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Diary from Australia (or in modern internet terms: our blog from Australia...)
Here are the latest news from us in Butler, Australia (13606 km from our old house in Klagshamn, according to Google Earth..), written by Magnus. We'll update now and again, when we do, or don't have anything to write.. 2007-07-24 Tuesday Well, it's back to reality again, work and school... Lots of impressions brought back including an immense amount of wildlife both on land and in the sea. A summary of our experience for future visits would be:
2007-07-15 Sunday Holiday Time! One week into our two week trip up north. After driving via Geraldton,we spent three days in Shark Bay, exploring the nature around and sailing watching for dolphins in Monkey Mia. Very nice, we stayed at the Tradewinds apartments in Denham which suited us fine. Now we are in Exmouth, Ningaloo Marine Park, where we arrived via Carnarvon. We're staying at the Seabreeze Resort outside Exmouth, at an old military base. Very nice place and the children enjoy it very much. We've been here 2 nights of 6 so far and after a rainy start we've been exploring the national park yesterday, seen Kangaroos, Emu's and other birds plus today right at the beach, turtles and a stingray. Magnus tried fishing today, but no luck, only lots of lures stuck in the rocks... Some pictures from Denham are in the photo album. The camera is broken, so I'm not sure if we will get more stills from Exmouth, I've taken some with the video camera but am not sure of the quality.
2007-03-15 Thursday Autumn is here, but we haven't noticed.. :-) Still 27-32 degrees and dry sunny weather so we are not complaining... Simon is really growing, see the new pictures of him. Julian (year 1) & Nicholas (kindy) have settled down in their new school, East Butler, and look very smart in their new uniforms.
2007-02-14 Wednesday Still summer here in Perth. Not so hot this last week or so, only between 25-30 degrees, which is quite nice, especially since the AC is broken (again...). Nothing much to say, I've added a few more pictures in the galleries (Australia p 4 and Simon).
2007-01-29 Monday Phew, it's been a hot couple of days! 40 degrees in the shade :-) . Thank god for the pool, this week it's been the best investment we've ever made...
2006-12-21 Thursday Julian's 6th birthday today! He's a big boy now... Little brother Simon is growing as well, eating around the clock :-) . Merry Christmas everybody!!!
2006-12-09 Saturday A nice little surprise today :-). At 02.10 am a 3.1kg, 49.5cm boy saw the light of day at Joondalup Health Campus. It was a quick (3 hours from first contraction), although painful for Maria, delivery. Both mother and son are fine and will be home on Monday. Amazing to have another little boy in the house. Julian and Nicholas are already very proud brothers. Thankfully Robert was here so he could take care of the boys while Maria & I were at the hospital (although Nicholas wasn't too impressed by mum and dad not being at home at night...).
2006-11-05 Sunday One year since we arrived in Perth! Time has really gone quickly, we have a hard time understanding it ourselves. Sven and Birgitta made it home safely to Sweden, just in time for the winter storms... I think they would rather be here in the sun. Thanks for the visit, hope it won't be too long before we see each other again.
Some pictures from Jurien Bay have been added to the gallery.
2006-10-17 Tuesday Two months since the last post :-( . Sorry about that. We've been busy the last couple of weeks. After Romana left Robert and Hiang have been over from Melbourne for a weekend, and now my parents Sven and Birgitta are here. They've been sightseeing at Rottnest Island today. This past weekend we spent Friday-Sunday up at Cervantes, the Cervantes Lodge, a nice place to stay. Pictures from there will be in the picture page soon (I hope).
Also, I have started my new job as an Analyst at IMO this week. Not much to report from there yet, after only two days and no system access, so I can't start working properly until tomorrow. Just a lot of reading and learning the market rules the IMO administrates.
2006-08-15 Tuesday Payday today, always nice :-) . Romana left on Sunday and has arrived safely home after the long flight. Thanks for the visit, even though I worked quite long hours so we hardly got to see each other. At least Julian & Nicholas got to see a lot of grandmother, that's the main thing. We celebrated Nicholas birthday on Saturday, before Romana left, and he's still playing with his favourite present, from "Mommo", Lightning McQueen...
