Catch Up Time

Ok, so, yes, I have been slack in writing, but I thought I'd get back into it! Here is a brief summery of what's been happening over the last 6 months.....

September:
Before heading to Canada for the site visit it was off to London to be a bridesmaid for one of my very good friends. London was lovely, and the wedding was beautiful, simple and elegant and a true statement of love. I'm honored that I was able to share their special day. Seeing I was over that end of the world I decided to head to Berlin for a few days to visit my aunt that I haven't seen in many years. It was great until I got a call from someone I know in Scotland saying that my dad had collapsed and been taken to hospital in Glasgow. Dad had been on a motorbike trip around some of scotlands choice distilleries with 2 of his mates. I'm sure I don't need to say that hearing news that dad was I hospital was a bit of a shock.

I was heading to Glasgow (from Berlin) the next day as I was supposed to be meeting up with dad to go to a whisky festial. I had a look, but I couldn't get an earlier flight, so spent a pretty somber evening with my aunt! I got picked up from Glasgow airport by a friend and taken straight to the hospital and was told that visiting hours didn't start for 20 minutes, well do you think they could keep me out?? Hell no!! So in I went, found dad and was told that dad had had a stroke. Not cool at all. I came home (back to Oz) so that mum could head over and be with dad, who was very lucky that it was a minor stroke, and with rest and an over haul of diet and stress levels would make a full recovery.

I was only home a few short days before heading to....

Canada:
After a long and squishy flight we arrived in Winnipeg for a night where it was great to sleep in a bed instead of a chair and have some real food!the next day we boarded a tiny airplane, and headed for a tiny mining and fishing town in the middle of Canada!

Looking out the window as we flew down through the clouds I was surprised that that area was so flat, just a few gentle rolling hills, no mountains, no snow skiing! Lots of trees, some already turning lovely autumn shades. We were met at the airport by one of the geology girls, and she gave us a quick tour of the town and then then it was off to one of the mine sites for induction. We then got a brief tour of the other sites and met a few of the people in the geology department. We then got dropped back to the hotel for a quick break before dinner with a bunch of the geology department and their partners. Dinner was great, I chatted to the girls and they were all keen to sign me up for ice hockey, curling (?), and other groups. Everyone seemed really nice and friendly.

Day 2 started early for J, he had to be up early to get the mine for an underground tour. I had a more leisurely morning, wandering through the town and was then picked up by one of the guys and taken on a tour of the town and surrounding areas. We even went to see if there were any bears in the dump!! No such luck unfortunately, though I would have liked to see a real bear. Then to the golf course for lunch with the rest of the crew. After lunch J went back to the mine for interviews and I went back to the hotel and another look around town.

Dinner that night was with some of the big bosses from the mine. It was an 'informal' BBQ at one of the lake houses, but wa ps obviously an informal interview for us both as well. I thought it went well, conversation flowed and we seemed to get along well with everyone.

Day 3 (final day) started with more interviews for J and then we were dropped off to the airport to catch the planes back home. 4 flights and many hours later we arrived back home and played the waiting game to see if they were going to give J a job.

:( 2 weeks later got an email from the mine saying that unfortunately J didn't get the job. It was very disappointing especially as they didn't give any reason or any feedback or anything. So after all the excitment and hope that we were moving to Canada it was a huge let down. We were both extremely disappointed.

Things returned back to normal, though J was still looking for a job overseas, but with the global financial crisis in full swing and countries reluctant to hire outside people it seemed that finding a job in Canada or some other interesting place would not happen. So the job search was switched to interstate, residential jobs. By mid November J had a number of interviews and a few site visits.

We discussed the optiions and decided that county NSW would be the best option and would be the job that J would enjoy the most, and having him home every night would be great. So contracts were signed and start dates were set for mid January.

It was then I discovered I was pregnant!! Not something that we had specifically planned, but as I had been off the pill for a few months it was something we knew would happen eventually. Just not that soon, especially as J is away for work most of the time! So I guess I was meant to be!!

We announced the news to family at Christmas and as you can imagine both of our families were super excited, but a little sad we were moving! It was then the morning sickness struck! Though 'morning' is a bit of a myth! I was sick all day, and couldn't get out of bed (except to throw up!). I couldn't eat or drink much and even had to go to hospital to get re-hydrated. Not much fun and apparently I am in the 1% of women that get really sick and I can tell you it wasn't much fun.

Lucky for me I have a great husband and some great friends! J did most of packing up the house and did a great job of looking after me. One of my good friends K also came round and helped with the packing as well.

I was supposed to be working all January but it didn't happen at all. Toasted the end of the month I was able to get to work for a few hours a couple days a week to get things sorted before i left.

The house was finally all packed up and cleaned (and looked pretty good too!) and it was finally time to leave. We packed up the car and the dog, waved goodbye and headed up to devonport to catch the ferry to Melbourne. The drive up was leisurely and we were lucky that the crossing was pretty clam (thank goodness, as I still wasn't feeling the best!). The early morning call came to get up and get to our cars and that's when things started to go bad......

I'll sign off there for the moment before I go into all the drama that has been our move! Somehow I think Canada would have been much easier!