Moving arse...

As I may have mentioned in an earlier blog, the school system here starts much later than in the UK. Kids here don't start school at 5, they start 'reception' during the year that they are 5, and school proper at 6. Phoebe is about to start reception in January (the school year starts in January) and we felt that it was pretty important that she didn't start at Collingwood Park (where Tilda has been this year) but at the school that they will be at when we've built the house. Matilda unfortunately will have to start again, having just made freinds with a bunch of kids at the school, but better now than after another year, during which they will become closer.

So to that end, we have been looking at houses to rent that are near to the school and of course near to the land. We looked at several houses in the end, and put in an expression of interest on one (the one I mentioned in the last entry). However, partially because we had reservations about the agents and partially because we had cold feet about the layout which has really poor access to an otherwise good garden (or yard as they call it here), we decided to pull out. We didn't do it blind however, because we had also seen another house that is layed out a whole lot better.... and we got it!



It's a four bedroom house, one of which is going to be our study/spare bedroom, and the girls will have a room each. They need to have a space each, and this will be their first taste of it. Currently there is an imaginary line that runs down the centre of their bedroom, and when one or the other of them is feeling anti-social, the line becomes highly visible to them... and the patrolling of it becomes highly vocal - which is a pain in the bum for everyone else that has to live here.



Needless to say, Daile and I are looking forward to getting unpacked, and we're going to empty out the rest of the container and sell it. Since all our stuff arrived here last year, the container has been at a local house that has a lotta space around the back, and we've been paying them $25 a week to keep it there - so far about $1,500 - which isn't bad, but will be good to have for something else now. I don't expect we'll get as much for the container as we paid, but we should cover the rent on the land it's been sitting on. We don't have anywhere else that we can keep it, as putting it on our own land would require both planning permission, and some reshaping of the land to make a level bit.

Whilst I was in the UK, Mum gave me a little book for Matilda about surviving on a desert island, and making stuff like a hat from reeds, and a fishing rod from found objects. It was a good choice of books for her and she has really been caught by the idea. So it was not a surprise to find that she'd fashioned this fishing rod out of stuff that she found in the back garden. She took this to school and was suitably congratulated for her innovation by her teacher.... which is always a great motivator for her. Zoom in to see what she did.



Workwise, I've been in touch with a couple of people and been to see a company that were impressed but don't have anything as yet. I'm not working through the recruitment companies because they just don't know what to do with me. I do have one agency looking for work for me, because the guy is a mate, and understands better than most what I can do and can't do. In the meantime, my options are begining to crystalise a bit, and i'm realising that if I can, I should be doing something that has at least SOME creative outlet in the role. Whatever it is, it's probably going to take a while. Most companies are shutting down for Christmas, and are not looking at taking people on untill AT LEAST mid Jan. We'll see.