17th to the 27th July 2008 – one month & counting!

Wow time is really starting to fly! Conrad has settled into work & has made a few friends. He has also met another expat who owns an engineering firm that Hyster use regularly. Looks like we’ll be visiting them soon, they’ve been in Aus. 4yrs now.

I’ve been getting the house cleaned up as we’ve been expecting the delivery of our container. Also we now needed to get Savannah into a school, so I’ve been asking people we’ve met what they think about the schools closest to us. We determined that we’d rather put her in Rockingham Beach school if possible, but as the schools were closed for holidays till the 21st, it had to wait a while.

With doing shopping & getting set up we’ve been interacting with the locals more this last week or two, we’ve come to realise that Rockingham is not the most wonderful suburb, although where we are in Shoalwater it’s OK. We would prefer a slightly better class, more in line with what we were used to in Cape town – Parklands.

We decided on Sunday the 20th to head over to the north of Perth and look around at the suburbs. En route we saw the crane lifting the large tree that was a gift from the Aboriginal tribe elders, into place to plant in Kings Park. We were armed with a list of suburbs we wanted to drive through to get a feel before having our picnic lunch on the beach.

We started with Greenwood, & liked the area a lot, nice houses, schools looked great. Then went onto Kingsley, which we absolutely loved! Now these areas are more in a class to which we were accustomed! We drove over to Duncraig, but weren’t very impressed with it, considering there is so much discussion on the forum on this suburb. Over to Hillarys & Kallaroo (a bit out our price range, but wanted to take a look anyway), wow really nice. Then on to Padbury, not our cup of tea as was Beldon & Heathridge. Craige was OK, then onto Woodvale, & Edgewater which we love both suburbs. Now time for lunch, so we headed off to Mullaloo beach front, as suggested by a mom we met while Savannah played at the park the day before. We preferred the northern suburbs to where we are at the moment, so if we decide to stay in Perth we may be moving north.

With Conrad working in Canning Vale, it’s made more sense for us to be south of the river, bearing in mind travel & traffic. We have a six month lease, so we can look around a bit more before making the decision. We also want to take a good look at Bunbury, as Perth is still quite big, and we really wanted to slow down a bit & settle in a smaller coastal town. Also after chatting with the guys at work, we want to take a look at Baldivis, as this is the most south we will move while Conrad is working for Hyster West.

After lunch we set off to find the Pinnaroo Memorial park, which we had heard about from the same mom that suggested Mullaroo beachfront, when she heard we hadn’t seen any roo’s yet. We found it, and saw our first roo’s! Even saw a Joey in a mom’s pouch, cute man!!

Time to head home. We had told Savannah we’d see how the day went & we may stop in to see “the tree” on the way home. So with great weather we decided to give it a try. Lots of traffic with everyone coming to see the ceremony. We were lucky & found a parking fairly easily. Had a bit of a walk around, what breathtaking views of the river & city!!

Monday, off to work for Conrad. Savannah & I went to Rockingham Beach Primary to apply for a spot. Filled in the forms, but would only know for sure on Tuesday if they had space as the principal would only be back then. I asked the secretary what she thought our chances were, she indicated they were very good. She suggested I get Savannah a uniform: Bottle green tracksuit with gold golf/long sleeve shirts. All items are available at the school & Best for Less shops (much cheaper) so madam would fit in.

Off to the shops, got Savannah sorted for school, including shoes etc. Then back at home, I checked with Chess movers (the company handling this side of our move) if customs had completed the inspection & all the paperwork. They finally had!! So made a booking for them to deliver tomorrow between 9 & 9h30!!

Tuesday, lots of excitement! The movers arrived on time! Unloaded the truck & unwrapped all the larger items. Placed the furniture as directed, & the boxes into one of the spare rooms. I had decided to rather unpack myself, one box at a time, also we wanted to keep the boxes for future use (we have always done so in the past).

After lunch, I checked in with the school as Savannah couldn’t wait to hear if she could go on Wednesday, yes she was accepted! I then agreed to unpack the boxes marked “toys” first. As soon as they were all open, madam was not seen except to eat, hee hee, Christmas in July!

Wednesday & back to school for Savannah! She is now in year 3 & her class is taught by a husband & wife team, Mrs teaches Mondays & Tuesday s, Mr teaches Wednesday to Friday. Very different! I completed more paperwork & left Savannah in their capable hands, armed with a list of stationary requirements, back to the shop!

At home the real unpacking began. I had to stop at 14h45 to fetch madam by 15h00. Her day went well & she made a few friends! The teacher was great & really helped her settle in.

Now we are getting back into a nice routine. Conrad is up at 5h40, has breakfast & leaves for work at 6h10, I get up & check e-mail, and read a little on the forum only till 7h00. Then I shower & get Savannah up, dressed & we have breakfast. We leave home at 8h25 so she can be at school in enough time before the bell at 8h50. Sjoe much better than waking up at 5h20 for me to start the ball rolling & Savannah was always up at 6h00 in RSA.

By Friday when Conrad arrived home, I was unpacking the last box (only of the house stuff, the garage is Conrad’s baby). YAY!!! So nice to have our things again. Only had one broken pot planter, a light bulb & one dinner plate, which we expected as the plate has been cracked for a while.

We are VERY impressed with the service we’ve had from Britannia. Our container arrived in 7.5 weeks & all is good!.

Saturday morning we wake up to a beautiful day, & head off to Bunnings so Conrad can get some supplies to fit plugs, plumb the dishwasher (permission granted by our landlord) etc. We always seem to spend more than planned in that place, it’s very bad..... !

Back at home, we assembled Savannah’s trampoline, so she can stop nagging us to do it! Then Conrad started to look for some necessary tools to fit the dishwasher. So he began unpacking as he looked for the hole saw box. Funny how it’s always in the last box!!! So now the garage is chaotic with stuff everywhere! At least that’s another thing done. I think though we will need to buy some steel cupboards to get the garage organised.
Sunday & needing to take some time off from doing the bits & pieces around the house, we decided to head over to Baldivis. So I packed in lunch & off we went. There is a lot of development going on in the area. We stopped in at a show village, had a look around & like one particular style of building. Then we drove deeper into the suburb. Came across a new section called Settlers Hill. We LOVE the feel of the place, a lot like the northern suburbs which we took a liking to. Checked out the local school, very nice. Then stopped in at the land office & got an idea of what was available & prices.

We like the area so much; we think we will look at buying a spot as soon as possible! So no move north, just a little inland for now.

I must admit we are starting to feel more settled now with our furniture here. We have all had some down days, but only an odd one here or there. We are also starting to relax a bit, not on alert all the time. Also more relaxed on the roads, very different to RSA.