Warning: do not read this when you have a spider phobia

When we lived in India, people used to think we had a lot of scary insects at home. This was not the case. On the contrary, except for some cockroaches so now and then and a few small lizards on the wall, we were not bothered by any insects.

In Sydney it's different as I discovered last night. Just before going to bed, I entered the bathroom and could not stop myself from screaming. Next to the window there was this enormous ugly spider. Luckily Marcel was at home and he killed the beast. We first did a quick Google search to check if the spider was dangerous which was not the case. Our spider is probably a 'Huntsman' spider and they are low risk and non aggressive. What a relief.

Marcel decided to use the vacuum cleaner to get rid of our new Australian friend. To make sure that the spider would die instantly and not creep out of the hose, Marcel put anti-insect spray in the vacuum hose and he secured the exit of the hose with some toilet paper. The vacuum cleaner is now in the bathroom and no way I'm going to empty it..

The experience of last night further increased my spider phobia which is not helpful when you live in Sydney. There are less friendly spiders here. Read for example about the famous Sydney funnel web spiders. I also read somewhere that the population of Redback spiders in the northern part of Sydney - where we live - is growing.

Who says life in the suburbs is boring?

Desperate housewife

Yesterday I watched a new episode of ´Desperate Housewives´. It is always a good show to watch.

I came to the conclusion that the show is no longer like looking at a completely different world. The thing is that I notice a lot of similarities with my life here in Sydney. In Mumbai, it was a lot harder to compare myself to bored housewives in a suburb of an American town. It´s different here in Sydney which is a bit scary.

I don´t want to become a ´desperate housewife´ and this is why I officially started my job hunt today. I want a job but also would like to have flexible working hours, a commute to the office of maximum ten minutes and I want to be there 100% for the kids. In other words, I want the impossible.

Soon we can watch a new show ´desperate working mums´.

Kids and compost

Today both kids started school. The past few weeks my life was kids, kids, kids. I did not really have time to concentrate on anything else. Now I need to find other things to keep myself occupied. So what do 'mums-who-just-arrived-in-Australia' do on a first day without kids?

The past hour I emptied our new compost bin. At least I felt very productive and it was a good work out. I even discovered a few white worms but they are now dead. I had to empty the bin because last week we threw in a lot of long plant roots and I read somewhere that these will not rot easily so it's better not to put them in. I've thrown in a lot of things like eggshells and bread but these are now all gone. Did the worms eat everything?

We really need to concentrate on our garden. We moved into the house two weeks ago and the lawn already shows brown spots and some of the plants don't look that happy anymore.

For the kids we make a vegetable garden. Last week we put tomato and capsicum seeds in little pots and these already turned into little plants of about 2 cm. This weekend we will put them in the garden. Hopefully we can eat our own vegetables in a few weeks from now.

I'm very happy by the way with the choice of our house and the street. It turns out that all our neighbours have 18 year old daughters who are happy to baby-sit. Hoeree! Tonight we go out for dinner for the first time since I arrived in Australia. I look forward to that.

School uniforms

Children in Australia can't start school without a school uniform. Today I had to go to the shop to buy uniforms for the kids. Total costs: AUD 382 without shoes. I guess it's all part of embracing Australian life. There are only a few schools where the children don't have to wear uniforms. At Castle Cove school the main color is dark blue, a very exiting kids color. In India they call these dark colors 'Énglish colors' as opposed to the bright Indian colors.

Being Dutch, I could never have imagined sending my kids to school in a uniform. I don't think it contributes in a positive way to the children's development. Yes, it's very practical as I don't have to have early morning discussions anymore about what the kids should wear. What about the development of their own personal choice? Kids are not the same. The way they want to dress themselves is an important way of expression. You can't go against that because children will then find other ways to express themselves. At least that's what I think..

I'm glad that my six year old is very pleased with his uniform. I don't think he realizes yet that everyone will look the same tomorrow. In Holland, Sebastiaan had a bright orange winter coat. It was very easy to spot him at school pick up. That will be different now when all the boys look 100 percent the same.

Neighbourhood pool

When you live in Sydney, it's not a problem to find a place to swim close to where you live. This is a nice thing, knowing that with 41 degrees it's today the hottest day in four years!

This morning we discovered the Northbridge Baths, a five minute drive from our house. It's an extremely kids friendly pool for swim fanatics. We were kindly reminded by one of that dads that it's better for the kids to wear the Australian long sleeve swim shirt because 'the sun in Europe is different'. I was already chasing the kids with sunscreen lotion but that's clearly not sufficient.

The pool is made in a beautiful bay surrounded by hills and lot's of green. It has a shallow area for kids and there is a more serious swimming area for adults where you can do laps. The day clearly starts very early at the Northbridge baths. On the notice board I read that the 'senior swim squad' starts at 6 a.m.!

To Sebastiaan's excitement a lot of fish swim around in the pool. Fishing - unfortunately - is not allowed. A special activity is kayak fitness. Wondering what that is like.

What else do you need? Ah, I forgot to mention that they do serve great cappuccino's.

Combating the heat

When I arrived in Sydney I knew it would be warm because it's summer. But it's not only warm, it's hot! Instead of going to the beach which most people probably do today, I decided to take the kids by bus and train to Darling Harbour. Great decision. For the kids it was fun. They got two ice creams each and I let them get wet at the water fountain.

We are home now and I put the kids in front of the tv. It's just too hot to do anything else. One of the problems of this weather is that I don't get a lot of things done in the house. It's still a mess because of all the unpacked boxes so I would like to be more productive. A positive thing: today they delivered our new barbeque. Marcel ordered it so it must be big. It weighs no less than 82 kg. Wondering how big it will be when Marcel puts it together tomorrow morning.

Kookaburra

This is a picture of one of the Kookaburra's in our garden. They are extremely tame which makes it difficult to chase them away. They have an arrogant look on their face and don't seem to be very impressed by us.

Speaking about Kookaburra's. Today I almost ended up in hospital after I was almost hit by a two meter long branch. It fell down from a gum tree 0.5 metres from where I was sitting.