christmas day

well its past! christmas day is over! i have posted some pics of our first aussie christmas. the kids woke us at 7am!!! i had thought that since they are a little bit older that i'd get a lie in????? once all the presents were open and they had all sung their little hearts out on singstar, we headed to the beach. it was packed, there were people everywhere! some were just having a short visit but there were some that were obviously there for the day. little beach tents, gazebos, and of course the other aussie must have the esky!! thats a cool box to you and me! the kids were straight in the water, except mikey cos he had done his hair!!!! i decided that since we 'STOLE' phyllis and stuarts children!!!, we would build a sand man!!! no snow anywhere around so we used sand!! afterwards we headed home for showers and off to dave and mechelles for lunch. the kids had burgers and steak!!! we had cray fish, oysters, chilli mussells and prawns! i am still a little surprised at myself cos i tasted and ate all of it!!!! the kids spent the day in the pool and after we had eaten the kids were replaced by the adults, there was much throwing each other around and up on shoulders. the kids ended up in the garage singing on singstar helped by a few of the adults!!!!! by the end of the night, the kids were tired, adults boozy and it was off to bed. unfortunately i am working this afternoon so i dont get to do the whole sales shopping but i am sure stevi will shop hard enough for both of us!!!

new friends

not much has happened this week. the kids are on holiday for 8 weeks and its hot hot hot!!!! last sunday we went to our friends barb and gordons. michael has been helping renovate their house and on sunday we all went up for a bbq and a few drinks. the kids were in and out of the pool and the spa. i even went into the pool for a little while!!! i have posted a couple of pics. gordon and baby eden in the spa, murrae and torry!! (the dog) in the pool and of course the gorgeous baby eden herself!!! she is the sweetest baby and i could just eat her!!!

i have a confession to make. its just over a week til christmas and i havent done a stick of shopping!!! its just not like its christmas!!! i cant get my head around it!! theres no rain, no snow and no dark nights!!! so i am very sorry to everyone who will receive their christmas presents and cards around february!!!!

murraes graduation

well this week has seen us reach another milestone with our children. murrae has now finished primary school and is off to the 'big' school after the holidays. they have graduation ceremonies here. off we went on wednesday to the school hall for a graduation dinner. we thought it would be food, presentation of the graduation certificates and then off. no, we were there for 3 and half hours. the meal was good tho considering we were in the school hall and the year 7's of last year served us at our tables. the head boy and girl did most of the compering and some of the kids took us through the history of this years year 7's school life. after dessert murrae was called upon to do a little speech, or so we thought!!!! here is what he had to say.

' in july 2006 i arrived in australia from aberdeen. i enrolled at doubleview primary and joined the year 7 class. i was so nervous i felt sick, but all i had to do was talk and everyone thought my accent was cool, so i was reassured and felt welcome.

when i first entered the class i say one table and about ten others around it and i was sitting the middle with james allan, a fellow brit. he was the first boy i met and he has the same likes as i do. the other classmates were equally great. when i met the teacher she was really nice to me. this school is so different from what i'd know, for example, this school has computers that work, my old one doesnt. this school has two huge ovals and my old school only had one. we have had some awesome excursions and incursions here.

coming to australia has been the greatest decision i made. back home i would be in torment going to high school but not here and without these special friends i'd be nowhere. i want to say a special thanks to my parents for giving me this chance. i want to thank you all for your wonderful listening and i hope you have a great night.'

there wasnt a dry eye in the house!!! and there was lots of cheering and clapping as he left the podium. my little boy is really popular and not with just the kids!!! the previous principle of the school was there too and he and murrae have never met but he came over and shook murraes hand and told him that he gave a great speech and well done! i dont think i have ever felt so proud of him as i did then!!

on friday afternoon while they were all supposed to be in school!! they were actually at one of the girls houses having a pool party, the teacher was even there!! when i went to pick him up i was met by 5 girls wailing please dont take murrae away!!! the kids were all really upset that this was the end of an era!! most of them had been together for 7 years and the newer ones had been accepted into their class well. i eventually managed to drag him away at 6pm!!! it was supposed to finish at 3pm!!

