Bright Lights, Big City

A highlight of our stay so far was definitely last weekend in London with our old friends Rachel and Kieron. Dylan and Sam had a ball playing with their new friends Olivia (3) and Louis (1) in their gorgeous Clapham house, which had plenty of room for all of us.

The excitement in the boys’ eyes when we finally reached London and started seeing red buses, black cabs and underground signs, was overwhelming. I also enjoyed the familiarity of it all – we drove by many favourite haunts from our previous life, which made me realise just how much had changed for us since then.

We managed to catch a double decker bus (twice), a tube and a black cab during the weekend, which for Dylan was the equivalent of spotting the big five on safari. The boys got to see Trafalgar Square, where there are no longer any pigeons to feed, but Dylan climbed the lion statues. We also spotted Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye, and the Christmas shopping frenzy of Covent Garden. I was also allowed almost an hour of solo shopping, while Jason, Dylan and a sleeping Sam hung out in Starbucks. In that short time I managed to buy a LOT at Zara, plus new boots and some Christmas presents for Jason. I was a woman on a mission, barging my way through the crowds to get to my favourite stores as quickly as possible…

Clapham was a great base for our family – the kids enjoyed the playground in the common, and it was easy to catch a bus or tube, walk to the shops and delis. The weather was very mild and sunny (much warmer than the midlands!) and even the cherry blossoms were confusedly trying to flower. I was astounded by how much more expensive life in London was though – Derby has not really been much of an adjustment in terms of cost of living. After discussing housing and childcare and kids party costs with Rachel, and realizing that our takeaway Indian meal for 4 people cost over £50 ($125), I felt rather relieved we were not trying to maintain our standard of living in the capital.

We enjoyed Olivia's 3rd birthday party at a local creche, where more mulled wine and cava was drunk than fruit juice - always a good sign for a kids party! (yes, yes, the kids were drinking the juices only) We were also able to meet the divine Lily, just 2 weeks old, at Georgi and James’ flat on our way home. I fear we may have overwhelmed the new parents with our boisterous little boys, but I did enjoy a lovely newborn cuddle and we are looking forward to spending some more time with them all both here in the countryside and back in London.

As I type, it is already Christmas Day in Australia. I wish you all a wonderful, joyous day, and hope that at least it stops raining! We will be enjoying our Christmas Lunch in the conservatory, looking out at all the sheep, with the log fire crackling. Wish me luck with the turkey in the Aga – Jason bought me a booklet of Handy Aga Christmas Tips so we shall see how it goes!

Freezing Fog

We have discovered that the icy mist and frost engulfing our county has a name - "freezing fog". It is also responsible for the misery of tens of thousands of poms who were attmpting to leave the country for Christmas, as most flights have been cancelled. In Hulland, however, it is very pretty - almost like snow, and it makes the ground hard enough to walk on (rather than sink into mud).

Our little frosty cottage is pictured, as well as our living room view of cold sheep, for those of you keen to see where we are!

I am embracing my new Aga oven with a passion. It is amazing - and very simple. It is on constantly, day and night, which keeps the kitchen very cosy, and has two large hobs covered by heavy lids. Lift one for boiling, the other for simmering (so you transfer your pot from one to the other when you want to reduce the cooking heat). It has too ovens, one for hot roasting and grilling, the other for slow roasting. I am tempted to cook our Christmas turkey in it, although Jason is a little nervous about cooking times and resulting salmonella. I shall go online for advice!

So far we have been using it for most cooking with great results, even though we have a conventional electric oven. It is so easy when you don't have to wait for it to heat up! It also has a great rail for drying clothes on too...

I braved Derby's Westfield shopping centre this morning for a final Christmas shop, and stocked up on our Christmas Lunch essentials at M&S. It was very, very busy, and I was glad to get out of there, back to the calm tranquility of our country retreat.

Poor Dylan is slowly recovering from his tummy bug. he has been completely miserable and has slept most of the past 36 hours (which is extrenely unusual, as you know!). Now, of course, he is not tired, and is doing a giant jigsaw puzzle of Australia on the table with me, as we snuggle up by the Aga.

It is the definitive image of a winter evening in country England...

First Day

The car temperature gauge read -3.5 degrees as I drove Dylan to the doctors this morning. Jason had scraped the ice off the windscreen with his frequent flyers card – good to know it still comes in useful! It was such a pretty morning, as the sun illuminated the frost on the ground and the holly hedges.

Poor Dylan has been up half the night throwing up – the doctor diagnosed a nasty tummy bug which is spreading through all the schools at the moment, and it should clear within 24 hours. Not a good end to his first full day at school!

He was so excited yesterday when I dropped him off, knowing that an end-of-year Christmas party (with a surprise visit from Santa) would make it a very special first day. The teachers have all be wonderful, and the children have taken a special interest in “the new Dylan” as he is now known – as there is already a Dylan in his new class. He starts officially in Reception (yellow class, appropriately) next term, which is equivalent to our Kindy, 5 days a week, 9am-3.15pm.

