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Christmas and New Year, and so much more Christmas and New Year, and so much more Not only is Becca learning the hard way about speed, sand and bicycles but so am I… I am sitting here with a grazed left knee and a big fat bruise on my thigh. It seems that any mountain bike handling experience I had was left back in South Africa. Since getting my bike we have been riding nearly every day, all in and around our area. Rebecca’s trail-a-bike gets hooked up to Bern’s bicycle and away we go… We still can’t believe how bicycle friendly Adelaide is. Every main road has a wide bicycle lane and cars don’t come anywhere close to it. On one of our ‘explore your neighbourhood’ routes… Bern came across a recreational park… Let’s just say it was Mountain bike heaven… path after path of pure mountainbiking bliss! So off we all went (yes, Rebecca still attached to Bern’s bike) on a mountain bike bush adventure. We passed walkers, cross country joggers and fellow mountain bikers… and I fell flat on my face, with the injuries to prove it. We’ve been also looking at second hand furniture dealers – because we were determined to pick up some good bargains. But let me tell you that over here, the second hand market doesn’t compare with those discount furniture shops like IKEA and Fantastic furniture. We’ve trawled the shops and only managed to find real overpriced junk and a cute little doll house for Becca. The colours were awful, but with a little TLC and a lick of paint, it was turned into Cinderella’s castle! On that note, when you go buy paint here, you have to ask for assistance. All the spray paint is locked away, and kids under 16 are not permitted to buy it at all. There is clearly an issue with graffiti over here… many walls have graffiti markings… and nothing inspirational, just pointless nonsense… they aren’t fighting any cause… they’re just bored kids, with nothing else to do. Other arb things that we have come across…
The Christmas festivities were great, we were invited to a braaibecue (that’s Bernards new term for a barbecue with South Africans) on Christmas eve with a lovely family that we met through the forum. It’s funny, we weren’t really the social type in SA, but here in Oz we’re really stepping out of our comfort zone and enjoying it! We are also amazed at people’s kindness and hospitality. I mean, in all honestly, all we have in common is that we are/were South Africans… that’s it. And people open their homes and hearts… and don’t want to gain anything from it. It really restores your faith in mankind! And it also reminds us that we will need to do the same for those coming this way too. For the first time, we were able to put Rebecca’s presents under the tree on Christmas Eve, without fear that they might disappear during the night! So Boxing Day we woke up at the (Aussie) crack of dawn, and headed off to Rundle Mall for the much anticipated after Christmas sales… but boy… like typical tourists we had been given the wrong information. There were many people (probably foreigners) milling around… but not any shops open… that would be a lie, there was ONE… the Aussie souvenir shop… what a bunch of chops we felt like, and to make matters worse we were interviewed by Channel 9 News – they were covering the news story of the shoppers who arrived to find nothing happening… how mortified I felt… I still cringe thinking about it!! Anyway, all was not lost, on Saturday we headed off to ‘The Good guys’… and we hit a great luck there! They most certainly had GREAT bargains – We managed to buy a fridge, dishwasher, 2 fans, 2 vacuum cleaners (one hand held black and decker) and washing machine for $1500… and the great part is, is that the South Australian government will be giving us a $200 rebate for buying an economical washing machine that saves water! We have also been driving all over the Adelaide suburbs, looking for good areas and at potential rentals. Here the rental market works somewhat differently. You have to inform the agent you are interested in seeing a certain property, and then a few days later or so, you are advised of an ‘inspection time’. For example we found a rental (on the internet) that we were keen on, Bern sent the agent an e mail, and about a week later we received an sms to say the property would be open for an inspection for 15 minutes on that particular day. THAT’S IT!!! All you get is 15 minutes. So you rock up at the house, and there are plenty other prospective tenants all wanting the same unit. If you decide that you like it (which we did) you fill out this intensive application form. And from there the agent presents the landlord with all the different prospective tenants… whilst you sit and wait. We still have a few more days to wait… but this unit would be perfect, so keep your fingers crossed. It’s a little duplex right on the edge of the famous Torrens River… and all along the Torrens river is this spectacular cycle / walking path that goes on for about 40km! It’s biking bliss… and it’s all safe! In all our driving, we really have come across the most beautiful area’s. We were also given the impression by many that Australian homes just didn’t compare to the South Africans ones. Which really isn’t so. Sure, the homes (and particularly the gardens) are smaller. But most are very well maintained and looked after. And we have done