Adult Literacy Group

Yesterday morning Sue attended the first of 10 weekly training sessions for a local adult literacy group. This is a volunteer group and once she has completed the training programme, she'll be allocated someone for a year who needs help with literacy or numeracy. These may be non-English language immigrants, but are more likely to be Australians who have difficulty with these skills for whatever reason.

There were about 10 people attending the course, which is held in a room at one of the local primary schools. Sue is one of the younger ones doing the course and there was quite a mix of people, but she thinks it will be fun, and hopefully rewarding. It was very much an introductory session yesterday but quite interactive and they will continue now for the next 9 Tuesday mornings.

We had our social tennis evening at the local club last night and the numbers are starting to drop away now that 'winter' approaches. However, after a week or more of cold evenings it was a lovely warm one last night and with 12 people there we had continual games for 2 hours.

St Georges Head

The weekend has been clear and sunny again so Sue and I went with Rebecca to St Georges Head yesterday afternoon for a short walk around the headland, which juts out into the harbour opposite the Heads (entrance to the harbour). As a result, this has been military land in the past and there's a large network of old gun emplacements and concrete bunkers around the end of the headland - the Australian equivalent of a Medieval castle in the UK!

Earlier in the day I took Laura for another hour's driving lesson and she tackled the main road again for the second time, having been on it earlier in the week with Sue. It's a 3-lane road either side, so something like a motorway although not quite so fast! She did well and has now reached 20 hours of her required 50 hours before she can take a test.

Saturday was largely taken up with more house hunting - we looked at another 6 during the day, with one promising one (although location not ideal, as usual) and a highly overpriced one at Seaforth which was simply due to its fantastic view over the Middle Harbour. There were quite a few other people looking at a number of the viewings, which are allocated a 15 or 30 minute 'open house' time during the day, and this can put the pressure on if it's a house you like.

Bush camp

Laura's just come back from another 3-day camp with a small group from school. It was a harder one than before, with a 4-hour canoe trip, 2 day bush walk and overnight camp - we thought it sounded great, but it was quite tough for them, with leeches attaching themselves and mosquitoes biting, plus a very cold night in a tent. She was glad to get back and have a shower, but at least she's seen some more of the country!

The days have been clear and sunny this week, although this has also meant that the nights are cold. We've heard this many times and are now beginning to experience it, that houses here aren't built for temperatures below 15c! We have a few electric heaters and a gas fire in one room, but the house temperature is usually only several degrees higher than the outside temperature, which makes evenings and mornings quite cool, and we're still in autumn...

House hunting and Palm Beach

We had a couple of houses to look at on Saturday but one was too small and the other enormous, with a great view but not an ideal location. Rebecca came with us to view the houses and since we were heading up the coast and it was a beautiful Autumn day, we carried on to Palm Beach for the afternoon. This is right at the top of the peninsula and where 'Home & Away' is filmed - very expensive property here but a lovely beach.

We had a walk along the relatively quiet beach - the sea is now getting too cold for swimming - and then headed up through a steep bush path to the Barranjoey Lighthouse which sits right at the end of the peninsula overlooking the Hawkesbury river entrance. There are some fantastic views up there, looking north up the coast and south down the narrow strip of land behind Palm Beach. There are some photos here.

Today was also a warm sunny day and taken up with a driving lesson for Laura in the morning and then Rebecca had a friend come round for the afternoon. Sue and I went for a bike ride for an hour and I also watched a very dull FA Cup Final, recorded overnight from the new Wembley Stadium, which looks very impressive.

Finally, Sydney woke up to thick fog twice during the past working week which caused disruption due to ferries being cancelled on the harbour and also flights being diverted, which means Brisbane or Melbourne which can't be fun! However, the photo below is from the Sydney Morning Herald and shows the Sydney tower on Thursday morning before the fog cleared:

Jumping ahead

Well, it looks like the previous posting about a new house to move into by the end of the month was somewhat premature! The agents phoned us up yesterday evening, after having spoken to the owners of the house (who live in Hong Kong), and apparently they've been planning to sell it in October. So there's no way we are going to move there for 4 months and we wonder why the agents didn't find this out in the first place!

We had thought that we'd been lucky to find somewhere so soon and to give the owners of our place the chance to move back in quickly. However, it doesn't look like being that way and at least we don't have the pressure to move yet - hopefully something else that's promising will turn up in the coming weeks, or months....

On the subject of property, we've also been notified this week that our tenants in Crowborough have decided to move out in July (so much for a 2-year rental!), but the agents are hopeful that they can get somebody else in quickly. Also Sue & Simon's flat in Tonbridge is under offer, so we're keeping fingers crossed on that one, hoping that it doesn't fall through!

