Christmas Highlights

Jessie and Goofy are not the only two characters to have joined our household over the last couple of months.  A few days after we first brought Jessie home we rescued a young couple from the Wicked Witch of the West(ern Australia).  Adam and Coralee both used to work with Barnadi at the Green Park Brasserie in Bath and the have recently been travelling the globe.  Their first stop in Australia was Perth where they stayed with Coralee's Aunty and although she might describe herself as a witch, she is not really that wicked.  She believed the place where Adam had been working was haunted, so every night would have to perform an exorcism in order to purge the house of the evil spirits he inadvertently brought back with him.  The tensions eventually got too great and so they cut their time in Perth short by a couple of months and came to stay with us, just in time for Christmas.

Instead of staying at home to cook Christmas dinner Barnadi decided this year he wanted a traditional Aussie Christmas, a BBQ on the beach.  Instead of going to the overly popular and crowded beaches like St Kilda or Brighton, Barnadi had a very specific stretch of coast line in mind, the Bellarine peninsula.  The little bit of land that sticks out into Port Phillip bay just south of Geelong is a very underrated bit of coastline, with more people heading down its counterpart the Mornington.  It is quite a long drive so we had planned to leave early, but unfortunately Adam and Coralee had other ideas, they had gone out on Christmas eve and were not prepared to be seeing anything of the day until after noon. Even once they were up, the journey was pretty torturous with sudden turns bringing on waves on nausea in our hung-over back seat companions.  By the time we arrived at the Bellarine peninsula, the hangovers had lifted, but all the available BBQs were in use.  So instead we found a nice quite beach hidden behind a small cliff and went for a swim/paddle in the calm shallow waters.  Goofy was a little undecided over his first swim but he took to it like a duck to water, or in his case a dog to water.  As we came back up from our swim we saw that all the BBQs had become available and so a Christmas dinner of Sausages, steak, lamb and turkey burgers could go ahead.  With suitably full bellies my four passengers slept the whole way home. 

Starting a family

I would be the first to admit when we started looking to buy our own house, one of my biggest incentives was being able to have pets.  Proper pets I mean, of the mammalian variety (no offence to our lovely goldfish Lilo, Lila and all that have gone before).  No sooner had we moved in to our new house than we begun looking, but problems beseeched us every step of the way.  Promising adverts for free kittens ended up leading to disappointment when we called to find they had all been taken.  Puppies became available, but not in the breeds or colours Barnadi was after.  We got close to getting a kitten from one of Barnadi's customers at work, but it ran away from home before we could even pick it up.  Our search went on a back burner as pre-booked holidays approached and priorities got realigned. 

Then on a perfectly ordinary Saturday I opened up Gumtree and saw her, one of a litter of four ginger kittens, available immediately.  Cautiously, after previous disappointment, I phoned the number on the advert and spoke to an old Greek man who informed me there were still two left and it was a first come first served operation, so if we were interested we should head over.  We didn't need to be asked twice and got straight into the car.  When we arrived we were shown around the side of the house by the old man's daughter and entered what appeared to be a zoo of domesticated animals, rabbits, birds, dogs and eventually the kittens.  There where still two left and despite Barnadi's desire to take them both, the old man informed us someone else was also on their way, so he couldn't give us both.  He handed me the slightly larger of the two, a completely ginger kitten and unto Barnadi he bestowed the smaller ginger and white kitten, with whom he instantly fell in love.


Jessie

"Don't ask me what sex they are" grumbled the old Greek man as we pondered the decision of which of the two irresistibly cute bundles we would take with us.  To Barnadi however, it was no contest, the kitten in his arms won outright with her white socks and bright blue eyes (which incidentally have no turned green).  The kitten cried and hid under Barnadi's jacket the whole way home, whilst we discussed unisex names, a quick look indicated the kitten was female, but it wouldn't be the first time a mistake like that has been made.  Using one of my own middle names as inspiration we decided on Jessie, or Jess for short.  Once we were out the car and we had her fed and watered and settled in she started to look a little more relaxed and even begun to purr.  This is how we adopted our first child.





Goofy

Barnadi has always wanted to get another dog, preferably a border collie in either brown or blue Merle.  I have never had a dog, but out of principle have always been in favour of cross breeds.  The same weekend we found Jess we found another advert for a litter of 11 border collie and maremma cross puppies.  In one of the photo's on the advert sat away from the rest of the litter was a fawn, white and black boy, which as soon as Barnadi saw, he knew had to be the one.  We phoned straight away, not expecting to get that lucky twice in a row, but all the puppies were available including the one in the photo that they had already christened Goofy.  The puppies weren't going to be ready to take away from their mother for another couple of weeks, but to ensure they kept Goofy for us we put down a deposit.  The two weeks seemed to drag on and on, but in that time Jess got braver and braver exploring more of the house and garden, and making it hers.  Then the day came that we could pick up Goofy, so we got up early and drove down to Frankston, he was the last of the litter to be collected and his mother watched us with immense distrust and resentment as we walked off with her last remaining baby.  The trauma of being separated from his mother affected Goofy as badly as it had affected Jessie and he cried and cried in the car.  We did not go straight home however as we had driven so far we stopped and had lunch in Mornington before heading off. 

The introduction between Goofy and Jessie was an unnerving experience, we first brought Goofy around the back into the garden, then I went to fetch Jess.  She came out bounding around as usual, until suddenly she saw him.  The transformation was instantaneous.  Her back arched, her hair stood on end and her whole body shook with terror.  I took her back inside quickly and calmed her down.  Once she was calm I took her back this time to the kitchen window, when she saw him it immediately elicited the same reaction.  So we gave her a bit more time to calm herself back down before we tried again.  This time Barnadi held Goofy and I held Jess and we edged closer to each other until they could cautiously sniff each other.  That night they slept side by side as if they had been friends for life.  They still fight like Cats and Dogs during the day, but as they sleep they are like angels.  This is how we adopted our second child.

Little Angels?

It seems we are now well and truly settled into our life in Australia, we both have full time permanent jobs, we have our own house and we have now started our own family.  What more could we possibly need.

Trick or Treat

Halloween is not anything I have ever before paid much attention to except through the Simpsons or other American sitcoms.  Usually Halloween night involves closing all the curtains, turning all the lights off and pretending I'm not at home.  This year was no exception, Barnadi was working and I was home alone, sitting watching TV in the dark and trying to ignore the doorbell. After the third pack of trick or treaters had been and gone, I get a call from Barnadi to inform me he had bought some chocolates for the very purpose of giving to our neighbours kids.  An unexpected change of heart from Barnadi based on an idea that now we have bought a house we should be more friendly and involved with the local community.  So for the final ring of the door bell I reluctantly opened the door to a little 5 year old devil and his big sister and filled his pumpkin basket with as many chocolates as he could carry.

We have been experiencing a lot of treats ourselves of late, making use of presents we received almost a year ago.  The first was a night down at Lindenderry winery at Red Hill, and the second a 5 course dinner at Estelle restaurant in Northcote.

Lindenderry, Red Hill

Driving down the Eastlink last weekend, it looked at first like we had picked a bad day to use our voucher for a night down the Mornington Peninsula, the rain getting heavier the further south we went.  But as we arrived in Portsea in time for lunch the weather had pretty much dried up.  After some fish and chips we drove on into the Nepean park where we parked our car at the Nepean cemetery and took a walk along the beach and over the hills towards Fort Pearce an old abandoned military barracks.  We didn't get as far as Fort Nepean or the tip of the peninsula however, as we hoped to get back to Red Hill into time for afternoon tea which was being served from 2-4pm.  We pulled up at the winery with only minutes to spare after a longer than expected winding journey up Arthurs seat  road and enjoyed High Tea in the library.   The Voucher also included dinner in their restaurant, Barnadi wasn't too impressed with his starter, but we both enjoyed our mains, and the bottle of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc went down well.  The following day rained and so we headed home earlier than planned, after a little detour through Point Leo and some other smaller towns on the eastern coast of the peninsula.

