G'Day!

Welcome to our blog! It's our way both of keeping a record of getting to know our new home, and also of keeping everyone at home in touch with what we are doing.

Love Wendy, Andrew, George and Anna xxx

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And if you already have a google account - why not leave a comment today?

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Anna's birthday - move over Nigella...





Anna was 10 this week. I think the ages of our children are a constant cause of amazement to us. Is it really 10 years since I produced this child? And how old does that make me?!

Unfortunately Anna wasn't really well, and had to miss school on Thursday and Friday. She also had national tests (like SATs) so had to struggle through Tuesday and Wednesday before I could safely take her out of class. She was so under the weather that we decided she wasn't well enough to go to the school disco - which, as you can imagine, caused a certain amount of drama.

However, I found a way to placate her. We took a short shopping trip to the local 'Alfresco Emporium' - a wonderful shop full of home and kitchen wares - and suddenly I was channelling Nigella. By the time we left, we were the proud owners of a lovely white china raised cake stand, and even more gorgeously, a stand on which you display cupcakes. Along with pastel coloured cupcake cups (is that the technical term??), an icing set, and a job lot of colouring and cute things to decorate with.

Not having ever made a cupcake before in my life, this was something of a departure for me. I don't think I am known for my cake making prowess. In fact, if I was known for anything in my former English life with regards to cooking, it would probably be the fact that I was rarely capable of serving dessert once we got to that stage of a dinner party. Although there was, of course, the truly dreadful Iranian meal I once forced upon my dinner guests....all day in the kitchen slaving over lamb and saffron and all sort of spices to create something that tasted of cardboard and was served to at least one person who didn't eat lamb. Oh well...



So, on Friday night, instead of strutting her stuff at the disco, Anna helped me outdo Nigella making cupcakes and a chocolate meringue stack. You will see from the photo, that we did rather well. I was inordinately proud of my efforts, and I think that this may be my new hobby. Forget about team sports - let's just make cakes!! Anna's party friends also loved the cakes, and the making of charm bracelets which was the entertainment. Andrew and I didn't really enjoy the running about until 1am which was part of the sleepover element of the extravaganza, but after last year, it wasn't exactly unexpected!





Now all we have to do is wait for George's birthday in a couple of weeks. Do you think he would like some pastel decorated cupcakes at his party? Hmmm...didn't think so....

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Looking after your beaver?




I feel I have a duty to let you know about a series of adverts that are currently showing on tv over here for Kotex. As you will know from previous entries, the Australians are not afraid to call a spade a spade, and the media is happy to talk about all sorts of subjects and also use all sorts of words that just wouldn't be acceptable in the UK. But this one is so hilariously awful it has to be shared.

The first ad showed and attractive young woman out on the town, on the beach and out for lunch with her very good friend, a beaver. You watch the ad with no clue of what it is for, but with a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Then - just as you feared - at lunch the girl slides a gift across the table to the beaver which turns out to be tampons, with the tag line

'You've only got one (beaver presumably) so you better look after it'.

To be fair, there have been a number of complaints to the advertising standards board, but it seems that they are happy with everything, and the commercial is still being aired.

But now they have gone one further.

Today I have seen a new ad - a luxurious bathroom, soft sexy music and the camera pans round to a beaver. Who has just got out the bath. And is drying himself with....A SANITARY TOWEL.

It's not exactly Saatchi and Saatchi is it?

Monday, May 12, 2008

Anyone for Netball?



Our Saturdays here are mostly taken up with sporting activities. I have even been inspired to find a team sport for myself (presently only in the inspirational stage - but it's the thought that counts). Anna has a netball match in the morning, Andrew has a soccer match in the early afternoon, and then Anna has riding. In the summer we have to try to fit in cricket as well.

This weekend was no different, and I thought you might be interested to know how fanatical netball is here. Now, I know people do play netball in the UK, and some people are quite keen, but where Anna plays on a Saturday morning, there are 50 courts, all in use from 7.30am till the afternoon. When we get there for 9am matches, it is absolute chaos. You can't get anywhere near the place to park, and finding the court is usually a bit fraught. It's a good social occasion though, with lots of parents there and quite an atmosphere. All the teams have these special team dresses on - when I first saw one I thought they were absolutely hideous, but I'm kind of getting used to them now! You'll see what I mean from the photos! Anna loves it, as the team are all her friends from school (although it is not a school team), and they are doing pretty well. On Saturday they won 35 - 5, but to be fair, the other team only had 6 players.....



