"My FAVORITE QUOTE"

Always carry a Camera.. life happens all around you.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Boys first trip to the city

This weekend we decided to take the boys to have their first look at the CITY of Melbourne. We left home early and headed to the City..

The boys were in awe of the Eureka Tower.. it is the tallest building in Melbourne and has the tallest Sky Bridge in the Southern Hemisphere.

On the way up to the Eureka Tower we had to stop and admire a local Street Entertainer. His name is Aeriel Manx and he is totally amazing. He was on Australia's got talent too.


The view from the ground looking up the Eureka Tower.. it is so beautiful..



The boys and me at the top of the Tower. It is so windy up there... 98 floors !Admiring the beautiful 360 degree view.. Melbourne really is the most beautiful city, no wonder it is voted the most livable city for 2011.

Brenton at Australia's highest post box on top of the tower.. LOL

We also took the boys to the Market and then to Federation Square for lunch. Klaven just loved all the graffiti art in the alley ways too.



So much to do in one day.. have to go back to show them the rest soon.


Hugs, Mich

Brent is 9

On the 12th of September, Brenton celebrated his 9th birthday, he was so excited, he woke up extra early to see his presents.

We bought him his own BMX all wrapped up in balloons..

He has never managed to ride a bike before and when he got home from school Neville took him out and within 5 minutes he was out and going for it on his own. I am so very proud of him.. what a boy !



On the Friday he decided to take a small group of friends to the local Super Bowl to go 10 pin bowling. They all had so much fun and some even got strikes ! WOW.


Brenton doing his thing...

The final scores.. the boys done really well...

All anxiously watching the board to see if they are winning...

Of course there was cake.. ice cream one.. it was awesome..

The boys had a real blast and Brenton enjoyed his party !


Can't believe my baby is 9 already ! Wow, time sure does fly.


Hugs, Mich

Monday, September 5, 2011

WOW TIME FLIES

Well it has been a MONTH already... WOW !!! I must say that I am really enjoying being a housewife for the moment, although all our furniture still isn’t here so it is strange to live in an empty house. We have managed to borrow beds and couches from friends that we have made but are using boxes as sidetables..

Our new house is so pretty and the area we stay in is amazing.. Inside Chase Estate, so it is new and modern and everything is so lovely.. walkways everywhere, an estuary next to us.. awesome.


The first thing we bought was a Flat Screen.. afterall.. who needs anything else hey? LOL


Waiting patiently for our container to arrive.. hoping that it arrives by the 20th at least.. going to take me ages to unpack everything.. still have no clue where everything is going to go as the house is much smaller than we had before. At least now it gives me more time to go out and shop and explore my surrounds.. thank goodness for GPS... I drive for hours to investigate on my own.. love it !


While I am driving around, Nev had to hitch a lift to work.. LOL.. so he finally got his 4x4.. a Dodge Nitro.. it suits him too.. He is so happy now..



The boys have slotted into school so easily so it does make our life a lot easier. Klaven got his bicycle and rides to school with a friend .. he loves the freedom. The cops are really strict here though and they have to have helmets on scooters and bicycles and skateboards if they ride. Today his friend has his tyres blown down by the deputy school principal as he didn’t have a helmet and they won’t let the kids ride the bikes without them... really serious here about stuff like that.. It is good though, it protects the kids in the long run.


The boys only start school at 9 but Klaven is out the door at 7h15.. he cannot wait to go each morning.. Brent is the same. I drive him to school, but by 7h30 he already starts nagging.. it is so cool..
Nev is coping well at work. It is a bit stressful I think but he is making progress slowly but surely.. not going to happen overnight. He is starting to get the hang of it and seems to have a pretty decent team to work with. Strange to have no black workers though.

The area we live in stunning, there are parks everywhere and nice walk ways that you can take nice strolls anytime of the day. Everyone is very friendly and the local shopping centre is not too far away. Everyone has their own post box.. so cute.. gonna do a page on that.. the local Bunnings has an aisle dedicated to postboxes only.. !!




The huge centre is about 10Km’s away as well, so everything is pretty close. The city is about 45Kms away and is so gorgeous.. everytime I drive past it I just love it more.. the architecture here is amazing... they really care about the environment and make it pleasing to the eye everywhere you go. You will drive on the highway and there are abstract structures of art on the side of the road to look at... amazing. The highways also have sound barrier walls all the way along and these are different everywhere you go.. they are decor more than anything else.. amazing.. The bridges and arches are awesome.. need to stop one day and take photos (a bit dangerous to do on the highway though.)..

Still trying to get used to the security here.. no walls, no fences, no security companies, no burglar bars.. strange. Everyone parks in the street, people leave their doors open, garages open.. they park their boats (huge ones) on trailers on the road.. anyone can just hitch and go.. with no worries.. Kids leave their bikes on the lawn and they are still there the next day.. amazing.

Everyone here are car junkies.. millions of old cars that have been renovated and souped up.. awesome to see old Chevy’s with flames down the side roaring down the street.. and they are everywhere.. they really look after them. Although no one drives faster than the speed limit, they still sound awesome. Tons of other fancy cars too... people love their big nice fast cars. The colors of the cars here are amazing.. every color under the sun.. teal, aqua, pink, yellow, orange.. awesome colors.. I love it.. like a fruit salad mixed with glitter.. beautiful !

All the parks have chairs and tables and “barbeques” set up for everyone to use free of charge with gas.. awesome, the kids all ride bicycles in the streets, people park their cars in the streets.. no one has walls or security bars.. just so strange, but such a lovely way to live ! the boys have just embraced the freedom so well. Even Brenton plays outside more than he used to ! And.. if you want to go to the beach, you jump in the car and 20 minutes later you are splashing in the waves.. it is amazing. 10 minutes in the other direction and you are in the mountains and by the lakes, everything is so unspoiled and untouched.. amazing.. just like mother nature intended. There are huge open Parks everywhere for people to just stop and picnic if they wish too.. that is so cool.

We have managed to make quiet a few friends already.. everyone here is very friendly.. the area we stay in has a lot of South Africans (we stay in Berwick and are called the Berickaners.. LOL) very apt.


If I am not cleaning house or fetching kids, then I am out jolling with the other housewifes.. LOL.. so much fun ! Nice bunch of ladies. Neville’s work group of friends have become house friends and they just rock... this weekend we are going to a braai and a Spit Braai on Sunday again (fathers day).. our weekends are pretty much booked out by people inviting us places, it is nice as they embrace you into the area. I like it. The Australians themselves are very nice but I haven’t really made any friends with them yet.. all the friends so far are South African and New Zealanders. I am sure we will make Australian friends too as we go along.. just seems that we tend to gravitate to what we know for now still.. and it is amazing how the SA people find you ! LOL.. there are all over our area and in our street there are tons. Awesome. You walk in the shops and hear Afrikaans often. I just laugh and keep walking.

The only negative here is that stuff is really expensive.. if you work in dollars though I suppose it is all relative.. but thinking $7 for 4 bananas (x 7.5... OUCH)... the butter here however is cheap ! That is about the only think I found that is cheap.. and ribbons (will have to import all my Scrapbooking stuff.. too expensive to buy here).. Bread here is really expensive.. like $5 a decent bakery loaf.. normal bread is about $1 so that is OK.. but nice Portugese rolls are like 60c each !! That is madness.. Hence we don’t eat rolls..

Well, that is my life at the moment.. hope to catch up with everyone soon.. cannot wait to get scrapping again.. think I'm going to do some Digi Scrapping till my container arrives.. it should be here soon.. holding thumbs...






Hugs, Mich