So I have finally got around to updating the blog! I had thought that people would not be so interested in what we were up to as it has been over 2 years since we arrived in Australia, but I have had a few complaints so here goes!

Life has pretty much settled down to normality now, I was told to give life here 2 years and it does seem that it takes that long to feel like you know how things work and where places are etc. I have finally settled into a job that I am really enjoying, it’s a role similar to that of a Macmillan nurse in the UK, palliative care nursing. We look after people in their own homes that have a terminal diagnosis-either cancer, heart/lung faliure and neurological disease. I know its not an area of nursing many would choose but I love it, I have met some truly inspiring people and it is a very rewarding role. Saying that, I also have a second job!  The way the Australian tax system is set up, particularly in nursing, it is better to have 2 part time jobs than one full time role- you are allowed to claim $10,000 per year tax free and can claim it for 2 jobs. Hence my main role is 3 days per week and my second job is working in a private hospice (still working on community) doing a casual role which attracts a 25% uplift on your salary as you dont get sick leave/holiday pay, and is tax free! I just work 1 day per week if I can but it is worthwhile. I have completed my ‘leadership course’ and am still working towards my certificate in palliative care. I have done 2 assignments so far, I have a ‘major project’ and another assignment yet, it finishes Oct. My manager has asked me to apply for a new role that has just been created- a clinical nurse specialist role, but I’m not really sure I am experienced enough yet, plus it’s 4 days per week!

I haven’t worked at the GP practice for a while now, it works well as I’m financially better off working as I do, but get to keep in touch with all the girls there. I get invited to all the social events, we went to Linda’s house on philip island and had a girls weekend away which was fun, and meet for coffee/dinner regularly, so works well!

We have finally started the process of appling for our permanent residency. Steve’s company have finally agreet to sponsor our application after initially saying that they might not be in a position to do so. We have had a few unsettled months with the government making changes to the conditions of overseas workers here, they have decided to take away the tax allowance they offer to skilled migrants, resulting basically in a 20% pay cut for Steve. Apparently what they have done is unlawful and contravenes the agreement we have with the UK but they are ploughing ahead with it anyway. It is a very short sighted descision and lots of people we know have booked or are booking their flights back home, as it makes Australia totally unaffordable. The place is beautiful but sunshine doesnt pay the bills!  We really have to find a way to stay as Ellie’s class mates in the UK have just left school and if we returned home now- she wouldn’t have high school qualifications as they only leave here at 17/18. Ellie will graduate high school in Nov 2013 so we have to stay until then. If we get our PR then we can come and go as we please, giving us more flexibility and if Ellie goes to Uni here she will be eligable for normal fees instead of international student fees- which are 3 times as much! It will cost us $6000 dollars to obtain our PR but is worth the investment I think.

It is officially Winter here now (June 1st) and it is quite cold, day time temp have been as low as 13 degrees and as low as 6 degrees at night, but funnily enough I was speaking to my mum yesterday and she informs me it’s only been 13 degrees there also! (not laughing ..) It’s funny how we have acclimatised, I realy can’t stand it if the temp is less than 20 degrees and I have ordered my North Face duck down coat for Tom to bring over next week to keep me warm on the chilly Winter days! I contine to order clothes from the UK, especially Next. They offer free delivery within 3 days to Aus and the clothes are the same prices as Uk using the exchange rate. Ellie also uses ASOS and has just ordered from River Island. Australia really does not do fashion and is so expensive- the clothes are 3 times more expensive here, and no better quality. Everyone always asks where I get my clothes from!

Not much to say about Steve’s job – still the same! Ellie is doing well at school and particularly like legal studies, she got 98% in her last exam and would like to study law at Uni if possible. She has also got tickets for Cold Play in Nov and Ed Sheeran and we have just taken her out for her first driving lesson today! Driving tuition is done differently here, you have to complete 120 hours of supervised driving once you have passed your learners permit-which she did on her 16th birthday. Tuition is mostly done by the parents here, there are only a few driving instructors but we may book her a few sessions with an instructor as we are not fully aware of the highway code here, just hope for the best!!   No really we are aware, but occasionally I will come across a traffic signal and think ‘what the…. oh well, here goes!!’  It seems strange that my 16 year old daughter is learning to drive in a 3.6l Nissan Murano auto, but thats how it is here.

