The next few entries chronicle our life in Tasmania and our trip to Europe in May 2007.
Enjoy our blog and of course a...
Bernt, Doris, Christopher and Annabelle
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas!
After 10 months we've finally updated our web log - just in time for Christmas!
The next few entries chronicle our life in Tasmania and our trip to Europe in May 2007.
Enjoy our blog and of course a...
Bernt, Doris, Christopher and Annabelle
The next few entries chronicle our life in Tasmania and our trip to Europe in May 2007.
Enjoy our blog and of course a...
Bernt, Doris, Christopher and Annabelle
The past 10 months
After we settled in to our new house (see the February 2007 entries), our next priority was to get Christopher in a 3yo kinder. The Steiner school that Christopher was supposed to be in had put us on the waiting list, so he couldn't go there. We felt he was ready for school, so we also contacted 'Possums', a local 3-4yo kinder in Taroona. We'd heard very good things about it, and luckily a spot became available there. Since Christopher had not stayed at a crèche or school by himself, Doris stayed with him the first morning.
When they got home that day he was like a different boy: he seemed much more confident, and he'd had a great time. The next time he stayed by himself, and that went well too.
Possums is a great place; it's part of playschools Tasmania, but privately run. Lyn is the person who started it about 20 years ago, and she's great. She's got two wonderful helpers, Kate and German Karin (who always has something to say in German to me), and there's great activities and care for the kids. The parents also help for one morning per term.
It is a beautifully gentle environment for the kids, and reminds us very much of Khuti (run by the Gita yoga school) where we took Christopher in Melbourne: it has the same without being overtly spiritual.
Possums just finished its year with performances by the children and a visit by Santa. Christopher had stage-fright and stayed with his parents and sister in the audience…
In February, after we got more-or-less settled, Doris started looking for pharmacy work. People had told us before we moved that there were lots of opportunities in Hobart, but we didn’t see any jobs advertised. Unlike in the rest of Australia, the pharmacy board in Tasmania doesn’t maintain a vacancy list, and didn’t have any information about job opportunities either. So Doris was getting a bit worried – maybe there wasn’t any work available. She needn’t have worried though: she ended up writing 10 open letters to different pharmacies and had 6 replies and 4 job offers within a few days! She started part-time at three different pharmacies and let one go in the middle of the year. Now she works 4 days at Friendly Care in the Hobart CBD (a not-for-profit pharmacy), and one night at Amcal in North Hobart. She enjoys her work, but finds it quite a bit slower than in Melbourne. Doris also replaced her 16 year old Ford Telstar with a beautifully new Honda Jazz - she finally has the type of car she always wanted!
Bernt started working on a project related to his previous work at the department of Defence. This initially entailed doing a feasibility study, and a few meetings at Defence in Melbourne, where it was received well. It requires external funding though, and that hasn’t been found yet.
Being full-time at home with the kids, regardless of how gorgeous they are, was getting a bit much so Bernt recently started looking for part-time work too. On the different internet jobsites there weren’t any part-time engineering jobs in Hobart. However there was a ‘drivers wanted’ ad, which turned out to be for taxi drivers. So, since a few weeks Bernt’s been driving a taxi around Hobart – and loving it! It’s a great way of meeting people, it’s flexible and Bernt loves driving and navigating. It’s definitely not a long-term thing, but it gets him out of the house doing something that he enjoys.
Christopher turned four in November and is a beautiful, happy little man. His interest, no, PASSION, is still trains. He’s got a few different train sets (mostly featuring Thomas the Tank Engine) and can spend hours playing with them. He also loves going to the library to get train videos, train DVDs, train magazines and train books…
Christopher is more of an inside-boy than Annabelle is an outside girl. He does like being outside, but very much likes it at home. He’s great with Annabelle, as long as she doesn’t mess up his trains!
Annabelle is now 18 months. She’s a gorgeous girl, and knows exactly what she wants. She’s very different from Christopher: a real girl! The other day she took me to her room and wanted something from her drawer: a specific (pink) pair of socks! She also loves putting a bag on her shoulders, and mimicking Doris’ putting on make-up…Annabelle has been walking for a few months now. Whereas Christopher was really early (he was 9 months and 9 days when he took his first three steps) Annabelle was 16 months. However it’s gone quickly since then: she’s practically running now!
Europe in May
We traveled quite a bit this year. In May we went to Europe to visit Bernt’s family and friends in Holland. Bernt’s parent are getting quite old now, and both have become forgetful. They’re still living at home, but require a lot of help. Luckily Holland’s social system provides for multiple visits by nurses per day, who help with getting dressed, making breakfast etc. Besides that Gerben and Anne Marie are very busy driving back and forth to Hengelo, and are doing a great job keeping things on track there.
It was great seeing everybody in Holland, and introducing Annabelle, but the time was too short again and we didn’t get to visit everybody we wanted to. Bernt’s godfather Henny and his wife Nel very generously made their summer cottage available for us to use. It was absolutely perfect for us, located on a campground in Voorthuizen, on the edge of the Veluwe, the ‘central forest’ of Holland.
Because the weather can be quite unpredictable in Holland in May, our flights from Australia were actually return tickets to Athens with two stopovers in Amsterdam… that way we thought we’d be assured of some nice beach weather on a Greek island. Well, the weather was actually great in Holland, but when we arrived at Andros (the island closest to Athens) their 3-month heat wave ended the night we arrived, and we were treated to 24 hours of torrential rain… So, we had a nice apartment, literally 10 meters from the beach, but only went to the beach once, fully clothed! Still it was a lovely side-trip, and it also allowed us to stay with our dear friend Athena who’s living in Athens for a while. With her we spend a lovely day visiting the Acropolis.
Living on the other side of the world from your family is not ideal, and that becomes more noticeable when you and your siblings are having children. Gerben and Tanja’s daughter Charise is now 2, Anne Marie and Sjoerd’s daughter Maaike is almost three and their son Gijs almost 9 months. We managed to get all 5 cousins together, and that makes for precious memories. It’s a real bummer they don’t all live around the corner from each other!
