Doobies

Heat Wave

2011-02-03T00:25:00.004+02:00

I could not let this week come to a rest without mentioning the heat that is oppressing the residents of Sydney. Whilst the eyes of the country are focused firmly on Cyclone Yasi which hit Northern Queensland last night, the residents of Sydney are slowly melting away, not daring to complain considering the scope of the devastation up north. I grew up in Durban, South Africa, which proudly proclaims itself as the year round summer city, where the humidity was sometimes so heavy that our primary school which didn't have aircon used to send us home when the barometer dropped past a certain point. Well, let me tell you Durbanites, if that was the case here this week, my boys would have had an extra week of school holidays. The city is fuzzy with humidity. The temperature has reached 42 degrees Celsius in parts and boy, oh boy, if you take a train with thousands of other commuters at peak hour, and shoddy aircon in the carriages, you are likely to have lost ten kilos by the time you exit the station.

Even my very active boys have slowed down, not asking to go to the park or even to leave the couch. Apparently it will rain on Sunday which should bring welcome relief except of course it is Mitchell's birthday then and it will likely have to be postponed.

In other news, Raf started Grade 1 and is with his best friend, Orla, which makes him so happy. Have a cool as a cucumber week!

School Holidays

2011-01-27T01:56:00.010+02:00

Six weeks of school holidays is drawing to an end and Raf is about to go into Year 1. It has been a busy 6 weeks but the kids have had fun and DH enjoyed the break between Christmas and New Years as well, which thanks to all the public holidays was a lovely ten days.

School broke up on the 14th of December. The first week was filled with play dates and birthday parties of the kids who have birthdays in December and early Jan. The second week was the week of Christmas break and we had a lovely time together as a family. We went up to some of the northern beaches (Mona Vale, Dee Why) and we took a day trip to Canberra. I now defer to Rafi for more about the Canberra trip...

In the holidays, I went to Canberra and played kinect. On the way to Canberra it took 2 hours to get to Canberra. and we went got to Questikon and it was lots of fun! On the way to Canberra we listened to some songs and 2 stories. one of the stories were about Winnie the pooh. Some of the songs were called Ruddof the red nose Reindeer and puff the magic dragon.

Thanks Raf. So in Canberra the highlight was of course Questacon which the kids had been to before last year but they still loved it and as they keep changing exhibits, it stayed fresh for the parents too. That week we also got adventurous and had a barbecue in the park. We went to Centennial park here where they have large free gas barbeque's for anyone who wants to use them. We bought some snags (he he - sausages) and some tin foil which we used to cover the barbie surface. It was a fun experience although it took quite a while as we never realised that the bbq turns itself off every ten minutes or so. So first we turned it on and waited for it to get hot (not necessary apparently) and then after about five minutes we put the sausages on and went to play a game of football between some trees. When we went back to check on the sausages, expecting them to be crispy and brown, they were still pretty pink and there was a crow eyeing the food. We continues to turn them for another ten minutes with no change until we suddenly realised that the bbq had turned off and we were not doing anything at all! After we had worked out that you need to keep turning the bbq on, it went okay and we had hot dogs in the park in just a few more minutes. Mitch took crow chasing duty :)

Rafi mentioned in his post that we also played a lot of kinect this holiday. Kinect is lots of fun, it is an attachment to the xbox which can see and hear you. Finally when I walk in a room and issue a command, someone stops to listen. The boys and us play all types of games on it from obstacle races to squash to skateboarding to yoga. I am not too sure how our downstairs neighbours feel but we do try to keep it to daylight hours.

During the holidays, Rafi spent a week at tennis camp. He went everyday and loved it. He was also incredibly lucky with the weather and he had sun everyday. Amazing really when you consider the torment that is going on just a few hours north of us in northern NSW and Queensland. Raf also has gone to holiday camp for a few days during the holiday which he has loved. He went with his best friend Orla and together they made T-shirts, origami, had lego competitions, went to play centres and on Friday they are off to the Aquarium.

In the meantime, Mitch has started Preschool. Preschool is the year before year K or reception year. Unlike some places, Preschool is the start of formal schooling where they learn to write their names and count forwards and backwards, identify shapes, learn computer skills and cut things out. They complete the last few letters of letterland and generally get ready for big school. He transitioned well into the new class and is fond of telling everyone that he is in the big class now. His 4th birthday is just around the corner and he is having a party in the park with a few close friends and family.

Yesterday was Australia Day. I love Australia Day, it is so amazing to see how much pride Australians have in their country and how much they embrace the day. Everywhere we went there were people with the Australian flag on show whether in face paint, or caps or clothes or flying from the roof of their cars. Our boys wore cool yellow Australian caps and sang the anthem dramatically most of the day. The most emotional part of the day for me was the interview they had with some people on TV who had just been granted citizenship and seeing how happy they are. DH and I just looked at each other and said, "Two years to go".

Of course the Australian holidays this year were marred by the horrific flooding. The most amazing thing about it was how people banded together to help the affected people. Strangers came to people's houses to help them clean out the mud; adverts appeared all over the newspapers offering accommodation for those displaced whether it was just a space on a couch or the floor of a school; and amazing people gave up their time to come help entertain the children. So many articles of clothing were donated that the authorities eventually had to ask people to stop sending and nearly every shop and food outlet donated what they could. I don't like to compare countries but I will make the remark that this tragic event filled me with nothing but pride in Australia and that its a pity that the same communal sympathy doesn't exist in other countries where there has recently been flooding with much higher death tolls.

Of course the other big thing that happened recently in Australia was Oprah Winfrey. She arrived here with 300 audience members and embarked on a four part infomercial about Australia. Sydney even put a giant O on the Sydney Harbour bridge! I watched some of the episodes and she made it look amazing. She made me feel that I would love to live in a paradise like that... oh..wait..he he, I do!

So, primary school is back next week, the extra murals start this weekend (cricket and swimming) and the late mornings will cease. Have a good 2011!

Our Goldfish And Chanukah

2010-12-08T07:32:00.003+02:00

Nearly a full year later and our goldfish are still alive and seemingly quite happy. I have finally got over my fear of waking to find a floating fish and have started to accept that they can indeed live longer than the two weeks which was my previous fishes' average life span. In case you don't know about our fish here is a short clip by Rafi with a full introduction to them :

Anyway, people are generally of the opinion that fish are not much more exciting than a pot plant and I must admit that until I had some 'long' surviving species of my own, I tended to agree, but lately DH and I have come to the conclusions that our fish most definitely have their own unique personalities.

First of all Big Boy is the quintessential "big fish". He is large and has a large dominating manner. He is not afraid to push Swimmer out the way to get at the food and he has marked the tunnel in the tank for his own exclusive use. He sleeps there every night without fail. Quite what he is sheltering himself from I have not yet ascertained. They say that goldfish have a 3 second memory. Bless poor Swimmer he was gifted with a one second one. When they were handing out goldfish brains, Swimmer was in a different queue altogether. He makes Dory from Finding Nemo look like a genius. We first noticed this trait in the morning when we put the fish flakes in. Whereas Big Boy darts around eating as much as possible, and gets excited as soon as he sees me lift the food bottle, Swimmer takes a few minutes to realize that the food is there. Once he remembers that the flake stuff is food, he stalks up on it and then aims and pounces. Inevitably he misses and the small wave he generates causes the flake to float away. He will chase one piece of food around like this for a long time, ignoring all the other more accessible flakes before it begins to sink. On other occasions he will ignore the real food completely and chase the filter bubbles instead with a look of surprise when they have no substance in his mouth. But the strangest thing he does is swim into the corner of the tank and try to swim through the wall. He spends ages just swimming up at the corner over and over. They say watching fish is soothing and therapeutic, but watching my silly albeit cute fish try to swim through solid glass day after day makes me more agitated than anything else.

On other topics, we went to the annual Chanukah party in Double Bay. I met a friend there who has four boys of her own, two of which are the same age of my two so they had great fun. It was not as well attended as last years and the cost of all the rides had gone up exponentially. The boys had a ride on the ferris wheel, we watched the Jewish Boy Scouts erect a huge Menorah made out of wooden poles and ropes, popped quite few sword balloons and the boys went down a slide which was erected on a crane. There were also pony rides and a petting zoo, dodgems and jumping castles. All the normal coconut shy things were there too with the odds still firmly stacked against the competitor. We missed the actual lighting of the Chanukiah as it was getting dark and the longer we stayed, the more I was getting nagged about more and more rides.

Tonight is the last night of Chanukah so we will be having latkes again. DH believes that any festival is a good reason to have latkes. So off I go to grate some potatoes.

Something a little different

2010-11-29T03:51:00.007+02:00

We haven't had too much exciting happening these last few weeks so just for this time I decided to let Rafi write something for the blog. These are three short stories he put together. Hopefully with the school holidays and all the parties fast approaching I will have more to blog about soon. Anyway over to Raf:

The Light That Spoke
Once upon a time there was a light that spoke. One morning, a man came into that room and he found the light. It was not big, it was small. It spoke to the man and said, I will grant one wish. The man said, “I wish I can have a dog”. So the wish came true and the light said, “your wish has come true.” And the man never heard the light speak again. The End

The Dragon
Once upon a time there was a dragon who wanted to breathe fire but he could only breathe water. One day he practiced so hard that all his friends got very wet. They got so mad. They all told him to go away. He decided to go find someone to play with him but no one came. He walked and walked for a long time until his friends sprayed water on him. He got such a fright that fire came out his toes and it was so hot. He was very happy his friends came back but they did it again and again all night. At least his toes weren’t on fire anymore. He began to put more and more water on them. Everyone was wet now. They all laughed. The End.

The Man and the Duck
One day in a sausage factory there was a man that was poor. He really loved sausages, that is why he lived in the factory. But one day he decided to leave the factory and try something new. The next place he tried wasn’t a good place because everyone was so bossy. So he decided to open his own factory that made a chocolate so big that it was bigger than the factory. His work men and him ate all the chocolate . All that chocolate gave them tummy aches and they all went to the doctor. The doctor said,” You have a very, very bad stomach ache so no more eating chocolate for you”. So the man had to think of something new to make in his factory. So after seeing some ducks he decided to start making lots and lots of ponds so they could swim free. It made the ducks very happy and they came from all over the world to swim in the ponds. One day, a duck came all the way from England to Australia so he was very tired. They gave it some left over chocolate and a nice warm bath. He said he came to see the beautiful view and animals and when he came, he was right: It was beautiful. So after his holiday, the man gave the duck a big box of lamingtons and Macadamia nuts to remind him of Australia. And the nuts were so loved back in England that the man and the duck started a business together and made lots of money and lived happily ever after. The End

I hope you enjoyed them. Having recently read the complete Brother's Grimm, I can absolutely say that these stories mak a lot more sense than most of those! Until next time... see ya!

P.S. I transcripted the stories from Rafi's note book and corrected the punctuation, but the stories are 100% as written.

Something went Chirrup

2010-11-19T05:19:00.004+02:00

Today I was driving to the shops and on the way I heard "Chirrup Chirrup" coming from the back seat. Now I must admit to limited zoological knowledge but it sounded like a very large bug. If I was back in South Africa my first thought would have been cricket or maybe giant moth but here in Australia I have learnt to take a rather more cautious approach to insects. So many of them are venomous. Just about all of them have some sort of painful defense mechanism (except strangely enough the Australian bee which doesn't even sting, probably because in the face of natural predators like the Huntsman and red back spiders it knew it stood no chance anyway ).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingless_bee

Anyway I phoned DH in a panic. "Is it a cicada?" he asked. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

I don't think either of us even knew the word cicada before we moved here. Insects tend to stick mainstream in my vocabulary - fly, cockroach, spider (I know I know - not an insect), moth etc. The only insect which I called by category was the infamous Parktown Prawn which is a resident of Johannesburg and well deserving of its capital letters due to size alone.

"What should I do?" I asked. His suggestion - bug spray. DH is a big proponent of bug spray but the thought of an irate bug in my car scared me more than the thought of a noisy one. Memories of giant cockroaches in our Cape Town past who had waggled their feelers at us and laughed uproariously at the bottle of Raid convinced me that chemical warfare was not the way to go.

So what did I do in the end? I left the windows of the car wide open and went for a walk. (This sentence alone might be the most unbelievable part of the story for the South African readers ) Came back after a while and all was silent. My mini beast had left and all is well with the world again.

Food, Glorious Food...

2010-11-07T01:34:00.007+02:00

So my parents came to visit us here in Australia and we loved showing them our lifestyle and all the things we do. It was great but towards the end of the holiday they mentioned how very food-centric we all seemed to be and thinking about it, they are 100% correct. Australia is a foodie paradise. There is no shortage of 3 hat restaurants and the diversity of the food to which we are exposed is enormous. With such close proximity to so many Asian countries, it is no wonder that we are able to pick and choose the best Thai, the best Chinese, the best Vietnamese etc. Every Sydneysider that you meet will tell you where to go for each particular food group and even down to particular foods. An entire conversation can be focused around where to get the best grilled chicken or baked cheesecake. When Masterchef Australia aired their first season finale, 5.1 million people tuned in to watch. This means that roughly 1 in 4 of every Australian was watching two chefs taste a beef soup, create a signature dish and a chocolate tasting plate. It's amazing. The end of last years second season coincided with a national debate between the two politicians competing for Prime Minister. The higher interest programme won and the debate was postponed by an hour or two.

So how does this food obsession impact on everyone? Well more and more people are in the kitchen. The supermarkets are pressed to source better and more diverse ingredients and even children are motivated to get in the kitchen. Currently Junior Masterchef is on TV. The kids are aged between 8 and 12 and are producing involtini, tempering chocolate and roasting rabbits. I don't think I could make more than a toasted cheese before the age of thirteen. Rafi has started to show more interest in helping out in the kitchen and has been doing the chopping and stirring. The other night he made meatballs from scratch for his brother (I did the hot part). I can only see the positive aspect in having children wanting to be more involved in what they eat and how it is prepared.

Anyway, back to my parent's holiday. They tasted everything from Japanese to burgers (from Grill'd - yum). They had fish and chips at Doyles and they had macarons from Adriano Zumba. I think they were amazed to see people queuing for ages to get to a hole in the wall kind of shop for pastries, but luckily my brother had prepared them by taking them to an equally famous hole in the wall for sour dough bread. I think that we were slowly turning them into foodies themselves because by the time the holiday ended, they proclaimed the pastry that we got at the airport to be bland and ordinary.

I don't know what they are eating now that they are back home but hopefully when they hear that people are coming to visit us, they can impart a bit of wisdom and tell them to "Come Hungry!".

I am back!!

2010-11-03T01:36:00.006+02:00

Due to popular request (well, some family members asked) I am back at the blogging dashboard. I haven't written for so long that there is much too much to fit into one post and anyway I think I should ease my way back. So I am not going to write about the school year and my parent's visit and all the touristy things that we did together, instead I am just going to write about the weather.

Apparently it is Spring. I don't think the planet knows but everyone walks around saying, "It will warm up now, it is Spring, you know". Sadly although it has in fact been getting steadily warmer, it has also been raining and raining and raining. Australia is a desert country by and large so I am sure the farmers are happy, but when my plans for the week included walking across the Sydney harbour bridge and going to see the sculpture by the sea exhibition on the Bondi to Bronte walk, you can be sure that I haven't been very happy to see the dark grey rain clouds every morning.

Nevertheless on Monday morning after dropping the boys off at school, I packed the car with my rain togs and drove to Milson's Point so that I could walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You may recall that I have done half this walk with Rafi before and it was very nice but we only walked halfway because I was worried that it would be too far for him to do the whole thing. Anyway, with no kids in tow, I undertook to do the walk by myself. The first thing that occurred to me as I started walking, was that it actually is not as big a bridge as it looks. It took about 45 minutes to walk to the end and back again at a steady, albeit leisurely, pace across the bridge. I think it feels long when you drive across because you are always crossing lanes and fighting traffic. If you end up in the wrong lane you can detour for miles before you get to where you were going so everyone drives on the bridge with an equal resolve to get to the correct lane which is inevitably the furthest possible lane from where you enter the freeway. The second thing that struck me was obviously the view. It really is pretty impressive. I like the Opera House and all the Circular Quay views but I really love to look out a bit further towards the sea at the beauty of the Heads and the greenness of the suburbs along the harbour mouth.

That night the heavens opened and it rained with such vigour that the kids kept asking who was knocking on their windows. Anyway by yesterday morning it had subsided a bit so I decided to brave the weather and try to get to Bondi to check out the sculpture by the sea exhibition. Once again with my umbrella and rain jacket in tow I headed off to Bondi. We are lucky that we live near enough to be able to walk because parking there is a nightmare. Anyway I headed off to see the sculptures. They are so clever. Some look as if they are built into the cliff face and some are created out of natural materials - grasses, rocks, water features etc. I loved the one that looked like one of those olden day changing room tents with red and white stripes which was hidden in the background behind some shrubbery. The beauty of the exhibition is in the setting and the artists have really had the environment in mind when creating the works. I took some pics with my phone and if my clever husband can show me how to upload them, I will post them for you to check out.