Some new pictures in the gallery, both from the garden and off the family.
2006-08-06 Sunday It's a busy time at work, leaving early and getting home late, so not much time for updates to the web and adding pictures. However, I did add some more pictures today. The garden is taking shape, I planted lots of new plants yesterday & Kevin Frostie finished off the paving for us. So soon the house is nice enough to sell...
Romana has been here two weeks now and this is the last week for her. Today she met Maria's friend Robin and they seem to have got along quite nicely.
2006-07-22 Sunday Today I have been treating the car to some paint protection, Infinity Glaze. The car really shines like a showroom vehicle, so in that aspect the product lives up to it's claim. I'm not so sure about the 5 years protection though. If it can give me 1-2 years I'll be satisfied.
I've been home with the boys for a week during Julians school holiday. Tomorrow it's back to work again... Grandma Romana will arrive on Tuesday evening and stay for a few weeks. Welcome Romana!
2006-07-02 Sunday Not a bad "winters day" today, 20 degrees in the shade... It's hard to realise that in Sweden it's summer, as it's winter here I still have to think twice when I read about summer weather in Sweden, summer concerts, people on holiday, etc.
Funny how quickly you adopt to your new environment. We have been planting some palm trees this weekend, so the garden is beginning to take shape. No pictures yet, but when I have the time, I'll take some and post here.
2006-06-13 Tuesday Another long period without any news. Mainly because I've been putting pictures on my other site and also I've been away to Melbourne and busy with other things. The garden has had grass laid two weeks ago and this weekend we planted some fruit trees, lemon, lime, avocado and banana. Let's hope they survive the winter here and start growing properly in the spring. We've all caught a winter cold, Maria and I have been sick from work for two days, I hope to be at work tomorrow, though.
2006-05-20 Saturday No update for a while, where here is one now... :-) Magnus has been in Melbourne for Western Power and will be there next week as well. Maria will start her new job as nurse at Balagura Medical Centre next week. We hope to have the grass and reticulation installation started next week as well.
2006-04-25 Tuesday Anzac day today. Combined with a day of leave yesterday means a long weekend away from work. Saturday we drove down to Margaret River and spent two nights there at the excellent Margaret River Resort. In spite of me having caught a cold, we had a really nice time there, lots to see and a very beautiful and relaxing environment, both along the coastline and inland, where forests, wine fields and agricultural areas make for a nice mixture. The weather was pretty bad, rainy and cloudy most of the time, but that didn't matter too much as we managed to fill the days with excursions anyway. Pictures are here. It's definitely not the last visit we make to this nice region of Western Australia.
Tomorrow it's back to work and now Maria has caught the cold, and has spent most of the day lying down and resting. I've been dosing myself with cola, coffee, aspirins & Enchinaforce to try and keep going a little bit. Hope I feel better at work tomorrow.
2006-04-14 Friday Robert has been here for a few days, wandering around with dreamy eyes after his visit in Sydney... The pool paving is finished and looks very nice. Now we just have the rest left... :-) . Maria got her nurses registration last week, after passing the OET (Occupational English Test). Well done Maria!
Easter means a few day's off, which is never wrong. Robert stays until Tuesday & Dannie, Freddy & John will be coming up tomorrow to spend Easter. Maria has been cooking for a few days to get everything ready. Myself, I have a new camera, a Nikon D50, which seems very nice to use and is capable of quite nice pictures, the first tries being viewable here.
2006-04-02 Thursday Nothing revolutionary has happened the last couple of weeks. The fence is up around the pool and we have a nice roof over our patio, which makes a big difference. Unfortunately our camera is broken, so there will be no new pictures for a while. Talking about cameras, I'm tired of missing all good pictures of the boy's because the Olympus is too slow. Before it has focussed and taken a picture, the boys are long gone... :-) So, I'm looking to buy a new SLR to enable me to take the pictures I want when I want. The Nikon D50 is the camera that best fits my requirements, so if we get money over next month then maybe...
