Category Archives: Australia

Our Emigration to Australia

New theme for the blog, and a new car!

By | | Australia, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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Well, actually, you can’t get much further from a new car!!

Our 'Ute' 

Nissan Navara Utility 'Ute' Truck

This has enough space to carry stuff when we move house, and means that we can actually go somewhere with folks when they are over without having to either take the train, or squeeze into the unfeasibly small back seat of the 207cc.

Cars don’t really die in Australia, at least not from old age the way they do in the UK. No salt on the roads, less moisture and no nasty cold starts mean that trucks like this one (1989) just keep running and running.

Ours has done over 290000 km and all still works (even the air con works).

plenty of space in the back too:

The Back of the Ute.

Spot the pole for holding up the rear hatch!!

Driving

By | | Australia
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Aussie drivers are mental.

Well, I will change that statement.

Perth drivers are mental.

The East Coast is apparently not that great, but people who have driven in the East and West say that Perth is the worst.

The rules of the road here include :

  • Tailgating is compulsary
  • Staying in one lane is a bad idea
  • Swerving about whatever lane you are in at the moment is beneficial
  • If someone indicates that they are changing into your lane, you MUST accelerate to prevent them from doing so
  • As a follow on from above : if you want to change lane, do it as fast as possible into as small a gap as possible, without ever indicating (if you indicate, they will block you)
  • If your exit is coming up, move into the “slow” lane and accelerate as fast as you can, so you are doing a really high speed as you reach the end of the exit slipway
  • You should drive the largest car you can afford, the wider the better
  • 50% of the cars on the road should display a sticker on the back saying either “F$@k off, we’re full” or “If you dont love it, LEAVE”
  • A UTE is the prefered method of transit
  • If you have a UTE, you need to get a dog so it can sit in the back of the UTE
  • When parking, the best places are not tarmac, they are on grass.
  • When parking in a car park, ignore the many empty spaces and instead park at the sides, on grass if possible, to reduce the number of steps to whereever you are going (This will be demonstrated at a later date with pictures)
  • When lanes merge – try your damnest to edge in front of the other car in the other lane. Even if you could have slotted in easily behind them, you MUST get in front. He will be trying to get in front of you too – your manhood depends on you getting in front.
  • Aim for bikes – motor, or pedal
  • Speeding is evil. Do not speed. Ever.
  • Drink driving is not a problem. If you can get the key into the lock, you are fit to drive. Hurrah for remote locking.
  • Driving while as high as a kite is also fine. The same rules apply as drink driving.

    • There are some differences in the driving here …
    Traffic lights take forever! The majority of traffic lights are large affairs, and have filter lanes. The people turning right get to go, then the people going straight on, then the other set of people turning right, then the other people going straight on. You can wait on your green light for an age. And it is a green light. No amber. No prepping to get ready to go on green. Its red, red, red, red, red, GREEN GO! GO! GO! Then you get amber to warn you that you are going to have to stop soon. Then finally red. And you have to wait forever to go again. The amber light seems to last longer. When we get back, we will skip a few red lights as we are used to the amber being on so long 🙂

    The Aussie slip roads onto freeways work slightly differently from UK sliproads onto motorways. They basically add another lane, then remove it. Leaving the two lanes to merge into one. Like that bit on the way back from Edinburgh on the M8 at Livingston. The person who is ahead has right of way. So, there is a lot of acceleration to be the one ahead. So, there is a lot of emergency braking. So, there is a lot of bumps, and the freeway grinds to a halt early in the morning. They are very fond of this manner of traffic management. You will frequently be going along a two lane road in the burbs and if you dont spot the “Form One Lane” sign, it can come as a fright when a giant 4×4 tries to side swipe you.

    We thought there were a lot of rude people on the roads when we first arrived. Not sure my opinion has changed, but at least we have a reason for it now! The freeway has an upper limit of 100kph (60mph) but it also has a lower limit of 80kph (50mph). They rarely speed, so you try and overtake someone when your restricted to 10mph of each other. It leads to two cars side by side, one edging ahead slightly over a long time. Its like being stuck behind two trucks on the M8. The other thing that makes it all seem rather rude, is that while you are encouraged to move to the left and keep the slow lane left and the fast lane right …. undertaking is perfectly legal. So, if someone is doing 80kph, they are perfectly entitled to sit in the “fast” lane. We had repeatedly been stuck behind someone doing just that, getting frustrated that they wouldnt pull over. Getting annoyed at the idiots undertaking us. Except thats all fine and legal. There is a lot of weaving from lane to lane to get where you are going a few seconds faster.