Here they are:

The Snowy Mountains and Canberra

2010-04-20T07:18:00.018+02:00

The school holidays have just ended and even though Rafi's teacher is sitting stranded at Heathrow airport waiting for Iceland's volcanic ash problem to dissipate, we have all settled back into routine. We had a fabulous holiday that took us all the way to Tumut in the snowy mountains to Canberra and back to Sydney. We headed out along the Grand Pacific Drive (http://www.grandpacificdrive.com.au/) which is a magnificent bridge built over the sea. Apparently it was originally up against the cliff face but due to the hazards of falling rocks, they diverted the bridge out over the sea. It was magnificent. From the car we couldn't take such great pics but you can get out and walk along the bridge and the link above gives a very good aerial view of our route.

After the grand pacific it was smooth sailing to Tumut. Tumut is a very beautiful little town in the heart of the snowy mountains.

After briefly stopping to get directions, we followed the dirt road through the fields to Elm Cottage, our cottage in the middle of nowhere. (http://www.elmcottage.com.au/default.htm) Our cottage was a magnificent three bedroom, three bathroom home with aircon, barbeque facilities, a fully stocked pantry and a view off the balcony of the river running through the property. We stretched our legs and walked down to the river's edge where a little beach had formed. The kids had great fun making shapes out of rocks, skimming stones across the water and paddling in the clear, clean, drinkable water. Afterwards we went back to the cabin to enjoy a barbeque and some local wine whilst watching the sunset and the cows lowing across the fields.

Rafi's artwork at the beach

Running up to our guest house on the hill

View from the balcony of the river

The front door of our River Gum Cottage

The next morning we woke up early and drove out to Kosciuszko National Park, home to Mt Kosciuszko, the highest peak in Australia. We made our way along a very windy route to meet our guide who took us to Jillabenan cave. This cave made of limestone is the work of 400 million years worth of water droplets dripping drop by drop, depositing minerals over the years and it is very beautiful. The boys were each given a torch to explore with and we entered the beautiful cave. There are so many different rock formations, some were translucent, some sparkled like glitter and some wrapped themselves around the cave walls like an elaborate shroud. Rafi was very lucky to be able to hold a small piece of stalactite and we were also shown a fossilised prehistoric squid frozen forever within his piece of rock.

After the caves we headed for the Thermal pools which were at the bottom of a steep walk a short distance away. There is an adult and a children pool and the water is naturally heated to a constant 27 degrees. We all had a great time in the water and spent ages splashing around in the middle of nowhere.

Mitch felt pretty cold when he got out the water!

On our way back to Elm Cottage we stopped off to do the Tumut river walk which was so beautiful and the kids ran around blowing dandelions and racing in and around all the tree. After another fantastic barbeque and early night, we were ready to head out. We stopped by the farm house on the way out so that the kids could feed Sarah the cow and Lambchop the sheep.

Then we headed off for Canberra. To say that our journey was interesting was an understatement. We followed the directions given by our trusty GPS but to say that she led us astray is putting it mildly. True we were guided by the straightest route but not the most car friendly. Dirt road for over 100kms! And the most amazing thing, we only saw one other car along the way. Imagine a country where you can drive for 100km and only see one other car. Mind you it wasn't a car, it was a great big log pile carrying truck and it passed us from the other direction on a hairpin bend. Sitting on the left hand side of the car (thank heavens I wasn't driving) all I could see to the left was a bottomless gorge. Amazingly he squeezed past. Eventually we took a side road off in the opposite direction (it was tarred) and headed to the small town of Yass. Yass has the distinction of being the first town to receive fluorodised water in Australia and that is about all we could find to recommend it. But, it did lead directly to the highway and set us right on the path to Canberra.

We reached Canberra in the afternoon (not the morning as expected) but we got to go to Cockington Green along the way which is something we had all wanted to do. Cockington Green is
a miniature village but in contrast to others I have been to, Canberra has asked all the embassies in the area to contribute something that best represents their country. So as well as the very cute little local sports greens, churches, schools and train stations, there is also Stonehenge, an Aztec temple, Machu Picchu and the typical Cape Dutch house of Groot Constantia complete with giraffe in the backyard. We walked around and took the miniature train ride around the exhibits too.

After Cockington Green we just had enough time to get to Questicon, the national science museum. It was everything we expected, the boys got to see "live" dinosaurs, play with water experiments, experience an earthquake and create an array of different illusions. We had an amazing time. The museum closes at 5 so we headed back to Sydney. On the way we stopped off for supper and to see the giant Merino sheep, which really is a giant. We got home just after 8. It was an amazing holiday and I would definitely head back to Canberra again to spend more time in what is a spectacular looking city.

Settling In

2010-02-28T01:30:00.003+02:00

We had great excitement here in the Doobie household as we have finally left our little shoe box and moved into a much better sized apartment. Our lease in the first place came to an end (can you believe we have been here more than a year already) and we started scouring the real estate listings for a new home. I am sure I recounted the strange manner in which Australians find homes to rent a year ago but this time was a little more civilised. For starters we had a bit of time to look for an apartment and didn't have to make a spur of the moment decision and secondly we had all the necessary credentials to rent a flat (job, references etc) so we didn't have to worry about finding a sympathetic landlord. Sydney rental prices are quite frankly insane. A two bedroom apartment on our side of town costs more than a 4 bedroom house on huge land further North or in the West, but we had our minds set on the local public school and we wanted to be close to the train station so we decided to compromise size for location. Its interesting to see what agents here think are comparable value properties, so we saw some magnificent apartments with spas, gyms and indoor swimming pool but that would only be suitable if you never intended to entertain and didn't mind having two under 6s in a flat the size of a matchbox to some enormous three bedroom apartments that were held together by sticky tape and prayer. Eventually we chose our new place. It has everything we could think of - walking distance to the school, a lock up garage, tons of storage space, a communal garden, proximity to a park and nice sized area. The kids have turned the dining room into a playroom so for them, this is just the best place ever. (We bought a folding dining table so that we can convert the room back to its original intention if we have guests). True the building is typical art deco and quite ugly but as it is not really visible being set into the side of a cliff, it really doesn't matter. I think we will be happy to stay here for a couple of years.

Moving was a bit of a mission. We used hire-a-box for the boxes which was great as they refund you some of your money when you are finished with them. They also deliver and pick up the boxes free so that made things a lot easier. Our movers were not great though. Moving companies here don't charge on the size of the apartment, rather they move you on a per hour basis. This means that moving day is drawn out into the longest possible process so that they can make the most out of the deal. They estimated 3 hours in the beginning but it took them closer to 6! They moved so slowly and took a ten minute break every time they went to the truck. It was so frustrating but there was not much we could do about it, so we just waited patiently (Yeah right) until it was all done. To their credit nothing got broken or damaged but I think if they had had another job waiting in the afternoon, they could have halved the time.

So far big school is going well for Rafi. He loves his teacher who is very patient and sweet and he has made a close circle of friends. His best friend is a girl named Orla and she is a huge tomboy. He is playing tennis on Tuesdays in a squad and he plays cricket on Saturday mornings. He plays ARL (Rugby League) at school once a week and will be starting Rugby Union after Easter. I was a bit anti the rugby union idea at first but it is really mini rugby - they play barefoot and we were assured that they play it more like touch rugby style rather than with serious tackling or scrums. I never realised that Kindy meant so much homework, my poor son brings home a book every night that he has to read by himself and he has to do an oral (show and tell style) every week too.

Mitch has gone up to the new group in pre-school too. He is still getting used to it but they take him back to his old class if he asks them. He also plays tennis on Mondays. Last week he was so excited when he hit a forehand that he dropped the racket and came running off the court to tell me about it. Mitchell's best friend's name is James and we try to make a play date once a week with him. They are both mad about Thomas the Tank engine and spend most of the play dates constructing train tracks and zooming trains round and round. If the weather is good then we meet at park and then they both play that they are the trains themselves. Its very cute to watch them running around choo chooing and tooting.

Hubby's job is good. His walk to the train station is now a bit longer in the mornings but at least it is flat now rather than all uphill. There is a bus option but DH prefers walking. (well as long as the weather is good). One of my favourite things about the new place is that we are around the corner from a little shopping strip and they have the most amazing delis, coffee shops and other stores. After I walk Rafi to school, Mitch and I often go for a walk around the shops. There are always interesting goodies to see in the windows. There is also an amazing fruit shop where it looks like each fruit has been hand polished. Another shop that sells pasta and other goodies, makes Mitch's favourite noodle dish.

See ya in March...

Aussie, Aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi

2010-01-27T07:05:00.003+02:00

Yesterday was our first Australia Day. We took ourselves off on the train to Darling Harbour to join in the festivities. Its amazing to live in a country where everyone is so proud and happy just to be Australian. Cars drove past with Australian flags hanging out the windows, kids had flag tattoos and face paint all over their bodies and people were dressed in everything red, white and blue. We joined the throng and the first thing we did was to rush off to buy some flags for the kids which they waved wildly in the air, narrowly avoiding taking out some eyes in the process. It was a really hot day yesterday and the heat was oppressive. Never a nation to worry about decorum, kids had stripped off to their undies and were running through the water features which are all over Darling Harbour. I even saw some adults slip in fully dressed to cool down. We headed off harbourside first to get some lunch which we ate at the children's concert. Miffy the Bunny did some dancing and sang the obligatory " When you're happy and you know it" and the guy from Playschool, a popular kids show, sang some upbeat tunes on his guitar. Afterwards we went for icecream which wasn't great but refreshing considering the ridiculous heat. Darling Harbour has a huge play area for kids the whole year through so we headed that way and the kids had a blast on the giant slides and climbing frames although I was getting a bit neurotic due to the crowds. They had bought in some special rides for the kids as well so they went on the merry-go-round ride. We all looked up as the helicopter with a giant Australian flag flew overhead and watched an airplane do some fancy sky writing manoevers - although we still don't know what he wrote becuase we only caught the first few letters - M I L L ... so if you are reading this and saw the whole word, please put us out of our misery and tell us what he was writing.
Eventually the heat just got to be too much and we headed home again. Mitch's favourite part of the day was just being in the train which made us think that perhaps on weekends we can just take the train to some far away place and back again and save a fortune on entertainment - ha ha.
Rafi starts 'big' school tomorrow. His uniform is ironed and there are labels in everything. We have bought all the goodies for his lunchbox. He is feeling a little apprehensive but excited too. I will definitely be posting the first uniform pics here.

The New Year has begun...

2010-01-06T08:06:00.002+02:00

Well this week has been a whirlwind one but lots of fun and a great way to start 2010. At the end of the last post I wrote about going to the moonlight theatre in Centennial Park to watch Julie and Julia. It was a great night. We brought a picnic and hired some bean bag loungers to lie in and watched the movie on the giant inflatable screen under the stars and bats. (They never mention this on the information brochures but Sydney is full of bats.) The movie was sweet and we enjoyed the experience despite a huge furry spider spending the duration of the movie spinning a huge web behind my right ear. I am so glad we saw it in time to avoid it although some other poor girl had to perform the 'spider in my hair' dance on her way down the stairs.
The next evening was New Years Eve and we had a glorious evening at my brother's home where he had a barbeque with some of his friends. There were lots of kids there too and Rafi and Mitch had a ball playing with sparklers, neon glow bands and watching the fireworks. We watched the 9 o'clock fireworks and then left soon after eating because the kids were so tired. The next morning in what was already a great way to start the new year, the kids slept late and we woke up feeling very refreshed. Not much is open on New Years Day but we decided to take a drive up to Dee Why beach. As luck would have it, it started raining just as we pulled up to the beachfront but we found an awesome fish and chip place called D Y Seafood, which provided us with shelter and some of the best fish, chips and salad that I have had so far in Australia. The salads in particular were great with none of the normal limp mesclun, tomato and cucumber assortment that such places are usually associated with. My salad was broccolini, chicken, pine nuts, and a creamy mustard dressing. Craig had a wild rice, artichoke, chickpea and sundried tomato salad. Anyway, after we had eaten, the rain had cleared up so we went back to the beach figuring that we hadn't driven all that way for no reason. We walked along the promenade and the kids raced up and down the walkway.
The next day it was raining again so we headed on out to the QVB building in the CBD to look at all the shops. Craig had never been before so it was nice for him to see the buiding as it really is beautiful inside with the Christmas decorations still up and a huge clock with a little sailboat that moves around it in the centre of the store. Needless to say it was very full and we didn't stay long as I am not partial to the crowds.
On Sunday we went to the Sydney Olympic Stadium to the Aquatic centre. It was magic. There was so much for the children to do and we had a blast. The kids ran under the giant bucket of water, we all went down the waterslides and the best fun was going in the 'rapids' around the circumference of the pool. Rafi had two friends with him and they didn't want to get out the water. It was hugely confidence building too and Mitch did a few kicks (although with his armbands on) and thanks to his girl friend Zoe from South Africa, Rafi started trying to do handstands under the water, an amazing thing considering how petrified he was of the pool at the beginning of last year.
Yesterday the boys were back at school. Rafi has to go three more times and then he is finished with pre-school and starts at 'big boy' school. Mitch is moving up to the next group at the end of February after his birthday.
Now we are busy trying to organise a party for Mitch's 3rd birthday and are looking at different venue and entertainment options. He tells me every day that he wants a Thomas cake - definitely no surprises there. Will post soon with all the party updates.

The year in review

2009-12-28T23:34:00.004+02:00

It seems unbelievable but the year has just about come to an end. We have all seen and learnt so much but it has been a great experience.
During this year, Mitchell has learned to talk and string a sentence together, he knows his letterland alphabet and can count to 12. He still loves his school and is very excited to be going into Preschool 2 next year. He will also start tennis lessons in February which will be very cute. He is still as enamoured with Thomas the Tank Engine as ever and our collection has grown so much that we could run train track continuously through every room in the house!
2009 has been a huge year for Rafi, he has learned to swim thanks to his uncle B and he can play tennis and cricket. He has learned to read and write most small words and can add, subtract and multiply. Rafi has made friends in his school and a few out of it. He is super excited to be going to 'big' school next year and we have bought him his uniform and school bag which he loves.
My other half was so lucky to get a job a few weeks after arriving and even luckier to find something which he really enjoys with great people. Last week he even won a trophy at work for innovation day.
I have had a great year too. One of the best things this year was that with the kids only going to school twice a week, I got to spend lots of time with them. We have explored some of the loveliest parks, playgrounds and beaches together. We have become members of the powerhouse museum which is the kids favourite place with their buildable brick house, interactive displays and their train exhibits it couldn't be better.
We have been to Taronga zoo twice and with this most recent trip, we saw the new baby elephant and baby gorilla. They were very cute. Mitchell loved watching the monkeys swing all over the trees. He also loved the seal show particularly as the biggest seal was named. "Mitchie". Rafi enjoyed the cable car ride over the zoo, despite the fact that it was really windy and we swayed from side to side as we ascended. This daredevil side of him has really grown this year and he had a blast at Luna park, going on the roller coaster and Ferris wheel. Unfortunately all this daring behaviour doesn't always pay off as we got to experience Australian hospitals first hand when Rafi tried to 'fly' from some monkey bars and broke his arm. Luckily it healed beautifully and he is back on the monkey bars, although a lot more cautiously now.
This year we have also done loads of shopping. We had to stock everything in our flat from scratch and also get clothes for the kids as they grew out of them. We learned that you can get huge discounts at almost any electronic or white goods store, just by asking. We learned that some stores mark up the price of their shoes and branded clothes by over 100% and that it is far better to go to the factory outlets for these things. We also found that amazingly in Australia, when people don't want something anymore, they just leave it on the side of the road and apparently old 'box' style TVs are not needed at all because there always seems to be one on the side of every road. We have not yet taken advantage of this pavement style shopping but should anyone happen to leave out any Thomas trains or track ,we would take full advantage ;)
Of course one of the very best things this year has been getting to know my brother, sister-in-law and my two stunningly beautiful nieces. This might sound a bit strange but the age gap between my brother and I is such that he left home when I was just a little bit older than my son, Rafi. Having thus been separated by continents and sea for more than 20 years, it is just unbelievable to get to see him and his family every week. Speaking of family, one of the other highlights this year was going to Melbourne to visit my husband's Aunts and Uncles and the boys got a chance to meet their other Australian cousins. We had a great time and will definitely head that way again.
My best friend Lisa lives in Sydney too with her husband and they have been such amazing support as well and have provided plenty of laughs and brilliant food. For the last nine months or so we have been choosing countries out of a hat and cooking to the theme once a month. It has been so much fun and quite an experience. Of course what makes this so easy is the fact that Sydney is so diverse that an ingredient for just about anything is readily available at the specialist Asian, European, Indian or African food stores.
We have found the cost of things here took a lot of getting used to as some of the prices seemingly make very little sense. For instance, lamb is very cheap but fruit is very expensive. A punnet of blueberries can cost more than a ready cooked chicken, and a 2l cola is very often cheaper than the 500ml version. Eating out is super cheap at take away places but the drinks can cost more than the food. (sushi roll $2, cola $3.50)
But like anything else, you get used to it and we never think of converting the prices anymore. Weirdest of all is that some shops are self service, you buy the groceries, swipe them yourself at the till and pay with your card. It seems like such an opportunity for duplicity but strangely enough I have never heard of anyone being anything but honest with these tills.
Rentals get paid weekly, as does child care, but water and electricity is quarterly. Petrol prices fluctuate daily with Tuesdays seeming to be the cheapest and Fridays the most expensive. The area you buy petrol in also has an impact and it is sometimes worth it to leave your area to fill your tank as you can get a huge saving by shopping around (although you have to weigh this up with how much petrol you are spending in getting to the further station). Public transport here is great. The trains run regularly as do the buses and the ferries. In fact this reminds me of something interesting we found out just last weekend. We were looking at wiki maps, trying to decide what to do that day and then right near our house we saw a sign saying Woollhara station. Knowing full well that there is no station at the end of or road (or so we thought), we looked into it and apparently there was indeed a station built around the corner from us. It was completed and ready to run but there was a huge campaign by the residents of the area about it because of the noise and the low level of public transport users (statistics showing that most people had cars). Anyway special bricks and noise reducing barriers were erected making the train hum rather than choo choo through the area but the residents were not satisfied and so the project was abandoned leaving a rather derelict but fully built train station abutting some very fancy houses. We went to go and have a look and the kids were very excited to see the humming train as it passed by. Poor husband it would have been a much nearer walk to the train station.
Anyway this week we are going to the moonlight cinema to see Julie and Julia. The moonlight cinema is an outdoor movie at Centennial park and should be lots of fun. Hopefully we are going to be able to see the beautiful fireworks over the Sydney harbour bridge on New Years Eve and then we shall be ready to embrace 2010 and all that it brings.
Wishing you all a very happy New Year!

