Ikea

Had to happen

Our best buy - finger puppets

Yes, we had to have our fix - this weekend (25/7/09), we went to Ikea, fortunately it is fairly close to us, 20minute drive - yippeee. Only thing it is not as big as the MK one :( still we enjoyed the familiar Ikea stuff.

Our best buy was the finger puppets - these will entertain Kian.

Ikea is located in a shopping mall, so after we put our purchases in the car, we went back into the mall and looked at the shops, some very desirable things, fortunately Fiona was strong and resisted temptation, we had a coffee instead :)

Sunday, overcast and rain predicted, we spent the morning in our pjs reading and drinking tea, had a late breakfast, around 2.00pm we went for a walk, came back with a dvd and then spent the afternoon watching the dvd while rain came down - a nice lazy Sunday...

New Things

What a life !

Today we discovered that Tuesday is cheap cinema nights, tickets are half price - bargain !
Needless to say we went again, this time we saw "My Life in Ruins" - good laugh.
So Tuesday evenings will now become our cinema night.

We also discovered that we do not pay TV license here.

Parramatta River

Bridge Fiona crosses daily

Parramatta Ferry Station

Our apartment is just to the right of this bridge

Footbridge which looks like a boat with oars on either side

Along the path are various paintings\symbols

Parramatta River

As promised some pics of the Parramatta River which flows all the way into central Sydney.
As you saw in previous pics there is a ferry station just 5 minute walk from our apartment.

At lunch times people tend to sit alongside the bank and eat their lunch, sleep or read etc. It is now
school holidays here, so the park and riverside are busy with children and adults playing ball games and have picnics.

The story goes that the eels came up river and settled in Parramatta. All around the town there are eels in the sculptures and paintings etc (Must get some more pics)

Weather prediction for 20-27/7/09 is sunny all week with temps of 21 C (this is winter!!!!!)

Scenery

Parramatta River (taken from Freeway)

Bondi Beach

Crossing the Anzac Bridge in Sydney

Driving around Sydney, we took these random pics from the Freeway (motorway) - we are also
learning the terminology for things here.

Will try and get pics of the Parramatta River this week, it is just outside our apartment, Fiona crosses it daily when she goes for her walks.

Bondi Beach

Keith was there too

Bondi Lifeguards

Bondi Beach

Fiona was there

sign

19/7/09 We went to Bondi Beach today, it is 40 minutes drive from where we are staying.
Plenty surfers of all ages. Not many bathers, water a bit cool. Lots of tourists.
We walked along the beach, sand is so soft almost like powder and white, reminded us of Camps Bay (SA).

Very busy beach, must be hell to get parking or find a spot to put your towel in summer.

Celebrating

Keith

Bandstand in Parramatta (Alfred Park)

One of the avenues in the park

"Wild Life" in the park

Fiona

We are celebrating this weekend by going out for dinner (seafood) and going to see the new Harry Potter movie. Celebrating as Keith got his first Australian salary cheque, they paid him for the entire month even though he will only have worked 3 weeks, nice company :)

I am currently job hunting for a temp job as I do not want to commit to anything permanent yet, I want to wait until after the furniture arrives and we are more settled in the new place.

Problem is furniture only arrives on 23/8/09, so we are going to have to camp in the house.
We have already purchased sleeping bags and crockery and cutlery (just 2 of everything).

Apartment

Yesterday I took some pics of the apartment, just to give you an idea how we are living
outside pictures taken from the balcony.

Week Three

As we are unable to move into our rented house yet, we extended our stay in Church Street. We managed to get a big reduction in rent and moved to a bigger apartment.

At the weekend we bought a new fridge (American style), which was on special. Also a new
leather lounge suite (8wks to delivery).

Keith also had his eyes tested and gets new glasses in 2 weeks.

No, this is not our house, hate to think what
the rental would be on this place !
This house is on the banks of the
Parramatta River - nice....

An expensive weekend !!!

