Latest Molly Situation

Well Mol has been diagnosed with canine epilepsy so she is on more tablets now. At least it can be treated and she seems fine and happy as ever (including bouncing up at people still trying to give them a kiss!) . We are becoming experts in vetinary science anyway, and in the ways to cook kangaroo plus the gravy is great (not recommended for human consumption however, unless you are really hungry)

Note

Note: New photos and text added to West Australia 12 hr post for those that are interested......for those that are not..tough!

Christmas Day

We were all good and Santa came to visit us! Anna was very worried that Santa may not have realised that we had moved from Longhorsley but he did!

We were up a little later than normal (7am) as Anna had a late night as she couldn't sleep. She was so "disappointed" that Santa couldn't come that night and so "disappointed" that she had to wait until the morning to get her presents (if Santa knew where she was!).

We opened our presents in the morning then went across to Carol and Paul's house where the rest of the family was gathering to open presents from one another. It was nice as Anna got to play with Anja and the two of them get on really well. We had some lovely presents; mainly food and wine, which is great! Carol also did breakfast and there was champagne. A great start to Christmas morning!

Afterwards we came home and had some lunch. I was cooking a chicken as we weren't having Christmas dinner till 7pm as it is so hot (37 degrees), when disaster struck. The front glass panel of the cooker shattered and now we have no cooker. It was a good job that I wasn't doing Christmas dinner here!


After lunch we had every intention of going to the beach but Anna wanted to play her new Rapunzel computer game, which she did for nearly 3 hours! Nige and I managed to get a relaxing afternoon and it was great.

Late afternoon we went to Jane's house where the rest of the family were gathering for Christmas dinner. The dinner was lovely and Bea had made me a special vegetarian dish, which was delicious. We stayed till 9.30pm until Anna wanted to go home as she was tired.



We finished off the day at home with a beer and the TV. A good but very different Christmas!

Nige has updated the blog with his bike ride and The Ashes ....

What have we been up to ...

Anna was invited to her first birthday party last week. It was the 6th birthday of her friend from school - Hannah.

Hannah had a "farm" party, which basically meant that a farmer came with loads of animals to the house and the children had a chance to hold them. There was guinea pigs, lambs, rabbits, chicks, chickens and a gorgeous pony that gave pony rides for the day.

Anna had a great time!

I have been working hard at home! As it's school holidays Anna has been going to the local recreation centre as they have a holiday club there. She seems to enjoy it (fingers crossed) but I think it really tires her out. They do arts and crafts, play games on the courts and today they were in the gymbakids room for a couple of hours, which is the soft play area (Anna went there for her birthday party). They have different age groups for the different kids and Anna is in "Kidszone", which is for 5 - 8 year olds. I worry that she's young to go there, but the facilities are great. The good thing is, is that because we are in the city, and Australia is so so geared up for families, there's so much choice for childcare.

Thanks for the comment Mitchel! You're right ... there isn't many pictures of me ... I'll try and dig one out ...

The Ashes

Well the Ashes came to Perth and any self respecting Pom had to go along and cheer on with the Barmy Army. Thanks to Nadines' friend Kylie and her husband Rohan a ticket in the shade was mine for the Saturday's play. Slightly hungover from the work Christmas bash the day before I still had a great day out, and blew the froth of a couple of cold ones just to keep cool. The temperature was in the mid thirties so we were glad of the shade, and saw a few people being stretchered out with heat stroke (no doubt assisted by the dehydrating effect of a few beers). A full house with plenty of Brits and Aussies toasting themselves in the relentless sunshine. Excellent banter and songs from the Barmy Army kept things going when there was a lull in the play though. Judging by England's final performance the Aussies were trying to minimise their energy expenditure by hitting plenty of fours! Poor Monty got hit for 24 of one over when Gillchrist got the second fastest test century in history. The Aussies will be dining out on this one for quite a while, however for this Brit it was still a top day out at the WACA (West Australia Cricket Association) ground.

We have finally bought and put up a Christmas tree so things are starting to feel a little Christmassy around here (despite the temperature being in the high 30s!)!