    There is more to come here, but I figure thats enough for now, keep watching for Driving (Part 2) in the future!

    New Year in Perth.

    By | | Australia, events
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    The whole festive season was a bit strange, christmas just didnt feel like christmas with it being warm and the sun staying up till 8:30ish. We kept spotting trees and christmas decorations and doing a double take. the Aussies dont seem to do christmas cards much either – all the cards we got were from home – and thats not just coz we dont know that many people 😉 Nobody in our workplaces had any, and they arent in windows, or the houses we were in. They are in the shops, so there must be a trade for them (maybe for brits), but the Aussies dont really seem to do it the same way the UK does.

    We finally settled on adopting it as an Australian Summer Festival. It was less weird 😉

    Christmas itself was good fun, we did a lot of cool stuff that we have pretty much covered (though we will probably put up more pictures of Penguin Island). But we havent covered New Year in much depth.

    You know how when a band is asked to comment on a Scottish crowd they always say “man, Scotland is the best, they are just wild, we love playing gigs in Scotland” and you think, “thanks for saying that, but we know you say it everywhere you go”. Well, I had the same kinda thinking about Scots and New Year. Yeah, yeah, the Scots make New Year a big thing, but its just not a big deal everywhere else. You see the fireworks in Sydney and Times Square and all round the world and you know everywhere likes New Year.

    It appears WA doesnt get the point of New Year. The plan was the day trip to Penguin Island, then you know, probably bed, coz its always tiring being out on the boats. WHAT! says us, BUT ITS HOGMANAY! We have to stay up for the bells! “Hogmanay” and “The Bells” being two scottish concepts, it took two goes to explain we wanted to stay up to celebrate the new year arriving. It didnt take any persuation at all, just a suggestion and another paella and champers and all sorts was planned in moments.

    There were 6 of us (plus the kids, who went to bed – I remember being put to bed, and then getting up again for the bells and steak pie as a kid) and the paella was fab, and there was wine and beer and sangria and whiskys. Another couple of people dropped by briefly wondering “whats all the fuss about New Year, I mean, its dull and boring, its no different from any of the other 364 days …” So we let them know they were doing it wrong!

    The Aussies were enjoying the night, if not the whisky, but didnt seem that interested in the bells themselves. So, I ducked inside, and with 10 minutes to go, got the telly on. Mostly it was just old movies that was showing, but one channel had a New Year countdown on. Sydney is 2 hours ahead of Perth. I had expected to see Perths New Year countdown, but what we got instead was Sydneys, repeated two hours later. I have to say I think this is a little bizzare, rather than show your own fireworks at the time, repeat someone elses two hours later. But hey, Sydney does it very well. Apparently it wasnt just a repeat though, Sydneys fireworks had already been shown in Perth live as it happened in Sydney. So, it wasnt just a repeat, it was a repeat of something that had only been shown 2 hours previously! Weird!

    Calling the UK was a bit of a no-go – the international phone lines were filled pretty quick, however, thanks to the wonders of skype and skype out – we could call across the internet and get out onto the UK phone network no bother (what with it being 3pm in the UK)

    So, in summary, it was good, but a little weird. Next year, we are hoping to make it to Sydney for New Year, we have seen it many times on the tv over the years, and have always said it would be cool to do. This year will hopefully be the year to do it!

    I’m gonna need a bigger boat…

    By | | Australia, events, General Mumblings
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    Mel and Rudy were great hosts over chrimble and new year, but serously, these guys are crazy. It must be something about the heat, or the water, or goodness knows what… but yikes.

    let me explain.

    After the shark attack in Port Kennedy, they were non plussed, and to be honest, I can see the point – back home if you heard about a climber falling to their doom in the grampians, you would just shrug your shoulders and accept that this is what happens sometimes. I guess the aussies view being eaten by a large carniverous fish in the same light.

    So, yesterday, we spent an incredible day at Penguin Island. Sounds nice and safe, penguin island… complete with fluffy penguins. At the end of the day, and after much cajoling/emcouragement, Jen and I kayaked back across from the island to the mainland.

    major achievement – as most of you will remember, I can barely swim. heck before I came out here, I couldn’t swim at all. but hey, there’s us –

    basking in the glory having kayaked across. (for what it’s worth, we beat the ferry 😀 ).

    As it is, we did much better than the poor asian girl who tried to *walk* across the sandbar – and swallowed a stack of sea water when it got rough. The ambulance was just arriving for them at the jetty when we landed in the kayaks.