News from home- my eldest sister Jackie has also left Blighty also and is loving life in France-probably due to the fact that she has retired. My youngest brother Paul has done an amazing house renovation and after living with his in-laws for 6 months they have finally moved into their new home! Terry also has an amazing new home (which has spare rooms for guests ahem…)  and Jo is still working very hard at the childrens ward. All are well, as is Steve’s family. We are still hoping to get back to the UK for Christmas but the flights are still sooo expensive (1400 pounds EACH), so in our times of new austerity- not sure if we can afford it, but I check often to see if the prices have changed.

Don’t think there is much more to say, the dog has not been too well, vets for past 2 days, she has  a bad infection under her collar area so is on antibiotics. The vet also gave her a steroid shot- so now we have a dog that is hyperactive and starving all the time! Hopefully will improve in the next few days.

Tom arrives in Aus next Monday night and is here for 5 weeks. He takes his final exam on Mon 11th June and then it is all done! He has a job lined up in Reading ready for when he gets back in August, he will be living with Sam until he gets a place of his own sorted. We have booked to go up to Queensland and the barrier reef again for a week, weather should be around 28 degrees up there-bliss!! We have also booked for the Victorian lake district and will go up to the snow also. Skiing is big in Victoria and the snow season begins next week through until Sept up in the mountains- about a 3 hour drive away. There is so much we have yet to see in Australia, we need a few more years here!

Hope the weather picks up soon in Blighty.

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It’s been a busy Christmas and New Year with Sam & Tom being here we have had something planned for pretty much every day. We have seen the sights of Melbourne and beyond and had some amazing weather. The temperature peaked at 43 degrees just before Sam left, it was so hot we could do no more than sit in an air-conditioned pub and drink cold beer!   The only rain we had was on Christmas day which made me happy as we had decided to have a traditional Christmas dinner, the sky went black about 3pm and the rains came – it was so nice, the christmas lights twinkled against the dark sky and it felt like a UK christmas, much better than a 35 degree day!  We spent New years eve in the city, first attending a comedy performance at the royal botanical gardens, taking our own picnic and wine etc and then heading to the centre and watching the fireworks- a good night. Both the boys are now back in blighty, think the temperature change is affecting them though, at least they can watch the cricket test on tv yet and see the nice weather again!

So it’s back to normality and work, we have both had 3 weeks off work and it was hard going back. Ellie returns to school following the summer hols on Feb 1st. She has been working both her jobs dong a couple of days a week and has built an impressive balance on her savings account.

My job is going well, my manager came out on visits with me and gave me some great feedback, now she has put me forward as a future leader and I am doing a 4 day course as well as having to do more study and gain a qualification in palliative care, why cant I just go to work and then come home, always something to do!!  Steve has resumed his job for now.

We have put in an application for a house back in Beaumaris where we first lived (dodgy house), it is a lovely home and I’m sure the many other people that were viewing it have also applied, so I very much doubt we will get it. If not, we will just stay here, though this house really is too big for just the 3 of us and I dont think we’ll be having more visitors this year.  We are really hoping to come back to the UK for next Christmas so please order the picture postcard snowy  landscapes for us now!  Flights arent available for a few months yet and depends on the price of course. I havent worn any of my Christmas dresses here or glitzy shoes, usually sun dress and flip flops!

I will put more pics on Flikr.

Well I have to keep reminding myself that its only 5 days until Christmas day, no signs of snow yet! It is so weird, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to having a Summer Christmas. This is the time of year that I really wish I was home, but that’s only because I want the picture postcard Christmas of snow covered hills and trees, in reality it will probably rain!  The weather here has been lovely, been up to 32 degrees so far, they have forecast 34 on Christmas day – phew!  Not sure if we will do a BBQ in the sun or close the blinds, turn the aircon on high to make it cold and have a ‘British’ Christmas with the traditional roast.

We may have  to explore applying for permanent residency in May as the government are looking at taking the tax relief off overseas residents brought over to Australia to work, it will equate to a 20% pay cut for Steve which is not good as it is one of the most expensive  places in the world to live here.  If we were permanent residents here it would give Steve the opportunity to work for any company, at the moment he is tied to his  company as they sponsored our visa, and also it would get Ellie in to University at Australian citizen prices which is about $3000 dollars per year rather than the overseas students rate which is about 3 times more expensive! If we applied for residency before Tom leaves uni he would also be on our visa which means he could work in Aus also. It’s not to say we intend to stay here permanently, it would give us the flexibility to work in both countries, whichever suits, and we could have dual citizenship once we have been here 4 years. It’s something we will have to think about and take advice on in the next few months I think.

My job is going ok, I feel a lot more settled now, our new manager is great and we are getting new staff in the new year, so hopefully the service will continue to grow and improve. I am on hols for 3 weeks (some unpaid) whilst the boys are here, only working boxing day as they will be at the cricket and it’s double pay!

