Phew, what a scorcher!

Forecast to be 35 today, the temperature is currently an uncomfortable 37. At 6pm it is forecast to be 31 - hopefully it will be a lot cooler than that! Today reminds us why we live in Tassie and not further north where temperatures such as these are a more regular occurrence.

Who's in the house?

We are - huzzah!!

Despite there being a few bits still for the builder to finish off, we moved in just before Christmas.

It's lovely to finally have our own house again after renting for over a year in three different houses. Here are two or three pics of the house shortly before we moved in, and before the builder sent in his cleaners (so ignore the somewhat dirty 'n' dusty look).

Friends and family

Well it was great to see everyone but the time seemed to flash by!
Singapore, Ringwood, Cambridge, Norfolk, Barcelona - all seem a bit of blur now.
Here's just a few pics we took along the way.

Raffles Hotel in Singapore

Baby Elouise and Dad

The folly at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge

The cart that John's nearly built, Norfolk

Crazy architecture in Barcelona, thanks to Gaudi

and then there were two :(

Unfortunately our guardianship of Smoke, our grey and white (and very vocal) cat, has come to an end. Aged 16+, he was suffering from a number of ailments including kidney problems, serious weight loss, senile dementia and, most recently, cat flu.
So he is now buried near to Tasha in our garden, although not too close as Smoke always thought he was 'top dog'!

Around Australia in 18 days

Well, almost. In the last 2 1/2 weeks I've worked in Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, taken 10 flights, flown for 26 hours, travelled over 23,000 kilometers and worked in 4 different time zones! I've had a fab time, taken some great photos, but quite frankly I'm shattered and glad to be home! In fact, I'm thinking about leaving work early today:)

Take cover!

House building report #294

Well the outer cover of the house is nearing completion with a combination of the ubiquitous Colorbond (the wobbly steel stuff) and Cedar overlap boards. You won't see from the pictures that the decking is also 95% done and all the internal walls/ceilings have been plaster-boarded ready for painting.
We think the fit out of the internal cupboards and walk-in 'robe will start this week.
Carpet has been ordered - pure NZ wool of course!
All very exciting.

PS - we're planning on putting down some slabs in front of the main entrance door and then a bed to the right of that with grasses, ferns and sculptural blue/grey/green plants. This will 'soften' the colorbond side.

A long lost friend

On my travels around Australia I've been to Adelaide in South Australia. So what you say. Well, Adelaide is where my best friend used to live. I met Laurene in 1987 at the pub I worked in a couple of nights a week. (Incidentally, I met J there. It was a great pub!!!)Laurene was a Kiwi travelling in the UK and we hit it off immediately. She moved to Oz not long after I arrived here in 1988 and we shared a flat for a while before Laurene moved to Adelaide to be near her family. We saw each other on weekends - I still remember the overnight 12 hour bus trips!! Anyway, Laurene and I lost touch, last exchanging emails in 2002. As my trip approached I found my old address book and couldn't believe it when I realised that Laurene still lived in the same house! I gave her a call not knowing what kind of reaction I'd get. After all, it had been 13 years since we'd last seen each other. I needn't have worried. It was as if we'd never been apart. I can't believe we talked so much in the 2 evenings we spent together. What an extraordinary friendship we have. I can't wait to see her again.

The long journey

On Thursday I had a long drive to a meeting. I left home in Kingston, drove through Brighton and Bagdad before bypassing Kempton and the turn off to Richmond. I drove through Melton Mowbray, Epping Forest and within 30 kms of the Nile before driving through Perth to reach my destination. And in the afternoon I drove back!

Windows 'n' Doors

Housebuilding progress report No. 37 - are you bored yet?

Some of the gaping holes in the house have started to be filled in with lovely double-glazed cedar-framed doors 'n' windows. These are all made by a husband and wife joinery firm in Margate, about 10 minutes drive away from Allens Rivulet.
The electrician has also just started the first-fix, i.e. running cables all over the place and marking out where our sockets, light switches, lights, A/V stuff goes. So many decisions to make!!