    So today, when Jen spots the story we have a read, and flick through the comments, to find the guy who says ‘what, no comment about this being just round the corner from the shark attacks?’

    one quick visit to Google maps, and it all becomes clear – these Aussies are downright certifiable. not only do they choose to go boating a couple of days after a shark attack, they go to to the same damn bay.

    So, once more, a Happy 2009. I’m kinda glad to be in one piece to say it!!!

    Whats Black and Blue and Red all over

    By | | Australia, events, General Mumblings, grrrr
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    My legs!

    I am going around like an eighty year old woman at the moment.

    We were taken 4×4 off roading, which was fun and enjoyable, we went along the beach at Preston Beach, and then around a reservoir further inland. Up rocky roads that the 207 would get swallowed up in. We also rescued another 4×4 that was up to its wheel arches in mud, it was surprisingly easy to do.

    See that white 4×4 in the picture (if you click on the picture it will show you it bigger), thats not us, but thats what we were doing.

    It is fun, but its damn difficult on the spine. My back is killing me now!

    We also did some kayaking on the reservoir.

    The kayaks are pretty stable in the water, and it was also fun. Me and my clumsiness however meant that when I was trying to get out, I fell over, skinning my knees on the gravelly ground, and bruising my leg on the edge of the kayak.

    The reservoir was also pretty bad with flies

    This is apparently “no flies”. There are “no flies” this year. Given that we spent the entire time doing the aussie wave to keep the flies out of our faces I have to say I am mighty glad there are “no flies” this year. I did get mozzie bites on the leg that wasn’t kayaked. This time though, they are looking worse than before, with the red itchy bit spreading and being damn itchy. The flies seemed to like it too. Blearg.

    There were also (I think) march flies. When mosquitoes bite, you don’t feel it till usually the next day, certainly it takes a while to appear. A march fly bite you feel. It hurts. And I got a march fly bite on the back of the bruised leg. It stung like buggery. It took a few hours to surface and now half of the back of my right calf is red and sore to the touch.

    On the same leg, one of the dogs, Minnie (who looks very like Misty), launched herself at me to try and bite one of the march flies, leaving me with another bruise!

    So, in the space of two hours, I ended up with a sore back, mozzie bites, a march fly bite, two separate lots of bruises and a skint knee.

    *sigh*

    This was a couple of days ago now, so I am starting to heal. In time for the new year 🙂

    Booze, glorious booze …

    By | | Australia, Food
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    With New Year on its way, and visitors starting to arrive in less than six weeks, we reckoned it was time to stock up.

    The national pasttime here in Oz is drinking. Its taken so seriously that when other shops are forced by legislation to close (usually) at 5pm, and corner shops at 8pm, the offies are allowed to open anything up till 9pm, and given that they open at 8:30am, thats some going. I nipped out at 8:30ish yesterday morning to get some croissants for breakfast from the local bakery and the Bottle-O bottle shop thats beside it was hoaching. At 8:30 in the morning.

    Most of the shops sell chilled crates of beer or pre-mixed drinks like breezers, some have large walk-in fridges for this.

    They have drive in bottle shops as well. We had heard about this before we came over, but couldnt quite get our heads round this idea. They are popular. I will get a piccie and put it up here so you can see.

    Anyway, we wanted to stock up our booze. So, we went to one of the many giant liquor shops (They often have great names like Thirsty Camel or, my favourite, Liquor Barons), these places are huge warehouses filled to bursting with beer, wine and spirits.

    booze

    booze

    Heh. We still had whisky, port, wine, beer, cider and peach schnapps in the house, this is just the new stuff.

    But, thanks to Dan Murphys, we now have more 😀

    Any requests from our visitors as to what they fancy while they are here?

    I should point out that the WKD is already gone. It didnt last through dinner….

    less than three feet of water…

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings
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    See that picture I posted yesterday, of me standing in less than three feet of water, about 5-6 metres from the shore? That’s quite a thing for me, being a bit of a woos when it comes to sharks – that’s the second time in Australia that I have actually set foot in the ocean.

    This fear of nature is something that causes great hilarity for the aussies – and I have taken an almighty ribbing about it. I purposely don’t say that I have a phobia about sharks (that’s selacophobia, btw) because, as far as I am concerned, there’s nothing irrational in the slightest about having a fear of what is essentially a self propelled mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. I think that’s a quite healthy fear to have actually.

    on this morning’s news, this took on a more serious note, when some poor bugger was ‘taken’ by what is believed to be a 4 metre long pointer shark off the beach at port kennedy. that’s here:


    View Larger Map

    We were staying down at Preston Beach, 40km down the coast (and will be again for hogmanay), Perth is about 80km to the north. The beach is closed, and they are out hunting for his body.

