back to the future

Amazing, the summer holidays are upon us already. Scary how quickly it goes by, seems like an age ago that we moved over here and February and Spain are distant memories, even though we've both managed to get back for a brief visit. Or two! I was lucky enough to get to Mallorca for Kerry and André's wedding, with Elly and Mum, spending a very nice (if hot!) weekend in Palma. It's incredible how quickly you get unaccustomed to the heat. It was actually quite nice to get back to the cool British summer and be comfortable again! The wedding was lovely, very intimate and I felt privileged to be there. Kerry looked really pretty, all natural and relaxed, André, despite having suffered with a stomach bug for a couple of days prior to the wedding, scrubbed up well too! It was great to see the girls, they are so grown up. It's always quite shocking to see just how much everyone's kids change. But lovely at the same time:-)

More headspinners: I thought Elly finished school tomorrow, but it turns out she's there until Wednesday. I'm really disappointed, as I had loads of things planned but now they'll have to wait for a few more days. One of our big pieces of news this blog is that we've taken the difficult decision to not come to Spain this summer, or at least not this coming week as planned. We intended to drive over and catch the end of the Tour de France, then down to see everyone in Barcelona, finally back through Santander/ Bilbao and the west of France. When we did the sums, any way we looked at it, it all worked out waay too expensive. Especially in the light of another piece of important news; I had an interview this week with a recruitment agent for New Zealand and their feedback was very positive. They can get me work definitely for January and possibly for October, so Kiwi-land, here we come! We're very excited and have begun paperwork and reading up on the place in earnest. It looks very nice although there is a high crime rate and Auckland (where the jobs are) is more expensive than other main cities on the 2 islands. We're so happy to give it a go; if we decide it isn't for us, the automatic right of entry to Oz might be there sooner rather than later: the guy who interviewed me reckons you can get NZ citizenship really quickly; he's heard of people doing it in just two months. Fab!

So, tightening of belts it is, and a whole 6 week's hols in the UK to tighten them in. We really are terribly sad not to be coming over to see everyone, but there'll be another chance to can catch up with people when they come here, and we will be coming over at some point soon - there's still a garage full of our stuff to sort out in Spain and we need to get it to a shipping company, ready to send on when we have a permanent address. Meanwhile we plan to spend some time in Scotland, and visit relatives in Surrey, but there's loads of things to do around here to stop the kids (and us) getting bored: my list includes strawberry picking and visiting some stately homes to try to give the kids a bit of culture before they become total surf dudes!

The way things are going, that'll be sometime in the unfeasibly near future. I was just reading about driving in Kiwi land. Apart from driving on the left (like here) a six-monthly MOT test and giving way to oncoming vehicles turning right, you can take your test as soon as you turn 15. So in about the same time Mik and I have been together, Elly could be driving her own car. Now that's scary!

Oscar 2, Australia 0

How time flies. Seems like no time since Oscar's first birthday and now he's a big old 2-year-old, complete with hair and everything. This time I think he had some idea what it was all about; wrapping paper to tear up, candles to blow out, making sure he infuriatingly played all day with the world's cheapest plastic piano while pointedly ignoring his expensive new bike... we all had a fab time, far too many sweets and a happy-hour pizza at Valentinos. Which he refused to eat. He's gorgeous and infuriating and stubborn and hilarious and wonderfully, terribly TWO. I've posted some more pics on the Picasa page which explain it better, somehow. [edit: you might not need to click the Picasa link if you can see the slideshow to the right]>>

No explanation for the absence of blogs this last month. We're both busy as hell with work but that's not really it. I think it's the realisation that Australia is going to stay out of our reach, at least for now. It kind of took the wind out of our sails for a bit & got us scheming a scheme. The revised plan of inaction is to look at maybe getting to Oz a few years hence, maybe 2011 (which is so far off it sounds like something out of the Science Fantasy bargain bin at WHSmiths (hey, whaddyaknow?!) – but it's no biggie, really. We've been throwing around the idea of a slightly longer stay here as a worst-case thing but really, there had to be a better solution than just sitting here, waiting, hoping and getting rained on. So what we doing between now and then? Well, with a bit of luck we gonna be living in New Zealand!

It was all initiated over a bottle of reasonably-priced wine and a late-night perusal of the TES; it somewhere we always thought we might end up, maybe to retire or something equally mundane, but apparently they're crying out for primary teachers there now. There were a few keen-sounding ads from schools around Aukland, so we scraped the mould off Nik's CV and three weeks later and she has two UK interviews in the autumn, one direct with a school and another via an employment agency which more or less guaranteed her a place. Well, not in so many words, but the Big Deal is that the main barrier to getting into Oz was the work situation and with NZ this seems to be the easy bit. The hard part is trying to keep a lid on the excitement. Ok, thus far it's not much more than an idea, something (else) to aim for, but it really feels very different this time, much less pie-in-the-sky than Oz, and only 2 0r 3 hours flight from the place. You get Permanent Residency status after three years and (this is my favourite bit) NZ PR entitles you to Australian residency as well! Except NZ sounds so completely fab that we might just as easily end up staying...

I'm going to say no more for now except to promise more blogs than there have been of late, by virtue of keeping them short and therefore a sight more likely to get written. That might be a more sound basis for making plans, as well.