Back to school

The kids started back at school today and it was Janayas first day at kindy, They all had a really good day, and Kahayla was glad to be in the BIG school. It was a bit rushed to get all the kids off to their new classes this morning, Sean took Tayden while I took Kahayla to hers, we were going fine till I stressed Kahayla out by taking her into the wrong class duh!!! By that time Sean had arrived back so I told him to wait with her as she was looking abit lost, while I took Janaya off to kindy. Got Janaya to her class only to find out that she wasn't starting till the afternoon, as the teacher had split the group into two for the first day, so poor Janaya who was already grumpy as she had the idea of going home on the plane to go to kindy to see Helen, and announced in her BIG voice that "This isn't my kindy", had to be told that she was going home for the morning. We took her back in the afternoon and Sean and I walked out of the door 10 mins later leaving behind a very happy settled girl. We got home to a very quiet peaceful house and didn't quite what to do next, but we enjoyed the break.
Kids were very tired so we went into town to get a wendys icecream, which most of Janayas chocolate one ended up on her new uniform, fingers crossed it all comes out in the wash....

MY BABY!!!!!!

you gotta love the hats!!

AUSTRALIA DAY

I know its Monday and Australia Day was on Friday but it has taken me a few days to get over it.

The day itself was pretty much a non event for us, Sean was at work and the kids and I just did the usual stuff, we went into the supermarket and saw people wearing flags and tattoos on their face, also heaps of guys in zinc, you know the fluro kind that was in when I was about 8 haha, quite cool for the kids. Driving home most of the cars we flying numerous flags, funny.

Anyway Sean got home about 7 and we had Paul, Michelle and their kids over for a fish fry, Paul had caught some pink snapper while they were away down at shark bay, so they bought the fish and we cooked it, Damian from behind also gave me two mud crabs, so I was in heaven with the seafood, the mud crabs were so hard to get into never having done it before but I managed to get the meat out and It was alot like crayfish but sweeter so yummy, Kahayla being a seafood freak too was salivating just watching me ripping them apart, she enjoyed it too.

So we had a nice dinner and then started celebrating. A few beers and a bottle of vodka later(and that was just for me...not quite) we realise its 4 am... how time flies when your having fun. I paid for it severely the next day and Sean had to work night shift luckily he managed to sleep pretty much the whole day.

Paul and Michelle

Me and Sean

So It was a pretty good first Aussie Day for us. Not really in a rush to do it again though!!!!!

Kids are amazing and can sleep anywhere

High Cost living.....

There was a story on the news last night about the high costs of living in Karratha. This guy who works at Retravision has been living in Karratha for 10 years and loves the lifestyle but is having to move due to exhorbant rent prices. The place is bursting at the seams and housing has become a real problem. Theres very little available and when there is, its so expensive. This guy that was interviewed was looking at a rent increase, putting his rent up to $1650.00 A WEEK! But looking in the paper that is the norm. and you get very little choice of what your are getting at that price, no wonder the poor guys leaving town. House prices are ridiculous with most houses reaching a million easily and these are just your average 4 brm house, nothing special, so you could say that we are living in a million dollar house.

There are houses being built everywhere to try and rectify the crisis, but its still nowhere near enough for the demand, the new houses being built are so close to each other you could put one hand on your house and the other on the perimeter fence, No outdoor entertaining going on there, the eaves of the roof is cms away from the neighbours eaves and I am just thankful for the yard we have even though it is tiny to my standards but we have room to kick a ball around, have a trampoline (we haven’t actually put ours up yet being cyclone season) and could even put in a pool one day.

Some of the houses being built so close together

and some of the newer houses, nearly touching each otherour nice big back yard just off the lounge

our front yard

Our front courtyard infront of the car port which is just off the lounge too, we are going to concrete the garden to make the area bigger

Our kick @#% Air conditioning unit.

Sean was telling me of a contractor at his work, a nice young guy with a wife and a baby, they moved here about a year ago and live in one of the 4 camp grounds, he has his own caravan and started out paying $120 a week for his site, now he’s paying $280.00 a week and his power on top of that, and that’s just for a tiny bit of grass!!!!

The camping grounds are so full you can’t get a site even if you wanted to and its all permanent residents who either can’t find a rental or can’t afford the rents, and its only going to get worse.

The town is crying out for people to fill the many jobs available and having to bring more people to the area. A taxi driver can earn $2k a week in the hand and I thought wow that’s awesome, but that will barely cover the rent. Admittedly if you work for the town giants like Woodside, Pilbara Iron and Dampier Salt will pay most of the rent for you, and most of the other industries like builders and such get some of their rent paid for.

Woodside workers ie us get the sweetest deal in town, which does create a bit of animosity, Woodside own about 600 identical houses so you can spot them a mile away, and if you work for woodside you are entitled to a house and only have to pay $35 a week and we get our air conditioning, and water paid for as well. Unfortunately everyone in town knows our situation and what everybody earns, I have also been put into a group which I understand now, I have been labeled a” woodside wife” I was talking to another “woodside wife” a while back she has been here 12 years, she told me that when people asked what her husband does she would never say he worked for woodside but just that he worked on the Burrup, as she was sick of the stereotypes. I’m not too worried what people think of me and if they want to judge me because of where Sean works then that’s fine, I'm a proud “woodside wife”…..