Melbourne – Nov 2009

2009-11-16T12:38:00.001+02:00

We arrived in Melbourne late at night and we went to Aunt J’s home where we played with Cousins K and B before heading off to bed. In the morning, we were picked up by Uncle G and driven into the CBD where we met cousin N and we all went up the Eureka tower. The Eureka Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We went up the incredibly fast elevator to the top where we could see a panoramic view of the city. Our first impressions were that Melbourne is very pretty and arty with lots of interestingly shaped buildings but also incredibly flat and vast. We came down the tower and walked to Federation square where we went to ACMI which is a moving image museum. The kids had a lot of fun with all the projectors and video games. Then we went to meet Aunt E at her office and from there we caught a tram at Rafi’s insistence through to the casino. We walked along the Yarra river and had very nice ice-cream. Uncle G then took us to Williamstown and Rafi played for a bit on a climbing frame while Mitch dozed in the car. Afterwards we went to a fish and chip place for lunch which was really very nice.

Later on we went back to Aunt J’s where the kids had fun playing with their cousins K and B on the trampoline and on the Wii. We all had pizza for supper.

The next day, Friday, Aunt J took us up to Kinglake where we saw all the devastation reaped by the horrific fires at the beginning of the year. It was quite something to behold. We had lunch at a quaint little place called the Flying Tarts. On our way to Yarra valley we stopped at a fort which was in a picturesque setting with a brilliant view of Melbourne from afar. We all climbed to the top of the fort with its tiny little stairs and Rafi enjoyed pretending to be a soldier. We made our way back to Aunt J and then we just lazed around the house for a bit. That night we went to restaurant called Sofias along with all the family for a huge Italian meal. Craig had a ginormous spaghetti and I had an equally humungous risotto. I don’t know if anyone managed to finish what was on their plate! Delicious!

On Saturday, Uncle R came to fetch us and drove us up to the Puffing Billy in the Dandenongs. The boys were very excited to be going on a real steam train! We chug a chugged through the countryside and got off at the Emerald station where Aunt R and Cousin C met us. There happened to be a Thomas the tank engine expo in Emerald so the kids had a lot of fun seeing the ‘real’ characters from the stories. We went for a light lunch at a little café in the area and then we made our way to Aunt and Uncle R, stopping along the road to feed some wild cockatoos and other colourful birds. DH learnt that it is always best to wear long sleeves when holding birds! We met up with all the family again that evening at Aunt and Uncle R and we had a barbeque together. It was great to see all the cousins together.

On Sunday Aunt E and Aunt J took us on an excursion through the suburbs. We weaved our way through Caulfield and Kew down to St Kilda where we went for a walk along the pier. It was phenomenally hot and we didn’t quite make it all the way down the pier but it is a really pretty beach. We went to a restaurant on the beachfront with bright orange umbrellas which was really cool inside which was great because the weather was just so hot. Afterwards, we went to Albert park where the older boys sat and watched the black swans on the lake, with Raf and Cousin B giving them strange and interesting names while Mitch climbed up and all over the play equipment. Afterwards we went back to Aunt J’s where all the family came over and we had chicken and fish and chips. Rafi had a slight bout of heat stroke so we didn’t have too late a night.

On Monday we went to the local shopping centre to get the much famed Trampoline ice cream which was very yum. Rafi got a toy worm and we picked up some other small amusements for the plane. Then off we went to Aunt E and Uncle J’s house which is very near LaTrobe University. Aunt E took us around the university estate and then to a nearby animal farm where Rafi got to feed a goat and got licked by a cow much to his chagrin. It was a very hot day so a lot of the animals seemed very sedentary but the kids enjoyed it especially the enormous pig which was the size of a small hippopotamus! We went back to Aunt E’s where we had a nice early supper and Uncle G took us off to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney. It was a wonderful holiday and amazing to see all the family. The boys loved meeting and playing with such an abundance of cousins and we will definitely make plans to head back that way again.

October 2009

2009-10-14T02:50:00.002+02:00

Only two weeks into October and it is already so eventful but not all in good ways. Last weekend saw the doobie family traipsing off to Luna Park. This is a big theme park right on the harbours edge on the North shore of Sydney. It was great fun and both boys were tall enough to go on selected rides so they had a blast going on mini Ferris wheels, driving airplanes up and down and going around and around in a mini roller coaster. The whole family went on the bumper cars where Rafi and I tried our hardest to bump into DH and Mitch. It was great fun. Then we braved the heights to go on the Ferris wheel which was a little creaky but had the most awesome views over Sydney. Rafi and his dad went on the wild mouse ride which is a real grown up roller coaster and I don't know which of them looked more green and shaky when they got off. While they were braving the mouse, I bought Mitch an enormous fairy (candy) floss. He had never encountered it before and it would have made an awesome Australian home videos segment as he tried to work out how best to get his head around it. He tried licking it, sticking his hands in it, and trying to bite it. Somehow he managed to eat the whole thing though so he obviously found a way to do it.
On Sunday there was great excitement as we headed out to the ANZ stadium to see Thomas and Friends live in concert. It was a pretty impressive production with the engines driving around the stage with robotic faces and steam coming out of their chimneys. Thousands of two year olds chanting Thomas, Thomas was also something quite spectacular. I have never seen so many toddlers sit so still for over an hour and a half. Whoever said Elvis was popular obviously had never been to see Thomas the Tank Engine.
This week was not a great one though. Rafi fell off the climbing frame at the park near Craig's work and we ended up dashing across the road to the Royal North Shore hospital to get it x-rayed. Somehow he managed to break it in two places so the poor thing has a cast all the way from his armpit to his fingers. Guess we won't be going on any rides at Melbourne's Luna Park when we go that way in three weeks time. There are still six weeks left for him to wear his cast so we will be finding a lot more sedate activities in the meantime. Mitch is terribly jealous of his big brothers misfortune and keeps telling me that different parts of his body are broken. Just this morning he has had a broken toe, a broken hand and a broken hair! :)

September is nearly over!

2009-09-25T04:58:00.003+02:00

Today I suddenly realised that it has been almost three weeks since my last blog entry and that if I don't get typing soon, I will forget everything we have done during September. One of the first places we went since I last wrote was to a restaurant called Sizzler.
Sizzler is a very different concept in Australian dining and is probably about as close to a Spur in South Africa as you could imagine, although much better value and the food is better too. It is a good idea to read up on what to expect before you go for the first time otherwise you could be very unprepared. Basically you enter the door and stand in a queue. On the wall next to the queue is the menu. There are about 6 different steak options and some seafood things. There is also a kids menu with the usual burgers, fish and chips etc. But you don't have to take any of these options because the last option is the salad valley which comes standard with all the meals anway and the salad valley is huge! There are tons of salads, crispy potato skins, veggie bakes, nachos, pasta, sauces, desserts with self service icecream, and soft drinks on tap. The kids had a blast and ate more than they would normally eat in a whole week. Rafi made a quadruple soft serve icecream with chocolate and vanilla icecream and he covered it in sprinkles, baby marshmallows, smarties and jelly beans. Kids under 4 eat free which I think they may well have re evaluated by the time Mitch was done. In order to prevent people doing awful things at the salad valley, there are full time staff who patrol the counters with walky talkies keeping an eye out that people aren't double dipping or sticking their fingers in.
This month has also been a very family oriented month so we have spent a lot of time with people and mot going to venues as such although we have had quite a few picnics in the park, especially seeing that summer has come so early this year.
Thinking of weather I am sure you are aware of the freaky dust storm that hit Sydney earlier this week, when winds in excess of 100km/h blew huge amounts of red sand into Sydney from the outback. We woke up to a bright orange sky which gradually turned yellow during the day and then eventually cleared in the late afternoon. In the morning it was hard to see in front of your face and very difficult to breathe. People were walking around with masks on. It was pretty amazing though and felt like waking up on Mars.
This month we also all went for a professional photo shoot but when we went back to check out the photos, they were awful. The photographer just never got all four of us looking happy and at the camera at the same time. Anyway we never took any of the photos at all but on the up side, the school had a photographer come in and take some photos of the boys and they are amazing so we will put some of them up soon.

Putt Putt

2009-09-09T03:37:00.008+02:00

Sunday was Father's day and DH was spoilt rotten with a full English brekkie in bed, lots of home made cards and some beautiful gifts. After breakfast we drove out to Ermington which is near Ryde to play a round or two of putt putt. The putt putt centre was just too cute. There are 3 courses each with a different theme. The first we did was the 'fun run' which has various cartoon characters on each course so you have to get the ball around Bart Simpsons legs or under Garfield's tail. The kids loved it and had an absolute blast. The moving windmill and the putt putt jail were particular favourites. After the fun run course we went for lunch up the road and then returned to do the jungle course which had all sorts of animals lurking in the bushes, cheetahs on the roof and monkeys climbing up the trees. We all had a great time. We will definitely go back to tackle the waterways course.

Here are some pics from the day...

Parsley Bay and Meningococcus

2009-08-28T04:16:00.007+02:00

Apparently it is winter now. I can't say I believe it because the weather is hotter than a Cape Town summer but nevertheless it is wonderful and it means that we don't have to spend weekends cooped up and shivering by a heater. Not sure if hubby agrees as he has always preferred the cold, but he has been assured by fellow Sydneysiders that this is an aberration and that there will still be a cold spell before the end of the year. Anyway, the delightful weather took us off to Parsley Bay a few weeks ago. Parsley Bay is a hidden little beach. Quite frankly you could live in the area and if no one ever mentioned it to you, you could easily never find it. Luckily Samantha our trustworthy GPS told us where to go and after being in Sydney now for six months I was sure that there weren't many parks left that could impress me but wow, Parsley Bay is magnificent!

As you can see from the pictures, it is a park and then a small beach and then the sea with a little walking bridge over the top. Apparently in summer they put up shark nets so that you can swim in the water but the kids were busy on the playground and running over the bridge so they weren't too interested in swimming. The first two pics are from the middle of the bridge itself, the first towards the beach and park and the second pic is towards the sea.

Anyway this week has been interesting. Mitchie has had a slight bout of flu and a bit of a fever. Well we weren't terribly worried as it is cold and flu season so we just gave him some demazin, lots of fluids and let him sleep it off. Yesterday he was up and running and we were all ready for school today when I got about 4 phone calls from the boys' school and 6 emails to tell me that one of the kids in Mitch's class was hospitalised with meningitis from the meningococcal virus. They emailed a list of symptoms to look out for and suffice to say, Mitchie had had almost every one of them through out the duration of the week. (fever, sore throat, vomiting etc). Naturally I started to worry although both boys have of course been vaccinated against meningococcal C, I was worried that it was the 'B' strain or another one completely. The school also told me that as a precaution there was a doctor coming to the school to issue all the kids with antibiotics so that they don't develop the meningococcal virus. Well, at 7 o'clock at night, thanks to my fantastic sister-in-law, without whom I think I would have just freaked out completely, we rushed off to the medical centre to get Mitch checked out. And he was fine! The doctor said that he had a cold and that the antibiotics that the school were prescribing would sort that out anyway and that he definitely did not have any contagious diseases. Big sighs of relief all round, but I must say that I find it amazing that a whole school gets prescribed antibiotics due to one kid getting sick. It is terribly frightening, yet very impressive. Am kind of in two minds about the whole thing. It will be Mitch's first antibiotics and he isn't even really sick!

- P.S. here is a pic I took of the boys at a park yesterday, so that you can see that they are really in good health ;)

The Museum of Fire

2009-08-02T09:10:00.006+02:00

Today was yet another beautiful day and we all headed out to Penrith where we were meeting three other South African families at the Museum of Fire.

Ironically on the way we passed an enormous real life fire because apparently an ammunition factory in the area of the Olympic Stadium had caught alight. There were helicopters and fire engines everywhere.

Anyway, the Museum of Fire is a museum which would make little boys everywhere jump up and down with delight. There is every type of fire engine, from the very early steam type to modern day machines. There is a Sesame street style movie running all about fire hazards and there is an indoor and outdoor play area where the kids can clamber all over fire engines and lots of buttons to push.

There is also a fire engine which drives all around the museum with lights and sirens blaring. The kids loved this in particular especially since the driver (who was more cowboy than firefighter) drove all over the grass and up and down the pavements. Rafi and his friend Aaron sat up front right next to the driver and they both grinned from ear to ear the whole time.

After some time at the museum and amongst lots of protests from the kids, we all headed off to the Spur. Yes, that's right, the good ol' South African Spur. There we all sat back and the kids ordered all their old favourites. The interior is exactly the same as South Africa down to the pseudo- totem poles and the menu is nearly identical except the omission of a 'salad valley'. Otherwise there is the same pink sauce and bbq sauce on the table, the same wood style menu and the 'chico the clown' for the children. The play area is perhaps the best part of the restaurant with a mini cinema, play stations and climbing frames. Needless to say we were left in peace for most of the meal. The food is typical Spur - nothing outstanding - but decent and basic. The prices were average Australian but don't try to convert to Rands. An original Spur burger was $12.99 and that would be equivalent more or less to a whopping R80+. :)

School Holidays = Less Traffic

2009-07-25T11:01:00.001+02:00

The last two weeks have been school holidays although our kids don’t get the break as their play school continues through the whole year. At the very start of the holidays was Rafi’s birthday and he had a lovely party at school. Craig and I were up late the night before icing all different pictures on to cupcakes and the children were all very excited. They sang songs and really made Rafi feel special. Of course Mitch joined the class for the party and the big kids made a fuss of him too.

Anyway for the duration of the holidays we have been taking advantage of the low traffic and I have been taking Craig to work in the mornings. It only takes 15 minutes when we drive as opposed to the hour it takes him by train so we have all been sleeping a little later too. (although not as much as one would hope with a 2 year old in the house :)) Using the GPS we found the most amazing little park/playground just around the corner from the office. It is in a cul de sac and no one seems to know about it as we never see anybody there but the facilities are amazing. There are swings and roundabouts, a giant slide, a climbing frame, a bike track and even a toddler section. The kids love it and Rafi calls it the ‘secret park’.

Last weekend we went to a brilliant restaurant called, ‘The Counter’ in Crow’s Nest. Basically it is a burger place but the twist is that they give you a form to fill in and you build your own burger from scratch. There is a choice of patty – beef, lamb, chicken, turkey and veg. A choice of burger – bun, scone, sourdough or you can ditch the bun and have the burger on a bed of salad in a bowl. You get to pick four toppings, a type of cheese and a sauce. It was great. I had a veggie burger in a bowl with a swiss cheese topping, beetroot, spring onion, tomato and mushroom. I chose the garlic aioli sauce. Yum. Rafi ordered the kiddies burger and they bought him 2 mini burgers with chips. They must have been good because he ate both of them! Mitch had toasted cheese – no meat for him! and Craig had a turkey burger on a scone, which he said was great.

