One down, many more to go

We took a long weekend and went up to the Hunter Valley to celebrate our first anniversary. In some ways it's hard to believe that it has only been a year since the wedding, in other ways it seems like forever (in a good way).
We stayed at Cedar Creek Cottages which are on Stonehurst Vineyard. We'd stayed there before almost 4 years ago just before Christmas and had a wonderful time. This time we experienced a completely different season as they've just had some bad flooding in this area. Unfortunately their cellar door and winery had been affected by the floods and the bridge over the river on their property had been washed away. They'd also lost our booking as they were busy drying papers all over their house. This didn't matter as there was an available cottage but to get there we had to cross over the neighbour's bridge, a very scary old iron bridge with just 2 tracks for the tyres and then drive across the bottom of the vineyard on a dirt track.

We had a great time reading, watching dvds, taking baths and vegging in front of the fire. We did also leave the cottage at some point and ate at some great restaurants, bought stinky cheeses and walked in the Hunter Valley Gardens. We didn't do any wine tasting as Luke didn't want to do it by himself so we feel we'll have to make another trip at some point to take advantage of the great vineyards up there. We did buy a few bottles of Stonehurst wine; mostly late harvest semillion, as they were having a 50% off storm sale because the bottle labels were damages by the flood.

We did wonder if we were going to be trapped there as it rained all night before we were leaving and that track across the vineyard turned into mud. We were going sideways at some point but we made it out safely and back to Sydney. The photo is of that morning looking across the vineyard from the verandah of our cottage and down over the river with the layer of mist.
Loki was very indignant when we picked him up and scolded us all the way home and since has been incredibly clingy, he's currently perched precariously on the edge of the keyboard tray and on top of my belly snuggling as close as possible.

In pregnancy news I've started feeling small kicks particularly last thing at night but becoming more frequent. It's the most amazing feeling and I can't wait until Luke can feel them too.

baby belly

Well as you can see I definitely have a belly now and in fact I can't wear any of my old trousers, I've had to move into maternity pants. Luckily I've found a pair of comfy jeans at Pumpkin Patch. We had our 18 week scan this Thursday and everything is fine. My placenta is lying in front so that explains why I haven't felt any movement yet. You can see how squished up he/she is with the leg and foot top left.

a new yogi

It's been a while since I last posted and I've been feeling better and better. I struggled with hyperemesis up until 13 weeks. The last weeks of it were terrible, I spent them in bed barely able to move without throwing up, eating very little and watching bad daytime tv. Then all of a sudden I got better and slowly I've regained my health and energy. I had 1 relapse that lasted a day at 14 weeks but nothing for the past few weeks (fingers crossed).
I am suffering bad heartburn on and off and sciatica, both which are side effects of pregnancy and darn uncomfortable but nothing compared to the debilitating effects of nausea.

I haven't feel the baby move yet but hopefully it should be soon, I can't wait for those first few flutters. I have my 18-20 week ultrasound this week which should be exciting.
I went to my first prenatal yoga class 0n Saturday, it was an interesting 2 hours. Not an awful lot of yoga actually happened but it was a good experience. The teacher is a nurse, theatre nurse, midwife, parent educator and international yoga teacher as well as quite eccentric with a broad Scottish accent. She interrogated everyone as to whether they had placenta previa or any other conditions before leading us in some yogic breathing and meditation. We progressed into a few gentle Hatha yoga moves and then all lay on our mats for relaxation. I've done quite a bit of Iyengar yoga previously so it was weird for this all to have such a strong pregnancy/labour/birth focus but appropriate and worthwhile. I won't be able to attend the next two classes but I look forward to going back when I can.

First real sighting

breeders

I think we've caught up most people with our news by now so I'll announce it to the community at large.
I'm pregnant!
I know, we're very goal-orientated over here and I think this may the first year I've ever fulfilled one of my new year's resolutions. This is also partly the reason for the lack of updates to this blog - morning sickness or rather all day and night sickness is kicking my butt.

So le enfant is due mid-November and we're hoping to return to New Zealand for Christmas with infant in tow. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, it does seem a cruel and unusual decision to take a new baby on a plane flight but I think my Mum would attempt a cross-border kidnapping if we weren't visiting.

It's the first grandchild on my side and (as far as I know yet) the first great-grandchild too so it's going to be royally spoilt. We are very much looking forward to visiting NZ over Christmas and catching up with all our friends and whanau.

