Crash

The inevitable happened. We all have it sooner or later. The hard drive crashed with a great big whirring noise. Russell had bought an online game that is still in the developmental stage and looked a bit dodge. All his friends are into it so we gave the green light. It turns out that they were all playing Minecraft for Mac and didn't get the huge PC virus that comes free with your $20 purchase. Oh dear!

And yes, we do have several back up devices. And yes, we hadn't done a back up in months.

Somehow our iTunes had corrupted and duplicated all our music so Rob bought software and dedicated hours to the clean up. That was, of course, after the last back up! Another loss is the spreadsheet with the house renovation calculations but then we probably don't want to see how much cash we are hemorrhaging. I think my photos are all backed up so no worry there.

Thank goodness for my handy little gift. I am still connected.

Lara's lemon meringue

I gave it my best shot. It took a full year to psych myself up for this moment, but I did it. I cracked the code and broke the spell: I baked Lara's Lemon Meringue.

I invited two new friends around for lunch to catch up and to give our boys a chance to play. They are sisters who each have boys who are friends with Adam and Hugo. The "pie" was baked last night and came out the oven looking just beautiful. All the memories of cakes with my friend flooded back as I looked at this near masterpiece. It took some texting to and from Lara to assure me that the wobbliness was okay and I bunged it into the fridge for the night.

This morning amidst the chaos of seven boys' wild play I sliced into my unsuspecting victim and was transported right back to the deck on Cook street. And then the moment seeped away, literally. The innards of my pie slid off the plate in a big yellow puddle. I could have wept. Adam looked on unimpressed and said quite matter of factly in his rather understated way: "It was easier to just pay Lara for those, hey?".

Well, it was my first attempt and there will be more following a private master class via Skype. I have to say the flavours were all there and the girls were impressed. Some of the yellow goo clung to the meringue and biscuit, making the served portion look pretty good. Rob took the remains to his men's group tonight so it couldn't have looked that bad. It didn't have the poise and style of my favorite sweet chef's pie but I will get there. We simply can't live out our lives without them.

Seconds please

We have come full circle in our adventure. Today is the day we left South Africa last year. While there are undoubtedly still lots of "firsts" still ahead, we can now start to help ourselves to seconds. It is weird to think of "last year this time" as now part of our Perth adventure. It's bitter sweet and today is happy mixed with sad. We are happy that we are so settled on our first anniversary. There is no doubt that this is where we want to be, and that feels good. When I realise that it has been a whole year since I have seen my parents, my sister or my friends, I long to go back for a visit.

So here we are celebrating our safe arrival at this place called One Year. It has been a full and challenging year with great ups and downs. We have stepped right out of so many comfort zones and embraced each opportunity that has come past. In an email one of our geat friends in NZ said we sound settled because Rob is on to his second job, we have 'South Africanised' our house and made some Aussie friends! I guess that sums it up.

What we have learned this year:

To take decisions prayerfully and then exercise faith and trust
To give everyone a fair chance
To expect miracles, they do happen
Three boys aged 4 and up are full-on!
To kite surf or spectate kite surfing
To clean our house fast
To train the boys to pitch in a lot
To try new things at least once
To hang together as a family
Bad experiences prepare you for the great times ahead
It's possible to make good friends in a year
To live amongst rubble and tradesmen
To have faith in the outcome

So Happy Aussie Anniversary.

celebration photos

chalkboard placemats

table arrangements

Karen Marriott made me a cake

toasting my gorgeous husband

our lounge transformed

The theme was Black with a Splash of Colour and our friends went all out to dress to the theme.  My splash of colour was bolder than most and I definitely had the most fun!

Fabulously forty

My big birthday has come and gone in a whirlwind of celebration, spoilation and fun. I started my celebrations by opening my first gift a week early and have enjoyed fiddling with my ipad and have taken retail therapy to a new level with App shopping and iTunes downloads.

On Friday I attended an amazing morning tea at a local boys' school. The guest speaker was Li Cunxin of Mao's Last Dancer. What a treat! He spoke eloquently without notes or prompts for 90 minutes. Li is intelligent and inspirational. One part of his talk that resonated with me over this special birthday was an old Chinese expression that he has kept in his mind over the changes he has experienced in his life's journey. It says:

"While the heart weeps for all that is lost, the spirit laughs at what is found."

Yesterday, my actual birthday started with homemade cards and coffee in bed. Then we were off to rugby where both Adam and Russell played really well. In fact, Russell had a go on the wing and played his best game ever, earning him the coveted Man of the Match medal. From there we dropped the big boys at an ice skating party before coming home to pull the final party preparations together. Last night the celebrations culminated in a wonderful dinner party in our beautiful home for 32 gorgeous Perth friends. It was glamorous and fun and everything I hoped my 40th would be. My friends clubbed together to gift me a Stand Up Paddle board, something I coveted all summer! I am really excited about it and hope to blog in warmer weather about my efforts on the water as well as Rob's kite surfing.

The evening was a great success with many nations represented in our diverse and multicultural friendships. I was a bit choked up in my speech thinking of all the friends around the world who should have had a seat at my table but am also feeling blessed by the warmth we have found here. Indian was in the pots with great authentic curries served on a cold winter's night.

I was so touched by the many phonecalls I received from around the world.  My facebook page was full of good wishes and my darling friend, Cindy, sent me beautiful roses from Brisbane.  I feel very loved.
So now we have school holidays, renovations to wrap up and Rob needs to sink his teeth into his new career challenges. We are moving fast into the second half of the year, feeling fit, fabulous and forty!

And then a garage

Today the brickies started on our new garage. The little foreman was on site to ensure that everything was done to spec and plan. The sun shone and a full day's work manifested itself in two high walls.

When he wasn't checking that standards were being kept, the little foreman could be found investigating the contents of yet another skip on our verge.

The end of the building site is in view, if only in the distance.

Birthday month

My birthday month is here! I am changing decades and I plan to make it BIG! With this in mind I announced to our family this morning that I am officialy receiving gifts from NOW! Being the obedient, loving men that they are, they obliged and rushed out to make a rather sizeable purchase on my behalf: an iPad 2! Now that's what I call obedience and adoration. That, coupled with lots of their own desires to have an iPad in the house, made for an incredible start to my birthday cheer. So here I am making my ignorant way through the rather large online user guide beside a glowing fire. Life is truly good and this little toy is more remarkable than I would have dreamed possible - what a score! This gifting business is fine by me.

So no more blogging until I have myself all synced and organised...