A Question for Bus Drivers Everywhere!!

I know that it is not every day that I am updating everyone like before Mrs. Marmite and the Little Spreaders came out to join me. It is understandable as Jane and I are full time playing with the two nippers, and making dinner (most of the time Super Noodles, or Chicken and Mashed Potatoes, or Fresh Pasta and Pesto Sauce - my daughter has very cultured taste), and dancing like a Barbie Princess.

In the past two weeks, we have slowly slipped into a very pleasant routine. I have had to work, but not too hard – as you can imagine. We've had to come to an arrangement about transport, as we only have the purple passion wagon to share between us all. It seems a waste to just drive the car to Melville, where I am working (30-40 minutes away) to leave the car parked up all day, and then drive it home. Because of this I've joined the ranks of the great unwashed, and having to use the "Loser Cruiser" and the "Rattler" and then another "Loser Cruiser" to work. (Translation – bus, train, then bus).

We all met up in town the other afternoon, and went to a park (for a change), but this one was something a little different. It has a replica statue of the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens (not the Brighton one) which was donated to Perth a long time ago. Daisy loves the place, and keeps asking to go back to the Peter Pan Park (that's what she calls it).

It wasn't like that when we first arrived, and were confronted with a small family of Black Swans – like White Swans, but obviously black and a lot more bad tempered. It might be that the two adult swans were just trying to look after their three Cygnets, but they chased Daisy away. "I just wanted to say hello Daddy" was why she went up to them.

We located the Peter Pan statue, and Daisy just danced around it, and climbed up it, and crawled around it, and sat on it. No one was bothered – because there were only a couple other people in the whole park. Eventually an older group of three people walked up to the statue, and after asking us to take their photo alongside the statue, they started chatting with us.

It turns out that they were from Brisbane (capital of Queensland, about 5 hour flight away) but originally from Perth, and had come to see the Peter Pan Statue when they were kids. One of them was a "Music Therapist" – whatever that is – and pulled out some sort of Pan Pipes (Peter Pan/Pan Pipes – I can see the link) and tooted out a tune. Daisy thought that was fabulous, and danced away to the music for ages. We (Jane and I) chatted with them for ages, and wangled an invite to stay with one of the couples if we are ever their way.

Other news is that we have found somewhere to live, but not moving until the middle of September. It's a lovely place that Jane found. I was right – there is no way that I could have been trusted to find a family home.

One thing, finally, while I have been riding the "loser cruiser" to work every day, I have just one small question that I would like answering. Bus Drivers, why does it seem that every bus stop takes you by surprise, and you have to stop suddenly? I drive for a living, and I can come bring the ambulance to a gentle and comfortable stop when necessary, but to the drivers of the buses in Perth, that seems to be an impossible task.

Jane – Part One of a few

If any one had told me last year (when I was four months pregnant), that in a years time I would have moved to Australia, I would have thought that they were completely mad, and, that I would have gone insane. And not only that, but I would spend 7 months in the UK on my own with two small children, then I would have thought not only am I insane but I've had a lobotomy as well!

But no, here I am or should I say here we are, as a family – living 'down under'.

Top tips for any one getting in the export packers when you up sticks and relocate your entire life – make sure you put aside any thing you don't want packed and shipped! The packers were so quick, that a few extras are now making their way from old Blighty! They include Daisy's library books ("oh, you better renew online" quote from the library when I rang to explain), and a couple of cast iron pans belonging with our range cooker in the UK (nice and light!! Not!)

We hired a skip and were quite ruthless sorting through our years of accumulative junk, how liberating! I would recommend everyone hire a skip every five years and have a good old clearout. Tidy house equals tidy head in my book (and not as I hear some of you say, empty house means empty head!)

Watching the guys packing up all our worldly belongings, it looked pretty easy. And very quick! Day 1 everything pretty much except for large items of furniture was packed into boxes, Day 2 all the furniture had to be export wrapped. Basically all items of furniture had to be wrapped either in bubble wrap or in huge brown paper bags. Time was of the essence as our 20ft container was sat outside on the road, and as they say, time is money.

To speed things up, David and I decided to lend a hand, after all how hard could it be? I was an expert at Christmas wrapping! Any one remembers the Generation Game? Well, that would be a great task to complete! After wrestling frantically for five minutes with an enormous brown paper bag, I decided to join forces with David and together we managed to wrap…. The high chair!!!

Everything fitted into our container, which by now should be bobbing around on a big container ship somewhere. And that as they say is that.

We spent the following week catching up with family, before heading off for our big adventure!

Is it a Big Adventure or Mid Life Crisis? Big Adventure of Course! It started on Tuesday 6^th August.

There we all were, Birmingham airport, checking in, 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant – nothing unusual there. Then came our luggage…. 1 baby buggy, 2 car seats, 3 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase, 1 hold all and 1 more suitcase. "£600 for the last suitcase" excess baggage charge!