He was very proud in his new school uniform – a red sweatshirt and white polo t-shirt. I still have to buy the grey trousers. I must admit I got a bit teary – quite a milestone for both of us!

We went to the school Christmas Carols the night before, and met a few of the teachers and families. One little girl, Lara, has apparently been counting down the days until “the new Dylan” started. It is a small, community school focused on this younger age group, so I hope it will be a good choice for Dylan.

Jason is off on another Ikea/Costco/Currys run – we still haven’t been unable to unpack anything as we have no drawers or storage. He was ecstatic with our Costco trip yesterday – a huge warehouse style store with just about everything (in bulk) you could ever need, including groceries. We bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner and a huge Brabantia bin, as well as alcohol, bulk drinks and nappies yesterday – we could barely fit it all in the car.

On our second day here, as I struggled to adapt to new road rules, roundabouts and traffic cones, I asked Jason what the round road sign with the black diagonal line on it meant. “I think it means you can go as fast as you want.” he said. It appears whenever you leave a built up area (which is usually 30mph) and as most cars around me seem to speed up to 70mph, I have been following their lead – except on the tiny single lane country roads in mist and fog, which really can be frightening. Yesterday Jason was reading our new road atlas, and found a section on speed limits. “Oh,” he said, “it means you can go 60mph maximum.”

Not as fast as you want, then!

Moving Day

We have 4 chairs, a table and a christmas tree set up at Yew Tree Cottage. As I type (9pm) Dylan and Jason are still attempting to put together Dylan's new bed. I have brought Sam back to our apartment to sleep, but I am sure I can hear Jason cursing Ikea and allen keys from here...

The Ikea delivery men finally turned up at 5pm, extremely unhappy as they had much trouble finding us in the dark (no surprise there) and getting their truck down our narrow lane. I had called the driver with directions, but he hadn't received the message, and was unable to contact us as we do not get mobile reception in our remote new home. So we feel very lucky to have any furniture at all, flat pack or not.

We will move all our other worldly goods into the cottage tomorrow, then set off for the bright lights of London, for a much anticipated weekend with our friends Rachel, Kieron, Olivia and Louis. We will be there for Olivia's 3rd birthday party, which I am sure Dylan will love, and Louis and Sam should enjoy each others company (and toys) as they are the same age.

Dylan, Sam and I found our real Christmas tree in the historic mill town of Belper today, along with a gorgeous hadnmade wreath for the door (holly, pine cones and jingle bells). It is already looking quite festive in our new home, and I know we will be very cosy there.

Although it has been beautifully renovated, all the quirks are now coming to light - the aga is not yet lit, and we have no idea how to do this, but it apparently heats the hot water for the kitchen and ensuite, so until we work it out we will be boiling kettles. An aga is a huge old stove/oven, which you leave on all the time (it is oil operated so very fuel efficient) and it provides heating for the home, as well as being a place to cook. I was not planning on using it really, as there is a modern oven and central heating, but it seems we will need it after all. I wonder what you do in the summer months to heat the water?

I have found a wondeful school for Dylan, Ashbourne Hilltop Infants School. It is a small community based school, only taking 3-7 year olds, and has an excellent reputation. The teachers were so welcoming, and Dylan got straight into the activities as soon as we started looking around. He joined his classmates for morning tea and playground recess (on with the coats again...) and didn't want to leave! He will start next week, just for an afternoon each day until school breaks up on Wednesday, then it will be 5 days a week from January 4th... he needs a uniform, so it is all very grown up.

One of the boys (Sam) who has already befriended him used to live in Australia too, and apparently there are a few other families from abroad - Canada and Germany - so I am sure we will find some "ex-pats" to hang around with.

I have also found a good nursery for Sam, just Thursday and Friday mornings to start with, beginning in January. No waiting list - how refreshing!

I will be off-line for a while from tomorrow, as broadband will take up to 5 days to connect in our new home... so don't worry if you don't hear from me, but please do keep emailing, I love to hear from you.

TreeChange

We have found a home… a gorgeous country cottage in the tiny village of Hulland, about a 20 minute drive from Derby. I got lost trying to find it in the darkness of twilight, but I am glad I persevered down the single hedge lined lane again. Four bedrooms, a perfect new kitchen (with an aga, which I may even attempt to cook on), a large living room and conservatory, all with views over the surrounding muddy fields, sheep and horses.

I wonder how we will cope with the isolation of this rural life – it certainly is different from Annandale. Although the village has a school, 2 pubs, and a general store, I don’t think we can walk to them (unless we find a cross country route, which certainly won’t be stroller friendly). But the historic market town of Ashbourne is less than 10 minutes drive away, with all the modern amenities we need, and I am sure Tesco will home deliver!