Last night we caught the tram down to our old home of Northcote for a posh 5 course degustation menu at Estelle restaurant.  The courses seemed small, but were surprisingly filling, and with a "snack" at the start and the end it ended up being 7 courses.  Our meal included a starter of corn and fetta, some tuna shishami, a beautiful steak and a flavoursome fillet of john dory.  The New Zealand Pinot Gris  was a good accompaniment and the cocktails that followed left us feeling rather merry as we headed out into the fresh air to get our tram home.  Unfortunately the tram was cancelled due to an accident somewhere along the line, so we were forced to stay out and enjoy a few more drinks.  Time slipped away and we didn't crawl into bed until 3 this morning.

Throw another shrimp on the barbie

Being born in October and growing up in the northern hemisphere, the concept of being able to celebrate my birthday with a BBQ was something I had never even contemplated.  Yet here we are living it up in the southern hemisphere, swapping the unpredictable Autumn weather of Bath to the equally unpredictable Spring weather of Melbourne.  So as a combined birthday and very belated housewarming celebration, we opened up our house and garden to around 50 of our friends for a BBQ of epic proportions.



A selection of Barnadi's baking

Barnadi went all out in preparation, baking, cooking and decorating to create an event that was so well prepared it seemed almost effortless.  A clever illusion.  All that preparation payed off as the weather not only stayed dry, but it was the hottest day so far this Spring, the only downside was the insatiable wind that insisted on either popping or blowing away all the balloons, and removing all the table cloths.  The turn out was much better than I could have expected, with several friends we hadn't had a chance to catch up with since we first moved to Australia making the effort. 


Still in order to keep with tradition for my birthday itself, it rained.

Life goes on

Nine months ago I started taking Isoniazid to treat latent TB that was diagnosed after I started working at the Alfred hospital.  Today I took my very last dose, my liver is still intact, I still have complete feeling in all my peripheries and I can finally start to enjoy the pleasures of alcohol again.  But did the treatment work or do I still have latent TB?  The answer to that question is something I will never know, as I now have antibodies to the mycobacterium that causes TB I will always give a positive result to the Quantiferon Gold test.

With the mixed sunny/wet weather our garden is going crazy, with the lawn needing mowing almost every week, all 45 rose bushes coming into bloom and a never ending supply of limes.  We have even set up a small veggie patch at the back where we are growing 4 varieties of tomatoes, courgettes, spring onions, carrots and radishes, add this to the banana plant, rhubbarb, 2 chilli plants, peach tree, lemon tree, lime tree, passion fruit vine, cherry tree and plum tree we are well on the way to becoming self sufficient, at least in the way of fresh produce.

Barnadi is becoming increasingly addicted to Groupon, spotting deals for items he has never even thought about wanting before, and instantly realising he can't live without them.  It is not just items that Groupon sells, but tickets to events, activities and experiences.  It was on Groupon that Barnadi found a deal for a half day photo tour, which we both attended on a beautiful sunny Sunday.  Starting at Federation Square and ending along Southbank, the course covered all the basics in exposure. We both learnt a lot on the course and I have definitely noticed a change in the quality of both mine and Barnadi's photos.

With the financial security of having a permanent contract, and no longer needing to save every penny to put into a deposit on a house, Barnadi and I have started to exploit the cultural offerings that Melbourne provides, going to the theatre twice in the last week.  On Wednesday we went to watch the Graduate at her majesty's theatre, which was an unfortunate disappointment, much better was the Opera Cho Cho we went to see on Saturday at the Arts Centre.  Cho Cho is a collaborative piece sung in both Chinese and English, and is a reinvention of the classic opera Madam Butterfly.

A bird in the hand

We got back to Australia in time for the general election, as I am not an Australian citizen I have no vote, but for Barnadi who is, it is his legal obligation that he votes.  It wont come as a surprise to anyone following Australian politics over the last few years, but Tony Abbott and the Liberal party won the election.  The constant infighting between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd destroyed any credibility the Labour party had detracting from all the positives the party had achieved during its time in power.  Perhaps the more surprising outcome is the large number of smaller parties that have secured seats in the senate.  Australian voting works on an overly complicated preference system which means you either vote for every single candidate in order of preference (this year the ballot contained approximately 100 names), or you vote for your preferred party and accept their preferences.  Now most people will not have had the time or the motivation to study all 100 of these candidates, so the majority of voters will just take their preferred party's vote.  This allows parties and other independent candidates to make a series of convoluted preferences deals until you get to the point where the Motor Enthusiasts Party (whose sole policy is to allow drivers to make any modifications to their cars they like with no let or hindrance) gets a seat in the senate.

While Barnadi was busy helping decide the fate of the country, I was busy taking actions to decide my own fate.  Once again, I returned home to Australia to go straight into a job interview.  The interview was for a permanent position as a grade 2 clinical trials pharmacist at the Alfred hospital.  I did not go into the interview with much hope, my last few interviews have all turned into unmitigated disasters.  Despite my previous track record, the interview seemed to go surprisingly well and I left feeling unusually confident, but as the days went by and I heard no news one way or the other my confidence began to slip again.  Exactly one week after the interview I was called back into my bosses office to discuss the outcome, where she seemed even more shocked than I was at how well my interview went.  Rather than just offering me the clinical trials job (which would be a more office based job) she suggested that I should reapply for the current clinical pharmacist vacancy (the job I currently do).  So my options were to take the job on offer in clinical trials, or risk it for another chance to remain as a clinical pharmacist.  It didn't take me long to make up my mind, and so I will start my new job as a clinical trials pharmacist in March, after the current rotation ends.

The Scent of the Jasmine

Whilst we were back in the UK spring has finally arrived in Melbourne, the fruit trees have erupted into blossom and the early morning air is filled with bursts of fragrant Jasmine.  A positive sign that things are changing for the better.

Our time in the UK, was short but sweet, starting with a night in London to get over our jet lag and catch up with our friends who reside there followed by a wedding in Bath and an introduction to the newest member of the family in Kent.  But I am getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning.  Our flight with Qatar left late at night and was a turbulent affair leaving little opportunity for rest.  A brief stop over in Doha airport did little to ease the journey, not helped in the slightest by the excessively long bus ride from the plane to the terminal building and back again. It seems the people who designed Doha airport thought it would be a good idea to park the planes as far from the terminal building as possible.  The second leg of the journey was shorter and smoother and we arrived in London on a warm and Sunny afternoon.

After a short rest and freshen up in our tiny but centrally located hotel room, our first reunion was with our friend Pereta who we met for dinner at an Indonesian warung, before going for drinks at the Yard.  To be honest only Barnadi was drinking, as I am still on the Isoniazid and Pereta claims to be genetically incapable of tolerating alcohol.  The next morning we had Brunch with Graham in our favorite London cafe Ballans, walking it off along the Southbank before getting on the train back to Bath, the home Barnadi and I shared for nearly 8 years.

Bath, a city that will always be in my heart and the one place in the UK that I still think of as home.  We had returned to Bath on this occasion for the wedding of our friends Martin and Laura.  Our hosts for this visit were David and Kirsty, unfortunately we arrived too early to be guests in the new house they have just procured.  It does seem that house buying is the new fashion as Martin and Laura have also been busy shopping for property, as if planning a wedding wasn't enough to occupy their time with.  The wedding itself, although sometimes a little unorthodox in its choice of entertainment, went well with everyone having a good time.  I don't think anything could have wiped the grin off Laura's face that day.

