First Swimming Lesson April 27, 2009
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I took Evie for her first swimming lesson this morning at Sans Souci Leisure Centre. Thankfully the pool was indoors and the water heated – by golly it was cold outside of the water though. Poor Evie was shivering away so much when she had to sit on the side of the water. They weren’t really lessons as such, but more playing and getting used to being in the water and not breathing it in. First they did some splashing around and hanging onto the floating mat. Then Humpty Dumpty off the wall and going underwater. Now this is where we always made our mistake in the past time Evie has been in the water – hubby has always just dunked her in. They taught us to blow air on the baby’s face just before they get submerged and then go underwater towards you (i.e more horizontally), which I guess makes more sense as then the water’s not being forced upwards into Evie’s nose. She didn’t really cry too much – a bit of whimpering and a lot of whinging each time she was underwater. Think she actually enjoyed some bits (or is that wishful thinking).
So much hoo har over getting the swimming stuff for Evie though. Rang up the leisure centre to be told that Evie must have goggles and a baby swimming cap and that I must have a swimming cap. So off to Big W at short notice to find said items are not in stock as it’s now Winter. Turn up at leisure centre and they offer to sell me the items. Funny though they don’t sell swimming caps for babies nor goggles (yet not 2 hrs earlier the lady on the reception told me that they have to have them for lessons). So ended up just buying a swimming cap for me. Get Evie and I ready into swimmers etc and head out to the pool. Not one other bugger has a swimming cap on. Hmm I think someone was telling me porkies this morning and caused me a great deal of stress traipsing around trying to find things that weren’t really necessary in the end.
Painting Fun April 16, 2009
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After having a bit of a heart to heart with hubby last night we went out and bought some art materials. Hubby has been on hols this week so he’s been at home during the day with me and helping to look after Evie. Now he understands why I can’t get anything done during the day (other than the constant cycle of tending to Evie, feeding, cleaning the house, playing with Evie, etc). I’ve been feeling a bit, well, underwhelmed lately. It’s strange to think one year ago I was a researcher-come-lecturer using my brain to its best capabilities and enjoying doing well in my job and having a good reputation. One year later I have a baby, we’re on the other side of the world and my brain is some sort of Swiss cheese based sieve! So after having yet another mid-life crisis and feeling underused/underappreciated and generally stuck in a rut we had a chat and I realised that I have been so busy getting on with being a housewife that I haven’t really had time to do any hobbies of my own (no me time for 8 whole months!!). This afternoon hubby took Evie off my hands completely (i.e. I had 3 hours of total time to myself) and I started a new canvas to put up in the new house. It’s of a figure looking out to sea, which sums up my current feelings that rather than being trapped on the beach I can actually look at the broader picture and enjoy life rather than spend the whole time going round in circles looking down at my own feet. This is my first painting that actually has a human form in it and also my first using acrylics (I’m too stingy to fork out for oil paint as I know that I have tubes and tubes of it coming in the container).
Furniture Ordered April 14, 2009
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We went to Fantastic Furniture yesterday to order some stuff for our new house. It’s very cheap, don’t expect it will last decades, but it will fill our house which would otherwise be totally empty. Our house will end up being a homage to FF and Ikea 
So we parted with almost 9k of money and hopefully most of what we need to start with will be delivered to our new home between 3 and 6 weeks time (although I did read some internet reviews that said things could take even longer, but hopefully at least the beds will arrive on time). We went back today as I plotted the modular sofa dimensions on my floorplan I’ve drawn up and it only leaves 50cm clearance between the wall and the sofa and you need to walk past the sofa to get into the dining room. Prob not enough when you’re carrying food past. So we went back in to swap the sofa for a slightly more modest chaise. Annoyingly the price difference in the individual items is $500, but we only got a $235 refund because it was part of a set package, but hey at least I won’t be having to crawl over the sofa whilst carrying spaghetti or something
Happy Easter April 12, 2009
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It’s Easter Sunday! Hurray! Today we celebrate (as with every day in fact) that we are saved. Today we remember that “Jesus Lives” – not just because it’s Easter Sunday but you can see that He lives in the way our lives are touched and changed.
In other news – Evie has finally cut her first tooth at 8.5 months after what seems like 3 months of teething.
Moving 01st May April 8, 2009
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Yay – got a phone call this morning. The vendors would like to know if we can move our completion date forward. Excellent as we’d like to move in as soon as. So we’re now completing 01st May instead which means this time next month we’ll be in the house and probably have all the furniture and boxes from the UK too. It’ll be like Christmas day with all the boxes to unwrap – and it will be a partial surprise what’s in them as I can’t even remember. Can’t wait. Hubby and I have been looking at lots of furniture and stuff for the new house. Just got to reign in the budget a bit (hubby’s not allowed to go buy a projector and build a cinema room).
Since when did Bunnings sell TVs? April 5, 2009
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Hubby went out to Bunnings (big DIY place) today to get some stuff to fix the downstairs laundry sink leak. He came back 2 hrs later with a 42″ plasma TV. He got it for our new house’s rumpus. Actually it was on offer at KMart for $799 and is the Telefunken one. I’d say the picture quality wasn’t particularly high end and the edges were a little blurry when viewed from right in front of the telly. But seeing as it’s going in a room where the sofa is 4m away from the TV it’s gonna be fine. Mostly it’s for everyday telly watching (not DVDs, cinema experience) and probably playing Wii (which isn’t particularly high resolution anyway). The brightness and contrast are good though as we managed to watch in bright daylight without having to close curtains or strategically position chairs/coats etc For just shy of AU$800 it’s pretty good. Half the time it’ll prob just end up having “In the Night Garden” on it when Evie works out how to work the DVD player. She’s 8 months old and she’s already worked out how to open the “secret” control panel of her uncle’s VHS player. She’s an engineer always taking things apart (just like her Mummy) ;
Happy Birthday April 3, 2009
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It’s my Dad’s 75th birthday and my Sister’s 21+st birthday (ahem, 34th) today! So happy birthday to you both. We’ve sent some little pressies to my sis via Amazon and Evie recorded a special birthday message for Kong Kong (better than the same old ecard).
We also got the survey results back for the house (building and pest report). Looks like the house is in good nick – yes it’s old and will need maintenance but it’s not infested nor falling over. So we’re good to go with the purchase. Gave them the rest of the 10% deposit and now our bank balance is looking much less impressive (50k+ less) – ah well soon it’ll be even less impressive when we complete. Think we’ll have just enough to furnish (cheaply via Ikea and Fantastic Furniture) and have a little set aside for rainy days. It’s hard to gauge how much we’ll have each month till we get bills and more settled. Then I’ll be able to work out how much we can put aside for Evie savings too. Poor Evie’s piggy bank has not been fed for 4 months (well, it has been on a boat somewhere AWOL). Our container of stuff should dock in Sydney on Monday. All being well we’ll move in and then get our stuff delivered. Can’t wait.