What the papers say

Thought we'd share with you some of the key headlines from the 'Sunday Tasmanian'.
Maybe for the front page you'd expect a piece of national or international importance - perhaps something on the economic stimulus package from the Rudd Government and its effect on the unemployment trend. No, sorry, we got 'MIRACLE MOGGIE' which outlines the fascinating return of a cat from one part of Australia to another! Don't believe us - here you go: -















Or how about the next fascinating article - 'Crusade of broccoli boffin', including the ever memorable 'brocolli benefits'.

A roof over our heads

Finally, just as the torrential rains have started to give way to light cloud and sunshine, the house has a hat!
Some windows and doors are also now fitted although the attached piccie isn't quite up to date - it's a couple or three days old.
Before you know it the external cladding will go up - a mixture of Colorbond steel and Cedar wood.

The most expensive cat in the world

For years we had Smoke insured in the UK and he never got sick. Now he's arrived in Oz and is too old to be eligible for insurance he spends half his life and most of our money at the vets! He has a kidney problem that is kept under control if we feed him this really expensive on prescription diet (in other words we can't get it cheap over the internet). He's had his teeth done and now he's cut his foot and and will probably need surgery to repair it! Anyone want a really expensive old cat? He comes complete with box!!!!

UPDATE: Smoke has escaped surgery and instead has to have antibiotics twice a day. Which means he now hides under the dining table or behind the sofa whenever I'm around in case I grab him! Oh, to be popular!

Pick-up sticks

We are now well underway with the building process, with the framing timber going up pretty quickly. We hope the roof trusses will be finished this week and then it's onto external coverings, doors and windows (apparently).
Pictures for those that are interested - just click on image to expand: -
1. North East corner view of framing, i.e. looking at front of house from NE
2. North West corner view
3. View of the shed behind the house, i.e. the South side

Go East young man

OK, so the song is actually called 'Go West young man', but this doesn't fit this blog posting so you get what you're given!
Anyways, a little while back we booked a weekend away to Swansea on Tassie's East Coast, definitely not in Wales. Drove up Friday after work and was on the beach Saturday morning - fantastic. Bit crowded though, as there were about 6 or 7 other people on the nine mile stretch of sand; barefaced cheek!
Weather on Sat was fab (high of 18 deg C, or mid 60's in old money) despite it still being late Winter. Not so good on Sunday so got up late, went for Japanese lunch, and baked cup cakes in the evening for RSPCA campaign (see new web-link on right hand side in the link 'u' like section). Plenty more to explore in the area, so we will go back maybe next year and camp.

Another new job for Jules

You may remember my first job at Australian Red Cross was in Emergency Services and my contract ended in June. The job finished, but my passion for the area didn't. Soooo, last month I applied for and got a new job working full time for the National Emergency Services team (as opposed to the Tassie team) on a project to develop a national framework for the use of spontaneous volunteers in an emergency. As before I'm on a contract until the end of June, the Oz end of financial year. Do you spot a pattern here! So far I'm loving it. Part of the project includes holding stakeholder consultations in every state/territory in Oz, so in Sept/Oct I will be jetting off around the country. How lucky am I???!!!

Shiver me timbers!

Things moving on in the house building. It's hardly 'Grand Designs', more 'Little house on the Paddock'.
Anyway, we have a garage (or shed in Aussie lingo) base with some timber framing.
And we have supporting stumps and floor for the house. More wall framing happening this week.

Snow on the Welly

High winds and rain overnight, but further up - lots of lovely snow!

Saturday sunshine

Took a quick trip to the 'building site' to see how the driveway was progressing.
Pleased to find it all done, along with the removal of top-soil and sub-soil where the carport and garage will go.
Some pics below: -
1. View up the drive
2. Clearing for carport and garage (2 pics)
3. View down the drive

Road to nowhere

Yes, after months of discussions and planning and furrowed brows, we have finally got started with our house building. Woohoo!!

