AFL, Christmas in July and a bush walk!

So I haven't posted for a while; unfortunately Steve's grandma passed away 10 days or so after we arrived so the last week has been spent up in the Blue Mountains attending the funeral and helping out wherever we could. 

We are now back in the Northern Beaches and are trying to get into some sort of routine. Steve is looking for work and I can't wait until he does so we can start to look for our own place to rent.

I attended my first AFL (Aussie Rules football) game last week. Notice I don't say match anymore; it is a game, NOT a match. It was fun to start with, but I don't think I'll get used to the length of it - the game lasts over 2 1/2 hours. Luckily I was with a couple of other girls, so we drank wine and gossiped most of the day, much to the annoyance of our other halves sat in front of us. Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) was great though; easy to get food (important) and wine (even more important). 

The old part of the SCG.

One of the stands was being demolished though and they were only part way through. Check out the crane holding up the big screen in the below picture!

I have also experienced my first 'Yulefest' or 'Christmas in July'. It is absolutely FREEZING up in the Blue Mountains at the moment, so it's the perfect time to have Christmas dinner! Steve's Dad booked us tickets for just that at the local golf club and we had a hysterical evening last Saturday with friends and family. My favourite part of the evening though had to be the Kath & Kim impersonators who were brilliant. And that was before someone (we don't know who yet) set Steve up and he was half-dragged onto the stage by Sharon and Kim. I don't think I have ever seen him look so embarrassed. But it made my night... If you are ever in Oz during Winter, make sure you attend 'Christmas in July' wherever you are. Who wouldn't want to celebrate Christmas twice in a year?! And you don't need to go to the trouble of buying presents or posting cards. Result.

After eating a massive Christmas dinner the night before, we had to go for a bush walk the next day. There was not a cloud in the sky and we had a beautiful walk down to Wentworth Falls.

The beautiful Blue Mountains.

Standing at the top of the Falls.

So it is now on with the job search for Steve, and I will be attending a few open houses over the next few weeks to see how far our money will go (not far I imagine). Will keep you updated...

Seven days in: cars, golf and...sunshine!

Well we have arrived! Actually we arrived a week ago, but jet lag has severely claimed both of us despite getting bumped up to Business Class for both legs and managing to sleep for a massive nine hours in total! This is huge as I normally only get about four or five hours sleep on the journey to Oz. Business Class was something else; I'm not sure I'd pay for it (a whopping £5000 each) but to get it for free (well, the cost of two premium economy seats) was amazing. The best thing is having a double bed when both seats are lying flat and having the privacy from screens so it almost feels like you're in your own private room. We stopped off at Singapore for an hour (photos below) and arrived in Sydney at 5am last Thursday.

Steamy in Singapore.

Not looking TOO bad after 13 hours on the plane.

So here we are. We haven't done too much in the last week - waking up at 5am and falling asleep at 3pm and again at 8pm has put a stop to most things. But the weather has been fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen the Mountains so sunny the last few times I've stayed here. By Mountains I mean the Blue Mountains, which are about 100km west of Sydney. It is absolutely freezing (we are about 950m above sea level), but the sun has now been shining for seven days straight. Coming from the UK after such a washout of a summer, this has been a welcome change.

We have managed to get one thing done though - buy a car. This was a bit of an adventure yesterday as we set off for the ominous-sounding 'Car City'. Our brief was a medium-sized car (it's a struggle to find a small car round here!) that would last us about 12 months without breaking down, with a budget of $7000. Sounds simple? Not at all. Car City has hundreds of cars but we only found about three that we actually liked and that we could afford. Cars here are not cheap, and having been brought up on European cars (particularly German ones) I was finding it difficult to consider Holdens, Fords and Hondas. In an ideal world I wanted a 4x4, but those in our budget were pretty scruffy and needed a bit of work. We will hopefully get a newer one next year when we have both been working for a few months. The other half finally convinced me to look at a Holden Commodore which was at a good price and was in surprisingly good condition for its nine years on the road. I took it for a test drive and it drove just like our Audi A4 which was nice and familiar. So we are now the proud owners of a good old Aussie Commodore.

Apart from that, I had my first experience of a golf course this week as I drove around on a cart with my father-in-law while my husband played 18 holes. It was fun to start with, but three hours of watching Steve line up a golf ball, look at it for ages, sigh and then move it again, got pretty tedious. I think it will remain as something he can go off and do on his own or with his Dad/cousin/uncle, while I amuse myself with something I am interested in!

So that's about all our news from our first week down under. We're off to Sydney tomorrow which I'm really looking forward to, as we'll be catching up with other members of Steve's family and some friends too. And it's a lot warmer down there! I also have my first AFL (Aussie Rules football) experience on Sunday so I'll be blogging about that next week. 

D-day

This is just a quick post as we are about to set off for Heathrow. In typical fashion, the motorway gods have decided to close the motorway to Heathrow so fingers crossed we make our flight in time. It has been a week of mixed emotions; sometimes excitement, but more often there have been tears as we have said farewell to some dear friends and family. The hardest goodbye of all is still to come at the airport though. So I will see you on the other side! When I can get to an internet connection I will blog about our arrival in Sydney and our first few days in the Blue Mountains. Farewell England and to all our fabulous friends and family. I will miss you all so much.