Julian and Nicholas are picking up on their English and talking more and more. Julian seems able to communicate quite well in pre-primary, while Nicholas has begun to speak more and more at child care, much to the delight of the staff, who have him as their little favourite.
Robert is on his way over here after watching the Grand Prix in Melbourne this week end. After taking care of his future in Sydney he'll be over here next weekend, which will be nice. We'll just have to clean the guest room from all boxes and stuff this week :-)
2005-03-06 Monday Labour Day today means a day off from work, which of course is a nice change from going to work. This weekend has been very hot, 35-37 degrees. Yesterday we were at Helena and Carl's house in Fremantle for a BBQ, thanks b.t.w, it was very nice both the company and the food. Before that we went to Julian's favourite place in Perth, Fremantle Leisure Centre, where the boys could swim and ride on the slides.
The pool went in on Tuesday, and it's been filled up, so we are now waiting for the fencing and brick paving to begin. Here is a drawing how I hope our garden will look when it's finished.
2005-03-01 Wednesday Yesterday I finally got to see the hockey final(!). Seven, who broadcast the Olympics here in Aus, had the lovely idea of broadcasting the game Monday night at 1 am in the morning. That shows how much they understand about winter sports... But then again, their coverage was focussed more on selling commercials than showing sports. The evening broadcast (one day late on everything) was more about blabbering blondes with nothing to say, then jumping to some sport where they never told you the standings, then to commercials, back to the blonde, commercials, then on to something else. Fantastic work Seven! At least Sweden's medal total increased dramatically as the games went on. Well done! On the home front (which we now own!), things are moving with the garden. A big hole was dug for the pool on Monday (pics here) and the pool itself was put in yesterday. Now we are filling it with water and in a few weeks we hope the paving and things will be done as well. Lets hope the weather keeps up so we can use this pool a bit this season. 2006-02-16 Thursday Funny that Australia should take a gold medal in the Turin Olympics before Sweden did. That's something I had never expected... Sweden, come on!
I hope our settlement on the house went through today. Our settlement agent said it did, but our money is still in our bank account, which is a little strange. There is probably a screw-up somewhere, for which time in order I've lost count.
2005-02-14 Tuesday Now the heat has struck Perth, at least for a few days. It feels like a sauna outside during the day. Nice, as long as you don't have to work outdoors :-) . The weekend was spent at the beach, for obvious reasons....
Still no settlement on or house, last attempt was yesterday, but one of the vendor's loaners refused to give up their caveat on the property, so it got stuck once again. We are getting fed up now, it's causing all sorts of practical problems, as well as emotional stress... :-(
2005-01-29 Sunday I wonder if we'll ever get a barbeque.. We have one purchased at K-Mart before Christmas, which they were supposed to deliver for the past three weeks, but they have screwed up something with our order, so they don't know where it is. This is the third time they do this...
Talking about waiting, the settlement for our house is also delayed due to the vendors bank, JP Morgan in Sydney, not being able to count properly! The Australian banking system is not the world's most efficient, that's for sure ;-)
Julian will begin pre-primary in Butler on Wednesday. He has his new uniform and seems quite interested in the prospect of going to school. Think he's such a big boy now...
2006-01-09 Monday More than a week again since the last notice. Sorry, but we've been busy.. :-) . I have begun working for LogicaCMG as a consultant at Western Power and am still looking to find the quickest way to work. I'll probably get a Scooter to get to the train station instead of having to buy a new car. I started going by bike, but the heat (even at 7 am in the morning) made me so sweaty it was impossible to arrive fresh at work. So that has been given up until winter time. A shame, as I need the exercise...
