To our family and friends,
Happy Belated Christmas and here’s to 2014!
A quick recap on our 2013. We started off the year in
Singapore, having received the news in mid November 2012 that Gary’s job would
be winding up sometime in 2013. This news was met with great excitement for us
as we both felt that it was time to come ‘home’. Singapore had been very good
to us and we had a brilliant 4 years there, but it felt like the right time to
move on. It was a fantastic experience – Asia for beginners and Singapore will
always hold a very special place in our hearts.
Since moving back to Adelaide, we have had a relatively busy
time. We moved back to our family home in Dulwich and knew that we would try to
sell it within 6 months. By the time we had moved in, and unpacked – in fact,
just 6 weeks after we had moved in, we had the house on the market and our
first open inspection. We were very fortunate in getting a number of offers
after the first weekend and we accepted one on the Tuesday. Settlement was set
for mid November. We then started looking in earnest to buy a new property – our
preferred location being the Adelaide Hills. We had 2 properties that we were
quite keen on and both got sold the weekend we sold ours. Obviously not meant
to be! We then bid at an auction in mid-October, but again, it wasn’t meant to
be. Time was ticking on, so we ended up getting a rental property in Stirling
with a 6 month lease. We are still looking – my biggest fear at the moment is
that we won’t find the right property before our lease expires – but hopefully
this won’t be the case! Moving isn’t that much fun, however, the kids handled
it with ease – in fact I think they are of the opinion that moving is something
that happens with a reasonable frequency – we hope we can dispel this notion
after our next move.
So we have been in Adelaide for 6 months now and it is great
to be back here. I think all in all, everyone has settled in really well. Alex
started school 3 days after we landed – he came home on his first day beaming
from ear to ear and announcing what a great day he’d had. He did just over 2
terms in Reception at Rose Park Primary. His teacher Belinda was an absolute
superstar – she is truly gifted in her chosen profession and I think we were so
lucky to have Alex placed in her class. He really blossomed through the year
and has loved school so that has been a great start. He turned 6 in July and is into Lego in a big
way as well as lots of imaginary play and Star Wars!
Not looking so happy here for first day of school but it did go well!
Playing outside kindy.
Tara started at kindergarten 2.5 days per week in term 3 and
also did 1.5 days in childcare. She seemed to enjoy both although kindy was a
definite preference and she also loved Thursdays which she called “Daddy and
Tara days”. She will begin school in January and I think is definitely ready
for the structure that will come with that. She turns 5 today – New Year’s Eve
and is very excited about her birthday, which we are also making a big deal
over. She ran into our room this morning shouting “I’m 5!”
I started work in June back at my old work – I was lucky
enough to pick up a maternity leave cover contract so that was fantastic
timing. I am there till the end of July and will see at that time if there’s
anything else available. It has been really nice being back somewhere familiar
– although doing a different role. Gary has been kept pretty busy running the
house, getting Dulwich ready for sale, and then getting us moved and settled
into our new temporary home. He has also been looking for work although not too
actively till the past month or so. He will begin a new contract role in the
new year, so life will change again, with 2 of us working and no helper at home
to do the cooking and cleaning!! We were spoilt in Singapore with fantastic
domestic help. It will be a challenge to juggle 2 jobs in Australia but
hopefully we will both have a degree of flexibility.
We had a few nice holidays in 2013. We started off the year
going to Bintan for 5 nights just before school started. It was a favourite
destination – January was our 3rd visit there. We all had a
brilliant time and it was sad to leave. Alex got his first wobbly tooth whilst
we were there – it proceeded to be wobbly for 10 weeks finally falling out in
the last week of term 1! In January, I also managed a girl’s weekend away to
Bangkok with my friend Karen (Gary is so good to me, I am so very lucky to have
him) – (obviously Gary’s editing!!). Oh, how I do miss those cheap flights from
Changi! Karen and I had a brilliant couple of nights there, staying in a Club
room at the Novotel – we made full use of the bar and canapés on offer! Many
massages were enjoyed and quite a bit of shopping.
