Goodbye 2014 - Hello 2015!

When I first started writing this blog in 2010, I didn't think I'd still be writing it (albeit in a more sporadic nature) as we enter into 2015.  I also didn't think I'd still be in Australia 5 years after moving out here and yet, here we are, quite settled in Warragul of all places, happily married with a gorgeous 1 year old girl.  We are very lucky indeed.  Sometimes I cannot believe how lucky we are to have extremely flexible jobs within walking distance of our home, extremely flexible and family friendly bosses, a great work/life balance and a great social network all on our doorstep.  No need to travel more than 10 minutes to get to daycare, swimming pool, restaurants and cafes, netball court, golf club, gym….the list goes on and I must admit I have now come to hate busy traffic and having to stop at traffic lights as this is not a regular occurrence! We are spoiled.  And what's more, we have sunshine (most of the time) to put the icing on the cake.

So do we stay in Australia I hear you ask? The pull of family and solid friendships back home in Scotland is huge.  Personally, I'd love to come home.  Only if I could have all of the above! And let's face it, I don't think that is going to happen.  Work for physiotherapists and social workers appears to be few and far between, and only likely to get worse under the current government.  We would be silly to up sticks and leave without a job offer at the very least.  Economically, we are better off here, able to afford a 3 bedroom home with garden and still have money to go out for dinner.  Socially, we have many friends who live within walking distance and who are also in a similar 'orphan' state as ourselves. This makes us feel less homesick and has led to us accepting our friends close by as a surrogate family (as we are to them).  If Australia was only a 3 hour plane journey from the UK, I'd live here forever.  As one of my patients pointed out the other day though, Australia wouldn't be Australia if it was that accessible to all.  Good point.

So I guess we shall see what 2015 will bring.  Looking forward to my parents coming out and getting to spend some time with Eva.  We miss them so much and would love for them to live round the corner.  Alas, it is not to be. So we shall enjoy the 3 weeks of intensive visiting (!) and maybe squeeze in night of babysitting here and there?! Let's hope the sun shines for them.  We are in the process of booking flights home later next year and we will keep you posted regarding dates etc.  

Here are a few snapshots of our last few months - playing on the beach, mums group 1st birthday celebrations, golf championship, learning to scooter, meeting Santa…..happy parenting occasions : )  and a few pics of 'me time' when I met up with Louisa on Sunshine Coast and completed the Great Amazing Race in Melbourne.  Fun times.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and have a memorable 2015.  We know we will! Morag, Bob and Eva xxxxx

On the move….

We have ants in our pants.  We cannot stay in the one place for too long for fear of missing out on something bigger and better.  Therefore we are moving house!  Moving into our fourth house in 4 years.  Yay.  Quite a spontaneous decision, the main reason being the lack of bath in our current unit.  Seems a rather trivial thing to the average Joe but to us, the uneven unsafe contraption we are improvising with in the shower will only end in tears if we don't do something about it!  Eva is desperate to get her hands on the taps and the only way to do this is to make a bid for freedom over the side of the baby tub that is 1 metre off the ground.  Hmm.

Anyway, less about the safety concerns, more about our new house.  It's a 3 bedroom weatherboard house with a garden.  A large garden at that, with a veggie patch, and we have absolutely no idea how to look after a garden.  My friends (with gardens) have informed me of the top 10 gardening tools required for a beginner which is all well and good, but I actually don't know what to do with any of them (ok, I lie, I can work a lawnmower).  And as for my past history with growing things, the dead plant has been at the door now for the past 6 months and I walk past it every day thinking I should do something about it.  I also had good intentions of growing herbs until I forgot to water the seeds.  This does not bode well for the veggie patch.  And what is worse, we are still renting so it's actually someone else's beloved veggies and herbs we can kill.  Oh, the pressure.

On the plus side, we have a spare room so come and visit!

Our new house is on the same road as our friends Becky and Stuart, who have 10 month old James.  Perfect for babysitting duties and BBQ's.  Come on Summer!

Bob has managed to get his handicap down to 0.5 in the past few months so don't let him tell you having a baby will get you less time on the golf course!! It's all rubbish.  Fingers crossed this is his year for winning the club championship although much to his annoyance, his friend Ross has just joined…..and he used to be a pro.  Argh

Dusties netball team is going well, we are 3rd on the ladder so will make finals.  We should beat Buln in the first round of finals and will meet Poowong in the semi final (we recently lost to them by 1 goal so should be a good game!  I was playing WD for a change!)  We would be super excited if we made it to the grand final this year.  There is a slim chance……..

