The new corporate life!

It's now been one week since I moved into the new business office, from the small room at home to a serviced office several miles away. Since I'm intending to employ someone soon, I had been looking at leasing options over the past month and there is plenty of available office space in the area, but felt that for the next year at least, a serviced office was the best option.

The serviced office contains about 12 rooms although only 8 or 9 are currently occupied with small businesses, including mine now, and the majority tend to be other 'Poms'. We all have our own space but also share communal areas, a reception and support staff, if needed, plus a number of meeting rooms. The room is already furnished and has phone and Internet in place, so it was very easy to just move a few things in last week and get going, although we were also in at the weekend rearranging the furniture after the first week!

Although the building is close to the main shopping mall for the area, there's plenty of parking space on the roof, however at the moment we're juggling the car use with the 2 cars between the 3 of us. There is a good bus service that I can use to get to the office from the end of our road, plus I will also be walking home in the evenings on some days as well, which is good exercise as it's uphill all the way! Cycling to and from the office may also become a regular option.

So it has all meant a change of routine for Sue and me, but we'll quickly adapt to and it and take advantage of the new location. It should also set me up to be able to grow the business further over the next year, with the aim of reaching the visa targets during the second half of next year.

A weekend in the Blue Mountains

Well, we’ve had a busy week and Clive’s still trying to catch up, so the blog-writing’s down to me again!

It was our 20th wedding anniversary on June 18th and to celebrate, Clive and I had decided to spend a night in the Blue Mountains. We thought the girls needed some time apart from us and decided one night would be enough. As luck would have it though, Clive was at a conference a few months ago and won first prize in a raffle which just happened to be...two nights in a 5 star Blue Mountains hotel! So everyone was happy!

Our prize could be taken any time, so we arranged to go for the weekend following our anniversary. The two youngest girls had been farmed out and Laura knew her life would have been made miserable should anything untoward happen to the house in our absence, so we were reasonably relaxed as we set off on the two hour drive west on Friday.

We reached Wentworth Falls at lunchtime, so had a quick picnic in the car (it was chilly and damp outside!) before setting off for our first bush walk of the weekend. Despite the cool temperatures we got warm and were soon walking with jumpers and coats around our waists. It was quite muddy underfoot, so we were glad we’d worn our walking boots and Clive’s got his first ‘outing’ since leaving Crowborough 21 months ago – luckily, they didn’t let him down! We only met one or two other walkers during the two hours and the thought of one of us breaking a leg on the uneven ground, with no phone signal and just a plaster in our backpack didn’t appeal too much! Thank goodness it didn’t happen!

We got back to the car around 4pm and changed our shoes before heading for the hotel about 2 kms further up the road, hoping they wouldn’t frown too much at our mud-splattered trousers. We needn’t have worried as they didn’t bat an eyelid! I expect they’re used to walkers and after all, one person’s money is as good as the next’s, however muddy they are!

We stayed at the Orient Express hotel, Lilianfels, which is set just behind the famous Three Sisters rock formation. The building which houses Darley's, the hotel’s ‘1 chef’s hat’ restaurant, was originally a family home, and the main hotel was built in the grounds later on. The hotel looks clean and modern from the outside, but has old-fashioned comfort inside, with wall-to-wall carpet, open fires, squashy sofas and chintzy wallpaper.

Our room couldn’t have been more comfortable, with beautiful crisp, white sheets on the bed and luxurious throws. The bathroom had marbled walls and lots of extra welcome touches like heated towel rails, a magnifying mirror (bit too magnifying for comfort!), top-quality bath salts, shampoos etc and fluffy bath robes and slippers. According to Patrick who showed us to our room, guests are so relaxed at Lilianfels that it’s not uncommon for them to wander around in these robes and even fall asleep in the lounge! We decided we’d try not to spoil the comfort of the other guests by doing that!

The weekend was really relaxing – we ate in a lovely local Swiss restaurant that night (cheese fondue and chocolate puds – yummy!) and in the hotel’s expensive restaurant the second night, where the food was included in our prize but not the wine. We ordered the cheapest bottle on the wine list, but it was still five times as much as we’d normally spend! Our meal was delicious – we both had fish dishes, complete with added extras we’d never tasted before, such as shredded cuttlefish (Clive) and edible flowers (me).

To keep the weight under control, we spent several hours on Saturday and Sunday walking and were as lucky as we could have been with the weather. Although it was cool (around 10 c), the skies were a cloudless blue and the sun shone, so the scenery was fantastic! We explored paths around Govett’s Leap and Evan’s Lookout on the Saturday and on the Sunday walked the long way around the Three Sisters, which involved climbing down 900 steep steps to a path about half-way down into the valley, walking along this for an hour and a half and then climbing up again next to Katoomba Falls.

