Ava

It's official:  Hugo is the first of our boys to fall in love.  He is quite besotted with beautiful little Ava who is the girl we never had.  She spends as much time with us as her mom and I will allow and she lights up Hugo's life. Ava is 3 months older than Hugo.  She is Australian but her parents (our good friends Ondine and Chris) hail from Newlands, Cape Town.  She can be one of the boys and muck in with everyone but is also such a little lady with her handbags, dresses and pink crocs.  Hugo wakes up asking for her and plans his day around when he can see her.  If a day passes without him spending time with Ava he tells me how much he misses her.  He sees Ava's smile and Ava's eyes in every other little girl he meets.  And when they do get together - even after a two hour break - it is like they haven't seen each other in weeks!  There is lots of screeching and hugging before they rush off to play.  He's got it bad!

This weekend Ava had her first sleepover EVER at our house!  Her big brothers came too to ease the blow (and give the Komnick parents a night off) but we were so honoured that she was willing to stay here.  Russell and Adam adore her as well and are only too happy for her to tag along with us.  I have now moved Hugo's school day to a Monday to accommodate a weekly play date with Ava on her home day which is Tuesday.  The best part is these two little souls run off to embark on "pretend games" of cooking, working and being monkeys or dinosaurs.  They paint and draw and swim.  There is very little supervision required and never a moment of fighting.  It is going to be fun watching this gorgeous friendship grow.

post-it!

The last time I came anywhere close to using the term "post-it" was to stick little pink reminders all around my monitor and on my notebook.  I have always admired those friends who tirelessly do the Christmas card activity on time and with such aplomb.  I haven't sent Christmas greetings by snail mail since the advent of the email age.  This year the boys each came home with 8 cards that had been professionally printed using their artwork for a school fundraiser.  We naturally felt obliged to purchase the packs and believe it or not, we actually got a few in the mail.

Adam very proudly wrote in the cards to his grandparents and Russell lovingly wrote to a friend and his SACS teacher.  Mom pulled up the rear and filled out a few as well.

Don't hold your breath or check your mailbox just yet.  We were limited by our packs and, of course, quite challenged to find out the street or box address of the recipients.  Whether by Australian Post or over the ether, the message of holiday cheer is the same.  We love and miss everyone who can't share Christmas with us this year.

But the whole activity of walking to the big red box and dropping the cards in with a wish gave us each an unexpected thrill.

SALE! SALE!

Wow, these Aussies love a good deal!  We have fast learned NEVER, absolutely NEVER, buy ANYTHING at full price!  Most department stores have sales every month and literally everything from the new season to the old is out on sale.  It would have to be desperate measures to hand over the credit card without feeling all smug about the bargain you just got.  I have recently discovered a few online shops that are sure to be the death of me and my credit card.  Take a look at Catch of the Day and Scoopon for unbelievable deals.  I have just purchased four really cool pretend leather bar stools for a total of $138.  Now that's a bargain!  Every day Catch of the Day advertisers one product for sale and delivery for just that day to anywhere in the country.  You can pick up anything from ipods and televisions to furniture and gadgets - but just for one day.  On Tuesday Catch of the Day is having a Sale on top of the Sale and are offering an item per hour for 12 hours.  I can't wait.  I may have to stay home and do my Christmas shopping in my air conditioned office.  If you check out the About Us tab you will read that they are the largest online shop in Australia and turned a record $1million per hour on TV's in one day.  The highest selling item was 220,000 units of Ferraro Rocher chocolates.  Scoopon is the same thing but offering services such as massages, meal vouchers and horse rides.  It's a really cool system:  you put in an offer to purchase the service when it comes on and then if enough people join you, it becomes a deal and you all get it at the discounted price.  It's all about critical mass.  You gotta love it.

The trouble with all this bargain hunting is that you battle to settle on any purchase as you are always expecting to find it for less tomorrow in another store.  We have walked our kids' crocs flat looking at gas barbies and tents and still don't have either.

Only 20 minutes left of Hugo's sleep for me to browse for bargains!

