What GPS says, we blindly follow!! January 31, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General, Sydney, WTF?.add a comment
Oh dear. Another GPS rant! Tonight we were meeting up with some relatives in Haberfield, Sydney at a lovely Italian restaurant called Il Nolte. The address of which is 94 Ramsey St (yes, Ramsey St as in Neighbours, no there is no such place as Erinsborough)!! So duly we left Woronora 1 hr before dinner to get to Haberfield. Programmed the GPS – great it’s found the place so off we go. 55 mins later my brother calls and he’s already there – we’ve got another 3km to go. 5 mins later we’ve reached the destination and finally find some parking in a side street. Standing outside number 84 and it’s the end of the road – there are no higher numbered buildings! Strange – I ring my brother who has gone in a separate car with my parents and they’re already there. I’m there saying I’m at a T junction and all the shops I can see, odd it doesn’t marry up with what they can see out of the restaurant window. Grr – stupid GPS! My brother says it’s on the corner of Dalhousie St. Grr – stupid GPS has taken us to Ramsey Rd in a suburb about 10 blocks away from Haberfield (Five Docks). GPS is telling us that the road is called Ramsey St, the roadsign says Ramsey Rd. So where TF is Ramsey St. Using the GPS just as a map I locate it, Ramsey Rd turns into Ramsey St. Where it joins the numbers start from 1. That was good town planning and NOT at all confusing (note the sarcasm). 30 mins late for our dinner date we arrive at the restaurant. Particularly stressed and sweaty from all the running around trying to park and pulling out Evie’s stroller.
Evie is MOBILE!! January 28, 2009
Posted by graciek in Evie, Life in General.add a comment
Our 6 month old baby Evie crawled for the first time today. She’s been trying to crawl for a while, but her efforts normally result in her back legs pushing her head into the floor, then her lifting her head off the floor, followed by more face dragging on the floor (poor thing, sort of like a very slo’ mo’ caterpillar action). Today she was on the sofa and my Dad was taunting her with a peach. She is such a fruit bat she can literally smell cut orange at 50 paces and complain if she doesn’t get some. He kept putting the peach out of reach. Evie suddenly managed to get her front half and back half coordinated and she was wriggling across the seat and grabbing the peach. So off I went to get the camera to video it for hubby to see. As I was videoing she did something she’s never done before – she went up onto all fours, her stomach was clear off the ground and then she crawled properly! I was dead chuffed I managed to catch her first proper crawl ever on camera (wonder if I’ll be as lucky for her first step)! Of course it only lasted about 20 seconds before she managed to crawl herself over to the gap between sofa cushions and put her arm inbetween the cushions, hence falling 1/2 into the sofa! I’m so proud. She’s coming on leaps and bounds. She seems to be a fairly quick developer in terms of physical strength. She was holding her own head up at 3 weeks, rolling over at 4 weeks, sitting propped around 2 months, standing supported at 3 months, sitting up by herself at 5 months and now crawling at 6 months. I’m so proud of my little Evie – it truly is amazing how they suddenly start doing things out of the blue. She’s growing up so quickly.
Happy Chinese Australia New Year Day!! January 26, 2009
Posted by graciek in Australia, Life in General.add a comment
Gong Xi Fa Choi! Ha ha, today is a bit of a coincidence. It’s both the first day of Chinese New Year (Year of the Ox) and also Australia Day. Our first Australia Day since moving to the country.
They’re very patriotic in Australia which is quite refreshing after years in England (when most plebs wouldn’t even know when St George’s Day is) and any patriotic behaviour is usually linked to some form of racism or riot. The adverts are so funny and there’s all sorts of tacky junk merchandise. Soooo Australian 
We had a massive BBQ (far too much food) and spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from all that eating. We even had some really naff burgers that came in the shape of Australia (no Tasmania though), hey they were on offer and cheaper than the normal ones. Seemed such a waste to be indoors – but I just couldn’t move afterwards. Must go for a walk later in the week to make up for it.
My brother took Mocha the dog for a run. He was extremely surprised that Mocha beat him in his running challenge. I suppose it’s cos he’s used to our old dog Oscar, who you used to take out for a walk and come back carrying cos he was so lazy. Mocha is a running freak – we used to take her running whilst we rode our bikes at full pelt, tongue slapping away on her own face!!