Do you think we are stupid – I hope not! The bag didn't get checked in, and here my friends comes our next top tip. Why do you think there is always a luggage store in the airport? It's so that people like us can go and purchase a cabin size wheelie bag. Pack the most useful items into it, and send the practically empty suitcase home! Grandma has recently acquired an extra suitcase and 3 blue towels! And we were the smug owners of a new cabin bag, packed with the last of our possessions!

Having made this Trans global expedition with 2 small children once already this year, I like to think we were quite prepared. And anyone thinking of making this type of journey with small children here are my suggestions:

Group seating – If you can, check in online. David did a great job making sure we were sat together and that we had a bassinet, or sky cot. (This is a cot that slots onto the bulkhead, great for small babies, and tired parents!)

Timing – look at the flight times. We picked the shorter sector to depart mid afternoon and the long 12 hour sector overnight. Why is this important? We want our kids to sleep! We made the mistake when Daisy was 18 months old. The outbound flight was fine; we booked the flight overnight, result she slept. We were too excited about our holiday at the time to think of the return sector and it departed at mid day. Even though we had bought Daisy a seat, she spent half the flight wriggling on my lap! Not recommended! Luckily we timed it just right. My girls were the perfect sleeping angels for most of the time!

Entertainment – Make sure you have plenty to keep your little darlings entertained! Most aircraft have some sort of in-flight entertainment system on board, and our flight was no exception. Daisy quite happily watched The Wizard of Oz and The Aristocats on repeat! I also packed lots of little treats or presents. These ranged from sticker books, to story books etc. We also had our supply of washable felt pens with lids that were attached and couldn't fall on the floor and get lost and magic pens that work only on the special paper provided.

Clothing – For the kids I always put in 2 pairs of pajamas'. I always pack a change of undies (in case of an unscheduled stop) and a clean T-shirt. Just in case your kid is sick… on you!

Essentials – Calpol sachets (a must in case of colds and blocked ears), nappies and wipes (always pack more than you need in case of delays), rubbish bags (have you ever stopped to look at just how dirty the plane looks when you get off it?)

I could go on, but now I am boring you!

Eighteen hours later we landed. The Heaths have arrived!

Week 1 - Here we go again – Although only the Reader’s Digest Version

I'm going to keep it all brief from now on. I've been reminded that some people don't want to read about 500 words a day of things haven't changed. I'll only manage a couple entries a week if I am lucky at the moment.

It was great to see all in the UK and after some hard work, a lot of drink, and a couple very impressing leaving BBQ's, we as a family packed our remaining belongings into a little hire car and trundled off to Devon to have a week of fond farewells with our families. (When I say little, I mean little by anyone's standards.) "How Small" I hear you ask? Well, I've think that I've seen bigger toy cars.

We got to Devon in our Noddy car, and promptly swapped it for something more David sized. We spent some quality time with Joyce and Roy, and was surprised that Daisy really wasn't to bothered about leaving Telscombe...almost like the people we left behind are more upset than we were.

Saturday brought us to Coalville, to be reunited with our remaining luggage (It had travelled to Coalville separately). We redistributed all our belongings that hadn't found their way onto the ship (a lot of things were sent even though we weren't expecting them to be – Do you think our library books will be overdue when they arrive in Perth in 6 weeks?). We were very conscious of the total weight of the suitcases and were very keen to avoid any excess baggage charges.

Tuesday morning took us to the airport, and with a little sorrow and anxiety, we bid farewell to the UK. Even though we took a lot of care over the total weight of the suitcases, we were overweight by about 19kgs, and the man wanted to charge us £600. I thought he wanted us to buy another ticket for him to come to Perth with us, and I politely refused to let him join our party. After the purchase of another piece of hand luggage (£25) and some hasty repacking of the offending suitcase Mum (who had come to see us off, thankfully) acquired a couple towels and a suitcase, and we took all our stuff with us. A lot better than £600
I think!

We were met at the airport by Jamie (his wife, Julie, sent us a bag of groceries – milk, juice, bread, cereal – everything needed for the next morning), and he chauffeured us to the apartment. The first couple days went by with a whirl, and the nights (jet lag and 5 baby teeth cutting through at the same time) were another story. At one point on night everyone was snoring in our bed, so Jane and I sneaked into Daisy's room, and climbed into her bed. An hour of uninterrupted sleep was bliss, but then Annaliese woke, and so we brought her into Daisy's room. It wasn't more than 30 minutes before a little voice woke us "I'm all alone", and then Daisy took me for a trampoline. Musical beds did go on for about a week, but is settled down now.

Besides that it's been parks, picnics, and playgrounds. Today we spent the afternoon as a lot of other families did. We had a lunch time BBQ Picnic in a playground, and then walked around the park admiring the views, rolling down hills, climbing in play areas, and playing Duck, Duck, Goose (Daisy and Me) for about 4 hours, and got home about 6 with two very tired Princesses.

That's about the long and short of it. I'll let you know about work next week.