We were discussing things we 'must do' while in Auckland and one of them is eat at Tanuki's Cave, our favourite izakaya bar in the city and Luke said in all seriousness 'we'll have to arrange a babysitter' I burst out laughing at him then explained there would be no shortage of people to babysit and I think any others may have to fight Mum for the privilege anyway.

OpenAir Cinema

A couple of weeks ago Luke and I went to the OpenAir Cinema at Mrs Macquarie's Point in the Domain. It was amazing to sit in the dusk facing towards the Opera house and the Harbour Bridge watching flying foxes flit overhead and watch a film on a large screen that was actually supprted by legs that were in the sea!

We went twice to this event, once to see Miss Potter, the story of Beatrix Potter who wrote Peter Rabbit and other wonderful stories. Then again a week later to see Stranger than Fiction with friends. Both films were captivating in different ways.
This is a photo of us sitting at a table at the cinema about to have dinner.

Auld Lang Syne

Happy New Year! I hope this is a great year with not too many major events in it for us because if there's one thing I've learnt about major events is that they're expensive.

We've had a quiet New Year's Eve. I made a 3-course dinner consisting of Chilled Pea and Watercress Soup, Scotch Fillet served with aligot(french potato puree with garlic and cheese), baked crumbed tomato, steamed beans and horseradish cream and a beef jus. For dessert we had icecream sandwiches of chocolate fudge cookies and mocha icecream with fresh raspberries and cream. We meant open a bottle of champagne at midnight while watching the Harbour Bridge fireworks on TV but we were both a bit stuffed and Luke felt nauseous so we'll save it for another occasion. The fireworks were amazing though and we could see the light of them illuminating the sky in many colours from our upstairs window.

This year Luke's parents moved to Brisbane, our godson was born, we got married, my grandfather died, Luke got a job in Sydney, we moved to Sydney, we adopted our kitten Loki, our niece was born and I got a job at a large university. Whew!

There have been ups and downs this year; we still really miss everyone in NZ and we look forward to any visitors over the next year.

We hope to be parents by this time next year but who knows what's in store for us. I read somewhere if you want make God laugh? Tell Him your plans. So we're just going where the wind takes us.
A good friend's baby was due on Friday so I wish a easy speedy delivery for her and a healthy happy baby.
I also wish my family and friends a safe, joyful and rewarding new year.

the gang's all here

My parents are visiting for 4 nights from NZ, it's so nice seeing familiar faces, hearing all their news and showing them our new place.

Mum went off shopping today and managed to make it into the city and home again in one piece. Dad had a quiet day at home as he is currently wearing a moonboot to help heel his torn achilles tendon but he was well entertained by Loki.

I've been well organised too and had Italian meatballs in the freezer ready to simmer in passata and chicken stock for tonight's meal. Fantastic when you get home from work at 6pm to have something that only takes about 20 minutes to cook but is a filling, tasty, healthy, impressive meal that does include meat. Unfortunately Luke doesn't consider vegetarian food to contain enough protein and as he can't eat nuts he may have a point but it does mean we eat a lot of meat sometimes I long for a simple vegetarian pasta dish or curry.

Tomorrow night we head out to Bar Italia for a cheap and cheerful Italian meal, the service may not be flash but it has a charm all of it's own.

The first Noel the angels did say

well it's been a while since I posted, I've been a bit preoccupied with the newest member of our family.
Sorry for the scary red eyes in the photo but the red eye fix won't work.
Loki is just adorable, he's very good, no accidents so far and it only took 4 squirts of the spray bottle to teach him to mostly leave the Christmas tree alone. He is having a little bit of a problem with the whole 'nighttime is for sleeping' thing but he's learning I hope.

Apart from that we're just getting ready for Christmas, we put up the tree and put out the nativity set. I'm plowing through the Christmas card list and we put a wreath on our front door. We've also started Christmas shopping mostly because my parents are arriving in 10 days and we need to have the NZ gifts bought for them to take back for us.

I find it really strange how Aussies say 'chrissy' as in buying 'chrissy presents'

Right about now I'm wishing I held out for airconditioning

It's soooooo hot. I slept very badly last night because of the heat, it was worse today and it will be even worser (hee!) tomorrow, getting up to 38 degrees. What did I do to deserve this?

