Almost the end of the holidays...

January 2020

One more week of summer holidays to go, and I know lots of people feel all enthusiastic about spending endless free time with their children, don't get me wrong, I'm very fond of mine, however since the beginning of July last year they have been in school for 10 weeks in total.....and I'm done with searching for things for them to do only for them to look at me with utter disdain. I'm quite happy for them to be bored and have to occupy themselves, however I can't take the bickering, the stroppy over entitled brats I fear they have become, the emotional anxiety, the hormonal teenager, the sassy tween who seems to have developed a whole load of attitude in the last 6 weeks...I need them to go back to their own age groups and spend time away from each other!

As for me, I'm looking forward to term starting for other reasons, Yr4 and Yr6 are intake years at the kids school, that means, my three will no longer be the new kids, there will be a whole heap of new children and parents, new friendship groups, new classes and lots of opportunities to make some friends....for me. I won't deny it, it was really tough joining a school at the end of a school year, everyone has their friends, everyone is tired, no one can really be bothered to mix up their friendship groups, meet new people. I mean, I'm not surprised, if I'd been in the same position it probably wouldn't even have crossed my mind to reach out to anyone new either. But I will make a conscious effort to chat to all those new parents this term who may feel as as utterly perplexed by all the emails, app alerts, important dates, uniforms for different days, volunteer hours, Seqta.....

So....a quick recap of December and January....

Started the holidays with a few playdates, park trips a lot of swimming pool time and a sleepover....which progressed into an ear ache...ears needing to be syringed....then swimmers ear and an ear infection....so no swimming for 7 days.

Chris's parents arrived just before Christmas and we had a lovely time, visited the Pinnacles, Henry spotted a wild emu casually sauntering between the pinnacle formations, explored the Swan Valley a little bit, took a trip down to Bunbury and Busselton, met up with my FIL school friend who lives in Yallingup (they hadn't seen each other for about 50 years!) .

The kids were booked into VacSwim for a week at the beginning of January, for the first few days the sea was wild, not a lot of swimming, quite a lot of trying to stay vertical, diving or ducking under waves and staying roughly in the same position. Ironically, I didn't book them in to learn how to swim, more to learn how to cope in big waves.... so in that part it was successful. By mid week however, Martha had developed another ear infection, Fearne was clearly in a group too easy for her...but Henry quite enjoyed it.

We have visited the Maritime Museum, the Science Museum, searched Fremantle for dinosaurs, attempted to see some free Fringe events, had a picnic at the zoo, briefly visited John Forrest national park and had lunch with some friendly kangaroos, drove up to the top of ZigZag Scenic Drive and viewed Perth CBD from a totally different vantage point and eaten a lot of ice cream.....I think that's it.

Today we have bought school shoes, sorted out the girls booklist and stationary order that arrived in December but, I have been ignoring piled in my bedroom. The girls wanted to go to Officeworks to buy 'stuff' to organise their lockers when they go back to school.... I think they're ready to go back to school.

This weekend is Australia Day, also my youngest brothers birthday (Happy Birthday Will!), two very good excuses to have a few beers and eat cake! We are off to Skyworx 2020 in Perth to see the airshow, stunt motorcycles, free inflatable waterslides, food trucks and fireworks.

Getting Settled

November 2019

We've moved before, but I had totally forgotten that feeling of knowing nobody, and consciously wanting to talk to anyone about anything, other than moving to Australia! I am at the point of happily chatting to the lollipop man on the way to school, the physio, the barista in the local coffee shop....you name it I'll chat to them, which if you know me is really not like me! Generally can't cope with mindless chitchat, makes me panic!

I think we've had it pretty easy, everything has gone relatively smoothly, from the minute we stepped off the plane to our container arriving. There have been no huge disasters. That's not to say there haven't been plenty of ups and downs, frustrations and a few tears thrown in.

I can't believe we've been here almost three months, seems like a lifetime ago that we arrived in Perth and ventured down to the beach on that first windy afternoon. I think the first week or so was blurred by jet lag, school tours, house visits and trying to figure out where we wanted to live north or south of the river, and at the time that was the biggest decision as both have very different feels about them. But in the end, and after all the research and evenings spent marking catchment areas on maps, comparing school results and facilities, enrolment numbers etc we haven’t ended up in any of these places.

We’ve gone further north ultimately because we found an affordable small school (rather than a huge High School) that we all loved straight away, it’s by the beach and just felt right. We haven’t got the cafe culture I dreamt of, or the 15 minute cycle into work that Chris hoped for, or the green leafy old original Perth suburbs I’d read all about, but we can walk to school, cycle to the beach, there’s a lovely tennis club round the corner and Martha has joined the Local Surf Life Saving. This is exactly what we wanted, even if it’s not what we originally envisaged.

