I’m not much one for interior design — and the world is generally very grateful — but when I see something like this I want to have it in my own house[1].

[1] And we’d like to have our own house.

While there hasn’t been anything major of note happening of late there are plenty of day-to-day events that make up our lives and I thought a post about some of them might be informative.

The children have largely resumed their activities, some as before and others trying new things. Joshua is still working on his creative side, making videos, learning guitar and writing jokes. Elijah is playing another season of rugby with his former club and Mara is, surprisingly, dancing ballet again. Ariana has taken up learning tennis on Saturday mornings and Bryna has continued on with her ballet lessons as well. And Micah, well, he is just enjoying himself and hanging out with his siblings who, needless to say, adore him.

We’ve slowly been reconnecting with old (I won’t say former!) friends in Canberra. It’s good to see them again and, in some cases, see how much they have grown in the time we have been away. Some, in the case of the children’s friends, have grown up and some, in the case of Fenton’s friends, have grown out. All of Gaynor’s friends remain as fabulous as the day she met them. Since we now have a place and with our belongings having returned from their own adventures we are gradually inviting friends over to reacquaint them with Gaynor’s cooking. And because she’s picked up all sorts of new recipes and ideas from her travels, the meals are more superb than ever.

You’d think that a move back to your native country would mean that something like a driver’s licence would be a simpler process, right? However, if you are Joshua, and have your licence from California, you are generally back in the Awkward Basket for a bureaucrat. So, despite having passed his California’s driving test and driving there for a number of months with a few restrictions — essentially equivalent to a Provisional Licence in Australia — the Powers That Be decreed firstly, that he would need to start with a Learner’s Permit but could count his start date from his Californian licence. Then after we organised that, with it’s attendant classes and exams, they said he’d have to be on it for the full six months before he could take his driving test. We wrote a letter pointing out our case — we were fine for him to do a driving exam since it is the other side of the road and he’d mostly driven automatic transmission equipped cars in the US — but they stuck by their second assessment. (Why couldn’t it have been the first one that we were happy with?) Of course, his case wasn’t helped by the fact that the Californian DMV failed to issue anything other than a paper, temporary licence before we left the US. It did, after all, take them 18 months to renew Gaynor’s. : Anyway, he’s eligible to take the test in October.

Finally, as previously mentioned, housing prices in Canberra are even higher than other major cities in Australia. Despite this, Gaynor and I believe now is as good a time as any to take the plunge into home ownership. Mostly this means we would prefer to put our money into our own home and not someone else’s pocket and this is the first opportunity that we’ve realistically been able to do that. We’ll be looking for a house we can fit into — though it may be a bit of a squeeze — that will require some renovation work. A single income in Canberra doesn’t make this an easy proposition but, then again, we’ve never really been big fans of ‘easy’ 🙂 So even though we may end up with a dump, at least it will be our dump.

Those who have been a part of the social networking website phenomena would be aware that it can be a simple and effective way to stay relatively involved in the lives of good friends and loved ones. Indeed, half of our family now have profiles on one of the largest — Facebook — including myself, Gaynor, Joshua and Elijah.

While I’ve tried many times to get other members of the family to post to this blog, most have resisted the lure (with the occasional rare exception). Keeping their profiles, status[1] and other information up to date seems to be easier for them on Facebook. So, to keep a closer eye on some of us, we invite you to add those you wish as friends or, if you are not yet on Facebook, feel free to join and search us out. Please contact us directly if your search for our names brings up a confusing array of our alter egos (Heaven forbid there be many with our names!)

I still plan to continue this blog[2] in the same fashion as it’s been going for the past few years — I prefer its overall layout and functionality — but I expect I’ll really be the single contributor now as I’ve made the decision[3] to stop harassing the others. They now have something else they prefer to say their peace with.

[1] Here, in the plural, I’ve taken the British form — rather than the American or even Australian ones.

[2] Don’t forget it’s easy to keep up with the blog by subscribing to the feed (see also “Subscribe to … Posts” on the left-hand side of this page) using something like Google Reader online.

[3] I prefer this terminology to “given up”. It helps me feel like I have some control over it. 🙂

Just a short note to let people know that we haven’t been affected by the most recent fires in southern Californian. Though they were much closer than last year the winds directed them away from our place.

Given their regular recurrence it is easy to be motivated to have emergency plans in place. We discuss them a few times a year with the children and have already organised many things that will be of great help if we are ever in a difficult situation.

Well it’s that time again — that’s right, the one year anniversary[1] of shifting to another new country. The transition this time has been easier in many ways but it’s never as plain sailing as one would wish for. Of course there is the fact that you are in a new culture — and despite the US culture being generally well known abroad — one must learn a new education system, a new health care system (our experience so far in the US means gives us a liberal interpretation of that last word), make new friends and mostly figure out how things work and where things are. In short, to settle in.

We used the anniversary for a couple of things. Firstly, we celebrated with lunch at BJ’s Restaurant followed by a swim in the afternoon at San Onofre beach. BJ’s is quickly becoming one of our favourite places. The food is really quite good, the pricing is pretty reasonable and the home-brewed root beer is sublime.

Secondly, we asked the children some of the things they currently like and dislike about where we’ve been for the past year. We gave each of the children a chance to voice their opinions — except for Micah, who remained generally self-obsessed.