Every morning it's fun to see where the morning paper is to be found. The paper here isn't delivered to the mailbox. Instead it's thrown in front of the house, wrapped like a missile in "Glad wrap" (yes, it's called that here). Sometimes when the wind blows the paper rolls away, so you never know where it is today.
Fredde, Dannie & John came up for New Years Eve and we had a great time together. Next up is Julian's birthday party, a little late but better now that the house has been cleared a bit more than it was before Christmas. He only wants John & Johan to come, so that's how it will be.
2005-12-24 Saturday It's been a while since the last update, which is due to us having been so busy with the new house. The house is very nice, open spaces and when painting is done and the garden and patio fixed, it will be great to live in. Our furniture arrived on Monday and now there are boxes everywhere... Maria has done a great job of unpacking while I have concentrated on painting the walls and putting up window blinds. We also had air-conditioning installed on Wednesday and have celebrated Julian's 5th birthday (he thanks everybody for all congratulations). The latter was done, at Julian's request, by going to Fremantle Leisure Centre with John and Dannie. Even though the weather wasn't at it's best, a cold wind blowing, the children enjoyed themselves immensely.
Today is Christmas Eve, 25 degrees and a strong wind blowing. I've tried to put up the swimming pool for Julian & Nicholas, but it keeps blowing away all the time. As soon as I fill it with air it lifts off, no matter how much stuff I put into it to weight it down... We have decided to have presents the Australian way, on Christmas Day's morning, instead of tonight. The boys don't mind, they are busy anyway, making ginger houses with mother, playing XBox and driving around on their tricycle (Nicholas) and kick-scooter (Julian). We have been to Ikea and brought some "gravad lax", meatballs and other necessities to have a small Swedish Christmas dinner tonight. Robert provided the Skåne snaps when he was here the other week.
2005-12-15 Thursday Tomorrow we take possession of our new house in Butler. The papers for the purchase haven't been finished so we'll rent for the first week or so, but that's ok. Also there will be delivery of washing machine, dishwasher and fridge tomorrow. Today I've purchased all we need (almost...) to paint the interior white, as the house lacks it's final interior coat of paint. We move out of this house on Saturday and our goods arrive on Monday (everything made it through quarantine except a straw goat and straw pig (!), among our Christmas things. The fact that quarantine found them must mean they DO look in every box in every container...
Today Julian & Nicholas were separated at the Child Care centre. Nicholas was in the small children's department and Julian among the older children. Especially Nicholas has been reluctant to do this before, so today was quite an achievement from him to accept this without crying. Well done! Hopefully this will mean they will interact more with other children and pick up English quicker than when they are together all the time.
2005-12-08 Thursday First day at ABC Childcare in Merriwa for Julian & Nicholas. It seems to have gone fine, they enjoyed their time there which is promising for the future. Next week we'll be moving to our new home in Butler. The last mortgage papers were signed today, as was the contract for the pool.... :-)
2005-12-04 Sunday We had a nice surprise this weekend when Robert came to visit yesterday on his way to Melbourne for business. It was a short but nice visit, where we today went to Whiteman Park and rode on the railway, before dropping him off at the airport. After that we had coffee at Riverbank Winery (expensive...) before driving home to Butler. Robert gave Nicholas a Thomas train set and Julian a Hot-wheels monster truck, both very popular gifts, that are being used as I write this..
2005-11-28 Sunday Perth zoo was fine, a natural environment with big enclosures and a good place to spend a day with large picnic areas, etc. Here are some pictures.
2005-11-25 Friday Funny how overweight many people are in Australia, especially the women. It seems their version of the WA outdoor life is sitting still in the shade drinking soft drinks and eating home delivery pizza, so they don't have to move to make dinner... I thought people would be more more fit, but Australia seems to have the same problem as Sweden with unhealthy food and too little exercise. We visited Butler primary school where Julian will attend pre-primary next year. New and nice school, where he'll most likely have a great time.
