eensy weensy spider...

many of you will know that i do not associate myself with the 8 legged species of this world. they are bad. bad bad bad.


so i have always been relatively lucky that even on my travels with Sonj all those many years ago the scariest things we saw were huntsmen's and a giant stick insect which we were saved from by an 8 year old. other than the normal juicy spider in public bathrooms of course!!

and these past months out here i have been very aware that Priya and some others have sworn not to visit me if i manage to get myself bitten during the first year (or is it two years). As we all know if anyone is to be bitten by anything... then it will be me!! I am more scared than proud of that statement too...

I had obviously heard about redbacks and had even googled them on the web. and from the pic (not mine but stolen.. sorry BORROWED from a website) you can see that they are quite ornate spiders. shiny and black with a big red stripe. i always wondered if they actually really and truly looked that shiny and if the red was really that bright and obvious. well people. they are. and it is.

On a lovely sunday afternoon with Mr & Mrs Price and family a web was noticed under a bench (not the one i was sitting on fortunately) and on closer inspection a big juicy red back was laying in wait. My first Red Back! It is odd to be excited by this i do realise. But it is almost a milestone for any migrant to Oz to see such a thing, especially for future identification. So imagine my delight when there was another one found a few moments later! Albeit considerably smaller, a harmful foe none the less.

it is important to note that no one was harmed in the discovery of these spiders. Except the spiders themselves as they were rightfully murdered due to invading personal space.

Spring was sprung

So spring may have sprung in the uk but autumn is officially fallen
here in Melbourne!!

Jumpers are on every day. The heating is on. My fingers are cold as I
tap this inti my phone.

Never mind the mid life crisis of my 30th it is amazing how the green
eyed monster reacts when reading peoples facebook updates of sunburn
and suncream and aircon!! When I want to praise thermals and
scarves!!! And sleep under a hot shower (although many of you will
know from previous tales that I shouldn't fall asleep under showers!!).
So all you eeenglish people and your god damned sunshine i hope you
enjoy it!! And not one of you dare complain!!!

Not any ordinary candle...

But this candle is my 30th birthday candle!!

Noone sang happy birthday to me on my birthday :o(. And there was no
birthday cake. :o(.

But all was saved by the sonj and a special delivery with a mini
birthday cake inside!!

So today albeit ten days late Liam sang happy birthday to me and I
blew out this very candle on my cake!!

(although no cake or birthday singsongs were had on my actual birthday
lime did fly me to a beautiful beach location, snuck my parents in to
our hotel and bought me the most fabulous of birthday presents. So it
was fabulous even without singsong and cake)

Mmmmm chocolate...

I don't think this pic does justice. But this is my goody draw!!

I have approx 7 packets of hobnobs in a variety of milk and dark choc.
Large milka, Lindt, dairy milk and caramel bars along with a large
assortment of smaller bars and a couple of fun size packs poured in
along with some mini toblerone. A couple of Percy pigs and friends and
a variety of mo ster munch, french fries, wotsits, maltesers and
minstrels.

I hope I didn't forget anything!!

Thank you to my sponsors the marsh family, miss Barbary and miss foley-
Cooper. Your humanitarian work for the sanity of an English girl in
Australia will not go unnoticed and you have all been entered for the
Nobel peace prize.

Yum. And thankyou.

The great tea debate

Tea. I love a good cup of tea. And a biscuit. Preferrably a choccie
hobnob.

The tea in oz is debatable. I myself periodically for the past decade
have sent Yorkshire tea over for Helena. And I was advised to bring
tea with me when we moved here but anyone who saw my luggage would
appreciate there was no was that was gonna happen!!

But I disagree with the general consensus of there being bad tea.
Admittedly it's slightly weaker but then you just buy the one I have
(as in pic) or a good English brekky like twinings and you get a fab
cuppa.

The water is different bug nicer. No limescale scum or build up.

So I say Aussie tea is fine and dandy and those fussy pesky tea
drinkers need to reassess their tea snobbery!!

Shipping arriving - friend or foe?

Today was a joyous day.

I woke up to Liam having collected the post and a small package had my name on it! This package had a fabulous content. Some rather funky socks. And a fabulous box of lindt choccies! What a great start to
shipping arrival day! Chocolate for breakfast much to liam's disapproval!!

After a long schlep round the city we went to storage and paid, filled in all the oh so exciting paperwork and then walked to the furthest cafe from the storage up the hill and sat down for coffee and cake.

The second it was about to be delivered to the table the god damned delivery drivers called. Instead of giving us notice they were already at the storage place at the furthest end of town from us!

Anyhoo. Love the shipping. I'm currently wrapped in my warmest and dearest dressing gown but oh the pain...

So let's see how it scores:

Shipping as friend...
                             - shoes! I have so much choice now
                             - warm clothes! It is winter...
                             - more clothes!!
                             - having stuff. That can do stuff. Such as hair curlers.
Shipping as foe...
                             -bad back
                             - pulled muscle in hip
                             - no room for more clothes
                             - broken nails
                             - bruised fingers from pressing objects into tape
                                while attempting to open boxes.

That's 5 to 4. Shipping is therefore officially foe. Anyone who disagrees can pay for me to see a physio!!
Oh and have attached pic of first boxes off the truck as I was just so darned excited at first!!