Here is our 'road to nowhere' (at the moment anyway).

Farewell to Tasha

Maybe old news to some, but unfortunately it's RIP Tasha.
She suffered either a stroke or brain tumour but, either way, she was no longer enjoying a good quality of life so we had to make the call :(
We buried her in a good spot in our garden.

Animal Magic

We took a short trip to a local zoo over the weekend, as we thought it'd be good to explore what they had to offer.
A little underwhleming from the outside, but inside it was great. There is a rather aged open-sided bus which tours the zoo and which makes a number of stops along the way for 'interaction'. One of said 'interactions' involves feeding the emus which peck furiously at little paper bags of seed/bread mix!!
There were also crazy looking chooks (chickens), tassie devils and the usual koalas.

Some pics are attached: -
Camel with head in bus waiting to be fed, the iconic Tassie devil, and Koala curled up and asleep in a tree. Enjoy!

Building permit

Firstly - sorry to all those visitors to our Blog. We have been remiss in our provision of new and exciting content over the last month. Normal service will resume now.

Secondly - we have our building permit. Woohoo!! All we need to do now is to agree a proper fixed price from our builder. Not as easy as it sounds, and has been a rather rocky road.

Thunderbirds are go

The local council have approved our house plans, which is fantastic, exciting and a little scary 'cos it means we're really going to build. Next step is building regs approval. The application will go in today

It's bonfire night next weekend

How weird is that!!!!

Down to Dover

We decided one weekend to take a trip down south following the coast road to Dover. This didn't involve big tailbacks on the M2 or M20 motorways, or dodgy food from motorway services.
What we did find were some lovely waterside bays, a good 'village' cafe/restaurant, and virtually deserted beach with almost pure white sand. OK it's Autumn, not Summer, but this beach is on the outskirts of Dover and is about 2 miles long.
Here are some pics of our journey.

Another Red Cross field trip!!

I'm off to Agfest today, Tasmania's largest agricultural show. Red Cross are having a tent and so I'm traveling north today to set up and then manning the tent tomorrow before returning home on Friday. It's forecast to be cool so I'm packing my thermals!!!

http://agfest.com.au/

Singapore Airlines are having a sale

Well, not just Singapore. Four airlines are having a mini price war which has resulted in 40% being slashed off some fares. Just as well as we have been really surprised by how much airfares are to fly back to the UK. Ironically it's much more expensive to fly ex Oz to the UK rather than other way round. Sooooo, we are taking advantage of the discounted fares and will be coming over for a visit in November. See you then....

Autumn is upon us

It seems strange that it's autumn in April! The weather is mainly clear and sunny, but the temperature is obviously getting cooler particularly overnight. I've been surprised by the arrival of the early morning fog that hangs over parts of Hobart. Apparently it will stay now until spring. Strange!

The leaves on some of the trees are changing - my favourite time of year. Many of the trees here are evergreen and so the colours of autumn are few and far between. This is the season I missed most when I lived in Oz before and I think it will be again.

The Aussie language

Even though English is spoken here there are still new words to learn - well mainly abbreviations of words. The Aussies love to abbreviate and most of these new words end in 'y' (or 'ie', not sure how you spell them) or 'o'. For instance

Ambo is short for paramedic
Firey is short for fireman
Tanty is short for tantrum
Arvo is short for afternoon
Davo is short for Dave!!!!!!

On the move again - this time with work

The Red Cross area that I work in has moved out of Hobart to a suburb called Bridgewater, 30 mins north of Hobart. Of course we currently live to the south giving me a 45 mins drive to work which will increase to an hour when we move into our house. The traffic is nowhere near what you would get in the UK - Hobart doesn't 'do' rush hour - and the views are amazing for part of my drive, so at the mo I don't mind at all. Will let you know what I think in the depths of winter....

Bridgewater is a deprived suburb and so we have moved there to promote our existing programmes within the community and to develop Bridgewater specific programmes. This is a new initiative in Oz and if successful will be duplicated in other parts of Tas and on the mainland.