We went back yesterday, to see it in daylight, and met the farmer who lives next door and the lady who lives across the road. Apparently it hasn’t snowed at Christmas there in over 10 years, but when it did the road was cut off completely. Better get Tesco Direct to deliver extra food stores soon then.

Hopefully we will move in next week – a busy week, as we need to completely furnish it as well. Ikea, here we come! I now have an eBay UK account with a long watchlist of local furniture.

After our sticky beak at the cottage, we drove on another few miles to Carsington Water, a large lake with a few brave souls sailing in the bitter cold (although sunny, our dashboard informed us it was 5 degrees) There was a Christmas Festival there (pictured), and to Dylan’s delight, an indoor playground filled with children. He was straight into the fray, and by the time we dragged him out over two hours later, he was beaming with joy at the discovery that there actually kids his own age in Derby. I think he was starting to get bored with his family!

Once we are settled my next mission will be to help him make some new friends – although after seeing his confidence at the Zoom Soft Play Centre, I don’t think he’ll have much trouble.

We also bought a car this afternoon - driving through semi-galeforce winds on the M1 to a tiny garage near Leicester, which the owner opened up for us (on a Sunday) after Jason saw his ad for a VW Passat on an auto website. As we got back into our hire car after a windy test drive, Dylan said in his best ocker accent, "it's bloody cold, mum!"
We couldn't really argue with that...

Surviving Jet Lag...

Day 4 in Derby... it's 5.30am and the sun won't make an appearnce for another 2-3 hours. But the boys and I are up battling jetlag. I realise now that jetlag with small children is a completely different scenario from the hassle of waking up at 5am for a few days, that I used to go through BC (before children). Now it is a case of being prepared to play for a few hours between midnight and 3am, in the hope they will crash again and get onto something resembling a routine within a week or two.

Our first purchase was padded parkas for the boys, when I realised we were hopelessly unprepared wardrobe wise for this cold weather. Off to Next, and they look very smart in them, but we have a hard time convincing Dylan (who used to not want to wear shoes in Australia, let alone a jumper) to wear it each and every time we get out of the car, leave the house etc etc. And Sam, who has only just mastered the art of walking, now waddles around and topples over as his centre of gravity has shifted with the weight of the coat. He flounders on his back like a turtle, waiting for someone to pick him up, as he cannot roll over.

The weather is apparently quite mild for this time of year, and we have enjoyed sunny mornings. The rolling hills of the Derbyshire Dales, farms and old stone cottages are gorgeous, but it does seem to get chillier the further from the city of Derby and the higher we go. Our home search is alternating between suburban homes and remote villages, as we are still not sure which lifestyle to embrace. Most of the suburbs, even the best ones, are full of those ugly "new" developments (circa 1980) and have little appeal aesthetically, but of course all mod cons and facilities for the kids are nearby.

My approach is of course to go way over budget, and Jason has has to rein me in (pointing out the amount of clothes shopping I could do with the extra savings in rent).

The city centre of Derby (which we can walk to) is very pretty, all cobblestones and twinkling christmas lights. So far I have not got past the Disney store (for Dylan of course, but Sam also adores it and is showing his shopping skills in picking out christmas presents) and M&S (we are living on their ready meals).

I am sure I will feel more settled once we have found our home, and got over the worst of this jetlag, but I am dreaming of beaches and missing our friends. The boys are still excited and happy, but Dylan said wistfully yesterday "I wish Zac and Sarah and Hunter and Amelia and all our friends were here too."

Agreed!

Ready, set, go!

5 more sleeps until we fly to the UK and we still haven't started packing... yikes! Surely it can't be that hard... throw every warm thing we possess (not much survived the Philly purge) into some suitcases, add the toys Dylan can't live without, and pack everything else into some boxes for storage in Sam's bedroom. Lucky our lovely new tenants want the house furnished...

We have started saying some emotional goodbyes... even though it is only for 9 months (or so...) it is amazing the strong ties we have formed in just 4 years, especially through our friends with children. I will miss the sense of community locally, and I wonder how quickly I can re-create that in Derby.

I asked the family what they were looking forward to most when we arrive... Dylan's answer, unsurprisingly, was shopping at the Disney store in Derby, which he has been talking about non-stop since it was briefly mentioned. I suspect there will be tears when it is not available as soon as we step off the plane. Jason is looking forward to finding a home and car as quickly as possible. I just want to make it through the dreaded jet lag (which really means making it through Sam's jet lag... any tips on making a 16 month old sleep past 2pm on this kind of journey would be welcome...)

I am also looking forward to some recreational shopping... which will come as no surprise. It is a shame Dylan and I look for different things in a shop - not sure how I will keep him amused in Zara and Top Shop.

And Sam? he is blissfully unaware of the journey ahead, but I think after 24 hours on a plane he will be happy with a comfy cot, his bunny, and the knowledge that his mum, dad and brother "diddy" are still with him.

Better go start on that first box now...

Cheers,
Sara