For us however the most exciting part of the trip was yet to come.  On the day after the wedding, after catching up with Gemma and Dan as well as the rest of the remaining Green Park Brasserie gang, we headed back to Kent to visit my sister Rachel and her 4 month old son, Owen, my newest and cutest nephew.  At only 4 months old there were still so many things for him to do for the first time and we managed to get a lot of them done in our short visit; his first ride on a bus; his first trip to the seaside; his first game of pooh sticks.  So although I couldn't get him walking (despite my best attempts), he still achieved a lot.  It is only a shame that at 4 months old he is unlikely to remember us, especially as our next trip back to the UK wont be for another two years at least.  We will therefore have to rely on the power of Skype to ensure he doesn't forget who we are.

My nephew, Owen.

We returned back to Melbourne late at night, ready to start back at work the next day with a new found optimism, longer days and warmer weather being just the start.  Potential new job opportunities and only a month left of my TB treatment to go, things are finally starting to look up.

Imagine

Walking back home from Narai Thai, noticing the tangle of overhead power cables, suddenly brought back a vivid memory from my early childhood, when I would pretend the telephone wires were giant spiderwebs and equally giant spiders were hiding just out of sight ready to pounce if you strayed too near.  A seemingly obscure memory, but it just brought home to me how much my imagination has declined with age.  Has an entire adulthood of strictly following policies, guidelines and evidenced based practice sapped any ability for original thought from my brain.  But it's not just my imagination that is suffering with age, my memory is also far from what it used to be.  Back in my school days I could sit in class barely paying attention and I would absorb all the necessary information like a sponge, revision was completely unnecessary for me.  I would learn all my lines for a play in one night while sitting in the bath, lines I can still recite to this day:

"Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

And 'ere a man hath power to say "Behold!"

The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion."

So why is it that now I struggle to remember the simplest things? I am thinking it must be a combination of both these factors that has left me in my current state of poor performance in job interviews.

Another of our fish died this weekend, poor Lili succumbed to a fungal infection, we had just started treatment when we noticed the furry white mould appear under her left gill on Saturday morning, but by Saturday night she was belly up.  Lilo and Lila are still doing fine.

Desperate Housewives

I am beginning to think we should rename our street Wisteria Lane, while I have been at work Barnadi has been busy getting to know the neighbourhood.  So after a busy morning gardening, getting the vegetable patch ready for spring, he joins our next door neighbour Barry for a cup of tea and a gossip.  Now Barry and his wife first moved into his house back in the 1970's  so he has seen a lot of people come and go, including his own wife, who passed away 13 years ago.  Todays little snippet of gossip however focused on a couple who used to live in the house next to us, now occupied by a Chinese family.  The wife who had been having an affair left and the husband, distraught, ended it all with a bullet to the head.

We have been looking after Sam's dog Lucky again, it brings a nice routine to my evenings, coming home from work, stopping for a coffee at Narai Thai to see Barnadi and then take Lucky for a walk around the park behind the house.  As far as getting our own pets go, we have a cat lined up ready to adopt soon, but we are still searching for the right dog.  Barnadi is quite specific in his requirements for a puppy, he specifically wants a brown and white border collie, with as irregular markings as possible.  Meanwhile our existing pets have decreased down to 3 fish, as Stitch the little yellow catfish died quite unexpectedly last weekend.

And then there were four.

One of the stranger concepts to get your head around while working for an Australian public hospital is that of the ADO (Accrued Day Off).  I am currently contracted to work 40 hours a week, comprising of five 8 hour days, so these are the hours I work.  But rather than do the simple thing of paying me for the 40 hours a weeks' worth of work that I have done, the hospital instead only pays me for 38.  Scandalous.  So what happens to these 2 hours the hospital owes me?  It is accrued.  Every 4 weeks, each member of staff is entitled to an extra day off.  This all sounds fair enough, but what really baffles me is that it is a struggle to get time off for annual leave as it is, so why develop a system which gives everyone even more time off, that then needs to be covered.  Surely paying everyone for the hours they work upfront would save this massive administrative headache of trying to cover all the gaps caused by excessive amounts of staff having to take an extra day of leave each month.  Needless to say, I was very grateful for the ADO I had last week.

As I work all day and Barnadi doesn't start work until the evening, it leaves Barnadi a lot of time to do stuff for the house by himself, such as working on the garden, decorating the rooms and shopping.  With the excessive amount of extra work I have been putting in recently, I have been feeling quite left out when it comes to getting things organised the way we want it.  Making the house feel more like one of Barnadi's projects than something we both have an equal hand in.  This I felt quite intently when I came home one day to find Barnadi had increased the occupancy of our fish bowl to four.  We now have an orange goldfish called Lila and a small yellow catfish called Stich.  Buying pets, even fish, should always be something that we do together.  So on my ADO it was good that we got to do some things together.

Lilo and Lila

We started the day bright and early, although still two hours later than I would normally have to get up for work.  After breakfast Barnadi made me join him in his morning kettle bell exercise regimen.  We then took a very short drive to Greensborough, partly to explore as we had not been there before and it is one of our closest neighbouring suburbs, and partly because Barnadi had heard that Target was selling a sewing machine at 60% off the RRP.  We parked at the plaza in the centre of Greensborough before going for a walk through a nearby park that ran along the edge of the Plenty river, while offsetting all this expenditure of energy by feasting on an almond tart.  The weather was unseasonably warm reaching a high of 22 degrees, and so it was actually nice to get back inside the air conditioned plaza and get down to the business of the day, shopping.  With Barnadi it is impossible to simply go shopping and come home with the one thing we planned to get.  In addition to the sewing machine we got 4 mugs featuring birds of Australia, a Tuscan plate, a 20" by 24" photo frame and maybe a present or two for my newest nephew who we will be visiting in August.

We got back home and Barnadi prepared lunch while I worked out how to thread the sewing machine.  The day was so nice we decided it was impossible to put off mowing the lawn any longer, so a trip to Bunnings in Mill Park was in order to finally acquire a lawn mower.  No sooner had we got to Bunnings than the heavens opened up and a massive thunderstorm hit the northern suburbs of Melbourne.  A boat would have got us home much more safely than a car.  We put off leaving Bunnings as long as we could, purchasing more than just a lawn mower along the way, before resigning ourselves to the fact, the storm wasn't going anywhere. 

The rain still hasn't stopped two days later, although the initial force of the downpour has eased somewhat.  The new lawnmower is trapped inside its' box, waiting to be assembled, while the lawn grows more and more unruly, mocking us and our lack of ability to do anything about it.

Work-a-holic

Due to a series of poorly planned swaps and my over generous nature today is the first day off work I've had since the weekend we moved into our new house.  This is where holding down two jobs (even if one is only two shifts a month) is becoming a real strain on my quality of life.  Yet I cannot risk giving up my work in Epping all while I continue to lack any job security at the Alfred.  This may be about to change as another permanent position has recently been advertised and so once again I applied, the interview for which I had on Thursday.  Like last time however, I did not find out I even had an interview until the morning of the day it was to be held, only this time it turned out to be a couple of case studies rather than a full blown interview.  Plenty of other people have applied, and it is only one position, so I am not getting my hopes up, but this is the third interview I have had since I started working at the Alfred, so if I don't get it this time I need to seriously start to reconsider my future there.

Anyway, for now I am still at the Alfred and one of my biggest problems is to sort out my new longer commute.  Barnadi has taken it upon himself to drive me, originally to Northcote station but more recently all the way to work in the mornings, but I still have to make my own way back.  The options are:

1. Tram then Train (+/- Bus)
2. Tram then Tram
3. Bus then Tram

The first option worked quite well at first, with an express train to Watsonia that arrived just in time to connect with a bus to take me the last little bit of the Journey home.  After the first couple of days I found I missed the express train and so missed the connecting bus, rather than wait for the bus the only option is to walk the remaining distance.
Option two takes a lot longer as the tram is frequently held up by traffic and has more stops than the train.  The tram does come a lot closer to our house and stops just outside Narai Thai so I can pop in to see Barnadi on my way home, and for that reason I am preferring this option for now.
The third option is one I haven't tried yet, but the public transport Victoria journey planner website does indicate it is the quickest.  The downside is that buses are very infrequent and so although the journey itself may be the most direct it will actually take longer with the amount of time I will waste waiting for the bus.

