This actually worked out better because they all fit in the one room.

It wasnt as chaotic as I'd imagined it would be which was good. They pretty much entertained themselves all the time. I told them they had Danielles room and the spare room to do with as they liked - this left the TV and living room all to me - I'm not stupid! Gray managed to get himself rostered onto nights - hes not stupid either!

The girls went home at 10am this morning and 2 hours later Danielle is already bored! Gray is still sleeping so theres not really a lot we can do so I think I'll do a bit more work on my website. Things have been going pretty well for both sites. The Expat Store is looking really good and there is a lot of interest in the Australia Online Shopping Directory which I'm very pleased about. It is very very time consuming though which I didnt expect at all.

Off to take my laptop and sit in front of the TV while doing a bit of online work.

The fun never ends here!

Hangover from Hell Today!

Well to try and keep myself busy last night (rather than sitting in brooding) I decided to go out for a few drinks with the girls! Needless to say I didnt know when enough was enough and ended up getting pretty slaughtered (which I havent done for a long long time!). As I was drinking I knew I was gonna feel rough the next day but I really didnt give a damn - I managed to have a laugh at the same time which was very much needed.

I was right anyway - shocking hangover today - I'll be glad when today is over so that I can hopefully wake up tomorrow feeling better!

Feeling really weird about the 'mum' thing. Dont really know what to feel at all. She tells me that shes dealing with it OK and as I only have her word for it I just have to believe her - nothing I can do about it from over here anyway.

The next 3 weeks are gonna be a very anxious time for all of us. Waiting for the Op to be over and done with and then waiting for the results.

Off to watch a bit of TV now I think.

Terrible News

I got a phone call from mum this morning. Her annual mammogram has shown up a small cancerous lump - breast cancer. I struggle to even type those words in the same sentence as 'my mum'. At the moment I'm just in shock I think - really cant get my head around it. This is the news that every Expat dreads and I thought I was gonna be lucky enough not to get a call like this for a very long time.

Apparently the lump is only very small. She is having it removed on 2nd July and hopefully will only need radio therapy afterwards. The horrible thing though is that any dealings I (or rather those close to me) have had with Cancer have never had good outcomings. I know too much about this horrible disease and I just wish I didnt.

My mum sounded ok on the phone and kept telling me not to worry - but how can I not worry?? Its my mum, its cancer.......and I'm living on the other side of the world.

Life f***ing sucks!

The rain has finally ended!

The weather has been absolutely awful here the last few days. Unfortunately 9 people lost their lives in total. Very very sad.

Thankfully it seems the worst is now over and the sun has come back out.

Yesterday was a very lazy day. We couldnt go anywhere because the rain was so bad and so we spent the day in front of the TV and PC! It actually worked out quite well because I got a lot of work done on my websites.

There has now been a store added to the Expat Forum (http://www.expatforum.com/expatstore/) which links to products from my site. Its looking really good and I'm really pleased with it. Its great for Expats too because it saves them having to try and find UK Shops which deliver overseas - I've done all the hard work for them (and trust me it has taken a looooooonnnnggggg time!!).

We went out for a meal this afternoon and our friends son Jordon came with us. A couple who moved out to Australia from the UK 2 years ago are returning to the UK so it was a farewell to them. I've got a feeling they'll be back in time but they're quite young and miss family which is fair enough.

Jordon is here for a sleep over tonight which has made Danielle very happy. As yet shes not managed a sleepover at anyones house but we're hoping she'll try to stay at Jordons sometime soon - shes pretty clingy to me in the evenings (cant blame her though I suppose!! haha).

No work for Gray tomorrow and no school for Dan. They've got a Queens Birthday Day off!! Not sure what we're gonna do but I'm in the mood for spending money (that we dont have!!).

Well as we havent done much over the last few days I dont really have much more to say.

Bye for now :-)

Its been raining for 2 days solid :(

Firstly........sorry.........I forgot about the photos again!! My memory is shocking!

