Gracie’s Life Experiment

Today was exactly as Friday’s should be.  Woke up and was happy as hubby has landed his ideal job in Oz starting in Jan cos his new school is willing to wait for him (hurray we won’t be penniless, or should that be centless when we emigrate).  Plenty of time before work to clear away kitchen stuff and have a nice bowl of cereal.  Rocked into work around 9.30.  Got lots of 1/2 jobs done before lunch.  Pub lunch (mmm Griffin fishfinger sandwiches).  Sloth off back to work at 1.30pm.  Shut down, back up work folders onto external harddrive.  Enjoy shutting down PC knowing that there’s no work for 3 days (yay for Bank Holidays).  Bugger off by 2.30.  Get home and have a nap.  Give piano lesson.  Make simple pasta dinner.  Go round to friend’s house for drinking (no alcohol for me though), Sci-Fi TV and board games.  And EXCELLENT Friday!

Summary of the day: Was chilled

No, not a job for me (I’m pretty much set for the next year on maternity leave).  Today hubby got a phone call from the school in Sydney he had a couple of interviews for at Easter.   They’ve offered him a job and have put a contract in the post.  Hurray.  But also boo as they want him to start in Term 4 (which is 1/2 way through Easter).  Unfortunately hubby has to give 1 full-term’s notice and that would have been latest 6th April.  D’oh so now we have some big decisions to make.  Obviously we don’t want to miss the opportunity and have to think about the future, but we don’t want to be in breach of contract and leave on bad terms.  And we need to be able to get everything in place much quicker now.  So this week’s 10 things are 10 items of information that will help us make the decision:

1. Will his present school release him from his contract without the required notice (given that the notice would be 4 months that’s quite a long time)?
2. Will the new school be prepared to wait another term without hubby?
3. What happens if hubby breaches his contract? Will it be worth the school bothering to sue?
4. Can hubby bypass his principles?
5. When will the baby get here?
6. Will we be able to get a passport and child visa before end of Sept? (within 2 months of birth)
7. Now we’ve booked our tickets to Oz in December, will we be able to change these/get a refund?
8. What are the exact terms and conditions of the new school’s contract?
9. Will we have somewhere to stay if we turn up in Oz in October?
10. When would we need to book dog into quarantine and put house on market?

Actually there are far more questions and it’s a bit scary that we may have to move so soon. Hubby has asked present school about releasing him from contract early and they said no, but are going to think about it. He’s also contacted new school to see if there’s anyway they can wait till January term instead. It feels a bit helpless as we’re just waiting to get these various bits of info.

Summary of the day: Got phone call from new school headmaster, Work, Sat through very difficult mediation meeting with students (total group breakdown), Got home late, Knackered, Hubby foraged takeaway (naughty), Worried, worried, realised there was nothing we could do, but still worried some more.

So 2 weeks ago we left to go to Oz.  Sadly our time is up and it’s time to go home.  We had to get up at stupid o’clock again (think it was about 5am) to get to the airport.  What happened after that was a bit of a weird anomoly of a day again.  We flew from Sydney to Seoul, took about 10 hrs I think.

Hopefully we will be moving out in December, so it’s not a case of leaving forever because we’re coming back again.  Shame that there’s so much other stuff to do before then (getting PhD, having baby, selling house, packing stuff, etc).

Summary of the day: Sat on plane!

There’s a new treetop walk that opened last month near Wollongong.  My brother had the day off so we decided to go for a day trip.  Hmm, it wasn’t really that near Wollongong after all as it took about 2 hrs to get there from the Bundeena in the Royal National Park.  We did stop at a rather nice pie shop in Robertson though.  As poms we hadn’t encountered the famous Aussie “meat pie” yet.  I had a steak, cheese and bacon pie which was scrummy.  The pies were kind of shortcrust and crunchy on the bottom with puff pastry on the top (so not at all like the soggy pukka pies you get in the chippy).  John had a steak one followed by a dessert pie (I think it was blackcurrant or something).  The shop must do very well as it was in the middle of nowhere!

