Moose on the Move!

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After a mad couple of days back in England unpacking and repacking and doing laundry and passing keys to a friend we found ourselves back on the train to London for the trip home. Mid March saw us arrive back in Perth very early on the morning of Friday 16th for the first time in over 2 years. We had expected that things would all feel a little bit odd, but actually, things seemed surprisingly normal and quite familiar. It was really hard to believe that we had been away for so long.

We were picked up by our good mate John, who met us at the airport with a big smile, bigger sideburns and my long awaited Coffee Chill. Being home was bliss already. We made it back to Mum's place at about 2 am and while Elke had to go to bed to get some sleep before her mad dash down to Albany (a mere 5 hour drive) the next day, I stayed up chatting for another couple of hours.

The following morning, we got the opportunity to start spreading the news of our pregnancy. We were very excited about the prospect of becoming parents, and were very much looking forward to letting our folks know that they were going to be first time grandparents. Mum was very excited to hear the news. There were a couple of tears, but they were all happy ones.

That afternoon, Elke headed down to Albany with some friends while I stayed in Perth and caught up with Mum and some family. The purpose of Elke's visit to Albany was to attend a wedding. Wendy is a good friend of ours from University. She wrote to us around Christmas time to let us know that she getting married the weekend we arrived back in Perth. It was a great for Elke to get down to Albany to celebrate her wedding as well as catch up with all of our University mates that we hadn't seen for so long. The wedding was at a winery in Denmark which is a small town not far from Albany. It was an ideal location to catch up with everyone, but Elke had to keep passing up offers of wine on the excuse that she was very jet-lagged and couldn't possibly stay awake if she had a drink. Thankfully, no one pressed her on why she wasn't drinking, as we were trying to keep our pregnancy a bit of a secret for a while longer.

The next week was an absolutely mad rush around Perth trying to catch up with friends and family. There was so many people to catch up with, so much to catch up on, and yet there was a limited amount of time in which to get it all done.

As I mentioned previously, it was amazing how familiar things felt after being away for so long. For the most part, Perth hasn't changed much, and most of our mates are still exactly the same. Over the past couple of years, my good mate Pete had been telling us about his girlfriend Kylie, and it was great to finally meet her too.

So while there were a few things that had changed a little, I found the one thing that really had changed, was the kids. Before we left, there were some children who were so small they couldn't yet crawl or talk, and now they were walking and talking! There were some who weren't even born, and even they were now walking and talking!! At least one of my cousins children had now started high school and has a little mobile phone attached to his belt. My goodness, I was starting to feel old.

Initially, we had planned to keep our pregnancy a secret from everyone other than immediate family until we had passed the 12 week mark. While this was a great idea, it didn't really last. There were a couple of times where we were asked when it was our turn to have kids. I had no trouble lying. "Not for a few years yet", I'd say. A couple of times though, I think our massive grins gave the game away and we had to come clean. That was fine though, they are all great mates, and it was exciting to share our news.

We got to celebrate Mum's brithday towards the end of March while we were in Perth. She had a big BBQ at my cousin's place with lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and lots and lots of laughing. I think everyone really enjoyed the day.

We had dinner out most nights catching up with various groups of friends. We caught up with old friends and work friends and uni friends. We caught up with various aunties and cousins and my Dad down from Geraldton. It was wonderful if a bit manic. We went to a BBQ at Point Walter - it's still a beautiful spot. We went to Fremantle to explore the markets there and enjoy the sunshine. Oh yes! The sun still shines in Australia and our 'night-club' tans were painful to look at with the naked eye.

One other exciting thing we did while in Perth was to book in with an obstetrician and go in for our first meeting. The doctor we met was very nice and offered us an ultrasound. We jumped at the chance and could not hide our excitement when he showed us the tiny flashing area on the screen that was the baby's heartbeat. Wow! He gave us a picture to take home and we proudly showed it off to all and sundry (although we had to point out which bit was baby and which bit was not)!

A week and half after arriving in Perth Elke headed off on a mad intra-continental dash. To the untrained eye it looked like she was single handedly trying to speed up global warming. First stop was Sydney for the last couple of days of March. Her physiotherapist sister Kirsten met her there and they spent a couple of days enjoying the beach and the sights of Coogee Beach. Kiki was excited to find out she would be an aunt at the end of the year and quickly asked if she and Inge (Elke's other sister) could choose baby's middle name. We're having enough trouble deciding on a name with just two of us though so we might not involve anyone else. They walked from Coogee up along the coast path to Bondi - a longish walk if you're feeling the effects of a little morning sickness but still spectacular. They also explored Bondi Junction and went to see a movie. Kirsten stayed in Sydney for a few days after Elke left to see a visiting friend before heading back home to Townsville.