    The guy was snorkelling for crabs with his 24 year old son when there was a ‘violent disturbance in the water’ and lots of blood.

    I think that, on the whole, I am going to maintain my healthy fear of the coastline, and not adopt the more relaxed attitude that the aussies have. Statistically, you may well be more likely to be hit by lightning than eaten by a shark, but I’m not about to start playing golf in thunderstorms either…

    Merry Australian Summer Festival!

    By | | Australia, events, Food
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    Coz it can’t be christmas, can it?

    For days now, we have been doing double takes when driving past houses – christmas trees look sooooo weird in the middle of summer!!

    My boss Rudy and his wife very kindly invited us down to their beach house in Preston Beach (we have been down a few times) and we have had a relaxed fun couple of days so far. It’s been pretty awesome.

    First night down, we had a giant tapas style feast – we brought a frittata, some devilled sausage and some patatas bravas – but the star of the show was Mel’s paella. To say this was a big paella pan was a bit of an understatement…

    After spending christmas morning at the beach house with Rudy’s parents, we headed off to Mel’s folks – an absolutley gorgeous place by the murray river (well, ‘a’ murray river, rather than ‘the’ murray river – that’s over east where they are having the big drought). incredible. They have their own jetty and a couple of boats.

    Mel’s folks (also called Ian and Jenny!!) made us very welcome for dinner, and Ian took us all upstream on the river

    The guys had upgraded their net connection to make sure we had the bandwidth to do skype video, so we spoke to Jens family (asides from Robert who refused to get out of bed). Diana did a nice little rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas on the xylophone, and Adam ran around like a maddy.

    We have recorded a wee christmas video message, but youtube is being a bit odd, so it may be a day or so before that appears.

    Today, we went down to the beach, where the aussies insisted that it was too windy (!) seriously, the best beach we have seen outside of the carribean, and it’s too cold… check this out:

    Its such a perfect day … I’m glad I spent it with you..

    By | | Australia, Food, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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    We had a FANTASTIC day on Saturday.

    Absolutely brilliant.

    I woke up and went through to our gym (OK, the extra bedroom we dont know what to do with, so we put the exercise bike in it and got a weights bench, so its now a gym 🙂 ). Did a good upper body workout – I am increasing my bench press again to a far less embarrassing weight 🙂 – and then 20 minute interval training on the exercise bike. ROAR!

    After a nice long shower, we decided to go into Perth to get some breakfast. I fancied taking Ian to Pranz – a cafe in west perth just up the road from my work. They do amazing paninis. I have only had the veggie ones, because they are fab, but the rest also look good. Cept west perth appears to be shut at the weekend. So, we took a drive to east perth to see what it had to offer. And apparently, east perth has only marginally more than west perth at the weekend! Ah well, we skipped breakfast and went straight for lunch. So, we went for sushi! There are two great sushi bars with conveyor belts here, and from a conveyor belt is the very best way to eat sushi.

    Once sushi-sated, we took a wander along Hay St and stopped off for ice-cream. Yay! It was oh so very tasty. Hay St was full of people, vibrant, sunny, shops were open, buskers were performing. Goths were gathering on steps in front of buildings. It was all good.

    The sky was beautiful and clear, it was around 30C. And I got the aforementioned sunburn. We had the roof down on the car, it was just great.

    Later on that night, after dinner, we went back out for a run in the car – we are considering East Perth to stay in once the lease is up on this place and wanted to see it at night. So, once again through East Perth, it was so warm we put the roof down again 🙂 Happy to report that East Perth is quiet at night, while being in walking distance of a couple of pubs and restaurants.

    Why things feel a bit weird

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings
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    We have come to an understanding as to why things feel a bit weird here.

    Basically, we arrived in Autumn, the leaves were falling from the trees, well, from the trees that lose their leaves in the Autumn. We mentioned way back, a lot of the trees here dont lose their leaves, they lose their bark.

    During winter, there continued to be a steady stream of trees losing their leaves.

    And through spring. When the trees that had held on to their leaves grew new ones and ditched the old ones.

    And now its summer, there are still leaves on the ground.

    I took these pictures this morning.

    You can see the green all around in the background of the second, but the leaves are on the ground.