Still work and getting to and from it were the last things on my mind today, today was all about enjoying the new home.  Barnadi has been very busy these past couple of weeks getting everything set up to his own unique tastes.  He is quite keen to get some new furniture to replace some of the IKEA items we purchased when we first arrived in Australia, so today we invested in a new dinning table and chairs as well as some new shelves for the 'Library'.  As well as inside the house we also have lots to get for the outside, with a big front and back garden to look after so a trip to Masters later and we now have a spade, a rake, a saw, shears, secateurs, a step ladder and a hose pipe.  What we still don't have but quite desperately need is a lawn mower.

Our most exciting purchase for the day was Lili and Lilo our two new goldfish.  We haven't dared get any fish for a while after the tragic short lives of Bronzefin and Coppertail, but it seemed right to get some new fish now we are settled in the new house, lets hope they have a longer and fuller life than their predecessors.

Animal Instincts

One thing that Gemma and Dan left us with before heading back to the UK was a pair of tickets to King Kong, a musical production of the classic tale of a giant ape running amok in New York city.  The show has been advertised by the Regent theatre since we arrived in Australia over a year ago, but the show did not open until a week before our settlement and it was the day before settlement that we got to go.  We arrived early as our tickets came with a free cocktail, which I have to confess I broke my abstinence for, it was only a couple of sips so it wouldn't have done any harm, but I do feel a little disappointed that I couldn't manage the whole 9 months completely alcohol free.  I didn't really know what to expect from the show before we went in, although I knew the story of King Kong, I had tried to avoid reading any reviews to reduce the risk of forming any preconceived expectations.  King Kong does not have the best story and the music was good in parts, but it was certainly not the most amazing musical score.  Despite all this I was still suitably impressed the King Kong "puppet", controlled by a massive team of puppeteers moved with a surprising amount of realism, and the animatronic face gave a real sense of emotion.  The thing which really brought the show to life was not the puppet, but the lighting.   The sets themselves were quite basic and very abstract, but by using a unique series of lighting affects the mood and atmosphere was made tangible.

Lucky

We have been in our new house now for 2 weeks and everything is pretty much set up, all our boxes have been unpacked, the majority of the pictures are on the walls and it already looks like we have been living here for years.  So now we can seriously start considering our options for pets, and to help us get used to the idea, we spent the last two nights looking after Sam and Tsaf's dog Lucky while they spent the time down the Mornington Peninsula.  Even though it was only two days it was so nice to have him waiting for me when I got home from work, taking him for  walks and curling up with him on the sofa.  I am now looking forward to getting our own pets even more than ever.

Moving Day

Once again the civil war that is raging inside of Australia's labour party has come to a head as Kevin Rudd makes another challenge for the leadership from Julia Gillard.  Although the leadership challenge is all they can talk about on the news, I have far more important news in my life to consider.  After 3 months of waiting, the settlement on our house has finally arrived and we are now home owners, living in Bundoora. 

Our House

I was unable to get any time off from work and so the move was a gradual process, Barnadi doing several runs during the day with me taking over at night.  With a little help from our friends we had almost everything moved by the end of Saturday so that on Sunday we hired a van (with two men) to shift all the larger pieces of furniture that we couldn't manage on our own.  It didn't take Barnadi long to make the house more homely with the living room quickly being decorated in his usual style.  It has been strange opening up boxes that had been in our garage since we first got to Australia, and seeing possessions we hadn't seen since we left Bath over a year and a half ago, a lot of pictures we couldn't hang while renting amongst many other things.  Still it seems we are nearly at an end to our unpacking with just a few boxes left to go currently stored out of sight in the spare bed rooms. 

There are so many differences with living in Bundoora over Northcote, but perhaps the most obvious change is how much colder it is in Bundoora, one of our first purchases being a portable heater for our bedroom.  As we no longer have a garage we have even had to de-ice our car in the mornings, a job I haven't had to do since leaving England.  Other differences include the length of time it takes me to get to work (much longer) and for Barnadi to get to work (much shorter), the noise (we are no longer on a busy main road), having a garden (not just a small balcony), no stairs (single storey house Vs 3 storey townhouse) and a truly suburban lifestyle (there are no trendy bars or cafes in Bundoora).

So the ballot is back and Kevin Rudd has won the leadership of the labour party and with it he has returned as Prime Minister of Australia.  Julia Gillard, if true to her word, will now resign from politics.  So with an election just around the corner, will this be enough to save the Labour party and prevent Tony Abbot getting into power, or will this continuing farce that has burdened the government have caused irreparable damage, that even Kevin Rudd can not fix.

The Light in Winter

In celebration of the winter solstice Federation square holds an annual series of events during the month of June.  The centrepiece this year is the Helix tree, a twister pillar of lights that respond directly to sound.  Every evening at around 5:30pm a local choir turn up and sing to the tree which starts to glow blue to the gentle sounds of their voices.  As the choir reaches a crescendo the lights change colour from blue to green through a pale pink to a vibrant yellow and red combination.  Once the choir has finished, the floor is opened up to the public to make as much noise as possible as to illicit a response from the tree.  Back in the northern hemisphere, midwinter is celebrated with Christmas and the streets come alive with lights and decorations, but here in the southern hemisphere we have nothing to break the monotony of the long dark nights.  The Light in Winter at least provides us with something to enjoy.

The Helix Tree

My Mother has started phoning me, regular as clockwork every Sunday night.  It started just after we got back from the UK in March and she hasn't missed a week.  I think it may be linked to the little dig we had at her about getting a computer so that we could skype.  Now my Mother is such a technophobe, there is no chance she will ever invest in a computer, so her regular phone calls act as an attempt to meet us halfway.  To be fair to her this is a big deal, as my Mother's technophobia is not limited to computers, she rarely calls anyone for fear of disturbing them and never answers the phone since she acquired an answering machine to screen all her calls.  I can understand the need for call screening, (we got a land line when we signed up to our Internet deal with Telstra and despite receiving a minimum of 3 calls a day on it, every single one of them is a salesman), but it makes it frustrating when trying to contact her.

It is really not long until we move now, and a letter from our lawyers confirming the settlement is booked and giving us our final invoice. In an attempt to explore the area more as well as work out the most practical commuter route, I did a timed walk from the house to Watsonia train station. It turns out google maps is correct and it took approximately 20 minutes. This means that the tram is still the better option, even though it is slower, it is much closer and cheaper (only need a zone 1 ticket, not a zone 1,2 ticket).  Watsonia itself is not a large suburb, but it has a certain charm, it's main shopping street, Watsonia road, runs opposite the train station with a library on the corner and views of the Yarra ranges in the distance. 

Tomorrow is the Queens official birthday and so once again we are getting a public holiday to celebrate that fact, no wonder no-one wanted to become a republic at the last referendum.  But rather than enjoying a nice relaxed three day weekend I have ended up working 2 extra weekend shifts (one in Epping and one at the Alfred) leaving me with a single day weekend instead.  Luckily work was not to busy, but still I had one frightening moment when answering the phone to another expat pharmacist whose response was...."wow, your really starting to sound Australian now..."