We finally have new tenants in our house, the previous ones left at short notice, but at our request as there was some difficulties obtaining the rent for the past 2 months. The new people are just a couple with a small dog and have signed for 18 months, so by that time we should know what our future holds.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and happy new year!

Well mum &dad arrived safely, a much better journey than they anticipated! They stayed over in Dubai for 3 days but at 40 degrees they didn’t venture outside much! It was a bit like Christmas because they brought over my orders from Boots, M&S and Debenhams! They have seen a lot of Melbourne now and have ventured into the city a few times, the train network is so easy then they get the free tourist shuttle which gives a commentary and hop on/off at many points. They have stocked up with UGG boots for the family from Victoria market already.

We have been to Sydney for 4 days in early Oct, that was a busy time with lots of sightseeing and walking. We had a cruise around the harbour and sailed alongside the Sydney harbour bridge and Opera house, visited Bondi beach which was very quiet as it was a weekday and walked the botanic gardens. The gardens were beautiful and I happened to glance up to the tree tops to see bats hanging from the trees! Apparently they were fruit bats and there were lots of them, chattering to each other and swooping around – uggh!

We got back from Queensland last Wednesday, we had an amazing time there as I have never been to any tropical parts of the world before. We stayed in a lovely town called Port Douglas which is 60km  north of  Cairns, so lush and green with coconut palms, fruit trees and tree palms growing in abundance. The garden of our apartment had mango and lychee trees growing, every morning we picked fresh mangoes! The temperature was 30 degrees everyday and the scenery was stunning.  We went on a riverboat ride through a rainforest and saw 5 metre salt water crocs lounging on the side, and on a ski lift ride over the canopy of the forest and returned on a rickety old train. The following days we went to the Great Barrier Reef. The boats departed from Port Douglas and was about a 90 min ride out to the many reefs. We went to the outer reef which is apparently one of the best reefs, Ellie and I went on a snorkel trip with the marine biologist who pointed out many different fish and coral, including a giant clam. He brought up a purple starfish and a monster fish which we held, and we saw all the fish that are in finding Nemo, including Dory and Nemo hiding in the sea anemone! The catamaran docked at a large pontoon and had semi-submersibles which mum, dad and Steve went on and saw the reef that way.

As the climate is tropical the ‘critters’ up there were large and scary! We arrived at our hotel at 9pm so sat in the outdoor restaurant as it was still 24 degrees, hawk eye Ellie kept spotting the insects by uttering ‘what the hell is that!’ The waiter brought this huge black bug over that was the size of a 2 pound coin, it was a rhino horn beetle and when he touched it’s back it reared up and hissed like a snake – jeez, we nearly knocked the table over as we jumped back! We used to get a visit from the fruit bats and flying fox bats every evening at dusk who would sit in the mango trees every night munching through the fruit  and the occasional cane toad would hop by, what a strange experience. I have  never seen the yellow warning signs indicating crocodiles were in the creeks and bottles of vinegar on the beaches in case if jelly fish stings before either! It was a fabulous holiday though and I would definitely go back.

The weather has been very changeable, we can have a 30 degree day followed by 18 degrees and rain! It has been very wet of course and they have had to release one of the dams for the first time in 15 years, people are still blaming us for bringing over the ‘English’ weather!

Work is going ok at the moment, though it has been busy and getting a lunch break is becoming a luxury – here we go again! Part of the problem is the age of my colleagues – most of them are approaching or over 60, so they either have 6 months or more long service leave or are off sick!  Our new manager started 4 weeks ago, she is lovely and about my age (so not  old!), she has made a few changes already and has many more in the pipeline, there are practices happening that make me shudder and would never happen in the UK, but they are being addressed. I’ll just keep plodding on and see how things go, I still have my job offer from the other hospice!

Steve’s work is going through changes, they have to do psychometric testing and are re-writing job descriptions etc so everyone is very unsettled and morale is low, we will see what happens over the next month or so. Ellie is fine, doing end of year exams as they finish for the summer hols mid December.

Tom will be coming over on 6th Dec and Sam will land the week later, the year has passed by so quickly. Tom will have completed his 3 years at Oxford in June ans is looking for internships/jobs at the moment. Xena is having a good time as she gets walked a lot and treats off mum & dad, she will be lost when they leave next week!