On the way back from Europe we spend a few days with Walter and Diana (Doris’ sister) and their daughter Natalie in Singapore. Natalie is Christopher’s favourite cousin and they had a ball together again. They’ll be visiting us with Doris’ parents in the first week of January.
We celebrated Annabelle’s first birthday in Melbourne, where Doris’ parents gracefully opened their house to our friends. It was a wonderful party, and a real joy to see our dear friends in Melbourne again.
It was great seeing everybody in Holland, and introducing Annabelle, but the time was too short again and we didn’t get to visit everybody we wanted to. Bernt’s godfather Henny and his wife Nel very generously made their summer cottage available for us to use. It was absolutely perfect for us, located on a campground in Voorthuizen, on the edge of the Veluwe, the ‘central forest’ of Holland.
Because the weather can be quite unpredictable in Holland in May, our flights from Australia were actually return tickets to Athens with two stopovers in Amsterdam… that way we thought we’d be assured of some nice beach weather on a Greek island. Well, the weather was actually great in Holland, but when we arrived at Andros (the island closest to Athens) their 3-month heat wave ended the night we arrived, and we were treated to 24 hours of torrential rain… So, we had a nice apartment, literally 10 meters from the beach, but only went to the beach once, fully clothed! Still it was a lovely side-trip, and it also allowed us to stay with our dear friend Athena who’s living in Athens for a while. With her we spend a lovely day visiting the Acropolis.
Living on the other side of the world from your family is not ideal, and that becomes more noticeable when you and your siblings are having children. Gerben and Tanja’s daughter Charise is now 2, Anne Marie and Sjoerd’s daughter Maaike is almost three and their son Gijs almost 9 months. We managed to get all 5 cousins together, and that makes for precious memories. It’s a real bummer they don’t all live around the corner from each other!
On the way back from Europe we spend a few days with Walter and Diana (Doris’ sister) and their daughter Natalie in Singapore. Natalie is Christopher’s favourite cousin and they had a ball together again. They’ll be visiting us with Doris’ parents in the first week of January.
We celebrated Annabelle’s first birthday in Melbourne, where Doris’ parents gracefully opened their house to our friends. It was a wonderful party, and a real joy to see our dear friends in Melbourne again.
Winter in Tasmania
After we got back from our European trip we got a taste of the Tasmanian winter… It had been snowing on Mt Wellington and that first weekend back was beautiful weather. We went up the mountain and gave Christopher and Annabelle their first experience of snow. They loved it, but Christopher found it a bit cold… People were tobogganing down little hills, and Bernt got a (rubber-backed) picnic blanket out and slid down on that with Annabelle in the Baby Björn (a baby harness) - they loved it!
Maybe it was Doris working in the pharmacy or Christopher picking up bugs at Possums, but the fact was that we kept on getting colds. Annabelle and Bernt got really ill in July, when we actually went to emergency at the hospital on a Sunday because they were that sick. It required a few courses of antibiotics (something we’d rather not take) to get over.
But regrettably Annabelle kept on getting sick – ‘two weeks on, one week off’- type of thing, from July until November. The last bout was also the worst, where she kept coughing for about three weeks (especially at night time), and when she coughs she often vomits. After having to change the sheets three times one night, we got pretty adept at getting a bowl in front of her to vomit into. Didn’t always work though, especially with the projectile ones…
We also had two other trips to Queensland. The first one in August to attend our friends Peter and Silvia’s wedding in Port Douglas. We’d planned a day in Sydney on the way there to do some sight-seeing and for Christopher to experience the Sydney trains and Monorail. Bit of bad luck there: firstly there was major rail maintenance so there were no trains in the CBD, and it rained cats and dogs the whole day… Then at the airport at night, ready to board our flight to Cairns, Annabelle developed a high (40 degrees+) fever. No doctor’s surgery open at the airport anymore, so we had to cancel our flight, rent a car and take her to emergency again… There had been some reports of a deadly flu that especially affected small children, so we didn’t want to take any risks. She was OK though – it was a flu that she had somehow picked up and there was nothing that the doctor could give her so we flew to Cairns the next day. We did have a great time at the wedding and in Northern Queensland though, despite Annabelle not getting better until we got back to Hobart.
Then in early November Doris had a seminar in the Gold Coast, and we decided to make that a small family holiday (Bernt didn’t really cherish the idea of 5 days with the kids by himself…). Doris absolutely loved Doreen Virtue’s Angel seminar and got (and still gets) a lot inspiration out of it. It fits in perfectly with the other spiritual things that Doris has done, and feels like the appropriate next step on her path.
Bernt has been revisiting ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. While he was busy on his project he was doing really well, but he didn’t keep up the momentum and got into a few down periods (again). With Bernt his thinking always plays a major part in that – mainly because it’s so negative: regrets about the past, worries about the future, and beating himself up over perceived mistakes.
As it is with most people, his thinking is incessant, and when it’s negative that can be quite harmful – depression, and even physical complaints can result.
The ‘funny’ thing is that the majority of this continuous thinking is unnecessary: what’s the use of regrets or worry (or Bernt’s favourite question ’what’s it all good for?’), when all you really have is This Moment – the Now.
This is where the ‘Power of Now’ gives you ways to interrupt the continuous stream of involuntary thinking, so you can be in the moment, and enjoy the beauty of life that lies beyond thought (including the beauty of your children…).
And then when you also actually DO something positive too, you’re not adding to your regrets…
After Doris’ seminar we still had a couple of days, so we relaxed and we went to Dreamworld (an adventure park) on the Gold Coast, and we all loved it!
The warm weather in Queensland did wonders for Annabelle: she got over her colds and has barely been sick since (it helps that Tassie has warmed up too!).
Maybe it was Doris working in the pharmacy or Christopher picking up bugs at Possums, but the fact was that we kept on getting colds. Annabelle and Bernt got really ill in July, when we actually went to emergency at the hospital on a Sunday because they were that sick. It required a few courses of antibiotics (something we’d rather not take) to get over.