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about What I miss about home 1 My Family. Mum Dad Lynne and Mark, I miss you all so much. 2. My wonderful Friends, you all know who you are, just miss catching up and being there 3. THE WAREHOUSE. oh do I miss that place, nothing even comes close here. 4.My home, I love that place 5. Rain.... yes rain, I took it all for granted for so long, I haven't seen rain in over 2 months. 6. Certain foods, surimi salad from the deli, flavoured hummus, Aoili, Eta ripples, pineapple lumps, fresh mussels, oysters from parua Bay, sealord smoked fish, maggi onion soup, toffee pops, NZ Milk, the list goes on 7. Outrageous fortune, although the 1st series has just started here. 8. Green trees and hills, nothing but brown and red here 9. Going out on mark and dads boat..... plenty of boats here just haven't been out on one yet 10. brushing my teeth with cold water. Yes even a little thing like that, the novelty of brushing your teeth with warm water wears off quick 11. Ewok my cat. yeah she only rates 11 sorry wok! 12. cheap beer or in my case Free beer, thanks to Lynne, beer is expensive here cheaper to drink spirits here 13. just being able to go for a drive to anywhere, theres not much choice of places to drive to that isn't over 600km away...

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SUNDAY FUNDAY!!!

It was another stinking hot day on Sunday, and much to be done around the house, Sean and Tayden headed outdoors to mow the lawns, while Janaya and Kahayla baked muffins and a chocolate cake, with the help of me......

Tayden did a really good job with the lawns, it is now his fortnightly job.

After the chores it was time for a bit of fun, we were all so hot so Sean got out his air compressor and we pumped up the kids pool and bouncy castle, once it was full we all jumped in but it didn't really do much to cool us off as i have said before, the tap water is warm!!!.

Sean shot off down to the caltex and bought 3 bags of ice which went into the pool, ahhh now thats a way to cool down, the kids thought it was too cold but Sean and I lay there for ages enjoying it. lolWell we have had a pretty full on start to the week with a new venture, I will fill you in on it another day.....Watch this space!

ITS HOT!!!!

Its 43c today!!!!!! two days ago it was 39c and the difference is amazing. I have decided anything under 40c is nice but once it gets over that its just HOT!

We caught up with Seans boss at the pools this morning, and he said its quite a mild summer. Whoooa what have I got myself into? He said it usually gets alot hotter in Feb. He has a pool at his home, and we said it must be nice to be able to swim all year round, He was like no way, after April its toooo cold. (we're talking temps of 26c +) Roll on winter I say.

Yesterday was a scorcher too, I took the kids into town to do some shopping and when we got out of the truck it was like being in an oven with the fan bake on, I thought of Sean being at work and hoping he was handling it OK. When he got home he told me that he had pretty much spent the whole day outside as they had 3 ships to berth and load. I had to feel sorry for him having to wear all the gear that operators have to wear. He's on nights now so won't be so bad for him.......

Harding Dam and Point Samson

Today we decided to go and check out the Harding Dam, which is where we get our water from, It is about 67kms away and 27km of that on a really rough metal road. This is the road between Karratha and Roebourne.

And the road between Roebourne and Harding Dam

We arrived to a most picturesque setting and had the place to ourselves, the place was really clean and had tables under gazebos and free gas bbq's and a cool playground for the kids. Sean Set about cooking lunch on the barbie, sausages and steak sandwiches, while I set up and tried to keep the flies (which were very persistent) away from me. I was getting really annoyed with them so I ended up putting kahaylas dolls blanket on my head to give me a bit of peace.

Sean happily cooking on the bbq

We had a really nice lunch and went for a drive up to the dam lookout, and it was amazing.

Then it was off to Honeymoon cove at point Samson on the way home, the water was beautiful and clear, but something little kept biting/stinging us, not sure what it was, maybe some sort of sea lice or something.

I saw this car and had to take a photo, go the kiwis!!!!!

Janaya played for quietly by herself for ages, she even put her head down for a bit, I thought she was going to fall asleep, ahhhh cute....

You cant have a day at the beach without burying someone!!!

Sean took Tayden and Kahayla for a snorkel out deep round the rocks while I swam with Janaya.

It was a really relaxing way to spend a Sunday.

Cyclone Isobel

Happy new year to everyone.

We had an exciting start to the year with a cyclone looming and heading our way. We set about getting organised, enough canned food to feed an army, water containers, first aid stuff etc and Sean set about cleaning out the cyclone shed so we could put all our outdoor stuff into it.

By Tuesday night we were ready for it and it was due to cross the coast about Wednesday afternoon.

It started raining at about 2am I missed the whole thing and slept thru it but it was pretty heavy. By morning the rain had stopped and there was a tiny bit of wind, but it was really overcast. We went for a drive to Nickol Bay (The bay next to Karratha) to see how big the seas were..... they weren't.

Sean thought they might be rougher at Hearsons cove so we went home and packed a picnic and headed over to Hearsons Cove. There were a few small waves but nothing exciting, the water was really muddy looking though, so we had our picnic the kids played and swam. By the time we left the sun was shining bright and the clouds had gone, and on the radio they said that the alert was off and the cyclone had been cancelled (I didn't know you could cancel a cyclone).

It was all a bit of an anticlimax but it was exciting tracking the cyclone on the internet.

Funny thing we had a cooler day that day, 31 - 33c and the kids went and put jumpers on..... I think they will freeze if we were to come home tomorrow.