February saw the Chinese New Year break so we used the
opportunity to come back to Adelaide and sort out a number of things. It was a
bit of a house swap as Allisa was in Singapore so we made use of her house in
Adelaide (and her car) whilst she stayed in our Singapore apartment. We then
got to catch up properly with Allisa when we got back to Singapore so all
around it was a win win situation. For Easter, Gary was off to Melbourne for a
course. I decided I didn’t want to be in Singapore for the long weekend without
him so researched cheap flights to go somewhere easy with the kids. We decided
on Hoi An Vietnam as the flight was reasonably priced and direct. The day
before we were due to go, Tara came down with a vomiting bug. The GP advised
that it was a 24 hour virus and not to cancel the holiday. The next day, Tara
was on the mend, but Alex had a fever. We got on the flight and by the time we
arrived in Vietnam, Alex was looking very pale – he then proceeded to vomit in
between customs and the taxi. Hmm, I was questioning my sanity in going away
with the kids by myself – but it ended up being a good trip – the kids were
both a bit tired – recovering from the virus but they swam every day and we had
a pretty low key visit – still fun.
Gary finished work in April (April 19th) and then headed back
to the UK on the 21st of April for a couple of weeks to visit with
family. This was a fantastic trip and all rather epic. Family ties reforged and
old friendships celebrated! I had 2 of my nieces come to visit from Adelaide at
the same time.
Gary, Holly, Lucy, Ann
& Jim – what a great family reunion!
In early May, just after I had finished work in Singapore,
we had the amazing chance to have a long weekend in Hong Kong without kids. We
met up with Adelaide friends – Natania and Colm to celebrate Nat’s 40th
birthday. The Langham Place hotel was amazing and we had a fantastic weekend.
Thanks Nat for giving us the excuse and thanks Anita for helping out in
Singapore with looking after the kids – despite the fact we forgot to leave
spare keys with her (to some this would have been a drama but she just breezed
through)!
May saw us packing up the apartment, saying goodbye to our
wonderful helper Marina who went to a new family (she is very happy there) and
heading to Changi for our last time as Singapore residents. We boarded our
flight to Yangon Myanmar and bid Singapore farewell. We had a great few weeks travelling
before landing in Aus. We had a week in Myanmar, a few days in Thailand
catching up with Gary’s family (Neville, Ann and Rachapon), and then 10 days in
Sri Lanka. The kids are brilliant little travellers – they are really very
adaptable and had a great time with all of the new experiences.
Our last day at Aspen Heights…
Posing with the locals – Yangon
Myanmar – Lake Inle
Yangon city
Taxi on the way to Yangon airport.
Bangkok – so great to see Neville again.
Riding an elephant – Sri Lanka
We climbed Sigiriya – Sri Lanka – well done to the kids!
Galle Fort – Sri Lanka
We now haven’t been on a plane for 6 months – an absolute
record! It has been really nice settling in though and I haven’t got itchy feet
(yet)! 2014 will no doubt see some less adventurous travel – we hope to take
the kids camping for the first time and will do a couple of driving holidays
rather than anything long haul. Depending on what happens for both of us
workwise, we may try to sneak in a family trip back to the UK to see Gary’s
family but this is all up in the air – of course we now need to consider school
holidays also.
We hope that 2014 will see us settling down properly with
buying a new house (hopefully the house we will live in for many years) and
putting down roots in Adelaide. We had a great 2013 and as always we are
grateful for the support of our family and friends who make life a great
journey. When we get set up in our new house, we are hoping that it will be
somewhere we can have lots of visitors.
Legoland Malaysia – our
favourite daytrip from Singapore.
Guess who loves roller
coasters? In fact, both the kids now love them too!!
We wish you a safe and prosperous 2014.
