We are Down Under!!

We arrived in Sydney after an tiring flight. Baby would not sleep. At all.

We stayed in a self-serviced apartment near the Westfields in Chatswood. It was a good sized apartment with a laundry, one large bedroom, en suite bathroom, large lounge/dining room area and a kitchen. Best thing about it was that it was well- serviced.

We had so much to organise before hubbie started work.

We had to organise pre-paid sim cards for our phones, a hire car, start looking for a house to rent, find a daycare centre for baba so that I could look for a job, contact friends and family in Sydney, shop for food and of course look after baba. Sleep didn't fit into the equation at this stage. There was simply no time!

We started our house hunt on day one!

Domain.com.au is amazing. You get to shortlist properties that you are interested in and all the property agents use them.

We must have viewed around 15 properties over the next week. We realised that we were not going to find our perfect home. We also decided to only lease for one year. We looked in the North Shore area as we wanted space with a baba turned toddler.

We found the houses very old and dated inside. It completely depends on your budget. If you have a budget over 1000 Dollars per week then you will find a large, modern home to rent. If you want to pay between 800 and 1000 dollars per week then there will be something that you don't like.

We found an amazing house with a pool. Only issue is that the pool had no fence and by law if the house is an older property as long as the pool is locked away behind sliding doors etc then no fence needs to be installed. After umming and ahhhing we decided not to take the house because we just would always be so worried about baba. It's just not worth the pool.

We found another wonderful house very close to the train station. It will take hubbie 20 minutes to work. He used to commute for up to two hours each way on some days in the U.K. I will also try to get a job in North Sydney or in the City so my commute should not be too long- well compared to London.

The house is opposite a gorgeous park which is home to a tennis court, field, a playground and wildlife.

The house itself has a beautiful, small garden with stunning flora and fauna. Small garden steps lead up to the main entrance. We have three bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms (one en suite), a walk in wardrobe, a dining room, lounge and play room! We also have a large kitchen and laundry room and a lovely entertainment area for those barbies that I dreamed of having.

The best part about the house is that it comes with a lift for groceries. We have rear access to the house from the garage which is actually upstairs. The lift is in the garage and takes parcels down to the laundry room.

The worse part is that the curtains upstairs are old and boring floral. The carpets are also a light blue. However, I still love the house and I cannot wait for our container to arrive so that it can become a home.

C x

We will beat jetlag! Jetlag will not beat us!

We decided to fly via Singapore so that we could beat jetlag. We worked out that if we took a night flight from London to Singapore, we would all be tired enough to sleep when we arrived in Singapore the following night.

Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone was tired except for baba!

Baba napped as if it were day time and when 2am struck, she was up and ready for action!
We landed up walking around Sentosa Island numerous and way too many times.

Eventually at 6am, Baba was ready for bed. We all landed up sleeping until 1pm!!!

It took about five very rough nights to overcome the jetlag. Baba again refused to sleep in her hotel travel cot. She slept in our bed which we are against. I have learnt not to judge others when they tell me they did certain things. I used to shake my head disapprovingly stating that we would never do that. Haha. How wrong I was!

Sleep deprivation is an extreme form of torture. When sleep deprived I will do anything to get sleep. This means rocking baby, feeding baby to sleep, occassionally giving calpol (I have not done this often) and cuddling baby in our bed. All the big NO NO's. Yep, I am only human. Please forgive me.

Jetlag CANNOT be beaten.

Warning: Travelling with a baby is not easy!

My daughter is a jet setter. At the tender age of 1 she has already visited South Africa numerous times, Italy, France, Switzerland, Singapore and now Australia.

We have probably flown about twelve times with her in the past year!

The younger she was, the easier it actually was! She was more or less predictable. She breastfed every three hours. I would expect her to wake up for her feed and nappy change. Flying with her was relatively easy. I fed on take off and landing to allieviate the pressure in her tiny ears, made sure she was not too hot nor too cold, fed her every three hours and changed her when needed.
She loved the white noise that the plane produced. She slept really well inbetween feeds.

The travelling started getting more difficult probably from around 8 months. She was no longer predictable. She was in a routine but change unsettled her. This meant that any cot other than her bed would not do. She woke up constantly crying even though I surrounded her with familiar bed time props.

From around 8 months she also started getting bored. I packed many toys, my hubbie's iPad which featured baby apps as well as a copy of her favourite nursery rhyme DVD. I packed snacks and food. This only held her attention for say 5 minutes per item. It was a long flight.

I have flown on my own with her twice. Once on a short flight from Zurich. We were on the 7am flight back to London. Bad idea! I was the only mother on the plane! The plane was full of businessmen , a breastfeeding, frazzled mother and a tired, cranky baby. I had to escape to the tiny bathroom for some sanity. Baby was thrilled to see herself in the mirror. Another tip- if your baby is irritable walk around the plane pointing out the exit lights, loo lights, mirrors etc. Lol!

