Daylight Saving arrives

The clocks went forward here on Saturday night for Daylight Saving Time (which makes the difference with the UK change to 11 hours from 9 hours). So the evenings are lighter until just after 7pm at the moment and we had our first evening meal on the veranda - probably the first of many over the next few months!

It's been a quiet week in some ways, with Sue being over in Belfast, but also busy with various household jobs and running the girls around. We skipped cooking on Friday night and tried the local Chinese takeaway which was good.

On Saturday morning I took Laura for a driving lesson to Colloroy where we bought a wetsuit for her swimming classes at the local pool, as 3 hours in the water gets quite cold! I then took Caroline and 3 friends down to the Mall - including a new English girl who has just started at the school - and later Rebecca was out at a party on Saturday night.

Sunday has been a quieter day although Laura went off to watch the Aria awards this evening - she had managed to get hold of 3 tickets for the 'pit' at the show, which is the Aussie equivalent of the 'Brit' awards and so all the main bands will be there, some performing and others receiving awards, so it should be an exciting experience for her!

Monster plane lands in Sydney

Just before 5.30 yesterday evening the first commercial flight of the new Airbus A380 landed at Sydney airport. The Singapore Airlines plane was only carrying about 470 people (instead of the 800+ it could carry) and the passengers had paid over the odds through a charity auction on eBay to get seats in the first flight from Singapore.

The plane flew over the harbour on the way to the airport but as the weather had been wet with low cloud all day, it wasn't much of a sight! This huge plane will eventually be as commonplace as the 747 and probably replace it as the main long-haul carrier.

We may end up using it one day, although the thought of such a big plane with so many passengers doesn't appeal at the moment!

(The photo is from the Sydney Morning Herald).

English sporting 'failures'

It was another big weekend of sport on TV again, although the events were being televised in the early hours so it meant recording and then watching first thing in the morning before hearing any news bulletins!

Unfortunately it was another tail of English sporting 'failures' at the finishing post - firstly the England rugby team losing the World Cup final to South Africa on Sunday morning, and then this morning the disappointment of Lewis Hamilton losing the Formula 1 World Championship by 1 point. Even with all the 'what ifs' (the disallowed try and the gearbox problem), both the team and the driver performed much better than expected, but it would have been good for at least one of them to have come out on top!

This weekend was also a busy one in various ways. Sue and I went to the old art-deco cinema in Cremorne on Friday night, which was an impressive restored building which used to be a theatre in the 1930's. Then on Saturday we attended a 60th birthday party at lunchtime in Palm Beach which was very pleasant.

Yesterday was a hot but windy day. Laura had a 'professional' driving lesson with an instructor who will work on the things that she now needs to get right ready for the test. All of us then went to Narrabeen after lunch to look around the monthly market and then spent an hour or so on the beach there. It was still breezy and the sea was strong, so although Sue and I ventured in for a while we didn't stay in for long and then enjoyed watching the waves crashing in as we dried off!

Sue's now off back to the UK (Belfast) for just over a week so I'll be taking her to the airport at lunchtime today.

Blackout

We had a power cut for 3 hours this afternoon - called a 'blackout' here, even though it was during the day! I had heard a noise outside the house at lunchtime and then noticed all the power had gone, so checked our fuse box first (which is on the outside of the house) and then saw a group of neighbours up on the road. I went to check that they were without power as well and the overhead cable outside our house had apparently blown and the loose ends were dangling on the road - one end being several feet from our car!

Eventually an electricity worker came and fixed the cable back up but it was a bit disruptive to the working day with no computer or phone. These blackouts can be quite a common problem as most areas of Sydney have all the power and telephone cables above ground. In this area, where there are lots of trees along the streets, the cables can be affected by falling branches (particularly from gum trees that are prone to have branches break off) and so many trees are cropped every few years into a 'Y' shape to allow space for the cables. This cropping is usually accompanied by complaints from residents about how much the trees are cut back and disfigured!

Oh yes, it's also that time of year when the flies are back!

Driving lessons

Laura is slowly progressing through her required driving hours before she can take a test - we had another hour this morning and so she has about 12 hours left to reach the necessary 50 and we want her to have a few with a professional driving instructor soon to identify any bad habits that she might be picking up from us, and to answer questions about the test that we aren't sure about.

Apparently the first driving test is only about 20 minutes long at the moment but it's increasing to 40 minutes in December, so ideally Laura can take it - and pass - before then. The learner driver process is a more structured, long-term, process here than in the UK, starting with a computer based multiple-choice exam to gain the 'L' plates, then a minimum 50 hours driving, followed by a driving test to get the red 'P' plate.

