It's been over two months that we've been in Australia now. It's been a brilliant but utterly exhausting, sometimes trying time. Picking up your entire life and moving to two different countries within two years is hard work. Crazy hard work and even more complicated with two little people in tow. We've probably taken about ten years off our lives with the sheer stress involved but I'd always rather be glad that we did it, made our dream happen rather than sitting on our sofa back in London just wishing we were elsewhere, thinking "What if...." Thank goodness very young children are so adaptable and take it all in their stride. When I think that in her short life Lila has already lived in three countries and holidayed in another three it blows my mind. I hope these experiences will help them realise that the world is their oyster, they can travel wherever they want to in their lives and that anything is possible if you work hard enough to make it happen.
We've spent the past week surrounded by about eighty boxes full of all our possessions, trying to find a place for them all in our little cottage (which seemed quite a lot larger when it was empty), trying to make a house into a home. We got rid of the last box yesterday and breathed a collective sigh of relief. So how is the reality of the big dream shaping up? Well it's still very early days but life here is good so far, though not without some challenges. I love the vibrancy of the city, the short stroll to the beach and our beautiful, leafy neighborhood with its pretty wooden cottages and verandahs and quiet streets. Living down the road from my sister, and having family and a support system close by has changed my world. Knowing there is someone there to look after the girls in an emergency, to meet for breakfast on a Saturday morning, to babysit every once in a while, and someone to call just because you can. The unexpected bonus that one of my best friends from the UK moved over here at the same time has also meant chats and a cup of tea are only a ten minute drive away. Befriending other mothers at the park has been surprisingly painless and Lila has found plenty of play mates. The weather has been blue skies and sunshine- sometimes a little too ridiculously hot- up until the past week, and since then hello rain. On the plus side at least we haven't had to water the garden.
Childcare is prohibitively expensive if you're not a permanent resident and means that Lila can only go to kindergarten once a week at the moment, when she would love to go for an extra day or two. There's still much to be done though we are finally now with internet connected! I look forward to the day our landlord eventually fixes our dishwasher and I don't know how much longer Curt will be able to survive without our TV aerial working. These are all minor blips in the grand scheme of things though. I'm excited about seeing what the next few months bring and weirdly looking forward to a proper Autumn and Winter. An Auckland winter never gets cold but just means rain, rain and more rain and we didn't even get a chance to don a scarf or a woolly hat last year. Maybe we'll even make it to the mountains for a snowboarding trip! Still trying to get my head around the fact that there is actually snow in a couple of places over here...
We've spent the past week surrounded by about eighty boxes full of all our possessions, trying to find a place for them all in our little cottage (which seemed quite a lot larger when it was empty), trying to make a house into a home. We got rid of the last box yesterday and breathed a collective sigh of relief. So how is the reality of the big dream shaping up? Well it's still very early days but life here is good so far, though not without some challenges. I love the vibrancy of the city, the short stroll to the beach and our beautiful, leafy neighborhood with its pretty wooden cottages and verandahs and quiet streets. Living down the road from my sister, and having family and a support system close by has changed my world. Knowing there is someone there to look after the girls in an emergency, to meet for breakfast on a Saturday morning, to babysit every once in a while, and someone to call just because you can. The unexpected bonus that one of my best friends from the UK moved over here at the same time has also meant chats and a cup of tea are only a ten minute drive away. Befriending other mothers at the park has been surprisingly painless and Lila has found plenty of play mates. The weather has been blue skies and sunshine- sometimes a little too ridiculously hot- up until the past week, and since then hello rain. On the plus side at least we haven't had to water the garden.
Childcare is prohibitively expensive if you're not a permanent resident and means that Lila can only go to kindergarten once a week at the moment, when she would love to go for an extra day or two. There's still much to be done though we are finally now with internet connected! I look forward to the day our landlord eventually fixes our dishwasher and I don't know how much longer Curt will be able to survive without our TV aerial working. These are all minor blips in the grand scheme of things though. I'm excited about seeing what the next few months bring and weirdly looking forward to a proper Autumn and Winter. An Auckland winter never gets cold but just means rain, rain and more rain and we didn't even get a chance to don a scarf or a woolly hat last year. Maybe we'll even make it to the mountains for a snowboarding trip! Still trying to get my head around the fact that there is actually snow in a couple of places over here...
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