Halloween

We bought heaps of chips and candy (new word) in preparation for Halloween and at 7.00pm we were wondering if we would have to eat them all ourselves, luckily we were inundated with kids a bit later, all dressed up in great costumes and carrying sacks for all their lollies.  The kids walked around in groups of two to five and they must have been freezing.  Some girls from Taylor's class came to our door and asked Taylor to join them.  She came back in about 20 minutes to get a bigger bag for all her treats.  At about 9pm we turned our lights off and ignored anymore doorbells.

Earlier in the day Cooper got dressed up in his Darth Vader costume and we went trick or treating at a couple of houses.  The local police were out and Cooper was most impressed by the showbag of lollies he got from the policeman.  We also lined up for over an hour at the mall to get a Halloween photo, by the time we got to the front of the queue Cooper was sick of his costume and wouldn't wear it so Ryder had a photo on his own, he was dressed up as Woody from Toy Story (so cute).  I was amazed at all the dress ups, babies to adults, I saw some gorgeous babies dressed up as dragons, lions, bees, flowers, kids as witches, superheroes, M&M's, characters from computer games, we even saw two parents dressed up as Raggedy Ann and Andy, Steve said 'I am never doing that!'.

Darth Vader (Cooper) trick or treating at Randy & Karen's

Steve's first pumpkin

Taylor's first pumpkin

Fun in the snow

It has been snowing all yesterday and last night so we thought we would go out and play in the snow this morning.  It took us ages to get dressed up and only the kids have the right clothes, we don't have any gloves yet so we couldn't make a snow man (although we did take the carrot outside for the nose).  It was great fun, the snow is so soft and powdery, we've been told that there is a limited amount of time to make snowballs and snowmen here because the ice becomes very dry and compacted.  Ryder was happy to finally be outside, he was scooting around on his tummy and bum, running and falling over, meanwhile Cooper was busy throwing snowballs at Steve.  Taylor wrote our names in the snow on the footpath and drew a love heart on the car window. 

Ryder's new snowsuit

Tonight is Halloween so we cut our pumpkins last night and bought a flashing light to sit inside it, they look great.  We don't have many decorations compared to some of the other houses we have seen, I will be much better prepared next year!  Will let you know how it goes with my next post.

Apologies also to anyone who is waiting for a return email or a phone call, we are not yet connected but will be on Wednesday.  I can't believe how long it has taken, a whole week to get the phone on.  I promise to catch up on calls and emails over the next few weeks.

First Steps

Today we decided to check out the First Steps Family Resource Centre.  Our playgroup in Karratha was called First Steps Play Group (FSPG) so we thought we should check this place out.  Fortunately Friday is all day drop in for all ages so we came on the right day.

There were a lot of similarities to First Steps Playgroup.  The room was about half the size, obviously all indoors, with a messy room for painting and a tray of sand.  There were heaps of toys and about 10-15 children plus two facilitators, one of which was called Michelle!  There were probably more grandparents than parents although the grandparents were relatively young, a couple of them told me that they had given up work to babysit their grandchildren, plus there were a couple of babysitters there with kids.  One difference to FSPG was that it was all about the children; parents shadowed their kids and played with them on the floor, no coffee and cake for Mums!

There was Halloween craft to make, free play then we sang songs and did Halloween Simon Says.  After that we washed our hands and ate a snack of cup cakes because on the last day of the month they celebrate birthdays.  All this was provided free of charge.  The resource centre is government funded and every day there are different classes for different age groups from birth to 6 years with some sessions run at the pool and the gym each week.  Hopefully this First Steps will be as friendly as Karratha’s First Steps.

Back to Work and School

Steve started work on Monday, inductions all week.  Monday was a student free day so Taylor and I headed to Menihek High School  at 8am on Tuesday.  Taylor had previously said that she felt like she was in the Twilight movie, lots of similarities to when Bella arrived in Forks  No Edward or Jacob in sight though as far as we could see while waiting in the school office for the guidance counsellor.  There is no uniform at any of the schools in Lab City and we saw one girl dressed in very high heels, fish net stockings, short shorts, braces hanging down over her bum and parka, I asked Taylor if she thought it was a teacher or a student?   “Definitely a student” she said!

Fortunately Taylor got to start in Year 9 as she had completed three quarters of Year 8 in Australia so we were pleased with that.  We also called in to Wee College which is the Nursery School that Cooper will attend three days per week for two hours per day.  I had already been in touch before I arrived so they were expecting him, Cooper had on a knitted kangaroo hat with a joey and they said ‘oh, this must be Cooper’.  He will start next week, I think he is looking forward to it as he keeps talking about his friends coming over to play and we have a limited amount of toys to play with at the moment and no TV!