Well I have a very busy time since we got back from Hawaii. I am still helping out the GP practice until their new nurse in competent in the role whilst working on the wards at the hospice, so have been working 4 and even 5 days one week – phew!! I  mind doing it until my parents come out on Sept 27th, and it gives me extra cash as we will be sight seeing, and I can just work my regular shifts only then. We have all  booked to go to Sydney in an amazing hotel for 3 nights  on 3rd Oct, then on 27th Oct we go up to Cairns for 5 nights to see the barrier reef etc, so looking forward to that! Ellie has decided she would really like to go on the trip the school are organising next Sept to Europe! They are going for 17 days and will see London, Paris, Venice, Rome, Florence and do all the touristy things! I am not sure when we will get back to the UK for a holiday, maybe next Christmas – depends upon the cost of flights!

We have just got home from a weekend away,  Ellie stayed home with her friend Sophie. We went to Ballarat, a 2 hour drive away and was the birthplace of the goldrush, which brought people from all over the world, seeking their fortune! I kept looking to see if I could find a little piece of gold but alas no luck! It was much colder than here- 7 degrees cooler and often gets to minus 2 or so, but it is higher up so that’s why. We went to a fantastic replica town of the 1800’s  with it’s old school house and hotels, and went down the goldmine which was fun.

I am not really enjoying the wards, shift work, late followed by early, the regimentation of it all, they have so many SEN’s that cant check drugs and the other night I was in charge on a late with 2 grad nurses (new qualified) and a nurse that cant do medicines so I had to do every  drug, then check the whole  stock when the night nurse came on,I was counting drugs in my sleep! Now I remember why I left the wards…

So with all that I took myself down to the community team and sold myself to them, they really want me to join their team, anyway I heard last week I can start on 5th Sept so only 3 more shifts to do.They will pay me more money too, about  23 pounds per hour but really good tax breaks cos I’m working in a gov hospital so more like 25 per hour! The only thing is they do oncall as they dont have an out of hours team, but if you get called, even if you  just have to take a phone call, you get a minimum of 3 hours pay, so may not be too bad.  There are so many different nationalities on the ward, I work with Chirag (male), Juan, Preety, Youi, Xang , they are all really nice and I get to try different foods! We also get such a variety of patients, a lot of Italians and Greeks but everyone are so friendly and want to feed you all yummy things. There are so many nationalities here but no disharmony. I guess it is because they chose to come here and see themselves as Australian first and foremost and uphold what the country stands for, not for the benefits and free housing!!
The weather is finally picking up. It is light until 6pm now and the clocks change 2nd Oct so will add an extra hour of daylight! We have just had a fantastic week, not a drop of rain and 17 – 20 degrees and clear blue skies, just heaven. All the daffodils are flowering, as are the camelias and magnolias, they look beautiful in the sunshine.

Steve has been busy at work, sorting out the mess that government contracts end up in! I hope this is the last government contract he works on as they want everything for nothing as usual. It is funny that Wigan rugby continue to do fantastically well since he left the UK. Sam now records the matches then Steve downloads them to watch as they don’t show them here. He called the TV station to see if they were showing the cup final but only shown in Brisbane or Sydney, Melbourne not big on rugby, more Aussie rules football. Sam, Tom & Amelia did go to Wembley to watch it though and had a great time. We have booked tickets to watch the first state of origin match in May here in Melbourne, which has got Sam looking for cheap flights over!

Will have to start my shopping list of things for my mum & dad to bring over, can also claim VAT back as you exit the airport at Manchester so makes it worthwhile. I have just recieved my order from Next, 3 pairs jeans and some tops, too expensive here and Next do free delivery to Aus. Just been looking at M&S but all seems very boring!

Well, I am writing this on the plane heading back to Aus from Hawaii – got to pass the 9 hour flight somehow!  The weather has been beautiful. 85 – 89 degrees in the day,  75 degrees at night. The weather is similar all year round, maybe a few degrees colder in winter – sounds perfect to me! We stayed on Maui for the first 8 days, it was lovely and peaceful, quite laid back with dramatic volcanic landscapes and the Pacific Ocean was turquoise blue. It was a little worrying to see the evacuation sirens every two miles or so, and evacuation routes clearly signed on the roads, but they did sound in May after the Japanese earthquake as it triggered a tsunami warning!  We visited a few sites, did some snorkelling and boogie boarding and chilled by the pool and beach. The beaches were a little disappointing, not the vast sandy beaches I expected, just small coves or narrow strips, some with very big waves. We decided to venture into the sea on one beach as we had reached boiling point, just to bob around leisurely to cool down when we got hit by the wave from hell! It came out of nowhere, was about 6 foot high and there was no escaping it, it hit us hard on the back dragged us around and deposited us on the shore where the rip started to drag us back in again for another battering, we finally managed to escape, totally dishevelled with sand everywhere – so much for not getting my hair wet!!  On talking to a local afterwards she laughed and said ‘oh yes, that beach is known locally as paraplegic beach’, so many people get neck injuries as the waves break on shore and deposit you head first in the sand!  Thanks for the warning eh? We also spent a day driving the road to Hana, a sleepy village with nothing much to do there, but the landscape driving to this place is the most amazing we have ever seen. The road has 52 hairpin bends, 15 single lane bridges and is very windy, so hence the need for travel sickness tablets! We bought a guide CD which gave a history and advised of hidden waterfalls which we swam in and secluded walks with amazing fruit trees and flowers. Jurassic park, Lost and the movie Papillon were all filmed here, will put some photos on Flickr.

