Author: Mrs Wilson of Oz

So, Friday will mark our 4th month in Australia! Gosh, time really is flying! Someone told us it takes at least 6 months to settle in and start to feel like you’re at home! We are having the best time no matter what! We have more meals out than we should have, the children stay up way beyond bed time most nights, we sightsee, we bbq, and we seem to be making more of the hours in the day than we used to!   

    
 We have made some super friends here, who have included us like we have been friends for years! We are very, very lucky! Really, to be able to holiday in Australia with the children would be an awesome experience, but to live here, go to school here, holiday here, I honestly thank my lucky stars every day!  

 
Having said all that, this weekend we have been having long (wine fuelled) chats about what we do in the future! Where do we want to be? What do we want to be doing? What about schooling? What do we want the children to see and do!? So we have made a decision! Drumroll please….. Our four year Australia plan has had a tweek!  (Did I say wine? Oh and beer) 

We have decided, once we have finished here in Sydney, we are going to pack up, ship our things home, and travel!  

 We want to take the children to as many places as we can get to in Australia, and maybe further still! We will have beach days, city days, farm days, and we will make the most out of being together (God help us) and free! Free from all sorts of things that stop people travelling! 

Ok so apart from the children getting on our nerves in the back of the campervan, or Monty getting eaten alive by Mosquitos or Poppy vomiting into our suitcases, or me missing my manicures, what on earth could go wrong?? Ok, don’t answer that!!  

  We aren’t going tomorrow, in fact we aren’t going next year! This is a two year plan, unlike our “shit, you got a job in Australia!!!! Have we got time to say bye to our mums??” 

We are going to list the places we must see, and find out where we can stay in between! We have found a great organisation through which you can work on organic farms even with the children in tow! Check it out!! (http://www.wwoof.com.au)

  Not sure we’ll be staying with these two though! 

Agh this is more what we’re after!

   
( Ok I will be the one wearing gloves, trousers tucked into my socks yelping at the sight of a creepy crawley! Look, I’m going to do my best!)

So now we need your help! We need as many places, experiences, beautiful, must see sunsets/sunrises as you lot can give us! Where have you been in Australia that you think we should put on our list!? How did you get there!? Where did you eat!? What did you eat!? We want to be able to give ourselves and our children an awesome once in a lifetime trip so please give us some pointers! 

I’m going to add our plans, updates and ideas to this blog! We really will be The Wilsons of Oz!  A few months with less of this ……

 
And more of this…. 

 
Hans Christien Anderson said “life itself is the most wonderful Fairytale ” and he also said “To travel is to live.” So here goes, let the planning commence! The Wilson’s are going to travel! Who’d have thunk it!!?  

thewilsonsofoz have some news for you, so look out for this weeks blog, coming really soon! 

Well, I have made it to 34! I love birthdays! Really love them! I love them even more now that I have the children! They got so excited, so much so that I was forced to open a present on the eve of my birthday, and was promtly told what exactly was wrapped up downstairs for the morning! No surprises here!  Then when I woke on my birthday I wasn’t allowed to open my own presents as Monty deemed me “to weak”! 

   
We had an awesome day! My lovely Aussie buddies arranged a trip to the park, where I was serenaded by them and the children singing “happy birthday” after which I gobbled down a tonne of cake! Wouldn’t have been so bad, but two hours later I was tucking into a 9 course meal! (Summersalt.com.au) Safe to say the gym was hard last night!   

    
We have had an awesome couple of weeks! We took the children to Symbio zoo! It’s pretty small, but a great place! The highlights had to be hand feeding the Kangaroos and seeing a snotty little kid getting bitten by a wombat! (Dad was in charge! Surprise suprise?) (no Cilla pun intended) I wasn’t sure who was more delighted, the little kids siblings or the wombat! I guessed it would be wrong to photograph a crying, bleeding child so you’ll have to just put up with the Kangaroos! 

 
  
   
Our weekends seem to be packed with all sorts of great little trips! This weekend we have been out to the Blue  Mountains. The scenery is stunning, nothing like anywhere I have ever been! The scent of eucalyptus was awesome; that and the butter Popcorn they were selling by the bucket load to hugely overweight children, who were then hugely dehydrated!!! 

