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!