The plan was to have a rental to move into by the time I arrived with the boys but as the rental market is quite tight here and property is at an all time high, that proved to be quite a difficult task. Rob had seen several homes in the weeks preceeding our arrival and had only just stumbled upon a good one in Mount Pleasant as we arrived. It was a broken corporate lease so required a bit of negotiating and sorting out and we were only able to move in at the end of July. That left us with two weeks of sharing a home with another family of five! Koos and Liezl (whom I had only met a couple of times over the past 15 years) were truly amazing. They took us all in and every night was a social occasion! They have three girls who mirror our boys in age so it was quite full on at times! During the day there were always children who needed something or a dispute to manage. Ten days into our stay Liezl headed back to South Africa for a wedding and left me to mother the six children! Fortunately the girls are gorgeous. Our boys loved playing with them and firm friendships have been formed. Russell and Adam embraced the whole Barbie scene and so enjoyed the Barbie house, cars, clothes and accessories! It was quite sweet to watch.
Liezl and Koos arrived here a year ago from Jhb and we all hit it off so well. I am so grateful for this unplanned overlap as we had a chance to learn the ropes and settle in slowly. They were amazing in opening up their home and lives to us to give us a soft landing. Koos' sister has been one of my very best 'long distance' friends for many years and we visited her in Perth 5 years ago. She now lives in Darwin.
We are now settled in our rental albeit without furniture! We hired a trailer and went house to house via IKEA (who are very pleased to have us here) collecting a washing machine, fridge, mattresses and other necessities from friends and aquaintances! Our address for googlemaps is 31B st Michael Terrace, Mount Pleasant 6153 WA. We only have 7 months here but it will give us a chance to get to know the neighbourhoods and decide where we want to eventually buy. The great thing is that the local primary school is 50m from home so the boys walk to and from school. Because of the very strict rules with regards to school zones we could only get the boys into school after the lease was signed. They only started last Tuesday so after the whole World Cup blitz and moving they ended up having eight weeks off school! Their day starts at 9am and finishes at 3pm. We are still in the SA routine so are all up and ready way too early and have an hour before school to do the chores and housework.
Adam had a bit of a false start at school as we tried to put him into Year 1 in keeping with his age group. After three days we realised that he was drowning. They start reading and writing in the reception year here and he had missed 12 months of foundation learning. He was feeling quite overwhelmed and under pressure and we decided to take him out and put him in the school's Pre Primary class. He has now taken off and is right at the correct level of learning to write his letters and numbers. He can now work on making friends and keep up with his physio exercises instead of playing catch up all the time. The cut off for age is 1 July so there are some children who have already turned 6 in his class so he fits right in.
Russell has gone into Year 3 and seems to be flying. He loves having girls at school and is completely up to speed on the work. He needs to do some catch up on French which is his second language! Fortunately I took French so that will be ok. He is joining the local cub pack next week and hopefully we can find some karate for him soon. There are only about 20 children in each class and there are teacher's assistants so there is help when needed. Russell is enjoying everything about the city and is so excited by the adventure. He has even embraced the housework and is a really good helper. He couldn't wait to get to school to start his new life.
Interestingly, against the odds, Adam has been the one to struggle the most with his loss and sobbed through the night for the first three nights. He has been very sad about leaving all that he knows and loves behind. There are times that his face really lights up when we see or do something new and I know that he will be fine. When we shopped for school uniforms, stationery and bags I was so surprised when he insisted that he wanted the Australia Socceroos school bag!! I think his heart may be melting to this new life! Hugo has been very confused about all that is going on. He started out being quite testing but has settled now. He is more stuck on his blanky and dummy than ever as he finds his way in this new world and we are giving him lots of love and encouragement. He cried in the uniform shop because he also wanted a uniform and a new school. I have now found him a play group for three hours on a Tuesday and Thursday as all the 3 year old places are quite full. He realised that this is permanent when the boys went to school for the first time and he asked me if Daddy is going to look for a new job here. I told him that Daddy has a new job already and he said, "oh, so this is our new home"! This morning we started Gymbakids together which is a fabulous exercise programme for mums and three year olds every week. The equipment is amazing and we had a lot of fun. It is a bit of a combination of monkeynastix and playball with me involved. He loved it and is fast asleep now from all the action!
We have found a new church, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church (www.mounties.org.au) which is truly awesome. It has a wonderful kids and youth ministry and an incredible band. It is bigger and clearly has more money than the church we were used to in CT and we love the atmosphere and the people who we have met. There is a daily occasional creche at the church which I can use for Hugo whenever I need to leave him for a couple of hours and he loves their play area. This journey has and will continue to be a true test of my faith as I completely trust God in this challenge. We are so grateful that we have the faith to pray with each new step we take and feel that God is with us on this. We wouldn't have been able to do this alone.
Rob is really doing well and is loving his new job. There is plenty of scope to grow and change the business and he is getting stuck in. He billed 46% of his hours last week which is fabulous considering that he has only been here less than a month. It is a huge change from the corporate life of Macquarie and there are only 3 execs and 3 or 4 admin staff. It is a very small business but a welcome change for Rob. He leaves after breakfast and is home for dinner EVERY night which is life changing for us . We have so enjoyed having him around every day and he is looking and feeling healthier than he has in years. He has just celebrated a month of not boarding an aeroplane which is a first in years! He is more relaxed and is so positive. He gets up early to run before work most days and can't wait to engage with the river and be on the beach. Some days he drives the 20km stretch to work and other days he parks at the nearby train station and rides the very slick fast train in to work which gets him to the city in 7 mins. He then has a 10 min walk to the office. He can't wait to ride his bike to work when it arrives.
For me this has been extremely tough. I never realised how huge it was until I boarded the plane. The aching loss of all that I had in CT has left me breathless at times. I have woken up in the night a few times with a crushing physical pain on my chest as I realise where I am. At this stage of our lives with three little people to hold up and support this move is hugely challenging. I have felt such a vacuum in realising that I don't know where the local shops are, don't know anyone at school and don't even remember my own phone number! My phone is eerily silent as I try to navigate my way through all that is new and different. Most of all I miss all my girlfriends and my sister so much. I long to talk to all of you and share with you and I feel so desperately far away with all these kms and 6 hour time difference separating us. Every day is a step forward and I am taking them one at a time but the tears flow easily at short notice as I realise that I am not going home.
I have new running shoes and am back on track. There are amazing running, walking and cycling paths everywhere. Our new home is 500m from the Swan River and I run along the river regularly. The amazing freedom for all of us is incredible. The play parks and public areas are astounding. The beaches are beautiful and the surf is good and the water is warm. We have already had a swim in the sea. We have had fabulous meals out, the shopping mall is brilliant and the weather superb. The boys are going to love using their kayaks on the river and Rob is drooling at all the yachts. So there are lots of good reasons to be here! There are far worse places to start again!
What I have learned so far:
- There is no bad coffee in Perth
- I can drive at 50km/h if I try hard
- Rob can drive a vacuum cleaner
- my ironing will take practice
- Australians are generally warm and friendly
- I LOVE having my husband around every day
- my children are well adjusted enough to take this on
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