Someone said to me before we moved, don’t make any big decisions in the first 6-12 months, and don’t be upset if you have to change things a few times to get things right, it will eventually work out. This was possibly the best advice I was given, slow down, relax and just enjoy it without worrying if you’ve made the right decision.

The beginning of the lasts...

(Written just before we left but it was rambles of my thoughts and I’ve only just had time to sit down and edit it properly!)
It’s a funny period of limbo this last week, everything I do I’m wondering is this the last time I’ll do this.
Walking round the supermarket, picking things up, checking best before dates, that constant awareness of time running out in front of my eyes. Our leaving date is no longer so far in the future that i don’t really make any mental note, but the milk I grabbed yesterday had the date 31/08/19. It feels odd that we will have gone by then, we will be in the midst of yet lag, confusion, wanting to feel more relaxed and less stressed than the last 6 weeks but knowing in fact it’s still going to be hard for a good while.
A friend and I took the kids up Scolty last week for some fresh air, I wanted to just enjoy it as if it was just a normal walk but in the back of my mind I was thinking what if this is the last time I come up here. The paths up the hill are so well worn and engrained in our heads, that the kids even take a different path to adults and race us up... they always win, they opt for the shortest route and we always opt for the longer route to enjoy the peace... it’s a win win situation. (They did have 13 year old, with a phone, with them)

We’ve had last birthdays in this house for a while, last sleepovers, last play dates, last dentist appointments and haircuts, last cinema trips, last bike rides, the cars have both gone, the cats have gone to their new home (I might do another post on that one) .... and one final impromptu ‘last’ drinks with Fyfe’s and Cowie’s💖

The hardest of the ‘lasts’ is the hugs, being given hugs just in case we don’t see each other. I don’t want to think of these as ‘lasts’ just until next time we see you.

Moving onto the next adventure

Long before the children arrived, Chris and I had plans to move to Australia and work, not forever but to experience life in another country where we could walk to the beach, swim in turquoise clear sea and wear summer clothes and flip flops all year round.
But then life just got in the way and the opportunity never really came up, although not without us searching pretty hard for that elusive job overseas. We had an 18 month stint in Houston when the kids were all under 5, we look back on it fondly now but at the time it was incredibly stressful. There's an element of regret in our minds that we didn't stick it out but in hindsight maybe moving with three small children, the youngest at the time was 7 weeks old wasn't the best timing..... but hey ho, you've got to try these things.....and now 15 years after we first started thinking about Australia , a random LinkedIn connection, an oil industry very slowly recovering, a lot of waiting and hoping it might come to something, it is finally happening.
In my mind, most people relocating themselves to the other side of the world give themselves a year or so to plan everything, sell furniture, research everything in finite detail, all while they wait for visa approvals. I think we've had roughly three months from contract being signed to our belongings all packed and sent in advance of us.... my poor head feels like it hasn't stopped to think or process anything for months. Part of me can't wait to get on that plane at the end of August so we can get started with the next adventure, (and maybe the lure of getting kids back to school is also playing a part🤣) while the other part of me desperately wants to fit in as many days out with friends, walks and visits to my parents, hill climbs, river paddling, sand dune surfing and as many cuddles with cats that we can possibly fit in.
We moved to Scotland almost 12 years ago from the southern counties of England. I always assumed England would be where we called 'home', and I love the sandy beaches, red cliff walks, rolling green hills, high hedgerows and narrow lanes of Devon, but I love where we live in Scotland even more. The people, the town we have called home for 12 years, the vast open space of the Cairngorms, the hills and mountains recognisable by the their rocky shapes on the horizon, the grey sparkly granite in the sunshine, the windy, bitterly cold beaches of the North Sea, the huge swaying Scots pines behind our house, the meandering River Dee, Scolty Hill.... but we feel it's time for a new adventure and to give the kids an invaluable experience that'll give them a sense of wonder, excitement and appreciation of the world around them.
It's always going to be hard leaving family and best friends behind, but for those of you finding this particularly hard (you know who you are!) we love you.... maybe we can't have the one too many impromptu glasses of wine together on a Friday evening, or pop over for roast dinner, share our childcare, meet for coffee and scones but we can still chat whenever we need to, send each other virtual hugs, use FaceTime to have a glass of wine together and most importantly we will always have a bedroom or two for you to come and visit.... and we will be back!