New House

We are now in our new house in Parkdale and have finally unpacked all the boxes. It was a bit of a manic weekend, what with the move, Jack's 18th Birthday and me starting my Personal Trainer course. I had spent the week packing all the boxes and having got the keys on Thursday afternoon, had shifted a lot already. But we had a man with a van (well, 2 men) coming at 12 to help with the heavy stuff like the sofas, washing machine, beds etc. But at 11.20am I got a text to say they couldn't come because of a death in the family! Luckily, Chris managed to find another company who arrived 2 hours later and it was action stations! In the evening, we had a lovely meal at Longrain with some of Jacks friends - the food was Asian fusion and was delicious.

Sam  had a weeks trip to Canberra 2 weeks ago with school and last week had work experience , helping at an after school club called Kelly Sports with Primary aged children. So he was able to come with me to Ikea to buy and put together some wardrobes, draws, bookcase etc on Wednesday. He has officially started his new job at Bunnings with the new store opening tomorrow.

I am enjoying my course though today the guy taking it spoke really quickly and I found it difficult to understand what he was saying! I am able to get the same train as Jack and Sam, though we all sit in different sections of the train depending on where we need to get off :)

Will put some fotos on Flickr soon of the new house...

Half Marathon number 2!

We did it!!! And I beat last years time by 1 minute :)

On the Move...

We have found a new house !!! It's in the next suburb and the address is 50, Rennison St, Parkdale, so you can check it out on google. It's a great location - 10 minutes walk to the station and 5 minutes to the beach and a few minutes from Mordi in the car. Jack and Sam aren't too pleased because they wanted to be nearer to their friends in Brighton, but the rest of us are. It's only 3 beds so we are going to make the study into a bedroom for Will. We get the keys on Friday 20th July and will move over the weekend, so it's all systems go!

The Boys are on school holidays at the mo but aren't doing too much apart from sleeping and playing on the x box! I have started my Personal Training course on line so have been busy doing that. On July 23rd I will start going into the city for 2 days a week to do the course there.

I am on countdown for the Melbourne Half Marathon on Sunday. My hamstring is still playing up so not sure how it will go and am having an easy week sports-wise in the lead up to the big race!

Watched the first set of the Murray/Federer final at Wimbledon on Sunday night with Sam but it didn't start till 11p.m. here so I was falling asleep by midnight! Glad I didn't stay up to watch the rest! Poor Andy - I'm sure one day he will manage it!


Jack's 18th birthday is looming (16th) and we are off to a very nice restaurant in the city called Longrain on Saturday 21st, so it's going to be a very busy weekend! I will post some photos on Flickr after the major event :)

June - Wills 14th Birthday

This week it was Wills 14th Birthday. We went for a Mexican meal in the evening, then this weekend he has had some friends over for a sleepover. He really enjoyed his weeks work experience at the primary school - maybe this will be his vocation? The last two weeks he has been into the city every day with school on the "Mordi Experience". They visited places of interest and had to ask people to participate in questionnaires. It helped them find their way around the city by train and tram and on foot - Will loved it!

Sam has got a job at Bunnings which is the Aussie version of B and Q. They are opening a HUGE new store just down the road from us in July. 2000 people applied and 120 people got jobs, so he did well. He has been on several training days and loves the fact that he gets paid to sit there and listen!

Chris has been increasing his cycling and a couple of weekends ago did a 110km hilly ride in just over 4 hours. I have had to rest from running the last week because I have tendonitis of the hamstring. Ran 10k yesterday and the pain seemed to have gone due to the strengthening exercises I have been doing.


Had to take Jack to the physio yesterday because he turned his ankle playing football about 5 weeks ago and it keeps re-occurring. He has broken one of the ligaments in the side of his foot, so will have to wear an ankle brace for at least the next 6 months when playing. It is holiday time again here and Jack has 3 weeks off SEDA. Sam and Will don't finish school till the end of next week and only have 2 weeks off.

We had an earthquake here on Tuesday evening!!! I was sitting on my bed talking on the phone to someone in the UK when the window sill and wall started moving from side to side! It was a strange sensation and I was wondering if I had had too much to drink! It only lasted 30 seconds but measured 5.5 on the Richter scale and was the worst one in Victoria for 109 years! Everyone was posting comments on Facebook!

The Welsh rugby team have been doing an Aussie tour over the last month and we went to watch them play the Wallabies at the Etihad Stadium last Saturday, hence Will in his Welsh rugby shirt. It was a great game but unfortunately, Wales lost by 1 point in the last few seconds.