In the bleak mid-winter

I have been trying to remember the feelings of excitement and trepidation I had while preparing for our move to Australia over a year and a half ago.  Those days seem so far away now, and it is incredible how quickly the spirit of adventure is quashed by the day to day drudgery of everyday life.  Yet our adventures are far from over, with less than a month to go now until our next big shake up as we move to our new house in Bundoora.  The long 3 month wait until settlement, although useful in allowing us to save up enough money to cover our stamp duty and conveyancing fees, has caused fatigue to set in.  What should be filling me with even more joy is that once we have our own house we can seriously start looking for a pet (or two).  Barnadi has now decided exactly what type of dog he wants, specifically a brown and white collie, I however will be happy with just a cat, any cat.
Yet despite all this I have been having trouble shaking the melancholy that has been overshadowing my life since our last trip back to the UK.

Winter has officially begun in Australia, heralded in by a massive storm that brought a months worth of rain to the state of Victoria within the course of a single night.  Sitting at home with the lights off, listening to the power of the rain crashing down on the tin roof and the thunder rattling the windows, feeling invigorated by the awesome power of nature I realised it was a time for change.  A change of attitude to go with the change in seasons.  Unfortunately such changes are easier said than done.

Eurotrash

Melbourne's Metro are currently running an advertising campaign promoting safety on the railways known as 'Dumb Ways to Die', around all the train stations are images of Mr Men-like characters all meeting some terrible and tragic end.  Unfortunate deaths include everything from poking a bear with a stick to extracting toast from the toaster with a metal fork, from removing your helmet in outer space to eating an out of date pie.  What I didn't realise until recently is that if you go to the website they even have a cheesy little song.  Some of the 'Dumb Ways to Die' even involve trains.

From one cheesy song to a whole continents worth of cheesy songs, it was the Eurovision song contest this weekend.  I knew it was coming up, but did not realise until the first semi-final came on SBS on Friday night that it was so soon.  Back in the UK I had always watched the competition, and in later years shared the enjoyment with my friends David and Kirsty who had taken to holding Eurovision parties.  Even last year we joined them by pure coincidence as we had arrived back in Bath for Gemma and Dan's wedding on the night of the Eurovision live final.  This year however was our first year watching it in Australia, and although it seems strange that Australians would even be interested in such a kitsch European festival we were glad they did.  Anyway it was while watching the semi-finals that I noticed Athina pop online and I suddenly had the brain wave to host my own mini Eurovision party, it didn't take Athina or Sam much convincing and so although small I suddenly had a Eurovision party to plan.  Our house is hardly set up for a party at the moment with only a month left until settlement and everything in boxes, my first job however was to get the decorations in order.  Now a single string of bunting containing the flags of all the finalists might not seem like much effort, but then you are not taking into account the stress involved when dealing with a colourblind printer that insists on inverting the colours on your own national flag.  Decorations finally sorted I needed to consider food, and Barnadi was working so it was down to me to don an apron and oven gloves and whip up a feast in the kitchen.....well a quiche.  Food done all that was left to do was print the score cards and wait for the guests (all 2 of them) to arrive.

Eurovision Decorations

The only drawback of watching Eurovision in Australia is that it is not streamed live, and so the results are already out in the public sphere before it comes on.  Sam had unfortunately checked out the BBC news website earlier in the day and accidentally discovered the winner before the night.  I did my best to avoid finding out, switching the TV off when the news came on and avoiding all British media outlets, but all this counted for nothing when someone from work sent an instant message on facebook and ruined the night for me.  This just left Athina in the dark.  In order not to spoil her night I continued to play along as if I hadn't already found out the winner, but inside I was still seething.  The show was its usual mix of power ballads and cheesy dance tunes, including a Finish lesbian kiss, a levitating soprano Romanian vampire and Greeks in kilts.  My favorite tune however was the Netherlands entry, a slightly unusual ballad in a minor key.  The best song of all though wasn't even an entry in the competition, but sung by the presenter during the interval, a comedic look at all Sweden had to offer.  After what must have been the quickest ever counting of the votes I have ever seen, Denmark was officially announced as the winner.

Taken on A Merri Ride

We are sitting back at home with aching legs and feeling more than a little sore in the saddle.  For my Birthday last year Barnadi bought me a bicycle, but since then we haven't had much of a chance to use it.  My own personal love of cycling ended at the age of 12 when I flew over the handlebars and landed face first in the road, snapping my two front teeth in half.   Every time I tried to ride a bike after that day I felt very unsteady and so I stopped riding altogether.  The next time I rode a bike wasn't until just over a year ago in Cambodia, when we hired two bikes to cycle around Angkor Wat, and with the exception of the rear tire blowing out on our last day I coped surprisingly well.  I guess once you learn you never forget how, kind of like, well, ridding a bike.



Dights Falls

Barnadi didn't have to work today and the weather was cool but dry, so we decided it was time to get the bikes out and make the most of living in Northcote while we still can and take them down the Merri creek.  We have walked along the Merri creek several times, but we have never got that far, my goal was always to get down to the Yarra bend park.  As we started out along the cycle track Barnadi couldn't help but draw comparisons to cycling along the banks of the river Avon or the Kennet and Avon canal in Bath.  The path meandered with plenty of options for wrong turns as it criss-crossed back and forth over the creek, sometimes veering away before doubling back again.  As the valley got deeper it was possible at times to feel you were out in the bush and not getting closer and closer to the CBD, the only clues to the proximity of urban life being the massive bridges spanning the gorge.  We reached the Yarra bend park and stopped for a picnic comprising crispy noodles and assorted pieces of fruit that Barnadi brought with him.  Rather than heading straight back up the Merri creek however we decided to continue along the Yarra river which took us all the way out to Burnley before doubling back towards the city again.  It was two hours from when we set out that we finally pulled into Federation square which was currently exhibiting a selection of emergency shelters outside and a fair trade market inside.  Located in federation square are two museums ACMI and a branch of the NGV (the Ian Potter Gallery).  We decided to explore ACMI while we were there, and although there are paid exhibitions that come and go, the main museum is free to get in.  ACMI is the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and although it is not that big it is chuck full of exhibits from the early days of film right up to the most modern 3D technologies and a lot of Australian movie memorabilia in between.  A lot of the exhibits are interactive, from a pong Vs Wii tennis match to a shadow wall that morphs your shadow into alien monsters.

Already feeling quit tired and wanting to ensure we were home before dark we cycled the shorter and less scenic route home through the city.  By the time we were home the complete round trip took us a grand total of 28.22km, an impressive effort even if I do say so myself.  More impressive is the fact we had a wonderfully full and adventurous day out without having to spend a single penny.

Insecurities

Lake Eildon

After Heather and Paul headed back to the UK our long drives around Victoria were far from over.  We made our next drive up to Lake Eildon with Tay and Mona who work with Barnadi at Narai Thai.  Lake Eildon is a vast man made lake to the North East of Melbourne, created by damming the Goulburn river and flooding the old township of Darlingford.  During the recent droughts Lake Eildon had pretty much dried up, but following a very wet winter it was starting to look a little more impressive again.  It was still clear how much higher the lake used to be by the half submerged trees encased in dried mud.  We started our trip with lunch which Barnadi cooked on one of the free gas BBQ's at a campsite.  We went and sat down by the lake after eating when we returned we discovered a flock of birds had descended on our picnic site, and a greedy Kookaburra was finishing off the last of the sausages.  It almost looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" which I had just watched the night before with Sam and Athina at the Astor cinema in St Kilda.

Our next big drive we did on our own, neither of us were working on Anzac day so we went to visit our friend Kath near Hoppers Crossing, who had just had a baby.  From there we headed down to Barwon Heads where once again we made use of a free gas BBQ in order to cook our lunch before taking a walk up and over the bluff and along the beach on the opposite bank.  From Barwon Heads we crossed over the bridge to Ocean grove and again took a walk along another stretch of coastline.  We then continued on to the lighthouse we had seen in the distance on our previous walks at Point Lonsdale.  The rock formations beneath the lighthouse kept us entertained for a while before we got back in the car and headed home.