But regrettably Annabelle kept on getting sick – ‘two weeks on, one week off’- type of thing, from July until November. The last bout was also the worst, where she kept coughing for about three weeks (especially at night time), and when she coughs she often vomits. After having to change the sheets three times one night, we got pretty adept at getting a bowl in front of her to vomit into. Didn’t always work though, especially with the projectile ones…
We also had two other trips to Queensland. The first one in August to attend our friends Peter and Silvia’s wedding in Port Douglas. We’d planned a day in Sydney on the way there to do some sight-seeing and for Christopher to experience the Sydney trains and Monorail. Bit of bad luck there: firstly there was major rail maintenance so there were no trains in the CBD, and it rained cats and dogs the whole day… Then at the airport at night, ready to board our flight to Cairns, Annabelle developed a high (40 degrees+) fever. No doctor’s surgery open at the airport anymore, so we had to cancel our flight, rent a car and take her to emergency again… There had been some reports of a deadly flu that especially affected small children, so we didn’t want to take any risks. She was OK though – it was a flu that she had somehow picked up and there was nothing that the doctor could give her so we flew to Cairns the next day. We did have a great time at the wedding and in Northern Queensland though, despite Annabelle not getting better until we got back to Hobart.
Then in early November Doris had a seminar in the Gold Coast, and we decided to make that a small family holiday (Bernt didn’t really cherish the idea of 5 days with the kids by himself…). Doris absolutely loved Doreen Virtue’s Angel seminar and got (and still gets) a lot inspiration out of it. It fits in perfectly with the other spiritual things that Doris has done, and feels like the appropriate next step on her path.
Bernt has been revisiting ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. While he was busy on his project he was doing really well, but he didn’t keep up the momentum and got into a few down periods (again). With Bernt his thinking always plays a major part in that – mainly because it’s so negative: regrets about the past, worries about the future, and beating himself up over perceived mistakes.
As it is with most people, his thinking is incessant, and when it’s negative that can be quite harmful – depression, and even physical complaints can result.
The ‘funny’ thing is that the majority of this continuous thinking is unnecessary: what’s the use of regrets or worry (or Bernt’s favourite question ’what’s it all good for?’), when all you really have is This Moment – the Now.
This is where the ‘Power of Now’ gives you ways to interrupt the continuous stream of involuntary thinking, so you can be in the moment, and enjoy the beauty of life that lies beyond thought (including the beauty of your children…).
And then when you also actually DO something positive too, you’re not adding to your regrets…
After Doris’ seminar we still had a couple of days, so we relaxed and we went to Dreamworld (an adventure park) on the Gold Coast, and we all loved it!
The warm weather in Queensland did wonders for Annabelle: she got over her colds and has barely been sick since (it helps that Tassie has warmed up too!).
One Year in Tassie
So, here we are, we’ve almost been in Tasmania for a year. It’s been an interesting experience for us all so far. It’s funny how we are getting used to things: for instance the fantastic view from our house. It becomes normal, and you really have to pinch yourself sometimes how fortunate we are to have this. Only after having been away for a while do you really notice it.
One of the things that our house lacks is a place to park the cars. We are currently using our neighbour’s vacant land, but she will be building there in the next year, so we’ll need something for ourselves. This has been quite a saga, and expensive already. We’ve gone through three different solutions and engineer’s designs that had to be abandoned because of different reasons. The first one was too expensive, the next one probably required too much (hard, bluestone) rock breaking close to the house’s foundation, and with the last one we couldn’t meet the slope requirements to clear the council’s sewer that runs through our land. The final solution now will be quite simple (and hopefully not too expensive) but requires a three-point turn when entering or leaving the parking area. We’ve already cleared a few trees and quite a bit of bush around the house, and being non-gardeners, we’ve been amazed by how quickly areas get overgrown…
Living in a bushy environment means there are lots of insects and bigger creatures around: heaps of lizards, possums and even a wallabie (a small kangaroo). But it’s some insects that cause us some bother at times because they come into the house: we’ve had big spiders (Bernt had to come home from work a few weeks ago because there was huge one in Annabelle’s bedroom…), some scorpions, ants and these funny (harmless) worm-like creatures that curl up when they’re threatened. Doris doesn’t like any of them, and especially with young Annabelle we have to make sure we keep them outside…
Understandable we were feeling a bit isolated initially, not knowing many people, and having no family here. Luckily we’ve got wonderful neighbours: Nino and Carmelina next door, who’ve almost become surrogate grandparents, and Benn and Michele up the hill behind us. Benn and Michele recently retired and are traveling the world for a year and they have leased there home to Erica and Stuart, and their 3 year-old son Joe who is great friends with Christopher. We’ve become quite close to them.
Then we’ve gotten to know a few parents through Christopher’s school Possums, and interestingly mostly people that came from interstate also.
One of the things that appealed to us about Hobart was the clean air. And it definitely is: in summertime… But many people in Tasmania have woodheaters, so when the weather is a bit cooler they get lit in late afternoon, early evening. So there can be quite a haze of pollution over the city and even around our area.
Because our house got quite cold in wintertime too, we installed electrical heaters in all the rooms, in addition to the (LP-gas) heater in the lounge room.
That brings us to the infamous Tassie weather. We’d heard many comments about how cold it gets here, but especially Bernt wasn’t worried about that: it gets much colder in Holland. However it has been an eye opener. It does get quite cold, WINDY and wet (the coldest days would be between 2 degrees at night to 6 degrees during the day), but the worst is that that the houses, including ours, aren’t really built that well. Single-pane windows, gaps around the doors and little insulation mean that the houses aren’t very energy-efficient, so expensive to heat and drafty as well. We are pretty sure that that was a big factor in Annabelle’s string of colds… We did the basic things to insulate, but it would require major work to make the house ‘green’.