In typical Wilson style, a force 10 gale picked up as we stepped onto the cable car! I clung on for dear life as we hurtled left and right! Tim was hysterical, with laughter I might add, as I was putting on a brave (ish) face! The children were fine, trying to spot koalas!! The views from up high were unbelievable! We could see down through the glass floor (um…. One eye closed), as we flew across the tree tops! It wasn’t too terrifying, until the tour guide mentioned the waterfalls! This encouraged 50 Japanese tourists to scamper across the car all at the same time! Jesus how the cables didn’t snap I will never know! I shrieked “stop! Christ!” Tim laughed and Poppy burst into tears! We’re so ace at “adventure”!! 

Our Sunday morning was pretty ordinary! The children had a party to go to in the afternoon so we lazed about, the children played and watched TV, we pottered around in the garden! Then it got to that time when you see how much of the day has gone by and you jump into Seargent major mode! “Everyone get dresssssed, turn the tellllllyyyyy off NOw!!!! Come oooooon! We’ve wasted the whole moooooooorninnng”. 40 minutes of that, followed by some frantic hair and teeth brushing and we were out the door?  Phew! It meant we had a morning at the park with much coffee for us and ice blocks (lollies) for the kids! 

They wouldn’t have had the ice blocks if I had known what gets served at kids parties here! They went to a lovely party in a play centre! There were hundreds of small, sweaty, red faced kids running around like dingbats! Mainly because they had been fuelled with…. Wait for it…. “Fairy bread”! Do you know what fairy bread is!? Fairy bread is sliced white bread, smothered in butter and then covered in hundreds and thousands! It’s a kids party staple here! What sort of mentalist thought that would be a good idea! The children were going nuts! I love that people don’t let their kids drink apple juice, looking around for approval, “only water for mine!!!”  but hey “have another slice of fairy bread son!” Don’t get me wrong, my kids get far too many treats but JESUS CHRIST!!!! Fairy flipping bread!!!! It’s so bad, I can imagine kids selling it behind the bike sheds for some extra cash! You have to be superhuman for fairy bread not to have any impact on your state of mind! Surely!?!? Having said that, the party passed by without Monty kicking anyone in the “Winkie” or threatening to shoot anyone’s eyeballs out, both of which are fairly common place! He did spend quite a while hollering at people “there’s nothing that a good smash can’t sort!” Incredible Hulk has a lot to answer for! Well it’s either Hulk or Monty’s  been buying black market fairy bread!!! He has hasn’t he!!!!!!  

I’ll leave you with this little beauty I found today!!! 

New research has found age 34 is the happiest of our lives on average !

It’s when people start ticking off boxes including marriage and children!

A Study of 2,000 over-40s found it was when most people were happiest

It’s also the age when we’re most comfortable with ourselves!

Most people said that they had become happier as they had grown older !

So here I go on a voyage of discovery! I’ll let you know how 34 goes!!! X 

Hey! Sorry for the massive delay in posting! As life gets back to some kind of normality I seem to have a lot less time to sit and type away! Sounds lame I know!  I don’t “work” but I seem to do a heck of a lot of other time consuming stuff!! I’ve given up counting how many days/ weeks we have been here now! To be fair, I’m not even sure what day it is most of the time! I took Monty to the dr last night, and I had to ask what date it was, followed by  “…um month?” (Wierd look from receptionist) then I whispered “year??” I think he felt sorry for me; or maybe his tilted head and blank expression was simply because he was reaching under the desk for the panic alarm!!!  I’m not sure if I can blame the infamous “baby brain” now that my boy is 3, but there is definitely something going on or not going on up there! 

  
So last week I made a pretty good purchase! I have always been great at spending money, but this was different, this was money well spent!! I purchased a Nutri Bullet!  

  
This little beauty can whizz up all kinds of beautiful into a juice that will make you feel great! Ok, so it hasn’t had any impact on my memory, but I feel bouncy and full of energy! My skin is glowing (if I do say so myself) and my eyes are brighter! As a family we are pretty good at getting our 10 a day! We have a very healthy diet to be honest! Lots of nuts, vegetables, fruit etc! Nothing processed! The Nutri bullet was just another way to get all our vitamins and nutrients! I honestly feel like I might turn green and bust out of my clothes like the Hulk when I have downed my kale and pear juice in the morning!  