i have been questioning whether we'd done the right thing by the kids dragging them half way across the world but this answered my questions. we got his report card the same night and just after he started they had to do some state wide testing, i was really surprised. murrae is well above average, he exceeds the benchmark for the state and is up there with the kids who are going to high schools as part of the 'gifted and talented' scholarships!!! he has really benefited from the extra time at primary school. hope you enjoy the pics of him in his kilt, we hired it from a place in perth and it only cost $50, thats about £20!! and we got it from wednesday to saturday!!

rumours and nites out

well this week has been good and bad. i had my works night out on Saturday and had a ball. the pic is of me with my new dress on before i went out. we went for a meal but the restaurant double booked us with the pharmacy dept who had also booked for the same night!! we eventually got shared starters and pizza but by then we had demolished all our bring your own wine and were past eating!!! a good time was had by all anyway i think. that was the good! now the bad is that apparently there is a rumour going round cornhill that mikey hates his new life here and is coming home!!! according to him this is all crap but it must have started somewhere!! to anyone who is reading this and started this rumour, THANKS for starting a riot in our house. mikey assures me that he is happy here and intends staying.

murraes post

Hi folks its Murrae,

this story starts with mum waking me up at 05:00 Monday and dad driving us to the east perth station. i was on the train for 6 hours listening to music and watching movies, kind of boring but ok. when we arrived at kalgoorlie it was boiling. at camp i had to make up my bed and then i played games.the two boys you see are james and harry my friends. for supper i had beef which was really hard to chew. i had to do a chore as a wash wiper. on tuesday i had breakfast and walked down hannan street, now patty hannan was the first australian to ever record finding gold. then we (meaning my school and i) went to kal museum. the pic of the huge rig thing was moved to the museum for show and i was up there. in the museum i saw all kinds of things like a old bank. for lunch we went to hannan park and i talked to cockatoo it can say scratch scratch and hello .after lunch we saw kcgm its the mining company and the super pit. We came back to camp, had Aboriginal studies and then had supper we had macaroni, then went wall climbing, i hate it. bed time. wednesday we had breaky and we played miner gambling as you can see we got fake money i lost it all. then we walked up mt charlotte and saw the super pit close up. we saw the goatcher curtain(painting) and down a mine shaft from a hotel. you see the miners stole gold using these tunnels on weekends. we had lunch at the mining hall of fame and guess what i got? gold! I had supper and quiz night. thursday,breakfast,prospecting got more gold,bbq.we had tour of coolgardie near kal. when we got back to camp we had supper and went swimming, had our skits(small play)then, lights out. friday had breakfast at 5.30 am and got the train back here. dad took me to pick up mum from work. i hope you enjoy my report for the blog. see ya.

the red bull air race

hey folks, not been up to much but on sunday we went to see the red bull air race. it would have been great except we thought it would be a good idea to go to kings park to see it!!! yes us and 150,000 other people!!! we had a good view of the river and of the city but the planes were dust specks in the distance. we did think of moving down to the south perth shore but we could see the freeway from the park and it was nose to tail all the way down!! so we did what we should have done in the first place....... went home and watched it on the telly!!!!!!! well i did!! michael and stevi promptly fell asleep!!! murrae went to camp yesterday, off to kalgoorlie prospecting for gold!! it was an early start, up at 5 to get him to the station for 6.30. now had we known that it would take us only 10 minutes to get there we would have gotten up a little later!!! we arrived at the station at 5.55 and the train didnt actually leave til 7.15!! he was all smiles til it was time to leave us!! there were tears in his eyes as he gave us a last hug, once on the train he was ok as long as he didnt look out the window at us!!!! what can i say i have a real mummys boy there!!! will up date and post some of his pics when he comes home on friday!!!!