I have found a great shop called Myers which is a little like Fenwicks. I was very extravagant as well. When Anna and I went into the Christmas department, we found that nearly all of their Christmas trees had been sold. Undeterred, I bought one off display (I let Anna decide which one) with all the lights and decorations. It felt so good (and an absolute bargain as I managed to get a HUGE discount on it).

Now to write the Christmas cards ...

It was a hard weekend ....

We met up with some friends on Sunday before they were due to fly back to Aberdeen. We spent the day around their pool. As you can see, Nige and the lads had a hard time ...

PS. Is anyone reading this blog, there are never any comments!

I found a great swimming pool today. It's all outdoors and has three pools; one for serious swimming, one for not-so serious swimming and one for the kids. The kids pool has slides and climbing frames in it and it was great fun!

It was in the 30's today and you can tell we are getting used to the heat as Anna and I were both getting cold! Anna even wanted to go and sit in the car where it was warm and put her cardi on (the car was hot enough to cook any mammal ...)!

We finished off the day by watching Calamity Jane, now you can't get any better than that!

PS I must be getting homesick as I have started to tape and watch all the UK soaps (Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders). Now I NEVER used to watch them when I lived there!

West Australia 12 hour ....

I thought it was about time I sampled the Australian bush on the mountain bike, so in a team of 4 I entered the WA12 Mountain Bike Race sponsored by Alcoa and arranged by Perth Mountain Bike Club. In true Perth style since its too hot to ride all day this was a 12 hour race through the night from 6pm till 6am. With Dan from work and a couple of native Aussies we entered under the dubious team name of the 'Hard Core 4', we were only hard core in the fact that all the others who had promised the race with us had seen sense and dropped out! I was dutyfully representing the UK with Team Zimmer (www.teamzimmer.org) the Perth Chapter has started now lads! I had some pre race maintenance help from Anna as you can see, note 'Bicycle Doctor' costume.
So with a quick team meeting to discuss DIY lights, batteries and old war wounds we pitched up at Langford Park in Jarradale (about 45 mins from Perth) mid afternoon to race through the night. By preregistering we were entered into a raffle and won support for the night from the sport drink sponsor Carbo Shotz. This entailed a inflatable tent to use as a base (see pics) and free energy drinks and gels for the race.

The race started with a Le Mans style run to the bikes for Pete our team Captain. Things were fast and furious until darkness when the bike lights were needed and we took turns at laps, Dan put out a 43 min lap which was our best all night, even though it was dusk and he'd never raced at night. Check out the blistering start from the 'unknown' rider in black No.188, had my serious racing face on there!

It was an excellent course, 99% singletrack with logs, rocks, pea gravel and fast dusty sections, comparing favourably with built courses in the UK. In between laps there was enough time to charge lights a bit, get some food on the barbie and do a bit of bike/light manintence. It was a good atmosphere and no one felt like sleeping, with the effects of the energy gels no doubt, so by the sunrise we were feeling tired. The view of a kangaroo boucing along in the trees at about 4am was a bit special though.
I had the last lap needing to finish before the 6am cut off otherwise the lap wouldn't count, after a top effort from Pete I had plenty of time I thought......until complete light failure so I was using a back up LED headtorch until sunrise which was interesting to say the least.......luckily about half way round it was light enough to see. More by luck than fitness/skill I got round before 6am and we came in 12th in the team event. We all agreed it was a great night out, although doing it solo was purely for nutcases!

Note hat and jacket for some in photo, it did get cold overnight or perhaps some folk are a little soft!

Busy, busy ...

This past week has been a busy week! I got the chance of a ticket to see Robbie Williams and he was great.
I'm not a huge Robbie fan but the gig has been the talk of Perth for sometime now. I went with the wife of Nige's work mate. She's a huge Robbie fan having been to see him 6 times already! She is a member of his fan club and so managed to get us some tickets right near the front ... I could see the white in his eyes!
Which is a big thing if you think that there were over 65,000 people at the gig! The crazy thing is, is that he bought his mates with him (Jonathan Wilkes and Max Beesley) and none of the Aussies knew who they were.... he also talked about Take That and sang one of their songs and this guy next to me asked me who Take That were ... and he wasn't kidding!! - MITCHEL YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED IT!