Driving on the wrong side of the road

All of us slept in until after 10am this morning, a good day to unpack and tidy up.  Brendan brought over our new car in the afternoon, a black Ford Explorer, so we had to go for a spin to get used to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road.  The speed limit in Lab City is 40 km/h until you are outside of the town so it is a good place to drive because no one is in a hurry.  It surprising how much you do out of habit when it comes to driving, even getting driven around we keep going to get in the left hand side as a passenger so it was very strange getting in the left hand side to drive, the next thing you do is reach for your seat belt over your right shoulder and there is nothing there.  Next the gear stick; Steve and I keep grabbing the door handle or window controls to change gears.  Once we are actually out of the driveway it is a bit daunting when the oncoming traffic appears to be on the wrong side of the road, you have to keep reminding yourself when you turn onto a new road that the steering wheel is meant to be in the centre of the road.  It doesn’t take too long to get used to it but I have to make a conscious effort to look in the opposite direction for oncoming traffic when turning.

We drove to Walmart to grab a few essential items and we were like kids in a candy store.  We have been told that Walmart is a ‘cheaper’ style store but it has different brands to Kmart/Big W and in some cases different sorts of items, for example Cooper was so happy looking at the toys because he hadn’t seen a lot of them before.  Steve and I had obviously forgotten our pledges to not accumulate so much stuff (after being annoyed about the big job of packing up our place in Karratha) already we had a trolley full of new stuff!  It included my birthday present a Kitchenaid Artisan mixer for only $188, we couldn’t help ourselves.

Arrival

Another early start to depart for Wabush at 8am.  The flight from Montreal to Wabush is actually three short flights, Montreal to Quebec, Quebec to Sept Iles then Sept Iles to Wabush.  The flight is on a Dash 8 which has about 10 rows of seats with two and two across, a cold drink and a packet of crackers is served on each leg so it’s best to take food, especially for the kids.  On the last flight we could see snow from the window seats, Cooper was so excited and he just couldn’t hold it in, the passengers close by were smiling and laughing at him, especially when he pointed out all of the Christmas trees.

We had a great welcome at the airport, Maxine, our IOC host from our last visit was there to drive us to our new house as well as Brendan, another Rio Tinto Aussie expat, and Randy, a Newfoundlander that we knew from working at Boyne Smelters in Queensland.  A few extra hands (and cars) made light work of our bags and we were soon on our way to our new house.

There was a light covering of snow on the house and the lawn, the house was warm and there was a beautiful fruit hamper waiting for us in the kitchen.  It was all a blur as we unzipped bags, looked in all the rooms and cupboards, moved furniture, chatted with Randy and Brendan, made some lunch and planned our next steps.

Cooper was desperate to make a snowball no matter how little snow there was so we dressed him up in his snow boots, jacket, hat and gloves and he stomped around on the front lawn and threw snow balls at the house.  The day time temperature in Labrador City is about 0 degC at the moment but quite still so it doesn’t feel as cold as Montreal which was a bit windy.  Even so, you can’t stay outside much longer than a few minutes without getting on some proper shoes and a jacket.  I still had my slip on shoes on despite being told by several people on the plane and at the airport that they would not be suitable, they were right, I had to get inside and warm up!

First Snow

BTW We had a walk around Montreal city on Friday and it seems like quite a nice city.  We visited some other friends from Boyne Smelters the afternoon then had an awesome dinner at a Portuguese restaurant with Steve’s new boss at IOC.  His wife, Annie, gave me lots of tips on Lab City, hair dressers, doctors, sports, schools etc, I feel like I have so much to do…..

Our House

Almost there

Another day of travelling completed, Labrador City really is a long way from Karratha and we are not even there yet.  We arrived in Montreal at 4pm after a four hour flight from Vancouver plus the three hour time difference.  We bumped into a friend from Rio Tinto Aluminium at the airport, he was on the same flight as us so it was good to have a chat about living in Canada.  Our first impressions of Montreal are that it is a concrete jungle, grey, untidy with lots of construction underway, this is in stark contrast to Vancouver which is very clean, green and tidy (probably because of the 2010 winter Olympics).  Montreal city does have a more European feel about it though and I guess after a day out tomorrow we might have some more positive things to say.

One thing that has really annoyed us so far is the tipping, we are never sure about when to tip and how much.  So far we have not experienced service that really deserves a bonus payment but we are not sure if it really works like that.  When we do tip we feel that we have been ripped off.  Any advice from experienced tippers out there??

Wood carvings at Grouse Mountain, Vancouver.