Interest in netball doesn't stop on the local courts though. Netball matches are shown live on the telly, and are advertised with shots of the players looking kind of sexy but terrifying. Can you imagine them showing netball live on the telly in the UK? Or any female sport? Don't think so..

Andrew is really enjoying playing soccer, and this week he scored a goal! Unfortunately I didn't see it, as I had skulked off to get a coffee at the nearest beach cafe. Oops. Speaking of which, George has finally started scoring goals at basketball. Not that I've seen any of them. The game is very fast you know. Ok...the first time I was receiving a very interesting bit of chat from one of the other mums, and the second time I was in the loo. Oops.



Mother's Day was lovely. Anna made me breakfast in bed, which was lovely, I got beautiful cards and gifts, and we went for a lovely walk along the coast, discovering a number of places I intend to return to when the whales start coming past our beaches to migrate north, as I'm sure they are great vantage points. It would have been nice if Anna could have endured the walk with a little less complaining, but if I concentrated very hard, I found that most of the time it was possible to zone out her whines of 'seriously, we have walked, like, waaaaay too far' etc etc....

Friday, May 9, 2008

Shop Girl




I expect you are all wondering how my first day as a shoe shop girl went....

Well, let me tell you that I think I am going to like selling shoes. I like shoes and I like people. It's fun, it's not stressful, and I get to wear great shoes. I can even get people to buy them - even though most pairs in the shop are between $200 and $400. All excellent.

However, my first day was not without stress.

First I will set the scene.

I have recently realised that my children are not taking enough responsibility for themselves - and I have also realised that this is largely mine and Andrew's own faults. While we were both working, we had an au pair, who along with us, made sure that the house was tidy, and that the children were where they were supposed to be with the stuff they were supposed to have with them. On the whole the system worked and everyone was happy.

When we came here and I stopped working, I wanted to be the sort of mum I'd never been before and do everything for them - laying out their clothes for the morning, and getting everything ready for them. I thought that this was being a good parent. Overtime, I've come to the conclusion that this is doing them a disservice. They don't do anything - not even flushing the loo most of the time!

So - I've written them a manual each telling them what they need to do on every morning, and what they need to do every evening in order to be ready for whatever is going on the next day. It is very detailed. Nothing is left to chance. And I have explained to them that they need to do what is in the folder, and when they fail to do something (forget PE kit, dance kit, lunch order etc), they will have to accept the consequences (get a demerit, be hungry etc....). On the whole, it is working well, and they are beginning to get into a bit of a routine, instead of being constantly amazed that they need to have their shoes on for school, and that they should clean their teeth etc.

On Tuesdays, George gets the bus home and lets himself into the house for half an hour, while I am collecting Anna from netball practice. This Tuesday morning, I checked with him a number of times that he had his key. He said he did. On the way to school he sent me a text from the bus saying that it 'turned out' that he didn't have his key after all. I sent one back saying that I would leave my own key outside for him. In writing this, I've just realised that this is where I went wrong - because by giving him my key he was not experiencing the consequences of not having his.

However...

He let himself in.

I forgot I had taken my key off my keyring.

So when I took them to school at 7am they next morning - my first day in my new job - when I shut the door, I didn't realise that I didn't have a key to let myself back in with. As I had a training session at the gym at 8am (not starting work until 10am), I was wearing my tracksuit, a baseball cap, and had not had a shower. And I could not get back in the house.

Initially I thought it was all going to be ok, and I had had the foresight to give my friend Sharon a spare key. Unfortunately Sharon couldn't find it. I took every key in her house to mine and tried it in the door, all to no avail. Eventually I gave up, had a shower at her house, borrowed all her clothes (right down to underwear!) and went off to my first day a little flustered, but clean.

Work was great.

However....

Half an hour before I was supposed to leave, school rang me to say

BOTH MY CHILDREN HAD MISSED THE BUS AND COULD I COME AND COLLECT THEM PLEASE.

Oh my cup runneth over. Apparently Anna had 'forgotten' she had to get the bus home (despite the conversation we had about it on the way to school). George got on the bus, but on seeing that his sister wasn't there, the little trooper thought he better get off and look for her. When he got off, the bus left.