Well actually during the day as long as I'm at work it's not too bad because of the airconditioning and as long as I catch a new train and bus home with airconditioning that's ok too. We're also planning not to open the blinds tomorrow to cut down on the heat entering the house during the day and tonight we're trialling sleeping with a damp top sheet and the fan blowing on us to hope cool us down. Sounds pretty nasty but as I sit here at 10.40pm at night and it's still about 27 degrees it sounds like heaven.

We're back...

Finally after weeks of waiting we're back online and so much has gone on since I posted in October.
We went to visit our new kitten in Blacktown and on the way discovered Westies are the same wherever you go. We also finally came up with a name for the kitten, he's now Loki after the Norse trickster god. You can see the photos of our visit with him here. We get to take him home on the 25th November and we can't wait.

Also our furniture arrived. This was the cause of much jubilation and one the of the first things I did was connect up the washing machine and put on a load of washing then sink into the couch ahhhh! You don't realise how much you miss these creature comforts until you have to do without. I don't think I would have been a very good pioneer. Without my washing machine, a hot shower and the dishwasher I'm not a very happy camper. We still have a few boxes to unpack but most of the everyday stuff has been unpacked.

Hello am still alive

should be online at home soon in next couple of days and will update them
Hen xxx

I feel like I've had a limb removed

Not having internet access at home and very limited access at work is driving me crazy. Presently I'm sitting in an internet cafe inside a bookshop at 8pm at night, we haven't had dinner and my very patient husband is reading book while he waits for me.

But it's probably the least of our worries really. Not having any furniture or a fridge is more concerning and as yet there's no sign when Customs might release our stuff.
Sleeping on an airmattress is not fun, eating every meal out is fun but pales after a while and having to take your clothes to a laundry to be washed and wondering if you've got enough panties to last the week is definitely not fun indeed.

As Luke pointed out though these are the stories we'll tell our grandchildren about coming to live in our new country and they will probably wonder at the deprivation of it all.

We are very lucky really, at least we could afford to buy a portable dvd player to keep us occupied at night and there are amazing cafes and restaurant's within walking distance.
On Saturday we visit our kitten, we both are so excited about it we can hardly wait!

Who's a clever girl then?

I went for an interview today at the Douglas Piper Library at the Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards, it was for a two month contract position as a reference librarian and later this afternoon I got the call that they want me to start on Monday.
I'm a bit astounded really, I felt I babbled too much in the interview and I wasn't specific enough but never mind it should be an interesting job, they seem like a good team and it's a nice library.

After Luke got home this evening we went to visit our house. He hadn't seen inside at all (he's a bit trusting really :->) so he had a good look through and I took a couple more photos of the outside this time. I also took some photos of the room at the backpackers so you can see the tiny cage we've been living in.

After the inspection we toddled off down the road to the Italian Forum. Leichhardt is a very Italian area and down a shop-lined lane off Norton St is a big open area surrounded by shops on the upper level and restaurants around the square. There's a fountain with a statue of Dante and the public library among the restaurants. From what I've heard the forum is pumping on the weekend and there's a market on Sundays.
We had dinner at Sapore and very nice it was too and the Italian waiter called me darling :-P

Ladies and Gentlemen we have a house...

We went to the real estate agent's office this morning and signed our lives away for 12 months. Luke then went to work and I went to our new house. I spent the morning checking out which key went with which door and taking photos of our new place. Have a look, I've tried to set it up like a tour so you can see where we'll be living.
Unfortunately we got "lucky" and were chosen by Australian Customs for random inspection so at this stage we won't get our belongings until Tuesday next week. This means we have to buy an airmattress and go camping in our house for a couple of days as our last night here is Saturday.

There's also new photos of our kitten who currently goes by many names. He got nicknamed Mozart by a friend of the breeders although they normally never name their kittens. Luke wants to call him Mayhem and my idea was Bijou. We're waiting until we visit him before we choose a name so he may end up something completely different although it seems likely he will be Mayhem Mozart Cartner at the moment.

it's hot baby!

We got up to 37 degrees today and it was incredible! It's like being on the footpath when a bus goes by and you feel the hot blast of its exhaust pass you by except it doesn't pass by it's just what the air is like outside.

I went for a walk at lunchtime and was very glad to get to the airconditioned mall. I can see why people go shopping or to the movies when it's hot. Apparently it was 15 degrees over the average temperature for October.

I like it though, it's hard to think that 2 months ago I was wearing a thick woolen coat and shivering in the cold.
Here in the city it's green but apparently inland drought situations are bad, a sobering reminder that not everyone enjoys the heat.

