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.

We have sofas!!!!!!

well at long last we have sofas!! Was getting fed up of sitting on the cheap ikea chairs. Its nice to have real seats to sit on! Finally i can sit on the sofa and fall asleep in michaels lap! the big one is a sofa bed so there is somewhere for our mega!!???? amounts of visitors we are going to have!! mmm. will wait and see just how many people actually get here! notice that we have ended up buying yet another hyundai!!! we almost bought one exactly the same colour as our old one!!!! Surprisingly enough the colour of this one on the documents is 'pink'!!!! i find it quite amusing at the thought of Michael driving around in a pink car!!!!! he states that its cherry red!!!???? Yes ok but i know what the documents say!!!

just a well the sofas came to day i have the hangover from hell. Went to works fundraiser cheese and wine night, it was good and the wine was lovely but you know me, its just never enough!!! Ended up in town with Nat and got blootered. she was talking to some aboriginal in the park and i got fed up waiting so just wandered off!!! Ended up walking around bubbling cos i didnt know where i was. i lost my phone so i couldnt even phone michael, not that i would have been able to remember the phone number!!! finally got a taxi and got home around 4.30am. feel like a complete arsehole the day like!! its not big and not clever to get bladdered in a strange city!!!! so ended up having to go and buy yet another new phone today! when will i learn??? at least no one knows me and the girls at work didnt come into town so they dont know what an arse i made of myself!!!! but i am sure there will be plenty time for me to do that again!!!!!

the new bikes

we got our new bikes today! now bearing in mind that i havent ridden a bike for about 20 years let me tell you it was rather entertaining!!! it was good fun tho. i will have to slowly build up my stamina tho was knackered just riding it back from the shop and its only a 15 min WALK away!!! murrae almost got himself killed, the kid has no road sense! guess thats what comes of living at the edge of the school playing field where there is little or no traffic. we will have to watch him like a hawk. stevi and i were pulling out of a junction so he just followed mikey who was sailing a bit close to the wind! he didnt realise that the car was coming up behind him! kids under 12 can cycle on the pavement but thats it. AND it is a legal requirement that we have to wear helmets! bonnie!!!!!!. wont be cycling anywhere that i have to worry about the state of my hair!!!
michael has gone crazy, speeding around the courtyard and up and down the drive like a maniac, these pictures of him are titled 'bam on a bike' 1, 2 etc!! hopefully the rain will stay off at the weekend and we can cycle down along the beach as there are cycle paths, its all very busy here, people are out speed walking when i am on my way to work at 6 in the morning!!!! are these people mad!!!! sorry its taken so long between posts but whoever has the unsecured wireless connection rumbled us and cut us off so i have had to resort to dial up until our broadband is set up but that takes 10-14 days. notice the absence of single photos of me on my bike!!! dont think i will get away with that so will post single photos of the rest of us soon!!!!

glitz and glamour

well before you all get confused about my new life down under let me tell you that its not all GLITZ and GLAMOUR. its saturday night and i am on the computer. had to get michael to drive me to the bottle shop for a bottle of plonk to keep me sane. my one and only friend in oz couldnt make it out tonight so i am destined to sit regularly checking to see if there is anyone on msn!!! not that its a great chav cos i am knackered. michael was on the piss last night wetting the head of baby eden. he staggered home around 2.30am, pronounced he was fxxxed and fell into bed, wailing 'help me' when unfastening the buttons on his jeans proved just too much! he then fell totally unconscious. that was friday night! i was on the msn giving power of my lifeline (laptop) to my sister in law so that she could fix my webcam which had decided that it didnt want to work in oz! it got to 3 am and the snoring could be heard down the street and i was getting a little tired so it was off to bed for me. today was a total write off cos the hungover person just dozed on and off in one of the only two chairs in the house, much to the annoyance of the kids who wanted to be driven to A, B or C! i however, procured my place on my deck chair in the garden and worshipped the sun god, finished harry potter and the half blood prince (nat you never said it was dumbledore that died!!!") and every available magazine in the house. eventually michael and the kids emerged from the house and had a rather laughable game of piggy in the middle aussie rules of course. as per usual it ended in tears, murrae cos he couldnt win and stevi cos mikey threw the ball and it hit the tip of her fingers. time to shop for tea me thinks!!!!!!

the 'backie'

this is the view of the back of our house and our garden, its not very big but its fine for us. the path extends round the back of the house and into the garage. dad i will be depending on you to help me sort it out when you come over. i havent a clue about plants and flowers. i want to grow lemon, lime and orange trees and we did look at them at the weekend but michael hasnt got a clue either so he wasnt keen!!! there are some flowers in pots but i am buggered if i know what they are or how to look after them! the itinery of the house lists the plants as healthy and viable but i havent got a clue they could all be bloody weeds for all i know!!!!

the ootside of oor hoose

this is the outside of our house. the first one is the view of the house from the edge of the courtyard at the top of the drive. the 2nd is reverse, the courtyard from the house and finally the drive with the bowling green in the distance, the white fence down the side is our garden.

and the princess!!

and here she is!! she doesnt mind the uniform or the actual school but hates the bus home. its really rowdy and there are not enough seats. there is nothing we can do about it she has to get the school bus theres not a public service from the school to our house. she could walk it in about 30mins but theres not a hope in hell of that happening!!! we have also offered her a bike but thats a no too!!! i was a good girl today walked to the shopping centre in the next suburb. its like the trinity centre but with supermarkets too. it took me 20mins to walk it and i was intending taking the bus back but i chickened out and walked back too. i took a different route as the way there was all up and down hill. i walked along scarborough beach road looking at all the pretty houses. it took a little longer but i was dawdling and it basically flat!!!! if i can do that a couple of times a week then thats my exercise!!!!

oor hoose 2

well this is the rest of our house. stevis room, our room and the utility room. i will take photos outside of the front and back when its stopped raining and the wind has stopped blowing!!!!!!

oor hoose

these are some pictures of our house. notice the absence of tvs in the kids rooms and the suite in the living room. the kids are getting their tvs at the weekend and our suite is on order and will be here in about 4 weeks. this is our livingroom, dining room and kitchen area. its all in one big room on an open plan basis.