Waikiki is a different story, could have been Benidorm or any other tourist hotspot. Hi- rise hotels all round, overpriced bars and restaurants and lots of designer shops, about 70% of the people there are Japanese, we were definitely in the minority. The hotel was lovely and we went to Pearl harbour for a day which was good, Waikiki beach was overrated, quite small but good surf and very crowded, all in all, wouldn’t recommend it! At least we have a nice tan to head home with, even though it will be winter and won’t be able to show it off, its been about 15 – 17 degrees in Melbourne, should start warming up again in august.  We met some Aussies at the hotel who lived 3 miles away from us, small world.

I now have to compose my letter decling the job offer from the private  hospice, which I feel guilty about as she phoned me as we were  on our way  to the airport, to check my references. I couldn’t tell her as she sounded so happy, so I will take the cowards way out and email her! I have handed my notice in at the practice also, gave it in just before I left for my hols, she was so gutted, especially as the nurse that came to cover for 12 month maternity leave position only lasted 7 weeks before she landed her dream job! I guess everyone will know by the time I get into work on Fri, not sure how they will respond but I cant stay in the job out of guilt can I? I start my new job Mon 25^th July, just hope it’s Ok and I can finally settle in and feel like I belong.

Now back in Melbourne – completing the blog!  Washing done, shopping done, dog collected, heating on high! God it’s cold- did I say how much I hate winter? It was all of 6 degrees when we landed, you could see your breath, bit different from 28 degrees. Don’t you hate that feeling of putting your jeans on when you have worn only shorts for 2 weeks? Apparently the weather has been lousy while we have been away – the coldest winter so far for over 10 years! We also missed an earthquake, 4.4 originated 50 miles away but was felt here, no damage done though.

I went into work on Friday, everyone now knows I have resigned, last day next Friday. Many efforts made to try and get me to stay, they had hoped I would think again whilst I was away and decide to stay apparently. Everyone was nice though and supportive, I did wonder how it would be as I have only been there 6 months! I have never left a job after such a short time before.

I hear some disastrous news from the UK – TJ Hughes has gone into administration and Thornton’s are closing stores. I was gutted when Sam told me, but as long as TK Max keeps going I’m happy, if that or John Lewis goes, I’m applying for residency here!

Sam has moved into his new flat with Amelia which looks really nice as they have furnished it themselves, and Tom is living with them now whilst doing his summer job in Reading.

Well if this is Winter I can handle it! The weather has been quite nice, daytime temperature around 15 degrees, up to 17 occasionally, the coldest day time temp so far has been 9 deg, thats when the Aussies wrap up in their scarves and gloves.  We have been lucky with clear blue skies so feels really quite warm in a sheltered spot. The temp does fall at night and has dropped as low as 6 degrees which the Aussies feel is absolutely freezing.

We have been out on the weekends investigating different places, went down to the end of the Mornington peninsula again but right to the very end (just before you fall into the sea) and had a look at the historic forts that were set up to guard against invasion during the wars, it was absolutely freezing as the wind was howling as it was so exposed, I really don’t know how the soldiers stayed there. Last weekend we went to a park only 10 mins away which was just like Pennington flash but it was huge – 264 hectares. Three were wetlands and hides and this rough aussie twitcher befriended us (looked a bit like crocodile dundee) and told us about every bloody bird in that park! Lots of cockatoos, parrot’s and other very colourful birds, with pelicans and black swans on the water, unfortunately there are no dogs allowed in the park so will have to leave Xena home.

