Look What I Made!!

Just before leaving the UK I did a few sessions of a jewellery making course, which was a free course ran by my local Childrens Centre. Big Thankyou to them and to Donna who taught the course because I’ve found something that I think I’m actually quite good at! It’s become my new craft hobby, I’m completely addicted. I made a few small bits for some friends and family before leaving, (something to remind them of me LOL), but have been practising every night since everything arrived here in Oz.

I know it’s early days but so far I’ve made a few bracelets, necklaces, phone charms, bag charms and earrings. I think I like the bag charms best. I’m going to keep practising and making gifts for family and friends…..and who knows maybe I’ll even sell some!

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Where Shall We Go?

We’re now getting settled into life here and we’ve been thinking about having abit of a holiday, our 1st real family holiday.  We probably won’t go until the end of the year because hubby will be studying his course, which finishes in November, J starts prep in January and the seasons are reversed here so it will be summer then.

The question is where do we go? Do we drive or fly? Do we stay in Australia? Do we go to New Zealand or one of the Pacific Islands?  or Do we go a little further, LA or Hawaii for example?

To be honest after such long flights, (UK to Australia), we wouldn’t really want to fly to far, so realistically we probably won’t be going as far as the USA. So that leaves somewhere in Australia, New Zealand or one of the Pacific Islands.

As it will be our 1st family holiday we’d really like it to be a success. Therefore we’ll need to go somewhere that has something for all of us. Pre J, hubby and I had always had busy holidays, Florida with its theme parks for example. However after the disaster of Dreamworld, (A disastrous day out), I don’t think a holiday involving lots of themeparks is an option for our 1st family holiday.   J loves beaches and animal parks, hubby likes to do something on holiday rather than sit on a beach everyday. As for me I’m easy-going, I’m just looking for us all to have abit of fun, some time together and to just unwind and have some time away somewhere.

So the big question is Where do we go?    If anyone has any suggestions please comment, in the meantime a little research is needed I think.

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Green For Go???

I was sat at the traffic lights today waiting for the red light to change to green. As I sat there I looked across to the pavement to see a small group of people waiting to cross the road. As I looked back at the traffic lights I let out a big sigh……..I wasn’t going to get through the green light which probably meant I was going to be sat there for a while.

Then it happened……the lights went to green, yes that’s right I said lights not light! The green light that I was now sat at and the green man to instruct the people I had just glanced at both flashed!!!!!   Pedestrians have right of way, so even though the light had changed to green noone waiting in their cars could actually go. What’s the point in the light changing? Surely it would make more sense for the light to change after everyone has crossed.

Obviously by the time the elderly lady with the frame, the teenager who was very sensibly carrying his board and the young lady who was practically dragging her toddler whilst pushing the empty pushchair had crossed, only one car actually got through the green light and the other 2 in front of me went through the orange light, leaving me sat, once again, at the red light. grrrrr!

You would think I’d be used to this by now, afterall we’ve been back here for almost 3 months and we were here for a year before. Well I’m not!!! It just doesn’t make sense to me. ……..However I do find a little enjoyment crossing the road unnecessarily and very slowly when I’m out walking. LOL

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OMG we’ve Bought A Tent!!!!!!!

OMG we’ve now bought a tent! There are sales on everywhere at the moment so we’ve bought a big 6 man tent with 2 rooms…………Can a tent have rooms?????? It’s a bit of cloth and poles!!!!

Hubby spent quite a long time in the shop explaining how everything was sealed and nothing could get in etc etc whilst J had great fun playing in all the tents set up in store. I’m not sure if I’m convinced, but of course now we have a tent we have to go camping!!!!   This won’t be for a few months because it’s abit chilly here at night at the moment, (well it is winter), but the panic attacks have already started. I think I’m going to just have to not think about it until we go, that should keep the panic attacks at bay until then……..once we’re actually at the campsite it’ll be too late to worry about it…….although may not sleep much and will probably panic lots!!!

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I’ve Missed You

Yah! Everything from the UK has arrived and we finally have the computer set up and connected to the internet!!!!   I’ve really missed having my computer. It’s been difficult adding new posts etc using the public computers, they’re in the middle of the shopping centre! For the last 3 months, (almost), each time I’ve gone online I’ve felt that I’ve had no privacy and that every single person that has walked past whilst I’ve been sat at the kiosk has been looking over my shoulder. That probably sounds strange and I probably shouldn’t care how many people have seen what I’m writing, since everything I post on here the whole world can see, but I do. I can’t see everyone that reads my blog but I have seen the faces of the people who have walked past, and on several occasions more than once, so it’s just felt abit strange.

Anyway I have my computer now and I just wanted to say…………..Hey PC, I’ve missed you!!

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Aarghhhhhh! What Have I Agreed To

AAAARRRGGHHHHHHHH!

A few weeks before we left the UK our friends over here in Oz managed to get me to agree to a camping trip to Fraser Island. For some reason I was under the impression we’d only be going for one night and we’d be camping on the beach. I thought that I could probably cope with that, 1 night on the beach shouldn’t be too bad, at least this was my thinking when I agreed to it. Let me make something clear I HATE BUGS! I have a really bad phobia, I’m especially scared of spiders and there’s some pretty mean ones over here!