Winter shopping

Day two in Vancouver and we are over our tiredness and ready to hit the tourist spots and the shops.  We bought some new winter clothes however we have realised that we just don't know what we are in for or what we need.  There are so many things we could buy, do we need down jackets or rain jackets? Do we need snow boots rated to -50deg C or is -30 OK? Do we even need snow boots? Do we need waterproof gear? Are our clothes going to be warm enough? What is Taylor going to wear on her first day at school?So many questions!  We have settled on some down jackets from North Face, some cool Baffin snow boots, thermals from MEC and we can buy the rest when we get there.

We have also found that our Aussie accents are hard to understand and we often get asked to repeat ourselves.  Words like pram (stroller) and hot chips (fries) will have to be dropped from our vocabulary.  We have also faced many questions about why we are moving to Lab City, Newfoundland.  Just like when we moved to Karratha, people think it is the end of the Earth, which is disappointing when you are a prospective new resident but we keep reminding ourselves just how much we loved Karratha despite all the negative comments before we arrived there.

An ice hockey game in Vancouver

Our flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver was excellent.  We were seated in the upper deck which was very exciting and our 4.30pm departure is a perfect time to fly with children.  Ryder played a little, had his dinner then went off to sleep for the rest of the night, we had to wake him for landing.  Cooper travelled well also, watching a little TV then out for the night.  We arrived in Vancouver at about midday but spent at least two hours at immigration getting our work visas.  All of our documents were in order but it just took ages for the customs officers to review all of the documentation then prepare the visas for our passports.  Luckily our 10 pieces of luggage had been collected and were sitting on a three trolleys when we finally got to the baggage area.  We hired a stretch limo to take us (and our bags) to the hotel however by this stage we couldn’t care less as we were worn out and sick of travelling. 

Baths and showers at our hotel in downtown Vancouver made all that better and we ventured out for some dinner.  Steve noticed lots of people in jerseys, there was a Vancouver Canucks ice hockey game on at the stadium at the bottom of our street!  We rushed to the arena and made it to our seats for the second period (there are three periods in an ice hockey game).  The Canucks were playing the Carolina Hurricanes and the crowd was going crazy, it was so loud and the four sided video screen in the centre of the arena was massive. It was great to watch, very fast and rough, the Canucks beat the Hurricanes 5 -1, the home crowd was a great motivator.  The arena was completely full of Canucks fans it seemed, heaps of jerseys, killer whale mascots and so much junk food.  It was a great night and we walked home with the rest of the crowd, it felt a bit like leaving an AFL game!

Hello from Hong Kong

After the most hectic week I think we have ever had, we are finally on our way.  The removalists were in on Wednesday and Thursday and we barely managed to keep a step ahead of them, they even packed Steve's clothes for the rest of the week and we had to go through several boxes to get them out.  We had a few more farewells with some final drinks at the KI on Friday night with a few good friends, and we even dropped in home on Saturday morning to have a last swim in our pool despite the windy weather.  Finally we said farewell to Karratha but it just felt like another plane flight, like going on a holiday.

We met up with Taylor in Perth, there were tears of joy and sadness as TJ was happy to be joining us but also sad to say goodbye to Alyssa especially.  Just after midnight we took off and shortly after we fell asleep, except for Cooper who was the last to nod off after watching three kids movies on his TV.  We awoke this morning to be told that we had flown at a lower altitude all night due to some windscreen damage and as a result couldn't make it to Hong Kong; instead we landed in Manila, changed planes and then flew on to Hong Kong.  We are here now feeling tired and yukky, in a couple of hours we will be back on the plane again for another overnight flight to Vancouver.

A weekend of farewells

This is our last weekend in Karratha before we take off on our Labrador City adventure.  We are making the most of the wonderful weather and have been in and out of the pool all day.  On Friday night we had Steve's Dampier Salt farewell at Hamersley Lodge in Dampier.  This is great spot overlooking the harbour and the salt stockpile (of course) not to mention the personalised service and sumptuous food.  It was a great night and the highlight would have to be the moving speeches delivered by Steve's boss Tom Lukeman and Steve's farewell speech.  Steve expressed just how sad he is to leave 'the best job he's ever had'.

Saturday night was another great night, most of the good friends we have made here in Karratha came to our place to help us empty our famous bar!  The adults were almost outnumbered by the kids, running around, jumping on the trampoline and creating chaos.  Cooper was exhausted by it all and fell asleep on a pillow in his doorway while the kids stepped over him to get in and out of the room.  It was great to catch up with friends and talk about what we may have to look forward to.  All these discussions helped me to decide to write this blog so I can let you know what it's really like.

When we woke up on Sunday morning we started to realise that we really are going to have to say goodbye to Karratha and our home.