Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - May 2008Kevin has had two wins in “A” grade the early part of this month much to his surprise and delight, (he enjoyed basking in the glory and his winnings of, wait for it - $43.00). His fellow team mates wanted to know what drugs he is taking. Unfortunately he has fallen back to his usual 7th and 8th for the remaining time. How the mighty fall!!
Being autumn here, the trees are dropping leaves rapidly and revealing the Australian local Councils’ penchant for pruning the branches in weird and wonderful shapes to prevent them obstructing power cables. Unlike in England where they just prune them to below the wire, here they just remove the part that the wires go through. 'L' shaped and 'U' shaped ones being the favourite (see pictures). During the rest of the year when they are clad in leaves, it is barely noticeable.
I have at last found someone in the area that does stamping. She is a Stampin’ Up rep, but just invited me round for a card making evening. I won’t be seeing her again for a couple of weeks as she is off to the US to visit her son and daughter in law and go craft shopping!! Lucky thing!
After weeks of searching, we have found another dog from the rescue centre to adopt. She is a much smaller breed than Diesel, a bit of a Heinz 57 part Jack Russell crossed with an unknown terrier. She is a soft creamy tan colour and Holly has called her Caramel (see picture). The poor little thing was abandoned in a garden as a pup and has had hardly any socialisation with humans or other dogs and now at 5 months is frightened of her own shadow. If you so much as reach down to her, she wets herself with fright. How can people treat a sweet and vulnerable creature like her with such disregard!! She is starting to trust us now, but we have to let her come to us rather than the other way round, she has bonded well with Diesel though. There were a few hairy moments but she accepts her place with him and things are generally harmonious. Here's a picture of Holly with Diesel too.
The second radio show, went much the way of the first, Holly again read the weather. She is on the first Tuesday of the month.
The first coats of paint are now going on the ceiling of the lounge/family room, we have chosen the colours for the walls, the next part is installing the kitchen, before the floors can be tiled and carpeted. It is all coming together nicely and I can’t wait for it to be finished. I think Kevin is truly fed up with it now as well. The belt sanding of the beams created a wonderful mess, as did the rubbing down of all the plasterboard joints, boy am I glad that part is over. The lounge resembled a cake that had been dusted in a heavy layer of icing sugar for days and days. It is such a big room to tackle.
Lauren is still in South Africa working on the game reserve and much to her delight Terry has been granted a visa for Australia. At the moment the plan is to return to Aus in September, but as always in Laurenland things are apt to change with remarkable speed so we will only be sure when we actually pick them up at the airport.
My nephew came to Australia for a holiday this year and fell in love with the place, so went straight back home and applied for a one year working visa (extendable to 2 years). He has now received it and plans to come back again next February. I am obviously winning the family over. Ha ha. My niece is also thinking about emigrating here and is planning a reconnaissance mission for next year. Looks like the spare bedroom will be in demand!!
The website fixing is still going on but should be up and running again at the beginning of June or thereabouts. Not before time either!!
Holly was taken by friends to see her first live game of Aussie rules football, she absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go again. She was full of who had scored and the entertainment during the three intervals. It was on at the MCG (a bit like Wembley - have they actually finished the rebuilding yet?) These friends have said they are going to take us next time, neither Kevin nor I enjoy English football or soccer as they call it here, so I can’t see us being big fans of AFL, but you never can tell - watch this space.
Well that’s all for this for this month folks,
Kerry
