15 October 2007
Last of the English summer...
July and August meant that we had two months only until we would be flying home and we had so much to organise before we could leave.
On the first of July Chris got roped into playing cricket in Plymouth for a local team who were short a couple of members. He had a good time despite not knowing many people on the team and getting out for a Golden Duck. Such was the beginning, and ending, of Chris' English cricket career.
A few days later we were visited by my sister, Kiki's, boyfriend. He was in the UK driving like a man-possessed all over the country visiting friends and was able to squeeze in a visit to Exeter. It was our first meeting with him and was slightly unusual in that Kiki wasn't with him but we welcomed him in for the night - especially when we realised that he came bearing edible Australian gifts from Kiki!!
With the school year drawing to a close, the Year 6 cohort were using every spare moment to practice their end of year production and I was able to help by spending some of my spare time painting the set. I had several people looking at me disapprovingly and asking if I should be climbing the ladder - in my "condition". They really are a caring lot at that school!
Ebay is a fabulous place to buy large bundles of second-hand baby clothes! We bought a couple of bundles for little Squidgy, one for the 0-3 month range and one for the 3-6 month range. They are such tiny little items of clothing and it made us both smile and giggle to pull all the little outfits out of the box one at a time. The second last item out of the first box was a little t-shirt with "Little Moose" on the front - I guess it was meant to be!!
Our third anniversary was a much quieter affair than the previous two. No capital city, no fireworks, no stamps in our passport. We went out to breakfast, looked at an exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery, bought some maternity clothing, had a drink and a walk by the river and went to see the newest Harry Potter film at the Picture House. It was a lovely day in all and nice to spend the time together. Who knows what next year's anniversary will entail.
Each summer in Exeter a Shakespeare play is performed in Rougemont Gardens - the old moat surrounding the castle in the corner of the old city walls. This year it was McBeth and we were organised enough (thanks to Dayna) to get tickets to go on the 19th. It was a great show - the sets were simple but really effective and the use of huge puppets for the three witches was a really great idea because it gave them the ability to float and move in a much more eerie way than people ever could.
The last day of the school year was the 24th of July and the staff at the school where I'd been working celebrated with a river cruise from Exmouth up the River Exe towards Topsham. The sunset was gorgeous that night and it was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone. We were lucky to make it though. We were a little late leaving home and then got lost in Exmouth - luckily one of the other teachers had my mobile number, called to see where we were and held the boat for a minute until we arrived!
The last week of July saw me get on a plane to Denmark for a final visit before we headed for Australia. It was wonderful to be there and hear the language and I was really lucky to see the whole family together. They were all well and it was amazing to see how much the two little girls had grown since we saw them last summer. Anette's little girl, Laura, was intrigued by the idea of there being a baby in my belly and that she had come from Anette's belly. She wasn't shy to talk to the baby, imagine "Hi Baby" in the enthusiastic, high pitched strains of a two-and-a-half year old. More than once she tried to lift my top to 'see' the baby and when she couldn't feel him moving she'd tell me he was sleeping. Awww.....
August brought us some wonderful weather and we took advantage of it to walk by the river, soak up some vitamin D and to catch up with friends in Topsham. I was left on bench guarding duty by Topsham markets one weekend when we went to meet up with Kate, Lucy and Jim. I did my best but was quickly overwhelmed by three old biddies who sat and nattered beside me. Oh well.
All this time the baby bump belly kept growing bigger. Lying on my stomach was definitely not an option any more and rolling over in bed was getting harder. On the up side, the baby's movements were easier and easier to feel and Chris was able to feel his unborn child too. At times we were able to see little movements too, just subtle shifts in the shape of my belly but very exciting none-the-less.
A few days before we left Exeter Chris' work mates held a BBQ in a huge park in Exmouth. I take back everything bad I've ever said about the English not knowing how to barbeque! The actual barbeque was one of the best constructions I've ever seen - you'll have to have a look at the photos. We played rounders and giant Jenga and generally had a good time.
It's amazing how much stuff two people can accumulate in the short space of two years even when they're renting somewhere fully-furnished! It's a big job moving and even bigger when you move overseas and don't automatically pack everything. Decisions had to be made about what to throw out, to donate, to sell, to ship and to pack for Darwin. It's huge! We finally whittled down the 'shipping' pile to just five large boxes, one book box and a guitar case. We were able to sell on a lot of our unwanted bits and pieces to workmates, we donated a lot of things to the two closest charity shops and after much hoo-ha and price dropping we finally sold our car the day before we left Exeter. Nothing like a little bit of last-minute stress when you're moving internationally. We'd had low offers from a couple of dealers and could have sold to them if need be but luckily found a family who wanted the car. It's silly to get emotional over an inanimate object but it felt better to sell the car to nice people.