Well its been raining very heavily for the last two days.......non-stop!! This wasnt in the brochure! Whenever it rains every Aussie says 'Oh we need it though dont we?'!! This may be true (well its very true actually) but I DONT LIKE RAIN!

I've been keeping myself busy this last few days setting up a new website. Its still in the very early stages at the moment and I'm really just playing about with it - feel free to check it out though www.shopsinoz.com - its a directory of Aussie online shops. Its taking quite a long time just to get everything on there at the moment - then it'll be time to work on getting traffic to it! its all good fun though :)

I applied for a job today - it was advertised in TAFE so I thought I'd give it a go. Just part time casual (as needed) during school hours - admin work in an accountants I think (dont really know too much about it to be honest). The only problem is that Aussies arent generally in any rush to let you know if you've been successful or not so it could be a few weeks before I get the 'thanks but no thanks' reply! :) You never know though.

Gray and Dan went to see Shrek 3 last night at the flicks. Said it was good but not as good as the first two apparently? I wouldnt have minded going but they never get any time on their own together so its nice for them to have that for themselves.

Grays been working loads of overtime lately. I dont complain when the money comes in but I wish he didnt HAVE to. Thats why I'm working on the websites and trying to get a part time job. That little bit of extra money would make such a bit difference to us.

We still dont have any tenants in our UK house. For some reason our agents were slow getting it all cleaned out but they've said it should be ready by 9th (which is tomorrow) so hopefully we'll get someone in soon. If we dont then our money worries are going to become a lot more serious. Dont even go there!!

Right its time for the school run now.

Cya!

Another thing

A lot of people have been asking me for photos - rather than email individually I thought I'd post here - I'm going to have a good look through my photos sometimes this week and starting posting a few.

Be patient - they're worth waiting for - honest gov!

Another gorgeous day in........paradise apprently??

I've woken up a lot happier today - the wine definitely helped last night - I can highly recommend it to anyone feeling the same! :)

Today I've just gotta do the normal everyday boring stuff.......shopping.........washing.........cleaning........and sorting out Danielles TIP of a bedroom! She spent almost 5 hours in there yesterday, apparently tidying it, but only managed to clear the top of her cupboard - in fact I'm sure its messier in there now than when she started! Not really sure if I'll tackle it today or not actually because I just know that it'll take all day.

Might do a bit more work on my website actually (www.ukshoppingworldwide.com - for those who've forgotten!). I'm really enjoying doing it and I'm sure that when I start this course in July I'll enjoy it all the more. I didnt realise just how much there was to know about setting up a website - all good fun though!

Ok....the shops are calling.......back soon :)

Happier now! :-)

After a lazy day in front of the TV.......and a glass (or 3!) of wine.......I'm feeling a lot happier! :-)

Feeling a bit flat today :-(

Not really sure why but I'm feeling really flat today. Its 2 weeks today since mum went back after her six week stay and I think all the stress of it has suddenly hit me. It'll pass I'm sure but at the moment I feel like crap!

Forgot to mention about our property in the UK!! Nightmare!

When we left the UK we left our property being fully managed by an Estate Agents. They gave us the impression that they had a family all lined up ready to move in. Anyway it turned out that that family fell through and so they ended up putting a different family in who were on Housing Benefits!! Not that I have a problem with housing benefit tenants.....but it would have been nice to be consulted first.

Everything was going smoothly with them for the first 6 months. Housing benefit paid around 2/3rds of the rent leaving the tenant to pay the remainder - simple you'd think, only the tenants changed their minds. Instead they decided not to pay anything! Cutting a long story short we gave the tenants notice in January that we wouldnt be renewing their tenancy agreement at the end of March. They were fine with this and made lots of promises to repay all their arrears by the time they moved out. Moving day came and they didnt answer the door......and didnt move out. After lots of pestering by our agents they finally moved out leaving behind a garden and garage full of furniture and garbage and a dirty house with stinking carpets. Thankfully they didnt trash any of the fittings and fixtures!