Last weekend we also met some people who are friends of South African friends. We went to Centennial Park and their son played a bit of soccer with Rafi. They also rode around the kid’s cycle track together and got along very well. They live near to Craig’s work so I think we will definitely get together again.

Today I took the kids for long overdue haircuts. We keep avoiding them because Mitch normally throws mega tantrums when people touch his hair so the last few cuts have been abandoned in the middle. In desperation we googled, ‘children hair cut specialists’ and lo and behold we found a place not far away in Randwick called, Kidz Lidz. Well they had an opening for the kids and so off we went. The inside of the shop is set up more like a play centre than a hair salon. There are all different ride on cars and planes for the kids to sit on while their hair is being cut and they have dvd players showing continuous kiddie favourites like ‘Bob the Builder’ and ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. There is a separate section with a playstation and assorted toys and books for the kids to play in while they wait their turn. Rafi was up first and as always he was as good as gold. He sat very still and was most disappointed to get off the red fire engine as he hadn’t finished watching the Bob the Builder episode. Next up was Mitch and we all waited with apprehension. The first cut didn’t go so well, but credit where credit is due, this place is geared for difficult kids. The hairdresser went away and came back with a sticker book. Mitch was so absorbed in sticking stickers all over the steering wheel of the fire engine, he never even noticed the hair cut. Suffice to say, he finally has a big boy cut and he looks so different. As a reward, we took them off to McDonalds and they had loads of fun playing on the climbing frames.

Tomorrow we are heading up North to go to meet some other friends and there should be lots of kids which is great. We are all going to stop and get picnic food on the way. Great news is that my family is back from their holiday overseas so the kids are super excited to see them. Hopefully we will get to do just that tomorrow afternoon as well.

Koala Park

2009-06-29T04:24:00.005+02:00

On Sunday we went out to West Pennant Hills to the Koala Park. This is an Australian animal park reminiscent, for those who come from Durban, of Mitchell Park. Basically it is a small animal park with various open air cages with indigenous animals. The primary focus of the park is as a koala sanctuary and they have a small hospital section where they care for these very cute, but not all that cuddly, koalas. They also have a nursery section where the baby koalas and their mums reside. It is very sweet. The park is flush with kanagroos. There is every type of kangaroo, wallaroo and wallaby that one could imagine. They come in different shapes and sizes. Some are in enclosures and others hop freely around the park. (Did you know that kangaroos can't go backwards?) They also had other animals but a lot of them are nocturnal so they were curled up in little balls - the possums, wombats and regular bats. We did see some echidnae, which look a little like a hedgehog but with a very strange snout. At one end of the park there was a man throwing a boomerang and Rafi was entranced seeing it go far away, turning and then coming straight back into the man's hand. He also did a short demo of sheep herding with the help of a black and white border collie. Apparently, they also do sheep shearing but we didn't stay for that. Mitch was enamoured of the kangaroos, especially those bigger than himself! Typical Mitchie behaviour! He also chased some of the chickens and peacocks around, but we didn't let him near the emus!

It was a lot of fun and I would recommend it for those that don't really want to see all the animals at Taronga Zoo, but would rather get up close and personal with just the Australian selection.

Wyong, The Entrance, Crow's Nest

2009-06-20T14:04:00.002+02:00

Today we headed off for a very long journey up North. We went to a place called Wyong because there was a man out that way selling a left handed acoustic guitar and I very much wanted to buy one for Craig because he was so upset about getting rid of his before we left South Africa. Anyway, the trip took us almost 2 hours but the boys were very well behaved in the car. Luckily the roads were well marked because it was raining the whole morning so the GPS was extremely unhelpful. We found the home we were looking for and Craig was so excited because the guitar was exactly what he wanted. We loaded it into the boot and went to explore the wonders of Wyong. Wyong is a small country town. It is very pretty though with cows and horses and antique shops galore. We stopped at a KFC for lunch. I tried the new cayan chicken (grilled not crumbed - it was very nice) and then we found the most unexpected thing - a huge playcentre for kids. We took the kids in and they had a blast going up mega slides, jumping in jumping castles and climbing jungle gyms. There was even a mini basketball court although the kids in there were a little too wild and too old for our kids to join in. After they had played for a while, we headed off to The Entrance. This is a holiday resort type small town. It is situated on a large, beautiful estuary and the claim to fame of The Entrance is the large number of resident pelicans. Coincidentally we arrived at the daily feeding time of 3:30 and Rafi was amazed (as were we) to see the size of the pelicans. They were bigger than Mitchell!
After we had been at The Entrance for a while, we headed back towards Sydney but on the way back we decided to stop for supper. We went past Craig's work so that I could have a look at his office, but just from the outside (it is locked at night) and then we went into Crow's Nest for supper. The kids were begging for pizza so we ended up at an Italian restaurant called, 'La Bussola'. They shared a margherita, Craig had a pizza and I had the most awesome gorgonzola gnocci. Yum, yum. We finally headed home, and the kids went straight to bed. It was a fantastic day.

A pen

2009-06-19T05:32:00.002+02:00

Sometimes a very small item can symbolise something a great deal bigger. This morning, DH and I went to the road traffic authority (RTA) to get an E Tag for our car. An E tag is a device that you put on your car which will automatically collect a toll from you, every time you use one of the toll roads or tunnels in and around Sydney. Anyway, we went to the counter and the man gave us a form to fill in. 'Oh, no', I thought, I forgot to bring a pen and then, I turned around. On the counter behind us, where one can fill in forms, were three pens. They weren't tied on to a piece of string, they weren't chained to the desk, the ink hadn't been removed from the core and the lids were still on. It seems mundane but this was such a huge deal to me. Here in Australia, it is not the norm to steal the pens, it is not the norm to pull out the ink and it certainly is not the norm to go to the shop around the corner, buy a pack of 20 bics for R5 and then push them in the face of people coming to do business and offer them for just R2 each.
We filled in the forms, replaced the pen and got our E tag. We walked unharassed back to our car. This is how life is meant to be.

Medicare

2009-06-10T02:06:00.003+02:00

In my last post I wrote about the Blue Mountains and how much Mitch ate because he had been sick. Well on Sunday, it was Rafi's turn. At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, he suddenly developed a really severe earache. Rafi is the type of child who doesn't complain for no reason and when he suddenly started howling in agony, we knew something was very wrong. I phoned my brother to find out where I could find a doctor on a Sunday afternoon. My sister-in-law recommended a medicare clinic just outside Westfield shopping centre in Bondi. So we all piled into the car and off we went. I was very apprehensive. My sister-in-law warned me that it was on a first come, first serve basis so I pictured a queue of sick people and the grey stained tiles one usually associates with these type of places. Having worked in government hospitals in South Africa, I was very dubious about the type of treatment we would receive.

Boy, oh boy, was I wrong! We walked into a clean, carpeted doctor's office. There were two other people in the waiting room, one a heavily pregnant lady and the other an elderly man with a bandage on his ankle. We went up to the reception desk and handed in our medicare card. The receptionist typed a few details in the computer and we went to sit down. No sooner had we touched the sofa, our name was called and we went through into a very child friendly office. There were hand drawn pictures on the walls and some toys in the corner of the room. The doctor was very efficient. He looked in Rafi's ear and told us that he had an infection (not a surprise really) and he prescribed an antibiotic and some ear drops to alleviate the pain. He had a quick look at Mitch too, but said that he was obviously over his cold as there was no redness or swelling in his ears or throat. We went from his room to the pharmacy which was just next to the reception desk and got the medicines straight away.

I must say that I was very impressed with the level of care and the cleanliness and it is great to know that a place like this exists for the odd weekend sickness.

Take care over the cold and flu season!

The Blue Mountains

2009-06-06T12:56:00.004+02:00

Today we decided to go and see the famous Blue Mountains which lie just to the west of Sydney. We set out nice and early and were so lucky because it was just a beautiful, sunny day with just a very mild chill in the air. About an hour into the journey we stopped off at the Selwood Science and Puzzle museum. This is a very quaint little shop selling all types of educational games and books. It is a converted house and some of the rooms have been set up with interactive displays to keep the kids amused. I got the fright of my life when I looked at a mirror on the wall and suddenly my reflection changed to a laughing skull with glowing eyes! Rafi was fascinated by the little robot that walked around the one room and both boys thought the piano which played by itself was just too funny. Rafi reckoned that an invisible person must be playing. They played with some of the games and there were a lot of toys that I grew up with like slinkies, slime balls, rubiks cubes and holographic buttons.

After we had stopped for a while we made our way to Scenic World in the heart of the Blue Mountains. We took a cable car across the mountains. The boys loved it because the floor of the cable car is glass so they could see underneath as we went over the valley below. Definitely not for the height phobic! Anyway on the other side, we went for a walk to the lookout point. Rafi kept asking why theya re called 'blue' mountains if they are actually green, but once we got to the lookout, he understood as they really do have a blue hue in the distance. We spotted the '3 sisters' which are a set of 3 rocky outcrops and we saw a beautiful natural spring waterfall which is apparently higher than Niagara Falls.

We caught the cable car back across again after our walk and then went to the revolving restaurant on the top by the cable car station. It was an all you can eat buffet and Mitch did us all proud, going back at least 4 or 5 times for the penne with broad beans and tomato.Who would have guessed that would appeal? (Bet they regretted saying that they don't charge for two year olds now - they may change their policy after today ;)) Mind you, he has had a bit of a cold, so has been off his food for the last few days. We reckon he was doing his best to make up for it. After sitting there for a long long time, Craig and Rafi left to go look around and Mitch and I sat there until long after the restaurant was empty. The staff kept giving me funny looks, but I was just happy to see Mitch eating! Eventually once he was so full he could hardly move, we left and headed back to Sydney. It is such a pretty drive back but only I got to appreciate it as everyone else in the car fell asleep within 5 minutes of setting off.

Manly

2009-05-26T13:27:00.002+02:00

On Sunday, the family set off for Manly. We caught a train to Circular Quay and then caught the ferry across the harbour. The weather was beautiful. There was little wind and it was sunny without being too hot. Manly is the Brighton of Sydney. It has the small town appeal of Amamzintoti in KZN but with lots more tourist shops and takeaways. The great thing about the take away places though is that although there are the typical Hungry Jacks and Macdonalds, there are lots of other quaint little delis selling pastas, fish and chips and shwarmas. An Australian friend told me that when he was young the family would regularly go to Manly for a weekend away.

The ferry was quite crowded on the way over so we sat inside. This turned out to be fortuitous as the sea suddenly turned quite violent and the spray hit all the people on the deck. A few minutes later, all was calm again as we entered the sheltered port at Manly. We disembarked from the ferry and made our way outside where we met some friends. We had bought the kids’ scooters with so they rode them down to the beachfront. We stopped on the way to pick up food and had a picnic by the beach while the kids rode round and round the sidewalk.

The beach at Manly is clean and colourful. The view is stunning and is very different from the harbour views that we are used to on the other side. Manly faces the sea and there is something very soothing about seeing the horizon and absolutely nothing in the distance. Manly is geared for tourists with shops selling curios such as clip on koalas and kangaroo caps all at ‘bargain’ prices. There are beautiful, modern apartment blocks around the harbour side with lots of little vessels bobbing up and down on the water.

After lunch we took the kids to the large play area in the middle of the pedestrian area and they had fun climbing all over the jungle gym. We caught the ferry back and the kids were exhausted but it was a great day.

Mother's Day

2009-05-08T02:45:00.004+02:00

Today we had Mother's Day at Rafi and Mitch's school. It was great but a bit chaotic. The party was at 9:30 and the school had organised a travelling zoo. All the kids lined up by the window wathcing the animals arrive. There were cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, alpaca, goats, geese, rabbits and guinea pigs. There was also a pony for the kids to ride.

Rafi was the first one on the pony but he was a bit disappointed that the ride was so short. He really misses his horse riding lessons. Mitch loved the animals. He tried to bottle feed a pig and he touched all the animals. He even tried to bottle feed a baby chicken - that didn't work too well.

The school organised a chocolate fountain for the moms with marshmallows and fruit to dip. There were all types of other snacks as well and lots of juice and iced tea. (No hot drinks allowed on premises).

We got to sneak a peek at the kids portfolios which are kept up to date through out the year and it was fantastic to see what they have been up to. The boys each gave me a beautiful card that they had made. Rafi's was in the shape of a handbag and Mitch's was a watering can.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

3 Months in Australia.

2009-05-06T08:06:00.003+02:00

Today Craig got his driver's licence. He left it right until the last minute (three months is the cut off) but he passed first time, so now we are both licenced drivers. The best thing about it is that we have some form of Australian ID and we don't have to carry our passports everywhere we go.

Today is also my birthday so I took my boys out for a pancake and icecream breakfast at Westfield. They also had huge chocolate milkshakes and were literally head to toe in chocolate by the time we left. It was fun though. In the afternoon we went to the park with my brother and sister-in-law. Mitch was so cute taking their dog, Toffee, for a walk. (actually I think that Toffee was taking Mitch for the walk). They had chocolate ice cream and left covered in even more chocolate. YUM, what it is to be a kid.

School is going well. At first I found it strange leaving the children for such long hours but they adapted so well, it would be hard to go back to a short day. Mitch in particular loves school. He cries when I come to fetch him. They do baby yoga in his class so he does these funny upside down stretches all the time. Rafi's class learns Greek from time to time. The teacher reads them familiar stories like, "The hungry caterpillar" in Greek and they love it. Rafi keeps saying "Hello- Tissu" and "Easter biscuits - koulourakia"in Greek .

Craig had to go to Perth for a while on business. It was interesting for him as we haven't seen any other parts of Australia yet. He said that it was very flat and seemed a lot smaller than Sydney. The people were very friendly and the landscape was green. He was exhausted by the flight from Sydney to Perth though , because the time difference was just the wrong length. It was about 6 hours the one way and five the other but there is a 2 hour difference between cities. He said that he felt more jetlagged from the Perth flight than the SA to Aus flight.

The weather is definitely changing now. The air is getting cooler and we have pulled out our winter jammies. I am dressing the boys in layers because it seems to fluctuate all the time. Cold in the mornings, warm in the afternoon and then cold again in the evening. It is not too cold though, very similar to Cape Town in fact. It will be interesting to see what winter brings. Craig bought me a nice warm jumper for my birthday this morning.

Our household is a bit sad at the moment. The Xbox has broken and Craig has had to send away for a replacement. It got the dreaded red ring of death. Rafi is very upset as he misses his, "Indiana Jones Lego" game. Luckily Microsoft know about the error so they should replace it soon.

Last week we had to get the new rego for the car. (Registration - for non Australians). Anyway in order to get the rego you need a pink slip and a green slip. The green slip is third party insurance and the pink slip is a car inspection. We had the green slip already but I had to go get the pink slip. He he. So off I went to this one shopping mall where there is a mechanic in the parking lot who does the pink slips. Everything is done online, so as soon as it is done, you can renew the rego without having to go into the traffic department. Anyway I drop the car off and the very nice mechanic tells me that if I spend more than $50 at K-mart, then I get $25 off the inspection. Excellent, I think, the boys need some winter tracksuits anyway. K-mart is one of those huge discount shops that stock everything from electronics, homewares, books to clothes and toys. Convinced that I will just spend the $50 and leave, I start making my way up and down the aisles. The boys are at school and I have half an hour before I need to collect the car. I started off slowly - a few new baking tins, a set of measuring spoons, some puzzles for the boys. Then I realised that I was well short of the $50 so I added a shirt for myself. Then I realised that I had forgotten the tracksuits so I added two pairs for each boy and a chocolate for fortification. By the time I left, lets just say, the pink slip cost me about triple what it was supposed to, which I suppose is the whole idea in the first place. :)
The actual renewal process is short and sweet. Craig went in to get it, although the online system is really straight forward. (He wanted the new sticker on in time for his driving test.)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies!

That's MY ...

2009-04-17T08:57:00.003+02:00

Marmite!! Hooray, they sell it here, the REAL thing - the one made in Cape Town! Black, salty, vitamin B enriched, yeast extract! The kids and I can't get enough of it. Today I found it at Franklins (Pick n Pay) and we have been going wild. Imagine a desert wanderer in the blazing sun finding a well filled with ice cold spring water. We are almost halfway through the bottle. I don't know if there will be any left when Craig comes home from work. Mitch has eaten two sandwiches, Rafi has had at least three and me, well , that's a different story altogether :)
Don't get me wrong, I am sure vegemite is very nice but I first fell in love with marmite when I was a toddler and I will always remain true to my first love! When I went to spend a year overseas, I made sure that two bottles were firmly placed in my suitcase. With all the rules here governing what can and can't be bought into Australia, I didn't dare bring any with me. Craig found a New Zealand version, also purporting to be Marmite but with a RED lid. He said it tasted okay but I couldn't even bring myself to taste it because the smell was not as pungent as the odour that I love.
Rafi is made of about 90% marmite. Its all I ate for the nine months of pregnancy. It was the first spread both boys had on toast and Rafi had it every single day of his school career back in SA. In fact the teachers never even bothered to offer him everything else. Today he was so excited he started jumping up and down, chanting marmite, marmite, marmite.