I have enjoyed watching the netball at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  A massive well done to the Scottish Thistles on achieving 9th place, beating both St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.  A narrow defeat to Northern Ireland restricted their chances of gaining a top 8 place but credit to them for coming out fighting on home soil.  They have a fantastic documentary on BBC called Game, Net, Match about their road to the games. check it out on YouTube.

Work is going well.  I have the most flexible boss in the world which makes our lives much easier.  Being able to dictate my own working hours is amazing and the support I have from colleagues is incredible.  Today, as Eva unfortunately has conjunctivitis, I can't put her into daycare.  I start at 2pm but Bob can't leave work until 3pm so Eva is coming with me to the clinic to entertain the patients in the waiting room!!!!  Her Auntie Deb on reception will look after her and will be able to take her for a walk if the clinic is quiet enough.  Don't think I'd be able to do that in the NHS!!  I'm currently working a 9-5.20 Monday, 1-5.40 Tuesday and 9-2.30 Friday.  Eva has swimming lessons on a Wednesday and we catch up with our mum's group on a Thursday.  Works out quite well!

We recently gained permanent residency too, which means we can remain in Australia indefinitely and we can come and go as we please.  Excellent news and allows us to keep our options open with regards to where we live in the next few years.  As we are moving house, we have decided to stay in Warragul for the next 2 years.  We have a great network of friends and brilliant jobs so the thought of going elsewhere just now seems a bit daft.  All we need is our friends and family to come and live over here with us! Too much to ask?

We will post some photos of our new house once we have moved in and it looks a bit more homely.  Stay tuned!  Love Mo, Bob and Eva xxx

Sorrento!

Totally forgot - we have just been on holiday! A lovely week in Sorrento, on the Mornington Peninsula, from Easter Sunday to the following Saturday.  Alan, Kelly and Adam, along with their mates Sara, Rowan and 18 month old Henry, joined us in a fab modern house complete with trampoline, log fire and hot tub.  What more could you want for an Autumn holiday?

Truth be told, we didn't do much! I spent the majority of each evening in the hot tub under the stars with a glass of wine in hand, trying to avoid being asked for any further physiotherapy sessions by the boys who had given themselves whiplash being all Olympic like on the trampoline.  No surprise really when they are trying to do 3 360 degree turns then a somersault in mid air before landing unsuccessfully on their heads.  Needless to say, beers were required for pain relief.

We weren't so lucky with the weather but we still managed to get out and about for some fresh air by the sea.  We took a ferry ride to Queenscliff on Anzac Day and Eva saw her first pipe band during the Anzac parade.  We went for a walk along the sea front and managed to hike a pram up the steep incline to the look out in Sorrento.  How Eva managed to fall asleep during her 'off road pramming' remains a mystery. Lots of coffee, cake, fires, monopoly and poker.  All very chilled out.

Now…to plan the next holiday! x

Autumn Sunshine

Apparently it is Autumn! And has been since the beginning of March.  Although you wouldn't know it as there is not a cloud in the sky and the temperatures have been mid 20s.  Perfect weather for having our friends over for a little cheese and wine gathering for Sunday Sippers.  I could get used to this weather although the forecast appears to be rain and more rain.  (cue evil laugh at Bob's 36 hole golf competition tomorrow, mwahaha)

So, what's been happening over the past few weeks? Eva is now sleeping through the night, hurrah.  We will enjoy it while it lasts, as I'm sure things will change just as we are all getting some shut eye.  No more breastfeeding means I have some freedom, yay, and it also means Bob can enjoy putting her to bed too of an evening.  She is such an angel, and quite hilarious too.  She is experimenting with her voice, smiling and laughing and is almost sitting up by herself.  As for rolling, well that is not happening at all.  I'm beginning to think Eva will bypass the crawling stage and just try and sit/stand up so she can have a sticky beak at what is going on!

Bob and I are slowly getting used to this parenting malarky.  It all seems quite normal now and we are sharing the responsibility pretty evenly which makes it quite the family affair.  We like to take Eva to the hydrotherapy pool for a swim.  Eva was noncommittal at first as to whether she enjoyed it or not - I could see her lips curling up at the sides on the odd occasion but she was reluctant to go for the full smile.  Sometimes she likes to make us work hard for smiles and giggles! She was happy just watching the oldies in the corner pretending to do their aqua aerobics but actually just having a good old gossip and cooing at the babies. The quiet observer.  Just like her mum.  With each visit to the pool though, she gets more and more confident and she has now developed a rather mean dolphin kick, using the 'noodle' as a support.  I tried to dunk her under the water the other day which didn't go down quite so well, we might have to practice!