 
It’s not everyone’s idea of a yummy start to the day, but since I turned around my diet, I cannot go back! I’ve seen first hand what damage you can do to yourself when you aren’t paying attention to what’s in your food! 

So now that the infomercial is out of the way I’ll tell you about our week! Pops is back at school! Phew! Two weeks in to term 2? 3? (Whatever) and I think she is ready for another holiday!  She is still loving school, although she is desperately missing her buddies back home this week! Skype is a wonderful thing! Poppy loves using Skype to keep in touch! Although it’s not the same as a “proper play date mum!”

 Poppy seems to have had a month long birthday! We are still receiving gifts and cards three weeks on! How lucky is she!  Honestly I don’t know when this girl grew up so much, she amazes me!  

Monty and I have been hanging out, swimming, playing in the park, seeing our buddies!  

   
I can’t get him into a nursery yet as the waiting lists are pretty immense! So, I have joined the gym, which has a Creche! Unfortunately I have to be in the building while he is in the creche, so I can’t run off to have my nails done, but I do get 90 minutes to work out; after which I can shower in peace with no one joining me and peeing on my leg!! Sometimes it’s the little things!  

 
Well, it’s Friday (I think…I hope) and we have a great weekend planned! We are off to Symbio Zoo (http://symbiozoo.com.au) to hopefully feed some kangaroos! I am praying Monty doesn’t decide to hide a joey in his pocket, but you just never know with that boy!!! 

Have an awesome weekend folks! 

Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life! Tip toe if you must, but take the step! 

..into our Australian adventure! I am exhausted!

It’s been a crazy two weeks of school holidays! We have managed to fit in a huge amount of fun, a birthday, a flat tyre on the car, and a two day headache for me!! The weather seems to be amazingly warm and sunny or bloody Baltic and raining! I am so looking forward to that Aussie sunshine I was promised!

Last weekend we ventured out to Ramsgate Organic Market! (www.organicfoodies.com.au) This market is one of our local ones! It was a pretty chilly day, and we were looking forward to eating lots of yummy treats that our friends had been telling us about! First stop was a stall called ‘whisk & crumb’. These ladies whip up the most awesome donuts! We couldn’t resist the caramel, popcorn one, a Nutella, and a jam donut which only became a jam donut after you had injected the jam yourself!

There really wasn’t any need to go anywhere else, I could have easily pulled up a chair and sat there all day but alas we moved on! There were lots of beautiful stalls selling all sorts from electric pink tutus, beautiful linen , organic meat and veggies and food from all over the globe! As always, most of the morning was spent watching the children on the bouncy castle ! Only $8 for the whole day!! That is crazy! Who in their right mind wants to sit next to a bouncy castle while their kids play all day!? Don’t pretend you’re doing me a favour, when you know as well as I do that if we last till the end of my coffee without a nosebleed or a broken tooth we’re outta here!

Having said that, I did indeed sit and watch the kids on the bouncy castles for 2 whole hours when we visited “Inflatable World” for Poppy’s birthday! It’s basically two soccer pitches filled with bouncy castles! Each one is manned by a strict member of staff making sure no one is queue jumping, and asking kids to get off once they have had a turn! I couldn’t help thinking it would be more of a free for all in the UK, with far more arguments, shoving and general fisticuffs! Not here! The staff weren’t taking any shit! It made the whole noisy experience far more relaxing for the parents, and super for the kids because it was fair! Everyone got a turn! However, I won’t be going again anytime soon! It’s one of those “once a year” places!

So apart from all the bouncy castle activity this week, we have managed to get a few days on the beach! The kids have even had a dip in the sea! I haven’t been brave enough, mainly because of my very “unbeachy” body, but also because I am making the most of the peace while they are occupied and happily playing! They adore the beach! We all do! They happily jump in and out of the surf for hours on end! I sit and watch, and snooze, and watch a little more!

