Hallo allemaal, na een paar weken hier even een update van ons. Bedankt allemaal voor alle lieve berichten
, super dat jullie aan ons denken.
@Sacha, haha :grin:, we hebben gelukkig geen vertraging gehad, en onze kinderen waren super lief (behalve de eerste vlucht van Aberdeen naar London). We hebben internet toegang, maar het is een beetje beperkt dus eerst alles regelen en nu genieten weer van het forum :smile:
@Markus: Inderdaad de Brisbane Holiday is een leuk en netjes park, ik kan het zeker aanbevelen. Alleen jammer dat het momenteel te koud :freezing: is om te kunnen genieten van het zwembad!
@Kath: Sorry, het ging zo snel op het laatst, we hadden gehoopt om afscheid te kunnen nemen van iedereen maar het is helaas niet gelukt. Jullie moeten gewoon hier komen om ons te zien :smile:
Ik heb net een update gestuurd naar mijn engelstalige familie en vrienden, dus ik ga nu verder in engels (niet dat ik mijn Nederlands ga vergeten maar met beperkte internet toegang ben ik tijd aan het sparen!)
We had good flights considering our young kids (it’s a long sit for a 4 and a 2.5 year old) and arrived early morning in Brisbane. It was great to be met by Annemiek and Mark
. We had a hire car but far too much stuff to fit into it! Mark’s 4x4 was big enough for all our luggage so they drove with us to the Holiday Village, our Cabin wasn’t ready so we went back to Annemiek and Mark’s for lunch first.
It took us a while to get over the jetlag (the kids were up partying at night) and the temperature here in Brisbane, it was freezing at night, the coldest here for years and we didn’t know our airconditioning unit was also a heater :?
We soon began to find our way around after buying a TomTom (essential here!) and got on with arranging everything, Medicare, Bank accounts, TFN’s, etc, and buying a car. No internet connection here in the Holiday Village so got Prepaid Mobile Broadband, which works pretty good most of the time.
Housewise we are still in our Holiday Cabin but have got a place to rent from the 11th, a nice townhouse in a new estate (suburb Wakerley) with a communal swimming pool and a park close by. There is no Street View in Google Maps, but for those interested the address is Unit 41/586-614 Manly Road, Wakerley. Apparantly a lot of other young families with children live there so that should be good for Shea & Kian. We did have another house at first but they gave it away to someone else after telling us it was ours so that wasn't very nice. Anyway this new house is probably nicer so we're not upset about it anymore. We heard our container arrived on July 2nd as planned, we're hoping customs don't inspect everything too much and decide to treat and/or confiscate any of our things. It'll be so nice to move and have our own things again, especially for Shea & Kian, they've had to do without their toys for weeks.
We've been busy buying electrical stuff (fridge, washing machine, etc) and beds, most other stuff we took with us. We've also discovered the local Ikea so they can expect a few visits from us as Mees loves their meatballs!
Jobwise Mees had his interview for a job as a ships carpenter which he’d arranged when we were in Scotland. Unfortunately he heard two weeks ago that there wasn't any work for him. But then a week ago he got called to say there was work and if he was still interested, of course he was! He had a medical and another interview with the manager so he starts on Monday (tomorrow!) which is great news. On a 3 month trial to start with, so hopefully that goes well and he will get a more permanent job after that. Whatever happens it's a great start, and Australian experience on his CV.
It'll be a shock to Mees after having 2 months off as he has to start doing overtime immediately and will be working from 6 till 4, so early mornings for him
I haven't really started looking for work yet, once we've moved and settled in I'll start. Of course I can only work if we find childcare so will need to get that sorted first too.
As well as all the organising we've had some fun trips too. We’ve met up with Eerainuh who has been great taking us sightseeing to Mount Cootha and Jolly’s Lookout (Shea & Kian loved going downhill, they’re not used to hills of course!), and down to the water at Cleveland and Wellington Point. She’s also been great giving us tips and tricks about how things work here. We had fun in Annemiek & Marks 4x4 too on a trip to Bribie Island, driving along the beach, the bigger the bumps the bigger the laughs from Shea & Kian :smile:
Shea & I even managed to get a long weekend in Sydney last weekend. My brother & his wife were over from Perth as their 2nd daughter (my new niece) was getting christened there. It was great to see my niece for the first time and to see my brother and family. Shea & her cousin (who is 4 months younger than her) got on great too, just as well since we’ve moved closer to them :grin:
So far so good, to be continued…..
Groetjes,
Susan