It was the first weekend of the ski season up in the mountains last weekend and they have had their best start for the past 10 years, it is a 2 hour drive from here to the nearest mountain so I think we will head up there after we get back from Hawaii, it will be nice to see the snow. Of course we didn’t bring the sledge, did we ever envisage using that in Australia?? There are many things we should have brought over with us but didn’t, the biggest one being our Winter coats! We were told nah, it doesn’t get cold even in Winter, so we gave them all away! The temperatures in Hawaii over the past month have been above 80 degrees, cant wait to feel the sunshine again, we go on the 28th June. We are taking minimal clothes with us as we intend to shop! It has to be said, there is no denying the fact that the clothes in Australia are terrible! I have hardly bought anything whilst I have been here, and it’s not through a lack of trying. They are not fashionable, quite old fashioned if anything but also expensive. Ellie really struggles to find nice things and grumbles all the way around the shops. Whilst the Aussie dollar is so strong against the US dollar we intend to buy lots of clothes, that should keep us going until we return to the UK for a holiday next year. There is a positive on the fashion front here though, Zara store opened in the city on Wednesday!! Hooray… It was on TV, some moaning that it is not Australia owned and clothes not made here, but most embracing the opening, there are rumours that H&M may also come over, so we are off to the City tomorrow to investigate Zara.

Ellie has completed her work experience now, it was her last day on Friday and she really enjoyed it. She worked at AVG the computer antivirus company, working in a different department each day, she got her wages also – $25 dollars per day! They were impressed with her knowledge which she says is through listening to her dad and brothers talk about computers etc all the time….

I have another interview on Monday afternoon at a public hospice. I have secured the job at the private hospice when I get back from hols but thought I should investigate the government hospice before I commit to this job. It is getting amusing the speed of response and enthusiasm of the companies. There were no vacancies advertised so I thought I would just send my CV anyway, that was 8pm, got a call at 9.00 the next morning inviting me to interview the day after! I had work commitments so couldn’t go, but will go Monday. I am very blase about interviews now, it’s so weird being in demand!

We are watching with amusement the Aussie responsive to the government policy of plain packaging for cigarettes, we will be the first country in the world to introduce this. The packaging with be a sickly green with a picture of a lung cancer or diseased heart, you get the picture! No writing or anything to remove the glamour from buying them. The Aussies are not happy and have got ads on TV and a website where you can vote to ‘stop the nanny state’. The government are keen on stamping out smoking completely, it is banned from restaurant etc like the UK, and from the outside of shopping centres, cant smoke on the beach and if you smoke in a car that has children in it, even if they are yours, you get a hefty fine. They are discussing stopping it completely in the street also!

The next time I update the blog will be on our return from Hawaii, we have sorted everything for that now, car hire, hotels, internal flights, booked the weather!! I hope we get there OK as there has been a volcanic ash cloud from Chile causing huge flight disruptions to flights around Aus/NZ. We haven’t had a holiday for a long time and it’s been a stressful year so we just need a relaxing break to recharge, lets hope it goes well!!

Its been a quiet few weeks really, its almost Winter and dark just after 5 now so people are just settling in for the dark nights. We have had a few warm days, it was 19 deg over the weekend which was lovely, but back down to 15 again now. I have to remember that it  is our shortest day on June 21st and will get better after that, mind you July & Aug are cooler so we have a way to go yet! Thank god we have Hawaii to look forward to. Unlike the UK, the TV doesn’t get better in the Winter, there really is some rubbish on but we do get UK TV, ‘An idiot abroad’ has just started but we have watched it already, Sam brought it over on DVD at Christmas.

Sam has recovered well from his surgery and is almost back to normal now, but no football yet. He has secured a new 2 bed  flat and his girlfriend Amelia will be moving in with him mid June. He has made a room for Tom who will also be living with them over Summer until Oct as he is working in Reading with the computer company he worked for last year, so we wont be seeing them both until Christmas now.

Steve’s job seems OK after his first week, got a lot of work to do though I think, always harder when working on government contracts and all the bureaucracy that goes with them. Ellie has exams in 2 weeks and so is working hard, she  has just received her school photos and everyone keeps telling her how much she looks like Kate Middleton! She won the best speaker award out of all the teams at a debating competition last week and her Geordie English teacher at school thinks she has lost her accent already and acquired an ‘international accent’. Ellie has a week of work experience in June, she will be working at AVG – the computer antivirus company, we were surprised to find that she will be paid $25 a day for this. Xena is fine, just walk and feed fer and she is happy! We have just got home from a lovely walk through Yarra Bend park, a huge park just outside the city. We were there for about 3 hours and it was so beautiful and Autumnal, the leaves were falling from the trees onto our table like snow as we were having a lovely latte. You can hire canoes and kayaks and row on the Yarra river so we will definitely be returning in summer (See pics on Flicrkr).