I also went on the parents night out with school. It was a good night. We went to an Italian restaurant in the posh area of Applecross. In true Aussie style, there wasn't one thing on the menu that was vegetarian. Vegetarianism in Australia is very unusual - they definitely like their meat. In the supermarkets there is NO pre-packaged food AT ALL. It's not a problem as their fruit and veggies are superb, they just don't have quorn etc. In the restaurant I had to ask if they could do me some pasta without the meat. I ended up with pasta in a vodka sauce. It was yummy but very potent!

Anna also "graduated" from Playgroup yesterday. It was quite sad seeing her saying goodbye to her friends but now she has turned 5 and is starting pre-primary she is no longer able to go.

It's Anna's last day of school today and her last day in Kindy, she starts back at the beginning of February in pre-primary and I think that she's really ready for it. They still don't teach reading in pre-primary but it's more constructive learning rather than play and they get allocated a "buddy" - which Anna is most looking forward to! The buddy helps at lunchtime (they eat their packed lunch outside on the grass) and when it's assembly. Anna will also wear a uniform in pre-primary (which I have bought) and is allocated into a faction. She will be in Stirling and on a Friday will have to wear her red shirt and black PE skirt. The factions are generally used for sports etc. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that one of her friends is in Stirling! The school is so organised that in the weekly newsletter there's a stationary list included. It's detailed down to the number of tissues that I need to provide her with!

Nige is out on his first bike ride this weekend with his biking buddies. No doubt he'll do a post for it. They are doing a night ride through the Australian bush! Should be interesting ... just a bit more "dangerous" than the Thrunton Woods rides he used to go on!

A visit from Fairy Princess Caroline

Today was the playgroup Christmas party and Anna was very excited as there was going to be a visit from Fairy Princess Caroline! Sure enough, right on time, Fairy Princess Caroline appeared and she managed to keep all the kids mesmerised for a whole 45 minutes. I was really surprised as Anna took it upon herself to go and sit at the front with her new friends and joined in all the games, songs and actions.

We were all asked to buy a book and wrap it. The children were going to be given them as presents from Santa. Anna dutifully went up to Santa and collected her present. This is the first year that she hasn't been scared by him!


Playgroup put on a party "tea" and the kids seemed to love it. There was bowls of sweets ("lollies"), sandwiches with sprinkles on them, pies (you can't go to any "do" in Australia without there being pies) and fairy cakes. Pretty much what the kids wanted to eat! So much for the 9 portions of fruit and veg that they advertise here.

Anyway, Anna had a great time and I am now asked constantly if Fairy Princess Caroline was real, and if she is, where does she live...

Oh, Molly seems to love her "roast" and veg that I have to make her twice a day. She is just getting wise to the fact that I hide her tablets in it. She has also had another seizure so it looks likely that she has epilepsy, along with the allergy that we are treating her for at the minute. Poor thing.

Oh, and another thing, I have a job! I went for some contract work and they offered me a permanent job of 16 hours a week working from home. It's to do some documentation for a web-based application, should be good!

Visit to the Chocolate Factory

This Sunday I took Anna to the local chocolate factory out in the Swan Valley. Swan Valley is about a 25 minute drive from the centre of Perth and contains all the wine vineyards so it's a big attraction.

Unfortunately, Nige had to work so wasn't able to come with us.

As I write this I still feel sick having stuffed myself with dark chocolate, but it was a great day.

When you went into the factory they had three bowls of white, dark and milk chocolate to try. You could look through some windows into the factory to see how the chocolate was being made.



Anna had to try all three types of chocolate, well you never know which one you like! We left having bought some chocolate for Nige and having had an ice cream (it's very hot today!).

Molly has started her elimination diet and seems to love kangaroo, lentils and sweet potatoes ... it's probably loads nicer than that horrid, dry processed stuff she was on! We'll just have to see how she is after six weeks (fingers crossed!).

Molly's had a visit to the dermatologist

Molly has had her first consultation with the dermatologist and I feel positive that we can get her problems sorted. Firstly though, I am so glad that we only live 5 minutes away from the leading veterinary hospital in Perth. It makes it so much easier and it's great to know that she's being seen by the best in the country (Karen F - you would LOVE the facilities that they can offer!).