On the last day of March Elke headed north up the coast to Newcastle for Ben and Dayna's wedding. It should have been a simple trip up on the train, Dayna had told her which station to get off, but was complicated slightly by the fact that the trains were not running due to work on the track. Well that's ok - manageable too if you get on the right bus! Elke got on the wrong bus and instead of getting off at the prescribed stop she rode right into Newcastle and had to be picked up by Dayna's dad. 'Hello Mr Jenkins, it's nice to meet you'. The wedding on 1st April was a lovely affair with representatives from all over Australia and from the UK as well. Elke did a short reading at the ceremony and managed to get all the words right.

From Newcastle she flew north to Brisbane on the same flight as a few other guests from the wedding who were then kind enough to drive her an hour north and drop her right at her friends' Tsu Shan and Brian's door! Granted they lived nearby and were already dropping Dayna's Grandmother off just 5 minutes away but Elke was still very grateful. Tsu Shan is one of Elke's oldest friends - they've know each other since Yr 5. At the time Tsu Shan was about 8 1/2 months pregnant (due on the 17th April - two days before Elke's birthday) and Elke caught herself waddling around the house behind Tsu Shan on more than one occasion. Both Tsu Shan and Brian were delighted to find out about our baby news and there was much baby related talk in the next few days. While Elke suggested she would be perfectly happy for Tsu Shan to go into labour a couple of weeks early and have the little tyke while she was there, Vanessa Mae arrived safely a few days overdue on the 22nd April.

Elke arrived in Darwin at about 1am on Saturday 6th April and had to bite her tongue several times to keep the news of bump a secret until just after noon that day when I flew up to meet her. Over lunch we told Elke's parents about the arrival of grandchild number one and, as is inevitable with Elke's family in any mildly emotional occasion, there were many tears and much smiling and laughing.

We finally had a chance to slow down a little while we were in Darwin, there are many fewer people up there these days to catch up with. We went for lots of swims and had a couple of nice BBQs, there was a lovely sunset sail with the Keperts and breakfast with Jessica (who used to live in London), Fiona (another old friend) and her boyfriend Luke. We had an exciting easter egg hunt with the Denniss family - there was much whooping and laughing as we all raced around the garden looking for eggs and bunnies. While we were in Darwin we celebrated Jurgen's birthday at a BBQ with friends and got to spread the news about bump a little further.

Something we had hoped to be able to squeeze in was a camping trip. We got to go camping for a couple of nights at Edith Falls about 2.5 hours south of Darwin. It was a wonderful relaxed couple of days. lots of reading and swimming and eating and swimming and reading. I tried to get rid of my good English tan a little and ended up getting seriously burnt on my back, shoulders, upper arms and a couple of little bits of my belly. Hmmm. Ouch!

The 18th April the day before Elke's birthday we flew down to Alice Springs and were met by Inge, Elke's other sister. She is living in Alice with her boyfriend Tim and they seem really happy there. They both took the day off for Elke's birthday and had planned a little trip out along the West Macdonnell Ranges to see Simpsons Gap, the Ochre pits and Serpentine Gorge. It was a lovely day.

Saturday morning we flew back to Perth for a final day and a half before leaving. That night we met up with various friends in Kings Park - you might think that a park sponsored by the local electricity authority might have lights on after sundown, apparently not. We all ended up sitting around in the dark - an interesting experience for those in the group who didn't know everyone else!

Our final day in Perth we went down to have a quick look at our house in Kardinya (currently rented out) and then watched an Aussie Rules game on TV with John and Fay. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone again but we made it a little easier by leaving at 6am!

We had decided to break the trip back to the UK up a little by stopping in Dubai for a few nights. It turned out to be a really good idea. Elke got off pretty lightly in terms of morning sickness (a lot of slightly bleurgh feeling but no actual throwing up - until we were on the plane) but she was felling pretty tired after the round Australia trip.

We explored Dubai on foot, looking at the markets and the people and the little shops. We took a cruise on a Dhow up the creek and then caught a water taxi (an Abra) across the creek to see the other side of town. Dubai is an interesting and colourful place and we'd quite like to go back at some point to see the desert and some of the amazing new architecture.