We decided to go to the movies on Sunday and sat through 15 minutes of Bruno before we
realised we were in the wrong cinema !! What a laugh - like I mentioned previously we are
still settling in and finding out how things work.

Week Two

Keith's first week of being full time employed again. The first couple of days were boring as he had to learn how they do things in Australia. His manager flew down from Melbourne to welcome him and took Keith and the other engineers for dinner, sounds like a great time was had by all.

Fiona has been walking and exploring the town of Parramatta, also doing lots of shopping, she is like a kid in a sweet store - all these shops !!

We met up with Ali (ex MS friend of Fiona's) and the girls could not stop talking, by the sounds of it they both miss MS Canary Wharf lots. Still it was good to finally meet Ali, who we will be seeing lots of as she lives close to where we will be staying.

We also managed to get a house to rent and are able to move in on 4/8/09 - we can't wait, as we are not flat dwellers. Will post pics of house once we are in.

We also managed to get the web cam set up and have great fun talking to Kian, he gets so excited
when he see us on the 'tv'. We got some finger puppets to keep him entertained, apparently when we said bye and logged off last Sunday, he started crying, wanting to know where we had gone ??? He is so cute and each time we see him, he seems to have grown even more.

First week update

Keith with Sydney Harbour Bridge in background

Parramatta Ferry Station

Famous Sydney Opera House

New car - Holden Commodore - nice.....

The first week has flown by, during this time we went shopping, met Keith's colleagues, collected the new car and started looking for a house to rent.

We also took the ferry into central Sydney and did the tourist thing. Keith unfortunately lost
his glasses, he thinks he left it on the ferry, but nothing was given into lost property, so he has to
get new ones.

We also opened bank accounts and have a lovely Personal Banker called Kerry (she's American) and we managed to register with Medicare and Inland Revenue, who were helpful and quick.

I think they call it 'settling in'

We made a list of things we like here: petrol .64p a litre; no limescale in kettle etc; water is soft; wide roads; big parking bays; lots of sunshine (has only rained 2 days since we arrived); great choice of wine, veg and fruit; few big trucks on the roads; public transport very good (including FREE buses); streets are clean.

Downside: lots of big cars and 4x4s; property rentals are expensive - we are sure are more and will post as we come across them.

Arriving in Sydney

Sydney CBD

29 June 2009 We start our new adventure. We arrived to clear blue skies in Sydney and to meet us was our new friend John Grieve (ex colleague of Mike) - he very kindly drove us to our apartment in Parramatta and then went onto work - thank you John !

Apartment is on the main road with lots of restuarants and shops, very up market. We were welcomed with a bottle of wine, tea, coffee etc. by the owners of the apartment.

We decided not to sleep and try and get our body clocks in sync, needless to say we alseep by 8.00pm. We called Chris & Cyndi and they were glad to hear we arrived safely and are looking forward to coming over to see us as much as we are looking forward to visiting them.

Sad Goodbyes

Wayne, Graeme, Keith & Fiona

Enjoying an excellent meal

Jackie (Chez's mum), Chez & Wayne

We arrived in the UK and stayed with family and friends before departing for Sydney. We were especially sad to say 'see you soon' to our sons, Wayne & Graeme. We will miss good friends like Pam & Derek; Mike & Margie; Dors & Steve, and Mr Dougie, and family, Sharon & Jacolien.

We also got to meet Chez's parents, Jackie & John.

We keep recalling many good memories over the years with all of you - thank you all for being there for us and always being so positive about our moves.

So who would have thought in 2009 we would be living in Australia ? Like the saying goes "You never know what tomorrow brings".

Leaving France

20 June 2009 With sadness and excitement we left Coerillas. We will miss the serenity and peacefullness and most of all we will miss our very good friends Dors & Steve. We will also miss our elderly neighbours Mme & Mr Jouvre.

For those of you who visited us in Coerillas, I am sure these pics will bring back lots of memories, all the wine comsumed and laughter and of course the 'vue magnificique'