So overall we have enjoyed the first year here in Tasmania, but… we’ll probably sell the house and move back to Melbourne in 2008. Yip, the adventure will most likely come to an end! Doris felt quite isolated during her time in Tassie, even with going to work and having interactions with so many people every day. It’s the spiritual-healing-metaphysical type of conversations and friendships that Doris misses the most and we feel we have more of that in Melbourne. Doris has also learned that she really doesn’t like the cold, especially when it’s coupled with gale force winds, she misses her family too much (it’s bad enough being away from one set of family, let alone two), and we are missing the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Melbourne. We are also finding that life here really isn’t that different from living in Melbourne, and we really haven’t taken that much advantage of the natural beauty of Tasmania. Bernt will miss his regular runs along the beach, but he’ll get over that! (or he’ll just have to find a place to live near the beach in Melbourne, which is going to be expensive … but not impossible).
One of the things that our house lacks is a place to park the cars. We are currently using our neighbour’s vacant land, but she will be building there in the next year, so we’ll need something for ourselves. This has been quite a saga, and expensive already. We’ve gone through three different solutions and engineer’s designs that had to be abandoned because of different reasons. The first one was too expensive, the next one probably required too much (hard, bluestone) rock breaking close to the house’s foundation, and with the last one we couldn’t meet the slope requirements to clear the council’s sewer that runs through our land. The final solution now will be quite simple (and hopefully not too expensive) but requires a three-point turn when entering or leaving the parking area. We’ve already cleared a few trees and quite a bit of bush around the house, and being non-gardeners, we’ve been amazed by how quickly areas get overgrown…
Living in a bushy environment means there are lots of insects and bigger creatures around: heaps of lizards, possums and even a wallabie (a small kangaroo). But it’s some insects that cause us some bother at times because they come into the house: we’ve had big spiders (Bernt had to come home from work a few weeks ago because there was huge one in Annabelle’s bedroom…), some scorpions, ants and these funny (harmless) worm-like creatures that curl up when they’re threatened. Doris doesn’t like any of them, and especially with young Annabelle we have to make sure we keep them outside…
Understandable we were feeling a bit isolated initially, not knowing many people, and having no family here. Luckily we’ve got wonderful neighbours: Nino and Carmelina next door, who’ve almost become surrogate grandparents, and Benn and Michele up the hill behind us. Benn and Michele recently retired and are traveling the world for a year and they have leased there home to Erica and Stuart, and their 3 year-old son Joe who is great friends with Christopher. We’ve become quite close to them.
Then we’ve gotten to know a few parents through Christopher’s school Possums, and interestingly mostly people that came from interstate also.
One of the things that appealed to us about Hobart was the clean air. And it definitely is: in summertime… But many people in Tasmania have woodheaters, so when the weather is a bit cooler they get lit in late afternoon, early evening. So there can be quite a haze of pollution over the city and even around our area.
Because our house got quite cold in wintertime too, we installed electrical heaters in all the rooms, in addition to the (LP-gas) heater in the lounge room.
That brings us to the infamous Tassie weather. We’d heard many comments about how cold it gets here, but especially Bernt wasn’t worried about that: it gets much colder in Holland. However it has been an eye opener. It does get quite cold, WINDY and wet (the coldest days would be between 2 degrees at night to 6 degrees during the day), but the worst is that that the houses, including ours, aren’t really built that well. Single-pane windows, gaps around the doors and little insulation mean that the houses aren’t very energy-efficient, so expensive to heat and drafty as well. We are pretty sure that that was a big factor in Annabelle’s string of colds… We did the basic things to insulate, but it would require major work to make the house ‘green’.
So overall we have enjoyed the first year here in Tasmania, but… we’ll probably sell the house and move back to Melbourne in 2008. Yip, the adventure will most likely come to an end! Doris felt quite isolated during her time in Tassie, even with going to work and having interactions with so many people every day. It’s the spiritual-healing-metaphysical type of conversations and friendships that Doris misses the most and we feel we have more of that in Melbourne. Doris has also learned that she really doesn’t like the cold, especially when it’s coupled with gale force winds, she misses her family too much (it’s bad enough being away from one set of family, let alone two), and we are missing the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Melbourne. We are also finding that life here really isn’t that different from living in Melbourne, and we really haven’t taken that much advantage of the natural beauty of Tasmania. Bernt will miss his regular runs along the beach, but he’ll get over that! (or he’ll just have to find a place to live near the beach in Melbourne, which is going to be expensive … but not impossible).
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Moving to Tasmania
Instead of sending emails to our friends and family we're using this web log. I'll be updating it regulary, so you can see what we're up to.
The following few entries chronicle our move from Melbourne to Hobart in Tasmania (Australia) in January 2007 (click on the links on the right).
Enjoy!
Bernt, Doris, Christopher and Annabelle
The following few entries chronicle our move from Melbourne to Hobart in Tasmania (Australia) in January 2007 (click on the links on the right).
Enjoy!
Bernt, Doris, Christopher and Annabelle
Packing up in Melbourne
The start of 2007 was pretty busy for us: we had a house to pack, and more so, I was finally going to sort through 15 years of collected 'stuff'. For some reason somebody didn't allow me to move it for a fourth time in four years... and heaps got thrown out. For instance, after I was done with the full 4-drawer filing cabinet everything fit in about half a drawer: almost 90% went to the recycling!
We allowed ourselves enough time, and got things pretty much done in time. And we needed to: in previous moves we had the flexibility of moving lots of stuff in cars but this time everything needed to be ready on January 17 for the removalists. Doris again did a fantastic job packing all of our day-to-day stuff, and I focused mostly on my junk... We ended up with one third of the garage full of organised and labeled boxes.
Doris and the kids stayed at Doris' parents place the night before and the day of the move.
Two removalists came with a truck and a 40m3 container. We used Chris Bell and Bells, a Tasmanian company (well-known in Tassie) that quoted us half the price (about $3000 for pack-yourself, door-to-door) of what two bigger companies quoted! And they did a great job: everything was packed very tightly in the container (it ended up being about 32 cubic meters) and apart from a few minor scratches, we didn't have any damage or breakages. It was a hard job for them too: it was 37 degrees! They were lucky though: it wasn't very sunny so the container didn't get too hot, as opposed to the day before when it was also a few degrees hotter...