Night Noodle Markets

Last night we went to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park. Probably the closest thing to compare it to is the Lantern Festival in Albert Park except it is open Mon- Fri for most of the month of October and it is all about the food! A blog I discovered recently does the overall experience far better than I could and with amazing photos too.

We had a good time marveling at the organisational skills that see the tents pop up ready at 5pm each day and the huge selection of food. I had utterly delicious Honey chicken and not so great Pad Thai and Luke had his generic favourite sweet and sour pork and a steamed pork bun. Can you tell he misses eating pork at home?

The highlight of our evening was the freshly squeezed lemonade and the dutch pancakes with fresh strawberries and chocolate syrup. Dutch pancakes are made with a griddle shaped like mini muffin tins that are heated producing round puffed pancakes - related to me by Luke as I was guarding our table.
This was followed by an examination of the Archibald fountain in the park, then we were homeward bound with very full bellies.

oh what a busy day

this Richard Scarry book used to one of my favourite childhood books, you can never find it any more :-(
But we have had a couple of busy days. Saturday we got up early, for me anyway, and visited the growers' market at Pyrmont Bay. It was very interesting, lots of different produce and products such as fresh blood orange juice, butter and marmalade, olive oil, cut flowers including waratahs (NSW's state flower), waygu beef, lots of handmade sausages including goat, and even snails although they didn't have any snails this month, they'd sold out. It's a once a month event and we'll definitely be going next month and will try to turn up earlier than 10.30am. We bought a jar of Japanese sesame sauce which is great on steamed veges or bbq steak.

After the market we returned to our room and dropped off our purchases and in my case changed into sensible shoes. We caught the tram to Lilyfield which is the end of the line then walked to our new house to measure the distance from the tram station. It is a good 20 minute walk unfortunately, we had hoped it was a little closer. I think Luke will continue to take the tram to work but depending where I end up working I might take a bus.
Luke had a look at the outside of our new place, it's apparently still occupied although it's mostly empty it seems and then we walked back up to Norton St to check the local shops. We stopped for a bite at SGB (Sydney Gourmet Burger) then walked back to the tram. For the most part it's a very pretty walk past amazing gardens and a park.

We got got back to our room then decided to go swimming at the local pool. Not sure exactly why as I was exhausted by this point and I'm a poor swimmer but the cool water seemed appealing and we're living in 1 cramped room, there's only so much Devil May Cry 2 being played on the Playstation I can listen to. The pool was nice, it's at the end of Glebe Pt Rd, an outside olympic-sized pool. When we got back I had a nap and we had Turkish kebabs for dinner and watched the new Dr Who.

Sunday we were both awake at 5am, we went to bed too early and in my case had a nap the day before. We went to church at St James on King St at 11am. It was a choral Eucharist which was beautiful but very long and made for little congregation participation. It's rather high church with lots of incense which Luke found irritating to his sinuses but afterwards we both enjoyed meeting some of the congregation and they had wine and cheese as the post-service refreshment. I met 2 librarians and learnt a little more about Sydney.
We then trotted over to the Noodle Bar in the David Jones Food Hall for lunch, bought some fresh pasta by the individual piece for dinner then headed home.
All in all a successful and busy weekend.

whew exhausted!

Had my interview my the recuiter today although the contract position had gone :-(
Nell the recruiter is lovely, she's a kiwi and was extremely helpful we had a long chat about culture shock. I'm keen to do a few temp or contract roles to get my foot in door and pick up some experience.
The interview was in Chatswood on the North Shore so it was an experience to take the train over the Harbour Bridge. Afterwards I wandered around the city and had lunch before catching the monorail and tram back home stopping off at the Fish Market for some prawns for dinner tonight.

Last night I emailed Trilian Cattery about a Siamese kitten. They only have the 1 available - a blue point boy nicknamed Mozart. We discussed it and decided we wanted him so I've emailed the owner back to reserve him hopefully. See his photo, he's just adorable!

Arrggghhh I hate living without internet access. The connection here has been down for over 24 hours and has finally come back up. I've caught up with Mum and Dad on Skype and managed to do a few other things including find the rail timetable for my interview tomorrow. I have to go to Chatswood with is on the North Shore I think, to meet the recruiter. She has a job for me starting on Monday - 4 days a week for 4.5 weeks. Sounds perfectly really.

Everything is working out very well as we have the house I was keen on too. The rent is a bit expensive but it should be ok and best yet they're fine with us having a cat so kitten owners here we come!