SACS old boys

Last night Rob attended the annual SACS Old Boys' Dinner in Perth.  There are approximately 60 men registered to this chapter of the union and about 30 turned out for dinner.  It was a remarkable evening of memories, laughter and sharing.  The men paid tribute to the late John Ince who sadly passed away recently.

Rob was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity that these men showed him as the "new kid on the block".  Arms were stretched out to give him a hand up in business and family life.  He says that he gave out more business cards last night than he had in the preceding four months.  Many old boys have been here for years and have established themselves and their families very well.  They are pillars of the business community and true Perthians.  I think that was quite inspirational for Rob as we are so new to this game.

The thing that struck me is how fiercely proud these men are of their roots and how they link arms so far from home to serve one another.  If you are a SACS family you can rest assured that your boys will find a home wherever they choose to live.

Besides the annual dinner there are so many Cape Townians here that there is an annual yacht race on the Swan River between SACS, Rondebosch and Bishops - we look forward to checking that out this summer.

The number of South Africans in Perth is quite astounding.  Two of the Supreme Court Judges in Perth are South Africans.  Last night I attended a women's seminar in the city.  Out of 16 women, 4 were South Africans!  Two of the four local Speech Pathologists are South African, the Bible Study I attend on a Thursday morning has 8 SAffers in a room of about 40 girls.  Our Sunday school is run by a lady from Jhb, the congregation is dotted with "whenwe's" from Zim and SA.  Russell gathered with the locals at a home nearby in the holidays and out of 11 children 9 were South Africans.  Adam is one of two South Africans in his class.  Hugo's teacher is from Springbok and his best friend is Junior from Pretoria.  But then, everyone has a South African friend, I've been told!  We live south of the river and Little Bloem is north of the river according to the rumours.  There is an NG Kerk up there and many immigrants everywhere you look.

Our expectation of a bland one-dimensional society has been wiped out by the massive migrant population to this isolated city.  There are people here from every corner of the globe which makes for an interesting diverse culture where an accent is the norm and everyone's way is the right way.

Rob's birthday

Rob, Amanda, Ondine and Chris

Saturday the 13th was Rob's birthday, our first family birthday in Australia!  I think he had a really fun day as so many people remembered and sent him messages from all around the world.  We spent the morning at a huge outdoor and camping expo checking out tents and camper trailers.  Everyone here is into camping and we have a couple of weekends booked during the summer but need to replace our tent.  We were totally blown away by the choice in tents and gear and couldn't quite get our heads around what to buy.  We left the show empty handed but well informed!

The afternoon was spent at the river at a four year old's party that Hugo cracked the nod for.  We drank champagne and networked with the parents we will probably be seeing for the next 10 years at school.  From there we rushed home to quickly dress up in cocktail attire for our new Aussie friend's 40th birthday party in the city.  Lisa had hired out a restaurant and invited 70 friends to join her for dancing and cocktails.  We started out drinking champagne at another party-goer's house before boarding a bus with 25 others to the city.  We danced all night and caught the bus home in the early hours.

What more could a man want than a full-on city party for his birthday after only living her for four months?

The photo is of us with Ondine and Chris Komnick who have become our great friends.  The children all play happily together and Ondine and I are growing a gorgeous friendship.  Our men kite surf together so it is all really good.  The Komnicks are South Africans from Newlands who have been living here for 9 years.  We live one street apart so the children (and often the adults) run between our houses!

Rob's birthday gift is a kite surfer so stand by for some action shots.

Jacaranda streets

This is the view looking up and down our street.  While waiting for the boys to come home from school today, I thought I must capture this awesome sight before all the flowers fall to the ground.  Most of the streets around here are lined with Jacaranda trees and it makes a picture perfect frame for my morning run.

In the distance you can see the boys' school and all the cars lined up waiting for the children to pour out.  What a treat to live right here while Hugo is still little and fast asleep.

interdental "S"

Adam continues to "lithp" quite badly on "s" and "t".  He still misses "d" and "r" and interchanges "f" for "th".  The bottom line is we need to get cracking with speech therapy before Year 1.  The problem is that all the good pathologists are fully booked to the end of February 2011!  I found a South African therapist, Bev Lister, in our neighbourhood who took pity on us new migrants and phoned me with a cancellation.  She is marvelous and thoroughly assessed Adam for language concepts and speech.  The great news is that he is way ahead of his piers in understanding sounds, blends and syllables.  His grasp of reading and writing is great.  The not so good news is his annunciation which needs work.  She gave us great games to play and exercises to do.

