Finally...a home.....

Such a lot of news to catch up on, now that we are in our house and have an internet connection.....!

I could go into immense detail about my apoplexy when we were moving from the flat in Dee Why to our house in Narrabeen, and getting our container from the UK, but I can summarise quickly and concisely if I say

• the removal company who had been storing our container phoned me at 4pm the day before they were supposed to be delivering and unpacking and said that they were going to be a bit busy and would it be ok if they delivered it on Monday and Tuesday


• I referred them to the agreements made by email with Andrew many weeks before that it would all be delivered on 1st June at 9am, and suggested they call Andrew as he had the emails


• when they phoned Andrew, for reasons that he can't explain, he thought they were the furniture shop from where we had bought a desk and chair, and agreed that it was no problem if they delivered on Monday


• aaaaaaaaggggghhhhhh......I may have to kill someone


• in the event they delivered half the container on the 1st and the other half on the 4th


• in the event Andrew was in Abu Dhabi

I think I've covered that.......

So, onto life in our new house.

A bit of a baptism of fire by all accounts, as our first weekend here happened to coincide with the worst storm in New South Wales for 30 years. This involved absolutely torrential rain, terrifyingly high winds, no power for 24 hours and lots of fallen trees and washed away roads. We watched the lagoon get higher and higher in the garden and wondered if the house would survive - the storm lasted for 3 days, and at the end of it 8 people had died, some parts of the Hunter Valley are pretty much completely under water and a state of emergency has been called in some areas. There is also a tanker grounded on a beach north of here - see photo. It's still raining now, but the wind has dropped.

Which brings me onto something else. It is definitely winter. I feel a bit cheated. I had no idea winter would actually bring bad weather! Those of you who have been following the Tupper's experience in New Zealand will know that they have been struggling a bit with the cold. I had been feeling rather smug about this, while we were having such warm weather, but I'm starting to understand why the shops are full of flannelette PJs and electric blankets. The thing is that although the temperatures are very mild by comparison to a UK winter, the houses are unheated, uninsulated, and not very well sealed. This means that if the overnight temperature outside is 7 degrees, the temperature indoors will not be much better. Suffice to say that we are now the proud owners of said flannelette PJs and some electric heaters! I am told that this is as bad as it gets and that it doesn't last long, but I'm glad that I didn't get rid of all my coats. In the mornings on the school run it can be pretty chilly, although later in the day if you are in the sun you could burn. The moment the sun goes in, the temperature drops rapidly and you find yourself indoors beside the gas fire wrapped in a blanket. Not quite what I envisaged for my new life in the sun.....

But it's not all bad! I took George to the cinema down the road to see the new Pirates of the Carribean movie and discovered that if we paid $20 each we could sit in LazyBoy chairs!!! How cool is that?? I reclined mine right into a bed, put my drink and popcorn on the side table and prepared for a snooze!

And I have a walk in wardrobe, which is quite the best thing I've ever had (yes I know that is really really shallow). But imagine being able to see all your shoes on racks and all your clothes? I will never be able to live without one again.

But the best thing by far is having all our stuff and a home. The house is great, and now we have all our stuff in it, it feels like it is ours. For the year at least....it's only when you are able to settle a bit that you realise how tense you've been. It's like suddenly you are able to let out a great big sigh of relief. We're here....we're home.....