driving into the lower income areas as well as the higher income areas. We are trying to find furniture before we have to move to our new rental, and at the moment our little flat is bursting at the seams. Poor Becca has these huge boxes in her room, with no room to play… thank goodness we manage to get out, because these walls seem to be closing in on us sometimes. We still haven’t found any great bargains at second hand dealers… but what Bern has come across is the ‘Gum Tree’ adverts. Much like the classified section of a newspaper, but on the internet. We have managed to get a solid wooden coffee table for $40.00… now that’s the kind of bargain we want. .. The lady even dropped it off at the flat for us! Our start to the new year was a planned, quiet event. We decided that we wanted to stay at home, and not have to drive around, also with not knowing the area, we just weren’t too happy about going places with Rebecca… just incase it got rowdy. So we had an awesome supper, Bern had a beer or two, and I had some wine… and then at about 10:30pm we decided it was a little too quiet for New Years… and we headed for the bus stop! Yip, would you believe you can walk the streets at 10:30pm in the suburbs and catch a bus. We thought we would head off to Victoria Square to see some fireworks. But nothing was happening… and everyone was heading off towards the Arts Centre of Adelaide. We decided to call it a night when we came across some drunken boys and Rebecca said ‘That boy can’t control his mouth’… It just wasn’t a place for a child, and it wasn’t a place for us to be… Police presence was awesome though. Patrols on horseback and more. But what we witnessed was many drunken revelers, and many ambulances and fire engines heading off to help those in need. Our wait for the bus meant that at the stroke of midnight we were heading on the way back home. Both girls in Bern’s wonderfully warm arms… all of us amazed that at midnight we were safe on public transportation, and blessed that tomorrow we would wake up safely for the new year to begin… And what a great start to the New Year, without a hangover… We were going to spend the day on the beach, but got side tracked when we came across a ‘Bunnings Warehouse’… I can only describe it as Servistar/Mica on steroids… Every DIY project imaginable (all at good prices), plants, pots, hardware, crafts, machinery, outdoors, tools… I could go on and on… and we could have spent and spent... but we had to stop somewhere… and that would be when poor Mitsi couldn’t fit any more items !! Life is good… and learning is great… 2009 is going to be a great year for us all…. PS… Angry old lady is no longer Angry Old lady… on New years eve, she was heading out and passed us in the street… and bellowed… Happy New Year…. And even will her queer little smile… it warmed my heart… I was glad I never gave up on her… With a new year, comes along a fresh perspective… a New beginning… and for us, it’s in a new country. And without necessarily talking about it, Bern and I have embraced this new adventure. We have no fixed routine, so when we get picked up by a stranger at a DVD Warehouse Sale, we have no hesitation to join in the fun. And what a wonderful evening we had… We pretty much feel like this is home now, and aren’t making such big fools of ourselves. We know which shops to shop at, we know when and how to fill up with petrol, we know what a bargain is, we know where to live, and not to live… Life is starting to become more like it should, with a little more normality. We spent most of the week, dreaming of our rental, discussing what we would do with the place, and what our chances of getting it would be. We’ve heard all the dreaded stories how hard it is to get an application accepted… so let’s just say we were a little skeptical. And what a welcome that was! So we’ll be moving in this Friday, to the rental we could only ever have dreamed of. It’s pretty much fully furnished so we don’t have to splash out on more and it’s right next to the river Torrens… every bike riders dream. On, the subject of bikes, Adelaide is just amazing. We ride for 2-3 hours most days, all around Adelaide. Through the parks, and through the city, during the morning, and at night… there we all are… amazed by where we are. I never dreamed we would feel this sort of freedom, I never realised just how much we used to stay indoors, at home… watching TV. You can ride in the middle of the city at 7:00 in the evening, and come across runners and walkers, cyclists and kids, all living life to the full! The parks here, also have gym equipment, similar in a way to the kids jungle gyms, but specifically designed for adults to use. There are hurdles, parallel bars, pull up bars, press up T bars, and along the Torrens, there is actual equipment that you use your body weight to increase the resistance – so you can do a FULL gym workout, i.e stepper, leg press, leg raise, shoulder press, lat pulldown, bench press… all FREE of charge and available 24hrs a day. Ok, so we still look like gobsmacked tourists occasionally, but less than when we first arrived. The other exciting news, is that Bernard got his learners licence… he woke up on Friday morning, flipped through the learners handbook, and promptly announced. “I’m going to do my learners”… That was it, no panic, no stress, no chewing finger nails… NOTHING!!! And off he went, paid