Adam and I will now be spending 20 minutes a day playing games with words beginning with S.  Bev will try to see him weekly whenever she gets a cancellation and we hope to correct his lisp by the start of Year 1.  The other sounds may follow on their own or we will tackle them in the second term of 2011.  Adam is such a star and is so committed to correcting his speech.  He really tries hard and I am sure that we will get him talking like an Aussie in no time!  Adam, is after all, the first person in our family to regularly say "yea".

nanny state

Ok, so I wasn't ready to talk about it:  I failed my driving test!  After twenty years of successfully navigating my way through the hazards of South African streets and the rush hour of London as a rep, I failed my driving test.  I was mortified.  This small failure and hurdle suddenly seemed so big and overpowering as it brought out all my "new migrant" emotions.  I questioned whether I was really doing ok.  Am I really fitting into the system?  Am I up for this challenge?  I cried a bit, well actually a lot, and then took small steps forward.  The great success of my failure was that three beautiful girlfriends cheered me up with gifts, sms'es and calls which proves that I am actually doing ok.  It was then back in the little Noddy car for lots of practice looking over my shoulder at the blindspots, not crossing my arms over on the steering wheel and not coasting with my foot on the clutch - all a build up of years of relaxed driving.

The tricky part was getting another appointment because the driving centres are all full to the end of the year.  I managed to get an opening in Mandurah which is an hour's drive from here at 7.50am yesterday morning.  I headed off at 6.30am and made my way down the freeway in time.  This time the tester was a dear old grandad who kindly took me through my paces for 30 minutes.  This time all the boxes were ticked and I was given the green light to drive.  I smiled broadly into the camera for my driver's card before making the trip home.

My South African license expires today.  And now, at last, I can talk about it.

maths puzzles

These are the kind of maths problems that Russell (year 3) brings home regularly for homework:


"Five Students are sitting in a row of chairs along one side of the room.  Jennifer sits beside Alison but not beside Peta.  Steven sits in the second seat on the left.  Alison sits between (but not necessarily next to) David and Peta.  Steven sits beside David.  Who sits in the middle seat?"


Or try this one:

"At the water tap there are only three litre and five litre containers.  The children must pour exactly seven litres of water into a tub.  How can they measure exactly seven litres?"


I love it!  They make me think a bit too and I am constantly amazed that Russell can get to the answers after some thought and scribbling.

the blues

Russell graded up to blue belt last week.  He is really into his karate and chooses karate training over every other sport if there is a clash.  He really has a passion for it coupled with a natural skill.  A few weeks ago we had the unbelievable privilege of watching an 18 year old boy in Russell's dojo grade for his black belt.  It took 3 1/2 hours of absolute mental and physical strength to complete the tasks put to him.  The last hour consisted of 40 rounds of sparring with 7 black belts who took turns to try and knock him out!  I have new respect for a black belt now.  Obtaining this status does not only mean you have put in many hours of training and are at your physical peak, but it also shows you are able to concentrate and focus at an exceptional level.  I would fully support Russell going to this level if he chooses to keep it up.

summer sports

The mercury is rising and we are making the most of the summer days before it gets too hot to be outdoors.  This is how Hugo and I get out and about on our mornings together...

Hugo is growing up quickly.  He is full of love and affection and is very entertaining to be around.  He has been accepted into the Mount Pleasant Kindy programme for next year so will be at school from 9am - 3pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next year.  He has made some friends and has play dates already.  His swimming lessons are going really well and he is swimming without arm bands this summer.  We really are out of the baby stage and have three big boys now.  If I was a true Aussie I would now be planning the fourth baby as three boys is an underachievement here!  Sanity prevails and I am not going there.

We are so blessed with our gorgeous boys.