From the man of the house....

Hello friends and family. Finally the man of the house has wrested the keyboard from the normal author of this blog .... actually she is too busy coughing and spluttering to make an entry, so I have taken my chance.

Regular readers of this column may have noticed that the last entry was not quite as happy and upbeat as usual, OK in fact it was downright depressing. Sorry about that but we are telling it as it is and life has its ups and downs even in 'the lucky country' (as somebody recently described it to me). So far I have been able to steer clear of the dreaded lurgy and have my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

On saturday we went and signed the lease on the house in Narrabeen after which I actually had a chance to look around it (some of you might be thinking that this seems the wrong way around but as they already had our $8,500 in the bank the deal was pretty much done). Having entrusted the house searching to 'er indoors I have to say she did a fantastic job - the house is just spectacular. You literally do an intake of breath as you walk into the main living area and take in the view across the lagoon. The agent assured us that you can actually swim in the water (hence no need for a pool), as well as fish, kayak, windsurf, etc... With a fabulous beach also just five minutes away I could say that this place is about as good as mother earth provides but then it's beginning to sound like I'm gloating so I shall shut up about it.

Something that is really noticeable is how friendly people are here. We bumped into some people who live over the road to the house and they couldn't have been more welcoming. It seems that there is a real community on Wimbledon Ave.

Yesterday we went to a 'get together' of families from Anna's school year group at a lovely park next to a bay at Mona Vale. Again lots of really friendly and welcoming people, most of whom it has to be said were British. A common question being 'so how long have you been out here?' to which the answer seemed to range from about 26 years to 'a week'. Yes, we are no longer the newest family in town! Everybody seems to really like the school and we all generally congratulated eachother on living in such a fantastic part of the world. If you live in Sydney you just have to go to the Northern Beaches or 'Gods own country' (I have heard the Welsh use that expression too, sorry boyo you need to come and see this place).

Work is going well, everybody is really welcoming and the culture is very much as I was used to at Gifford. Designing a 32 storey office block is a new experience for me but interesting nevertheless and there is a real desire to include environmental features, in fact the City Council in Brisbane are threatening to offer significant grants to the developers to encourage them to do so.

Well that's it from me for now. I am sorry there are no pretty pictures but if you want to see why we are so excited about our new abode type ''Narrabeen'' into Google images and check out the beach and lagoon. There will be room at the Inn from June 1st......