Molly had to be sedated so she could be examined. It was kinder to her as she is so anxious at the minute. It turns out that she definitely does have a skin allergy to something and also a mild infection... poor thing! She has been put on 4 tablets a day, I have to give her a bath twice a week (now that will be fun - NOT!) and she has to have a complete change in diet. I am going to have to feed her kangaroo, camel, donkey, goat, horse, ostrich or buffalo (it has to be a meat that she hasn't eaten before) and for her carbs she can have lentils, sweet potato, barley and pumpkin. Now I know that she's a dog, but I just can't bring myself to give her donkey or horse, so I think it will be kangaroo (I could also slip a few steaks in for Nige). I guess I'm going to be busy cooking. We have to keep up the regime for 6 weeks and then go back for further tests. This is where I wish we had full pet insurance. As to the seizures, we just have to monitor them.

On another note, the weather has really heated up and summer seems to be here.... just right for Christmas!

Our first BBQ ...

It had to happen sometime and last night we held our first Housewarming Party BBQ! Nige had been out and bought this huge silver monster that masqueraded as a BBQ. You could have cooked a few cows on it I tell you!

For the housewarming we just invited the family, which is my aunt Bea, cousin Jane and her husband Tyrone and son Derrien, cousin Carol and her husband Adam and son Carl, and cousin Claire and her husband Paul and daughter Anja. There was also my cousin Tony and his partner Jane ... phew! It was a really good night courtesy of Jamie Oliver's Botham Burgers and roasted tomatoes and mozzarella cheese (for the token vegetarian - me!) Anna and Anja get on really well and they just played together the whole time. In fact they played together so well that there just was no time to eat. Maybe next time!

We are already planning our next one! Apologies as no-one took any photos ...

It's getting hot!

Well the temperature is really starting to heat up at the minute. It's been a consistent 33/34 degrees from morning to night. There has also been a referendum recently to bring in daylight saving. This means that from December, Perth will now be another 2 hours ahead of the UK. Apparently, Australia has been trying to bring in daylight saving for a long time but there has been fierce opposition from the country (something to do with confusing the cows!). What it means for us is that it will be darker in the morning (yippee ... Anna might sleep in later) and lighter at night. At the minute it gets dark at around 7.15pm. With daylight saving, it will get dark around 9.15pm, which is great as you can do more things at night, but it also means that it won't cool down till then. I'm not sure what will be best!


This weekend we went to a BBQ with some of Nige's work colleagues. It was good to get out and meet other people in the same position as us. They had come from Perth to Aberdeen for work and had been out here coming up to a year. They also had a pool in the garden which was a huge hit for Anna. With the heat, I wish that we had a pool! Maybe for the next house ...



We had our usual Sunday trip into Freemantle this weekend. I love Freemantle. It's such a vibrant place where pretty much anything goes! There's lots of boutique type shops that I keep promising myself that I will shop at and a real mix of food and entertainment. It also has one of the best markets in Perth.

I have enrolled on a dressmaking course at the local college and I'm really enjoying it! I must admit that I'm finding it hard to actually use my brain and do some work. Who would have thought that pattern cutting could be some complex!!

Molly seems to be getting a little better and seems to be enjoying her walks again. She is finding the heat a little hard and when we go to the local park I have a hard time keeping her out of the pond. It's a little grander than Archie's Pond back in Longhorsley and I keep looking out for the ranger.

She has also managed to find a turtle and a snake. I just wasn't quick enought to catch Mol and then take a photo before they escaped. Maybe next time ...

Anna's birthday party!

Yesterday was Anna's birthday party at the local leisure centre. She has been very very excited about this day and I am pleased to say that it went well and I think Anna and the kids really enjoyed it!

We had 15 kids at the party, some from kindy, some from pre-primary (the classes are taught together) and a couple from a playgroup we attend. There was also three boys! Now, this is a first, Anna inviting boys to her party!!

