SNAP may 1995 - feb 2007

well i was busy with rhona and rob last week but i will post all about that later. today i went on bebo to find that snaps new owner has set up a site for him. sadly some not so very nice person ran my baby over on the 21/2/07. needless to say we are all devastated, we loved that cat and had him since he was six weeks old. we would have taken him to oz with us if we thought that he was strong enough for the flight and quarantine but being 12 years old we didnt think so. maybe in hind sight we should have just chanced it!!!! from what i have been told snap has had a very happy last 8 months, lost weight, been with other animals and even been outside. so why do i feel guilty???

sunday adventures with rhona and rob

well this weekend we went exploring with rhona and rob who have come to perth on their way round a whistle stop tour of australia. we took them to whiteman park for a bbq lunch with barb, gordon and eden. then we went into caversham wildlife park which is in the park. it was fab. we got to touch and feed some of the animals and needless to say murrae got real up close and personal where he could!!!!!

last weekend, australia day, picnics and back to school!!!!

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  well last weekend was australia day weekend, we decided that we werent brave enough to do the city thing all day so off we went to city beach, it was bloody hot, i think it topped at 43 degrees!!!!!! after a day of splashing around and laying in the sun we came home showered and braved the train in to the city to see the skyworks show. we were very surprised at how easy it was to get a good spot to relax and watch the fireworks. they were fantastic, the best firework display that we have ever been to. it was a very emotional atmosphere and i was surprised to start to feel emotions normally kept for new year!!! i didnt cry this new year and it didnt really feel like new year. here on australia day, everyone was singing waltzing matilda, the national anthem and of course the obligitory aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi! it was very odd knowing that we were the outsiders.
  

then on saturday we met up with nat, dave, tina, steve and joe. it was the day before tina and steves sad departure home. we went to point walter on the swan river (the site of our first aussie bbq). it was evening time, still very hot but not sunny. we just sat around chatting and looking at the cockateels and then steve and dave too the kids to the spit to fish. the kids had fun, joe got drunk and nat and i pissed ourselves laughing at her. we finished it off by sitting in the dark watching the spectacular lightening show. it was still bloody hot!!!!!!

then today it was the big one for murrae. first day at the big school!!!!!!!! he didnt sleep well last night and he looked decidedly pensive as he headed out the door with stevi to get the school bus!!! i hope he manages to settle down and begin to enjoy the experience. although i can sympathise with him i remember the dreaded first day too!!!!!

skool holidays

well this week i have been back at work again and nat, tina and steve have kindly entertained my kids!! off they went to rottnest island AND nat was even on time to pick them up!!!! in fact she was 2 mins EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now i know that some of you would be thinking rubbish nats never early for anything but credit where credit is due!!!! i was soooooo jealous, i had to work and they are off on the ferry to the beautiful island to snorkle and shop!! steve even bought the kids fishing rods, stevi of course getting the pink one!!!!!!! much to my surprise they loved fishing even stevi!!!! she of course didnt do the holding the fish thing tho, but as you can see murrae did. he has now decided that he doesnt want to be a vet he wants to be a professional fisherman! tomorrow is australia day, its a public holiday and everyone and their dog heads to the perth foreshore of the river swan to watch the skyworks fireworks show. now i have heard that the display is beautiful and the atmosphere brilliant but nearly everyone i have talked to has either been beaten up or mugged personally or knows of someone who has. so we have decided to do the decent thing and hit the beach to soak up the expected 40 deg temp and then hopefully, if i am not too late to book, off on the fast ferry from hillarys around the coast line and perfect views of the fireworks! wish me luck!!!!

lazy sundays

well this week its been back to semi normality, i say semi cos the kids are still on bloody holiday!!! 31st jan before they go back!!! michael and i however have been back at work. i did 3 dayshifts and two nightshifts. i finished this morning at 7.30am. this is my only day off and i am back on nights mon thru to thurs. michael decided that we were going to have a lazy day and just lounge around on the beach. stevi decided that she didnt want to come and mikey is still not going ANYWHERE with me in case i get drunk!!!! just wait til hes 18 and rolling in pissed!!! so murrae grabbed his boogie board and off we went. as you can see from the pics hes really getting the hang of it. we had a whale of the time messing around in the ocean and topping up our already fabulous tans. this is the life!!!! so hurry up peoples and get flights booked, we only have room for two at a time tho!!!!

new years

well for the 1st time in about 18 years (apart from when i have been pregnant) that we have been kid free!!! what did we do???? nothing!!! thats what!!!! we ended up waiting all afternoon for stevi to decide what she was doing? we ended up in sizzlers for a meal and then dropping her off at her friends. i wanted to go and watch the sunset on the beach but michael decided that the car needed washing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we spent our new year on the beach at scarborough wandering along the prom speaking to my aunt and uncle from scotland trying to explain that it was only 9pm!!! then we went along to city beach and was met by heaps of families that had been there all afternoon waiting for the new year! as we were without alcohol and food we headed home. i was pleased to find that my dad was on msn!!! i was talking cyber talk with my daddy when the clock changed to 1st of jan 2007!! i had to wake michael up to celebrate the new year and then we were in bed by 12.30am. the next day we visited our friends barb and gordon where i proceeded to get shit faced and my children have decided that they dont want to come out with me again#!!!! oh well nothing changes!!!!!!!!!!!! my advice to them is get a life!! i only get drunk once in a while cos in this circumstance quality is better than quantity!!! on a more sober note this festive season has brung some sad shite! michaels gran died before christmas and then one of my friends in aberdeen died from breast cancer. heather was an inspiration to many. she kept me going when things got rough even tho she was having mega crap in her life. she was distraught when i left and i realise now that she knew that i would never see her again. in my mind she was a fighter and although i knew her prognosis was not good i trusted in her faith and thought that she would beat it finally! how sadly i was mistaken! she was a wonderful person who meant alot to me. its soooooo not right, she didnt smoke, drink, a vegetarian and a true christian! what does anyone have to do to escape the disease!! my only consolation is that there is something better and bigger than this life and that she was too important to waste here!! my heart goes out to her family at this really crap time! on a lighter note nats mum and partner have arrived in perth!!! wooooo hoooooo!!! some link with the uk!!!!!!! we have endevoured to provide them with entertainment since their arrival!!!! i went on a wine cruise on friday and much to my kids disgust didnt get shitfaced!!! so much easier to be little shits when they think their mothers a drunk!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a lovely day, cruising along the river at a lesuirely pace drinking (slowly) luverrrrlllly wine!!! sat we met for dinner and a few drinks and then today we headed to hillarys marina for the aquarium! except we didnt make the aquarium!!! lunch was late and we just ended up strolling along the coast. so when i am back to work tomorrow nat, sparkle and steve will be entertaining my youngest two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!