This might seem a bit of an inane post, but to the Doobies, marmite is a part of our family.

Welcome back into our lives, marmite, we are so happy to see you again.

Gotta go, toaster has just popped!

Long Weekend

2009-04-15T09:05:00.002+02:00

The Easter weekend has passed and it was so lovely to have some nice family quality time. On Saturday we decided to go to the Sydney Royal Easter Show which was something quite unlike anything I have seen before. First off the size of it is beyond anything I could scale in my head. It made harrods in London look like a Woollies. We were there for over four hours and probably only saw a quarter of everything that was happening. The Show is in the Olympic Arena and it spans several sports fields and stadia. Some of the things we saw were dog racing, ute jumping, sheep shearing, bananas in pajamas, a dinosaur petting zoo, drag cars, Postman Pat, live fishing demonstration over a huge tank, a real Thomas the Tank engine and friends etc, etc, etc. We all had so much fun, but it is pretty pricey so will have to wait until next year before we venture out that way again.
On Sunday we went to my brother for a bbq and it was great. He is a very good meat cooker - yum! (B- I hope you are reading this). We had a great time and Rafi went in the kayak again. The boys wanted to spend the whole afternoon in the pool, but eventually all good things must come to an end.
Yesterday Craig got his learner's licence and he has booked for his driver's in a few weeks time.

Truth is stranger than fiction!!!

2009-04-03T04:21:00.002+02:00

At the crack of dawn the doobie family were up, fed and dressed. The boys had brushed their teeth, combed their hair and were ready for school. Craig and I put them in the car and dropped them off at school at 7:30am. Then we rushed off to Ebley street for my driving test. The traffic wasn't too bad so we arrived at 7:45 and I sat in the car for a bit going over all the rules and regulations for the road. My test was booked for 8:30 so just before 8, I started the car one last time to give the windscreen one last spritz and guess what - yip - the car wouldn't start.
The battery was as dead as a dodo and I had a major freak out. Craig ran across the road where there happened to be a supercheap auto and bought a new battery and jumper leads. He dashed back and we hooked up the engine and started the car. The time was now 8:15. I left Craig in the car with the engine running and went in to register for the test.
This dragon lady behind the counter called my name and we walked to the car to start the test. On the way I smsed Craig to get out the car and switch it off. So into the car I hopped and turned the key. Thank goodness it worked! She asked me to use the indicators and brakes to check the lights were working and can you believe the brake light above the boot, the one near the top of the car stopped working. Unbelievable, it had definitely been working before because Craig and I had tested all the lights, tyres etc the day before. The lady said that I would not be able to do the test until the light was fixed but because it was something that happened suddenly they wouldn't charge me to rebook the test and I could possibly do it later that day. She fitted me in for ten o'clock and told me to come back when it was working.

Craig and I drove to a nearby mechanic and he replaced the light for us. Then he loaned us (can you imagine this in SA?) his spanners and pliers and in his garage, Craig put the new battery in the car. It was quite funny because today is Friday which is casual day at Craig's work so he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. There he was under the hood in this mechanic shop with all the real mechanics working on other cars all around and customers were coming into the shop and asking Craig if he could book their cars in for them :) He got really funny looks when he told them that he didn't actually work there.

Anyway about half an hour later, with a new battery and brake light we headed back to Ebley street for the test. A really nice instructor said that he was going to do the assessment which was so much better because he was so much more friendly than the first lady. I felt more confident immediately. We went for the drive and it seemed to take forever but it was really about 45 minutes. We drove all around Randwick through these tiny narrow roads and more than one person hooted at me because I was double checking the blind spots so many times that I took forever to pull off from each intersection. Don't scoff at this, apparently that is exactly what you are supposed to do because I got full marks for observations.

I did a parallel parking and a kerb side stop which is just pulling up at a kerb. No three point turns, no hill start and no alley docking. I passed with only two marks deducted. One for not being totally parallel to the pavement at the end of the parallel parking (my front was a bit turned out) and one for going a bit too slowly in a 60 zone. Actually 60 zones are so rare here, 50kph is the norm, that I still don't even know where he meant.

We finished the test and he kept quite a poker face as we went back inside. He started showing me the building that had had the fire in it last week, so I didn't know what to think. We got inside and he told me to have a seat. Eventually he called me to the counter and told me that I had passed. I was so elated! I am never going to have to do that horrible test again!

They took my photo and I got my licence disk a few minutes later. The car is 100% fine now especially with its new innards.

Blue Sea, Blue Sky, Blue Bottles!!!

2009-03-28T09:10:00.004+02:00

Yesterday after I dropped the kids off at school I met a driving instructor for a once off lesson before my test. All was going well. There are tons of bizarre rules here but also things that they don't seem to find very important at all. In fact while they have an absolute panic if one of your tyres go into the bicycle lane, he said that he found my use of a hand brake when parked on a steep hill eccentric and old-fashioned. There is no law in Australia against rolling unless you do it for more than 7 metres!! Anyway we drove along the route and besides me feel like one of those little nodding dogs that they put in rear car windows for checking my rear view mirror and blind spots ever thirty seconds, it went pretty well until...
We did something called a forward park which basically is just pulling into a parking bay forward and I switched off the car. Then when I tried to start the motor again it just coughed at me. The driving instructor tried to act like he knew about car and peered under the hood for quite a while. Eventually after we had both stared at the engine for about ten minutes, I started the car again and thank goodness it worked. We finished the lesson but I was quite worried about the battery and wanted it fixed ASAP.
After a very nice Friday afternoon and evening spent with family, we decided to set off early in the morning to get the car sorted out. Luckily there is a very nice mechanic within walking distance of our flat so we went there and he tested the car but said that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the battery but perhaps I wasn't using the car enough. He suggested we take a long scenic drive to recharge it properly.
But first we needed some fortification and haircuts! So we went to Max Brenner at Bondi Junction for hot chocolate and then to a very child friendly hair salon where the kids sat in little cars to have their hair cut. Rafi sat like an angel but Mitch screamed blue murder. Consequently Rafi's hair is a lot shorter and neater than his brothers but they both look very cute.
Just a note on Max Brenner : Max Brenner is a chocolate restaurant where all the items on the menu are drizzled, smothered or made of the most delicious molten chocolate - milk, dark, white, orange, Italian and low fat (yeah right). Inside the restaurant are enormous vats of liquid chocolate being churned and kept warm and piped overhead to dispensers at the counter. Some of the items on the menu are chocolate waffles, double chocolate fudge brownies, chocolate pizza, chocolate creme caramel and many others. Craig and I wondered what the Brenner family must look like - I know what I would look like if I worked there ;)
Anyway back to the long drive: After studying the map we decided to go the Royal National Park of Sydney which is about 50kms away in the very south of Sydney. We drove out there stopping on the way at a McDonalds with a divine play centre for the kids and to pick up drinks for the trip. Well we drove for what seemed like hours but Mitch slept most of the way and Rafi sang songs and eventually we got to the National Park. No one had prepared us for the scale of the park. It is humongous and absolutely magnificent. There are trees and dams and rivers and beaches and weird birds with red beaks and long legs and apparently wallaby and echidnae (but the last two we didn't see). We walked around a bit and it was just magnificent. The more we drove the more we realised just how vast the park is and how huge Sydney itself is. Eventually after driving through the park as well we came to a beach called Garies Beach. This little wonder of nature is obviously a surfer's delight as there were tons of surfers in the water and a life saving training camp as well. The kids went wild in the water and digging in the sand. They all had a great time until Mitch started screaming his lungs out. We ran to see what the matter was and Craig found a blue bottle attached to his foot! OUCH! We washed it off as best we can and ran off the beach. Now remember that at this point we are about 20km from the nearest shops and if you have ever been unfortunate enough to have been stung by a blue bottle, you would know that its pretty darn painful. As we made our way to the parking lot with a howling Mitch, Craig saw a first aid centre. The people inside were so kind and sprayed Mitch with stingos which did a lot to alleviate the pain but his foot was still very swollen. Apparently blue bottles are very prevalent in that part of the sea. Poor Mitch, not a great end to an otherwise lovely day but I'm happy to report that the swelling is down now and after watching a few episodes of Thomas the tank engine, he is feeling a lot better.

First day at school and my learners!!!!

2009-03-20T05:39:00.003+02:00

What an exciting day. We all got up early and hurriedly got the boys dressed because Craig wanted to come with to see them off on the first day and check out the school for himself. Anyway we got them ready with their huge backpacks filled with alternate clothes and legionaire style caps (a requisite here because of the sun) and then we took them off to school.

Well we were well prepared for crying and drama as one would expect on the first day but it was very anti climatic. When we got there the headmistress greeted us at the door and knew the boys' names which I thought was an impressive start. She took them off to the communal classroom where they start the day. Mitch went straight for the lego and Rafi took up a miniature drum kit and started playing. Craig and I said a tentative goodbye, expecting some type of reaction but both boys just said "bye" and Mitch blew us a kiss. So seeing that we weren't needed, we left. I dropped Craig off at the train station and then I went off to the RTA to do my learner's licence or DKT (drivers knowledge test) as it is known here. Allow me a minute or two to blow my own trumpet as I can tell you that I never got a single answer wrong! Yip 100% !!

Now I just have to do the driver's. After the test I phoned a few driving schools and I am meeting a driving teacher next week Friday to go over the route just to make sure that there aren't any hidden surprises along the way.

The rest of the morning I spent not quite knowing what to do with myself. After all I haven't had time like that to myself in four and a half years. It was great, but I did phone the school once to find out how my boys were doing.

At two o'clock I went off to fetch them and I was amazed. Mitch was fast asleep along with all the others in his class (the 2-3 age group) and Rafi was busy doing a cutting activity with the other kids. The teachers greeted me and showed me photos of the boys during the day. They take photos of the kids throughout the day so that moms can see what their kids have been up to. Such a brilliant concept! They also showed me a chart for Mitch with all the information about his day - how many nappy changes (they supply the nappies!), what he ate (beef strogonoff, carrots, cucumber, rice, apple and a peach), how long he slept(1 and a hlaf hours), which activities he took part in etc. The boys were excited to see me but both seemed sad to leave. Mitch blew kisses to the teachers (he has 3 in his class of 16 children) and Rafi said he couldn't wait until Tuesday when they go back again. And knowing they are in such excellent and capable hands, nor can I :)

Living the dream

2009-03-19T04:18:00.003+02:00

I have had such a lovely week so far, I feel like I am living in a perpetual holiday. The boys and I have just been having such fun going to the parks, playgrounds and beaches in the area. We get in the car and tell the GPS to navigate us to a nearby playground or park and see where it leads us. Yesterday I met a lovely lady ( a friend of my sister-in-law's) with a son the same age as Rafi and they really got along well. They played as pirates on the huge boat shaped jungle gym at Lyne park in Rose bay. They will be in the same school next year and I think it will be great for Rafi to walk into the school knowing at least one familiar face.
This week we also went to the beach. Mitch ran head first into the sea and discovered that he didn't like the taste of salt water ;) but after initial reticence he couldn't resist the pull of the sea and we all played in the water and on the sand. Rafi also had a lot of fun but got a bit of scare when he wandered in a bit out of his depth. He obviously got over it quite quickly though because I struggled to get him out of my brother's swimming pool later on in the day.
This morning we had no electricity as they are doing upgrades and rewiring which was unfortunate as Rafi had his heart set on making pancakes for breakfast but I am sure we will get a chance on the weekend. We made pretend pancakes instead out of playdough and that made things all better.
Tomorrow is the boys' first day of school and Rafi is very excited. He says that he is going to look after Mitch so that he doesn't get lonely. They are both so sweet together. Rafi has been putting Mitch to sleep for the last couple of days in the afternoon as Mitch refuses to go lie down with me. I'm not complaining because it ensures that Rafi gets a bit of a lie down too.
Watch for the next post to see how their first day went...

A Wriggly, Wiggly Weekend

2009-03-14T07:49:00.001+02:00

Last night was a bit freaky. The boys had gone to bed and Craig and I were watching Law and Order which for some reason had two episodes in a row. Anyway we were sitting on the couch and the window was ajar when a hairy spider of tremendous proportions (at least 10cm from limb tip to limb tip) scuttled through the window and on to the ceiling. We dashed to the computer to see what the intruder was and whether he posed a threat. After searching he who knows all, Google, we established that this was a huntsman spider and although large, not poisonous but can still give very painful bites. Having found a very comfortable spot on our cornice, the spider waggled its crab like front legs at us and seemed to settle down for the night. Well I was having none of that. Poisonous or not, I don’t want to have any large, hairy interlopers in the flat. Armed with a broom and a shoe Craig did a funny dance under the spider waving his arms in the air and vigorously making sweeping noises on the ceiling in the hopes that our friend would decide to go back out the window. The huntsman waggled its legs in appreciation and settled further back into the corner to watch the show my DH was putting on for him. Craig started pounding the ceiling with the other end of the broom, no doubt infuriating the neighbours and providing a rhythmic beat to go with the one hand on shoe dance, but the spider merely scurried a little higher up the wall probably to get a better view of the jig going on below. After about fifteen minutes, Craig came back to the couch to think up other options. Well we sat and sat looking and hoping that somehow he would decide that there wasn’t anything worth staying for but he looked even more settled. Finally gatvol and sleepy Craig lifted the broom and wacked the hirsute intruder firmly on the head. Then he hit him again and again until there were legs and innards all over the wall. Finally convinced that he would not bother us any more, we threw him out the window and shut it firmly. There will be no more fresh air in the Doobie household at night any more.

This morning I managed to get in touch with a friend from primary school who I haven’t seen since I was all of ten years old. We decided to meet at the Wiggle playland which is in Seven Hills in the very west of Sydney. She and her family live around the corner from it but it took us about an hour to get there. Anyway the kids had a ball. It isn’t a very big indoor centre but they have all the necessary stuff like ball ponds and climbing frames. Everything is themed to the Wiggles but for all that it could have been any theme as it was pretty ordinary except for the large amount of Wiggle paraphernalia for sale from bouncing Murrays to Dorothy backpacks. We spent quite a few hours there and as her daughters are the same age more or less as our boys, it was a very nice day. The kids are absolutely exhausted now and are definitely going to be in bed ASAP.

Our Stuff has arrived!

2009-03-11T00:12:00.001+02:00

Yesterday all our boxes arrived and the boys and I had great fun unpacking and rediscovering all our stuff. They had a fantastic time playing with all their old toys especially Mitch’s ducks and Rafi’s K’nex. I would highly recommend seven seas to anyone considering moving just a few bits and bobs as they were very punctual and very reasonable too.

Almost everything arrived in one piece except our dinner service which is now very depleted. We shall have to do a lot of replacing of plates and bowls :( but surprisingly all the glass ware and platters were fine. Our carpet is in place but its a little bit smelly from the moth balls but the boys immediately took up their old game of running around the outer oval as soon as it was on the floor.

Craig’s first two days at work have gone well. He likes the other staff and the work sounds interesting. His only gripe is that the coffee in the office is instant so he has to go out to get a decent cuppa ;) He is enjoying the walk to and from work in the mornings and evenings and he spends the time on the train listening to music. It takes him about 45 minutes to get to and from work including the walks on either side so that isn’t too bad.

I still have not been able to find a suitable place for the boys to go to during the days so it seems they will be with me for quite a bit longer. The places we have investigated have either been full, the hours too long, too expensive or they can only take one child. I don’t want to have to go from place to place so am not sure as yet what to do, but we have been filling our days with long walks and playing in the parks so it isn’t that urgent.

A funny thing happened on this subject though. Yesterday when we collected the post there was a piece of paper with large black writing on it urging residents of our road to come to a protest about a new child care centre opening about five houses away. It had a phone number to get in touch with the protester’s group. Craig and I looked at each other and said “Should we phone them to find out how to enrol the kids?”

Technorati Tags: boxes arrived,seven seas

IKEA !!!

2009-03-08T10:50:00.001+02:00

After a quiet Saturday the highlights of which was the arrival of our huge TV which takes up most of our lounge making our flat look rather like a movie theatre and Rafi seeing a famous children’s TV actor at his cousin’s basketball game, we planned to do something a bit different on Sunday.

