First week in Australia...finally, back to civilisation.

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Well, the first week of Australia was a pleasant one and one that went far too quickly for my liking too. It appears that once back in semi- normality, the concept of time slows down momentarily and then quickly speeds up, so by the time we fully realised our position in the world, one week had already passed. The reason for this was primarily due to being quite busy in the first couple of days, which i suppose sets the wheels in motion and sets a precident for the following weeks.

We arrived bleary-eyed after catching our transfer flight from Singapore with our lovely Singapore Airline carrier and hostesses. The flights were average, nothing special to report, except that we were probably the most uncomfortable we had ever been during our travels. Comfort just wasn't on our side this time and so Tom and i got less that an hours sleep while en route to Aus and ended up departing the plane practically crippled from the people in front lying their seats back. This always infuriates me if they don't ask you first or check to see if you've done the same- or am i just too polite? Just seems like common courtesy to me, but now i realise that in-flight etiquette is not as i had hoped. I suppose you can't expect much else from economy class, even on a Singapore Airlines flight...economy philosophy seems to be based on egocentricity.

We arrived in Adelaide with a sigh of relief. Finally, we were in Australia- not our home country, but a damn bit closer than the countries we had visited so far. Don't underestimate our capacity to tolerate different cultures though- it had just reached that point for me where illness had utterly exhausted me to the point where i just needed to sleep in a bed with a mattress and not have to beat sales people off me constantly. For Tom, it was the prospect of normal life for a short while and also a chance to replenish his overspent budget. There was also the big factor of seeing family for me too. To say i was excited is a bit of an understatement. Five years is a long time when it comes to siblings.

The transactions were fairly smooth in the airport, much to our suprise. Our baggage came quickly and all we did was declare a palmleaf painting cover of Tom's at customs which turned out to not be a problem at all. Then, through the automatic doors and into the mouth of Adelaide airport arrivals in order to find my family. Eagerly awaiting our arrival was Keelan and Kimberly, swinging from the metal railings in nervous anticipation,who immediately headed towards us with arms open and Sally close behind, trying to conceal her exhaustion due to getting up at 5am.

The impending week ahead

The first few days were already planned out for us, which although was a little fast seeing as we just landed, fitted us fine because we had relied on an organised schedule up until that point anyway. After a relaxed first day of wandering aimlessly around the house due to lack of sleep, we would pack up a day bag and go for two days to a camping site . This was because both Sally and Riley as designated church leaders for their church, along with another 60 people we believe. This apparently is an annual event where they go and train in leadership, ethics etc etc so to better the church community and everyone around them too. Not such a bad idea methinks...maybe the UK government should invest in these courses just for parents seeing as leadership in parenting is not always an apparent thing!
So while Ri and Sal were in training, and having what seemed like a reallygood time Tom and i looked after the kids which was a pretty easy job. So, we enjoyed a more relaxed style of living.

During the first week we were introduced to a number of friends and acquaintances which made us feel very much at home in our new surroundings. We experienced Keelan's football matches, which were great fun, even in the rain and their very lovely grammer school . Beside that, we saw Dan and Jackie and Donna and Shaun and i have been finding my long lost cooking skills too, cooking English Roast dinners and such like which seemed to go down well, especially for Tom who had been lusting after one of my good roasts since the first weekend a roast was noticably abscent from our lives.
Other than that, we dabbled in a bit of shopping- which involved panicking on my part due to Tom's imminant 19th Birthday which i am organising on a ridiculously low budget- with much help from Riley and Sally though i must say- in the local malls and even in central Adelaide, where people watching is the done thing.

The next big plan, other than Tom's celebrations, will be getting Tom a part time job which he desperately needs. We have a few contacts so far which seem promising, but who knows what will and won't pull through. At the moment we are just aware . So, crossed fingers that the forthcoming week yields a few job opportunities.

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