It was very odd to leave our house completely empty and clean, to lock the door and walk away, knowing that we'd probably never be going back in there. It was sad. I guess the fact that it was hard to leave means that we had a good time there. If we hadn't been happy in Exeter it would have been easy to leave.
Our last night in Exeter was spent with Dayna and Ben (we had curry from the Ganges - yum). It was hard to say goodbye to them, they've become such good friends, but we were excited leaving too because it meant that we were getting closer to home and to meeting Little Moose.
We spent a few days in London before we left for good. It was a great way to finish the trip - just taking it easy and being really touristy. We made a point of doing several things that we hadn't done on previous visits. Like going to the Tate, riding the London Eye, touring the city on an open-top bus and going to see a musical.
The London Eye is definitely worth a visit, the half hour ride was over quite quickly but it's an amazing way to view the city, especially if you're lucky enough to be in London on a clear day. The eye isn't appreciated by everyone in the city but it is an amazing structure.
The bus tour was great, despite us getting caught in traffic on Regent Street for half an hour. It was a real test for our guide - just how much can one man know about the toy store we were stopped next to? He was a great guide actually, very knowledgeable and funny and he got quite excited when he found out we were from Perth. He wants us to go into Clancy's Fish Pub in Freo and say 'hi' to his old boss when we get back.
If you're a Monty Python fan and you get the chance to go and see Spamalot - DO! Oh my goodness. Chris and I were both in stitches right from the start when the Finnish fish-slapping dance got going. The audience went wild for lines like "I fart in your general direction" and "I'm not dead yet". It was a great night with excellent performances!
It was a bit surreal getting on the train to go to the airport. Knowing we were leaving the city and the country for an indefinite time. Knowing we no longer lived in England. Knowing we were going home to see family and friends, that the baby would be arriving soon. Do you laugh or cry? Maybe a bit of both.
We have so many great memories from living in the UK and were lucky enough to be able to show 'our' little corner of the country to various visitors. We feel like we tried to make the most of our time there and mostly succeeded. We've got some good friends there now. And we've left a few little things to go back and see. Like Scotland and Ireland and all of northern England!
Ha - one final hurdle though - we had trouble when we went to book in at the airport. I was just over 30 weeks pregnant (well within their time limit) and had a letter from a doctor to say when she saw me two weeks previously at 28 weeks that all was well and the baby's head wasn't engaged. But the letter didn't state what my due date was, so there was much humming and hawing and rule book reading. They finally decided that my pregnancy record would be sufficient and let us through. Phew!
On the first of July Chris got roped into playing cricket in Plymouth for a local team who were short a couple of members. He had a good time despite not knowing many people on the team and getting out for a Golden Duck. Such was the beginning, and ending, of Chris' English cricket career.
A few days later we were visited by my sister, Kiki's, boyfriend. He was in the UK driving like a man-possessed all over the country visiting friends and was able to squeeze in a visit to Exeter. It was our first meeting with him and was slightly unusual in that Kiki wasn't with him but we welcomed him in for the night - especially when we realised that he came bearing edible Australian gifts from Kiki!! With the school year drawing to a close, the Year 6 cohort were using every spare moment to practice their end of year production and I was able to help by spending some of my spare time painting the set. I had several people looking at me disapprovingly and asking if I should be climbing the ladder - in my "condition". They really are a caring lot at that school!
Ebay is a fabulous place to buy large bundles of second-hand baby clothes! We bought a couple of bundles for little Squidgy, one for the 0-3 month range and one for the 3-6 month range. They are such tiny little items of clothing and it made us both smile and giggle to pull all the little outfits out of the box one at a time. The second last item out of the first box was a little t-shirt with "Little Moose" on the front - I guess it was meant to be!!Our third anniversary was a much quieter affair than the previous two. No capital city, no fireworks, no stamps in our passport. We went out to breakfast, looked at an exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery, bought some maternity clothing, had a drink and a walk by the river and went to see the newest Harry Potter film at the Picture House. It was a lovely day in all and nice to spend the time together. Who knows what next year's anniversary will entail.
Each summer in Exeter a Shakespeare play is performed in Rougemont Gardens - the old moat surrounding the castle in the corner of the old city walls. This year it was McBeth and we were organised enough (thanks to Dayna) to get tickets to go on the 19th. It was a great show - the sets were simple but really effective and the use of huge puppets for the three witches was a really great idea because it gave them the ability to float and move in a much more eerie way than people ever could.
