More Snow

What a nightmare. Wimborne was just hit by a snow storm which went for about 2 hours. Typically, I was out and about and had driven up a hill. How was I to get back? I drove very slowly but god I was scared for Oliver's life especially when he started trying to get out of his car seat which had to be at the most inconvenient time, when I was just about to go down a hill. What do I do? Do I stop and get out of the car to strap him in tighter and hope the car doesn't start to slide / roll away on the snow or do I keep going and pray I don't crash?

I stopped, put the hand brake on as tight as I could and hoped it was enough. I jumped out of the car as quick as I could, strapped him back in and then went on my way. Got towards the bottom of the hill and saw someone else get out of their car which did start to slide away. Then, when I got down to where that car was, I started to slide. SHIT! I started to panic and wonder whether I was going to get Oliver home safe and sound. He was oblivious to all of this and was playing happily ripping out pages in his most favourite book! At that point I wasn't concerned. I just wanted us to get home.

It came on all of a sudden, without warning. The councils have run out of salt to grit the roads so they are all icy and dangerous. I live on a main road, which is at a stand still.

We live to tell the tale. We got home. We are moving out this weekend, Monday and Tuesday. Please let the weather improve! Please don't snow me in.

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow

We don't get much snow here in Dorset. This is the most we have had in the 6 years I have been living here. It was quite thick and I must say, nice! But gosh, it is so cold. And to think the snow has put England, particularly London at a standstill. No trains, tubes or even some planes were able to make it to their destination.

PS The above weather conditions have caused concern for going out tonight for the other girls so it has been postponed for tomorrow night. Damn, I was looking forward to a couple of wines.

10 Things I will Miss

Apart from the obvious - friends, family and things I have mentioned before, here are 10 things I will miss about England which I promised myself I would do.


1. Having the post delivered through my front door. Unlike in Australia, we don't have mail boxes out the front of our houses, we have a hole in our front door. So the post gets literally delivered through our front door. It's great on a cold day when you don't want to go outside. I will probably forget to collect the post when we move.
2. Monsoon, H&M, Gap and Zara. I can't really remember what the shopping was like in Australia when I lived there. 6 years ago, I was a fan of Portmans, Sports Girl, Esprit and Quava (don't think they exist anymore) but my taste has probably changed since then so I will have no idea where to shop when I move back. Monsoon, H&M, Zara and Gap are my favourite shops for clothes for myself and Oliver. I might have to put in a request from my mother in law if she visits us when we move to get a load of clothes for us in the end of season stock sales or hopefully Zara and H&M will have online shopping soon.
3. The home made pies we get from the farm shop down the road from hubby's parents place. They cost a small fortune but they are so nice. My Dad is a meat pie fanatic and he rates them as one of the best he has ever tasted. They are delicious especially the lamb and mint pie.
4. Having Europe at our door step. I was lucky enough in my 6 years to visit Ireland, France (X2), Italy (X3), Croatia, Spain (X3), Denmark, Belgium, Wales, Greece, Austria and Czech Republic. There were more places I wanted to visit before we left but we did see a lot which was nice. Having said that, I am looking forward to some road trips in Australia. A few on my list already are Noosa, Byron Bay, Perth and the Great Ocean Road.
5. Wimborne Minster. It's a great village to live with only about 6000 people and that probably includes the surrounding area. Almost everyday (unless it is pouring with rain or too cold), Oliver and I will take a wander into town which takes about 15 minutes. It has a lovely stream flowing through the town and such quaint and narrow streets. I love that we can go into town and everyone is so friendly and usually, we run into someone we know. If I could put Wimborne into Australia, I would have a perfect place. Over the next month, I plan to take a lot of photos of the area for keepsake so I will share some with you as well.
6. TV Shows. I must say I don't really watch much TV and I do miss some of the Aussie and America TV shows that you don't get here but I have become addicted to some of the English ones especially X Factor! It's only on for 4 months of the year so I will survive.
7. Judy's House. Oliver's child care place, it is excellent except for the expensive price at £40a day but they really take care of him there, it is so personable and he even got a great Christmas present from them. I am sure we will find a good one for him in Australia though and hopefully cheaper, it's got to be, right?
8. Living in our house. Even though my heart wasn't in to decorating it, and if I had my time again I would have done it a bit differently in some of the rooms, but I will miss living in our house. I don't like the idea of people we don't know living in it but hopefully our lovely neighbours will keep an eye on them for us.
9. Marks and Spencer Food and Waitrose Food. Not that we buy it often but they do have some excellent and fresh prepared meals but they do cost a small fortune. You can even go into the supermarket and buy a fresh sandwich already packaged which aren't bad if you are in a hurry. Is there anything like that in Australia, probably the most similar would be David Jones Food but on a smaller scale, I think.
10. My chiropracter. How could I forget him. He should be number 1 actually. I spent a small fortune on various massages, physio treatments and chiropracters until I found him. He corrected my problems in a couple of sessions and 4 months ago was the first time I saw him in 2 years. I will go back for a final session next month. I wish I could pack him in my suitcase.