By the time they left we were down by about 700 pounds (sorry no pound sign on this keyboard) - we managed to use their bond of 550 pounds to get most of the work done so all in all we're probably down by about 1000! We're just waiting for the house to be cleaned right through now and hopefully we'll have tenants in by the end of the month!

The joys of being a landlord from the other side of the world!!

Its a beautiful Autumn Day!

Not long woken up to a beautiful Autumn day! Grays working today so I'm thinking of things to do with Danielle. She wants to go Ice Skating but I dont think its fair for us to go off spending loads of money while Grays in work trying to make us some for next weekend - its a public holiday next weekend - they get a day off in Australia for the Queens birthday would you believe!

I'll probably end up taking her swimming and then maybe for a bike ride. Its great for riding around here because its so flat and the roads are pretty quiet.

Although the sun is shining it is still really cold - well cold for Australia anyway. Theres a real bite in the air. Having said that I very rarely have to wear any sort of coat/jacket and if I do its usually just on the school run in the mornings. At most I get away with a long sleeved top and a padded gillet. We are gonna head to the shops in a little while to get some gloves for Dan and a scarf. Kids are quite funny here. They go to school in just their normal clothes (no jacket etc) but have scarf and gloves - so Dans jumped on the band wagon too. Last year she also took to wearing black tights to school and.......get this.......white sports socks over top!! God the Aussies really do do fashion!! haha. Anyway I thought that phase may have past but unfortunately not. Shes back on it this year too. Kids will be kids eh?!

Its strange (and nice) in Australia because they really dont seem to have the 'class' structure that we have in the UK. It doesnt matter what you own, wear or drive....you're not judged for it. Us Brits should hang our heads in shame really because that seems to be what we live for - what we own and look like. Sad really.

Right I'd better get myself sorted and do something constructive with this beautiful day.

Have a good one everyone and I'll catch up tomorrow - see arent I being good now! :)

My thyroid is no more!

Before moving to Australia I knew I had a thyroid condition but was told that it was fine and that I could move to Australia - which we did! When going through the medicals for our PR visa it became apparent that further tests were needed on my thyroid - scans, bloods, more scans and a few more blood tests.......which eventually brought me to the decision to get it removed - it had grown A LOT in the 6 months since our move and the chances were it wasnt planning on stopping - so out it had to come. This was something I'd been expecting as my mum and two of her sisters have also had theirs removed. I had the option to get it done through the Health System (with a probable 6 months waiting list) or to go Private. Although we didnt have the money....we opted for Private to get it over and done with. I'm glad we did too because when they took it out I was told it was HUGE and a pretty difficult operation. My vocal chord nerve was cut during the Op which meant I couldnt speak for a while afterwards. Everyone made lots of jokes about it but I must admit that it was very scarey - my surgeon actually thought that it would probably be permanent which in turn gave me that belief too. Thankfully she was wrong and I now have my voice back fully - although it does get a bit weak at times. I also had to take lots & lots of calcium for a few months post Op too as the Parathyroids were effected......this again could have been permanent (my auntie is on 15 large calcium pills a day for life!) but thankfully thats all come good too - I've been lucky! My scar isnt great - very noticeable but that doesnt really bother me. Having that big fat thryoid out was my main concern and now its gone! :)

In the last 12 months - we got our Permanent Visa!

I said a lot had happened - and its all coming back to me bit by bit.