Happy 0.5th Birthday Evie January 25, 2009
Posted by graciek in Evie, Life in General.add a comment
I can’t believe my little baby is growing up so quickly. She’s 6 months old today. It seems like a world away since I was in Nottingham QMC hospital having her. Well, I suppose it literally is half a world away as we’ve now moved to Australia. This time last year we’d just had the 12 week scan which confirmed she was definitely on her way. Looking back at the multitude of photos taken of her she’s so different now. She’s sitting up, managing to crawl a few inches at a time (with great concentration), learning to walk supported and has a battery of different food types that she’s tried.
So, Evie my darling daughter – Happy 0.5th Birthday to you. We all love you very much and are thank God for the blessing that you are!
Ten Things on Evie’s Menu January 22, 2009
Posted by graciek in 10 Things..., Life in General, Recipes.add a comment
This week’s 10 things (I know it’s been eons since my last 10 things) are things that Evie has started eating. In my crusade to only feed Evie good fresh food I make up her meals for her. She’s almost 6 months and have been weaning her since 5 months (Christmas Day). At first she only had 1 ice cube for one meal a day. She’s now up to 3 ice cubes per meal (I think each ice cube is ~25ml), three meals a day and she’s loving it.
1. Mango & banana
2. Melon & baby rice
3. Potato & broccoli
4. Sweet potato & carrot
5. Sweet potato & beetroot
6. Potato & sweetcorn
7. Potato & mushroom (she doesn’t like that)
8. Banana & mango custard
9. Banana & peach
10. Oranges (whole slices)
She is a total fruit bat. She will eat the veggie based ones with some encouragement, but the fruit she can’t wait for. Especially oranges – she smells it and then cries until you are holding a slice in her mouth for her to suck on.
News in Australia January 21, 2009
Posted by graciek in Australia, Life in General, Musings, Television.add a comment
Well seeing as today is consumed pretty much by the inauguration of Barack Obama in the US I thought I might blog about the state of the news in Oz. The news seems to be pretty dire here. No not bad news, but the lack of topics really. A glance on most paper’s front covers on a normal day would be full of pictures of sportsmen and women. It’s also very optimistic – not much about the economy other than specific stories of hard luck businessmen. Such a change from the UK newspapers 6 months ago where it was all doom and gloom! I’m also finding it hard to not laugh when you read some stories about some poor sod who got “bashed” – yes they do actually print it as “bashed” rather than “assaulted”. In fact the International news is pretty awful too, the whole of the Gaza issues were summarised in 3 sentences in a box about 2inches high near the bottom of the page. Well, at least it made it to the news! Today’s newspapers are full of the Inauguration which goes to prove that things do actually occur outside of Australia.
Equally the TV news is terrible too – so much sport and entertainment. In fact telly is a bit naff here in general – feels a bit like watching Channel 5 (proliferation of US sitcoms/shows). Well that should encourage me to be not so much of a couch potato , except it’s so bloody hot outside I can’t bear to spend more than 15 mins in the sunlight (keeeeergh – vampire noises). Neighbours starts next week – that will be entertaining as it will be like watching a movie (albeit a dodgy soap opera) but missing out the middle section.
Aussie Baby Car Seats January 19, 2009
Posted by graciek in Australia, Evie, Life in General.add a comment
Evie’s new car seat arrived today. We’ve been using her car seat that came as part of her travel system (the stroller bit is still good, albeit one of the wheels being buckled after some rough treatment whilst loading on and off places). It’s a UK reward facing carry seat and I suppose it hasn’t passed Aussie standards, as it hasn’t been tested, being a German/EU brand (Hauck Roadster) that isn’t in Australia. Strictly speaking it’s apparently illegal to not have children restrained appropriately to AU standards, but what option did I have getting Evie from the airport and out to the shops to buy said new car seat. Anyway, Evie is getting a bit too big for her current chair. She weighed in at 14lb 14oz (about 6.75kg) on Thursday, which would be OK as the seat is fine up to 9kg, but she’s super long and her feet hang out. Her feet are already kicking up against the back of the seats (it’s rearward facing) and she’s way too heavy to carry in it all the time. Saying that is is very convenient if Evie wants a nap then we can bring the seat out of the car and it has a rocker too. With the new seat it can’t be removed for those purposes. Her new seat will take her up to 18kg and can go rearward or forward facing. It’s a Zu Zu Convex, purchased mainly because it was on special offer at $159 (cheaper than Big W at $184). The main difference as far as I can tell with the Aussie standard is that the seats have to be restrained using special straps that attach to special bolt fixings in Aussie cars. It’s a faff so there’s no way that we’re getting the seat in and out of the car. In some ways it’s more annoying, but in other ways I do feel more reassured that Evie is secured better as the old UK car seat just fixed in with the normal seatbelt which was iffy in some cars (especially Singapore taxis where they seem to have extra short belts).