Wow, that was hard but I said I would do it. I am sure there are other things but I couldn't think of them at the time. Stay tuned for hair photos.

The Streets of Wimborne

Below are some scenes that you would see on the Streets of Wimborne.

And a little bit further away but still in Dorset (where the best beaches in England exist)

10 Things I won't Miss

Apart from the obvious......weather, cost of living, etc etc, here is a list of 10 things I won't miss about England.

1. Not having a power point in the bathroom. You are not by law allowed a power point in the bathroom so I have to blow dry my hair in the bedroom without a mirror. I hate it. The only point you are allowed is for an electric razor. Oh and you have to have a pull down light switch as well which I hate.
2. Having to pack your own groceries into shopping bags. I can't stand it especially when your struggling with a baby. Now that the Aussies use the recycled bags a lot more, they probably have to pack their own now as well but the supermarkets here never ever pack for you recycled bags or not and they will even sit there and wait for you to finish unpacking your groceries on to the conveyer belt bfeore they start scanning so they don't have to help.
3. Driving a manual car. I hate it but most cars here are manual. I can't wait to get back to driving an automatic and I don't have to have a panic attack everytime I need to do a hill start. I did learn in a manual but the city driving in Sydney convinced to me to convert to an automatic.
4. Having a small house with small rooms. Most houses here are older then Australia so understandably, the rooms are very small. We are lucky to have parking, most in my area don't have off street parking so I am looking forward to having bigger open plan rooms and a garage. I even think hubby is secretly looking forward to having a garage.
5. The horrible bins or lack there of that the local council provide us for rubbish collection. Up until now, we were given a half a years supply of black garbage bags to use. Now we get nothing. It sucks big time and I can't wait to get my wheelie bin back.
6. Going to a Westfield shopping centre or similar and having everything under the one roof. Here, everything is on the main streets outdoors so if it is cold or raining, then it is not very appealing to go out. The other thing that a big shopping centre provides is a food hall, oh I love those. Everyone can eat what they want and all sit together.
7. Swimming indoors even in summer. The pools are always indoors and always heated. I can't wait to go for a swim in an outdoor unheated swimming pool or better still in the sea. I have only managed to get in the sea here in England 2 times (both in the same day). I forced myself to go in this summer as it will be our last and even though it was a hot day, the sea was so cold.
8. Not having a laundry room. Most houses here have the washing machine in the kitchen which is horrendous. So there is no where to do your hand washing, it really is a nuisance.
9. Driving on fast motor ways. I know the highways can get fast but the police don't enforce speed here as much as they do in the Australia and people do drive at least 5 miles faster over the speed limit.
10. Working in pounds, miles, stone really get up my goat and I am always trying to convert into what I know - kilometres, kilograms, and dollars!!!

The 10 things I will miss about England is posing a little bit more of a problem, but I will get there. I promise

Top 10 Memories of living in the UK in Photos

1. Birth of Oliver
2. Getting Engaged in Austria

3. Buying our first property together (upstairs flat)

4. Our First European Holiday - Bruges in Belgium

5. Our First Holiday (other then our honeymoon) as married - Greek Islands

6. Having my Mum and Dad visit for the birth of Oliver

7. Making some wonderful friends for life even though we will be 12,000 miles apart soon

8. Going to Wimbledon and having fantastic seats

9. Buying our second property

10. Spending my 30th Birthday in Barcelona Spain with friends from Sydney

Stay tuned for the 10 things I will miss about England and the 10 things I won't miss about it.

Christmas Parade

It was the Wimborne Christmas parade today. Oh my god, the crowds, it was crazy. It was such a lovely atmosphere. There were morris dancers, marching bands, lots and lots of people and no rain! Oliver and I went along and he had a ball, thanks to the steam engines and the tractors that were there.

I think every man and his dog was there. It is a quaint little village, I do like living here and usually you run into someone you know, like today. You can see it was a miserable grey day though.

Do towns in Australia do this sort of thing?

Prayers for Kaitlin

Kaitlin is our next door neighbours grand daughter. She is only 3.5 and was born with Muscular Dystrophy. I am not sure if she has a life expectancy, I don't want to ask and I don't want an answer.

