Just like Bristol, only different

We've been here for 3 months now, that's a quarter of our trip, and its amazing how similar our routine has become to the one we had in Bristol. Carys and Evan go to nursery 2 days a week, we go to swimming lessons once a week, playgroup once a week, and have a day with no fixed plans. We've even become members of the zoo, but its much bigger than Bristol zoo, and has a better view.

We've spent a lot of time hanging out at the local parks, picking up other mum's. I've gone on the assumption that mum's with kids of similar ages must be nice and exchange phone numbers willy nilly. So far, I don't think I've met any psycho stalkers who have stolen children to pray on desperate mums like me. I don't think I'm surprised that most people I meet aren't Australian (is anyone in Sydney?). It was a bit embarrassing when I invited all the other kids from Carys' first swimming lesson around for lunch the following week, and then had to change groups when I got a nursery place. Amazingly I slunk along to the pool, and bumped into one of them leaving, so they still came for lunch. She's a lovely Irish lady, but with a cruel twist of fate, my occasional hours of work, only happen on her day off.

Recently I've been enjoying having kids at nursery and no job. Its been a fantastic opportunity to go sightseeing. Its much better than either looking after your kids yourself, or working. Unfortunately its not sustainable, so I've got to make the most of it, and its quite mean on poor Howard slaving away.

Up and running

I finally feel I can say "I've been for a run", not a jog or lollop. Its something I've been putting off doing for many years, but I've managed to lace up my shoes and get going. It was mainly thanks to Evan waking up a 5am for a feed every morning, which gave me an opportunity to go out for a bit, and to Ben for suggesting I buy a new pair of trainers from a fancy running shop.

The fastest I've been around the 7 km Bay run is 38 minutes. As I stopped and looked at my watch, 2 strapping young men asked me how fast I'd run, and then sheepishly admitted it had taken them 53 minutes. Either they were being very kind to me, or they had stopped for a cuppa half way round. Anyway, it made an aging mother feel a bit better.

This week I've run around the bay twice, done a pilates class and swam 1km. Before you know it I'll be doing triathlons. It seems to the trendy thing to do at the moment. I think I'd be okay, if I could spread it out over a week, but I'm not sure about doing it all in one go.

We're in a pretty good location for all this exercise, just minutes from the bay and there's an olympic size open air pool at the end of the road. I was practically the only person in the pool last night as the sun set over one end of the water, and I felt very lucky. I was also glad there was nobody there to see me almost drown myself trying to do somersault turns.

So you want a job?

Its sad to admit, but I've been a bit of a failure as a full time mum. If I'm honest it drives me potty. I keep telling myself that Carys needs to be out socialising with children her own age, but its also driven by my need not to be. I've turned into a bit of an imbecile, an expert on nursery rhymes, and I have no clue what is going on in the adult world.

The other day Carys and I had a conversation that went along the lines of:
"What's that mummy?"
"A banana."
"Why."
"Well, a banana has a certain genetic make-up...."

All I needed to say was "Well, its not an orange is it.", but it made me realise that I need to get out more.

Getting a job out here, seems to be easier said than done. Every stage involves a lengthy form, some cash, a trip to the Justice of the Peace to get my documents certified again, and a wait of several months. I am now a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of GPs, and registered with the New South Wales Medical Board, but I still can't work. The next hurdle is finding a job in a District of Workforce Shortage (DWS) that is actually commutable from here, and then applying for a medicare provider number. They can only employ me here if they can prove that no Aussie in their right mind would take the job.

I've found one practice that I thought would do, but their practice isn't actually built yet, and their DWS status just expired. Then I went for an interview at a different practice last week, and it certainly ticked a lot of the boxes: DWS, 50 minutes drive, and I wouldn't even need to apply for my own provider number. Having said that it was more like an A&E, and I was expected to suture wounds, take x-rays, manipulate and set broken bones, presumably even follow them up and check they are healing OK. I know that loads of Drs have more spunk that me, but I'm just no good at faking it. I hate not knowing what I'm doing, and generally make an arse of myself. So I turned them down. How would any of you feel about me fixing your broken wrist?

We'll just have to keep shopping at Aldi in the mean time, as I can't give up the childcare!

I think we've cracked it

2 successful trips to the beech in 2 days. We forgot to take our camera this time, so you're spared too many more pictures of us enjoying ourselves in a perfect 27C autumn day.

Wattamolla is 1 hour south of Sydney in the Royal National Park and has a beautiful lagoon fed by a waterfall, surrounded by sand and shady trees. We put Carys in her new garish 'Dora the explorer' float suit and just let her go. The lagoon was like a giant warm paddling pool. We had to share the beach with a few other families, but not so many that Howard started to twitch.

Our best day out yet

We went to the Ku-Ring-Gai national park just north of Sydney. Having decided that we needed to scale down our expeditions after our Easter debacle, we settled on 1hr in the car and a 1KM walk to a beach for a picnic. The walk was through the bush, but not dense scrub, so you could get glimpses of what was coming.











Having had a week of Carys screaming and protesting at any suggestions made by us, she was on good form and enjoyed "splotting" down the hillside. This is her word for jumping and cavorting. She even spontaneously promised not to say "I can't go no more further".

The beach was amazing and deserted, with rock pools, small waves, nice sand and great views. Evan was able to potter around safely, and spent a lot of time poking a small rock pool with a stick. It has to be said that the way to his heart involves food and sticks.

The sun was shining and sparkling on the water, the sand was the perfect consistency for sand castles, the list just goes on.

We broke our hard learnt rule of never picnic on the beach, but the key was strapping Evan back into his backpack so he wasn't able to mix sand into all the food. There was the added bonus that we didn't have to spend the whole time chasing after him. I'm not sure that it was ideal from his point of view, but you can't have everything.

We topped it all off with a visit to a view point with spectacular views over Broken Bay and Lion Island (it looks a bit like a sphinx), ice cream, and then a twilight BBQ back at home. I think you have to be a parent to understand that the best bit was the lack of screaming and fighting. Its been a hard week.

I'm not sure how we'll manage tomorrow, but after all, it is another day.

Easter

In an atempt to save the planet, we found ourselves on
a day trip to the Blue Mountains on public transport. We must be mad, only 2.5 hours to get there, 6km romp with whinging child, and 2 hours home with very vocal children.

The words "I can't walk no more further" will be engraved in my mind for time to come. Having said that Carys did enjoy following the Easter bunny through the mountains finding eggs, and playing hide and seek.










Evan wore his grown up outdoor shoes (more like walking boots, than is ideal), and did his first outdoor walk. In a matter of weeks since he got up off the floor he is walking more than crawling. He has also learnt to say "moo". We are very proud parents.