All I want for Christmas is Peter the Possum man

Well here we were thinking we'd have no family around at Christmas and low and behold we have a complete family staying with us in the attic! The Possums moved in about 3 nights ago so now Max isn't the only one keeping us awake at night. I have a bad feeling they will be with us for some time as Peter the possum man tells us they are a protected species so they can't actually be removed - he has to wait until they leave and then block the hole in the roof so it looks like Peter the Possum man may be moving in aswell!?
Apart from our possum problems we've had a lovely Christmas eve. We had a carol concert and barbeque in the church gardens and it was a very sunny 23 degrees.
Presents and dummies are all wrapped (Santa is taking Celia's dummies to give to the new babies!!), stuffing is made and ham is glazed. Andy is barbequing the turkey tomorrow so I think we will get our Christmas dinner at about the same time as all those at home i.e. about 10pm!
Merry Christmas to all. x

It's snowing!

No, I am not talking about the UK - I am talking about Victoria, Australia! I turned on the news this morning and thought the pictures were of Britain cause yesterday when I turned on the local Australian news I was confronted with pictures of Belfast city airport! But no, the pictures were of upstate Victoria and New South Wales - and this is the Australian summer??
We were meant to attend a carol concert in the park last night but the weather was so horrendous (wind, torrential rain, thunder and lightening) we stayed in and wrapped Max & Celia's presents instead. Looking on the bright side, it made it feel just like a Christmas back home!

Getting ready for Santa

As Andy already mentioned Ruth had a baby boy 2 weeks ago and nobody was more pleased with the name than me. This is due to a rather foolish oversight of mine a few weeks back. I was in the local charity shop where I spotted some Christmas stockings and as I'm always on the lookout for a bargain (or just plain tight as Andy prefers to call it) I thought I'd save a few dollars. I did think it slighty odd that the lady at the counter asked if I was sure I wanted both stockings as she could plainly see that I had two children but it wasn't until I got home that I realised I'd bought personalised stockings. In my dyslexic state I just saw a jumble of letters which I thought read 'XMAS' but as luck would have it the first one I pulled out of the bag was for a MAX! The second one was for a 'SAM' and of course at the time we knew no Sams so thank you Ruth and Gary as I'd hate to think my purchase would go to waste. I'll post it over for next Christmas!
This week has been full of parties (mainly for Celia but Max and I tag along). She is being a very stroppy teenager these days as all she wants to do is stay in her room and listen to CDs or sleep. She refuses to even come out for meals. How did we manage to bypassed the terrible twos plus10 years?!
Well I will leave you with an update on what is the biggest Australian news story this week - no, not the climate summit or Stockholm terrorist attacks or even Julain Assange - its 'Queen of TV Oprah Winfrey visits Australia'. And it's been on the news and in the papers for weeks now! They showed people crying yesterday because they got to be one of 12,000 people in the audience of her Sydney show - some people need to get out more (including the whole of the Australian media!) 

A New Nephew - Congratulations baby sister

Normally when I get woken at 3am it is by Max who has decided he wants food, a trip to Mum and Dad's bed or just a good old cry for no particular reason whatsoever. He has been waking up a bit too often for my liking recently. Anyway, last Tuesday I was woken for an altogether more acceptable reason...a call from brother-in-law Gary in Scotland to say that I had a new nephew, Sam, born on the 1st December.

That's two girls and a boy now for Ruth and Gary - bigger house required soon I would say. Congratulations one-and-all. Sam is just 5 months younger than Max so I'm sure the two of them will have some great times in the years ahead, assuming they get to live in the same continent at some point.

Apart from baby news (other friends are having twins soon too), Christmas party season is in full swing. It is full-on rooftop terraces, barbeques and posh restaurants every other night right now. I have to say I'm not missing the sub-zero temperatures or snow one little bit.

Uncle Roger comes to stay

Continuing on the theme of 'firsts' we have a few more to add to the list from last week.
1. We had our first visitor in the form of Andy's good friend Roger who moved to Sydney just before we moved to Melbourne. It didn't stop raining the whole time he was here so I think he'll bring a jacket next time!
2. As I am now a fulltime mum / housewife / domestic goddess in the making, I conformed to the stereotype and attended my first tupperware party. How expensive is plastic!?......

