INNER JOURNEY OUTER EXPRESSIONS

Council living is going as well as can be expected, Grumpy old lady has now turned into Grumpy old avoidance lady . Unfortunately, I have had to temporarily give up on converting her to the lighter side, because if she catches sight of me she dashes for cover. But don’t lose hope – I will carry on fighting the good fight. Haven’t seen China Man much lately, then again I have been low on the washing pile and have not needed to sneak down to the laundry room in the shadows of the night. Have managed to meet (and talk with) Married to PHD Indian lady , she lives at number five, and her husband has been studying for his PHD. She advised me that hanging my washing on the communal line, would not be wise, and to continue using my wash drier on the balcony. I did not see the need to confess that the laundry drier was merely for show and that in fact I had a lovely tumble drier stashed away in my pantry- sized kitchen.

Had a lovely week again, saw a few new things, and experienced the park at 7 in the evening. Becca was dying to ride her bike, so after supper we headed off to the park and hung about for half an hour or so whilst Rebecca rode. Two things I am still getting used to. People are at the park, at night… Young and old making the most of their days. And secondly that the sun really only goes down sometime after 8:30pm. You really get to experience a full day, although you end up staying up so much later at night.   We also had the great experience of going to a wildlife sanctuary – Warrawong where we got FREE entry and were able to feed the kangaroos, and go on a beautiful walk around the sanctuary. Unfortunately only the Roo’s were the highlight for the day. Totally unable to spot any wallabies or koala’s, but damn we tried… and tried… ended up getting a sore neck from the all the looking in the eucalyptus trees. One kangaroo did get a little jealous when Becca was feeding another and m...

Early in the week I had an experience that I am sure only a South African could understand. Becca and I were walking home from a stint at the ‘Big W’, and I noticed we were being followed, every step of the way. All the way up Marlborough he followed, every step of the way, didn’t want to alarm Rebecca but told her to walk a little faster… but he walked just as quick… Every step of the way.   Past the bus stop, and across the road. Further up the road, I slowed down and he stopped outside the butcher shop, to ‘look in the window’. I sped up and snuck into another pathway that leads to our apartment block, not near our flat (because I didn’t want him to see), but enough to see him hopefully pass up the road… next minute I hear steps... look back and he is now RIGHT behind us… with… with damn keys… for his unit…   So I pretended to be looking for something I had supposedly ‘dropped’ in the bush. Rebecca was so confused and I felt so damn neurotic. So the person following was actually jus...

Enough tourist business. Week 2 was the week to get on with Aussie living, or at least try to. Early in the week Bern met with a fantastic ex-South African recruitment officer, just to get a few tips on how to go about sending out the right looking CV cover letter. He has been very kind in helping with good tips and letting Bern use the internet to get connected.   Talking about connection, I think it is about time I fess up that ‘My name is Kirsten and I have an internet addiction’… I have battled, like you cannot believe. Wondering how many notifications are sitting on Facebook, or wondering how many new posts have been made on the forum… man, just pathetic… and on looking back, I understand now that the World Wide Web carries on, just fine without my input! While Bern looks for jobs, the girls usually (sometimes we just sleep in) try to get the flat into some bit of order. Bit of a clean and tidy here and there. The wonderful thing about the Aussie’s   is that they are very in...

So we live on the other side of the train track at the moment, and not the good side.  People really, this is literally speaking… trains go by all day, all night. Just a reminder for those who might have missed it, we took the great opportunity of using the free meet and greet service, and part of this service is that the government finds you accommodation on arrival. The beauty is, is that you have a guaranteed furnished apartment AND you have a much cheaper rental. The flipside to the coin is that you basically live in council housing. Which believe me, is really impressive. Seems to be fairly newish everything from beds, appliances, cutlery and crockery. This rental can be used for a maximum of three months, it just helps families settle in easier. Now you are wondering what the issue is… well it’s not the flat, not really the area, and not the furniture… it’s our fellow council housing neighbours. Initially Rebecca was reprimanded when she got a little noisy… after two days we ...

Forgot to mention that the previous day we had left home at 5:30pm to go venturing into the city. Caught the bus and landed up near China Town… walked around and did the tourist thing and bought a ton of Aussie memorabilia... stickers, shirts, tracksuit top, keys rings, magnets… oh my. The hard part is we feel like tourists, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is now home. We are not tourists. We are immigrants in this country. The memorabilia  will not suddenly disappear. The city centre is just so clean and inviting. Rebecca was captivated by the public water drinking fountains, it was quite a laugh, she got water all over her face and up her nose. We also had our first taste of Farmers Union iced coffee… I kept thinking that friends of mine, Tracey and Maxine, need to have some crates sent to them… it is so, so tasty! We couldn’t get over the fact we were walking around the centre of a city at 6:30pm!! Realising we weren’t sure when the buses would stop running, we...

Tuesday night we battled to sleep, I imagine it would be the effects of jet lag. Waking up at odd hours, and being wide awake… then we fell asleep again… Bern woke up around 10am on Wednesday and decided we needed to find some liquid refreshment. We had heard so many differing opinions of the water, and we couldn’t quite remember if we could drink it or not. Blimmen South Africans… come from Africa, of course we can drink the water!!! So Bern literally dragged Rebecca and I out of  bed… damn, I felt like I had serious sense of humour failure. So picture the setting. We have all probably slept 6 hours since SUNDAY night… we felt like we have serious hangovers, and needed some water. Don’t know the area, but agree that we sort of remember the way to the ‘Big W’… So we trek… to find water… food… anything… and we trek. Bernard convinced his inbuilt satellite navigation skills will get us there… and we trek… and trek… folks we must have walked 3.5km’s in like a 28 degree heat that felt ...

As some of you might know it was our first flight off the African continent and Rebecca’s first flight anywhere. Durban to Jo’burg was a great flight, Becca received special attention and was allowed to visit with the captain and co-pilot in the cock pit… the captain asked her if her fluffy toy had a boarding pass… she really enjoyed that. Jo’burg to Perth was just so awful. We sat in the middle of two families – both with young kids… and they basically cried non – stop. Becca was awesome, she only had one complaint at about 3am to say ‘I never thought flying could be this bad’… she had a little cry, but then managed to get about an hour’s sleep. Bern and I were awake the whole eight hours… At Perth we waited ages for our luggage, only to find that two bags were missing… but the delay helped us when it came to clearing customs… we sailed through… No worries! Throughout the flights we all sailed through  customs and security… BUT at the domestic boarding area from Perth to Adelaide w...

Below is Kirsten's Journal entries which discribe our adventures down under