First Aussie Friends January 18, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General.add a comment
We met some new friends today. Our first Aussie friends (excluding the my brother’s friends and our relatives). Flora and Rob and their 2 kiddies. It’s a strange story about how we met in the fact that we met before we were even in the country. Ah the joys of the internet. Flora was freecycling some baby items and kindly gave them to us. Of course this was back in November and we didn’t even arrive in the country until Christmas so my brother picked the things up. Evie’s first proper cot was from them. So we met up yesterday afternoon for a little playdate with the sproglets. They live in Sans Souci which is a lovely area and everywhere there is close to beach/sea with it being like a peninsular. Evie had great fun playing with Rupert and Verity. Our little Evie is not the most social of babies around other babies… she loves playing up with adults and being all cutesy. Evie and Verity were sitting there feet to feet and Evie was playing with Verity’s feet. Then Verity played with Evie’s feet and Evie cried. My baby is so anti-social. I really must join the playgroups/mum n baby group in the next couple of weeks. Can’t have my Evie growing up a spoilt billy-no-mates. So next family meet up will be us hosting prob at Woronora.
Welcome Tilly to the Family! January 15, 2009
Posted by graciek in Australia, Life in General.add a comment
No, we haven’t suddenly had a new baby (impossible seeing as Evie was only born 6 months ago). Today I picked up my new car. Her name is “Tilly” because that’s short for Matilda, and it’s sort of like “My Tiida”. Well, it seemed a good a name as any and you need yo give your car a name so you can coax it into going up hills, making it to the petrol pump when the refuelling light’s already on, and overtaking things etc
Today was also my first experience of driving in Australia. It’s actually not too bad. Working in km rather than miles is very odd and driving is so much slower here. Had to keep looking at the speedo to make sure I wasn’t speeding (they’re strict on fines and also there are speed cameras all over the place). Normally I would hate to be a middle lane hog, but driving in the slow lane is impossible as every 50m there is either a car parked in the lane or the lane just disappears/merges/diverts off to left turns only. The traffic lights are also strange to me. There’s not red, red and amber, green. It’s just red then suddenly green. Also there are arrow lights for straight, left and right and occasionally the red arrow light goes off and no other light goes on. Must get myself an Aussie equivalent of the Highway Code.
Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, Future & IR!! January 14, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Money.add a comment
Well it’s about 3 weeks since Christmas. Long gone are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But yey, welcome the ghost of christmas Tax… or to be more precise the ghost of taxation year 2007/08. Now after the balls up of the Student Loans Company who refused to take the repayments for 9 months and hence fudged something 2 years ago, they then decided after self-assessment in April 08 that they owed us £730. Oh good, that’s a nice figure that we’ll use to pay off a chunk of said student loan. Oh no, we arrive in Australia and some post gets redirected from the UK saying they are clawing back their overpayment and that we only have 1 week to pay it back. We both filled in our P85s before we left – but oh no, these have conveniently been lost somewhere by IR. So even though they owe us tax (because we have overpayed because we won’t be working from Jan-Apr 09) we have to pay this overpayment by them first. Also they sent hubby’s P45 to our Australia address (so they must have received the P85 as it they were sent together) saying that his new UK employer needs to fill in the slip – WTF … there is no new UK employer. What is wrong with these people? No wonder everyone hates the taxman – it’s not that I begrudge paying the correct amount of tax, it’s the pussy footing, confusing, not reading things properly, taking months to give you money, yet demanding money within a week for something that was their fault in the first place!! And on top of that today I got a letter in the post (direct to my Oz address) from the Child Benefit people asking me to fill in a form telling them I’m moving permanently and asking what my postal address will be… let me see I sent them a letter at the beginning of December advising of us moving and to stop payments. Then end of December they paid me Child Benefit. I then sent them an email telling them AGAIN not to pay me and already advising of the change of address. Now I have told them 3 times what my new address is, they’ve even sent me things to my new address, but I have to fill in yet another bloody form with the exact same information in order for them to stop. Somehow I suspect they will finally twig and demand the money back within, let’s guess, minus 20 days time??? Where’s the Ghost of Christmas Past when you need him?