As I mentioned in my posts 12 months ago we had our Medicals for our PR visa in June last year. After a lot of messing about (they wanted lots of information from my medical records about miscarriages and thyroid disease etc) our medicals were finally given the OK. I was really worried about this I must admit but thankfully it went well. We then got the all important phone call on July 28th 2006 telling us we had Permanent Residency. This didnt make much differnce to our everyday life to be honest but it just gave us that bit of security that we needed. When you move to Australia on a 457 temporary Visa (which is what we were on) then bascially it means the visa holder can 'only' work for that employer (although I could work wherever I wanted). If the job was no longer available or he was sacked then we would have 28 days to leave to country - scarey! It also meant that we would no longer have to pay school fees ($4500 per year) and that we could claim family benefits. This is something that I really had no intention of doing but with the wages pretty low and the cost of living the same (if not higher) than in the UK then needs must.

So thats it - we've now had our PR visa for 10 months and will apply for Citizanship when we've had it for 24 months :)

Another little catch up!

Mum came over for a visit at the beginning of April for 6 weeks. It was great having her over here - especially for Danielle. The only problem is that it was really hard when she left (for me more than for Danielle actually). It was the longest time I'd EVER spent with my mum since I was about 18 so to see her leave again was awful. I actually felt as though I was pushing her away and the guilt for separating her and Danielle again was awful. Thankfully everythings back to normal now though which is great. Mum loved her holiday and took a ridiculous amount of photos! We took her to as many places as we could think of cos for her it was the 'holiday of a lifetime'. We're gonna try and get her out here as often as possible but off her own back it'll probably be once every 2 years because she just doesnt have the money. I wish we were in a position to be able to pay for her to come out once a year but unfortunately we're not :(.

When I get chance later I'll go through my photos (they're all on CD now) and upload a few of us throughout the year. I now have blonde hair (well streaks!) and wear contacts rather than glasses. Its really difficult if you were glasses over here because you really need to be wearing really good sunnies and prescription ones just dont cut it. Plus its a pain when you're in and out of shops if they're prescription cos you cant see a thing when you take em off!!!

I've just been reading at the school again today. I like doing that and Danielle likes to see me get involved too.

Oh I'm thinking of loads of things now as I sit here.

Pets - well we started off with a rabbit and a guinea pig. Patch & Fiona. Patch started to get a little bit too 'friendly' with Fiona so we had to separate them as he was also getting agressive to anyone who went close to her. As guinea pigs like a companion we decided to get her a friend so I headed to the pet shop and got a cute white female guinea pig - which we called Sam (after Danielles cousin!). A few weeks down the line it became apparent that Sam (the guinea pig not the cousin!) was pregnant! Great! Gray wasnt impressed at all I can tell you. Anyway apparently guinea pigs get very 'friendly' with their brothers and sisters from 3 weeks after birth and if they're not separated them more babies appear - this must have been what happened with Sam bless her - pregnant by her brother - sick! I was actually quite excited at the thought of having baby guinea pigs and watched her like a hawk until the big day finally arrived - 3 little babies. I couldnt bring myself to give them away so a friend took Patch the rabbit for us and we kept all the Guinea pigs - so we now have 5 guinea pigs!!

We also treated ourselves to a Cockatiel a couple of months ago which we're trying to teach to talk - hes called Charlie and is full of character. I'm the one who feeds and waters the little bugger but Gray is the one he loves! Charming!

I'm thinking of loads of things to catch up with now but I'll break them up into separate posts I think to make it easier to read!

Onto the next one!

Forgot to mention the car!

I knew I'd miss out something really important! When we first arrived we boughta Toyota Corolla station wagon - nice car but we were still hankering after a 4WD. Anyway after 4 months we sold it and treated ourselves to a Holden Jackaroo - lovely car but heavy as hell on the petrol. Might end up trading it in again soon for an unleaded but I cant see us changing back to a 'normal car' again - I LOVE my 4WD :)

How embarrassing - 12 months since my last update!

12 Months!!! Now that is embarrassing! After all the promises I made to keep this up to date.....I failed miserably!

Well here I am trying to make amends - how on earth I am going to catch up on 12 months worth of updates I dont know but I'll try my best.