his $25, sat the exam… and PASSED. Now, when it comes to my turn, I’ll have to be dragged in like a panicked animal with no nails left to chew on… I mean, he could have acted a little nervous, made me feel better about my ridiculous self… but no… he was the epitome of calm. The pressure on, is incredible. Let’s just remember Bern got the job, at his one and only interview, and now… he’s passed his learners… first time! Ugh… wish there was a hole I could crawl into… Alas, there is no hole… and life must carry on! And I will pass my learners, and then my drivers, and life will be ok… I hit these moments of panic, especially now that we are moving away from the area we have become adapted to, but it also means we close a little chapter, and start a new one. Goodbye to council living and strange council dwellers… goodbye to a tiny flat and hello to a New beginnings… and a house right by the Torrens River… And people that once were strangers, have now become friends… and not just because we have a nationality in common, but because we have a whole lot more… New beginnings marked new emotions for me. Closing our chapter on Hawthorn council housing proved to be harder than moving from South Africa to South Australia. Hawthorn was where I had made home, developed some roots, developed a love for my new country and felt completely at ease. People’s faces were becoming familiar, shop assistants more talkative, and we no longer needed the Garmin to get us from place to place. This was home… and this was where I wanted to be. I have so many stories leading up to the move, and after the move, but felt the need to mention what was going on at the same time… and how without a sense of adventure and a sprinkling of humour… one’s perspective can change from good to bad… We’re settled now , and I can call this home… but it took a bit to get us here… And this is how the story goes… With Bernard only having a week left till he went back to work, we decided to visit Historic Port Adleaide, enjoy the museum and take a stroll around the place. What we didn’t count on was having a two hour ferry cruise around the port, only to leave Port Adelaide hours later! The museum itself was interesting enough, but it was the immigration section that really left me feeling quite privileged about the way we came to this country. Compared to what they experienced back in the day… we had five star luxury, and our “awful” trip from Jo’burg to Perth was nothing to complain about. Talking about crazy, we still hadn’t packed any boxes for the big move on Friday… I mean really what can one family of three collect in two months, a couple of items here and there perhaps… No, not our family! We had literally squashed the tiny 2 bedroomed flat from corner to corner with new goods needed to set up for our new home. If it hadn’t been for Manny who kindly offered to help transport some of the heavier goods in his vehicle, we would have been moving for days… yes, DAYS!!! Keys collected, we drive to our new home… arrive and open the door to be welcomed by the most awful stench… and as you may recall my emotional state was not at any point where a bad smell might be tolerated… Ripping open doors, windows and blinds eased the smell and frustrations a bit, but this was only the beginning… On closer inspection in the ‘professionally cleaned rental’ we found cobwebs, stains, cigarette burns, dust, dirt, grime… and… dirty underwear… I was finished… I could not live here… and I wanted MY council housing back… I wanted to live with the creepy bunch of people in government subsidized housing… Judgment clouded the mind… and rationality flew out the open window. .. So we have all the brand new goods on the pathway next to the apartment block… And Manny arrives… Load the fridge in the vehicle, throw in some extra boxes… pack up Mitsi (our ’89 hatchback) and away we all go… it’s about a half hour drive. Becca decided Manny was better company, and so was his air-conditioned car… she’s a clever thing, and hitched a ride with him. We got to the rental, unpack the stuff… Bern and Manny go on a little walk to see the area, I pull out the disinfectant… and about an hour or so later, we head off again… another load… only now I realise that the rest of our furniture is sitting… on the pathway of the apartment block…What had we been thinking????? Brand new items, nicely packaged and ready to move… outside low income housing… in a dead quiet neighbourhood… they were surely gone… Between the both of us we had decided that we needed to make a clean break from our flat. So we undertook to get all our items moved and to get the flat clean by that same day… Kerry and Steff had offered to bring us over supper, but we decided that we would need to decline… And so, the rest of the evening we packed Mitsi to the brim… Becca shoved between a bean bag and potting soil…Pots and a clothes drier… toilet brush and microwave… The poor girl never moaned… perhaps it was the laughs we were having… maybe the tiredness… but we all got through it. And at the stroke of midnight we finished off the last bit of mopping at the flat… and headed for our new home… Unpacked Mitsi, managing to walk over all our worldly goods, Bern headed for the fridge and cracked open a beer at two in the morning, gulped it down… and we headed for bed… exhausted… The next morning we collected our pot plants from the flat, and closed