She will never roll over. let alone crawl or walk. One day she asked why Oliver can crawl but she couldn't. It broke my heart.

She is currently in hospital and heavily sedated at the moment as she has broncholitis. With a weak immunity, this is not good for her.

They have cancelled a family holiday to Florida already for later in the year and she could be in hospital for sometime.

Please say a prayer for her.

Kitchen Make Over Complete

We started this kitchen project back in July. 4 months later and it is finally finished. Thank god as we have the estate agents coming this week to value the property. I am not feeling optimistic about it with prices dropping around £20,000 in the last 12 months. I suppose I could wish upon a star. We have done a hell of a lot of work to this place to get it as tip top as our budget allows. I can honestly say that the kitchen is my favourite room.

So, here is the before shot. YUCK, YUCKO, YUCKY.

We have a Victorian property, built circa late 1890's / early 1900's so there is a lot of character in the place which I normally love. However, chimney breats. Every room in our house has one and they can be so frustrating to design around them. The only major problem was in the kitchen and to remove the chimney breast would have been in excess of £500 so we decided to just work with it. This is the wall with the wretched thing.

The cupboards jut out a bit from the wall where the chimney is. We decided not to have any wall units on it as they would have been too narrow and I think it would have closed the room in.

We moved the external door. It used to be where Oliver is standing but we decided to have it at the end of the house (where the main bathroom used to be). It is a south facing garden (like the north facing garden in the northern hemisphere) so has so much light, it was definitely the right thing to do. I love the deep pan drawers that Oliver is getting into here.

The main bathroom is now upstairs (albeit small) so this room is now a utility room / laundry, with a shower in it. On the other side is a cloak room (toilet and sink). It is so nice to havea proper shower. After living in England for almost 6 years, I am so used to having one just over the bath.

This view is from the external door. I am loving my glass splashback. So so easy to clean. We had a bit of an ordeal choosing floor tiles and then more of a drama getting them laid. What should have taken 2 days, took about 4 weeks. Stupid trades people.


And this is with the door closed for privacy when showering. We still need to get some blinds made for the doors.

While I am in the kitchen, I will show a few items that we will be travelling back to Australia with us. We should get away with just one box for the kitchen. This little picture was bought while we were on holiday in St Emilion, France. I remember that holiday so well, it was the first time my parents and my sister came to visit.

This other picture was bought while we were on holiday in Tuscany, Italy at a little hill top village called San Gimignano. I remember going back and forth to the shop trying to decide if I should buy it. I think my sister and hubby were relieved when I finally made a decision. It is actually a tile and weighs a tonne.

This dinner set is another thing we will be taking back. It is royal worcester, birth place of hubby. We used to make a trek to this store every time we were back there and just happened to stumble across a pretty good deal. Each item was only £1 so we bought a whole dinner set for about £40. Usually, each item would be almost £15 each. It is quite a delicate and dainty set, not something I normally would choose but for that price, I couldn't argue or be choosy.
This Wednesday is a big day. Estate agents coming to value property and hubby has his medical and x ray for his visa application, so keep your fingers, arms and toes crossed.

All Systems Go

Well it has been a while since I wrote. I haven't been in the mood. So many things have gone wrong for us this month and I wish I could have curled up and fallen asleep through it all. Anyway, it is onwards and upwards for us, it can only get better, right? So to make sure it can only get better, we have started back on the house renovations. We have saved the hardest and most expensive for last.... the kitchen and downstairs bathroom! But once this is done, we will have it all ready to rent out when we move back to Australia. As the housing market is crashing here, we would be silly to sell as we wouldn't recover the money we have spent on it.

Next week I am sending off an application for Oliver to become an Australian citizen and then we can get him his Aussie passport. Once we have done this, Alastair will then apply for his spouse visa with the plan to have it all done and approved for the big move in January. I still worry every night that something will happen and we won't move. Oliver and I will miss some of the lovely Mummies and babies we have met but the UK is not home for me and never will be.

I went back to work 2 weeks ago. Only one day a week and it was horrible. I am sure it will get better though! I hope. We won't be putting Oliver into care until mid August so hopefully I will be ready by then. Right now, he is being shared between Alastair, his grand ma and my sister who will be visiting in August.

The other news and most exciting news is that I have a walker!! He started taking his first steps at 12.5 months but now he wants to practice all the time and he is getting much better now and prefers to walk then be carried or in his push chair.

Here is a photo, he is so proud of himself.

Next time I post, hopefully I will be showing up a before and after shot of our kitchen.