I was nervous about having so many kids, many of them that I didn't know or parents that I hadn't met but it was a great day. The party started in the Gymbakids room, which is like a Castle Mania play area and then we moved into another room for the party food and a few games. As usual the kids ate all the crisps (or chips as I now need to call them) and left the fruit. Nothing changes there then!!

Today is the school fair and it looks as though it's going to be another good day!

PS Molly has had a few days on her tablets and seems to be a bit better. Fingers crossed!

Things change ...

We have had a bit of a scare with Molly (our dog) needing a late night dash to the local emergency vets (which happens to be the university vets hospial, 5 minutes down the road). She had a seizure which was very scary and ended up having lots of bloods tests and a complete examination.

It turns out that she has a very severe allergy to something in Oz which has made all her feet swell and become very very itchy. She even tries to bite you if you go near them, so if you know Mol, you know that biting is just not in her nature. The vet explained that the seizure may be relating to the anxiety and stress over this, or she may have epilepsy, which becomes apparent when dogs reach her age!

She has been back to the vets and is taking a course of tablets to help her allergy, after which they can start to do some tests for the seizures! Poor girl! We have also been advised not to have the puppy, as the vet didn't want another change for her, and for her to become stressed and upset about it. Therefore, we are unable to have the puppy (Tico). We are all upset over this, but Mol comes first!

As an aside, it's amazing what happens at an emergency vets in the middle of the night. There was some sad cases but also bizarre ones! A lady bought a frog in. She had it in a bucket. She bought it in as she was afraid that it wouldn't know it's way back home as it was night! Another lady had a bird in a tupperware box. She said it had neurological problems as it couldn't fly. She was willing to pay for any tests that were required to find out why the bird couldn't fly ... I guess taking it out of the tupperware box would be a start ....

Anna's Birthday

It was Anna's birthday today, so a day to do something special (Nige had the day off work as well!).

In the morning we went to the local dog walking beach and took Molly for a walk.



She loved it and even pinched another dog's ball and ran off with it into the sea. I think she thought that no-one would follow her ... she is getting braver! Must have been her stint in the kennels which has bought all this bravado on around other dogs!

In the afternoon we went whale watching. It was really great. The boat for the trip left from Freemantle which is the big port here. Between October and the end of November is "whale watching season". You can see Humpbacked Whales on there way down to Antarctica just of the coast of Western Australia. When we boarded the boat the captain said that they had been following a pod of whales just that morning, so everyone's expectations were very high. Unfortunately, in the Underwood tradition we had missed the boat (pardon the pun!) and didn't get to see any whales. We did get to see dolphins, which Anna was happy with. You never know we may go back ... I have some sea-sickness tablets left!



Late afternoon was a birthday tea. She's having her party on Saturday at the local recreation centre.



It was a great day and Anna want to bed very happy!

Tico's getting bigger!

This weekend we went to visit Tico and couldn't believe how much she'd grown! She's now allowed in the outside pen and is running around, playing and getting up to mischief! She's due to come home after the 25 November, then the fun really begins ....

The furniture has arrived!

At last, our furniture has arrived but in true Underwood style it didn't go off without a hitch! At exactly the same time as our furniture arriving, the guys turned up to collect the rental furniture! So it was a case of running around saying what was to stay and what needed to go.

When the guys turned up with our furniture, they had a massive truck with five wooden crates on it. I stupidly asked, "which crate is ours?", for them to say "all of them!" I can't believe how much stuff we have! From living out of three suitcases and a bit of rental furniture, we now have masses of stuff ... most of which we don't really need...


The guys bought all the boxes in and I had to tick off which box had arrived against the ones which had been packed. They called out the box number as it came out of the crate. I kept wanting to shout, "house" but didn't think it would go down well!

They were all here, which is excellent news (I think the guys were very surprised!) The guys then began to unpack when disaster struck. One of the guys was using a Stanley knife to cut into the boxes when he sliced up his hand very very badly. It went all the way down to the bone (cutting it) and there was masses and masses of blood! We managed to pack it up as best we could and then it was off to casualty. He looked a real tough guy, but I think it shook him up pretty badly. Luckily Nige had taken Molly and Anna to the beach out of the way so she didn't see the carnage ...

Anyway, we have masses of boxes to unpack and very little enthusiasm ...