12 months in Adelaide

[Sankari]

Now that I've been back home in Australia for >12 months, this seems the right time to post a final update. It's been an interesting year. Plenty of ups and downs, with the ups slightly edging out the downs.

From November 2009 to February 2010 I worked as a sales and marketing rep for my friend's insulation company. Unfortunately he had to let me go due to a sudden downturn in the market, so I was jobless again by the end of Feb.

The government offered me some free training as a sort of consolation prize, so I picked up a Certificate III in Business, which I completed in 5 weeks under an accelerated study programme.

To pass the time while I looked for a new job, I worked as a volunteer at a little cafe which I had helped to set up with a bunch of mates from my local church community. This filled in a couple of otherwise dull months.

 

[Sankari]

July and August were very tough months; money was tight and we were staring down the barrel of a heavily loaded credit card.

I am a small man with chronic arthritis who has spent most of his working life in airconditioned offices lifting nothing heavier than a cheap biro, but for the sake of our mortgage I bit the bullet and took a couple of labouring jobs to get us through the worst.

The first of these jobs was a three week stretch working as an offsider for a friend of mine who has a delivery contract with a large retailer. This involved 5:30am starts and a full day of lifting heavy furniture. It was hard yakka, but the pay was good and my mate was a fair boss.

The second was a gruelling 4 weeks working as a stock controller in a furniture warehouse. This involved 6-day weeks on a rotating shift. It was very hard yakka, and the pay was rubbish (minimum wage). I resigned a month later on the advice of my GP, who told me I was doing my arthritis no favours and could suffer permanent damage if I wasn't careful.

 

[Sankari]

It was around this time that I decided it might be a good idea to go back to university and get a degree. I had left uni in 1999 after getting a job with Australia Post, bought a house the following year, and never looked back. But I'd always regretted not completing my studies.

In September I applied to a local university college, attended a brief interview, and received a formal letter of acceptance two days later. My first semester starts in February 2011 and I will be given credit for previous study, which should knock ~6 months off my coursework.

By a happy coincidence, I was offered a part time admin job less than two weeks ago; it's a temporary 3-month contract, finishing in February 2011 (just before uni starts). This has come as a very welcome relief, since it means we won't have to worry about money during Christmas and New Year.

Meanwhile, Mrs Evangelion is in the process of completing her teacher's registration, so she'll be able to work as soon as she's ready, and might even pick up some relief teaching in the next couple of years.

 

[Sankari]

Due to my extended periods of unemployment, we've occasionally struggled with the cost of living - but there are still a few roundabouts to offset the swings.

We are fortunate to have a low mortgage, and can usually cover it with our combined social security payments. Our council tax is much cheaper than it was in the UK, but our water costs a lot more. For hot water we have a heap pump (which runs on the off-peak tariff but can be switched to peak power when the weather is cold).

Our Australian house is nearly three times larger than our UK house, and keeping it cool is much cheaper than keeping it warm. We would have killed for double glazing and gas central heating this year! We installed brand new insulation a couple of weeks ago, which will make a huge difference to our power bills; the job was done by my mate with the insulation business who had hired me earlier this year. He gave us a rock bottom price well below the standard market rate, and my mother very generously paid for it.

Last summer we installed a 6-star energy rated reverse cycle air conditioner in our bedroom, which costs very little to run. I think we would have died without it, and it will definitely save our lives again this summer.

We buy our groceries online because it's quick, convenient, saves us running around a crowded shopping centre, and prevents impulse buying. Occasionally we get some freebies in our delivery, and sometimes we receive non-freebie items we didn't order (the drivers always tell us to keep them, on the grounds that "If it's in your box, it belongs to you"). This is always a bonus.

 

[Sankari]

A couple of months ago, my mother and her husband came round to our place and spent the afternoon creating a vegetable garden to help us become more self-sufficient:

The garden has sprouted tremendously since those photos were taken, and now looks very different. We grow spinach, carrots, parsley, spring onions, beans, peas, tomatoes, pumpkin, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I usually forget about until it ends up on my plate. We also have a grapevine at the rear of our garden, which produces luscious dark grapes during summer.

Another practical garden project was the resurrection of the compost patch in the far corner of our property:

 

[Sankari]

Our next big job was renovating the nursery. This is what it looked like when we had just started removing the old wallpaper:

(The lady hamming it up for the camera is my mother).