What a trip! It was a bit of a whirlwind and we're sorry if we missed catching up with you. We're looking forward to coming home towards the end of the year for the arrival of bub - if you want to see us then I'm afraid you'll have to come to us at that point. Take care.

We wanted to go skiing this season but the winter had been so mild in Europe that many resorts had limited or unreliable snow conditions. So, we looked to go just a little further a field – and decided on Canada.

We left for Vancouver in the last couple of days of February, just after the finish of the Animation festival. The 10 hour flight over was not a good one – no sooner had the wheels left the ground when the family in front of us all put their seats all the way back and left them there for the entire flight. Arghhh! Also, there is something terribly confusing about leaving the UK at 1:30pm, flying for 10 hours and arriving at 3:30 pm on the same day. Needless to say we were completely stuffed when we arrived and were in bed at the hostel by half past six.

The following day we caught the ferry from the mainland to Vancouver Island and were met by Elke’s Uncle Jochen. The trip over is always stunning (provided there in sufficiently little fog) - the ferry weaves in and out of the islands and the gulls hover overhead.

We spent the next week with Oma and the Dous Family of Duncan. Oma had her 87th birthday the day after we arrived – she’s a very alert older woman whose hearing and eyesight is not quite what it used to be but who nevertheless has a sharp sense of humour. We walked the dog, Gem, and looked at the alpacas on a nearby farm. They are very odd looking animals who seemed to be almost as interested in us as we were in them. At one point a group of about 10 stared stalking closer to the fence as we went by and followed along when we turned the corner. If it had been a little darker it could have been quite eerie.

We took Oma shopping for a new jacket, she had finally decided that the one she bought in the 1600s was a little daggy and that she could do better. Success was ours and she found a snazzy navy number. We were also lucky enough to get to spend a whole afternoon replacing the elastic in her new knickers. Ahhh… it was an exciting week.

Towards the end of our visit Chris and I had something happen to us that we hadn't experienced before. I did a pregnancy test in my Uncle's bathroom and we discovered that we were expecting our first child! There was jumping, smiling and tears all in the space of about two minutes. What a strange feeling it was to find out, we'd been hoping that the test would be positive but to actually see two lines in the little window was quite surreal. I think we both had to keep checking it to make sure we weren't reading it wrong (although, admittedly it is fairly hard to read one of those things wrong...) We spent the rest of the day smiling at each other and were able to last a whole 36 hours before we told the Dous Family and Oma. It was very early in the pregnancy at that point but being able to tell those we love face to face was too good an opportunity to miss. Now we just had to keep the secret for a couple more weeks before we could start telling family in Australia! The due date we worked out was the 8th November 2007.

From Vancouver Island we flew inland to go back to Silver Star – the same ski resort where we learned to ski almost exactly two years earlier. It was as beautiful as we remembered – the snow was white and sparkly and the buildings were colourful in the sunshine. In contrast to the drab English weather which our now mole-ish eyes had become used to the brilliant sun and white snow of Canada and we were forced to buy ourselves each a pair of sunglasses. I got a very trendy pair of enormous purple ones which didn't look nearly as hideous when I looked in the mirror of the shop. Of course it was quite dark in there and I was wearing sunglasses....

We had a really wonderful week, the sun shone one day, it snowed (heavily by our standards) all day on another day. We skied and skied and didn’t break any bones. It took a while on the first day to get our ski-legs back, foolishly we had assumed that we would strap the skis on and be off like we’d never been away. We were wrong and spent much of the first day in the old faithful snow-plough position - adorable on three year olds, slightly pathetic looking when you're closer to 30.

As a treat towards the end of the week we caught a horse drawn sleigh through the forest to a little hut with no electricity for a home cooked meal. It was really wonderful listening to the bells on the horses tinkle as we slid across the snow. The sleigh was pulled by two enormous Belgian horses called Fred and Barney.

We slept well on our last night knowing that the following day, and indeed the week to come, was going to be completely exhausting. We were right. In the space of seven days we made two long bus rides, four long flights, three train rides and spent a whole lotta time sitting around waiting.

The upside of all this travel though was knowing that we were heading back to Australia after two years away. Oh it was so exciting. In preparation for our visit we’d made a list of people we wanted to catch up with, places we wanted to visit, business we needed to take care of and food that we wanted to eat. The top of Chris' food list read - Browne's Coffee Chill and Chicken Treat.