We're still alive and well!

Gosh, it's been 6 weeks since I last blogged, and that's in spite of the protestations of certain family members!

So what's new?

Well life is chugging along quite nicely, thanks for asking. We've had some important landmarks in the last month, all of which are worth a celebration of some sort.

August 25th saw the 2 year anniversary of our arrival in these scorched shores. It amazes me how fast the last 2 years have flown by, yet in some ways it seems a whole lifetime ago that we said farewell to everything we know and loved. We have had a fair amount of time to reflect on these years, and whilst there have been some pretty tough times, we both know we did the right thing to come here.


I recall our first Christmas here, and subsequent months, when we were both having a hellish time missing our family friends - we talk about those times as our 'dark days'. It seemed almost a daily event that one or both of us would be pining to be home, amongst familiarity and security.


Looking back know, I feel that both of us have grown - emotionally, physically and spiritually. It's only when you are off your map that you begin to realise you need help.

So, looking forward now, we are into our third year in Oz and we still see a number of challenges ahead, but we both feel that we have been (and indeed are curerntly being) equipped to rise to those challenges as we meet them. The year ahead will mould us even more, and to that I say "Bring it on!"

we also both celebrated out birthdays in early september, just 2 days apart which makes for a double celebration! As both our days fell on a weekday, we still managed to make each other brekkie in bed, even if it was rushed. I was woken with two hot english muffins, with a solitary candle, and a steaming mug of fresh coffee. it's a real treat to have this as we have a fairly strict policy of 'no bread for brekkie' on weekdays!

We asked or families to send us cold hard cash for gifts this year as we had set our hearts on a fancy camera. We were blown away with all the gifts - THANKS EVERYONE! And we were able to get a very lovely Canon SLR.

So watch this space for some fancy pants pictures in the coming months!

we are looking forward now to our next trip - the school end-of-term holidays start this friday, so Helen has 2 weeks off. So, we are heading off back to tasmania. We had such a lovely time there for our birthdays last year, that we decided to go again. This time we are heading to Launceston and plan to head over to Cradle Mountain and the (wild wild) west coast. I have heard that is is the last real wilderness, truly unspoilt, so we are really lookign forward to that...

I guess that's about all, so look out for more updates soon - I promise!