We put an application in for a nice house in Parkdale this week but unfortunately, so did 2 other families, and we found out yesterday that we didn't get it :( No nice 4 beds in Mordi at the moment but we still have a couple of months.

Think that's about it for now...!

May 2012

May is fast passing us by and we are back into our normal routine.  Sam celebrated his 16th Birthday a couple of weeks ago, receiving an i fone from us. Nat, Jason and the Girls came round for pizza while Chris went off to Brisbane. At the weekend he had some friends over for a sleepover. Sam has a couple of interviews lined up for part-time jobs.

Tomorrow, Will is starting a weeks work experience at a local Primary school, about 20 minutes walk away, which he is looking forward to.

I have been looking after Natalie's daughter, Chiara, for 2 days a week since we returned from the UK. Nats parents usually look after her on the days that Nat works, but they are in the UK for 8 weeks, so I am doing it. Very different to looking after boys - we spend all day playing "make believe" with the dollies!

 We have had some news in the last week, neither of which are good. The Australian Government has decide to axe a tax benefit to temporary residents called LAFHA (Living Away from Home Allowance). It has been in the pipeline for ages, but it was understood that for those people already on it, it would continue for another 2 years and they would just stop it for newcomers. However, they have decided to stop it for everyone as from the end of July. This means we will be $3000 worse off a month, $36,000/year, which makes us wonder whether it is worth staying since the cost of living is so high over here.

We have also learnt that the owners of our house wish to return to it in September, so we are now looking for somewhere else to live.

I am thinking of signing up for a course to be a Personal Trainer, but this will take 6 months to achieve so am looking for a part-time job as well.

So, it could be all change in the Morgan household....

Easter Holidays

We returned to Mordialloc today having spent nearly 3 weeks in the UK. The Boys managed to spend a lot of time seeing their friends in Romsey and doing a lot of shopping. We nearly had to buy another suitcase just to bring Jack's new wardrobe back!! Chris and I went to Paris for 3 days, enjoying the facilities of the hotel, the food and the sunshine. We went to the Louvre (not my favourite bit) and the Musee D'Orcy (which was better) and even had dinner one evening up the Eiffel Tower.

I went away for a spa night to Bournemouth with Mum whilst Chris went to work in London for a couple of days, interviewing new people to come and work out in Melbourne.

It was lovely seeing everyone again ... thankyou to everyone who entertained us! I now have to start thinking about cooking again after a 3 week break :(  There are lots of new pictures on our Flickr site :)

Back home to England

Another month has whizzed by and now it is only a few days till we fly back home to the UK for 3 weeks. The Boys are getting very excited to see all their friends again and the 3 weeks is pretty much full.

Had the Mordialloc Food and Wine Festival last weekend, that was a great day. Chris and myself walked down, sat on the grass from lunch time with a bottle of wine and some tasty paella, listening to different bands playing in the sunshine - not a bad way to spend the day! Throughout the day the Boys dropped in so that they could get some food too! Late into the evening our friend was playing in the Swing band, which proved very popular with the locals who knew all the moves!

Yesterday (Sunday) was the last Triathlon of the season and Will came to cheer me on! Have done 8 Tri's since November starting with several "mini" events and finishing with a couple of "sprint" events. My greatest achievements so far this year were doing the 1.4km Australia Day swim and the Olympic Distance Tri, which I still can't believe I did! Now for the half marathon in July and the full in October!

However, yesterday has given us a new goal to aim for in a few years time.... the first Ironman Triathlon took place in Melbourne and it was an awesome day! The competitors have to complete a 3.8km (2.4 mile) swim, 180km (112 mile) ride and a 42km (26 mile) run (marathon) in under 17 hours. They started the swim at 7a.m in Frankston, did the ride along the Eastlink motorway and the run was from Frankston , along Beach Road (so through Mordi) up to St. Kilda. This event, which had 1,600 competitors and cost $775 sold out in just 4 minutes!

We went along the beach to support these fantastic athletes with our hula skirts and cowbells ! The winner was the 3 time world champion Craig Alexander (Aus) who completed the course in just under 8 hours! The fastest female was only 38 minutes behind him with a British girl, Rachel Joyce, coming 2nd!!!

Later on in the evening, Nat and myself headed up to the finish line at St. Kilda to cheer on the amateurs who were finishing in 12/13 hours where the atmosphere was awesome! On the way home we passed a few stragglers who wouldn't finish by midnight, so unfortunately, after all their hard work, would not be called an Ironman :(