2005-11-22 Tuesday Today we went up to Yanchep and the beach there. It was good as it had wave-breakers forming a lagoon making it good for the boys. Be aware of the beach cafe though... the sandwiches they make are awful! Hopefully we will be home owners in Butler this week. The papers are signed but we haven't got approval from the bank for our loan. Hope it will be, so we can secure our living after December 17, when our rental with Poms in Perth is finished.
2005-11-19 Saturday A day at Mullaloo beach. 32 degrees and lovely sunshine :-) . We met Fredrik, Dannie & John there and they later joined us for a bbq at our house. We had a good time together & Julian wants to invite John to his 5-year pirate party...
2005-11-16 Wednesday Whale safari from Fremantle today! It was quite windy and the whales prefered to stay under the water most of the time. We did see some Southern right whales when they came up for air, but just the top of them, not much else, unfortunately. Better luck next time, maybe... On the way home we stopped at Ikea, so Julian & Nicholas have a wooden train to play with before our removal goods arrive.
2005-11-13 Sunday It's been a productive week. We are car owners (Hyundai Santa Fe, of all cars...), have WA drivers licenses, more or less descided where we want to live & some interesting work options in the bag. Rockingham was really nice, but we prefer the north, mainly due to commuting problems when the highway and railway south is being expanded. Yesterday we visited the Tingberg family in Hamilton Hill and today we've taken it easy at home, swimming in the pool (still a bit cold...) & watching TV. Nicholas has a bit of a fever, but it doesn't seem very serious.
2005-11-08 Tuesday Julian woke us up at 4.30 am. He had a throat ache and couldn't go to sleep again, which means Maria & I didn't either... Most of the day has been spent looking at houses in the Mindarie area, plus a few cars salesmen as well (Ford Escape seems a nice car...). Julian & Nicholas have been a bit annoyed with this, they'd have preferred to spend more time at the playground :-) . But they have behaved well these tough days, given their natural difficulty in being still when they are together... Rentals in Mindarie seem hard to get though. We also discovered a new development, north of Mindarie, Brighton estate in Jindalee, close to the ocean and a few spots of land left at reasonable prices. Maybe something to look into more... Tomorrow we're heading down south to see what Rockingham looks like. A visit to Northside Nissan is also booked, so it's another busy day ahead.
2005-11-07 Monday Today has been a busy day, we've applied for our WA drivers licenses, been to our bank Westpac to activate our bank accounts done a lot of shopping, including car seats for the children, play toys, mobile phone card for Maria and a telephone cable so we can connect to the Internet using the internet subscription I purchased on Saturday. We had also intended to register for Medicare and Centrelink, but both our and the boy's patience gave up after the shopping and other two activities today ;-)
2005-11-05 Saturday After a quite peaceful flight from Bangkok (Julian & Nicholas slept most of the way) we arrived at Perth International Airport at 8 am and were greeted by Rob from Poms in Perth, who took us to our rented house in Beldon. The house was quite small but nice and comfortable. Unfortunately for Julian, the water in the pool was a little too cold for swimming, which disappointed him as he'd been talking about the pool for days... The weather is also a little cold at the moment, for Perth standards that is :-) , around 20 degrees and windy. After our rental car arrived at our house (great service) we took a trip to Whitfords shopping center to buy a couple of hundred dollars worth of supplies...
2005-11-04 Friday Four days in Bangkok have gone very quickly, we thought it would be too long, but it was rather the opposite..., lots to do and lots to buy (we already had overweight, so we kept shopping to a minimum. Thanks to my good friend Harry "Boss" who fixed my shirts, provided us with a great dinner at his restaurant Little India and took me to a nice German Beer palace, where we enjoyed ourselves Thursday night :-) . One thing, avoid the Safari Park trip. The safari itself is nice and the animals seem to be kept in adequate enclosements, but inside the show park, the treatment of animals is dreadful. Small tiger cubs chained in small cages to be lifted out and photographed by visitors, etc...
We stayed at Novotel Bangkok at Siam Square, a perfect hotel for us, we'd gladly stay in again someday
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