Until that dreaded time comes when I need the loo! Then I find myself in a dilemma where I need to decide what to leave on the beach, the kids or our bags? What’s more precious to me? Do I pack up and take us all to the bathroom? I don’t want to lose our spot (directly outside the cafe), the kids don’t want to come with me, but it’s just not safe for me to risk holding on for any longer!! I usually end up bribing the kids to sit with our bags with an ice cream while I make a dash for it! I never learn! I then come back, they go off to play and I down another gallon of coffee! Round two shortly follows! Maybe I need to invest in some special knickers for days at the beach!

Today’s activity was Ice Skating at Cronulla! This is our favourite beach, favourite town, and now Monty’s favourite ice rink! (The only one he’s ever been to!) The last time I went ice skating was when I was about 7, somewhere in Germany perhaps! My mother and grandmother spent the whole time in the warmth of the cafe in utter hysterics while dad and I stumbled and skidded around the rink! I think the story goes that dad had such a fall there was a dent in the rink!! Anyway, safe to say dad was fine, but mum still to this day collapses into laugher thinking of dad on the ice! Luckily for me, Monty had a penguin to hold on to so I was able to cling on too!
Sadly I can’t upload videos so I can’t show you the one of me in my Lycra doing the Torville and dean spins and jumps! Don’t worry, I will upload that another day (for a small fee).
So the school holidays are nearly over! Not sure if I’m delighted or gutted! Nope, I’m delighted! It’s been full on! I am looking forward to some quiet time with Monty (what am I saying?) and I think Poppy will be glad to be back her buddies at school!

Friday night now and we’re off out for some drinks and food with the children! Sod the hoovering, hide the laundry, ignore the dishes! Let’s get out and have some fun, and by that I mean wine! Xx (photos to follow)

Hey! What a busy week we have had! In fact, it may have been over a week since I last updated!  Today we have hit the “2 months in Australia” mark! I can’t believe it’s only been two months! Not that it’s dragged, just that we seem to have achieved so much in such a short space of time!!!

  
We are getting to know people, finding our way around without relying on the sat Nav, and Poppy has a slight glimmer of an Australian twang to her accent!  

Poppy has amazed and astounded us! She has gone from an anxious teary child, to one that is full of confidence and willing to try so many new things! Poppy is completely embracing this adventure! She had cross country at school last week! My tummy was churning, remembering freezing drizzly mornings with Mrs Trunchball (or whatever her name was) bellowing at us to “get moving or I’ll hang you from the ceiling by your toenails!!” Cross country was always a disaster for me! Poppy however was happy as long as she didn’t come last! Well…. Drumroll please (gushy mother moment) Poppy came 3rd!!  

Her teacher is so happy with how she is settling in and what a great class member she is, she even got an award at the end of term assembly!  

 She looks thrilled doesn’t she!? Ok, so I’ll stop now! Just super proud of my girl! Must be in the genes right!? 

The house is sorted, Tim put the final blind up last night! That means we can use the downstairs loo without the neighbours seeing us! Phew! It’s actually really cosy in the house and the children are sleeping really well! Always a good thing!! 

Today is the first day of the school holidays and we got a lie in until 8am! Brilliant! The weather looks good so we are going to spend lots of the hols on the beach or in the park! Mind you, there are so many things going on all over Sydney I’m pretty sure we’ll be exploring and rushing about to fit them all in! 

  
  The children insisted on going in the pool last week! Monty went blue and it was nearly a trip to hospital! I think we may wait until spring to try that one again? It’s just too tempting when its outside the door! Tim and I took a glass of wine and sat watching them freeze! So looking forward to doing this in the summer! Crate of beers, giggly children and severe sunburn! Amazing! 

We went into the city this weekend! It was so lovely! Having lived in the city for a month it really felt nice to go back in! We went to Darling harbour to the “Cool Yule” festival! They celebrate winter with an ice rink, snow dome etc! It was a great excuse to go and play, tire Monty out and grab a beer while he slept!  

We are so lucky to have the best of both worlds where we are living! We have beautiful beaches on our doorstep and it takes no time at all to get into the city!  It means you can enjoy both worlds really easily! 

Waiting for a train to come, when you have a Skype date looming is no fun!! 