I'm back at work two mornings each week and Bob is on daddy daycare which they both seem to enjoy.  It's nice to get my brain working in a different fashion.  Eva is thriving at daycare and seems to love interaction with the other babies, even if this does result on occasion in a bit of eye-gouging, toe sucking wrestling.  I'm told this is normal behaviour and is good for their development!

Other than baby news, I'm afraid there is not much else going on.  Bob and I are frantically trying to book our next holiday as it's been too long (!) since we had one! Looking at Falls Creek or Tasmania.  We are also about to submit our permanent residency application - if all goes well, we should hear in approximately 4-5 months what the outcome is.

Hope everyone is well back home, FaceTime/Skype soon! Love Mo x

Home for Christmas

To have time with friends and family over the festive season was just brilliant.  Even the plane journey was pretty good, despite me practically having a panic attack on the tarmac waiting for the first leg of our journey to begin.  Eva was an absolute angel, from the minute we left our house to drive to the airport, waiting for the shuttle bus to take us from the car park to the terminal, through check-in and security.  She even managed a little sleep in the restaurant while we ate our dinner.  What a champ.  Flying to Dubai, she slept for 10 hours, to the point that we were on constant look-out, expecting her to wake up at any second.  Of course this meant that neither of us got a wink of sleep and our tally of movies watched was practically 0.  Bob maybe managed 1.  Having said that, I would rather not watch movies and have Eva sleeping, well, like a baby than have an agitated 7 week old baby on a 14 hour flight.  The second leg was just as good, although admittedly she was getting a bit over it by the time we landed.  No surprise there, we were all over it.  Despite feeling less than human when we landed in Glasgow, we all got a second wind and an adrenaline hit as we walked through the doors to be greeted by our parents.  We were home.  Smashin'

Having left Melbourne in 39C heat, we all got a bit of a shock stepping out into the 6C wind, most of all Eva who, by this point, had begun to wonder where the hell we had taken her.  The grandparents were fussing over her by now, the grannies trying to wrestle her into an oversized snowsuit on a bed of bumpy suitcases and the granddads taking a step back, waiting on their chance to be 'allowed' a cuddle from their other halves.  Comical to say the least.  Back to Brookfield for a cup of tea and a seat by the fire, and a catch up with Helen, Steven and our 1 year old nephew Fraser.

This was the first time we would meet Fraser (minus the Skype) and he was certainly a little character, trying to toddle his way around, pointing at random objects.  Once he'd gotten over his initial curiosity and wariness, he was a little smiler and happy to play.  To see their daughters with their own children, geez, my parents must have felt old!  Introducing Granny Mo and Grumps……

What an absolute hoot we had for 4 weeks.  We stayed for the first few days in the west, catching up with friends and visiting the (great) grandparents in Greenock and Skelmorlie.  It seemed like we have never been away and lovely to show our little Eva off to everyone.  Taking a trip to Princes Square in Glasgow on 23rd Dec was challenging with the crowds, but very festive and christmassy, and we managed to meet with Granny Barr and Auntie Lindsey, who at this point was 27 weeks pregnant with 'Madge'.  We had friends come to visit us and of course, Eva was spoilt with gifts and cuddles.

Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family, having a christmas dinner and exchanging gifts in the evening.  Then, having spent Christmas morning with Fraser, we drove through to Edinburgh and had another Christmas dinner with the Barr side of the family.  We had been looking forward to having a bath (!) and sitting in front of the log fire, both of which we got to do on Christmas Day/Boxing Day. Bliss.  Eva had a great time and once again, was spoilt rotten with clothes and toys and books.  Her favourites were 'That's not my snowman' book and the Freddie the Firefly toy.  They are still the favourites and she is nearly 4 months old!

Over the next few days, we enjoyed Brian and Polly's wedding on our own wedding anniversary, and Eva's christening, both of which were taken by Rev.Dr Barr himself.  Then the next two weeks were spent relaxing with family and friends, heading to St Andrews for the day (and buying a new driver, an essential apparently!), shopping and more shopping, popping down to the Cramond Inn for a wee drink, and going out on a 'date' as new parents.  It was lovely to have babysitters!  And we didn't stress out too much…..

Before long, it was time to head back to Australia.  It was the first time I really felt quite sad at the airport - I guess things change when you have a little one to think about.  Were we being cruel pulling her away from all her family?  We both feel we have a few years before Eva starts to wonder where her family is, and at that point, we will need to consider whether we'll come back to Scotland.  Until then, we hope she'll enjoy being in shorts and t-shirt, going to the beach and starting playgroup with her new baby friends.  It was certainly lovely to escape the cold and return to 25C and sunshine! xx