I braved a longer flight to South Africa earlier this year. My daughter was 10 months and she managed to contract a cold the day before we left. Poor baba and mama! She coughed and sputtered and cried her way through the airport. I gave her some cough medicine which apparantly has glycerol sugar in it to ease her cough. Bad idea! The child went hyper and decided not to sleep until two hours before we landed. I experienced a zombie like 9 hours walking up and down the plane. I was finished. Baby was wide awake. Another tip- don't give cough mixture before the flight.

I know some people drug their babys and kids before they fly. I am not for or against this. I have given calpol before a flight before. I met a mother who had given some codine to her kids. She bragged that it knocked them out. Unfortunately on this particular occassion, her kids refused to sleep and were so groggy from the medication that her one child kept biting her! I kid you not. Beware fellow parents out there- make sure that the medication you give your kids on the plane has been tried and tested way before take off!

Another motherly pearl of wisdom that my darling hubbie and I discovered at the airport was that my little baba is actually allergic to strawberries. We gave her a well known brand of fruit puree and my little one broke out in a scary rash around her eyes and lips and then stopped breathing which was horrificly heart stopping. We called the medics but thank G-d she came round herself. She also has a dairy allergy and experiences the same reaction. No chocolate and strawberries on Valentine's Day for her unfortunately.

So another note to self readers is do not try new food at the airport. Read the ingredients and if any seem brand new to you- it's not worth the fright!

C x

My Love/Hate Relationship with London

I loved yet hated my time living in the U.K

I had good and bad days over the three years. I missed my family in South Africa terribly. The first year was the most difficult. I found birthdays, anniversaries and special holidays depressing. I missed my Dad's 60th, my gran passed away and I could not get to the funeral, I missed weddings, bachelorettes and births.

I found creating an initial support system very hard. The first year was one of the most rocky. I had to learn to adapt to British culture and even though I am English speaking, I found many words had different meanings. 'Just now' in England means now. In S.A, 'just now' means later, 'cheers' in the U.K means thank you and in S.A meant 'bye'.

The Brits are wonderful people but it does take time to build a relationship with them. I am very friendly and open but it did take me time to make good friends. I had heard the saying that it takes time to make friends with Brits but once you have gained their friendship, it is for life. I found this very true and made some fab friends.

My year as a yummy mummy was probably my best year in the U.K. I travelled with my hubby and baby, met many kind, caring new and old mums and attended wonderful baby groups with my daughter. The new bond that I created with my daughter coupled with the amazing mummy friendships that I made definitely made me love the U.K even more.

When it was time to say goodbye, I once again found myself sad. I had created a family in London. I had so many memories with my husband, friends and my daughter stored in this vibrant city. I had created our first home and our family here.

The days leading up to the move were filled with memories and sad goodbyes. We had a farewell party the week before the move. I honestly didn't expect to be as sad as I felt. I believed that the worst was over. I had said goodbye to my parents, brother, sister in law and my two sausage dogs in Johannesburg. Surely I was immune to goodbyes?

The day the movers packed up our first home felt like the last episode of friends. That morning we had a home filled with our possessions and by the end of the day when the container had been and gone, we had empty space filled with only memories.

My advice to you is go with professional packers especially if you have kids. It definitely does make your life that much easier. I spring cleaned but hardly packed anything! The local charity shops were very grateful and I was thrilled to see one of my gorgeous dresses in the window of Cancer Research.

If you are living in the U.K then I have another very good tip for you! Australia is expensive!
Buy what you need before you leave. Think carefully what you will need in the next year and shove it into your container. We bought new linen, towels, a microwave, a double fridge/freezer, a forward facing car seat and loads of toys etc. I also bought make up, skin and hair products and books before we left because everything is marked up in Oz.

We literally stuffed the container until it was overflowing like a a fat roll in skinny jeans. We used toilet paper and kitchen towel to fill the container where we could.

At least you have an excuse to shop. Just tell the hubby that you are actually saving money by shopping! This is one of the only times that it may be true!

Spring clean and shop away!!!!

C x

The Migrating Mom!

Welcome fellow relocaters or wannabe relocaters,

They say the most stressful events in life are moving homes, getting married, starting a new job and having kids.

Chances are that if you are looking into relocating you will face some of these major events simultaneously!

Welcome to my life. I am South African and after being swept off my feet by a British gentleman, I waved goodbye (more likely sobbed uncontrollably goodbye) to my family, friends and well life in the sun and moved to London to start my new life!

I moved when my hubbie and I were engaged (yep, engagement is stressful enough). In the next three years I overcame the following (no, it was not easy!)..... I moved countries and had to adapt to life in the U.K ( a major culture shock but an incredible experience), got married (very, very difficult to coordinate the wedding plans with my Mom back in S.A and two very unique cultures and families), started a new job (from a small company to a corporate giant) and then fell pregnant (a rough pregnancy including premature labour and a sore c-scetion) and finally had a healthy, beautiful little girl (she has just turned 1).

So when my hubbie's work offered him a job in Australia, I jumped at the chance of sunshine, a garden and an outdoor lifestyle. I wanted my daughter to have the sunny, barefoot in the garden, barbeque and picnic childhood that I had experienced

If I have migrated once.....surely I am a pro and this time will be easy peasy?

C x