The Temple of the Mighty Bague

Sorry for the lack of updates. Bandwidth, like water, is a little limited here. So is time, for that matter. We’ve been incredibly busy - rushing around like mad things. Lots to do and see. Today, though, it’s 38 degrees and we’re hiding inside (although I do have to venture out to pick the kids up from school shortly).

38 degrees is strange. It’s like standing in front of an open oven door, but with no wind movement. It’s temperature you hide from.

Anyway, our belongings from the UK arrived today. My guitar didn’t survive the journey, sadly - looks like something was dropped on the fretboard and has broken the poor thing’s neck. Other than that, though, it’s all well. We’re not dragging anything out yet because we’re waiting until we’ve organised our own place.

Overall, we’re settling in very nicely. The people are lovely, the beer is cold, and the school is fantastic. I’m also becoming a dab-hand at working a barbeque. One downside is that the connection to the European Warcraft servers is crap. But the Wii is out in a few weeks so HOORAY!

There’s just too much to do! By the time it gets to ten o clock (when I normally have a spot of gametime) I’m ready for my bed. The children started school yesterday and had a great time - they’ve all made some new friends, which is a great load off our mind. If you think about it, if we had all three of them saying “we hate it here and want to go home” we’d have a real problem.

Still, look at what they’ve done. How many wee boys from Scotland have spent time helping me wash pelican poo off the car? Last night, on the way home, Tristan casually pointed out the window and said “Oh, there’s a kangaroo” as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Which I guess it is, now.

Anyhoo - the main focus now that they’re in school is job hunting. I have over a dozen applications in, but it’s now time to start hounding people.

Specially for MattS, this one We went for an expedition to Chichester Dam today and there was a whole gang of kookaburras staking out the picnic area. Here’s one of them, perched on the litter bin as if to say “don’t even think of chucking that away - the scraps are MINE!”

Sorry folks - pictures have been few and far between because we’ve been too busy rushing around to actually take many! Well, here’s a couple to get the ball rolling.

Woke up this morning to what sounded like fifty kookaburras having a comedy show in the yard. Starting to associate the sound with nice weather now - right enough, when I dragged myself out it’s glorious sunshine with the sky a deep cobalt blue as far as the eye can see.

Got about a dozen job applications in just now so just playing a bit of a waiting game. We’re going to pick up the car today, I think, which will get us a bit more mobile. Over here you need a car to do anything.  We’re staying in a place about 4km from Branxton (where we’re looking to live) which isn’t far, but you can’t walk it - there’s little in the way of shade and the humidity makes walking long distances quite difficult.

The kids have settled - much less bouncy than they were. They’re excited about getting to school on Monday, and by all accounts the school are just as excited about it. The school is lovely - it’s set in woodland with a little cluster of individual wooden classrooms around a shaded quadrangle. In the summer they hold assemblies in the quadrangle and in winter they have a covered assembly hall with only three walls. The boys will be wearing grey shorts and shirt and Dotty gets a little green-checked pinafore