This is how the nursery looks now:

The green DIY cupboards are left over from a previous owner; they're not fancy, but they are convenient and not worth replacing while our two kids are still very young.

 

[Sankari]

No update thread would be complete without Numpty Bub! She's about 20 months old now. At some point last year I started calling her "Pup", so that's her new nickname these days.

Here she is in a dress that Mrs Evangelion made for her recently:

 

[Sankari]

The hardest part about moving overseas is leaving your family and friends behind and arriving in a new place where you have to start all over again.

Our advantage is that I am Australian, so we had a ready-made support network waiting for us before we even left Heathrow. Adelaide was a "second home" for me even when I lived in Western Australia; I have lots of friends and extended family here, so it was no effort at all to pick up where I had left off.

When we lived in the UK, we were ~2.5 hours away from Mrs Evangelion's parents (Devon <----> West Midlands) and only saw them occasionally (perhaps three times a year at most). But here in Adelaide we are only 20 minutes from my mother's house, and 15 minutes from local friends. Whenever we've needed help with anything, there's always been someone ready to lend a hand.

During our first few months my mother bought Mrs Evangelion a brand new sewing machine as a "welcome to Australia" present, and taught her how to use it. Mrs Evangelion learned quickly, and has now made (a) all the curtains for our lounge and her study, (b) two baby blankets, (c) several cushion covers, and (d) some dresses for Pup. Not bad for a woman who didn't know one end of a sewing machine from another before she left the UK!

Our friends and family have been very good to us. Some of the more practical gifts we've received this year have included a baby seat (for Pup) and a Moses basket (for Thomas, who arrived in November).

Earlier in the year we had to make a choice between paying off our credit card and buying a car; we chose to pay off our credit card. My mother has allowed us to keep her spare car on permanent loan until we can afford one of our own. This month we'll be installing a 1.52kW grid-connected solar power system, which will make a big difference to our electricity bills. My mother is paying for this as well.

Here's a few more photos of Pup wearing a dress which my mother made for her:

 

[Tefal]

No update thread would be complete without Numpty Bub! She's about 20 months old now. At some point last year I started calling her "Pup", so that's her new nickname these days.

Here she is in a dress that Mrs Evangelion made for her recently:

Out of context those pics wouldn't look out of place in an nspcc advert

 

[Sankari]

Here's a few more garden photos, taken earlier in the year by Mrs Evangelion before we had a veggie patch:

 

[Sankari]

I'll wrap up with a few photos of the house, taken a month or two ago when it was looking vaguely respectable because I'd just mowed the lawn. (The garage door is open, which is why you can see the back end of our car).

It's been an interesting year. We're looking forward to the next one.

 

[G-MAN2004]

Interesting read, and a nice place you have there. Wish I could make the move one day.

Good luck for the next year.

 

[regulus]

Very interesting read. Thanks for posting.

edit.

Upon a second look at the pics. Dude, how old is your mum? She looks not a day over 25. Unless ... you're 12, aren't ya?

 

[Nix]

Wow, a year already?

I've got a feeling your daughter is going to be very bright person Evangelion. Just look at the way she's eyeing your books!

 

[Sankari]

Thanks guys.

Upon a second look at the pics. Dude, how old is your mum? She looks not a day over 25. Unless ... you're 12, aren't ya?

My mother is 56 years old. She married at 19 (which was not uncommon in Australia during the 1970s) and had her first children at 21 (myself and my twin brother). She's taken good care of herself over the years, and probably looks a little younger than most women her age.

I am 37 years old; turning 38 in a couple of months. My wife is 35.

I've got a feeling your daughter is going to be very bright person Evangelion. Just look at the way she's eyeing your books!

Yep, she is a bright little button and no mistake. Her vocabulary is expanding at a ferocious speed, and she learns new things very, very quickly.

 

[regulus]

She looks amazing for a 56 year old.

 

[Sankari]

Yeah, she's not too shabby. If I look that good at her age, I'll be well stoked!

 

[G-MAN2004]

I thought you had said 'mother' by mistake and it was actually your wife. She looks like she's in her 20s!

 

[Sankari]

I thought you had said 'mother' by mistake and it was actually your wife. She looks like she's in her 20s!

Yes, I know. She deserves to be in an episode of The X-Files.

We all look pretty young for our age in my family, but my mother really takes the ****.

 

[LeJosh]

Your baby girl is beautiful.

I wish you all the very best!