We stayed in the house we first moved into for only 3 months after. It didnt have the storage we were after and was sooooo cold during the winter (yes believe it or not it does get VERY cold in Oz!) and had next to no storage.....so we made yet another move.

We're now in a 3 bed single storey house with double garage in a street with a communal pool and tennis courts (god dont we sound posh!). The house is nice and the garden isnt a bad size - just a bit of an awkward shape, but otherwise its good. The rooms are all a good size too which I love. During the summer holidays ( January) myself and Danielle were in the pool everyday because it was so hot (god I love the hot weather!). Danielle was like a little macaroon - very very brown (lifes not fair sometimes!!). She looked more Aussie than the other kids here - blonde hair, blue eyes and golden brown skin!

Its pretty much all been about Danielle now I think about it. She tried Tennis lessons for a while but didnt get on with that......so she moved onto Dance lessons, but got bored with those. Shes now settled with swimming, gymnastics & horse riding. She moved through the swimming lessons really quickly and is now training twice a week in Squads and swims for her school in the annual Swimming Carnival (very proud parents we are!). Gymnastics is just at the beginners stage so far so no big movements there but shes got a grading at the end of this month so hopefully she'll move up and start doing 'proper' gymnastics then. Horse riding has only just started but she loves that and is desperate for her own pony (dont know how to tell her but that is NEVER gonna happen!). She has been saving for almost a year to buy one for herself and has achieved a massive saving of.....wait for it......$31!! :D Shes been doing fantastically in school (well that goes without saying really with parents like us ;-)) and we're really proud of her. Shes got lots of friends and gets on with all the teachers. Unfortunately she seems to have a big following of boys too - not much of a worry while shes 7 years old but in a few years time I can see its not gonna be as CUTE!!

Grays doing well in work. He got promoted a few months back which was great. Not a huge pay rise but definitely a step in the right direction. Hes getting a bit bored now though and is thinking about doing some colleges courses to help him get into the Design side of things. He hasnt been able to do as much golf as he'd have liked (hardly any to be honest) because he does have to do a lot of overtime. The time that we do all spend together now though is quality time and we do lots more things as a family which is great.

Now its onto me! Ok here goes! I volunteer to deliver Meals on Wheels once a month with Sharon (the Aussie mate I met when we first arrived - her and her family have been brilliant and we're really close now). It only takes about 2 hours but its nice to go out and meet the old folk and also feel as though you're having some input in the community - very important when you move to a new country I think. I also do a lot of volunteering at Danielles school - reading a couple of times a week and help out whenever I'm needed. Its great to get to know Danielles school mates that way. I started TAFE (College) a couple of months ago just doing a part time Statement of Attainment course in Admin Skills - you need a certificate to wipe your own ass over here so I thought I'd better give it a go. I'm glad I did too because I've been really enjoying it. The new semester starts in July and I'm going to do either a Certificate 4 in Business Admin or a Web Design course. At the moment I'm inclined to go for the Web Design course because I've recently set up a new Website called UKShoppingWorldwide and I'd love to be able to understand all the jargon more. I was lucky enough to get chatting with a bloke from a Forum I use - Expat Forum who is helping me out so much with my site - he understands all the jargon which is great!

We went camping about 4 or 5 times during the spring/summer and absolutely loved it. There are some stunning places to visit here and everything is so kid friendly. The stunning beaches usually only have a handful of people on them and the surf is loads of fun (well for Gray and Dan it is - as you can imagine I'm much more of a whimp!!)

We've been here 14 months now and although its flown by it also feels as though we've been here forever. Very strange. The minimum time we had to stay here was 2 years so when that time elapses we'll assess our options. We all love the beach so much and with us being where we are (just over an hour from the coast) it can seem a bit restrictive in the peak of summer.

I'm sure there is lots more that I could add to this update but I dont want you all falling asleep!

Take care all and this time I 'promise' to keep it up to date!

Rach xxxx