Our legs didn’t know what had hit them, but we didn’t feel too unfit and it meant we could eat and drink what we liked without feeling guilty! Lunch breaks weren’t a problem as we didn’t need them – after the wonderful breakfast at the hotel, we only needed water until dinner and didn’t even have to contemplate stealing breakfast rolls!

It was a shame to leave the mountains on Sunday afternoon. We’d had a wonderful few days there, enjoying feeling a million miles away from Sydney and routine. The air was fresh and clear and the tourist numbers were as low as they ever get. Bush walking in the summer probably involves a battle to keep cool and hydrated and avoid the crowds – something we didn’t have any problem with!

So it was back to Allambie for us. Unfortunately, the return journey took an hour longer than it should have done (due to excess traffic – the celebration of the winter solstice had brought lots of pagans to Katoomba, but luckily they weren’t staying in our hotel!), but we got home safely at around 5pm. It was lovely to see the girls again although we hadn’t missed them and they had missed us even less!

There are some photos from the weekend here.

Stuck in Sydney

Caroline went to a concert with some friends on Sunday night, at the University of NSW south of the city centre, so I had agreed to pick them up after the show. In the end, Sue came along as well and we left home at 10.30pm to have a traffic-free drive across the bridge and through the city to the venue.

We found the place and a parking area just in time as the crowd was starting to come out and only had to sit there for about 10 minutes before Caroline and 2 friends turned up (after some mobile location chat!). However, starting the car to drive home, the thing was completely dead all of a sudden - a similar experience to when we came back from the UK, although it eventually started on that occasion.

This time around it seemed like a job for the NRMA - the equivalent to the AA / RAC - and fortunately we had taken out membership for the Honda. Since we were on the University compound they asked if we could find one of the pre-defined 'meeting points' they have, but we only had a rough idea of which 'gate' we had entered , plus as it was cold(ish) and raining, the driver said he would try to find us.

Fortunately, with some further discussion by phone, the serviceman managed to find our car and in the event we were only waiting about 15 minutes. The 3 teenagers in the back were not so concerned (and still reliving the show with ringing ears), but we had thought we could be there until the early hours of the morning. It turned out to just be a flat battery, which was surprising as we had just driven across the city for 30 mins and hadn't been sitting for long, nor with the lights on.

It was quickly charged up and so we managed to get home not much later than expected after that minor drama and felt relieved that we had taken out the membership, otherwise we would have been quite stuck on a Sunday night. One option we might have considered would have been to get Laura to drive the other car to where we were, but that would have been a major feat of mobile phone directions! We'll also get a new battery today....

Queen's Birthday Long Weekend

We've just had a long weekend as Monday is an official holiday to mark the Queen's Birthday and it turned out much like a traditional UK 'bank' holiday - wet! The reason for the day off is one reminder of the history of the country and the Commonwealth link, but there are still underlying currents within Australia to become a republic. The new Labour PM, Kevin Rudd, is a Republican but at a major conference several months ago he indicated that although another referendum is on the list of things to do, it's not a priority.

The last referendum about Australia becoming a republic was held in 1999 and 55% of people voted 'no'. Although there are no doubt strong views, particularly from the older generations and the rural population to keep the Monarch as Head of State, the increasingly cosmopolitan population and the wish to become a more 'independent' country would probably sway the vote the other way next time, or at least be very close. There is also supposedly more loyalty to the Queen than there might be to Charles when he becomes king.

The weekend was a quiet one for us, although Saturday was a lovely sunny day after a week of cloud and rain and I managed to get out for a reasonably long bike ride. After a very wet April, May was supposed to be driest in Sydney on record, whereas June is also expected to be a wet one. Rebecca's soccer team had a 'bye' on Sunday, but all matches were postponed anyway due to the recent rain.

Migrating whales

The annual whale migration season has just started again, with sightings reported in the press and whale cruises heading out to sea for the next few months. On Friday there was a news report of 4 humpback whales entering the harbour and 'playing' near Manly Wharf for about an hour before heading back to sea - an unexpected bonus for ferry passengers.

On Saturday afternoon Sue and I decided to walk up to Long Reef, one of the coastal headlands near to us, in the vague hope that we might see something. When we reached the point there was a small crowd gathered and, looking down the coast, we could see 2 'pods' of whales working their way towards us with the tell-tale splashes and breathing spray.

It was similar to being on an African safari, with a number of boats close to each group of whales and these were joined for some time by a Channel 7 news helicopter. As we walked down to the beach and up to the cliff top again we had a good view of their slow progress north and could also see another group of whales heading our way in the distance - this is now likely to be a regular daily event over the winter.