We then spend from Thursday until Sunday night at Doris' parents place which was very comfortable and pleasant. The kids liked it too - only the first night Christopher wanted to go 'home'. Having these few days was really good - it allowed us to take it easy after a tiring two weeks, we could still say goodbye to a few people in a relaxed way, and even see Casino Royale in Gold Class (for non-Australians: a very luxurious movie theatre!)
Sunday nights in Melbourne were a bit of a tradition for us: Doris' siblings with partners and children would come to Anthony and Elizabeth's (their parents place) for a wonderful authentic Vietnamese meal - if there's any Melburnian thing we'll miss it is those meals and the company! So we had a last great supper there and it was time to say goodbye to Doris' family and to Melbourne!
We allowed ourselves enough time, and got things pretty much done in time. And we needed to: in previous moves we had the flexibility of moving lots of stuff in cars but this time everything needed to be ready on January 17 for the removalists. Doris again did a fantastic job packing all of our day-to-day stuff, and I focused mostly on my junk... We ended up with one third of the garage full of organised and labeled boxes.
Two removalists came with a truck and a 40m3 container. We used Chris Bell and Bells, a Tasmanian company (well-known in Tassie) that quoted us half the price (about $3000 for pack-yourself, door-to-door) of what two bigger companies quoted! And they did a great job: everything was packed very tightly in the container (it ended up being about 32 cubic meters) and apart from a few minor scratches, we didn't have any damage or breakages. It was a hard job for them too: it was 37 degrees! They were lucky though: it wasn't very sunny so the container didn't get too hot, as opposed to the day before when it was also a few degrees hotter...
We then spend from Thursday until Sunday night at Doris' parents place which was very comfortable and pleasant. The kids liked it too - only the first night Christopher wanted to go 'home'. Having these few days was really good - it allowed us to take it easy after a tiring two weeks, we could still say goodbye to a few people in a relaxed way, and even see Casino Royale in Gold Class (for non-Australians: a very luxurious movie theatre!)
Sunday nights in Melbourne were a bit of a tradition for us: Doris' siblings with partners and children would come to Anthony and Elizabeth's (their parents place) for a wonderful authentic Vietnamese meal - if there's any Melburnian thing we'll miss it is those meals and the company! So we had a last great supper there and it was time to say goodbye to Doris' family and to Melbourne!
Taking the boat to Tassie
We were booked on 'The Spirit of Tasmania' - one of the two ferries (by the same name) that sail back-and-forth between Melbourne and Devonport in northern Tasmania.
The Spirit left at 9pm, and we were there well in time: Doris in her car with Christopher and Annabelle, and lots of stuff, and me with the whole station wagon also packed to the rim. We paid a bit more money to get a cabin with a porthole, so Christopher (and we!) could look outside and see the ocean. Christopher was very excited about his trip on the big red ferry.
We woke up around 6am with the sun shining outside and a first sight of land - Tasmania, our new home! From now on we'll be Tasmanian, also know as Tasmaniacs, Taswegians and some other derogatory names that I've forgotten...
It's like every time we come to Tasmania the weather is gorgeous, and Devonport was no exception.
Annabelle doesn't like driving very much so we needed a few stops. We got to Hobart around 3pm, picked up the keys from the real-estate agent that had been managing the Lease for us, and drove straight to our new home.
The Spirit left at 9pm, and we were there well in time: Doris in her car with Christopher and Annabelle, and lots of stuff, and me with the whole station wagon also packed to the rim. We paid a bit more money to get a cabin with a porthole, so Christopher (and we!) could look outside and see the ocean. Christopher was very excited about his trip on the big red ferry.We woke up around 6am with the sun shining outside and a first sight of land - Tasmania, our new home! From now on we'll be Tasmanian, also know as Tasmaniacs, Taswegians and some other derogatory names that I've forgotten...
It's like every time we come to Tasmania the weather is gorgeous, and Devonport was no exception.
After breakfast at McDonalds (yip, they're everywhere) we drove south towards Hobart. On the way we stopped at Terry and Jean Wither's place to say hello, and for them to meet everybody really, except Bernt. Was a lovely break, as was the picnic in Campbell Town.
Arriving in Hobart
The house was in great condition - our tenant had done a good job. Unpacking the cars was a big job: the house is up on a hill, and we don't have proper car parking close to the house, so it's a pretty long walk, 8 meters up. One of the things that will happen soon is that we'll be putting a proper driveway in.
We made the downstairs area of the house our bedroom for the next week: our furniture wouldn't arrive until the following Monday, so we had time to do some maintenance and painting of the house. This was all upstairs, so we'd minimise the fumes especially for the kids downstairs.
It really was a week of luxurious camping: on air mattresses, but with heating, hot running water and other comforts, so quite fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy it too! The only inconvenience (if you can call it that) was having to get ice every day to keep the eski cool...
When we bought the house in July 2005 it had been freshly painted, but not really to our liking. Every room had a different motif - lime green in the lounge room (yuck), bright yellow (not everybody's taste, but we like it) in the bathroom, dark blue in Christopher’s room, rosy pink in our bedroom, and about 4 or 5 other colours in different areas. So we bought a large quantity of 'cowardly custard' paint (a nice yellowish, off-white colour) and attacked those colours. In most rooms we left a 'feature wall' in the original colour, and in the lounge room we made a new feature wall of darkish-bright red. We had a good time doing it, and Christopher even helped.
And, we're very happy with the results!
Having a week to do this gave us also plenty of time to explore our new hometown, do some sightseeing and shopping etc.
We visited Neno and Carmelina - our new neighbours that we'd met quite a few times before – Christopher calls Neno ‘Nemo’! They're a lovely elderly (Italian) couple. They've lived here since the houses were built, and Neno actually built his own house all himself - including excavating the rocks under the house... took him a few years! He's got a magnificent terraced vegie garden behind their house: we've had too many lettuces to eat already! Speaking of fresh produce: one of the great features of our house is a beautiful peach tree in the front, next to the driveway. When we arrived it got to the end of the season for the peaches, but we still had about two weeks of loads of beautiful peaches from our own tree. And there are also an apple and a pear tree, and their fruit will ripen in the next few weeks!