We met some very good friends for lunch at Nielsen park which is a large park and fenced off beach in the Vaucluse area. We all bought our picnic goodies with and the kids had a ball with a ball and just running like lunatics all over the grass. Someone was getting married in the park as well and I have an inkling that a very cute but muddy little blonde boy may appear in one or two of her retinue photos ;) Craig had some of my friend’s sushi with teriyaki beef inside for lunch but he wasn’t enamoured with it and reckoned that it was best to stick with the original raw fish stuff.

After the park we decided to go have a look at the famous Bunnings which is a hardware store but we didn’t really buy anything except some plug in mosquito repellents for the kids room as Rafi has been bitten all over his legs. I am sure you will recall that he is very reactive to mosquito bites and his poor legs are very swollen and sore.

Anyway after Bunnings we though that it would be a waste to just go straight home so we decided to go see the furniture shop IKEA which everyone talks about. IKEA is in the west of Sydney and a huge trek. We crossed over the Anzac bridge which is mighty impressive and drove through west Sydney suburbia. Thank goodness for Samantha, the voice behind our Tom Tom or we would never have found it but my goodness, when we did find it, we were dumbfounded by it’s size! We found a brilliant parking right by the lifts and no sooner had we stepped out the car when a little Russian lady accosted us and gesticulated frantically. She had lost her car somewhere within the centre and was pleading us to help her. Once we explained that this was in fact our first foray into IKEA she ran off to find someone else. I am very happy this incident happened because the parking lot is so huge that we took extra notice of where we had parked and thank goodness as there are about six floors of parking. The first impression of IKEA is chaos. Hundreds of people milling around in different directions, almost all with children in tow thanks to the large play area in the front of the store and the kid friendly restaurant inside. As you walk in you get given a catalogue, a map of the shop, a tape measure and a pencil and chart to mark down what you like. Then you start walking from department to department, from home ware, to lounge, to kitchen, to bedding, to children, etc etc etc. If you see something you like which I think just about anybody would, you mark down the product and the aisle on the piece of paper. Finally you make your way to the end and there strategically placed is the IKEA restaurant which makes any child jump up and down with a specially designed play area and kid friendly table and chairs. Truth be told it was a very cheap delay because the kids had fried fish, chips and peas for $2.50 each which by any standards is exceptionally reasonable. Anyway after their lunch/supper/tea whatever, we went into the final part of the shop. This we found the most unfathomable system ever. We had to look at the product codes we had written down, find the corresponding aisle and then walk along it until we found the correct number. It sounds simple until you realise that this part of the store is as big as a car storage warehouse and according to Murphy’s Law everything we had looked at was miles away from everything else. Funny enough, two of the three things we had liked were out of stock so we just bought a little table for the kitchen and a step for the boys to reach the taps in the bathroom. It was pretty exhausting the whole process and I don’t think we will rush back in a hurry but I definitely see the appeal as the prices are very reasonable and the choices are huge. We went into the rest of the centre to have a look around and found a very nice little jungle gym play area for the kids, so Craig went shopping for some or other computer doohickey and the kids clambered all over the slides and bars. After they eventually had worn themselves out completely we came home. It started pouring with rain and so we were soaked bringing everything in from the car, but we refreshed the kids with a nice warm bath and hot chocolate. Now I have finished writing and I am going to go watch CSI and CSI Miami on the monolith which is our TV.

A fun day

2009-03-05T10:48:00.004+02:00

Yahoo, today the ADSL was installed and so I can write a bit more consistently and more importantly catch up with family and friends on skype.
This morning we went to the Australian museum. Wow it is so huge and the kids loved seeing the dinosaurs and all the mammals. Their dinosaur display is their primary exhibit at the moment and it is fantastic with huge displays with real bones. Full T-rex, stegosaurus, brontesaurus, diplodocus etc. Some of them were probably about two storeys high! I found the photography section very interesting - there are some very talented people out there and even the kid's photography was far better than any of our happy snaps. They have a section on skeletons too which is amazing, basically they recreate all these scenes of every day life except without the flesh. So there is a skeleton of a man sitting in an armchair reading a book and next to him is a skeleton of a dog on a lead. Behind them is the skeleton of a cat chasing the skeleton of a mouse and in a cage overhead is the skeleton of a parrot. Very creepy but amazing attention to detail. In a little plaque underneath it said " This month the human skeleton is reading the big book of sealife" I wonder if they really do change the book monthly?
The kids had lunch at the museum and their chicken nuggets came in the shape of dinosaurs which delighted them as I am sure you can imagine.

Woo Hoo!

2009-03-04T07:23:00.003+02:00

What a great week it has been! Craig got offered a fantastic job on Monday quite unlike anything he has done before and sounds very interesting. As an interesting point, despite having gone for what felt like hundreds of interviews with recruitment agents, this particular job was sourced by an agent who never met Craig in person, just read his CV. Furthermore we found that a lot of the agents were actually sharks, they were very friendly and seemed helpful but when push came to shove, some of them never actually submitted his CV and in two cases, the agents left the company (fired/retrenched?) before putting Craig forward as a candidate. In reality Craig only had three interviews with actual companies and got down to final rounds in two of them. My point is that as a newcomer to Australia, it is worthwhile to send out your CV to numerous companies directly and to multiple agents for the same position as at the end of the day the agents are for the most part just out to help themselves to the biggest piece of pie, so if someone that they think will earn more comes along they will put that person's CV forward first. Also one of the most important tips is that as soon as the job gets posted on SEEK, one should apply and then follow up with a phone call the next day. That forces the agent to put your CV on the top of the pile otherwise it will get put to one side. One agent told Craig that he gets about 50-60 applicants per job and he just takes out 2 or 3 that he likes the look of or that phone him to find out more.

Anwyay feeling rather better about our financial status we went and bought the remainder of the stuff for our apartment (it doesn't look so sparse now). We got a microwave, coffee machine, wall unit, Craig's dream TV and a vacuum cleaner. Rafi had his session at the library and he really enjoyed it. He is such an independent little soul and so Mitch and I played in the park outside while he did the lesson. They learnt all about pirates and they cut out and decorated a parrot for their shoulders.
In other news we got our private healthcare which will cover us for things like dentists and optometry (excluded on medicare). It was so easy, I just phoned a number and told the lady what we wanted and she helped us out straight away. The cover is immediate too which is amazing.
Craig starts work on Monday so we just have a few days left to enjoy Sydney as a family and do some tourist things. We haven't done that much until now because of the stress of being unemployed but now we are all feeling so much more relaxed. I will let you know all the fun things we do this week...

Our Third weekend in Sydney

2009-03-01T09:57:00.001+02:00

We had such a lovely weekend. We spent Friday night at my brother and then on Saturday morning we took the kids and their bikes down to the park up the road for them to rids around a bit. There was a large empty patch of grass and we ran races and played with a ball. Afterwards we went home for Mitch's afternoon nap. When he woke up, we got in our little yello Ca'h and drove down to Maroubra beach where they have a huge outdoor play area for kids and lots of parking (a major wow factor after the tightly packed Eastern suburbs.) Anyway the kids had a ball and we stopped at Pizza hut on the way a home. I am not such a huge pizza hut fan so am not sure if we will do that again. (too doughy, not enough topping)
On Sunday morning we woke up early and headed to Watson's Bay tea garden with some old friends from SA. It had such a nice little play area for the kids and we had some delicious scones and tea. Afterwards we came home for Mitch's obligatory afternoon nap and Rafi played lego.
Later we all went for a walk around the area. There are some beautiful birds and trees to see, but oh my word, the spiders are another story altogether.
We saw some Golden Orb weaver spiders which were larger than the palm of my hand! They had the most elaborate webs (hence the name) and were strung from tree to tree. We had to keep ducking our heads. Orb Weavers are not poisonous but they have been known to eat small birds and lizards so we did our best to avoid them.
After our walk we came home and Craig is treating me by doing the cooking tonight. Guess who has to do the washing up! Anyway, whole lot more interviews lined up for tomorrow and Tuesday so keep holding thumbs.

Public School

2009-02-26T23:04:00.002+02:00

And this is in a nutshell is what I love about Australia! Enrolling your kids in public school is just so easy, you download the forms from the internet, take them to the zoned school along with your passport and immunisation record and the child is given automatic acceptance. The fees are around A$300 for the year (less than 1 term in Private schools in SA) and they get a fantastic education (this is one of the top performing schools in Sydney) which incorporates a choice of second language (at this school - Russian, Italian or Hebrew).Did I mention the first time school goer grant? Apparently at the beginning of the year, the government send you some cash to buy your kid's uniforms and stationary. What a wonderful world!

Today Craig has another round of interviews. It feels a bit like being in a reality TV show and people around are getting eliminated and you have to stick it out to win the final prize only in this case its a job, not a million dollars. Still at least there has been continual interviews and there is interest, so I am sure it is just a matter of time.

The other night we had our first barbie! We went to my friend Lisa's house and they slapped some burgers and beef sausage on the braai. She also did kanga bangers (yes - the big bouncy animals minced into a sausage) but neither Craig nor I were tempted to try them. I don't believe one should have to eat the national animal of a country to feel patriotic. I never had sprinbok either :)

Not much else news wise. Our ADSL line should be installed next week and our boxes are docking on the 3rd of march but they still have to clear customs. I think the kids will be very happy to have their stuff back not to mention how happy I will be to have all my kitchen cutlery and crockery. Craig will be happy to have the PC and his surround sound. I will be happy to have my carpet (yes I know it is an obsession)

Well I am going to go get ready to take Mitch to the program at the library. C ya

The good vs the bad - first impressions

2009-02-22T23:12:00.002+02:00

So after two weeks here I guess we can make a list of things that differ from SA in good ways and in bad.

First the bad:

shopping trolleys with multi-directional wheels.I can't quite understand the logic in this unless you prefer your trolley to go sideways into the produce while going down the narrow aisles. Put a child in the front and it feels like steering a dizzy clown on a unicycle!
parking -there is none! Or there might be if you can understand the fifty signs on the post - 2P, permit holders only, 8am-2pm Mon-Fri, 6pm-8pm Sat and Sun, rear facing only etc... and my favourite - liquor free zone untill the 22nd December 2009 - what happens on the 23rd?
Very few shopping centres with child friendly facilities or restaurants for that matter. Even McDonalds in the malls don't have places for kids to play.
self-assenbly furniture! Teeny pieces and pots of glue and nails. How nice it would be to just buy a bed and get a bed, not 28 wooden slats and some screws
the prices, the prices, the prices.
the heat in summer - or so I am told - it has rained nearly every day since we arrived!
annoying pedestrian crossing lights -when the traffic light changes then it sounds like you are being shot in a laser game.

Now the good:

a feeling of safety when walking in the road or taking the kids to the park. They definitely feel it too and Rafi asks to walk everywhere just for the novelty value.
amazing public transport. The system just works so well. If the train is coming at 8:02 then that is the time it will arrive. What could be more scenic than going to work on a ferry?
friendly, friendly people. Several times when we have looked a bit lost, people have come over to help us out - we didn't even have to ask. No one is scared or intimidated to approach anyone else.
Woolworths home brand tea is surprisingly good.
3 ply toilet paper is the norm even in public loos! All I can say is that you can feel the difference ;)
So many parks and they almost all have jungle gyms and play equipment built to the best specifications. They are so safe and well maintained.
Excellent recycling facilities. It just feels so right to know that your cardboard stuff isn't going to a land fill somewhere.
Fast internet connectivity - this is Craig's choice - I don't really know but apparently it is very fast and that is good.
Efficient government departments. Walk in, pick a number, have a seat and you get called. Simple as that. Medicare was that easy to sort out.

That is all I can come up with so far. Hopefully our fridge and washing amchine are arriving soon.

Our new Apartment

2009-02-22T10:42:00.002+02:00

So here we are in our new apartment. It is small but absolutely perfect for the four of us. We managed to buy beds (Rafi got his bunk bed) and we got a neat little lounge suite. We found out that in Australia, furniture ships in little pieces and you have to assemble it all yourself. What fun! It took most of the day yesterday but we got all the bits and bobs together without losing any screws and the drawers fit into the shelves. It amazed us how totally disassembled the stuff is. Any less assembled would have been like giving us an axe and pointing us at the tree!
Anyway this morning we went and ordered a fridge and a washing machine. They should hopefully arrive tomorrow morning.
Not much more to say as I have to go get a little Mitchy out the bath.

Craig's Birthday

2009-02-19T00:47:00.002+02:00

Happy birthday My sweet husband. (he has gone off for another interview this morning)

Yesterday we had our first fun tourist day. We went off to wildlife world and the Sydney aquarium. We saw dugongs, crocodiles, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, kookaburras, koala bears, duckbilled platypus (much smaller than I expected), humungous spiders (bigger than my hand), quolls, and many other indigenous creatures we hadnt even heard of. It was very interesting. Afterwards we did a brief walk through China Town which was great but very geared for tourists and not as cheap as one would think.

It was a fun day and nice for Craig to have a break from the daily interviews. Today we are going to get the car registered into our name and look at getting some bedding. Will go to Kmart or Target for that stuff.

Tomorrow we will sign the lease for our flat so that will be perfect as our furniture is being delivered on Sat and we are going to Ben for supper.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

We have a car!!!

2009-02-17T22:47:00.002+02:00

Yesterday felt like the Great Trek! We took a taxi to Parramatta Road which is a huge road leading into the western suburbs and we walked and walked. We found a reasonable furniture shop and bought 2 couches, a bunk bed with mattress (Single at top, double at bottom) and a queen bed for Craig and I. Then we walked and walked and walked along parramatta road almost all the way to the other end to where the car dealerships are. We found out that there are really shady dealers here with cheap cars but ones that would be undriveable and expensive dealers which deal only in high end stuff. Eventually we stopped at Rick Damelian which is a Honda dealership. They had a cute little Hyundai Getz in bright yellow with very low mileage. Well as you can imagine, Rafi thought it was just the best thing he had ever seen (his favourite colour is yellow) and I have always liked my little Accent in South Africa so we decided to take it for a test drive. We bought the car and then we went and bought a TomTom so that we don't get lost, and two car seats for the kids. Craig drove very cautiously back to Ben's place where we had supper. Yum. Luckily the hotel has parking and today we just have to go to the RTA to get the car registered into our name.
Hopefully the weather improves today as the kids are dying to go to the zoo. Craig has another interview in the afternoon.

Hooray we have an apartment!!

2009-02-16T09:27:00.002+02:00

This morning was one of those absolutely manic days where lots seems to happen and time just flies. Craig had to do a second interview (online) for the company he applied to on Friday and then he had to race out to North Sydney to meet another recruitment agent. On the way out the door, someone else phoned him about two possible positions and he literally ended up sprinting for the train. On the way he caught his heel in a pavement and his shoe broke, so my poor husband had to go to an interview with one heeless shoe. Nevertheless it went well, and we should hear during the outcome during the week. On his way back to us, another agency phoned for him to come in and do another test, so he raced off again this time to the CBD. Eventually he got home around one. As he walked in the door, the phone rang again and this time it was the estate agent to say that we had been approved for the apartment we saw on Friday. We were very excited but had to bring her more supporting documents (rates bills, bank account details, reference letters etc). After all that excitement we went to go register at medicare. We sat in the queue for a longish time and eventually they called our number but it was very efficient and we should get our cards in about three weeks.
Then we went to Bing Lee to look at white appliances (fridge, microwave, washing machine etc) and Craig eyed out an absolutely ginormous TV. We didn't order anything though as we want to get into the flat first to measure the size of the spaces.
Now we are back at the motel waiting for Dominos to deliver some pizza (About A$10 for a large).
Over the weekend we spent a lot of time with my brother, raced around seeing apartments, went to Centennial Park with my friend Lisa and her husband, Nathan and just generally enjoyed being in Australia. We also got library cards and Rafi took out three books. They have great programmes for kids at the library so we will look into that as soon as we are settled in.

Rain, rain, go away...

2009-02-13T09:08:00.002+02:00

Today it rained from morning to night. We all took the train into the city in the morning and I went to visit Kelvin and Bradley while Craig had a job interview. Apparently the interview went very well and we should hear more on Monday. Anway, afterwards we all went to the Powerhouse museum to see the Star Wars exhibition. Rafi was scared witless by the storm troopers traipsing around carrying their large laser weapons and he nearly jumped out of his skin when Darth Vader came up behind him. Anyway I left Craig and the other three boys in the exhibition while Rafi and I went to look at everything else. What an awesome museum, Rafi loved all the interactive displays. We all met up in the museum cafetaria for lunch and the boys had a ball on this giant jungle gym which looked like a huge spiderweb strung over a rounded frame. We left the museum and murphy's law it started to rain! Not only that but in Sydney, the taxi drivers change shifts at three o'clock which meant that there wasn't one to be found. We waited at the bus stop in the pouring rain for about half an hour and there were no buses to be seen. Eventually a large taxi (maxi taxi) stopped and we all clambered in. In the meantime, the company Craig recruited for tried to phone, but my mobile went flat so now we have to wait for Monday to hear news. We were very glad to get back to the motel after such a soggy day. Tonight we are at my brother for supper! Hooray!