I have been offered another job! I decided to contact a hospice in Prahran (near to the city), its a 22 bedded unit for stays of up to 12 days for symptom control, they also have a hospice at home team. I just requested  an informal chat and find out a little more about palliative care in Melbourne, the unit manager brought in the home team manager and they both offered me a job! Between us we agreed that I will work initially in the unit to familiarise myself with the way things work, but will also go out with the home team for a day to see what they do. They would also like me to act as a wound care resource when needed and will pay me extra on these days, with a view to doing this role for the home team also. I am working three days per week through June for the Practice and 1 day for district nurses, so will start this role on 18th July when back from Hawaii. I hope to find a job that I can settle into and really enjoy, and not have to do different jobs, but will keep on the practice role as as we all know some jobs never work out as imagined! It really is unreal the amount of nursing vacancies out there.

Hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend, we don’t get May bank holiday but get the queens birthday on 13th June.

Well, its 1 year and 3 days since we touched down in Australia! This time last year we were staying with Stuart & Maria, sorting out a hire car etc, we have learned a lot since then. I cant help wondering what the next 2 years will bring, that’s when we will have to decide whether we stay or return to Blighty. The Aussie dollar remains very strong, the economy is booming, and everything is expensive! The interest rate is 6.5% for savings which is good for us (not that we have that much now!) but the mortgage rate is 7% which makes for big repayments on very big mortgages, it is predicted to raise again in the next month or so. People are complaining that the cost of living is high, and the cost of fruit & veg has doubled because the floods have wiped out all the crops, bananas were $4 a kilo, now &11 because they are grown in Queensland and house prices continue to rise. Petrol has also reached an all time high, $1.45 a  litre (75p). Rates should return to normal in a few months, that’s if no more disasters occur! The good news for us is that the exchange rate against the US dollar is at the highest for 10 years or so, so where we would have got 0.6 US dollars, we will now get nearly  1.1, we are waiting to see if it goes higher!

We have finalised our holiday to Hawaii finally. A few people have told us that Waikiki can be a little like the Gold coast, which to us Brits means  like the Costas in Spain. But it does have the largest mall in America, great surf and beaches, Pearl Harbour and rugged landscapes, so we have decided to stay there for our last 6 days only. The previous 8 days we will spend on Maui, a smaller island 35 min flight from Honolulu, it has been voted the most beautiful island in the world,  still has an active volcano and some stunning beaches,  should be very relaxing. We have researched travel insurance which covers natural disasters including tsunami, volcanic activity etc, you just never know….

Work continues to go well, I have been on a 2 day practice nurse course in the city on Thur/Fri. I had to find my way in by train, then tram, don’t think I did it quite the right way but got there eventually, I am so bad with directions! I haven’t traveled in rush hour before, and was surprised  to find that the 07.30 train was packed allready when it got to my station, and we are 30 mins out of the city, so quite a few stations to pick up at still.People ended up standing up the aisles, and these are long trains with about 8 or 9 carriages and the trains run every 4 mins. Mind you it only costs the equivallent of 5 pounds for a return journey so it is very well used. On Fri I met Steve after work and we went for a drink on the South bank, it was chilly but the bar had the patio heaters on so was a nice environment overlooking the river at dusk (5.30 now) on a lovely Autumnal evening.

The weather is definitely changing now, getting quite cool at night. Last night was the coldest night so far, falling to 6 degrees. The day temp is about 17 degrees and it is dark at 6pm now, so depressing. The UGG boots are back out of storage now and the Winter doona (duvet) is on, Aussie houses are not made for Winter and get cold, though there is some progress, the government have introduce a new energy efficiency program where all new houses from next month have to have insulation and double glazing! Our garden shed at home is better built than some of these houses here , and that’s no joke!!

Steve is changing jobs from next week, he is staying with Fujitsu but moving onto a big government contract they have just signed for 5 years and will be working as the lead enterprise architect. He will be working from a different location, more into the central business district in the city and the job will be more in line with the job he was doing in the UK before we left, I think he is looking forward to the change. There are lots of jobs advertised for other companies but if he moved the new company would have to take over the sponsorship of our visa, so we’ll see how this goes first.

Ellie is doing well and has adjusted well to her diet and her injections! Sam is recovering well from his surgery, needs 3 months of physio now but mobile again now, and Tom got home ok and is back to his studies and Xena is well. She knows what time the possum walks along the fence every evening and watches it through the window, then barks at it when it has gone -daft dog!!