birthdays and new pets!!

this week i havent done much, we have been trying to recover our energy from the busy weekend away we had. i did however go out on friday night with girls from work and ended up getting bitten to buggery!!! and no surprise but i am allergic to mossie bites, i have 10 in total. 3 on the soles of my feet and couldnt walk yesterday!!! i have one on my upper arm thats the size of a tennis ball!! its not good. they are itchy and sore!! i can walk today so thats a weight off my mind, i was shitting myself that i wouldnt be able to work on monday!!! today they are more itchy than sore so

its a start to recovery!!! the pics are of my birthday pressies sent from home and my bag from nat and joe and my pink i-pod from michael and the kids! i waited for ages for my parcel from home and was disappointed when day after day it wasnt here!!! i even got excited when we got a ticket from the post office telling us to pick up a parcel. alas no it wasnt for me. murrae won a competition and it was his parcel of prizes!!! i have never been so gutted!!!!! it did arrive in time for my weekend away however and the cocket hat t shirt and my card from morgan made my day!!!!! the other pic is of a new pet we found on the back wall this morning!!! its so much better than finding the crappy horrible creepy crawlies of aberdeen!!!!

waroona dam

this weekend we had the time of our lives. we went to waroona dam, its man made and the lake is lake navarino. its beautiful. we took nearly 3 hours to drive there and have to admit that i didnt think we were ever going to get there!!! there were storms forecast for the weekend and i did wonder what kind of weekend it was going to be. storms?? what storms?? apparently there were in perth but since we were 3hours inland to the south west of perth it seemed to miss us. the weather was beautiful all weekend. mikey was water ski-ing, murrae rowed the dingys, stevi spotted on the boats for the skiers and michael and i went biscuiting! i have never been so scared in all of my life!! inflatable rings being pulled behind a speed boat with me on it??!!!! i never thought i would ever do anything like that but considering that everyone else was either ski-ing, wake boarding or on the biscuits i felt a bit of an idiot just standing there. the buscuits seemed the easiest option!!??? maybe next time i will try water ski-ing??!!! on friday we arrived, unpacked and got into some serious drinking. there were around 20 odd couples plus respective children. we had a real camp fire and a guitar! what else could you ask for? the stars were out and the kids were toasting marshmallows on the fire. saturday it was up, breakfast and away to the lake. murrae shared his breakfast with the friendly parrots that came to visit. saturday night was back from the lake, bbq and more booze! one of the guys that was with us decided at 1am that it would be a good idea to climb the tree next to the campfire. after falling off a couple of times he finally managed it but the tree didnt like it and snapped, throwing jeff to the ground! it was so funny but scary at the same time. he just got up and walked away laughing. however, no one was laughing in the morning when jeff appeared all bandaged up and hobbling off to get his foot xrayed! looks like he broke his foot as well as the tree!!! i couldnt have hoped for any better way to spend our 18th wedding anniversay, if we hadnt gone away michael would have been working and i would have been out on the piss with my friends, at midnight on friday, everyone toasted our anniversary and wished me a happy belated birthday. i will take pics of all my cards and pressies later this week. thanks folks for everything that was sent, its much appreciated!!! love you all lots. xxxxxx

new car

well today i had a friend, yes!! a friend!!!over, her name is barbara and she is lovely. shes michaels friends wife. they have a gorgeous baby called eden. we had coffee and talked babies!! then michael and i went and bought a new car. we have purchased a second hand mitsubishi delica spacegear. its a 4 x 4 8 seater. its luverly!!! michael is also pleased as he kind of lost faith in the hyundai when the clutch went for the second time!!! we paid $16000 for it and got $3000 as a trade in for the hyundai. thats about £6700 to pay and £1250 for a trade in. AND we are going to waroona dam for the weekend at the end of the month. a weekend by the lake lots of bbq and booze once again!! cant wait cos thats my birthday weekend and our 18th wedding anniversary. guess this means its coming to summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! trying to get money out of the bank is a nightmare here. they couldnt give us cash and we ended up having to get a bankers cheque and we had to give them notice! and its our bloody money!!!! nat was right WA does stand for wait a while!!!!

