This post is an extract from my 'Nelson diaries' on Wed, 18 Nov - 2 weeks after we arrived in Australia... it covers our first 2 weeks, so get your coffee, it is going to be a long one.
So, as said on the 18th...:
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Been in Australia for basically 2 weeks now, and so far it seems great. We moved into our house last Thursday morning, and are now camping with a queen size mattress on the floor (at least with some nice bedding for what it's worth!), a fold out camping table and 4 chairs and one sofa bed (aka a sleeper couch).
We still don’t have an internet connection or landline, supposedly will be sorted this week, but still have to see.
One new chore is having to get rid of dead flies everyday (they are humungous - in Afrikaans we call them 'brommers' - as they buzz and irritate the heck out of you!). They have this habit of keeping to the windows, and venturing across the room now and then, but I sprayed some surface spray on the windows, so in the morning there are some corpses lying on the window sills - but that is way better than having them buzz the whole day! :-) Yuk!
Some starlings also decided that our roof is a perfect nesting spot, and they made a nest in our roof on top of our bedroom, so we have had many very early mornings. We have a metal sheeting (sink dak) roof, so they kinda announce their coming and their going quite loudly. And then the scuffling around on top of our ceiling is enough to turn you from a bird lover to someone who regrets leaving Gian's 'kettie' behind! Anyway - I aksed Rod, the handyman for Elders Estate Agents, to remove the nest and seal their entry/exit spot, but now they just found another spot - and are trying to still get in, which is making just as much of a noise.
We have spent many hours driving around looking for a car for me, and in this country it equates to many many kilometres, specially if you live out in the sticks like we do :-). My first thought was to get a Mitsubishi Pajero (because Mary Ann, Geoff's sister has her 2nd one now, and she is very happy with hers), but then Warren (Cathy, a homeschooling contact’s husband) suggested that we rather look for a Toyota Landcruiser or Prado version because it is much cheaper to maintain, and they go forever (between 300000 and 400000 kms on the clock is not strange for these cars) - so the hunt is on. I have been as far as about an hour and a half from home in Melbourne to test drive possible options, and on Sunday we drove to Indented Head, on the West side of the Melbourne ‘bay’ to look at another car. That one trip out took up the whole Sunday after church, got home after 7!
Saturday evening we had supper (called dinner - already gave you the lesson in my first post haha) at Warren and Cathy and their 4 children, which was very enjoyable. They are a great couple, and at least the kids had some opportunity to play with other children for a change. Got chowed by the mozzies, though, so will definitely take a peaceful sleep stick along when we go there again! They live just outside Warragul, close to Robin Hood (yup, you are not seeing funny) on a small holding, and you get attacked my mozzies when you go outside early evening!
Shopping turns out to be not such a bad experience after all (except for the trolleys from you know where!), even though many South Africans gripe about not being able to just buy their favourite brands like 'back home'. Safeway (basically Woollies, but apparently not so ‘upmarket’ compared to the other supermarkets like in SA) has a huge selection of products, and the veggies and fruit in the shops here are excellent - Woollies SA quality without being expensive. You don’t see bruised fruit or veggies in the shops at all. Meat is not very expensive, except for lamb at the moment for some or other reason. Chicken drumsticks are humungous, the size of about 3 SA drumsticks, and the chicken wings are about the size of SA drumsticks. The housebrand stuff is not like in SA - it is usually about a third of the price of the branded products, and still very very good quality. I bought Coles (like PnP I guess?) homebrand dishwashing liquid, need less than Sunlight Dishwashing liquid for a wash, and washes brilliantly - for 99c (about R7 with the current exchange rate) for a huge bottle that will last us 6 months I am sure.
Now about those shopping trolleys! The rumours are all true - they are really trolleys that are out to get you! They have an absolute mind of their own, with all 4 wheels that turn, so you end up getting quite a workout in the shop having to navigate this thing that goes like a crab away from other shoppers' ankles and neatly packed shelves with lots of tins that could come crashing down just to embarrass the heck out of you! Going straight is already quite a challenge, so don't even think about making a sudden sharp turn - ha! - no way jose - you have to already start manipulating (and pleading with the thing) to get it to go around the corners before you actually get to the corner, and if you are lucky you will end in the next aisle, and not somewhere totally different. (heehee, I know it sounds hillarious - it is - specially if you are used to trolleys that obey instantly....)
So for those of you who are contemplating coming here - if you decide to rather eat out than be beaten by a shopping trolley - think again! Eating out is expensive, pizzas for the family will easily cost about $70 (R490!), and a meal out can easily be $100. But that said, people still have takeaways, and the restaurants seem to be buzzing. Other things are cheaper again, and in the end it all cancels out I guess. Just have to get used to not budgeting by converting to rands to see whether something is expensive, but rather have to see how much is left in the budget, and then see whether there is money for something or not.
Today and tomorrow Geoff needs the company car so the kids and I are stuck at home. We are not quite walking distance from the centre of town (about an hour's walk), and the bus routes don’t run past our house - as we are right at the end of town, and in a fairly newly built up area.
Anyway - walking that far is not always an option as you can be fried to a crisp! We arrived here in the middle of a heatwave - which has been quite nice for me. It has been the hottest it has been during November since they started keeping record in 1858 or something. It was between 33 and 40 deg celcius for about a week and a half, but we have now had some cooler weather the last few days. All businesses have aircon, and most homes also have, and with aircon in the cars the heat is actually not that bad. It is also a drier heat (like in Cape Town), so it is much more bearable than in Durban. Unfortunately our house does not have aircon, and it can get to 40 degrees in Jan and Feb - will have to see whether it is going to be very uncomfortable - so far it has not been bad at all, cooler than our house in Durban on hot days, so I am sure we will cope fine.