Point Lonsdale

Despite all the distractions we are still progressing towards settlement on our house, although it is now pretty much all in the hands of our lawyer.  All that is left for us to do is organise utilities and to pack.  More worrying than the settlement is my future work prospects and my current feeling of insecurity.  I knew when I took the job at the Alfred I was taking a risk on a temporary contract, but with my latest unsuccessful interview the risk now feels considerably higher.  What makes matters worse is the community pharmacy in Epping I was doing the occasional weekend shift at has now hired a new pharmacist, this means  I no longer have a fall back plan for if/when my contract with the Alfred ends.

Great Ocean Drive

I met Heather at University as we were on the same course, but it wasn't until the second year that we became friends.  It was on our walks to and from the university up Widcome hill where our friendship really took root.  A friendship that has stood the tests of time and geographical distance. After graduation Heather moved away eventually ending up in Cambridge where she met Paul at a dance class.  When Heather and Paul got engaged, they invited us to their wedding, but with two trips back to the UK already made over the last year and a third already planned for August we made the difficult decision to turn down the invitation.  It wasn't all bad news though as they had planned to spend their honeymoon in Australia and New Zealand.

Ironically enough we ended up back in the UK on their wedding day, although it was certainly not a celebration.  Heather and Paul left for their Honeymoon while we were still in the UK, and our plans to give them a room for their first stop in Melbourne obviously fell through.  By the time we arrived back in Melbourne they had already moved on to New Zealand.  All was not lost, and a week later  they returned to Melbourne, and after our long drive back from Lakes Entrance, I took the relatively short drive to the airport to pick them up.


Along the Great Ocean Road

Having taken a lot of leave already this year I wasn't able to get any extra time off to spend with our guests and so we had to make the most of the weekend we had together.  On the Saturday I took them on the now familiar day trip up to Hanging rock, although the traditional stop at the Organ Pipes national park was omitted as the entrance road off the Calder freeway was closed.  On the Sunday I took them on the much more ambitious drive along the Great Ocean Road.  The Great Ocean Road is a 243km stretch of road that follows the coast along south west Victoria between the towns of Torquay in the east and Allansford in the west.  It was built by returning soldiers after the first world war, in part to give them jobs, but also to connect the isolated western settlements.  We set off early with the goal of getting as far as Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles before heading back, making a few stops on the way.  We made good time out of Melbourne, passed Werribee and Geelong finally joining the Great Ocean Road at Anglesea.  We took a stop early on at a sandy beach where we got out and stretched our legs before heading on.  We did not stop at the Lighthouse from 'Round the Twist' as Heather never had a TV growing up, so missed out on the significance instead our next stop was at the Great Ocean Road monument where we took a few photo's before getting back on the road again.  We went straight through Lorne without stopping but kept our eyes open as I had heard that there was a good Koala spotting point along Grey river road.  Despite keeping our eyes open we did not find the road we were looking for and when we took a stop at a rocky cove to look for crabs, I took a quick look on google maps and realised we had already long passed Grey river road, which was annoyingly located no where near the Grey river we had just crossed.  We  stopped again at Apollo bay for lunch, we had already been on the road for 4 hours by this point and I was seriously considering calling it quits then and there, dreading the long drive back home again.  Once I had a full stomach again we decided to push on, we had after all come this far, it would seem a waste to go back now without seeing the 12 Apostles.  The drive from Apollo bay to Port Campbell was long and winding, cutting inland away from the sea, it felt like it would never end.  After what seemed like forever we finally broke free from the forested hills and were back along the coast, the 12 Apostles finally in sight.

12 Apostles, Port Campbell

I first came to the 12 Apostles 9 years ago with Barnadi, and several of the limestone columns have collapsed since then, not that there were 12 of them even then.  It was a shame Barnadi couldn't have joined us on that trip as the place is filled with nostalgia, back to a time when our relationship was still new and everything was an adventure.

We took a short cut home back inland via Colac and the A1, which took a mere 3 hours to get us back compared to the 5 hours on the way out. 

I was working the rest of the week so didn't get to spend much time with Heather and Paul, although they entertained themselves with a trip to Healsville on one day and Belgrave on another.  We got them a ticket for dinner on the Tramcar restaurant as a last minute wedding present.  Heather and Paul had to leave Melbourne the following weekend and I wasn't even able to see them off at the airport because of work, but Barnadi took them down before heading to work himself.

Rest and Recuperation

Straight back from the UK, bought a house, had a job interview and started my first on call all on the same day.  It is not surprising then that I was a little exhausted by the end of the week and with a couple of days off in lieu in payment for my week on call, Barnadi and I took a much deserved trip down to Lakes Entrance for some R&R.

View of Lakes Entrance

Lakes Entrance is a small holiday town in East Gippsland that lies on a man made channel linking the Gippsland lakes to the Bass straight and Tasman sea.  Barnadi picked me up from work on Wednesday and we started the 5 hour drive along the Princes Highway stopping only once in Moe to switch seats.  By the time we pulled up at the Great Western hotel it was already dark, and we were greeted by an overly cheerful receptionist "We had begun to think you weren't coming" who gave us a map and pointed out some key attractions in the area before allowing us to escape to our room to rest after our long drive.  Rather than going straight to bed we decided a walk along the waterfront as far as the bridge that took us out to the sea front.  As we crossed the bridge over the Cunninghame arm and away from the street frontage it got noticeably darker and the sound of the crashing waves became our only clue that we were heading in the right direction.  The darkness however became complete as we passed over the sand dunes and onto the beach, it was then that as we looked up we noticed the stars for the first time.  It was a clear night and in the complete darkness of the beach the stars were so unbelievably bright and numerous, with the dense band of the milky way marking its course across the middle of the sky.  We slept well that night.


90 mile Beach at Lakes Entrance

We only had one full day in Lakes Entrance and so we decided we had to make the most of it, we got up early and took a walk along the 3km of beach and the windswept wooded sand dunes that run between the Bass straight and the Cunninghame arm, from the bridge in Lakes Entrance right up to the man made inlet and back again.  The walk finished with a hot but bland breakfast of bacon and eggs and a watery coffee in a cafe along the waterfront, but by that point I was too hungry to care.  After breakfast we got in the car and drove inland to the small town of Buchan and area famous for it's limestone caves.  The limestone of Buchan is black in colour, and stone from quarries in the area was used to build the six black pillars inside the shrine of remembrance, some of the stones were even shipped to the UK and used in the building of Australia house in London.  While in Buchan we joined a tour of one of the caves known as the Fairy cave, a narrow winding tunnel decorated with translucent stalactites and stalagmites, strange formations contaminated with iron salts that had the appearance of streaky bacon and waterfalls of sparkling calcium crystals that gave the cave its name.


Inside the Fairy cave at Buchan

On leaving Buchan we headed back to the waterfront and a small town called Paynesville where we could catch a free ferry to Raymond Island, a small Island in Lake King that has a colony of koalas living on it.  The short ferry ride took us straight onto the path of the koala trail, but it wasn't until a couple of locals pointed out one in their front garden that we managed to spot our first koala.  Once we saw one however it didn't take us long to spot another and another and another.

Feeling very satisfied with the days activities we drove back to Lakes Entrance for dinner at a Greek restaurant called Miriam's where we shared a 1kg seafood platter filled to the brim with Bass straight bugs, oysters, muscles, prawns and a selection of other fish.  Barnadi washed it down with a glass of wine while I had to make do with a glass of water.  It is times like this when I miss being able to drink the most, but it wasn't enough to ruin what was an incredible day.

On Friday we had to head back to Melbourne, Barnadi was working and we were expecting more guests from the UK.



