Well we're in the new house now. We've made the major purchases and everything we ordered has been delivered. Yesterday we bought a nice new telly and a few other things like a hoover, ironing board, kitchen stuff, etc. Our fridge, freezer and washing machine came today. We've also been given a form to claim back $200 off our washing machine as it's a front-loader. There's still a lot of top-loaders in Australia so there's a government scheme to incentivise people into purchasing front-loaders because they're more environmentally friendly.

Our phone line is being connected on Thursday, but I have to wait 10 days after connection until broadband is activated. Gutted. It's making things very difficult not having broadband. I suppose I can at least use dial-up when the phone line's connected on Thursday. I'm typing this at a shopping mall near where we live as Rach does our first big shop - at Woolworths of all places. Woolworths is one of the big supermarkets here, although I've been reliably informed that it's not the same woolies as on the high streets in blighty. She told me as it's the first food shop and everythng is different here she's likely to be in there at least 2 hours. I've promised to join her after an hour - 2 hours in a supermarket is not my idea of a good time even if everything is 'new'!

We seem to have spent most of the last 2 days building flatpacks and shopping. There's still a load to do, the house is upside down.

I plan to start looking for a job tomorrow.

Besides that everything is great. The sun has shined every day since we've been here - 25 degrees. It's forecast to be 27 deg next week even though we're getting towards Winter! The area where we live is absolutely beautiful. We're next door to parkland and there's the Bulimba Creek (river) very close where you can apparantly canoe up to the main brisbane river.

I'm still pinching myself that we're actually here.