the door behind us…slid the key under the door as instructed. More to follow… The newer beginning seemed daunting. Our two month holiday was coming to an end, and reality was setting in, Bern would be going to work, and Becca would soon be following her way out the house, and going to school. My last weekend before normality resumed. We had an awesome ending to our long break together, we decided that we would ride into the city and watch the Tour down Under (secretly hoping we’d get to spy Lance Armstrong). And that was what we did. We hooked up Becca’s trailer bike to Berns, filled up our water packs, hopped onto the bikes, and away we went… The freedom of being able to do this is totally indescribable. There are no words that I could possibly string together to convey the sheer awesomeness of it all. From our driveway we are 2 metres from the cycle path that winds it’s shady way along the Torrens River… Over bridges and under them… you feel completely free… and safe. Maybe that’s why you feel so free… you have no worries and safety is not a concern. Well, for most… You see… Bern has his concerns, and rightly so. I have to be the clumsiest person on a bike – but clumsy in the oddest situations… Give me a downhill with roots, dirt and a rock in between and I can ride like a star. Let me come to a flat tarred area, where nothing should get in my way – and I will find a way… and come crashing down… hard. I have had a few of these, and each time Bern breathes a sigh of relief that I have not in fact injured myself beyond a kissable repair. I don’t know why he doesn’t laugh… I don’t know if I could be so heartfelt. I mean I turn into a corner and suddenly, I don’t know… the bike and I part ways… except for my feet, because they’re still clipped into the pedals… I mean, how can he NOT laugh… We managed to get to watch the tour, after I had also managed to fall outside the front of a building with a tradesman watching from his ute (bakkie). My ribs hurt… but my ego hurt more… When the alarm sounded at 5:45am on Monday morning… I just wanted to close my eyes and forget that Bern was off for his first day at the office. But I couldn’t and Bern gave me a kiss goodbye, jumped in the driver’s seat and rattled down the road in Mitsi, on his way to experience work and the Australian way. I seemed to be able to hold it together, until a few special friends e-mailed to see how I was doing. Carman knew even from thousands of kilometres away that I needed a chat, Lyn knew I had a heavy heart, and Kerry knew that I needed a little space… but not too much... just the right amount. I felt silly, like one of those troubled teens, lovesick and totally irrational… it was silly… but I was even sillier… Bern’s first week was a good one, which was a relief for us all. He came home to tell me that all was well, and that the people were great… He also told me that when he first walked in to the office, the receptionist wasn’t there, and so he just hung around… waiting… hoping not to get the attention of this rather massive, boot wearing, tattoo covered , scary looking Aussie bloke… also that he was somewhat relieved when a rather meekly looking chap asked if he needed help… Bern stated “I’m your new systems co-ordinator’… and the meekly chap said…’Hang on. Let me get the person you need’… And guess who the person Bern ‘needed’ was… yes, the massive, boot wearing, tattoo covered scary looking “Aussie” who bounded up to Bern and greeted him with…’hallloimmacharrison’… On the day Bern went to work I picked up the phone and enquired about enrolment at our local school. Things work differently over here. You don’t get put through to an admissions lady, you get put through directly to the principal, who then says… come over in half an hour, and you can ask all the questions you need to ask. So that’s what we did… In ridiculous heat, we walked to the school… halfway Rebecca stops and says… “I’m ready to blow”… It was hot and I felt the same… and it was bliss to walk into his air-conditioned office. I asked all the normal questions… like times (school here is 9:00am – 3:05pm), uniform (generally they like you to stick to the uniform… huh??), school fees ($170.. gulp..a month I ask… NO, per year… huh?), stationery (supplied by the school… huh?)… and that was it. He didn’t want to see my passport or Bernard’s, only looked at Rebecca’s because she made him. Didn’t want to see her inoculation sheet, or income statement, or proof of residential address… nothing… No deposit, nothing. Just one thing he wanted… an answer to… would you like Rebecca to join our school? Trying to get the uniforms was a whole new learning experience. We went a few days later, with the idea of kitting Rebecca out from top to toe… Only to be met by some feisty women who wanted to save me a couple of dollars. So I ask for a golf shirt… and they just stare, and don’t say oh you mean this only other shirt, they just look at me blankly almost like I have spoken a north western dialect of some Ethiopian language… And before I knew it… I had completed my first week. And I had survived… the house, now filled with love and laughter and no more bad smells. The bathrooms and kitchen disinfected from top to toe… and to end off our week we had a barbeque at Kerry and Steff’s… and met more great people. Till the next time… take care.
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