weekend off

well this is my weekend off and guess what? i have no one to do anything with!!! spoke to my chummy on the phone today and shes in the same boat! bugger!!! if only she would move over here too then we'd be made!!!! seriously tho, we went our usual food shopping today, it gets more expensive every bloody week! this week it was $250! god knows why it keeps going up!!! we then went shopping for undies! i needed to get white vests to wear under my uniform cos i have lost a little weight in the 12 weeks that i have been waiting for them to be delivered!!! mikey is off to a bbq with his work mates so god knows what time and what state he will be in when he gets home! we decided to have our own bbq so for only the 2nd time since we bought it we had bbq for supper whilst it was still light outside!! the only other time we have managed that was last weekend!! i have posted a couple of photos from last week. murrae went to rottnest island on tuesday with his friend, the cycled for miles!! his poor little bum and leggies were in agony the next day!! his friends dad took a photo of him with a quoka so hopefully he will email it on to me and i can post it on here. we are still waiting for our crate to be delivered!!! what are they doing with it!!! its been in perth for nearly a month and we are still waiting!! customs and quarantine still have it!!!! as you can see from the pics stevi has dyed her hair again!!!!! she was moaning about her roots being brown and her hair blonde so i streaked it brown, put a little more than i bargained for in tho!! never mind it stopped her moaning for all of 5 mins!!! last sunday much to her disgust we trailed them into the city to go to the museum! michael, murrae and i found it interesting but as per usual her face was on! its a huge museum there are loads of different things in it. from stuffed animals to old toys and shoes, part of it is in the old perth gaol but there wasnt much stuff from that. i was hoping to see old hanging places etc!!! it was still interesting tho! not sure what we are up to tomorrow but as per usual the weather forecast is brilliant!!!!! i DO NOT miss the cold wet dreich stuff of home!!!!

working week

well this week we havent done much cos we've all been working. stevi has been babysitting for murrae as its the school holidays. he had a sleep over at his friends house so she was given a break for a morning. on the public holiday we went to the perth royal show. its a bit like the highland games but without the games!!! the actual event was centred around agricultural stuff. it originated from when the farmers used to bring their prize bulls etc into town for showing so there were lots of animals to see. there was a dog show, chicken washing??? and horses etc. the main arena had lots of events, the only one we saw was cars jumping ramps. we spent most of the day dodging the crowds, swearing under our breaths at people who stopped in the middle of the walk way to talk to friends thus blocking it completely!!! there were lots of amusements but by the time we found our way to them i'd had enough and wanted home!! the kids bought show bags, really like huge lucky bags with lots of tat in them. we got a coca cola one which contained lots of sweets, coke of course and a black cord beanbag with coca cola blazoned along the side. stevi didnt come with us as she had a prior arrangement to hit the beach with her friends. now i even stopped off a the chemist to buy her sun screen but the silly girl forgot that her back was also exposed!!! she badly burnt it and couldnt wear a bra for 3 days!!! its all peeling off now and looks disgusting, the new skin underneath is even burnt!!!! i have added a couple of photos of her and murrae at the beach last monday, murrae on his new boogie board and stevi wrapped in her towel! i have also added a couple of photos of the city, we visited it a couple of weeks ago and there is a little alleyway with quaint old fashioned shop fronts. its called london court and looks really out of place amongst the skyscrapers but its cute all the same!!!!! michael and i are on our only day off this week so we are off to explore some of the culture that perth has to offer!!!!