Sleepy Koala

Sold!

We returned from our trip back to the UK exhausted and forlorn, but had no time to sit back and refresh with so many unexpected developments to come.  A house we had intended to attend the auction for failed to sell while we were away and we were invited to put in an offer.  So with our recently increased budget we set out to the estate agent to work out our best price.  Someone had already put in an offer 'deemed acceptable by the vendour' so we had to ensure our offer was at least equal to that already made if we wanted any chance to secure the property for ourselves, and after some intense haggling we finally agreed on a price.  The price was a little higher than we had hoped to go, but still well beneath that of similar properties in the area so that we still felt like we were getting a bargain.  One more person was planned to come in and make an offer before all offers would be submitted to the vendor who would then pick their favourite.

As if buying a house wasn't enough for my jetlag addled brain to deal with as we were sitting in the estate agents office I received a voicemail explaining that my interview had been shifted from 11:30 to 12 o'clock.  Now I knew I had applied for my contract to become permanent, but no one had actually bothered to tell me the interview had been scheduled for my first day back.  So with my head buzzing with a maelstrom, with jet lag, thoughts of my father, our house and my imminent on-call, I turned up to work and went straight in for my interview.  It was as you might well imagine a disaster and I was lucky to even have my current contract extended to September, the tone of the feedback I received suggested if it wasn't for my mitigating circumstances I might have been relieved of my post then and there.  The uncertainty of my employment is certainly not good news, and it was even worse considering we were on the verge of getting a mighty big mortgage.

The agent didn't keep us waiting long and we knew later that night that the vendor had considered all offers carefully and that it was very close, but we were the successful party.  When I heard the news my stomach exploded with a mixture of pure excitement and fear.  It was done, we had bought a house, subject to finance of course.  The finance, that was our next hurdle.  Our mortgage broker insisted it would only take 5 working days for the bank to sort it all out, we gave her a little longer.  Around lunch time on D-Day we still hadn't heard the confirmation we were waiting for and the agent was getting a little edgy, calling us up every day to ensure we weren't going to pull out as she still had several interested partys waiting in the wings.  A call to the broker revealed that because of the backlog of work from Easter the bank hadn't managed to get to our application yet and was currently applying for an extension for us which after much confusion and a 3 way conversation with the agent and our solicitors was finally agreed upon.  The extension proved to be pointless though as we got a call that very night to say the bank had finally got to our application.  It was mixed news, the bank valued the property the same as us, but because of the close proximity to some overhead power cables would only lend us 90% of the purchase price instead of the 95% previously agreed upon.  Our mortgage broker did a quick calculation for us and worked out we would need to save another $6,000 by settlement in order for us to be able to meet all the costs.  It didn't take us long to decide that the amount should be achievable, with Barnadi's boss Sam giving us reassurance that he could always lone us the difference if we couldn't save enough.  So it was with much celebration that we agreed to the terms of the loan and with that, we had officially bought a house.

So what can I tell you about the house?  It is in Bundoora and only an 8 minute walk for Barnadi to get to work (not so convenient for me, but at least only one of us has to commute now).  It is on a quiet residential street far enough away from the main roads to remain quite but close enough to be accessible to local shops and facilities.  The house is not huge, but has 3 bedrooms and sits on top of a 600m2 block of land, with beautifully tended gardens and a back gate that opens onto parkland.  We can't wait for settlement when we can truly call it our home.

In Loving Memory

Raymond: 1929-2013

My father passed away last month, and it has been a difficult time for Barnadi, myself and all the rest of my family.  He had been in hospital for some time, but had seemed to be getting better.  It was therefore very unexpected when I received a call from my sister Rachel to say he had taken a turn for the worse and had been transferred to CCU.  This was not the first time he had been to the Coronary Care Unit, but the seriousness of my sisters tone allowed us to realise the severity of his condition without actually having to spell it out to us.  We booked a flight with Singapore airlines as early as we could, but unfortunately we were too late.  It was in Singapore airport that we received the message to call home urgently and it was up to my sister Martha to break the devastating news.  The 5 hours stopover in Singapore airport were the worst of my life.  He was not alone when he passed and he seemed at peace.  It has been reported to me that he knew we were on our way, and that he apologised for not being able to hold on any longer.  It was this last sentiment that stuck in my mind the most and it summed up my dad so completely, in the way that he was always thinking of others before himself.

We stayed with my sister Rachel for 2 weeks, extending our trip so that we could stay for the funeral, which my dad had pre-organised with a funeral plan.  There was not a lot we could do, other than be there for each other.  The British weather constantly interrupting attempts to sort out meetings with family members by snowing.  A lot of the practicalities such as sorting out the will and other legal issues had to be left until after the funeral, but we did what we could, making a start in organising my fathers effects, although this was frequently interrupted when a stash of photos was found and an emotional trip down memory lane was initiated.

The funeral itself went smoothly although I don't think any of us were looking forward to it.  The service somehow making everything more final.  With music picked by my half sister Lesley and some heartfelt words from my Half brother John, the immediate family then followed on to the crematorium to say a final, more personal goodbye.

My father was a kind, gentle, generous man.  He lived a good life although good things may not have always happened to him he never took it personally and kept a positive attitude throughout even towards the end.  He was greatly loved by all his children and grand children, and he loved them each in turn. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

White Night

Princes Bridge

Princes Bridge

Melbourne is certainly not a poor city, last weekend Melbourne demonstrated this by holding its very first White Night.  Now Melbourne's White Night was nothing to do with Australia's previous controversial immigration policy, but instead a celebration of free art, music and dance that turned the CBD into a "winter" wonderland for 12 hours.  James, our friend from Cambodia had been staying with us and it was his last night in Melbourne, going to Melbournes White Night seemed like a perfect way for him to see just what Melbourne has to offer.  Barnadi was working that night, so after dinner at Narai Thai we got the tram into the city.  The night did not get off to a good start as James was petrified by the drunken bogans that continued to board the tram at each consecutive stop.  As the tram got fuller and fuller the discomfort switched from auditory to a more olfactory origin, as more and more sweaty bodys crammed in.  It was therefore with a big sigh of relief when the tram turned into Bourke street and we could get out into the fresh night air.



The Forum, Flinders Street

We started our exploration down Flinders street, as my friends Sam and Athina sent me a message stating that was where they currently were.  But as we headed down Russel street and got our first glimpse of the crowds we realised that meeting up with anyone was going to be a struggle.  The buildings along Flinders street, opposite Federation square had been turned into a large projected light show similar to that which was used on the town hall just before Christmas.  Each building from the Forum to St Pauls Cathedral were lit up in brilliant colour one minute and old Gothic stone the next.  Flinders street station itself was not only lit up in a similar manor, but the main steps had been converted into a stage from which a live band performed.  Federation square was one giant dance floor with hundreds of mirror balls suspended above and a different musical theme every hour.  Our initial plans to get to the Birrarung Marr by cutting across Federation square was thwarted by the thousand strong Bollywood dance routine, and so we instead went around the edge joining the masses gathered along Princes bridge.  Rather than cross the bridge at this stage we decided to head down the side towards the Yarra and along to the laser and water show, where we finally caught up with Sam and Athina.  It was also while we were here that Barnadi phoned to say he had finished work and was on his way down.

Lights and water at Birrarung Marr

Once Barnadi joined us we crossed Princes bridge and entered the National Gallery of Victoria which was displaying an exhibit which can only be described as a foam fountain, there is not really any more I can say about it, only that words can not do it justice.  As pieces of the foam broke off and driffted into the audience the foam dissolved on contact leaving a slightly sticky residue.  It was really not what I was expecting.   On leaving the gallery we took a walk along Southbank where three large inflatable balls stood in the Yarra and messages could be text in to be projected onto the balls.  For awhile nothing happened, but as we hung around we witnessed a very public proposal and a huge cheer when the reply of "Yes" appeared several minutes later across the balls.

