November 2006

A wee place called Scotland Island, about an hours drive north of here!

** updates are in blue text - last update Thursday 30th November **

*** St. Andrews Day - a fitting day to update the header with a pic of Scotland Island! ***

Tuesday 7th - Melbourne Cup

Melbourne Cup is like the Grand National over here - people take days off work, the whole afternoon gravitates around the pub and the TAB / bookies ! The city was full of people, especially the ladies, all dressed up in their finest attire, worthy of Ascot complete with hats and feathers etc.

We all left work early for a flutter and a few drinks at a local establishment, called the Verandah Bar - they had taken it to the extreme and the entire bar floor was fitted with wall-to-wall turf ! So bizarre to be standing on grass, on the first floor, the strong aroma, whilst ordering your drinks and chatting away!

Sunday 12th

Craig Morrison and his family came over for a BBQ and we finally got a chance to splash around in the pool....it might have only been 18 or 19 degrees in the water, but there was no option to take a run and dive-bomb in !! I've been cleaning it and scooping out the leaves, twigs and spiders for ages now, so its was time to try it out !! Once I recovered from the cold shock, it was nice to be splashing around, and Holly really liked it too, especially as she gets a chance to wear her wee special swimsuit that has a built in life-vest that makes her look like a superhero!

<need to get a picture of her for here>

Wednesday 15th

On the way to work, they were putting up the big Xmas tree in Martin Place, outside my work - its Sydney's equivalent of the lighting of the Xmas tree at Rockefeller in New York or Oxford Street in London. Its just weird to think of Christmas in the sunshine - although it was supposed to have snowed in Melbourne today (another reason why we came to Sydney !!)

Not much to report tonight – off to bed early tonight so that we can get up at 5am for one of us to go pick up Jean from the Airport at 6am - unless of course wee Holly gets up at that time, but I doubt it...

Jean arrives in Sydney!

So anyway, Holly's in her kip, bathed and had a wee story....and I'm off to make a nice cuppa tea and a bit of apple teacake that is about 6 inches away shouting my name.......

Wednesday 22nd

38 degrees today - bushfires up in the Blue Mountains have been going for several days! Was speaking to the previous owners of this house, and they're a bit concerned (they moved up to the Blue Mountains to retire).

Down in the city, I felt like I was going to melt on the way home on the bus as it had no aircon. Poor driver had but a tiny electric fan to keep him cool. (As I was just saying to a friend of mine in an email it was like standing in the hottest chip-shop on earth - all the heat around you like someone had just opened up an oven door!). Sometimes I'm lazy - if I type something in an email, I think I can use that for the blog and cut and paste it over :-)

Saturday 25th

Today I did the first part of my motorbike pre-learner course.

When we moved to our new house, I wasn't sure if getting the bus would get on my nerves, (as it goes a bit of a long-winded mystery tour before it gets out onto the main road). So I thought I could get a moped just as a fallback option.

In order to ride a moped or motorbike, you need to do a pre-learner course that you have to do to get L-plates. (They are actually more strict about getting a bike license than they are about the car license - but they are trying to bring in new rules to tighten up the car rules also. A lot of teenagers get their license and then get into accidents because they can drive any size of engine, with minimal third-party insurance that their parents can get for them, so you don't have the same safety-valve that you get back home where the insurance costs limit your options when first driving.

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/gettingalicence/car/provisional_licence.html

So today was the first day of a 2 half-day course, which teaches you the basics of riding a motorbike - changing gears, clutch control etc. I've got the other half-day tomorrow. At this point (hopefully!) I will get a competency certificate which allows me to then pass a knowledge test to get L-plates. I thought it better to do the full motorbike option, rather than just the automatic moped course, as it costs the same and always gives you the option later on. I think a moped would be good enough though for scooting about to the train station etc.

In fact the bus route from here only takes about 15 mins to get to the main road, and in total it takes just under an hour to get to the city - not as long as the 1hr 25mins my first "test" run took - so I may not need to get a moped after all, but I'll do the course and get my license just in case!

Sunday 26th

Meantime Sheryl, her Mum Jean and wee Holly are away to a family day that my work organises annually for all their employees (including contractors like me!), where they put on bouncy castles, face painting, swimming pools, candy floss, ice-cream etc for the children. (They've taken the video camera so that I can see what its like and capture Holly on film having a whale of a time!)

Monday 27th

The local streets have started putting up their Christmas decorations and lights, akin to the Griswalls / Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation ( I think it was?). The local neighbourhood has a reputation for going crazy with the lights, and if the end of November is anything to go by, Chevy Chase or those blokes from Northern Lights won't have a look in:

Somewhere in the following link, it talks about the Davidson Lights! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidson%2C_New_South_Wales

Wednesday 29th

Wedding anniversary today - can't believe its been 7 years since New York! We went out for a lovely meal in Manly which overlooked the beach on the sea-facing side. Its was lovely food and they had the big sliding windows opened out and we watched as the sun set, and the sea got darker (although I did notice they don't get as many squeaky crickets as we get up in the new house - that seem to switch on like clockwork from about 8pm till 9pm. So much so, you almost need to turn up the telly!

Oh, and I passed my knowledge test for the motorcycle, so I know have my L-plates, and the scary thing is, I can now ride certain models of motorcycle up to 650cc on an L-plate ! I think I'll just be sticking to the scooters and bikes up to 250cc thanks, like the ones I did my learning on. The drivers here are a bit mental at the best of times, all racing each other and cutting in and out of traffic, so best to slow down and keep out of their path if you can!