The last few days....

Container arrived - tick

Sleeping in a bed again - oh yes, tick!

Children have all of their long awaited toys - tick

House feels like a home - tick

Organised - ....mostly, tick!

Damage to our 172 boxes of belongings - tick, unfortunately there was some damage to a piece of Isla's furniture but that was it!

In hindsight I wonder if the wait was a little too much for Finn & Isla as they have been without most of their belongings for 7 months and they were so desperately excited to see everything.  The upside is that they are welcoming all of their toys like they have never seen them before and they are all like brand new to them!  We bought then some lovely welcome to the new house toys (large farm set for Finn and a huge dolls house for Isla) which we haven't even given to them yet as they are still rediscovering everything else!

 Toy time chaos

 Yes, I built the track!  Finn told me numerous times what a good track it was.  New table puts it all at just the right height.  Oh, how they have missed their Thomas train track.

 Obligatory over sized BBQ.  Construction Manager and Chief helper and screw loser.

 The finished article which has now been used twice with great success.  What's not to like - Andy cooking for the 1st time ever..!

 It was a very hot day when he put the barbie together and it took him 4 hours to construct.  With a little cajoling it was decided that a dip in the pool to celebrate after was a good idea.

 Action shot.  It was mighty cold - 21 degrees!  Refreshing I say.  Well I did from the edge!

 

 Andy decided to use the goggles and hoover the leaves out of the pool at the same time.  Very enterprising.

 And today we have been here - the famous Blue Mountains.  The 3 Sisters.  Bloody cold though!  After a few hot days at home I decided to wear my oh so lovely summery linen trousers.  13 degrees it was.  Slightly warmer in the sun.  Chilly!

 My very favourite little people.  They were very appreciated by some Korean tourists.  I thought they said they were from North Korea and they were horrified when they realised.  They were very quick to assure me they were from South Korea!  Quick read of the Wiki on North Korea and I completely understand why!

 Steepest railway in the World.  We all went on, queue Indiana Jones music and me panicking a little.  Kids loved it.

 We all survived and made it to the bottom.  Love them.

Super cute, totally cuddly, lovely company, smiley, happy, loud, screaming, sometimes stroppy, flexible, well adjusted & completely gorgeous. x

Our ship is sailing

Our container gets packed on Wednesday and sails a week on Saturday to arrive in Sydney 1 day before us and then it should clear customs around 11th September which is when we hope to move into our rental house.  We fly 6 weeks on Wednesday.

Mum told me that she copes with the fact that we are leaving by thinking of us just going on holiday.  An extended holiday but not for the long haul.  I suppose in my head I am not thinking about it permanently or for ever as I can't really until we have lived it for a while.  At the moment it is a little of an unknown quantity as we have only ever holidayed in Australia, for 6 weeks which is a while but still not the same.  I hope that it is all we want it to be for the 4 of us.  Mum then went on to say that she is also so excited for us that we are going off on an adventure.  To try something new and different.  Where there are new experiences and challenges to be had.  I think it really helps that she did it herself in the 70's so can understand a little of what we are trying to achieve.

I don't think I will be able to see it as a move for life until we have created our lives over there again and we are settled.  I feel a little like a nomad at the moment and that isn't going to change for some while yet.

I mentioned to Andy the other night that hopefully in around 9 to 10 weeks time we will have moved into a new home, unpacked all our stuff and will be about to welcome our first visitors and dear friends, Marky & Kat from Perth who we haven't seen since Christmas.  I am so excited about seeing them.  Marky is a dodgy car salesman (hope he reads this one!) and has offered to negotiate a price on a car when we find one we want.  After all he does this for a living so should be pretty good at it!  He even offered to buy one in Perth and drive it over to us, now that is dedication at 3000 miles or so!

I have wobbles of confidence as the day gets closer but on the whole it's all good with us at the moment.