By now it was nearing 2 in the morning and although the nights festivities were still young, with events continuing until 7am, we were getting tired.  After all it had been a very long day as we had been up early to take James on a drive up to Hanging rock, with a stop at the Organ Pipes National park.  We were very thankful when walking back along Flinders street  towards where Barnadi had parked the car that he had driven in as the trams home all looked just as packed as the one we caught coming into the city.  All in all it was a magical night and we can only hope that it will not be the last.

Home and Away

Many of you may be wondering what was so important that we missed the auction for the house we wanted to buy just to go on holiday.  The point was, it wasn't just a holiday.  Barnadi's boss Sam was having a party to celebrate his 50th birthday back in his home town near Nong Khai in the North of Thailand.  As Sam was kind enough to take me to Hobart for my last birthday, we accepted his invite to join him on his.  Rather than fly straight to Thailand we figured we could use the opportunity to visit some of Barnadi's family in Jakarta, it even worked out cheaper to fly to Jakarta first and get a connecting flight to Thailand later.  On top of all this, Gemma and Dan were leaving Australia to head back home, but they weren't planning to fly directly back and so we arrange for them to join us in Indonesia so that we could show them around.


Sunken temple, Mekong River

We flew to Jakarta on the Australia day bank holiday and stayed a couple of nights with Barnadi's sister Bariah so we could spend some time spoiling her two children (of the two suitcases we brought only one had clothes in, the other was jam packed with toys and presents for all Barnadi's nephews and nieces) and getting a free dental check up while we were at it.  Next we flew to Bangkok, where we caught up with our friend James, a friend we made in Cambodia just over a year ago when we were moving to Australia.  We only stayed in Bangkok one night before flying up to Udon Thani where Sam's boyfriend Saf picked us up and drove us up to Sam's village where the party was going to be.  Sam is from a small town along the banks of the Mekong river, and as we had a couple of nights there, we were able to have a day exploring the area, including getting a boat trip along the Mekong from Nong Khai.  The boat took us across the river towards Laos and then out around a submerged temple which had been swallowed up by the river following a land slide many years ago.

Victims of the food fight

The party was a great experience, it was held at one of Sam's sisters houses, and the whole village was in attendance.  The majority of people present could not speak any English but that didn't stop everyone trying to get to know us, and with the beer and Thai whiskey flowing faster and fuller than the Mekong, there was plenty of singing, dancing and food fights to replace the need for words.  The night reminded us a lot of a wedding we went to in Poland, where we were in a similarly small village at a celebration where we didn't understand anything anyone said, yet still had an amazing time.  The biggest difference was that at Sam's birthday neither Barnadi or I were joining in with the drinking.  Not drinking turned out to give us a distinct advantage, as we were able to borrow a car to drive back to our hotel on the banks of the Mekong.

After one more night in Bangkok we headed back to Jakarta were we met up with Gemma and Dan who had spent the last few days relaxing in Bali.  We were also reunited with Oki, a driver we used the last time we invited friends to Indonesia.  Oki drove us all straight down to Bandung from the airport (Gemma and Dan would have to wait to experience the joys of exploring Jakarta).  Whilst out there we took them to some stunning volcanic craters and went for a swim in a hot spring, before spending a couple of nights at our house in Puncak.  Inevitably we had to return to Jakarta and it was here where we had to say goodbye to Gemma and Dan one last time as they continued with their long Journey home.  Our time in Jakarta was not quite over yet, as we arrived at Chinese new year, we were obliged to go on a tour of all Barnadi's half brothers and sisters giving out little red envelopes, and even receiving a few.



With Gemma and Dan at Kawah Domas

Worst Case Scenario

So we had found our dream house, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot it would seem.  Our first problem was that the auction was set on a date when we wouldn't be in the country.  We overcame this first hurdle by getting our friends Rae and Stuart to stand in for us, but this wasn't as simple a solution as it may at first have appeared.

Stuart used to be a lawyer and was quite understandably worried about his own liability if anything went wrong with the sale.  So he started to run through with us all the worst case scenarios, such as if the bank valuation came up less than the selling price.  To ensure no potential detail was over looked, he even requested we got a bank cheque prepared for the deposit, as there would be less chance of the bank rejecting it over an anomaly such as a discrepancy in a signature.

That weekend I went to get the bank cheque from the only branch in the city I could find that was open on a Saturday, narrowly missing being held up by the Australia day parade.  So with all our life savings withdrawn and ready to go we just needed to get it to Rae and Stuart before we left.

We invited Rae and Stuart over for lunch the next day and as Gemma and Dan were back from their travels around Australia it was quite a reunion.  The only trouble was, I couldn't find the cheque.  A scenario even Stuart hadn't predicted.  I had left the cheque in an envelope on the coffee table the night before, but just before Rae and Stuart were due to arrive it had gone.  A frantic search of the house ensued, I eventually found the cheque covered in oil at the bottom of the bin.  It seems Barnadi had been tidying up earlier and seeing the envelope on the table, assumed it was empty and had thrown it away.  Barnadi had thrown all our money away! Despite the oil stains the cheque was still intact and so apart from some temporary panic no real harm was done.

So everything was set and ready to go, we flew off on holiday to celebrate Barnadi's boss Sam's 50th Birthday in Thailand and Rae and Stuart went to the auction for us.  With all our hard work we were pretty confident we would have a good chance of securing this property, but it turned out to be the worst case scenario of all, we were out bid.  Our dream house had slipped through our fingers and we were back to square one.

Play the Game

In the weeks preceding Christmas I joined Sam and Athina every Tuesday at The Drunken Poet in North Melbourne for their local pub quiz.  It was a good little quiz, free to enter, 6 main rounds and 2 bonus rounds.  Sam and Athina had been attending the quiz night for several weeks before I joined them and they had high expectations that I could bring 'The Ignorant Fools' out of their run of bad luck that saw them consistently end in last place.  This worked to an extent, we never finished in last place when I joined the team, but we were still a long way from winning.  After having a short break for Christmas Sam was determined that 2013 would see a change in the fortune of 'The Ignorant Fools' but Athina, having a more competitive nature, decided she had had enough of losing and didn't want to return to The Drunken Poet.  Last weekend they dropped by so that I could certify some documents for Sam and we had a quick game of Risk while they were there.  It was during this game, once again exposing Athina's competitive side, that we agreed that we would return to Trivia Tuesday after all.

I don't know if was the weather, a side effects of the isoniazid or just a busy day at work, but after our promise to restart the pub quiz at the weekend I felt far too tired to go out last Tuesday.  Speaking of the isoniazid though I have now made it through my first week of treatment only another 35 to go.

Barnadi and I visited the house in Bundoora for another inspection this week, we had arranged a professional building and pest inspection that morning and are pleased to note the building seems structurally sound and termite free.  The only problems of any significance that were found were the window frames which we had already spotted and the guttering which is not to big a problem to fix.  Despite this good news we are now in a real dilemma as to what to do next, as the act of buying a house seems to be one big game.  At first we were ready to put an offer in then and there, but the agents desire to get us to put our maximum in from the off, and no guarantee the vendor would even accept it gave us pause for thought.  There is a lot of interest in the house, with at least 10 other groups passing through while we were there, and if we offer the maximum we can afford straight away, we have no room to maneuver if someone else decides they can offer more.  There is also the risk that an early high offer may increase the vendors expectations of what they can get for the property.  This leaves us with the option of waiting for the auction (even though we will not be in the country at the time) and getting Rae and Stuart to bid on our behalf.  I really really love this house and I hate this uncertainty that comes from constantly having to second guess the actions of the vendor, agent and other potential buyers.