This week we've been at a conference in Coffs Harbour. Or rather, I've been at the conference and Paul and the girls have enjoyed themselves at the beach and pool etc. The weather has been excellent, perhaps a little cool at night, but then again, it is the middle of winter. Paul came to see my presentation on Tuesday, which went OK. While he was there, the girls went on a beach walk and actually saw wild dolphins a metre or so off the beach, which thrilled the walk leaders, if not Cate who doesn't yet realise that this doesn't happen every day!
Looks like the house has been officially sold at last. The low-lifes who'd put in the first offer just kept delaying committing to the purchase, and while we didn't really think they would pull out, we are really annoyed that they took so long and cost us two months of extra mortgage payments. We had a second offer through the second agents and this seems to have galvanised the first lot into finally committing, with completion supposedly this Friday. Be nice to stop paying mortgage, council taxes etc on an empty house!
We can also feel comfortable with putting in an offer on the house we have been admiring now. It isn’t perfect, as the land is a bit steep out the back, so that renders the .625 of an acre not as useable as it might be, however the house itself is excellent, the best layout we have ever seen on a house this size. It backs onto the Black Hill national park, which means that we’ll get wildlife (kookaburras, koalas, roos, snakes (!) ), and have to watch out for the odd bushfire (!!) but it will be quiet and not overcrowded.
The girls have settled into school and school link well, with Cate starting reception in a couple of weeks. They've made lots of nice friends, and the parents are also very friendly and welcoming, and Paul has been going to the mums' coffee morning (I think the like having a dad along ;-)
It's taken a while to get online again, but this afternoon finally managed it. Sadly we are back to using a modem (!) but at least we're connected, if not fast.
We've been looking at Fords today, originally intending a Falcon stationwagon ("estate" in UK-speak) but ending up marginally preferring the Territory (4WD/MPV hybrid) which might be reasonable. I'll just have to swallow my pride a bit, after all those snide comments about 4WD drivers.
I'm feeling a bit negative today, thanks to i) discovering a small scorpion on the kitchen floor in our accommodation and ii) reading emails from the solicitor about the West Bridgford house. The people buying the house are behaving very badly indeed, wanting all sorts of ridiculous formal assurances and wanting us to buy insurance against all sorts of foolish things like the remote possibility that the local tithe will be collected (apparently this is potentially still current).
The scorpion was a different matter. I'd put up a photo, but alas I tromped the thing when I realised what it was. Not much left of it after I bashed it into small pieces (with thick-soled shoes!), so sorry about the lack of photo. I suppose scorpions happen because we are staying in a very pretty, semi-rural part of the Adelaide hills, lots of nice birds and trees, but regrettably the less-welcome wildlife too. I recall scorpions from my childhood in the Adelaide Hills, but never one actually indoors! We've had one bullant and numerous Portuguese millipedes as well but they're no bother.
One much more cheerful aspect is the new school the girls will be attending from next Monday. It really is an excellent school, very well-resourced, clean, light and bright. I had thought Grosvenor in Nottingham was good, but Saints is even better. It has about the same number of students in any given year as Grosvenor, and has its own gymnasium, swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts etc. It is also rather "old school" and is a quite respectable, if somewhat conservative, institution.
The weather in Newcastle was quite flawless and we enjoyed sitting on the deck, looking at the back garden and listening to the magpies warbling. However after a week it was time to move on and get ourselves to our eventual final destination, Adelaide, so we swapped the lively Pacific Ocean beaches (where poor Lee and Cate were both unceremoniously dumped by the same large wave) for the Southern Ocean beaches (which the weather hasn't really made viable yet).
We first went to Canberra for two nights, and spent the majority of Friday visiting the Questacon science and technology centre. The girls loved it, and it has been developed with children of various ages in mind, and has plenty of hands-on exhibits in such unlikely things as music and secret codes, as well as the more obvious geology, environment and weather exhibits. Bit of a shame that Canberra taxis decided not to send the promised cab when it was time to go home, even after three phone calls and waiting for 70 minutes, finally informing us that "airport calls take priority" (for the public servants if you please), so we had to walk home in the slightly cool evening, nearly an hours' walk with two already-tired small children. Bollocks to Canberra taxis, say I.
On Saturday we drove down the Monaro highway to Lakes Entrance on the southern coast. It was a smooth and easy drive down to Cooma, where we stopped for a remarkably indifferent lunch with stale rolls from the bakery next to Woolworths (the pie was fine). After Cooma, we managed to miss our turnoff and started heading through some quite lovely highland rain forest toward Bega. After navigating a quite hazardous steeply-descending, winding road (where some knobstick nearly killed us overtaking on a completely blind curve) we realised our mistake and had to turn back, this time going uphill. However at least it was a nice drive, and we stopped at a lovely lookout to breathe the fresh air and look for miles through a break in the trees to see the coast. We even saw a wallaby by the roadside, much to Lee's delight.
We saw even more wildlife as we finally corrected our route and progressed down the Monaro Highway to the southern coast. I was surprised and pleased to see (however briefly) not one but two lyrebirds scuttling away from the roadside (where they plainly must find good things to eat, else why be there?), with their lovely long sweeping tails. We also saw quite a number of kangaroos (greys) in the farmers' fields, at one stage a good hundred or so in one field, enjoying the superior grass that seems to grow wherever cattle have been.
Yesterday's drive from Lakes Entrance to Lorne was for the most part a bit dull, just eating up the miles to get there before dark. The days are pretty short as we approach the solstice, especially as we proceed southerly, and it always seems to take longer than you estimate from the map. Still, the days aren't as short as they would be in Nottingham at the same time of year, nor is it as cold. It just seems that way after the delicious subtropical warmth in Newcastle.
We are staying in a lovely little cottage near the Erskine Falls, but the anticipated forest walk we were to take this morning from the cottage to the Falls has been rendered unlikely, as the weather has really turned overnight, with blustery and cold (relatively) winds and plenty of rain. I think we'll drive :-/
Today we head to Warrnambool, then tomorrow to Penola (Coonawarra country 8-) and then to Adelaide on Wednesday, the final destination!
Some activity with selling the house, although nothing concrete yet. Don't care. Going anyway! Be nice to get it sorted before we leave though, as we can't buy anything decent unless we get the capital from this one. In fact, it will be nice not to spend so much time keeping the place clean for viewings.
Today I give my last lecture for Nottingham. Yes, I definitely feel that ten years here is quite enough.
The current weather is making me think fondly of Adelaide too - the benign clear skies we'd had for some time have now given way to flurries of snow and a chilly northern wind. No real snow - nothing for the little girls to play in. Nottingham does seem to be a snow desert and gets light dustings while other parts of the country grind to a halt. I suppose I should be thankful :-)
I can hardly believe just how much work there is to do. Getting Paul's residency visa, arranging moving, what to take and what to leave behind, new schools, etc etc. I have given notice at my old job at Nottingham but am hardly going to be a lady of leisure, no, not even for a couple of months!
We're heading to Adelaide, my old home town, and I will be going to work at UniSA in Computer Science. I think the work will be much the same as I've been doing in Nottingham, even the teaching looks set to be similar (my Computer Security stuff).
I am sooo much looking forward to eating at some of my favourite Adelaide restaurants again, with special mentions for Ambrosini's, Jasmin and Lenzerheide. I am sure lots of other excellent restaurants have started up since I've left too.
I guess there is plenty we'll miss about the UK: the long summer evenings, that great farmers' market in West Bridgford, our nice friends here, that dear little pub in Colston Bassett. Still, at the moment, I just can't wait to get to Adelaide!