The last day of the school year was the 24th of July and the staff at the school where I'd been working celebrated with a river cruise from Exmouth up the River Exe towards Topsham. The sunset was gorgeous that night and it was a nice way to say goodbye to everyone. We were lucky to make it though. We were a little late leaving home and then got lost in Exmouth - luckily one of the other teachers had my mobile number, called to see where we were and held the boat for a minute until we arrived!The last week of July saw me get on a plane to Denmark for a final visit before we headed for Australia. It was wonderful to be there and hear the language and I was really lucky to see the whole family together. They were all well and it was amazing to see how much the two little girls had grown since we saw them last summer. Anette's little girl, Laura, was intrigued by the idea of there being a baby in my belly and that she had come from Anette's belly. She wasn't shy to talk to the baby, imagine "Hi Baby" in the enthusiastic, high pitched strains of a two-and-a-half year old. More than once she tried to lift my top to 'see' the baby and when she couldn't feel him moving she'd tell me he was sleeping. Awww.....August brought us some wonderful weather and we took advantage of it to walk by the river, soak up some vitamin D and to catch up with friends in Topsham. I was left on bench guarding duty by Topsham markets one weekend when we went to meet up with Kate, Lucy and Jim. I did my best but was quickly overwhelmed by three old biddies who sat and nattered beside me. Oh well.
All this time the baby bump belly kept growing bigger. Lying on my stomach was definitely not an option any more and rolling over in bed was getting harder. On the up side, the baby's movements were easier and easier to feel and Chris was able to feel his unborn child too. At times we were able to see little movements too, just subtle shifts in the shape of my belly but very exciting none-the-less.A few days before we left Exeter Chris' work mates held a BBQ in a huge park in Exmouth. I take back everything bad I've ever said about the English not knowing how to barbeque! The actual barbeque was one of the best constructions I've ever seen - you'll have to have a look at the photos. We played rounders and giant Jenga and generally had a good time. It's amazing how much stuff two people can accumulate in the short space of two years even when they're renting somewhere fully-furnished! It's a big job moving and even bigger when you move overseas and don't automatically pack everything. Decisions had to be made about what to throw out, to donate, to sell, to ship and to pack for Darwin. It's huge! We finally whittled down the 'shipping' pile to just five large boxes, one book box and a guitar case. We were able to sell on a lot of our unwanted bits and pieces to workmates, we donated a lot of things to the two closest charity shops and after much hoo-ha and price dropping we finally sold our car the day before we left Exeter. Nothing like a little bit of last-minute stress when you're moving internationally. We'd had low offers from a couple of dealers and could have sold to them if need be but luckily found a family who wanted the car. It's silly to get emotional over an inanimate object but it felt better to sell the car to nice people. It was very odd to leave our house completely empty and clean, to lock the door and walk away, knowing that we'd probably never be going back in there. It was sad. I guess the fact that it was hard to leave means that we had a good time there. If we hadn't been happy in Exeter it would have been easy to leave.
Our last night in Exeter was spent with Dayna and Ben (we had curry from the Ganges - yum). It was hard to say goodbye to them, they've become such good friends, but we were excited leaving too because it meant that we were getting closer to home and to meeting Little Moose.We spent a few days in London before we left for good. It was a great way to finish the trip - just taking it easy and being really touristy. We made a point of doing several things that we hadn't done on previous visits. Like going to the Tate, riding the London Eye, touring the city on an open-top bus and going to see a musical.
The London Eye is definitely worth a visit, the half hour ride was over quite quickly but it's an amazing way to view the city, especially if you're lucky enough to be in London on a clear day. The eye isn't appreciated by everyone in the city but it is an amazing structure. The bus tour was great, despite us getting caught in traffic on Regent Street for half an hour. It was a real test for our guide - just how much can one man know about the toy store we were stopped next to? He was a great guide actually, very knowledgeable and funny and he got quite excited when he found out we were from Perth. He wants us to go into Clancy's Fish Pub in Freo and say 'hi' to his old boss when we get back. If you're a Monty Python fan and you get the chance to go and see Spamalot - DO! Oh my goodness. Chris and I were both in stitches right from the start when the Finnish fish-slapping dance got going. The audience went wild for lines like "I fart in your general direction" and "I'm not dead yet". It was a great night with excellent performances!
It was a bit surreal getting on the train to go to the airport. Knowing we were leaving the city and the country for an indefinite time. Knowing we no longer lived in England. Knowing we were going home to see family and friends, that the baby would be arriving soon. Do you laugh or cry? Maybe a bit of both.
We have so many great memories from living in the UK and were lucky enough to be able to show 'our' little corner of the country to various visitors. We feel like we tried to make the most of our time there and mostly succeeded. We've got some good friends there now. And we've left a few little things to go back and see. Like Scotland and Ireland and all of northern England!Ha - one final hurdle though - we had trouble when we went to book in at the airport. I was just over 30 weeks pregnant (well within their time limit) and had a letter from a doctor to say when she saw me two weeks previously at 28 weeks that all was well and the baby's head wasn't engaged. But the letter didn't state what my due date was, so there was much humming and hawing and rule book reading. They finally decided that my pregnancy record would be sufficient and let us through. Phew!