Sydney - A quiet day...

2009-02-12T13:38:00.002+02:00

This morning we caught a ferry into Circular Quay, the boys loved the ride especially Rafi's first glimpses of the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House. We met Craig's Aunt Jill and her sons, Kelvin and Bradley at their hotel room and the kids all played very nicely together. We went for lunch and had our first Australian pies. They were pretty average as pies go. We raced back to the Motel at one o'clock and my brother took me to see an apartment in Bellevue Hill but it was pretty awful so we passed on that one. Then i went to talk to some estate agents while Rafi and Benny went to play in the park. Craig had an interview at four o'clock which went well. Afterwards we took the subway to Bondi Junction and met my friend Lisa and her husband Nathan for supper. The kids had pizza (A$4 a slice) and we had Indian food which was actually pretty reasonable (A$6.90 for two curries, rice and a poppadum) Delicious!
We came back to the hotel and are all still up at 10:45pm(!) because the boys need to reset their clocks a bit - they have been waking every night at 4am- and I am waiting for the tumble drier to finish its cycle. (They have a laundry room in the basement)

First Impressions

2009-02-11T10:18:00.003+02:00

So here I am sitting in my motel room and finally we have access to the internet so i can catch you all up on what's been going on until now.
We left Durban staggering under the weight of all our bags. We got to the airport very early which was the best idea as it took very long to check in all the luggage and of course we wanted to spend a little bit of time with the grannies and grandpas. Just after we said goodbye and went through the security check, Mitch fell asleep which was fantastic. He slept all the way to Joburg which was great and Rafi was very well behaved, mostly just doing sticker books although he was a bit airsick as we came in for a landing (not unexpected though so we were well prepared with a change of clothes and the airbag.
We thanked our lucky stars in Joburg that we had checked our luggage all the way through to Sydney especially considering how far and convoluted it is to get from Domestic to International. We had four hours in Joburg International so we went for lunch and then we walked around the shops. Unfortunately there is absolutely no provision for children in the Duty free section so the kids were bored and restless. We boarded the Quantas flight at five o'clock. We were one of the first to board by virtue of the fact that they give people with small children priority so that was great. We had an excellent flight. The kids were very well behaved, they read books and did stickers and watched TV until after the supper came (beef stew and potato chips) and then they fell asleep shortly after. They both slept almost the entire night. Mitch woke up when they put the seatbelt signs up for landing and Rafi woke up about two hours before that when they brought around breakfast. As we left the plane, the steward gave the boys their activity packs (better late than never I suppose ?)
My brother had organised an enormous minivan to fetch us with two car seats installed. So we fit all the luggage and boys in very comfortably. We arrived at the motel and it is okay. Not the most luxurious but clean and there is enough room for all of us (4 beds) and it has what we need.
By the time we had arrived and unpacked the basics and got everyone clean it was already after six. Benny, my brother came to fetch us and took us to his beautiful home for supper. The kids played so beautifully with his daughters even though they hadn't even really met them before.
We had a turbulent night. Everyone slept fitfully, Mitch was up at 1, Rafs was up at four and I was up in between. Craig had quite a good sleep which was great because he had an interview this morning.
The interview went well but the position is a contract one and there are other interviews he still has to attend so we will have to see what happens.
After the interview, we caught a train to Bondi Junction which was so exciting for the boys. Mitch spent the whole ride saying "toot, toot" and amusing the other passengers. We got our mobile phones sorted out and took the kids for Mc Donalds.

When we got back to the motel, Craig spent some time sorting out stuff for the recruitment agents and Benny came to take me and the boys to a nearby park. They had such fun there and went up and down the slides and fireman's pole.

We came back to the motel and gave them a bath and I am happy to report that both boys are fast asleep - hopefully they will sleep through until the morning.

We are meeting Craig's aunt tomorrow with her sons. They are flying up from Melbourne and we are going to the Star Wars exhibition.

Leaving SA

2009-02-09T08:48:00.002+02:00

Today is the ninth of Feb and we are packed and ready to go! Ten items of luggage in all - seven for the hold and three for hand luggage. We have had a fantastic holiday in Durban until now spending time with family and just relaxing before we tackle what lies ahead.

So its off to the airport we go and this is the final post from SA. Catch you down under!!!!

October 2008

2008-10-27T14:33:00.003+02:00

What a whirlwind year! Wow I can't believe that it is nearly 2009/ 2008 will always be remembered as the year of the visa application. It consumes us -our every waking moment we are waiting for news. Our application went in on the 12th of February. In March we did our medicals and Police clearance and then we wait and wait and wait.
Meanwhile the other members of our family have been very busy. Mitchell learnt to walk and got quite a few teeth. He also learnt to say a few words but understands everything. he had his first haircut and discovered Barney and the Wiggles. Rafi started horse riding - we are not sure why he wanted to do this- but it turns out he is very good at it. He has a natural ability on the saddle or so his teacher tells me but knowing nothing about horses I can neither confirm nor deny this. He has also started writing and is at the very early reading stages. It is so exciting seeing all these things kick in.
Lisa my friend got engaged so in December I am whizzing off to Australia for the wedding. My dress is beautiful and thankfully doesn't need too much alteration. It will be the first time I have left my boys but the whole family will be in Cape Town so they shouldn't miss me too much!
I stopped working in June, it was just too dangerous to be travelling at night so am now being a full time mommy and loving it. I also launched a website called saaustraliatimeline.com which is a visa guide for people who have applied to make the move to Australia and are wondering how long it will take them.
Craig has resigned his job as of end of January 09 and we will be off to Durban to spend some QT with the family before we go for good.
Watch this space for news of our relocations

Be my valentine

2008-02-20T09:14:00.002+02:00

Valentine's day has come and gone and love is still in the air. Rafi has a new girlfriend named Leah who he talks about constantly. Guess I had better invite her over soon so that I can get to knw the parents ;) Both boys are swimming incredibly well. Mitchell is part fish and he is happiest deep under the water. Rafi is more part sea-turtle as he likes to swim lazily across the witer with his head sticking out. They both are loving it so much. Both boys are also doing kindermusik. Rafi does Mitch's class with him on a Thursday which is incredibly bonding for both of them and then he has his own class after school on a Friday. Rafi also does cricket now which is only really cricket in the loosest possible sense of the world and differs from any other ball game in that they carry bats. Basically the balls are put on little cones and then they all hit the balls, then they run and pick up the balls, put them back on the cones and repeat. Sounds simple except that the wind here is incredibly strong so half the time the kids are chasing both balls and caps and the rest of the time they are fighting over whose ball is whose and which bat they want to play with. It should be called 'cat-herding' rather than cricket, but they enjoy it.

Meanwhile Rafi has started teaching himself to read and write. Obviously frustrated because neither the play school teacher nor I were prepared to teach him, he has taken it upon himself to learn. He now writes his own name on just about everything he can find and he is sounding out the letters on just about every signpost we pass. I am busy having the dilemma of whether to teach him properly which will possibly lead to years of boredom in school while his classmates catch up or not teaching him which might make him incredibly frustrated now because his desire to learn is so strong. Suggestions welcome.

Mitchell turned one on the 6th of Feb. We had a big party for him at home with a jumping castle and an inflatable ball pond but unfortunately it rained so everyone had to cram into my lounge. Still I don't think the kids minded too much and there were those that shed their clothes and played in the ball pond as a giant paddling pool in the rain. Mitchell certainly didn't care as he was so happy eating his first junk food and getting so much attention. He is such a sweet natured little boy, he greets everyone with wide open arms and he smiles all the time. He is a very different child from his brother though. He loves to bang on things and firmly believes that every object is climbable. He started walking last month already and now wants to start running. He loves getting dirty and sticky. Last night was Craig's birthday and we went to Cattle Baron to celebrate. Craig ordered beef ribs and gave one to Mitchell to suck. Well it was bigger than his head but he smiled from ear to ear and it kept him busy for a good half an hour! Took me nearly as long to get bits of rib sauce out of his ears and hair.

Other big news for Feb is that our papers for Australia are now officially in. We are off to do our medicals and police clearance next month and hopefully that will mean that in December we can leave South Africa for good. I think it will be a good time before the boys start 'big' school.
Hope everyone received lots of flowers and choccies on Valentine's day! See you in March...

In routine again

2008-01-24T08:43:00.000+02:00

We had a wonderful holiday in the Drakensburg and in Durban in December. We played lots of squash and swam and Rafi and Mitch just had a ball with their big cousins. Rafi also rode on a pony, touched a snake, went on a big red tractor and gave a baby cow its milk. Mitchell played on the grass. Back in Durban we were far more relaxed. Rafi played adventure golf with his other cousins and we all went to the beach to build sand castles.

Now we are back in Cape Town and have quickly settled back into routine. Rafi is going to ‘big’ school (Group 1) and he is enjoying the more structured school day. He is still going to swimming lessons but we plan on doing more extramurals next term. Mitchell is also going to ‘swimming’ although it is really more water play and he is still going to Kindermusik. Mitchell’s birthday is just around the corner and he is walking so beautifully already! He has just got his first tooth which was fine with no sleepless nights or too much moaning. We are having a party at home with a jumping castle and a ball pond (lets just hope we have electricity that day!).

You get what you wish for...

2007-12-28T17:56:00.000+02:00

Last time I was complaining about the lack of heat. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut because since the beginning of December it has been sweltering! We have had a very busy holiday so far. We have been to see several shows - The Elves and the Shoemaker, Rumpelstilskin and Winnie the Pooh. Rumpelstiltskin was by far the best but the others were not too bad. At least Rafi and his friends enjoyed them. We are still going to see Little Red Riding Hood in January but I saw it last year so I know that it is good.
Other December news: My sister and family came to Cape Town for a short visit. They spent most of their time on the beach - a pursuit I don't fully understand because the water is far too cold here to swim in. Mitchell's standing is coming on well and he lets go now for a few seconds. He is even starting to walk holding on with just one hand. He is very inquisitive and I have had to re-babyproof everything. He even gets up to things that Rafi never even thought of. Still no teeth though!
We are off to the Drakensburg for a nice long break with my family for a week and then a few days in Durban. I am so looking forward to it. Hopefully we will have a ready supply of babysitters (something we seriously lack here in Cape Town).
Wishing you all a very happy 2008!

November - Isn't it supposed to be getting hot now?

2007-11-22T08:38:00.000+02:00

Sitting here at the computer with another dreary, cold and rainy day outside. We had beautiful weather last weekend. We went to Spier for a picnic which was great and we showed the cheetahs to Rafs although we didn't go inside the enclosure. School ends next Friday and then a six week holiday awaits. I have enrolled Rafi in an intensive swimming course for the beginning of December. That is every day for the first two weeks although the lessons are only 15 minutes long. Then we are off to the Drakensburg and Durban for the first two weeks of January so plenty to occupy ourselves with. Mitchell grows more agile by the day. He pulls himself up to stand on just about anyone or anything and he loves to go where he isn't supposed to, then he turns around and grins as if he knows he is being naughty.(see pic) It is so cute. We still haven't seen any teeth yet, although this morning I thought I might have felt the beginning of one in the lower gums.

Rafi is very excited to go to 'big school' next year. He is going into group 1 and his teacher's name is Adie. He is also very interested in girls at the moment and comes home telling me he 'married' someone different every day. They have a bridal veil at the school and he loves to put it on someone's head and then hold their hand. It is very sweet.

Craig and I both passed the IELTs with relative ease. So that is another 15 points towards our Australian application. Now we are just waiting for the reassessment from the Australian Computer Society ( Craig's qualifications got added to the MODL list in the last few months so he had to be reassessed for the extra points) and hopefully that should come through any day now and then we will be sending our papers in. The thing that is actually taking the longest (no surprises here) are our unabridged birth certificates which were supposed to have arrived weeks ago.

Hopefully the weather will improve soon! Cheers from a wet and rainy Cape Town!

The fourth and final school term

2007-10-09T08:51:00.000+02:00

So here we are at the beginning of October, Just a few more weeks left of school and then on to the 'big' school and group 1! Wow, this year is flying past. Mitch is such a big boy, he is almost crawling. He gets up on all fours and moves around in circles or backwards. A vast difference from Rafi who belly-crawled instead.
They are already showing their different personalities. Mitchell is a very gregarious little guy. he loves to be surrounded by people and goes to anyone who smiles at him. He displays none of the reserve of his older brother.
Rafi meanwhile has become quite a little fish. He is loving swimming and proudly tells everyone that he walks on the bottom of the swimming pool completely under water. It is amazing to watch his progression week after week. He lies afloat on his back and kicks his feet without the teacher having to hold him.
Mitchell is saying his first "words" - we have heard mama, dada and baba. he seems to know where the lights are and peekaboo is his favourite game. Rafi plays it with him for ages and they both giggle. It's very beautiful to watch.
Craig and I are writing our IELTS exam on the 20th of this month. It is basically an English fluency exam where they test comprehension, spelling and listening skills. Don't think we will have a problem there. Its not like we speak anything else fluently!

The end of Aug...

2007-08-23T09:48:00.000+02:00

Is it just me or is this year just flying by? Rafi is doing so well in swimming lessons. He is putting his head right under the water. Mitch is eating his vegges, fruit and cereal and loving every minute of it. He is also a seasoned sitter now and doesn't fall over at all.

Next week the banging should start as we are going to begin retiling our kitchen and en-suite. I can't wait though after having lived with those ugly teracotta tiles for such a long time.

School holidays are just around the corner and we are going to have to find lots of activities to keep us busy.

Craig is working as hard as ever now that he is healthy again and finished with all the ear, nose and throat infections. The weather is improving daily and you can feel spring in the air so all in all it looks like September will be a great month. Happy New Year to every one!

6 months old and Swimming Lessons

2007-08-07T08:52:00.000+02:00

The beginning of August and Mitchell turned 6 months old. He is so cute and smiling all the time. He also coos and gurgles all day long. He is sitting beautifully and for long periods of time.

Rafi started swimming lessons yesterday and he absolutely loved it. He didn't want to go home and wants to go back again after school today. We have a very busy week ahead of us. Tomorrow there is a womans day breakfast at the school, Mitchell's 6 month check up and Kindermusik in the afternoon for Rafs.

On Thursday Rafi has swimming in the morning and then I am going to my friends baby's bris. On Friday there is no school so will take Rafi somewhere nice to play.

Just hoping that the weater improves!

Back from Durban and Rafi is 3

2007-07-17T11:55:00.000+02:00

We had an absolutely amazing time in Durban. It was just the rest that everyone needed and I needed the recovery time as I had been sick for about two weeks leading up to the holiday. Rafi had his birthday party with all his cousins (except obviously the Australian ones) at Mitchell park next to the raccoons
and it was so special for him. He had a clock cake as per request and he loved all the attention.
When we got back we had his Bob the Builder party at home with a few friends that don't go to school with him and it went off very nicely. All the children played nicely together and they iced marie biscuits and threaded noodle necklaces together.
To end off the holiday we took Rafi to see Noddy at the Nico Malan theatre and the Frog prince at Canal Walk theatre both of which he loved. He went off to school with all the enthusiam a new term brings.
Mitchell is now sitting beautifully at five months old and he has started eating solids which he absolutely loves. He seems especially fond of carrots!

Nearly holiday time - yippee

2007-06-23T14:22:00.000+02:00

So the jetsetting Doobie family is busy getting ready for their holiday to Durban to escape the cold and bitter Cape Town winter (although I think we have already experienced the coldest and bitterest part)
Rafi is having his first party on the 2nd of July just before we leave and that one is at home with a few friends and family from outside school. Then in Durban he will be having his actual party on his birthday (the ninth) probably at Bot gardens and that will be with all his Durban family. And can you believe when he gets back to Cape Town he will have yet another party in his class at school. All a bit overwhelming really!
Mitchell is starting to sit by himself which is making things a lot easier and he is definitely displaying his personality which is very easy going.
Winter has been bitterly cold this year and we are all feeling it in our bones. The kids are snuggled up in bed this afternoon so am seizing the opportunity to write this blog and do some other stuff which I haven't been able to before. Craig has gone to have his hair cut and I think I am going to follow suit next week. Time for a change.
To those of you in Durbs - I will see you soon!

Party season has begun!

2007-05-30T08:43:00.000+02:00

June is definitely the month of birthdays and we have a birthday party every weekend right up until we leave for Durban in July. Mitch started the ball rolling by attending his first birthday party. His friend Kyle turned one yesterday afternoon. Poor Mitch is still too young to even eat the birthday cake but his mom made up for it. When we got home, a whole lot of Rafi's friends came over and they had a treasure hunt in the garden. A bit manic but fun.
Have just finished reading the sequel to Spud which was also excellent but kind of left one hanging at the end so I imagine there is another installment coming. (just like there will be for this blog )

Back to Work!