mikeys new t shirt and other things

well this weekend we have been busy little socialites. friday was 29 degrees and everyone and their dog were at the beach, me, michael and mikey were however at work! dave and mechelle decided they were having a poolside bbq and kindly invited us round. i scurried home from work, jumped into the shower and readied myself for a nice relaxing evening. off we travelled round the corner
and up the hill. the kids were stripped off and in the pool before my first drink was in my eager little hands. here we see murrae and stevi having fun in the pool. murrae was in there til gone 9pm and must have been freezing. he is however beginning to swim like a little fishy. stevi paddled around and finally managed to swim across the pool under water. hopefully this means that shes nearly there for the real deal!!! mikey didnt stay as he had a prior engagement with his work mates and another bbq. he did as you can see have time for a quick beer. do you like his new t shirt??? his neck and arms are almost black but alas the chest and back are still aberdeen white. we ate, we drank and we were merry, well i was. that will be the very early morning, the fact that i dont get out much, oh and the bottle of smirnoff i managed to get over my throat!!!! dont remember much about getting home but apparently i was giggling like a school kid but no one knew what at!!! receipe for hangover yesterday! no!! up bright and early putting washing on tidying up etc!!! bbq no 2!!!! off we go to clint and chris mansion! what a house! its gorgeous. 3 storey high, all balconies and mezzanines!!! in the theatre room we all settled down to watch the GRAND FINAL! its an aussie rules league final thing and is the highlight of this time of year! loads of hype etc. the WA team won by one point. enter lots of screaming and running round the garden! and that was just the neighbours. it was like party central in perth last night. every street had parties going on! we ate some more and then the men settled down to some serious poker playing! now mikey and michael have never played before, mikey is a natural!!! he loves it!! and the little bugger wins!!!!! 8 hours later they are all still playing and chris and mechelle have joined the game!!! i didnt,, me being thick like still doesnt understand the rules!!!!! will have to get mikey to teach me!! think murrae probably has the jist of it too!!! apart from mikey there were 7 kids there also and i would bet that they could all play a mean hand of poker!!!!! guess what the story of the holidays will be about???? 'my dad and his friends taught me how to play poker whilst drinking vast amounts of alcohol!!!!'. now today i am not sure what we are up to but its the queens birthday on monday so its a holiday so maybe we will just relax and recharge after our couple of days on the booze and bbq cruise. then its off to the perth royal show on monday!!!! will update as it happens folks!!!!

this week

well folks this week i seem to have gotten over my homesickness. i havent been anywhere or done anything so i dont have much to write. this is my 5 day week at work so there is not much else going on. however, this weekend is my 4 day off thingy!! its also a public holiday on monday something to do with the queens birthday????? the perth royal show is on all week next week cos its the kids school holidays. i have no idea what its all about but apparently everyone has to go! think there are animals etc, lots of competitions do to with the animals etc. there are also rides so i think its a mix of something like the highland games. the weather here is getting better, its really sunny but not too hot although the weather forecast is for it to be 29 degrees on friday and guess what i am working!!!!!!!! hope it lasts over the weekend, michael is also off on monday so we can at least spend some time together as a family. if the weather holds up then we might manage to take murrae to the beach to try out his new boogie board. i will try and take some new pics for you to see. our crate has arrived in perth and is through quarantine so we just have to wait for it to clear customs then we will have the rest of our stuff!!!! yay!!! will be able to get my printer and scanner set up. murrae got his school photos and they are really good. we will scan them on to the computer so you can all see him. it was taken on his 12th birthday which worked out quite well. well folks time to shower and make lunch before i head off to work. love yas. xxxx

BLOODY FOOL, HOW UNPROFESSIONAL!!!!