Yesterday Tim and Poppy cycled to the beach and Monty and I met them there! It took them quite a while so Monty and I had time to have some fun without them! Cronulla is the perfect place to go for a run while your crazy child zooms along with you on his scooter shouting “get out the wayyyyy”! It was beautiful weather, the sea was full of surfers and swimmers, and we had such a nice morning!  

I can’t wait for family and friends to visit us so we can share this with them!   Get your tickets booked folks, or go one step further and get yourselves a visa to work here! You don’t know what you’re missing!!! 

They day finally came! 8:30 and the guys turned up to collect or borrowed furniture, to make way for our own things!  To say I was pleased to get rid of the ENORMOUS top loading washing machine is an understatement! How I didn’t fall in is a mystery to me!

 Weirdly I was feeling all emotional (not like me at all, I know!). Not sure whether it was because I was longing to see our pictures on the walls  or whether it was seeing how emotional the children were about receiving their long lost toys! So the rooms were emptied within an hour and then the chaos began!  Thank god for Peppa Pig!!

    
The waiting was finally over!  Two removalists (because removal men is sexist and lots of women do removals here!) arrived, did a quick walk around to see where everything was going, and they disappeared to the truck to start the process! Norm (the local nosey Parker and ‘The Anchorage’s’ chairman) was on hand to… Well…. Tell us not to make a mess, not to upset the brickwork, not to knock any bollards over…. And insisted on ambling past every twenty minutes pretending he was on very important business, when really he was being a great big nosey Parker!

The removalist handed me a tick sheet, and asked me to tick off every box that came through the door! Easy job, if there were 10 boxes! We had 157 boxes and they were coming through the garage thick and fast! It was like bingo on speed! Totally frazzled after the 20th box I had to get Tim to do some ticking! What with the noise of ‘Peppa Pig at the museum’ and the guys shouting numbers in strong Aussie accents I was overwhelmed! Ok, so now you’re all thinking “I watch neighbours, Australian accents are easy to understand!” Think again! It’s a little tricky sometimes! Honestly the amount of times an Aussie has said “how you going?”, to me and received a confused “um… Going fine… Um nowhere!?” Damn I must get with it!!! I have an Aussie lingo book by the bed so I will get there eventually!

In typical Wilson fashion the unpacking was chaotic! Every box that came in from 830 Monty would say “is that my scooter? Is it?” And sure enough Montys beloved scooter was the final item off the container at 5pm! By which point he was so busy playing with his trucks he wasn’t fussed!

For anyone thinking of moving to the other side of the world, make sure you have a really thorough clear out before packing!! This, I thought we had done! Until I noticed on the dressing table a baby names book (??? No we’re not! Ever!) and the instruction booklet for a breast pump! I didn’t even bother with that hellish exercise with Monty, so that was nearly 7 years old! To be fair, we emptied our whole house and rarely visited attic in Somerset into a container so we were bound to have bought some Oddities with us!

  
After 12 hours of shifting and lifting,  and breaking up empty boxes, we were in, the guys had left and we had even hung some pictures on the wall! I really wanted to sit down, make a pot of tea and dunk a digestive in it! That would have been weird seeing as I don’t drink tea, but I wanted to use my beautiful Emma Bridgewater tea pot that I have so missed!! In fact, I wanted to do lots of strange things, I wanted to make some pesto with my Magimix, get the coffee machine going, put some washing on in “MY OWN MACHIIINE”. I wanted to have a bath with my lovely oils, I wanted to wear my wonderful Dubarry boots, and I wanted to watch my sex in the city DVDs! Ok, so all at once was probably a bit much! In fact, I haven’t done any of those things as yet! The washing machine isn’t even installed as the pipes weren’t packed! Joy!

So we are just over 7 weeks into our Australian adventure, and today it no longer feels like we’re on holiday! We have set up home, and it feels good! The children scooted to school, the sun was shining, I was wearing clothes I had forgotten I owned!

It’s a happy day in Sydney! The Wilsons are getting on track!

Don’t talk to me about setting up satellite TV though or installing the internet as I may bite!!