The Illawarra Fly tree top walk is a big steel walkway that is elevated 25m above the forest floor, so you’re literally walking around at the top of the forest.  I wonder though what happens when the trees grow higher, will it then be an “almost” treetop walk?  It was pretty cool and a bit scary (especially the cantalever bits where my brother insisted on walking at odd frequencies to make it resonate/bounce).  As it’s only just opened it wasn’t too busy.  I can’t imagine what it would be like with loads of people on it at the same time as some of the walkways were quite narrow and passing would have to be done single file (provided no one had stopped along the way to take a photo).

Summary of the day: Went to the tree top walk, Had pies (mmm), Went to a microbrewery in Wollongong (to appease John’s cravings for real ale - yes, you can find it in Oz, and no it isn’t fizzy), Went out to a Persian restaurant for dinner

We had a fab day doing the “tourist” thing in Sydney. We got one of those Daytripper travel passes ($16 for all bus/ferry/train) and discounts off some of the attractions. We went on the ferry to Taronga Zoo (15% off the daytripper). It was really hot, but not actually too busy. Unfortunately the Southern Oceans exhibit wasn’t open yet and all the sea creatures were being acclimatised into their new homes so we didn’t get to see any of them. The rest of it was pretty cool and we got loads of piccies of all the weird fauna (inc John posing in front of monkeys as is the tradition). Still think Melbourne Zoo was better, but maybe that’s cos 1/3 of the zoo was closed.

[Edit: found out on Thursday that it was the grand opening of the Southern Oceans exhibit - d'oh 2 days too late for us]

Summary of the day: Went to the Zoo! Had a burger for dinner (it’s mad, the standard Aussie burger has loads of onions, cheese, relish, salad and the most humungous slice of beetroot I’ve ever seen)

It was an absolute scorcher today in Sydney (well, it was about 28 deg which is warm for us Poms).  We got up early (I did, everyone else was hungover from last night’s dinner).  We went for a refreshing swim to wash out the cobwebs.  My brother’s house in Bundeena is about 3 mins walk from the beach (I think Gunyah beach) and about 10 mins to Jibben beach.  The water wasn’t too cold (the river house pool is much colder) but was so salty my eyes were stinging and running with tears.  My skin stung like hell as well, but I think it’s meant to be good for the eczema. 

We were meant to be getting the ferry from Bundeena to Cronulla to get lunch but my brother neglected to tell us what time it left, which gave us only 3 mins to get to the end of the pier.  Only he made it on time by running down.  John got to about 1/2 way down the pier.  I got to the top of the road (could just about see the pier) by the time the ferry left.  Why do these men not seem to understand that the baby bump does not seem to have proper shock absorption properties for me (fine for baby).  Everytime I got past a certain speed it was bouncing all over the place.  Then it went really really firm and was quite sore.  Spent the rest of the day feeling terrible, various extremities started to swell up and had to lie down and sleep.  Shrimp punished me for the rough ride by kicking lots.

Summary of the day:  Went to the beach, Had yum cha, Felt bad and napped all afternoon, Watched Little Britain Live DVD in the evening.

Earth Hour is a big thing in Australia.  It was on all the news and telly for the week.  Basically from 8-9pm everyone switches off all the lights and extraneous electronic goods to save some energy.  It’s quite nice as you get to eat by candlelight.  Was spectacular at by brother’s house as we ate on the upper balcony and had views across the water to Cronulla and even further Sydney CBD.  When Earth Hour started it was really impressive as it went very dark on the horizon (no orange glow from the city) and after 5 mins of eyes acclimatising there were so many stars in the sky.  It’ll take some getting used to identifying the constellations of the Southern Hemisphere.

We had a dinner party where each person made a certain dish and each rated each other’s food.  Sadly we didn’t win, but at least we ended up with a mark in the +ve integers.  My brother got -ve marks for his course (oysters - although I got served a lump of cold tofu in an oyster blob shape, pretty grim).  Everyone else got absolutely blottoed as each course also had to go with a selected alcohol (we did bloody marys). 