Well it finally hit me fair and square right in the face!!! i am definitely homesick. i woke up yesterday morning all prepared for my usual late shift ritual, tea and fag, shower, TV and then off to travel. Yeah but stupidly i put on the TV just in time to see steve urwins daughter bindy reading her eulogy(is that how you spell it?) suddenly the heavens opened and i was crying like a baby!!! i turned the tv off jumped into the shower but it just wouldnt bloody stop!!! i bubbled like an idiot all the way to work. i managed to compose myself to get started but then a patients wife said 'are you ok? you look a little down today' well it bloody started again!!!!! HOW UNPROFESSIONAL! luckily the woman is from england and has only been here for a few years so she totally understood. she took me in her arms and gave me a much needed cuddle. now the man is very ill and i am supposed to be supporting them but here i am crying like a baby in a strangers arms!!!!! not a good look for work, all foundation and mascara streaked with red swollen eyes!!!! now its not that i dont love our new lives over here, its beautiful, work is great and we love it but we sooooooooooooooooooooo miss our family! you know the saying you never know what you've got til its gone???? well there is no more just jumping in the car and five minutes later we are in dads drinking tea. its a 19 hour flight at best now!!! and a lot bloody more expensive than the petrol from cornhill to sheddocksley. no more do we get texts from kenny saying kettle on? no more would the kids like to come for the weekend? from phyllis and stuart. no seeing mark, jackie and the kids on a sunday, no mega text messages from my chummy saying you fancy lunch at murdos or fancy the bells! in fact the kids seem to have settled better than me! i thought i had it all sussed, managed to keep the tears to a minimum when leaving, just didnt let myself think of the distance. well we've all got mobiles and internet wi web cams havent we??????!!!!!! thank god for mobiles! i text dad cos i needed some contact and he sent me a lovely reply, telling me how proud he is of me and michael, that he misses us too and that he will see us next year. i have never loved a text message more as i did then. sitting in the smoking pergola at work sobbing like a fool!!! well i suppose the pretence is finally up, i do have a heart, sorry to disappoint those who were betting it was a swinging brick!!!!

my crazy???!!!!! weekend

well people whilst all my friends at home were out on the piss i was having a quiet weekend. saturday we went and registered for medicare, its the oz equivilant to the nhs, it still costs to see the doctor (which i found out last week!) $40-$50 and then $22 on top for my antibiotics but you can claim some of it back. then we did our weekly shop, no running to asda on a sunday night when its quiet for us now, everything is shut on a sunday apart from bunnings (B&Q) and the markets. the markets sell mostly fruit and veg, chinese people here are like pakistanis in the UK!!! they are bloody everywhere!!!! i bought a new top and came home to get ready for my night out, however, at 7pm nat phoned from her sick bed, she had been throwing up all day and had only just woke up! so off to the bottle shop we went!!! two bottles of red wine and a couple of tequilla shots later!!!! on sunday we did a trial run from home to my work to michaels work. we did it so we could see if there was any reason why michael couldnt drop me off in the morning to save me a train ride and a 15 min walk to work. alas no, it takes 13 minutes from here to work in the car and 15 minutes from here to michaels but when put together it doesnt work. it takes 25 minutes from my work to michaels. in order for him to drop me off i would have to be at work 25 minutes early. now i know i said i like my job but not that much. so its a lift to the station and then the train and the dreaded 15 min up hill walk. now when on a late shift starting at 1pm its not a problem but at 6.40am its a killer. my leg muscles burn like buggery, this morning i almost thought f*** it i'm gonna be late cos my legs wouldnt go any faster. i made it just!!!!
we then hit bunnings with a passion, we bought plants, flowers and a lime and a orange tree!!! we spent the rest of the day potting and planting. we reseeded the grass as there are a couple of baldy patches and put down plenty of snail, slug and lawn beetle killer!!!!! i will rid my garden of these slimy creatures!!!!! i am very proud of my new garden, lets just hope that the flowers and trees grow!!!!! its my first attempt so i am not pinning my hopes on it!!!! i will take pics of the flowers and trees when it stops raining!!!!
so there you go folks that was my weekend would you believe it!!??? if it hadnt happened to me then i wouldnt!!!!! i still feel like i have missed out on something tho!! have had at least three messages from friends at home about their weekend and i am sooooooooooooooooo jealous!!!!! and to top it all celtic beat the dons!!!!! 1-0!!!! and we would have gone top!!!!!!