Can you believe that it was a year ago that the shipping container arrived and all our worldly goods started their journey to the other side of the world! I have just been reading the first posts on the blog and it brings all the memories back, including the lovely party my family hosted at my sisters, then saying goodbye to everyone. The time just seems to have passed by so quickly but I think that is because we have been so busy, life seems a lot more settled now and we know a lot more about the country and we can actually find our way around without needing the sat nav! It is great that you all still keep in touch and update me with all the changes in the UK and the gossip, I love hearing from everyone so don’t stop!

Tom is leaving on Easter Monday and will arrive back in Oxford Tuesday, ready for his new term. That’s the day Sam goes into hospital for his knee surgery so he will be on crutches for a while.

We have been out every weekend showing Tom more of Melbourne. We went down to the Great Ocean Road for 4 days last Friday. It is a lovely drive along the ocean (well part of it is!), with some stunning sandstone rock formations and cliffs, very dramatic, especially when the sun sets against them. We walked through a tropical rain forest with trees 70 ft tall and tree ferns 10 foot tall with stunning waterfalls, really felt like you were in the jungle! Not so keen on the drive up there there, single track roads with hairpin bends at every turn, we did encounter a few cars coming the other way which was when I closed my eyes and held my breath! Lucky I wasn’t driving then! We saw some koala’s up in the trees and one on the ground which just ran and hid behind a tree when it saw us, funny little things but so cute. Whilst we were in the car watching the koala a kangaroo bounced straight in front of the car, the rest were just laying down in the sun, they don’t do much until dusk apparently. The beaches along the great ocean road are stunning and have great waves for surfing. We called at Bells beach on the way home and they were just setting up for the surfing world championships,the waves were amazing and it is on TV at the moment.(Will put some pics on Flickr)

Steve & Tom really enjoyed the granprix, there was a lot going on also including black hawk helicopters doing manoeuvers, an airbus A30 doing flybys, stunt motorbikes and sports cars doing there things to! The race itself was so noisey with the roar of the cars that the spectators have to use ear plugs, they phoned Sam on his mobile (which was 07.00 UK time) so he could hear the roar of the cars, but i dont think he was impressed!! We went back to the grandprix circuit the following weekend as it was still all set up and you can drive around the course, but it really is not that much fun when you have to stick to the speed limit!  Steve has also taken Tom to see an Aussie rules footie match , one of the teams that was playing was Collingwood. They won the premiership last year and are known as the pies because their kit is black and white like a Magpie, but their fans are known to be,  shall we say –  a bit rough, so it made for an entertaining few hours with the things the fans were shouting and doing! There are a lot of older people that go to the matches to, they can be worse than the younger ones! We went shopping yesterday and Tom thought it would be fun to buy a Collingwood top to take home as he has a few Aussie  friends back at Oxford and they would be aghast that he would support the pies, so we were in a shop trying a top on and a few people walked past on different occasions ans shouted ‘go pies’ at him! It was so funny, he couldn’t get it off quick enough, I think it is like a cult!!  They have also been to watch the Storm rugby league and The Comedy Club with they guys from Ste’s work to watch Steven K Amos and yesterday we went down to the peninsula to look around the quarentine station, where all the ships docked in the 1840’s  onwards. Sorrento and Portsea are also down there and were beautiful, it was very much like a Riviera, with all the yachts dotted around the ocean, but it is a millionaires haven, gorgeous never the less.

The weather is still good, temperatures this week have been 20 – 24 degrees, occasionally 18 deg and a bit of rain, but a good forecast for the Easter weekend of 24 – 25. It is dark now at 6.15 which I hate, really cant stand Winter! It is strange having Easter with no daffodils or bluebells, at least they have Easter eggs! Yesterday was Good Friday and everything closed, not even DIY shops were open, no local cafes, nothing in the city – so strange, we went to get a takeaway as we were late getting home and there was only one open in the whole area! We have a 5 day break as it is ANZAC day on Tuesday, which is a public holiday to commemorate all the fallen Aussie and New Zealand soldiers during the wars. At least the shops are open over the rest of the break, but can only open after 1pm on ANZAC day. We are off to the city today to have a look around the memorial, do a river cruise and get dinner before Tom goes home, Ellie is back at school  28th April and will be in her Winter uniform, her school skirt has just cost me $120 dollars, so expensive but they are wool and quality, but have to be hand washed – what a pain! Ellie will also have to watch what she eats now as she has to have a wheat free diet and cant eat certain other foods as she has Fructose intolerance, explains why she has not been well for the past 5 years, and she also has pernicious anaemia so needs injections every 12 weeks, I hope that there is nothing else!!