After a further year you need to take another computer-based test to get a green 'P' plate which must then be held for 24 months, followed by a final test before getting a full licence. There are also strict rules about what you can do as an L or P-plate driver and the regulations have got stricter over the past year as there were a number of high profile fatal car crashes with P-plate drivers soon after we arrived here.

Once Caroline starts to drive next February she will now need to complete 120 hours of driving before taking the first test, including 20 hours at night. This will be a huge commitment in time but should make her a well-qualified driver by the time she can take a test, which even at 2 hours driving a week will be over a year later!

Waterspout

Laura noticed this waterspout out to sea yesterday morning and called us all from our various activities to have a look. It was very impressive and she took a number of photos from the house as we watched it slowly moving north up the coast. We were also surprised that it didn't seem very windy here, but must have been the local conditions out to sea that caused it.

As you can also tell, the spring sunshine hasn't become a regular daily event yet!

Weekend sport (on TV)

It's been a busy weekend for sporting events, starting with England's 'shock' win over the Aussies in the Rugby World Cup - Laura and I stayed up to watch the match which started at 11pm here and it was a gripping game with a good outcome. Nice to see the Aussies put in their place occasionally!

The weekend was also the annual Bathhurst 1000km, which is the biggest annual motor racing event in Australia between Ford and Holden v8 'supercars'. It takes place the other side of the Blue Mountains and is a spectacular track on mostly public roads and an amazing sight with 30 powerful 'road cars' powering around. However, the race on Sunday takes around 6 hours to complete, so it's a 'dip in' viewing event when there's other things to do!

And then it was the second Grand Prix in two weekends that were within out time zone - the Japanese race last week was televised in the afternoon which makes a change from the usual late at night transmissions of the European races. Yesterday's race in China was demoted to a 1am showing due to the TV schedules, however, so it meant recording it and watching it first thing today. Lewis Hamilton didn't quite clinch the title in another eventful wet race but it will make it exciting viewing for the last race with 3 drivers in with a chance of winning - however, being in Brazil this is likely to be televised in the very small hours of the morning!

Sydney Settlers

This week has seen the 'soft launch' of Sue's new business venture - Sydney Settlers - which will provide new migrants with information on the Northern Beaches region to help them decide on which might be the best areas to settle, depending on things such as schools, travel to the city, beach locations and so on.

Sue's done a lot of research for each of the main suburbs and knows the areas really well now! She's selling a range of different services to new migrants and we'll be marketing the business in the UK and possibly South Africa, as the Northern Beaches area is very popular with migrants from both countries. This type of information was also something that would have given us a head-start before arriving and other migrants here say they would have found this useful, so hopefully it will attract some good interest.

Yesterday also saw our first dip in the sea for the season. The temperatures reached over 30 degrees during the day although the house remained quite cool. However, at the end of the day Sue and I took Rebecca and a friend down to Curl Curl for a quick swim in the sea before the sun went down. It was a bit bracing to start with but refreshing and we'll probably do this more often this summer as we don't have a pool with the house now (and we're living closer to the beach).

Manly Jazz Festival

This weekend has been a 3-day jazz festival in Manly which is an annual event, now in the 30th year. We hadn't been last year but Sue and I went with Rebecca on Saturday morning to see the start and then as the girls were off with friends today, Sue and I returned for the last few hours this afternoon. There were 5 stages set up at various points throughout Manly with a variety of performers ranging from local schools to international acts.

We saw the end of a performance by a boys' private school 'big band' who were excellent, followed by a small American group on the Corso. We finished the evening at the main beachfront stage and watched a jazz-funk band for an hour who were superb. It's great to listen to good live music sitting outside in the warmth with the sun going down! Afterwards we went for a meal at a fish restaurant before walking back along the coastal path to where we had parked the car.

It was the Labour Day public holiday today as well and the whole weekend has been warm and sunny again. We had also been out to a restaurant in Dee Why on Saturday night to meet with Ro & Arthur (relations of friends from Crowborough) and on Sunday we'd had Carol and her children here for lunch as Paul is currently back in the UK.

Sunday night also saw the big 'footie' final at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney which was televised and is the showpiece conclusion to the NRL season (rugby league) - the main spectator sport in this region. Local team Manly Sea Eagles had finished second in the table and were playing Melbourne, who had won the table as well as both teams having qualified through the play-offs to get to the final. There was lots of local support for Manly from this area but in the end they got trounced in the final 34-8, which was a disappointing result. I'd never expected to have watched rugby league and enjoy it either!