• Joshua: Dislikes the politics, the average American IQ. Likes that there are plenty of church kids around.
• Elijah: Dislikes the chocolate and no rugby. Likes the obsession with other sports and the climate.
• Mara: Dislikes the chocolate and that the ballet schools have too many people in each class. Likes that school starts later (8:55 instead of the German 7:40) and that everyone likes her accent.
• Ariana: Dislikes the patriotic hype — ‘the greatest country on Earth’ is mentioned every morning along with the Pledge of Allegiance — and missing some of the German bakery treats. Likes the warm climate and the doughnuts.
• Bryna: Dislikes walking home from the bus stop (bit too hot some days). Likes kindergarten, doughnuts and the trampoline.
• Gaynor: Dislikes the chocolate, health care and the sugar content in many foods. Likes the proximity of church, the climate and the cost of clothes.

For myself, there are number of irks about where we are at, some due to being new and others because of the culture and all that entails. I’ll probably blog about some of these in the coming months, if nothing else than to get them out of my system a little. On the other hand, there are many great things to enjoy about living here. The general attitude is much more similar to what I am used to in Australia, the weather is a definite bonus (again, much more like Australia) and the availability of many things is a decided boon.

At this stage it is unclear how long we’ll be here. Though we will probably stay until at least late 2010, beyond that there are no plans to stay and no plans to leave. We’ll continue to make periodic assessments and just see how it goes.

[1] The anniversary was actually end of August but it has taken me this long to get the post finished.

Well not actually more room to read as more more room to place some of our reading material. One of the things about moving internationally with very little is obviously fitting/filling out the new place. Gaynor has had pretty much free reign in this regard, though probably a bit slower than she would have liked. After our initial spending spree — Gaynor spent a day at IKEA buying the initial essentials like beds, cookware etc. — we’ve been slowly acquiring furniture and other bits and pieces.

The most recent piece is for the things we have the most of: books. By volume, they make up about a third of all that we shipped. Though we had picked up a couple of bookcases here and there, all for free, we needed one or two large, main ones. So in a desperate attempt to save money and get what we wanted, it was agreed that I would make them.

Fortunately, a friend and work colleague has a very well equipped woodshop and offered not just it but his expertise as well. The final results can be seen in the accompanying photographs with the final dimensions being 243 x 100 x 32cm, 8 x 3 1/3 x 1 1/12 foot, in the old (and current American) parlance. I’m quite pleased with the way they have turned out and Gaynor is quite pleased to be able to finally start unpacking the last (quite a) few boxes.

Main bookcases already with a few things on them.

Edit: For those who’d like to know, the case is maple — main pieces are 3/4″ plywood and the trim is solid wood — with a red mahogany stain finished in one coat lacquer, followed by two more coats of semi-gloss acrylic.

Sorry, no catchy title for this post — it is simply an update on recent goings on. Remember, you can always check out our published calendar of activities with the “comings and Goings” link on the left hand side of this (and every) page.

Firstly, Gaynor is hanging in there with the pregnancy. She has a little over two months to go and says that is tired and has had enough but the pregnancy is going well. No complications or health concerns and we sometimes wonder why we even bother with ante-natal care. (Yes we do know, so no need to email and remind us). He is kicking well — vigourously and frequently — and is already head down.

Mara was a a busy girl this week. She participated in two acts — one a solo ballet dance and the other singing and dancing with two friends — in her school talent show. She also spent last Saturday morning at the school district track meet where she ran in the 50 yard shuttle relay with her school placing second.

The boys have been busy preparing for a very large dance festival which will involve youth from the church from all over southern California. It’s such a major event they only hold one every 20 years or so. More on that in July when it’s finished.

Gaynor and the girls attended an open house at Mara and Ariana’s school this past week. The girls were very proud to show off their neat work. Bryna was excited to visit the kindergarten classroom where she will be attending in the new school year, after the summer.

Finally, since Gaynor’s interior design plans have outstripped our budget (actually they were never within) I have begun construction of a number of furniture pieces. First on the agenda is a pair of large bookcases — our books are the last thing really waiting to be unpacked — and a pair of low modular-type shelving. These will be followed, though the time frame isn’t yet fixed, by bedside tables, another coffee table and bar stools. A work colleague with an extensive woodshop has kindly offered it and some advice for my use. So, more on them when I’ve got something to show.

Since we are expecting a new family member our current conveyance — a Honda Odyssey — will not be sufficient to fit us all in. So rather than try and find an 8 seater vehicle (seemingly somewhat rare) we thought we’d go the whole hog and have bought an older 10-seater, and as the Americans say, “full-size” van. And when an American says “full size” you know they mean it. The idea was that though we all fit into an 8 seater, there would then be no room for a friend or grandparent or two. And a 10 was just as easy to find as an 8.

This van probably won’t get used that much, even though it is the “economical” model at 17mpg (13.8l/100km) — probably just when we need to go somewhere as a family. There are a number of things to fix on it but it’s currently driveable and I do have a few months to get them done before we really need it. Elijah has already given his numerous (and expensive) ideas on how we can best pimp it out.

Unfortunately, Gaynor was unable to make the big shindig of her mother’s 60th birthday. In lieu of her personal appearance we made a video to be shown at the party. Since it features us prominently, I thought it might be nice to make it available to all. So congratulations again Margaret and all our love.