2 weeks in.

8th July

We've been living in the house for over week now. Met more neighbours, we have Phil and Rachel one one side with 2 boys. And Georgia over the road, all Kira's age. Kira is signed up for Rostrata Primary, about 15 minutes walk away and starts in 2 weeks once the winter holiday ends.

The house is feeling a bit more homely. We have a bed! But we're still painting it, so still on the matress. The weather's remained changeable, but when it's warm, it's nice and warm :) I've been catching the bus in the morning, and the view across the river is sublime, sun rising over mill pond water with the odd pelican gliding along side.

The sky seems much larger, the river pools out around the central business district and the bus travels up the eastern side of what looks like a lake. The CBD is small, but perfectly formed, like a set that's been desgined to keep the dimensions and impact of a much larger city. Such a large area of flat land with such a striking central feature. Since there is more sky, there is more weather. You can see a whole rain cloud moving across the scene. Combine that with the early morning light (the sun rises around 06:30) and sometimes the western walls of the skyscrapers are a gun metal grey against the dull dark of the clouds, while the eastern sides are golden bright with sunshine.

Wildlife:The morning chorus is something new! They have australian magpies here which have this descending, lilting call, and they get together to do it in thirds ... which is nice, but loud, and relatively early.

We also had our first encounter with the huge, man-eating, arachnid monster, aka the huntsman (sounds like a gladiator doesn't it!). I'm sure the picture doesn't do it justice.

Neighbour Phil offered to remove it from this dimension for us, but they are harmless, keep themselves to themselves, and run feckin' fast in the opposite direction when they see you. So hey, live and let live right! So now we have something that looks like it came from a Japanese monster movie, living in our garage door.

Suji has been exploring the locality, we have lots and lots of supermarkets (malls), a great library, pool and jungle gym in one, and some fantastic parks, one with lots and lots of touchy feely things to do. Next thing on the list is to arrange our first weekend up or down the coast, but the weather is too unprecdictable to go site seeing just yet.