Our other neighbours that own the land behind us, further up the hill, are Benn and Michelle. We'd met Benn a few times around the house, and just went for dinner to their place to meet Michelle properly too. Their house is gorgeous, and we thought we had a good view - well being higher up on the hill theirs is even better: uninterrupted 200 degree view of the river, just magnificent! In March Benn and Michelle are leaving for Amsterdam to celebrate their daughter's 30th birthday, who lives there. They're both retiring and will leave for about a year to travel the world starting the middle of this year.
We made the downstairs area of the house our bedroom for the next week: our furniture wouldn't arrive until the following Monday, so we had time to do some maintenance and painting of the house. This was all upstairs, so we'd minimise the fumes especially for the kids downstairs.
It really was a week of luxurious camping: on air mattresses, but with heating, hot running water and other comforts, so quite fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy it too! The only inconvenience (if you can call it that) was having to get ice every day to keep the eski cool...
Having a week to do this gave us also plenty of time to explore our new hometown, do some sightseeing and shopping etc.
We visited Neno and Carmelina - our new neighbours that we'd met quite a few times before – Christopher calls Neno ‘Nemo’! They're a lovely elderly (Italian) couple. They've lived here since the houses were built, and Neno actually built his own house all himself - including excavating the rocks under the house... took him a few years! He's got a magnificent terraced vegie garden behind their house: we've had too many lettuces to eat already! Speaking of fresh produce: one of the great features of our house is a beautiful peach tree in the front, next to the driveway. When we arrived it got to the end of the season for the peaches, but we still had about two weeks of loads of beautiful peaches from our own tree. And there are also an apple and a pear tree, and their fruit will ripen in the next few weeks!
Our other neighbours that own the land behind us, further up the hill, are Benn and Michelle. We'd met Benn a few times around the house, and just went for dinner to their place to meet Michelle properly too. Their house is gorgeous, and we thought we had a good view - well being higher up on the hill theirs is even better: uninterrupted 200 degree view of the river, just magnificent! In March Benn and Michelle are leaving for Amsterdam to celebrate their daughter's 30th birthday, who lives there. They're both retiring and will leave for about a year to travel the world starting the middle of this year.
Settling In
The container that we packed in Melbourne on Jan 17 was delivered to our home on Jan 29. These containers are pretty high, and on top of a fairly high truck the combination was high enough to take out Benn and Michelle's telephone wire which overhangs our driveway... so they didn't have telephone for a day. However, I called the telephone company right away and they were there within a few hours. Only because the truck still had to leave again the technician didn't want to fix it that day.
The two removalists had a pretty tough job to do. They claimed it was the worst house they'd ever delivered to. Seems like a bit of an exaggeration to us - we've seen houses on steeper driveways, with further to walk. Anyway, they were both strong as an ox, and just carried complete Billy bookshelves from Ikea by themselves all the way up! They had it done in about four hours, and then our job started... unpacking it all! But not before they almost took out our neighbours trees backing out of our driveway onto Channel Highway. It really isn't the most convenient access to the house...
Of course we hadn't lived in the house yet since we did our renovations in late 2005, especially putting the new kitchen in, and really, the work we did then couldn't have been better. The kitchen is very practical, and everything is still in perfect condition - credit to Liz, the previous tenant, but also to Bruce who installed it all. He did a fantastic job. We also opened the kitchen up by removing most of the wall between the kitchen and lounge room, and that works great too. While we're in the kitchen, it's easy to keep an eye on the kids, and we can enjoy the great views from there and the dining table too.
We were a bit concerned about having enough storage in the house, but especially in the kitchen it's working out great. However there aren't any built-in robes (apart from a linen cabinet in the hallway), so we've ordered two custom-made wardrobes for the master bedroom and Christopher's room. So until they get delivered (in two weeks' time) our clothes are still in bags and suitcases on the floor.
The downstairs area has a large room that is a play area for the kids - Christopher's train table is setup there. Then there's a separate area that has become my office. It also has a complete bathroom, so guests can have pretty much a private area. Upstairs is pretty much standard: there are three bedrooms, a bathroom and the kitchen/lounge room, with a laundry off to the side. Not too big, but perfect for us now.
I mentioned the driveway that we're putting in. It will provide parking for two cars closer to the house, but you'd still need to go up two flights of stairs to get to the living area. We'll have to cut into the hill a fair bit to put the driveway in, so there'll be retaining walls etc. to be built.
It is being designed in such a way that at a later stage we can built a garage with a second storey on top, which would become an extension of the lower level. I envision that would house a master bedroom and bathroom with (tinted) floor-to-ceiling windows next to the bath. I can just see ourselves having a relaxing bath, with a drink, looking out over the river...
On top of this floor we would have a large deck, as an extension of our current front balcony, and possibly extend the lounge room a bit too.
Now all of this is very much pie-in-the-sky: it'll only happen if we want to stay here of course, but we are taking the possibility into account by putting additional strength into the foundation of the work we're doing now. The design for this is practically finished, and we'll hopefully start the actual work in the next few weeks.
A funny aside here - this is going to be a pretty major excavation and construction job - they're talking 20-25 truckloads of material to be carted off, close to two loads of concrete to be poured, and 3 meter high retaining walls. When I called the council to see how we should go about getting a permit, the person responsible for permits called me back and said we didn't need one, since everything was on our own land, and as long as we met Australian building standards... Anybody we've spoken to about this is surprised, but the guy was very adamant, and he didn't need to give me this in writing! So that saves us the delay and cost of having to go through council. Luckily we've got a reputable engineering company to design it all and do the structural and strength calculations, so we shouldn't have any problems. And they'll inspect the work, so any possible future building work will have the foundation documented properly.