They let me leave work early, and I went to get my car out of the car park under the shopping centre. Now, ordinarily I would have walked there, but with all the excitement earlier I had ended up driving from Avalon. Whenever I have parked under there before it has been free. Apparently not when you've been there 6.5 hours. For the privilege of working all day in someone elses knickers, I was obliged to pay $30. Oh My God.

It's Mother's Day here on Sunday. I am expecting some really really good gifts.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Shoes and Madness



Guess what?

I got a job!

I know I said that I am enjoying not working. And I am. But I had to have this job. My girlfriends will understand....because it is in my favourite shoe shop!

It is quite possibly the best job in the world (particularly as at the moment I haven't actually started, and therefore have not yet had my rose tinted spectacles stamped upon). I only have to work 12 hours a week across 2 days which are when the children are school and I can walk there. But most importantly - I get a staff discount, and even more excitingly I am allowed - nay, encouraged - to try out wearing all the shoes in the shop whilst I am working! I can wear said shoes for up to an hour (any longer and the wear will show), so that I am able to tell customers about them, and also because apparently customers often buy shoes they have seen staff wearing. Potentially, I could wear up to 6 pairs of gorgeous shoes a day!

Me - trivial? Never!

Course the other upside is that I will also have money to spend on more shoes and other frivolities which I am fed up of explaining to Andrew....

In discussions with the manager about my employment, we talked a little about the change of life I had experienced (not THAT change of life! for goodness sake - I'm not even 40 yet!) in terms of working, and how I was looking for something that wouldn't be stressful and would not encroach on my family time. She took me to task on this, saying that this was a mistake people often made, thinking that selling shoes wasn't stressful when it is. Although I'm sure there will be times when I will feel under a certain amount of pressure, I feel quite certain that

a. no one will take out a full page add in the local paper demanding that I resign
b. no one will arrange a public meeting at which I will be harangued for providing a sub standard service despite the fact that I am trying my bloody best

and

c. the local catholic priest will not be asking his congregation to pray that me and my colleagues are sacked

Given all that, I think I am comfortable with whatever stress shoe selling might throw at me.

Now I am totally removed from all that, I wonder if people ever wondered what all that was like for those of us who were publicly villified for doing a job which we were told to do and then hung out to dry by the people who told us to do it. I got to the stage where I couldn't allow the Lymington Times into my house - reading it made me feel sick and panic stricken. Fronting those meetings, although I may have looked confident, possibly arrogant, at times, was a torturous experience. The only way to get through it was to grit your teeth, and be as robust as possible, and hope that no one was going to attack you in the car park on your way out. Interesting times - and definitely not an experience I care to repeat....

Anyway - I digress!

Exciting times in the Pettifer household continue - remember that George was on TV with the quiz show 'It's Academic' and they got through to the semi finals? Well, they filmed the semis on Tuesday, and they won again, getting through to the Grand Final next week! And there lies a story.

First I have to ask -

Is it normal to have to lay sobbing on the bed because you can't find your black baseball cap?

I thought not.

And yet that is what I was doing on Tuesday morning at about 7.30am.

It all started quite well - we had to get George to school for 6.40am sharp, so we got up at 5.30am, got all ready, went out to the car.....and it wouldn't start. It also refused to be jump started. I got agitated. I couldn't get hold of anyone, and I couldn't get hold of a cab firm. If George missed the bus, I would never forgive myself. Eventually, one of our lovely neighbours lent us their campervan, and Andrew and George roared off to Dee Why, getting to the bus just as they were deciding they couldn't wait another moment. All's well that ends well.

In the meantime though, I was trying to get Anna off to school by bus. I admit I was overwrought, and ok - yes - I was premenstrual, but Anna had failed to clean her teeth ('you didn't tell me to clean my teeth!' OMG aaaaagggghhhh), and I could not find the black cap I needed to disguise my very bad hair day while I was at the gym, and suddenly I found myself careering around the house bellowing hysterically that 'I just want to wear my black cap!!!!'. Anna was wide eyed and not sure what to make of it, and by the time Andrew was back I was clearly in need of medical attention, or at the very least a lay down on the bed and a bit of a cuddle while I got it all out of my system.

I tell you this, not because I think you will be interested, but because I thought you should all know that despite it being great out here, and possibly the most inspired thing we have ever done, there are still seriously crap days. Some of which have declined beyond all hope of repair by 7.30 in the morning. I hope this makes you all feel better.

However, has anyone got the number of a good psychiatrist?