House plans

Well, these are the penultimate designs for our home. As you can imagine there are still a few changes that we would like to make, including steps from the decking down to the ground, removal of the extra dividing wall/door in Bed 1, fitting a small basin in the toilet, but at least you'll get some idea of what the house will be like. The 'study' will actually be our TV room, but could be converted into a bedroom if a number of you came to stay at once....

The plans are going to council next week and it takes allegedly 4 weeks for their opinion to come through. It's unlikely they will reject our plans, but they may make some recommendations for improvement!!! We're still waiting for a final price on the house and so are still keeping our fingers crossed that we can actually afford it! Will post the final plan when we have it.

We are both so desperate for building to start. We're now in our third rental since we sold our place in West Wratting last June and are soooo looking forward to being in our own place again.

If you click on the images below you should see a large version of the pictures. God J's clever!

J gets his legs back

Sounds a bit, well, medical, but fear not dear surfers!

It is merely a reference to my gradually improving fitness as I continue to cycle to work whenever the opportunity arises. This is about a 17km ride each way, or for those imperialists out there, about 11 miles. In stark contrast to the Cambridgeshire countryside that used to be my 'turf' in England, the terrain in Tas is largely on the steep side. Depending on which side of each hill or mountain you're on, clearly this is either: -
a) great fun albeit slightly frightening at times, especially on sharp corners in the wet
b) a lactic-acid inducing, lung 'n' heart-busting slog

The net result though is plenty of fresh air, fab views, and good all round exercise. Can't be bad!

Julie's got a new job

Well, another job actually. I applied for and got another part time job with the Red Cross. This time it is managing a government funded scheme where Red Cross volunteers visit clients in aged care homes. I will be looking after the south of Tas.

My current contract with Emergency Services ends at the end of June and unless they get further funding there will be no extension. So this new contract gives us financial security for the next 12 months. Great whilst we are building and while we wait and see what happens to the Ozzie economy.

I start in just over a week and whilst excited about the job am not looking forward to working full time again even if it is only 3.5 months- sorry to all full time workers! In reality I have been practically full time for the last month and am not sure how I will physically do both; but things are quietening down in Victoria and where there's a will there's a way!

The fires still burn....

I can't believe it is a month since 'Black Saturday', the day of the worst fires in Australian history, and four fires are still burning. The weather, though, is turning and the CFA (or fireys as they are known here) are on the offensive for the first time.

I spent 9 days in Melbourne, mainly doing what I do in Tas. I was training spontaneous volunteers - people who had come forward in the week since the fires began. I was mainly training social workers and psychologists who would then be placed out in the field to give to support to Red Cross volunteers and staff. As you can imagine they were an interesting participant group and we had some in-depth and sometimes random discussions during sessions! I spent one day out in the field. I went to Taralgon, Churchill and Boolara, all about 2 hours east of Melbourne. I saw faces that showed vividly the experiences that some had been through and other survivors smiling and laughing and promising to rebuild. I can't describe the destruction or the contrary way the fire took one house and not it's neighbour; how a wood was completely burnt but the grass at it's edge was still green and unmarked. So to give you a clearer idea I have attached two web links to photos on YouTube. The first shows pictures from the fire and the second the work of the Red Cross since 'Black Saturday'

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAp26V7bI_s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqBKO4o5_Hk

When you see the photos it is astounding to think that whilst driving through an affected area I was on a road where to the left were just a few houses standing with everything around them burnt and to the right was a cricket pitch with guys playing cricket only 7 days after the fire started. What is called here 'the Aussie battler spirit' has been very apparent in those I've spoken to and in the media. Life goes on.

In the last week I've been working in what is known as the State Inquiry Centre (SIC). This is the free phone number that people call to let us know that they are safe when they have evacuated and where friends and family call for news of their loved ones. Red Cross manages this service on behalf of the Australian Police. It's currently being run on a shift basis in 3 states with Tas answering the phones from 8am - 2pm. I'm off today, but co-ordinating the SIC again tomorrow. Although really busy on Monday and Tuesday as another severe weather front was predicted and many people evacuated, the fires were contained and the number of calls we're receiving has dropped and the last Tas shift maybe tomorrow......