We’ve nearly completed week 2 in the house! I say ‘the’ house as it doesn’t feel like home yet! If anything, it feels a little depressing! Not because we don’t like it, or it’s not nice, it’s just cold and empty with the bare minimum furnishings! We had been told our beloved belongings would arrive tomorrow, which has now been delayed by a week! “A week? Only a week?” I hear you say!!! Honestly, I wept, in fact I think I may have been heard sobbing to myself! Ok, I know there are worse things happening in the world, but right now, 10,000 miles from home, with no curtains, and only 3 pairs of shoes, this is BAD news!  The kids are missing their teddies, Tim is missing all our photographs on the walls, and I am missing my Magimix! In fact I am missing all things ‘kitchen’. We have been given 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 forks etc etc! The three saucepans we have, are exactly that, pans for sauce! Slighty too small to make enough porridge for baby bear, let alone feed Goldilocks too!  So, next Friday, I am crossing my fingers, (feel free to join in) I will be lying on my sofa, wrapped in a wonderfully snugly welsh blanket, sipping warm tea from an Emma Bridgewater mug, whilst flicking through my much missed ‘Domestic goddess’ cookbooks! This doesn’t mean on Saturday morning I will have miraculously turned into Nigella, but bloody hell I will be loving making our home all homely!! 

Apart from the moment sobbing about the furniture, we have had a pretty good week! Poppy has settled in petty well at school, although she is “hating” having to play the recorder! To be honest, I am hating her playing the recorder! (I knew those earplugs from the plane would be a winner). She is playing lots of sports, getting lots of homework, and she seems pretty cool about the whole thing! So, that’s a weight off my mind!  

Monty and I spend our days pottering about at home, playing at the maccas play area, and food shopping! 

   
 Monty had his second swimming lesson this week! After much whingeing and screaming, “I dont like the black lady, I don’t like the black lady” (referring to the colour of the teachers hat last week )  over and over again, I managed to bribe him with a new digger and he got into the pool! I am pretty sure everyone in Fitness First thinks he is a massive racist! I didn’t have time to explain! 

  
So it’s Thursday, which is library day for us! We are off to get some books, have a play and then it’ll be time for a nap! Walking Pops to school is wearing Monty out! Yippee! Two hours peace in the afternoon is bliss! Almost makes me want another! Oh, no hold on, not when this is in our doorstep!  

Or maybe that would help! 

It’s 1155 and I am sitting eating my lunch with Monty, enjoying Tom and Jerry! It’s a bit early for lunch, but we were hungry after a busy morning, and it’s either lunch or folding the laundry! That, and Poppy will be having her lunch right now, outside in the playgound, so we thought we’d eat at the same time! It’s bizarre being here, at home without Poppy! 

  
  
It is her first day at Sylvania Heights Public School and I am proud to say she was incredibly excited! We met her class teacher yesterday and she was lovely! Most of you will know by now, Poppy has always been a little emotional going to school! Whether it’s habit, or separation anxiety or something else, I’ll never know, but this morning was pretty stressful for me! Every time she paused I was there saying “come on now, such an adventure, what an awesome experience, you’ll make friends so quickly, wow you’re so lucky!” Anything to keep her from crying. (To be honest I don’t think she was that bothered!). I never know what’s the best thing to do!

 We walked to school, a lovely 15 minute stroll through the houses, with enough sticks to keep Monty occupied! 

  How that child can turn a stick into ANYTHING amazes me! He adores a stick! 

When we arrived at the school gates, children were piling in, laughing, singing, the playgrounds (there are many) were full of children playing very organised games of rugby, and football, no teacher in sight!  Every single child was wearing a broad rimmed sunhat! The “no hat, no play” policy is a no brainer here even in the winter! We made our way to the steps at the bottom of Poppy’s classroom so she could wait for her “Buddy” to come and meet her! So cute! I could see Poppy’s little face, overwhelmed (120 kids in UK school to 700 here), nervous, bottom lip with a tiny wobble, I was welling up and thinking ” this cannot be easy for her! Why have we done this? Oh gosh lets ditch and go home,” then Miss Ray (like a ray of sunshine) waltzed round the corner and saved the day! She has the biggest smile, bright red lipstick and I wanted to hug her! (Note to self: stop hugging the locals) Poppy went off quite happily and Monty shouted at the top of his voice “bye Poppy, my am so proud of you! My love you!” The girls collapsed into a heap of giggles! Phew that made everything better! 