We've had our first day of rain today for several weeks and it's been wet most of the day, which was unfortunate for Rebecca and Laura, who spent the day at Taronga Zoo. It was Rebecca's Year 7 trip out and they were accompanied by their 'peer-support' leaders from Year 11, which included Laura. It was wet for the whole of their visit, but it didn't seem to bother them that much and at least it must have been empty of tourists today!

New home

It looks like we've found a new place to live already! We took the girls after school to see one of the houses we had looked at last week in Frenchs Forest and they really liked it, plus it also seemed better to Sue and me on second viewing.

There's no pool or great view this time, but it's closer to the school and good value compared to some of the other places we've seen. Although we had a long time to move out of this place, it's always a risk whether something better will come up or not and the new house should be very comfortable, with plenty of space.

More about the house once our lease is confirmed and we move in, which could be in just over 2 weeks time! The owners of our current place have agreed to contribute to the costs of our moving as well, which is good, although the removal quotes that we've had already seem very reasonable compared to UK prices which is surprising (and possibly a little concerning!).

Blue Mountains

It was Mother's Day in Australia today, so we had a rare 'family day out' with a trip to the Blue Mountains - the first time we had made the trip since arriving (and also since we last did it with Laura and Caroline in 1993). After a hot sunny day yesterday it was more cloudy today but bright and with the occasional sun, so we set off at 9.30 and headed out on the Western Highway through the suburbs, before climbing up into the mountain region.

It took about an hour and half to reach Wentworth Falls where we stopped and had a short walk through the bush to the main viewpoint. There was also a new path that has recently been opened that went down and across the falls and then down a series of rock steps to the lower falls - however, the girls weren't keen and Sue and I will have to do that another day!

There was a noticeable chill in the air with the difference in height (around 1,000m) but the views were good since there wasn't a heat haze over the mountains today. We next headed to the main tourist centre - Katoomba and Echo Point - for lunch and a view over the Three Sisters rock formation.

After this we headed back towards Sydney via the less busy route to the north and through the fruit growing area around Bilpin - it was a long drive and brought us through the large new housing developments in the western suburbs before eventually getting back in the last afternoon.

New musical challenge

Sue has been looking for an orchestra (or band as they tend to call them here) to join, so that she can have more of a challenge with her flute. Those that she'd found to date hadn't been suitable for various reasons, but having taken her flute and Rebecca's clarinet for a service last week, she learnt about a band which plays quite locally every week for 'late starters'.

So last night she headed off to Roseville Primary School where they meet each Wednesday and had an exhausting but enjoyable night. They start with a less experienced group at 7pm for an hour, which Sue found quite easy, and then the more advanced players turn up for another hour or so, which Sue could cope with although it was more challenging, which is what she wants.

She was made to feel very welcome and it was also quite a relaxed group. She will probably also do some performances with this band in the future - they were doing a final practice for a 'tea dance' at the weekend, although Sue doesn't feel ready to do that yet, but they also perform at a big festival in Sydney later this year where Rebecca's school band will also be involved.

Manly Beach

This weekend has been warm and sunny, as well as quite busy. On Saturday we started looking at possible houses to move to, although there was only the one available to view on the day that was a possibility, although we immediately knew once we started looking around that it wasn't suitable - unfortunately, our current house is setting quite a high standard to live up to!

On Saturday afternoon Sue and I took a short bush walk at nearby Killarney Heights, overlooking the Middle Harbour, which was easy going but too enclosed within the trees to be that scenic. Laura has started working half-days at the newsagents now, although she also worked on Sunday as well this weekend to cover for a friend.

This morning Sue and I visited the local Sunday market which is always quite busy. It's a mixture of organic produce and other stalls selling mostly health-type products, but not likely to be a regular shopping location for us! In the afternoon Caroline and Rebecca were off with friends so we drove to Queenscliff and walked the length of the Manly beachfront down to Shelly Beach. It was a beautiful day with lots of people out being busy on the beach or the promenade, plus the bay at Shelley Beach was very popular with snorkelers, so we decided to come back and try this sometime.

On the move?

Yesterday, heralded a number of impending changes. Most immediate was that Sue's decided she's had enough of her 1-day a week job and is resigning. After a promising start, the school doesn't seem to have thought the job through and the hours have been too long for the work involved. What's more, the teacher who is supposed to be managing Sue tries to avoid any contact as she is probably aware that she needs to find more work for Sue to do. Consequently Sue's found it boring, isolated and not at all enjoyable, so will look for something else to do.

The second event of the day was a phone call in the afternoon from the property agent looking after this house - I thought she was going to ask to come around for a 6-month inspection, but she actually told us that the owners have returned early from Boston and would like to move back into their home! We legally have until October to stay, but we appreciate their situation and will begin looking around now and take our time until something suitable comes up, which is quite a good situation to be in really!

Watch this space...