Of course we hadn't lived in the house yet since we did our renovations in late 2005, especially putting the new kitchen in, and really, the work we did then couldn't have been better. The kitchen is very practical, and everything is still in perfect condition - credit to Liz, the previous tenant, but also to Bruce who installed it all. He did a fantastic job. We also opened the kitchen up by removing most of the wall between the kitchen and lounge room, and that works great too. While we're in the kitchen, it's easy to keep an eye on the kids, and we can enjoy the great views from there and the dining table too.
We were a bit concerned about having enough storage in the house, but especially in the kitchen it's working out great. However there aren't any built-in robes (apart from a linen cabinet in the hallway), so we've ordered two custom-made wardrobes for the master bedroom and Christopher's room. So until they get delivered (in two weeks' time) our clothes are still in bags and suitcases on the floor.
The downstairs area has a large room that is a play area for the kids - Christopher's train table is setup there. Then there's a separate area that has become my office. It also has a complete bathroom, so guests can have pretty much a private area. Upstairs is pretty much standard: there are three bedrooms, a bathroom and the kitchen/lounge room, with a laundry off to the side. Not too big, but perfect for us now.
I mentioned the driveway that we're putting in. It will provide parking for two cars closer to the house, but you'd still need to go up two flights of stairs to get to the living area. We'll have to cut into the hill a fair bit to put the driveway in, so there'll be retaining walls etc. to be built.
It is being designed in such a way that at a later stage we can built a garage with a second storey on top, which would become an extension of the lower level. I envision that would house a master bedroom and bathroom with (tinted) floor-to-ceiling windows next to the bath. I can just see ourselves having a relaxing bath, with a drink, looking out over the river...On top of this floor we would have a large deck, as an extension of our current front balcony, and possibly extend the lounge room a bit too.
Now all of this is very much pie-in-the-sky: it'll only happen if we want to stay here of course, but we are taking the possibility into account by putting additional strength into the foundation of the work we're doing now. The design for this is practically finished, and we'll hopefully start the actual work in the next few weeks.
A funny aside here - this is going to be a pretty major excavation and construction job - they're talking 20-25 truckloads of material to be carted off, close to two loads of concrete to be poured, and 3 meter high retaining walls. When I called the council to see how we should go about getting a permit, the person responsible for permits called me back and said we didn't need one, since everything was on our own land, and as long as we met Australian building standards... Anybody we've spoken to about this is surprised, but the guy was very adamant, and he didn't need to give me this in writing! So that saves us the delay and cost of having to go through council. Luckily we've got a reputable engineering company to design it all and do the structural and strength calculations, so we shouldn't have any problems. And they'll inspect the work, so any possible future building work will have the foundation documented properly.
Why Tasmania
So here we are, living on an island, in a town where neither of us has a job and we don't know too many people. What have we done? That's the comment or the underlying tone from a lot of people we speak to. Most people incidentally call it 'brave'...
Well, sofar it absolutely feels like the right choice. Instead of living in suburbia in Melbourne, with a view of your neighbour's kitchen or fence, we now look out over the southern ocean (with about 5000km to go til you hit land at Antarctica). The air is a lot cleaner, it's beautiful to walk around here, the people really are very friendly, and seem more genuine or authentic too.
The general lifestyle seems more in tune with what we value these days: an emphasis on life, and enjoying life, and less on the rat-race of our western 'civilisation'. I put this in quotes, because it reminds me of an email I got from my brother in law who asked how we were progressing with our move to the 'edge of civilisation'. I actually don't find what we live in a very civilised society. Just look at what a few millennia of 'civilisation' has brought us: we're raping this planet (and each other, if we're not killing each other in wars with dubious motivations). If we don't act soon and drastically, in a few decades a large percentage of the world's population in low-lying areas won't have a home because of rising sea levels - Hobart being one of those areas (luckily our house is 40-50 meter above sea level: ours might become waterfront property ;). We're burning fossil fuels at a rate that is unsustainable, and worse, will deplete the resource for the plastics we use everywhere. We are eating poisoned foods, and we're wondering why there's such a large incidence of unexplainable diseases and afflictions. Our living environment has been polluted by thousands of chemicals that our bodies didn't have to deal with 200 years ago!
And this is what 200 years of progress in our industrial western civilisation has given us. Of course I'm not saying we didn't make real progress in those years, and I personally continuously take advantage of the comforts we've obtained - sometimes too much actually. But I am questioning the motivation behind many of our so-called improvements. And that motivation, especially in the last few decades, has simply been profits, money. We wouldn't have to have hunger in the world if we all became vegetarian or ate meat in moderation: it takes as much resources to grow 1kg of beef as it does to grow 50kgs of tomatoes!
But the gigantic and powerful meat industry would loose their huge current profits if we all suddenly stopped eating meat. And of course you can't make decent money selling food to third world countries...
And we'd possibly get safer and cheaper medicines if more scientific research was done into developing natural remedies. But they can't be patented, so of course the pharmaceutical industries aren't interested in going down that path.
I am convinced we have all the technology, know-how, intelligence, ability and money to end world hunger in a few years' time, and have nobody in the world living in substandard conditions (although of course not everybody will be able to do this: typing on a laptop on a balcony outside on a beautiful Hobart night...)
The only thing that is missing is our willingness. Our interests in our western society lie with ourselves, our profits, our comforts. We waste ridiculous amounts of money and energy competing with each other, and in multiple ways: from competition for better job positions, through competition for the consumer's dollars, to literally killing each other in our wars.
So what does all this have to do with us moving to Hobart. Well, almost automatically in the routine of day-to-day life you don't have time to think about these things. And if you do it is easy to either close your eyes and say 'it will be fine during my lifetime', or say 'it's too big a problem for me to do anything about'. But what about our children, and didn't we get this world on loan from them? What are we leaving behind for them?
If we're going to change any of this, the next generation (so our children) will play a major role in that.
By partially withdrawing ourselves from the big rat race and exposing our children to different values and different ways of being, we think we help to bring about the transformation of consciousness in the world that I think we need. The problem is too big for any one of us to solve. But by teaching our children teamwork and not competition, the importance of group well-being over individual well-being etc, our children's modus-operandi will be one that will benefit the world, and not just themselves. Hence our interest in a Steiner education.
