Update and January Highlights

Well hello! It's been a while... 

The last time I wrote we were in hotel quarantine in Sydney, counting down the days until our release so we could continue on to our new/old home in Melbourne. The past three months have been a whirlwind: we've set up a house from scratch, the kids have started school/daycare, and Andy and I have started our new jobs. I always feel very overwhelmed when I neglect the blog for a long period of time, like there is so much to write about that I don't know where to start. So I've decided that this post will be a little update on where we are living, our jobs and school, along with some highlights from January. Then I will write February and March highlights to get the blog up to date! 

We started off the New Year in Sydney, in quarantine. I have a half-written post about quarantine which I will publish soon, so we'll skip that part of our journey for now! We left quarantine on January 12th and flew to Melbourne. Sydney had a few cases of Covid at the time, and anytime one state in Australia has a little Covid outbreak, the other states close their borders to them. It can happen instantaneously. Or so it feels. The entire time we were in quarantine in Sydney we were paranoid that we'd have to do a second quarantine in Melbourne (which is in a different state). Thankfully, that did not happen. We just had to follow strict instructions to go straight from the quarantine hotel to the airport in a private taxi and wear a mask at all times. Even though we had to wear masks, being in Sydney airport felt so "normal" compared to the months of (varying degrees of) lockdown in Canada.

(That picture is not our actual luggage, even though it felt like we had that much sometimes!)

That all went quite smoothly, though I don't think I quite believed we'd made it to Melbourne until we exited the airport. Our good friends Steve and Michelle picked us up from the airport, and Ella was reunited with her Aussie best friend Gemma. It was so surreal to see them again, and be back in the place we thought we'd left for good two years ago. 

Steve and Michelle took us directly to our rental, which is in the suburb of Kew East. We are about 8km east of the Melbourne CBD (central business district, or what we'd refer to as "downtown" in Canada). We hadn't lived in this area before, but we were familiar enough with it to rent a house in the area virtually while we were still in Canada. We really like the area. It has a suburban feel but a lively enough High Street that we can walk to a number of restaurants and cafés, shops, and other amenities such as a doctor's, dentist, and my favourite, and excellently stocked op shop! 

We have a nice backyard with lovely trees and gardens, but ground is all brick. Not very child friendly we soon found out. We ended up getting some fake grass from Bunnings to make it a bit more inviting. It also works well as a soccer pitch...

Ella attends the local primary school, which is about an 800m walk from the house. Her first day was at the end of January and she has settled in there very well. Here are some pictures from her first day. I was able to start work later that day and take her myself. We had a babycino at our local cafe first, and then parents were allowed to stay for about 15 minutes while the kids got settled in. It was emotional, but this was our second "first day of school" as she had already started school back in Canada.

Ollie's daycare is about 2km from our house, which is not super convenient BUT the centre is excellent. He started there a few days after we arrived in Melbourne. As expected, we had a few tears during his first week, but he settled in very quickly and now loves it. We couldn't be happier with both school and daycare for the kids.

I am working at my old school, a big independent secondary school which is about 4km from our house. My commute is a lovely 15-minute bike ride that is mostly on a bike path alongside a creek. It's a much better start and end to my workday than the 1-1.5 hour car commute I had in Canada!

Andy is also working at a large independent school, though he does have a half hour commute each way. He is teaching Art and Design and has had to put in a lot of work learning some new courses this term. Andy's contract is only for 12 months as he is covering a teacher on maternity leave, so later in the year we will see if he is able to become a permanent teacher at that school or if he has to start looking elsewhere. We are not too stressed about this though, something always comes up!

We had about two weeks between landing in Melbourne and starting work. A lot of this time was spent setting up the house. It felt like we had deliveries coming everyday, and we constantly had to run out to the shops to get things we needed. 

We didn't bring a lot with us from Canada (seven suitcases plus four boxes for the whole family) so we've had a lot to buy. This was so much more exhausting than I anticipated and I'm really glad we are past that stage now. We still have SO MANY boxes from all the deliveries, which now double as arts and crafts materials.

In the two weeks prior to starting work and school we managed to fit in a few fun activities. One morning we took a drive to our old neighbourhood, Brunswick East. We thought Ella might remember our old house but she didn't. We spent the morning at Ceres Environmental Park, a place we visited at least weekly when we were living there. The playground area has been seriously upgraded since we were here two years ago and there are now various climbing structures made from recycled materials for the kids to enjoy.

Once the kids had had enough of climbing, we went for a walk along the Merri Creek. We spotted a wallaby on the other side, our first Aussie animal sighting, to Andy's delight!

Closer to home we have Hays Paddock, which is about 1km from the house. The park consists of ovals and playing fields, walking and cycling tracks, and a huge enclosed playground. The playground is one of the best I've ever seen. It's HUGE, and enclosed, and there are toilets and often an ice cream van, and so even though we have a few closer playgrounds we frequent Hays on a regular basis.



We made it to the beach twice in January. The weather all month was nice, but not as hot as it can get here in the summer, and not always hot enough for the beach (in my opinion). We live a good distance from the beach as well, at least a 30 minute drive or longer depending on which beach we go to, so it is kind of a big day out.

Our first trip was to Sandringham, where we met up with our good friends Chris and Ness and their two kids. Ella loved being in the water, as usual. Ollie was more content to play in the sand, I think he found the water too cold to swim in. I didn't take any pictures that day (too busy catching up with old friends!) but here is one from Andy which at least proves we were there:


Our second time we visited Sam and Fizz, and their two kids. It was not swimming weather, rather it was a cool and windy day, but the kids still loved running around on the sand and picking up all the jelly like snail egg sacs along the beach. We had a wonderful time there. No matter the weather, going to the beach and walking along the water is good for one's soul.

And there we are, I've got my first post in three months done and ready to publish! Seriously hoping the next one won't take me quite so long!

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