The sad news is that we have not seen a kangaroo or wombat yet, although there are many signs next to the freeway indicating that one has to look out for them. Apparently they come out at dusk. There is a park nearby (about 15 mins drive on the freeway I think) where we will be able to see some, so we’ll go there sometime.
Something interesting here is that most (I would say 95%) of the drivers keep to the speed limits on the roads. You can lose your licence for a month here for some offences, so I think people just rather stick to the rules. The speed limit is 100km/h on the freeways and highways, which can be a bit frustrating when you drive a car that can go so much faster, and you want to get to your destination sooner rather than later. Out in the countryside (about 10kms before you get to Warragul) it changes to 110km/h - which helps a bit. But you will find that you will sit in the left hand lane with the same cars behind you, with the same following distance, for kms on end, as everyone just sticks to the speed limit. Apparently most cars have cruise control as well, which helps - as it is so easy to go faster than you are allowed to.
We have quite a few regular trains going from here to Traralgon (East) or Melbourne (North-West). Geoff took the train to work and back on Monday, and it arrived pretty much on time. Takes about the same time as driving by car, maybe a bit less even. The kids can’t wait to go on a train, so we will take the train into Melbourne sometime, and spend the day walking around there.
Oh - I had my first experience of filling up the car myself last week as well. No petrol attendants here, you stop, get out, fill up your car, walk into the shop to pay, and off you go again. Safeway also has self checkout tills, where you scan your own goods, pay and leave. In many ways this country operates on a 'trust' system - for instance if you phone to take out insurance your word is good enough to get the no claim bonus. Also saw a little stall next to the road, during one of our car viewing excursions, where you can buy lemons - difference is that there is no person looking after the stall, you take your packet of lemons, put your money in the box provided, and carry on your merry way. That is such a breath of fresh air!
And talking about fresh air - hayfever unfortunately comes with the fresh air. Itchy nose and eyes, and sneezing myself silly! Think Mieke as well, as she coughs a lot at night - but Betanoid seems to sort it out for her. I remember having similar symptoms in Somerset West years back - lots of the same vegetation in our town here, so I guess that explains that one.
Hopping from hayfever and sneezing to church... We visited xxx (sensored for obvious reasons) church on Sunday. Was really not great. More notices than anything else, and no life in the church. Very stale, up and down to sing a few songs (literally singing a few songs - and only about a tenth of the congregation actually sang! - no worship) here and there inbetween notices, and just not our cup of tea. We found another 3 or 4 possiblities in the local gazette - so I guess we will be spending the next few Sundays church hopping if God doesn’t make it obvious in some or other way where we have to go (which I am hoping for!) - will be great to find a cell group to fit into sooner rather than later.
Our rental house is actually very nice, even though the ‘study’ (which was supposed to double up as our guest room, guess not anymore) is just an extension to the ‘entrance area’, with no door or anything - just really an extra space to the side, through which you also access the garage. That was a bit of a let down, so now it seems that the school room will have to double up as the guest room - or else we have to do school somewhere else… will still see when our container arrives. Apart from that, the house was well thought out, with sliding doors between the ‘formal lounge’ and the living area, and another one between the ‘living area’ and the bedrooms. That will definitely help, as little girls have really big noddy ears when the grownups talk about grownup things in the lounge :-).
It is also nice and big compared to our house in Waterfall, and lots of built in cupboards. Our ‘pantry cupboard’ is a wide 2 door cupboard in the kitchen with lots of space for groceries. Also have a 2 linen cupboards, one wide 2 door, plus another wide 1 door. The funny thing here is that the bedroom cupboards (called robes) have no packing space, only hanging space. So it is standard to have a chest of drawers in each bedroom - here it is called a ‘tall boy’.
Every house also has 3 wheelie bins - one for rubbish, one for recycling stuff (cartons, paper, plastic bottles, tins etc) and one for ‘green waste’ - as in garden refuse. So now we are active recyclers as it is just so much easier than having to schlep off to the nearest recycling bin.
The kids and I went for a walk, we actually seem to live in a very nice area looking at the houses nearby. Lots of house and land package places going up (plot and plan).
This pathway runs around the area where we live - in SA it would probably be called an 'estate', but here there aren't gates or security fencing around the estates.
This is the view towards the South, taken from the pathway above.
And if you stand in the road by the trees in the previous photo, and look back towards our 'estate, this is what you see.
2 young men came this afternoon to measure our windows for fly screens (for very obvious reasons, as mentioned earlier!). Actually the flies are not that bad (more than in Durban, but not bad at all) - we dump about 6 to 8 flies every morning - apparently it is MUCH worse in Perth. Anyway, this reminded me of something else - here you take your shoes off at the door when you go visit someone in their house. So I guess all those socks with the holes in will have to go. Now that is a good thing!
The parks here are also very nice - well maintained, and it is a pleasure to go sit at the park with a book (when you don't have to shop for cars that is!!) while the kids get rid of some of their energy!
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Well, that was it after 2 weeks. I know a lot more happened, but my laptop didn't see very much of me with all the driving around doing car shopping.
Saturday, November 21, 2009 
Neerim South, via Neerim East, Neerim Junction, etc. Neerim East is one of those 'now you see it, now you don't' towns. Has some farms and a hall - and that is it. 
Oh - and saw a strange hole in the ground across the road - wondering what makes that. Took a photo.
Roo loves almonds, so he ended up having to bribe Roo to come out of the shade and closer to the fence using the almonds - so that the children can stroke it. Roo was raised by humans, and when he got too big he came to the park, he is 5 years old. Made the cutest little noises when he was happy (almost like a suckling/kissing sound). Some nasty nails on him though, he could do you quite a bit of damage if he gives you a whack.
