6th / 7th and 8 July

On Friday I head into work and again it's a quiet day. The whole family has come down with a cold. I go over to Southbank (the building I used to be in on the 17th Floor) to get my timesheet signed. Whilst I'm there Deborah tells me that she and Bevan have put the paperwork together to get me moved over to be a permie. So good news.

I get a call later in the day regarding our furniture, Customs claim they require payment for the duty on the champagne. I mention that it has already been paid and Pickfords go off to check. I get a call later in the day to confirm that everything has been paid up and all is ok. All our furniture passes quaranteen ok as well with the exception of Kerry's old dog basket and blanket. This hasn't been used for over 13 years and I am told to pay $651 to get them gamma radiated. This will take a couple of weeks but we arrange for the deilvery of our stuff at last on the Friday of next week 13th July. At last after 10 weeks we will have a comfy sofa to sit on and a bed to sleep in, instead of camp chairs and a thin foam matress on the floor.

On Saturday, it's another boring day for the girls. We go to the showhome to sort out the "extras" for the house. We expected quite a bit on top due to our calculations given the form they provided for the extras but then we got hit with quite a bit more. about $50,000 more. The Air-com $10,000 (ok we put a third Garage on the house for $8000), to have the bedroom the size of the one in the show house instead of the balcony, $17,500, lighting $6,000, flooring $12,000 and the list went on. Even by spending the $50,000 extra we are still well with our budget. Just need to keep control of the finances. Then we went to the Land people where we sorted out the contracts and the FIRB form completed.

On they way back we try and find a Ten-pin bowling place for the girls. We got to where it was supposed to be but it wasn't there??? We called the number and got directed to a Leisure centre where it apparantly had moved to. We found it hidden away and walked in. The place was dissappointing to be kind to it. We were shown around but it was filthy and disgusting. Aqua arobics was being taught in the pool. the pool was tiny and the instructor was obese. We made our excuses and left. We looked up another bowling place near to where we would be moving to and booked a lane for Sunday. This one had 24 lanes so it should be ok.

Sunday morning we got up and took the girls bowling. The bowling alley was ok and had everything you needed. Not as organised in the UK but it was more than ok for what we wanted. Kayla thrashed us all with a score of 136 Lauren was second, Kerry third and me a very dismal last. We then went into the local shopping centre which looked quite small but when you got in there it just went on and on and on. We got some plugs to change our electricals over when our stuff arrives and a couple of adapters for the things we would be able to change like the transformers etc.

Lauren is now really down and looks thoroughly miserable. We hope that when her things arrive it will give her a boost as she has been without nearly everything for so long. She knows it's coming but it must feel like an eternity for her. Kayla on the other hand is happy and enjoying things. She still mentions her friends back home but not as much now. I try and talk to Lauren to cheer her up, she picks up a bit towards the evening but we will need to be very careful with her now. Once all the house stuff is sorted we can then start to get them out more doing things. It has been very difficult. Children don't understand and you can't expect them too. We keep telling them that they will have a nice house with the pool but for them it's not real....