3. The sun made an appearance last week so Max, Celia and I headed to the beach and built sandcastles for the first time (well, not my first time obviously). It was 28 degrees and the beach was deserted - if this beach was in London or NI how crowded do you think it would be on a hot sunny day??!.....

 4. Celia met Santa for the first time! We were at Deloitte's family Christmas Party up in the Dandenong Hills and although it was cold, wet and windy (this was the day after the beach!) we still had lots of fun especially on the steam train Puffing Billy.

5. Wrote my Chrsitmas cards in the garden on a sun lounger - very strange!

Another week of firsts

1.I got my first ever Thanksgiving card and my first hand written letter in about 10 years! Email, Facebook and blogs are great but you cannot beat an old fashioned letter so thank you very much Suzann.

2. Max had his first taste of solid food on Monday and the old baby rice is going down a treat as I suspected it would - if ever there was a boy who looked like he enjoyed his food it's Max!

3. Celia got her first birthday party invite. It's at the same house we went to on Melbourne Cup day for the barbeque but I am still counting it as a 'first'!

4. We both got our first speeding tickets this week - mine arrived 2 days after Andy's so I had to wipe the conceited snear off my face pronto! They are really strict on speed limits over here (I got $150 fine plus points for doing 75 KPH in a 70 KPH zone)

5. Celia didn't throw a tantrum when I left her at nursery today for the first time which is a relief, although I was a bit concerned last week when I collected her and the first thing she said was "Mummy, I had fun today - I slept with all the boys!". The nursery staff have assured me the 'group sleep' at lunchtime is perfectly innocent!

Birthday, Barbeques, Bikes and Bowls

I think it is fair to say we're settling in to a more Australian way of life now. This week I've managed to do a couple of morning runs round the park - it is amazing how many people are up doing fit things at 6am! I also managed a 25k ride on my new bike in 32 degrees, the hottest day of summer so far. Had a lovely evening of bowls and a few beers on a sweating hot evening on Thursday. I beat the boss at bowls, having beaten him at golf a couple of weeks ago...I better let him win at something soon.  We rounded the week off with a birthday BBQ on Saturday and a nice drive into the Dandenong hills on Sunday.
Thought it was high time we managed to post a few more blog photos so here they are.


I think this is actually the first time we have managed to get a photo of all four of us since we arrived in Australia

Birthday day out - Dandenong Hills

So what did I get myself for my birthday. A shiny new BBQ of course...had to be done. Celia and Max kindly contributed to some nice cook books to encourage me even more. Will have to get practicing, it will be Christmas in no time.

Dad with his birthday presents

Saturday we did the extremely grown up, modern man thing of taking a first aid class with Lydia's mummy friends and all the husbands. If you ever collapse in my presence I'm now fully equipped to give you mouth to mouth resusitation! This was followed by a fantastic indoor birthday BBQ (it rained heavily for 24 hours on Saturday in a humid monsoon sort of a way). The chat was fantastic, roast lamb and cake hit the spot and and the shiraz was outstanding. Thanks Megan and Scott. We'll return the compliment soon, minus the first aid and with a much more novice BBQ fayre.

Boys with babies at a BBQ talking B******

 Most of our trips out of the city so far have been sourtwards to the Mornington Peninsula in search of sun and sea. This Sunday Lydia treated me to a wonderful lunch in the beautiful Dandenong Hills about an hour to the west of Melbourne. We've been meaning to check out these lovely hills, forest, gardens and quaint villages for some weeks now. Sasafass and Olinda didn't let us down. Think quirky little English village circa 1950 and you'll not be far off. All tea-rooms, craft shops and rhododendron gardens. Mum, if she ever made it to Victoria, would love it.

Birthday day out in the Dandenongs

It's been a tough few months for Lydia with all the upheaval. This week she's been so much happier and my birthday weekend has been just lovely. Here she is looking very relaxed with Max outside a quaint mountain tea shop.

Pit stop for some devonshire cream tea

Apart from the odd short trip to the local park my new bike has not seen much action yet. This week it had it's first proper outing as I took it too and from work on Friday ( I was doing a day's hard labour in a packaging factory...long story!). I loved it, felt brilliant despite the heat and the volume of cycle paths in this city is extraordinary. It will be seeing a lot more action during the summer as my new source of exercise and sightseeing combined...sod the 6am runs round the park!

My new bike, complete with passenger

In 365 days time I'll be 40. Let's see how much fun it is possible to have in 365 days!