You can imagine my horror this week, when hubby and our friend, JS, informed me that we’d have to go for at least 3 nights because of the time it would take to drive there, time to experience everything the island has to offer etc. As if an extra couple of nights wasn’t bad enough, JS then informed me that the campsite is in the rainforest!!!!  Camping in the bush equals spiders……and snakes……lots of bugs…..No Thankyou!!!

Arghhhh what have I agreed to!

Panic is already racing through me, the thought of all those bugs and snakes is not appealing at all! There are some hotels on the island but they are quite expensive, maybe when we go I should take enough money with us to pay for a room……sounds like a better option to me!

What should I do?  Wimp out and take the hotel option or take a huge leap and camp for one night at least?

mmmmmmm…….will let you know what we decide, (at the moment the hotel option is in the lead with me).

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Thanks Supersinglemum!

I recently received some early morning texts, (early morning here in Australia), from a very good friend of mine, Supersinglemum. I won’t go into details but she made me think about how homesick I feel at times and how much I miss having a good friend around to chat with. After the texts I sat and had a long think about what I can do to tackle the homesickness thing. I decided that even though it’s a good half an hour drive away I am going to go down to a north Brisbane suburb that is known by some as “little britain” because of the large amount of British migrants that live there. There is a large community there and I am going to try to find work down there. We won’t actually be any better off financially if I am working but at least I will be able to meet other people, (maybe a few Brits who also suffer with homesickness too), and I’ll also feel like I’m doing something to contribute to the running of the house, other than caring for J and housework. J will be starting school in January so all that will be left for me to do is housework and I know time will make the homesickness worse especially if I have nothing to do! 

So it’s off to look for work I go, hi ho, hi ho LOL 

Thanks Supersinglemum you’ve really motivated me to get some get up and go, so big thankyou!  (Oh and miss you lots!) xx

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Time Passes But The Pain Doesn’t

Where has the time gone? This week it’s 12 years since my Granddad passed away. I can’t believe how quickly time has passed, I can still see everything that happened that day so clearly. It was the first time I’d ever lied to my Nan. How could I hurt her further by telling her that even though I was with my Granddad, he didn’t know I was there because he was asleep when I arrived at the hospital and he never woke up. I had just broken her heart into a million pieces by telling her that the man she loved and had been married to for almost half a century was gone, I couldn’t take away the tiny bit of comfort she got from thinking that my Granddad knew I was there and that he wasn’t alone.

In 2 weeks it will be 5 years since I had to say goodbye to my amazing Nan. That day is also a memory that will never fade, it was the hardest day of my life. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was to look into her eyes, to see the pain that she was in and to tell her that it was ok to let go, to join my Granddad and her babies, that we would all be ok.

Before we had J we had 4 miscarriages, all experiences that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The sense of loss is completely overwhelming and although people try to understand the feelings that are tearing through you, unfortunately unless they have experienced similar loss they can’t.

It’s hard to think about all of these memories and all the feelings that stir up inside but as the anniversaries of my Grandparents deaths and 2 of my miscarriages get closer, I’ve found myself thinking about them more often than usual.

It’s amazing how quickly time passes, however it doesn’t matter how quickly or how much time passes, the memories and the pain never fades.

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More Than A Shoebox

The past few weeks J hasn’t had many toys to play with, we couldn’t fit many in the luggage so most went into the container and are due very soon. I bought some new trainers soon after arrival and J quickly decided that the shoebox was his new favourite toy.

It’s so much more than an empty shoebox! In the past few weeks it’s been a kennel for his cuddly dog, a base for some toy soldiers, a treasure chest, a tv, a drum, a guitar……and the list goes on. It’s been great fun playing with his shoebox with him and we’ve been fantastically amazed by his imagination at times. I think with all the technology available now children have so many toys that do everything for them or tell them what to do that they aren’t required to use their imagination as often as generations before them. I remember playing with boxes, tubes etc when I was a kid and I’ve always let J play with things like this. A few months ago J had quite a large collection of toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes! One things for sure, the shoebox is definitely staying once the container arrives.

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J’s First Encounter

I took J to Australia yesterday for his weekly visit and as a reward for being really good, (hardly any outbursts) for the past 5 days I treated him to an animal encounter. At Australia Zoo there are lots of free animal encounters offered throughout the day and J has great fun meeting all of the animals. As well as the free encounters there are also some encounters that you can pay for, such as wombats, lemurs, rhinos, tigers, giant tortoises etc, ( check there website for more details www.australiazoo.com.au ).

Because J is only 4 yrs old his choices were abit more limited but he chose the tortoise encounter. He had an amazing time getting to know the 2 giant tortoises, patting and rubbing them and also learning about them. Included in the encounter was a picture of him with one of the tortoises, it was hard for him to choose which picture to have but eventually J decided which one he wanted and we put the rest onto disc so that we could make our own copies. He had great fun during his first “special” encounter and now he can’t wait to earn another one as a reward, so hopefully it will encourage him to continue with the good behaviour. Maybe because of the unpredictability of his behaviour a reward chart might come in useful again, that way if he only displays wanted behaviour for a couple of days, those days can count towards his reward.

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