Living where we are will automatically make us more present in our day-to-day lives to values that will benefit the world. Being closer to nature, among friendly, authentic people, in a place where seemingly making money isn't the only objective to life.
And finally, we like this place!
Well, sofar it absolutely feels like the right choice. Instead of living in suburbia in Melbourne, with a view of your neighbour's kitchen or fence, we now look out over the southern ocean (with about 5000km to go til you hit land at Antarctica). The air is a lot cleaner, it's beautiful to walk around here, the people really are very friendly, and seem more genuine or authentic too.
The general lifestyle seems more in tune with what we value these days: an emphasis on life, and enjoying life, and less on the rat-race of our western 'civilisation'. I put this in quotes, because it reminds me of an email I got from my brother in law who asked how we were progressing with our move to the 'edge of civilisation'. I actually don't find what we live in a very civilised society. Just look at what a few millennia of 'civilisation' has brought us: we're raping this planet (and each other, if we're not killing each other in wars with dubious motivations). If we don't act soon and drastically, in a few decades a large percentage of the world's population in low-lying areas won't have a home because of rising sea levels - Hobart being one of those areas (luckily our house is 40-50 meter above sea level: ours might become waterfront property ;). We're burning fossil fuels at a rate that is unsustainable, and worse, will deplete the resource for the plastics we use everywhere. We are eating poisoned foods, and we're wondering why there's such a large incidence of unexplainable diseases and afflictions. Our living environment has been polluted by thousands of chemicals that our bodies didn't have to deal with 200 years ago!
And this is what 200 years of progress in our industrial western civilisation has given us. Of course I'm not saying we didn't make real progress in those years, and I personally continuously take advantage of the comforts we've obtained - sometimes too much actually. But I am questioning the motivation behind many of our so-called improvements. And that motivation, especially in the last few decades, has simply been profits, money. We wouldn't have to have hunger in the world if we all became vegetarian or ate meat in moderation: it takes as much resources to grow 1kg of beef as it does to grow 50kgs of tomatoes!
But the gigantic and powerful meat industry would loose their huge current profits if we all suddenly stopped eating meat. And of course you can't make decent money selling food to third world countries...
And we'd possibly get safer and cheaper medicines if more scientific research was done into developing natural remedies. But they can't be patented, so of course the pharmaceutical industries aren't interested in going down that path.
The only thing that is missing is our willingness. Our interests in our western society lie with ourselves, our profits, our comforts. We waste ridiculous amounts of money and energy competing with each other, and in multiple ways: from competition for better job positions, through competition for the consumer's dollars, to literally killing each other in our wars.
If we're going to change any of this, the next generation (so our children) will play a major role in that.
By partially withdrawing ourselves from the big rat race and exposing our children to different values and different ways of being, we think we help to bring about the transformation of consciousness in the world that I think we need. The problem is too big for any one of us to solve. But by teaching our children teamwork and not competition, the importance of group well-being over individual well-being etc, our children's modus-operandi will be one that will benefit the world, and not just themselves. Hence our interest in a Steiner education.
And finally, we like this place!
Living in Hobart
So what are we going to be doing to earn a living? Firstly Doris will have her registration with the Tasmanian pharmacy board organised fairly soon, and will start looking for locum work. I will continue with the VoIP (internet telephony) and computer support work business I started in Melbourne, and I've also become enthused about another business opportunity related to work I did in the past. I'll start with investigating the viability of that venture and writing a business plan, besides looking after Christopher and Annabelle while Doris is working.
Speaking of Christopher and Annabelle. They both seem to have adjusted really well to our new home. Annabelle especially is just herself - but what else can you expect from an eight-month old. She's very cute and is very close to crawling - she's been frustrated with not being able to get around for a while now, but just hasn't figured out how to move her four limbs in a coordinated manner... She eats really well, and is the ideal baby: rarely upset, and sleeps every night from about 7:30 until 7 the next morning!
Christopher is doing well too, and is becoming such a big boy. He's 3 years and 3 months old now, and talks heaps. He loves his Thomas and friends engines, and helping us do things. He does miss the trains in Melbourne, and friends and family there, just like we are (the friends and family that is - we could do without the trains!). But for such a drastic move, we really can't complain about how he's adapted. Soon he'll start going to playgroups and we'll take him to swimming lessons now that the first term of school has started (today actually). He does miss playing with other children, which will be remedied that way soon. Today we had a BBQ at beautiful Sandy Bay Beach, and he had a ball running around the playground with other kids he'd just met.
Doris too is loving it. When she answered the phone a few weeks ago and spoke with my brother Gerben for a while, he commented afterwards to me that he hadn't heard Doris that happy before. As I said - we both feel this is the right move for us.
Now that most of the unpacking is done and we're getting settled we'll start getting more sociable - contacting people we know here and doing more outdoor things. We were talking about getting in contact with some Dutch people, to possibly start a Dutch playgroup so Christopher and Annabelle continue to get exposed to the Dutch language, and not even ten minutes later we walked passed a table with 6 Dutch people who were doing just that... meeting once a month to keep their links with their roots intact. They generously invited me to come along to their get-togethers, so I'll happily do that! It's not quite a playgroup, but there is a lady there with an 18-month old boy.
OK, so much for now. There'll be more soon!
Doris too is loving it. When she answered the phone a few weeks ago and spoke with my brother Gerben for a while, he commented afterwards to me that he hadn't heard Doris that happy before. As I said - we both feel this is the right move for us.
Now that most of the unpacking is done and we're getting settled we'll start getting more sociable - contacting people we know here and doing more outdoor things. We were talking about getting in contact with some Dutch people, to possibly start a Dutch playgroup so Christopher and Annabelle continue to get exposed to the Dutch language, and not even ten minutes later we walked passed a table with 6 Dutch people who were doing just that... meeting once a month to keep their links with their roots intact. They generously invited me to come along to their get-togethers, so I'll happily do that! It's not quite a playgroup, but there is a lady there with an 18-month old boy.
OK, so much for now. There'll be more soon!
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