Australia so far….. (new news will appear at the bottom of page)

Now this isn’t going to be as exciting as Gary & Nat’s blog, but it will be about my new domestic life in Oz.

After a shakey landing we got out of the airport by 3 o’clock in the morning. The wind was so bad that the pilot had to pull out of his landing and start again, which was somewhat terrifying and he got large clap after bouncing and twisting and turning down on the runway.

I cleared immigration quicker than Steve ! we declared all out sweets and m & m’s and the two wooden beads on my necklace, which seemed to make the customs man laugh, we told him we had watched too many episodes of Nothing to Declare Australia.

After a spider and snake sweep of the hotel bedroom, I managed to have a good night sleep, even though I am now permanently upside down it was very good and I didn’t have a headrush at all.

Steve got up early and went and bought a car which is what Australians called a UTE (utility vehicle) which is a nice maroon colour and after a spider sweep, I can confirm does not have any spiders !!

Metal Skippies in Perth		"What's That you say Skippy? Timmy's down the Well"

Gumnut Babies		Gigantic Pen Nibs - for Penpushers which I am not now!!!

After Steve got back we went for a walk around Perth and I embarrassed him by being a total tourist stopping at every opportunity to have a photo taken, I even posed grabbing a pair of kangaroo balls.

The Australian people are really friendly and will chat at every opportunity. In the evening I noticed there was a pub I just had to go to, so it was then we went off for a drink in The Lucky Shag. The pub had a veranda right over the Swan River and was very busy with city types

I didn't get one if your wondering		Cinema Perth Style with Big Bean Bags

There is one thing I’ve noticed about Perth, even though it was the city centre and full of businesses like London, no one was in a rush, no one was angry and the women can wear lovely summer clothes to work – and its autumn!

Biggest shock of the day – we went to Woolworths (no not the place that sold pick & mix and has gone bust in England) it’s like a Tesco’s metro and to my disgust and utter shock THEY DON’T SELL MARMITE!

We had a nice Italian meal and the waitress was a member of the family who ran the restaurant. She was proud to tell us that they were Italian immigrants and made most of the food that was on the menu including the delicious fig icecream steve ordered and the figs came from their garden. I saw my first 2 Aboriginal people – they were the first and only people we saw pissed not sure this was the best first impression.

The next day we got up earlyish and drove to our first housesit in Bunbury. We stopped off at Fremantle for breakfast which was nice, but we didn’t stop long – this is a place I would like to go back to.

We arrived at Ivey Court to meet Kelly and spent the evening getting to know her and Lily & Lucy who we will be looking after. The house is just like Ramsey Street on Neighbours and we went for a drive to see it was so near to this beautiful beach it was just a short walk away.

Unsuccessful Topless Bather Spotting		Our Backyard

Bunbury High Street		Our beach

The next day after Kelly had headed off to London, we went to Coles Supermarket to stock up. There were lots of odd things in the fruit and veg section and we ended up spending nearly £300 as we needed a lot! I noticed something different as I was pushing my trolley around, if I was in the way the next person would wait patiently behind me until I got out the way, no stucking of teeth, tutting or barging past like in Asda Charlton and there even wasn’t a punch up at the checkout. The checkout girls do all of the packing for you, even chat along all the way through it and all at the same time they stand up (someone needs to get these people some chairs).

After the food shopping we then went to something called a bottle shop, which is wall to wall beer and wine. It was full of rough looking types who look like rednecks! Not sure I liked this place, but steve says they are all harmless.

That evening we had a proper Aussie Barbie with gigantic prawns and steaks mmmmmmm

Lily has made a friend		All an Ozzie Bloke Needs

Big Prawns		Yallingup Beach

Snakes!! No One mentioned they go to the Beach too!		Peppermint Grove Beach - wow

Aussie Sunset		That satisfying after peeing in the sand look

We then walked over to the beach and found some trees completely full up with white parrots, they make a lot of noise!

We had originally wanted to go to a beach but it started to rain, so we drove to Margaret River which is a massive wine producing area. There was one after another after another of wineries ! 7^th heaven !!! Debs will love this place.

We then decided to go to a place called Peppermint Grove beach and on the way we turned off to a dirt road. The warning at this beach was rather scarey! But we didn’t see any! It was here I saw my first kangaroo!!! Then about 100 kangaroos all crossing the bloody road without any warning, I kept scaring steve by shouting out “argghh don’t hit skippy!”

Here is a video I made of the Kangaroos!!  click the link 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRXHrsHojTE

Over the last few weeks we have not had much social time, maybe because we are billy no mates, but because we have also been working very hard.  Work for Steve has picked up enormously and he has heaps of jobs to do.  I have only had one interview, which I didn't get the job.  There doesn't seem to be many office jobs about, so for the time being I am being worked like a dog by my other half! My fingers are very sore and cracked.  We have also taken up fishing and I am now quite the expert.  We have managed to catch quite a lot more than the crab we manged to catch on our first day.

One man and his rod		Sand Crab

Dolphin Jumping		Dolphin Pod

G'day Mate		Hello Skippy

Kookaburra		Multi-Tasking Ossies

Catch if the day (whiting mmm)

In between putting bait on our rods, we have seen loads of Dolphins.  The first time we saw them I managed to photograph one jumping out of the water.  Since then we have become very matter of fact about them "oh there is another dolphin" "not another one".

We have also seen pelicans and sea eagles.  The wildlife here is wonderful.  We also hear that there are Whales on their way to Bunbury on their way up north.

We went to Big Swamp Nature Reserve and saw lots of Australian wildlife including wonderful Kangaroos, who we petted for ages.

I have approached several galleries and have not had much luck.  One turned me down because my work wasn't Australian enough, but will see any new stuff that is Australian once i've painted some, because it will sell better.  I have taken the step of approaching a Greek paper in Melbourne to see if they have any contacts in art circles who show Greek paintings - so fingers crossed!

More will follow im sure, but at the moment we have loads of boring domestic stuff to do…although we are heading to the beach again tomorrow! ahhh what a chore!

Since I last updated this blog, we haven't been up to much apart from moving house twice and settling in and also doing a lot of work laying floors and tiling.  We have had Steve's son Tom visit us for a week, which was fun.  We went fishing and also did a day of paintballing, which was really fun and very painful for about a week!

We are now in a lovely house which has 5 acres of land, a swimming pool, a massive tree lined driveway and we have to run a trailer hire business, which is making as a little extra money.  We like this house a lot as its more in the countryside.  We have possums running all over the roof at night, which is strange.  Today there are a lot of commotion from the garden and I managed to take some good photos of 3 very noisy kookaburras - these things actually laugh at you - quite strange!

Will be in touch again soon with some more news. PLEASE SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM AS THIS STUPID SYSTEM HAS PUT ALL MY NEW PHOTOS AT THE END OF THE PAGE AND I CAN'T FIX IT :-(

Emma & Steve X

Our new house - hope it warms up so we can use the pool		Part of the land behind the house		Our driveway

Noisy Kookaburra		We think this must be a baby because he is so fluffy		So sweet! but dont laugh at me!

Outside the Vets - Very funny models!		Some of the work we have been doing		Flooring work

My work gear :-(		Local Celebrities

The UTE!		Our Housesit

The Entrace Hall to our new home - Tom, Steve & Holly		Trying to catch something		Salmon for dinner!