Still alive & Kicking

Well I know I have been really bad updating our blog but we are all still alive and kicking. I am missing the family terribly and cannot wait for them to get here. My boys (Heath included) all seem to be doing very well. Heath is doing the best he can to get rid of the stuff we have at home as we have decided to get rid of most of it and only pack a few boxes with our personal belongings, plus a couple of goods that have been collected along our journeys.

I landed up going to Ikea a couple of weeks ago and realised that we can get so much form there to get going so to start with we will have an Ikea house until we are settled. I have been busy house hunting. Eventually got my 'a' into gear to get around to some places. Well not sure if it is just a WA thing but the estate agents here are so unfriendly and unhelpful. Initially I was looking for furnished accommodation but a 3 bed roomed home. You can get 2 bed roomed apartments no problem but not 3 bed roomed places. I was just imagining my two monster climbing over balcony and rails. To get the decent furnished places you have to go quite far from the city - but when I say far here I am talking about 15-18km. So not really that far in SA terms at all. I found one furnished place that was a house on two stories where the living area (i.e. kitchen lounge, dining and main bedroom) where on the top level and the rest of the bedrooms were on the bottom level. Heath and I would never be able to hear the kids if they were crying at night (which might not be too bad sometimes:) ) so I did not take it! I got so tired of looking at dirty places with unhelpful agents. You will not believe how dirty some of the places are and most of the time they are empty. The agents don't really care if they rent it or not as they know there is a shortage of rental property at the moment so you will be back! The most frustrating of it all is that you can only look at the places at set inspection times and sometimes they are at the oddest time of the day!

As I have been looking North West of Perth city all the time and not finding much I was told to look at a couple of areas South of the river. So I contacted a few agents and one came back to me on Friday night. So I took a little ride out to an area called Applecross to find a very friendly agent who had all the time in the world for me. If I spent 3 hours inspecting the house he was more than happy. It was clean big and very well looked after. I could not believe my luck as Applecross is a very good area and this was going for a good weekly rental. I then found out that the agents son owned the place. So had a chat with Heath and I signed the forms this morning and took them back to the agent. It is unfurnished though so like I said earlier I will now have a Ikea furnished house if my application is accepted. It is only one road away from the Swan river so we will be able to have longs walks along the river. It is also big enough for anyone to come and visit so all of you keen for a trip to Aus - you are more than welcome to use this as a stopping point - just give me a little warning so that I can make sure you have a bed to sleep in. (This is of course that we get the house!)

I will know by tomorrow morning if all is fine and if so I will be moving into a 4 bed roomed, 2 bath roomed home with my two suitcases packed with clothes :) lol! What fun! If I do hear tomorrow then I will have to start getting some of the main items sorted such a a fridge and a bed.

Other than house hunting work is getting a little busier and I am getting more into the motion of what I need to do so at least I am settling in there. Due to the house hunting I have had to hire a car to get around and it is great to have the freedom to go anywhere, anytime and any how - I have already extended the period to have the car and now if I get the house I might extend for a bit longer so that I can get out and about just after moving. From the house there is a bus stop that is only a couple of hundred metres down the road which will take me straight to work so not really worth keeping the car after I move in. (but then again .....) Will leave buying a car for when Heath is around.

Anyway Reece & Bryce are doing well but Heath says that Bryce is missing me and calls out for me at night. Reece is also missing me but I think he understands a bit better than Bryce. It was quite cute the other day I was telling Reece how much I loved him and missed him and told me "But mom you have brown hair". (I dyed my hair to my natural colour - brown before I left SA). So I asked him "So now you don't love me" to which he had to think very long and hard and then eventually came back and said "No mom I love you lots!" Whew I got worried for a bit.

Well hope that everyone is doing well and keeping busy. There is another public holiday here next week-end i.e. Workers day. They have there in March when we have ours in May.

I will keep you all updated and promise not to make it so long before I update the blog next time.

Keep well.
Nicky