    Add to this that the latest the sun goes down is 8:30. Tonight sundown was 8:17pm, and it gets dark pretty fast – no hour long twilights here. (and thats only this year, they are most likely to refuse Daylight Savings in a referendum next year and wont change the clocks, so it will be dark at 7:30pm at the height of summer)

    So….. it gets dark fairly early, and there are leaves on the ground.

    It feels like the longest autumn EVER! It feels like a seven month autumn with some really cold and wet days and some really dry and warm days.

    Its all a bit strange!

    Yogurt. Where you can find the most culture in WA.

    By | | Australia, Food, General Mumblings
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    This is Joondalups Sunset Market …

    http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/cms/templates/coj2_business_grp.asp?id=498

    Yeah.

    I had wanted to go see the Sunset Markets since we arrived in Joondalup and I googled what this place has to offer.

    I bugged Ian for the last few weeks about this. Between one thing and another we hadn’t made it down to look at it. So… tonight … as we are watching Back! To The Future! and I am skimming through the Joondalup Times I spotted a Sunset Markets photie from last week. So, with all haste we paused the movie, and went to sample Joondalups Kulcha.

    Yeah.

    So, it was kinda like 8 stalls at the Barras. Of which 4 were selling donuts and hot dogs. And one selling what they called “scottish tablet (fudge)” so, we got two slabs. And its definitely tablet 😀 So, thats the high point of Joondalups cultural events for the year. Condensed milk and sugar. Not complaining about the tablet. Just the marketing of the tablet ….

    Top of the World, ma!

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings, Interesting! (Well, for me)
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    I am quite careful not to say too much about my work on the blog (even though I know that a few of the readers are co-workers). It’s just professional not to say anything in such a public forum that might cause people to look at the company as if I spoke for them (on anything more than techy things) or, conversely, that I was somehow responsible for them.

    But then, sometimes things are so cool you have to say *something* So, without giving too much away…

    I have been in Melbourne, working on a huge government tender – how huge? well, the solution has over 340 Tb of storage space, over a hundred servers, and costs more than any of us are likely to see in a lifetime (barring a big lottery win). absolutley exilirating, to even be involved in this is cool, but to be playing a key role… it’s incredible… and off the back of that one, I’m now involved as the solution owner on another big tender. I am one happy, happy bunny right now.

    So much so, that I didn’t even mind that much spending my birthday in Melbourne whilst jen was stuck back in Perth. We tried not to think about it.. but here’s the thing. Australia is so big that Jen and I were further apart than we have ever been before in our entire lives, even before we met.

    I took this from the top of the Rialto tower:

    dont jump. no, seriously.

    The rialto is one of the ‘great towers of the world’ – and was the tallest in the southern hemisphere until recently. Being in Melbourne was pretty cool – it reminded me of being in a vibrant city again. I have considered myself glaswegian ever since I went to University (hell, you gotta do something to lose the stigma of lanarkshire, right Scott? 😉 ) but even more so now. Glasgow is one of the great cities of the world, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at it in the same jaded way again…

    What this did do though was through Perth into sharp contrast – so I have a new video too:

    that’s all for now, I need to sleep – I have work in the morning, and I can’t wait.

    I’m Spinning Around … Move Out of My Way

    By | | Australia, grrrr
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    Spin. Gotta love it.

    The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM, the Aussie MET Office) released its summer weather forecast today. Summer starts in 4 days, on the 1st Dec. Tonight it is once again chucking it down. It was at least beautiful and blue skies for long periods and the rain whilst heavy was at least in showers rather than constant.

    So, the summer forecast is not very good, or great, depending on the spin you put on it.

    Weather bureau predicts wet, cool summer
    WEST Australia’s unseasonal weather is set to continue with forecasters predicting a wet, cool summer.

    Perth has recorded the wettest and coldest November in 17 years – the seventh-wettest on record – and the trend is set to continue.

    WA Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Glenn Cook said a warm Indian Ocean and several high-level troughs — or low-atmospheric pressure systems — had produced the wintry weather Perth has experienced during the past few weeks.
    …
    According to WA Bureau of Meteorology forecasts, central WA has a 70 per cent chance of exceeding average summer rainfall between December and February while maximum temperatures are predicted to remain average or cooler than normal during the same period.
    …
    This time last year, Perth was on its was to recording the warmest November on record. But so far this month the mercury hasn’t reached 30C.

    Cloudy skies are also robbing Perth of one hour of sunlight a day as the average 10.7 hours of sunshine is cut to just 9.8.