Monty and I left the girls to it, and walked home! Via McDonald’s! Not for a “Maccas” brekkie, but for a huge coffee and a play! It has the best undercover playarea and its where we have been told to go for a play locally! This was a good shout as we managed to meet a really nice lady (originally from the uk) who was meeting her daughter and grandchildren! Yippppeeee we made some friends!! We hung out for a few hours, they invited me to watch their 3 yr olds swimming lesson so we could see if Monty would like to join, such nice friendly folk! So we’ve had a good morning all in all!  It’s pretty tough being on your own in a strange place with the kids! I’m trying my best to keep busy even if it means the children have two ice creams a day!! Just to get out! 

  
This afternoon I am popping Monty into the buggy and I’m walking up to a local cafe to meet the PTA mums from school! I hope they’re just as friendly as everyone else I have met so far! Can’t let Poppy down! Need to get her some play dates! So, I’ll get the washing on the line, prepare supper, load the dishwasher and be on my merry way! I am determined to settle in, I know we have done the right thing! Could someone just send me a galaxy ripple please!!!  

It’s 1155 and I am sitting eating my lunch with Monty, enjoying Tom and Jerry! It’s a bit early for lunch, but we were hungry after a busy morning, and it’s either lunch or folding the laundry! That, and Poppy will be having her lunch right now, outside in the playgound, so we thought we’d eat at the same time! It’s bizarre being here, at home without Poppy! 

  
  
It is her first day at Sylvania Heights Public School and I am proud to say she was incredibly excited! We met her class teacher yesterday and she was lovely! Most of you will know by now, Poppy has always been a little emotional going to school! Whether it’s habit, or separation anxiety or something else, I’ll never know, but this morning was pretty stressful for me! Every time she paused I was there saying “come on now, such an adventure, what an awesome experience, you’ll make friends so quickly, wow you’re so lucky!” Anything to keep her from crying. (To be honest I don’t think she was that bothered!). I never know what’s the best thing to do!

 We walked to school, a lovely 15 minute stroll through the houses, with enough sticks to keep Monty occupied! 

  How that child can turn a stick into ANYTHING amazes me! He adores a stick! 

When we arrived at the school gates, children were piling in, laughing, singing, the playgrounds (there are many) were full of children playing very organised games of rugby, and football, no teacher in sight!  Every single child was wearing a broad rimmed sunhat! The “no hat, no play” policy is a no brainer here even in the winter! We made our way to the steps at the bottom of Poppy’s classroom so she could wait for her “Buddy” to come and meet her! So cute! I could see Poppy’s little face, overwhelmed (120 kids in UK school to 700 here), nervous, bottom lip with a tiny wobble, I was welling up and thinking ” this cannot be easy for her! Why have we done this? Oh gosh lets ditch and go home,” then Miss Ray (like a ray of sunshine) waltzed round the corner and saved the day! She has the biggest smile, bright red lipstick and I wanted to hug her! (Note to self: stop hugging the locals) Poppy went off quite happily and Monty shouted at the top of his voice “bye Poppy, my am so proud of you! My love you!” The girls collapsed into a heap of giggles! Phew that made everything better! 

Monty and I left the girls to it, and walked home! Via McDonald’s! Not for a “Maccas” brekkie, but for a huge coffee and a play! It has the best undercover playarea and its where we have been told to go for a play locally! This was a good shout as we managed to meet a really nice lady (originally from the uk) who was meeting her daughter and grandchildren! Yippppeeee we made some friends!! We hung out for a few hours, they invited me to watch their 3 yr olds swimming lesson so we could see if Monty would like to join, such nice friendly folk! So we’ve had a good morning all in all!  It’s pretty tough being on your own in a strange place with the kids! I’m trying my best to keep busy even if it means the children have two ice creams a day!! Just to get out! 

  
This afternoon I am popping Monty into the buggy and I’m walking up to a local cafe to meet the PTA mums from school! I hope they’re just as friendly as everyone else I have met so far! Can’t let Poppy down! Need to get her some play dates! So, I’ll get the washing on the line, prepare supper, load the dishwasher and be on my merry way! I am determined to settle in, I know we have done the right thing! Could someone just send me a galaxy ripple please!!!