Summary of the day: Met up with Dick (hubby’s teacher friend who moved to Sydney last year) for lunch, Went grocery shopping for dinner party, Went to Bundeena house, Ended up doing gardening for bruv before other guests arrived (John got bestowed with the strimmer, I got a weeder tool), Did Earth Hour whilst having a dinner party (which ended up lasting 5 hrs - we didn’t get onto the dessert course till 1am!).

How is it even when I am on holiday, I still have household chores to do?  Today after the knackeringness (new adjective created by Gracie) of the last couple of days we decided to have a lazy day round the Shire.  The only stipulation from my brother was that we had to track down a new fluro tube for the cooker hood.   So we headed off towards Caringbah to find the mysterious Bunnings (which wasn’t on the road my brother said it was).   Ended up at Miranda (which is a massive shopping centre) for a couple of hours looking for hardware, having coffee and cakes, and buying fresh food from the market.  On the way back we passed some more shops and noticed a whole row of hardware stores - duh!  Managed to get some of the stuff we needed, but still no bloody tube!  Just as we were about to give up we drove past a Lighting store on the way towards Sutherland and managed to find a couple of the correct size (hurray).  Came back to start work on the chores (only 2.5 hrs after we popped out to find stuff).  So now my brother has a cooker hood with a light, a new clothes line (one that doesn’t have 17 knots in and isn’t 15 years old)  a flyscreen that actually slides, and as I’m writing John is fixing the pool gate (it doesn’t shut securely).  Little things my brother doesn’t seem to have time to do himself.  It was actually quite useful driving around as we are familiarising ourselves with the locality which will be good when we move out here in December.

Summary of the day:  Went out to find some bits n bobs, Drove round aimlessly looking for hardware store, Got stressed out at the shopping centre,  Hung the washing out (wow, the washing doesn’t sag down onto the ground now), Swam in the afternoon, Went out for dinner to meet up with GH’s friends.

So, we took the Zeemer (BMW Z3) for a spin down the coast today.  We had a lovely drive through the Royal National Park and went on the Sea Cliff Road Bridge nr Oxted.  We stopped at this fabulous pub/hotel called the Scarborough Hotel that had the most fantastic views - it was set on the road side with nothing between the buildings and garden but a cliff face to the sea.  We even managed to get one of the tables right at the edge.  Drove through to Wollongong by the scenic route and went to Future Eco-Technology World which was all about renewable energy usage and saving energy in the home (it was mostly for kids, but with hubby a Physics Teacher and me having various students doing these kinds of things it was great for getting some ideas).  Drove on down to Shell Harbour which was very small and quite quaint really.  The weather was great (not too hot) and we had the lid off the car which was wonderful.

Summary of the day: Woke up, Went for a drive, Came back, Made leftovers into pasta. Felt knackered.

Today was a scary day for hubby.  He had an interview at Cranbrook School in Sydney (which is very prestigious and a bit posh).  He didn’t know what the job was nor when it would start or anything, we just got an email from them asking him to come for a chat.  He had his interview and was quite happy (even though they are looking for a Science/Biology teacher and he teaches Physics).  Not really sure how it went though, seems to be a bit of a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” kind of affair so not holding out too much hope.  Although if he gets a job then that would be a load off our minds.  It won’t be fun moving out in December with a 5 month old baby and no job to support us!  Whilst hubby went for interview, GH and I went for a pose around Double Bay area.  Now, the area is something akin to Knightsbridge in London.  Even the simple, 2 up 2 down terrace houses there are $2.2m (~1m GBP) so there’s no way we can afford to live round there!  Was a really lovely area, lots of cafes and boutiques.  There was even a poodle parlour and we stopped to watch a little black and white dog being coiffeurred (reminded me of Mocha, apart from this dog was not misbehaving).

Summary of the day:  Went to Double Bay, Hung around posing, Went for late Yum Cha lunch in China town,  Had dinner party with brother’s neighbours