    “It is the first time we have not had a 30C in November since 1964 ,” bureau forecaster John Relf said. …

    Hot summer on the way, bureau forecasts
    26th November 2008, 14:21 WST

    It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

    The Bureau of Meteorology has released its summer weather forecast, and it’s tipping hot days in the southern states, and hot nights in the north and west.

    But there’s some good news too – there’s wet weather ahead for some lucky areas.
    …
    When it comes to overnight temperatures, most of the country is in for a warm summer.

    Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory are the areas most likely to have unusually hot nights.

    The mercury may rise this summer but there’s some relief on the way when it comes to rainfall.

    Western Australia is in for a wet summer, as is north-east NSW and south-east Queensland….

    So, its either a great hot summer thats going to be fab because of the rain, or a cold wet summer. Both from the same forecast. Gotta love that spin.

    What they havent clicked yet is that its down to us. No matter where and when we go somewhere, the rain soon follows. The rainclouds worship us. They followed us to Jamaica, Lanzarote, Majorca, all over. And now they are here. The reason the UK had such a bad summer this year is that the clouds were sulking because we werent there.

    *sigh*

    The adventure continues.

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings, grrrr
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    Yup, time to pick ourselves out of the doldrums and get on with it. Australia is a pretty big dissappointment but that’s not going to change – we have resolevd to make the best of it for the time we are here.

    We are seeing a bunch of adverts about Australia the movie with the first actress I ever had a serious crush on, Nicole Kidman. quite surreal to see what is portrayed (sunny, blue skies, wide “red dirt” country) comapred to what it’s actually like – very cold (there was snow in New South Wales this week – and remember, this is supposed to be summer!!), unbelievably wet (according to the government website, Perth actually gets more rain in a year than Edinburgh) and quite lush and green (from all the rain!).

    It’s odd that weather plays so big a part in this for us, but really, that’s the one thing we were looking for. we reckoned being far away from home would be sufferable, and missing everyone would be tough… but hey – at least the weather will be better, right? anyways. positive. upbeat.

    We have a plan!

    We basically have about twenty to thirty hours a week with absolutely nothing to do (basically, every week day night, and at least one day of the weekend). Perth is essentially a waiting room for a mortuary, so there’s plenty of free time (seriously. there’s more night life under a plant pot.)

    Plan A hasn’t worked out too well. That involved easing the boredom with alcohol (we have got through a frankly terrifying amount of the stuff since we got here – I am sure everyone remembers that I am an incredible lightweight: 2 pints and I am anybody’s. In one month, I put away 2 CRATES of strongbow.)
    So, Plan B involves using the free time to get in lots of exercise, get the diet back under check and cut back on the sauce. It’s going rather well – Jen’s Wii Mii is looking decidedly more active now, and she has lost a good 12 pounds: I’m down a good 6 pounds (I started later).

    actually, we have two plans – the other plan is for coming home. It won’t be until 2010 at the earliest, so don’t get the party hats bought in just yet, but we have started the plans – sorting out stuff to ship back to the UK now (so we don’t have to lug it around when we move house here!) and the stuff that needs to stay with us.

    We have mentioned the plan(tm) to a couple of you, but here goes: we are coming back to scotland.  As I say, this won’t be happening right away, but we will be coming back when our Visa runs out (if not before). The reason this has now become something we are looking forward to is…

    RTW tickets.

    A few of the big airline groups (like the Star Alliance with BMI etc) offer round the world tickets – you have a maximum distance, and number of stops, and they work out at only a grand or so more than the cost of actually flying directly home!!

    The plan includes Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Los Angeles, Florida, Washington and New York so far, with a few days in each. Should be fun. let’s face it – after Perth, anything will be fun!!!

    if you don’t have anything good to say…

    By | | Australia, General Mumblings, grrrr
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    Don’t say anything. That’s how it goes right? it explains our lack of posts for a while unfortunately.

    This is apparently all normal, and what happens when people emigrate – a sort of culture shock.it’s biting pretty hard at the moment, which is probably down to living through the longest winter of our lives.

    in the big scheme of things, we have very little to complain about, and we need to keep reminding ourselves of that.. but sheesh. every time I wake up and the weather is cold, wet and miserable (and it got down to 3 degrees above – with no double glazing, no central heating and no insulation, remember) I just slump.

    So, here’s the latest video – not my cheeriest..

    After that, we needed to cheer up… so we went to the range… and the the day improved 😀