and so to bbqs

this was our first bbq in australia. it was nats birthday weekend. those of you who dont look at nats blog will have missed the pics. this is one of the free bbqs in australia. they are not like the real ones we have back home where you have to light coals and scorch all food black beyond recognition, they are basically gas hotplates. notice the glass of wine (what you dont see is michaels beer!) the other one is of me joe and nat by the river, we were having a cig. if you think smokers are blacklisted in the uk then its nothing compared to here. we are treated like lepers!! we decided that since there were lots of children around that the safest place was right by the water whilst having a paddle. the final photo which is not great cos of my incompetence in photography is of stevi and murrae by the indian ocean at city beach at sunset. the weekend weather here for this weekend is storms and rain so no bbqs this weekend. our new bbq is sitting rather lonely looking in the back garden. took some photos last sunday as we had our first home bbq in the dark. i even made the kids sit outside with jackets on so that they felt like home!!!!
look it even looks cold and wintery!!!!!!

new things

well this week mikey went water skiing, jet skiing and wake boarding. he was invited on monday night but by tuesday morning he had begun to have some doubts, he woke and put his head around the patio doors saying 'i'm not sure i want to go now'! i told him to suck it up and get organised, he could just go and do it this time and if he didnt like it then he didnt have to go again. he arrived home around 8pm hardly able to walk, every muscle in his puny little body hurt like hell!! he enjoyed it and now wants a jet ski for christmas!!! (yeah son, just the one?!)

murrae is now 12 and had his first aussie birthday sleep over. except they didnt bloody sleep!!! they woke stevi at 2am and 5am, and mikey at 4.30am. now i would say that that is living dangerously since mikey was getting picked up for work at 6.30am!!!!! however, the kids had a great time eating junk food and playing the ps2. yesterday was like murrae had a hangover, his eyes were blood shot and he didnt say a word for hours. we went food shopping (we have to cos nothing is open on a sunday and shuts at 5pm weekdays) and came home and put him to bed for a nap!

its fathers day here today, happy fathers day dad (again). for the first time ever michael has been given school made card and present. he is chuffed, in scotland they dont do it cos not all the kids have fathers around, never realised how politically correct the british are til we got away!!!

not sure what we are going to do today cos last weekends bbq was something that will be difficult to top, its sunny today but not the 27 degrees it was last weekend. murrae did want to go to city beach for another but alas there is a chill in the wind. it is still taking a bit of getting used to i am still wanting to go mad and not miss the sun but have to keep reminding myself that it will be there the next day and the next and the next...........!! it was the 1st day of spring on friday so roll on summer time!!! any of you thinking of visiting and are looking for the best weather best do it between september and may. july and august are the coldest wettest months. christmas of course is the height of summer, now thats going to be novel for more than one reason. the ward that i work in will be closing for christmas so for the 1st time in 4 years i will be at home with my family!!! cant wait!!!!

winter my a..e!

apparently its winter in australia?! this is the sky yesterday, i spent the morning sitting in the garden topping up my tan. because there is no ozone layer it gets bloody hot bloody quick. needless to say today is pissing down rain!!! its still not cold but i was hoping for both of my days off to have good weather. last night we went to the theatre, we saw a musical type play about the eurovision song contest. it was fab very interactive. there were 12 acts from various european countries, each act had a little something from previous years contests. iceland was like bjork, britain was like gemini (apparently they were pissed when they competed), and greece was a nana miskouri type. at the end we had to vote to who we thought should win. last night russia won, their act was a boy band type act. with the music a bit backstreet boys. each section of the audience is allocated a country to support, we were estonia. their act unfortunately was a gay cowboy act but very funny. it was good fun and well worth the $55 each to see it. it was all in aid of nats 30th birthday and she got the actors after the show to sign her estonian flag!!! she is such a groupie!!!!! it was performed by australian actors so sorry it wont be touring the uk. but if by any chance that it does we would highly recommend it.