Victorian bush fires

I know that pictures of the bush fires have been broadcast in the UK and you have seen the horror and devastation they have caused. The feeling in Oz for those affected has been amazing and so far $25 million have been collected in donations to help people rebuild there lives. The Red Cross is heavily involved in the recovery process and I'm off to Victoria tomorrow to help. I'm excited to go and do my bit, but feel trepidation about what I might see and hear.

Unmarked police cars

The police are crafty here and will pull you over whilst driving anything from a Hyundai Getz (no one canes it here) to a pick up truck. Even we mainly observe the speed limit. I know! Try not to fall off your chair!!!

We're on the move again

Never wanting to let the grass grow under our feet we're on the move again. Well, actually, we were only able to secure a short term rental that would take pets when we arrived. We'd really underestimated how hard renting with pets would be. Anyway, we've moved into another house in the same street, moving from no 28 to no 33. The house is smaller, but much nicer and feels like a home rather than a rental property as the last 2 places we have lived in have. We'll stay here until we move into our own home later this year. To be honest we are both completely over the moving thing. Jack, you were right, this is the most disruptive thing about the whole process. Still, in theory we will only have to move once more......

New guests on our plot

Yes, we have a couple of horses now lodging on our plot of land, and in the process providing a couple of benefits: -
1. Keeps our 'lawn' mown fro free
2. Provides great manure ready for our compost bins (which we've yet to build)

Here's a picture of one of the horses being unnecessarily rude.

Birthday bonanza

Yes folks, J has reached the ripe old age of 32 (ahem!) on Sunday and, to celebrate, we had a gr8 day of activities.
Early morning start to catch a boat trip from Hobart docks down the eastern shore, and then back up the western shore of the Derwent River. This is the estuary to the South Pacific and Indian Oceans that run down (not literally) to Antarctica.
It was both a surprise and a joy to have the boat to ourselves - well apart from Captain Bird's Eye and the hostess with mostess!! We spent all our time in the bridge, talking with Cap'n Bird's Eye, looking out at the Fairy Penguins in the water and wondering why there were so many artillery batteries along the coast. I mean, Tasmania is hardly an important military asset!
After brunch in Salamanca Place we went to an art gallery in which one of the rooms has effectively been turned into an aviary. In this room are about five electric guitars fixed in a horizontal way so that Zebra Finches can perch on top of them and make music. This was quite surreal but undoubtedly 'arty'.
Bought some bits for our imminent camping trip to the North East coast and then home for Sunday afternoon papers and fresh Tassie cherries (the best).

The agony and ecstasy of building

We had our next meeting with Bill and Rowan, our architect and builder, this week. Bill has been busy over Christmas and has designed the first plan of our home and it's beautiful and bigger than we had expected, but of course there is a catch. Rowan's first guesstimate on cost is that it will be $20K over budget and it doesn't have a garage or workshop for J's woodworking which would make it $40K over budget! It's awful, it's like someone's given you a new toy to play with, one that you really love, and now you have to give it back!!! Soooooo, Rowan is getting more info on costs and we're looking at what changes we would be prepared to make to save costs and Rowan and I are meeting next week for a chat. Plus, J and I will be looking at kitchens, bathrooms and tiles this weekend. Within Rowan's budget there are allowances for each of these. We have no idea what things cost here so we're window shopping on the weekend to see if we can make any savings, or more likely that the allowances are inadequate for the things we'll want which will push us further over budget!!!!! Still, it's really exciting!

We're so tempted to post the plan on the blog, but don't want to jinx our chances of being able to afford the house, or a version of it. Will let you know whether or not we're going for it next week.

Wally the wallaby

I don't think David Attenborough or Steven Spielberg have anything to worry about. My cinematography skills are obviously at the amateur end of the continuum!