2007-05-16T11:15:00.000+02:00

So I am officially back at work now. I worked Sunday night and Craig had to give Mitchell a bottle. It went really well though and both boys were asleep when I got home. I was very spoilt on Mother's day. Craig made me breakfast in bed and Rafi and Mitch bought me a beautiful picture frame with a photo of them in it for next to my bed. Mitchell has found his thumb, thanks to his brother's good influence and is sleeping from eight at night to eight in the morning. We have booked our tickets for Durban and we will be going from the 4th to the 12th which is great because it is over Rafi's birthday and he can have his party with all his cousins. he will also have a party here in CT but it will be during school hours and that is going to be with his friend Jayden. They are having a Bob the Builder theme. He hasn't made up his mind for the Durban party though. He is choosing between a tiger or Thomas the Tank engine.
Mitch has started kindermusik which is fun but exhausting. Thank goodness Rafi is in the next age group now and doesn't need me to go with him. Both of them are loving it.

It's May! Brrrr

2007-05-02T09:38:00.000+02:00

So the long weekend has finally ended and we had a great time despite the cold and rainy weather. Granny Rose and Grandpa Steve were here for a few days which was such a treat for the boys. After they went back the weather turned miserable and so we went to the aquarium two days in a row. I just find it so peaceful there! Rafi rode a motorised tricycle outside the aquarium and he loved it - I am going to try and post the movie on our website. Yesterday the weather was better so we went to Cape Garden Centre in Kraaifontein with James, Jessica, Jarod and Sean. They had a blast and as always couldn't resist going on the train. Rafi was quite sad to be going back to school today but cheered up once he got there. At least it is another short week!

Welcome to the new babies!

2007-04-24T09:14:00.000+02:00

Congratulations to Karen and Gary on the birth of Shira (Please send us a photo soon) and to Sharon and Garry on the birth of Eitan. There seems to be a huge baby boom at the moment! Almost half my friends have just had babies or are about to have them. Something in the water perhaps?
Rafi has finally got the hang of the toilet training story and we are now nappy free all day even at school. What a relief!
Mitchell has moved into his own bedroom and is sleeping beautifully through the night. He has such a placid nature that most people have never even heard him cry.
Just finished reading the most brilliant book - Q&A by Vikus Swarup. I highly recommend it - it is funny, poignant and provides a social commentary on Indian history. It is about a poor, uneducated waiter from India who wins a billion rupees in a game show (similar to Who wants to be a Millionaire?) and gets arrested for it because there seems to be no way he could have known the answers. The story follows the way in which he knew the answer to each of the fifteen questions leading up to the win.

The Sleep Week.

2007-04-17T09:02:00.000+02:00

Hooray, Halleluya, I did it... I slept through the night, well, most of it anyway. Rafi has been quite the somnambulist of late, coming through to our bed in the wee hours of the morning, but, finally, last night he stayed in his own bed until the sun came up. Mitch played his part too by sleeping beautifully from eleven until six, so Mom is in a much better mood today.

My phone has been ringing off the hook with job offers of late. Somebody out there in HR universe has worked out that Mitch must be nearly three months old and I should therefore be ready to come back. I turned down the one offer outright ( a weekend post in Parklands) as I don't think it would be too fair on Craig to lump him with the kids for the whole weekend, I told another company to phone back when their licence comes through ( July most probably - a half day post) and I accepted the last company with conditions. So in mid May I start night duty again! Just once a week to start and we will see how it goes. I have told them that if it is too much for me then I will stop, but if I like it then I will work more often.

Back in the swing of things with school going back so play dates today and Thursday, Kindermusik tomorrow and hopefully a rest on Friday. Going to start Mitch in Kindermusik sometime soon as well, maybe even next month depending on how I can co-ordinate the sleep times.

Have a Special Week!

Back to School

2007-04-12T09:38:00.000+02:00

So that is the reason I haven't written for so long, it has been school holidays and we have had a very hectic time. It was great to have Craig's parents here for a while and they got to know the new addition a little bit better. Rafi ran the two oceans nappy dash which was just great. There were over 250 children under the age of three running so it was a little chaotic but they divided them into heats. Rafi did the 56m race in style, not even breaking a sweat. He was rewarded with a 'gold' medal and a goodie bag. He is still very proud of it.

Mitchell went for his 6 week injection yesterday. A little late (he is really 9 weeks) because we were waiting for his nose stop running before we took him, but he was very stoic about the whole thing. He weighs in at about 5.9kg and is 60cm tall so one could say he is definitely thriving ;)

Rafi is very busy toilet training at the moment and he is doing excellently. We even went out shopping with him wearing underpants and there were no accidents. I must admit though that it is a bit of a one step forward eight step back kind of a thing, so I don't think huggies or pampers will be losing our business any time soon.

I took this cute photo of their feet while they were sleeping. Hope you enjoy it. There are one or two new photos up on the website as well.

Public Holiday

2007-03-21T20:01:00.000+02:00

Hooray a public holiday! We got a chance to do a big shop and then just look at the picture to see what the boys in the house did all afternoon. Guess they needed it though because all three of them have stuffy noses and haven't been sleeping well. Poor Mom!

Mitch went for his six week check up on Monday. He weighs and measures almost exactly the same as his brother did. He is 5 kilos (11 pounds) and he is about 59cms. Spot on for his age.

Have entered Rafi in the Two Oceans marathon. Well, sort of... it is a 56m version of it called the 'nappy dash'. It takes place on the 6th of April, so watch this space to see how he does.

School holidays and Passover just around the corner and Granny Rose and Grandpa Steve are coming for the seder. Rafi's best friend James is coming too with his sister, Jessica and his mom so the three under-threes should make an interesting evening.

Pictures of Mitch's smile are up on the website.

A Smile

2007-03-14T10:39:00.000+02:00

It's official - Mitchell can smile. And who was the proud recipient of this first big gummy smile? Not the proud parents, nor the loving brother, but Muriel the house cleaner. Everytime he looks at her he beams and beams. It is so cute. I will try and get a photo of it later and post it to the web. Craig did 400 squats this weekend! He planted 400 individual grass seedlings on Sunday. The garden is looking much better but will take a while to spread out. Hopefully in about two to three weeks we will be seeing a lot more green.

One month old!

2007-03-05T11:33:00.000+02:00

What a hasty month - my goodness. Tomorrow Mitch will be one month old and so I took him to the clinic this morning to be weighed and measured. He has grown 4 cm in height (from 50 -54) and has gone from a birth weight of 3.18kg (about 7 pounds for the non-metric) to a whopping 4.4kg (9.7 pounds)! He is such a contented little soul. He is just starting to focus on things and he stares intently into our faces. His head is getting stronger every day too.
On Saturday a very funny thing happened. Craig was in the bathroom and I was watching the Sharks game on tv. Now if you happened to catch that game, you would know that it was very very exciting, especially in the final minutes. Well although not normally a big rugby fan, I was glued to the tv. Rafi was sitting on my lap. Suddenly just as the Sharks got possession, Mitch started to cry. I said to Rafi, "Please go sort your brother out" and he went running off to the bedroom. Next thing I heard him loud and clear over the baby monitor saying, "Stop crying Mitchell. Don't cry, baby. There,there ..." and this was followed by no more crying. Rafi came very proudly back to the lounge and said, "He has stopped crying, Mommy." Well naturally I got a little nervous thinking what this child had done to stop the crying so I went to check and there was Mitch fast asleep again. I asked Rafi what he did to stop the crying and he said, " I just patted him on the back, Mommy and I told him not to cry." So at two and a half, our son is already a source of comfort to his brother, and yes the Sharks did win the match!

Dress Up Time

2007-03-02T08:43:00.000+02:00

And so it is time for Purim and Rafi wanted to be a scary tiger. I managed to get him the hat with the ears and then I bought some fabric for the tail and to sew on to the pants and shirt. It looked great. He walked around the house saying, "I'm a scary tiger and I like eating YOU!" We painted on the nose and whiskers with face paint. You can check out the photos on http://www.dubiant.net/552/657.html
Mitchell is still going and growing strong. He seems to have settled into some sort of routine and he sleeps from about eleven till four at night which isn't too bad. Then he feeds, and goes back to sleep until about six or seven depending on what time his brother comes bounding into the room. The boys still sleep together in the afternoon when Rafi finishes school for about two hours which gives mom a welcome rest.
Have a great weekend.

Granny Betty has gone home

2007-02-25T09:13:00.000+02:00

Yesterday Granny Betty went back to Durban. Rafi was very teary at the airport (as were we all I think). It was wonderful to have her to stay for such a long time. Mitchell is still an angelic baby and Rafi is still so helpful and kind to him. He has such a caring nature.
Our nights are getting better and better and if I go to bed at eleven I only have to get up once for the three o'clock feed and then both boys wake us at around half past six. Compared to night shifts this is an absolute pleasure! Craig stays up late playing on the xbox so he takes care of Mitch if it isn't food related. (i.e. nappies, wind, need a cuddle etc) Had Mitch weighed last Tuesday, he is 3.6 kilos which is great. Planning on having a relaxing day today (have a friend's baby's bris party this afternoon) but other than that we are just going to enjoy being the Doobie Four.

Mitchell

2007-02-14T23:13:00.001+02:00

So our son has been named and I must say that he has settled into his name beautifully. Craig and I are enjoying using it as much as possible. He is such a good baby too and is eating and sleeping so well. Rafi is being a really great big brother. It seems that the months of preparation have paid off and he is helping us a lot by fetching nappies and putting the vaseline on Mitchell's bottom. Mitchell's umbilical cord fell off today thank goodness as it always looks so funny and is such a mission to clean. His bris went so well too. The Rabbi came and took the bandages off today and it looks perfect. He doesn't seem to have much discomfort either. Happy Valentine's day to you all and hope your better halves spoilt you rotten.

Home from the Hospital

2007-02-10T05:39:00.000+02:00

It is 5:30 am now and I am busy blogging which I guess shows that moms of two boys don't have much free time. We arrived home from hospital yesterday. Rafs didn't go to school, he came to help get his baby. He was so proud and cute pushing the baby cart out to the car and everyone made such a big fuss of him and what a good brother he is. He has actually been fantastic. He loves the new baby so much and just wants to hold and kiss him all the time.

Baby settled in well and he is so placid. He just eats and sleeps and boy oh boy can he eat! He is on about a two to two and a half hour feeding schedule but this is self imposed as I am a strong believer in demand feeding.

The caesar went so well. I did not and still have not had a minutes pain. I was amazed when I went to the gynae on Monday and he told me that I was already showing the first signs of labour as I hadn't felt anything different at all! Anyway I booked into the hospital late that night and then Craig came first thing in the morning to join me in theatre. I still never felt any labour type pain. We got to the theatre and I had the epidural which the anaesthetist did so well that I didn't even realise it had gone in. (And she did it twice!) Then I lay back and relaxed and about fifteen minutes later they passed me our beautiful golden hair boy. It is quite strange how different he looks from Rafi. He has a longer and more petite face, smaller eyes and a sharper nose. He has quite long blonde hair which is so beautiful. Anyway on his way out he apparently took in a little breath of fluid so he had to go off to be monitored but we were only separated a short while. When he came to me, he latched immediately and I bonded with him immediately. He literally took my breath away. The hospital don't believe in separating moms and babies so we stayed together until discharge. Rafi came to see him but fell asleep in the car and so they spent the majority of their first visit sleeping next to each other. See pic.

Getting a little tired of calling him 'baby' all the time. The bris and naming are on Tuesday and it will be such a relief to be able to use his name. He has already been registered with home affairs so Craig and I have to keep biting our tongues not to use his name until Tuesday. If you are in or around Cape Town, please stop in at the bris. It is at Milnerton Synagogue on Tuesday morning from 9:30am. Otherwise, watch this website as we will be making the name announcement here as well as lots more photos.

Baby's here!

2007-02-06T12:09:00.000+02:00

Baby Deubler was born this morning at 8.45am, a gorgeous little boy, weighing all of 3.18kg, with a splatter of blonde hair.

Mom and baby are doing very well.

A week from today!

2007-01-30T14:11:00.000+02:00

So this time next week, BH, I will be holding a beautiful baby. It is very exciting and Craig and I are running around getting the last few things ready. Luckily I am still carrying small so I haven't felt the heat so much and I can still drive myself around. Had a bit of a logistical nightmare trying to organise when and what to do with Rafi while I am in the hospital, but my very good friend Danielle has offered to take him to school in the morning and either Craig or my mom will fetch him in the afternoon. Rafi came shopping with us on the weekend and chose his baby a very cute and tiny white babygro with a moon and star on it. He is also getting excited although read the quotable quote on the right to find out what he really thinks of the new baby. Two of my friends are due at the same time as me and at the same hospital, although they may only go in the following week. Would be nice to know someone on the ward though. (besides all the staff :))
Craig is taking next week off work which is stunning as I think it will make the transition a lot easier for Rafs. He is already excited at the prospect of Daddy coming to fetch him from school. My mom arrives on Sunday afternoon and has not booked to go back yet which I think is just great and my dad arrives on the Thursday and is staying for ten days in order to cover a brit or britah. So the batteries in the camera are charged and ready to go, the car seat has been washed and disinfected and all the clothes have been sta-softed. Look out for more developments here!

12 days and counting...

2007-01-25T11:23:00.000+02:00

So the baby is going to be making their appearance on the 6th of Feb. If a girl then naming will be Sat morning the 10th and if a boy, the bris will be Tuesday morning the 13th. Very exciting. Baby already weighs 3.2 kilos according to ultrasound which is bigger than Rafs was full term.

The birthday cake came out really cute - see pic.

The comet over table mountain was truly spectacular. We tried taking some photos but they didn't come out well because of the street lights. Guess we will try again when Halley's makes her appearance. I will only be 84 years old then.

Two more weekends!

2007-01-19T16:17:00.000+02:00

Well Rafs has settled straight back into school as if he was never away although now he is one of the oldest and is definitely asserting his authority over the younger ones. :)
Only two more weekends (possibly three depending on Dr G) before the birth and have realised that I have done very little to prepare for the new one except to have my bag packed for in case. Can't wait for my mom to get here. It is so hot and these power failures aren't helping. No aircon, no fan, no relief from the heat! Still today was a bit cooler so hopefully the weekend won't be too bad.
Rafi is going through a big astronomy phase at the moment and is asking very complicated questions about the sun, the stars and planet earth. Probably our fault for taking him to the planetarium in the holidays. He now knows that the sun doesn't really go to sleep at night. We have told him that it goes to visit Benny and Andy (my brother and sister-in-law) in Australia but that it always comes back to us in the morning. I can't wait for when he learns to read and I can just refer him to google for all his answers.
Craig got an xbox during the holidays and he is loving it. I must say that it is very nice to have as it attaches to our digital camera and we can watch all our photos on tv. We can also watch dvds on it which is great as our dvd player is temporarily out of order. I have spent some mornings playing backgammon and uno on it as well. At least it frees up the time Craig spends on the computer so I get a chance to use it now.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We are going to spend it relaxing and doing finishing touches to the baby's room as well as washing all the baby clothes. Rafi keeps nagging to go to Jimmy Jungle so will probably do that too. Have a one year old birthday party on Sunday and I am assisting in making the teddy bear cake. Will let you know how it turns out.

Last day of School Holidays

2007-01-16T14:31:00.000+02:00

So it is back to school for Rafs tomorrow and I must say that it has been a fantastic holiday. My sister and family were here for the first half and we have been busy with all kinds of activities the second half. My energy levels are starting to drop a bit though so I must say that I am looking forward to the new school year.

We had a hectic day yesterday. We went to the MTN Sciencentre in the morning which was great as they have a new train display which kept Rafi entertained for ages. (See picture). It was two trains that passed each other in a tunnel and the Table Mountain cable car going up and down. Needless to say he found all the moving and tooting bits fascinating.

Then in the afternoon we went to this new Spur that has opened in Westcoast Village shopping centre which is great because it has two enclosed trampolines outdoors, a jumping castle indoors, lego, playstations and jungle gyms. Rafi had a lot of fun with his friends while I had a milkshake. After all the activity of the day we had an early night.

Today we decided to take things a bit easier seeing as how it was the last opportunity to spend a full day quality time together for a long while, so we spent the morning doing puzzles, building lego and playing with play dough in the garden. It is so hot now and Rafi's airconditioning unit is waiting for a part so his room is extremely hot. Anyway he is having his afternoon kip now which has given me this opportunity to write. I am going to try and update the photo part of the site tomorrow as there are lots of photos to still be posted.

Hi, We're Back

2007-01-13T14:52:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the downtime, Craig has been fighting a running battle with our host over some technical issues, so we have surrendered and decided to use blogspot. Hopefully with the baby coming in under a month we will get back on track with regular updates.