Home...where to start?

Well, we've been in Tassie for two weeks now. I'm not really sure where to start this post! It feels like so much and yet so little has happened in that time.

The exhausting hours spent in LAX seem like years ago!

Travelling with a child means travelling with lots of stuff! The stroller is super useful for hauling it all around though. And for those of you who asked, we got the stroller back the same night we arrived! Go Qantas :D

It has taken Marty a full two weeks to recover from the jet lag, move, new foods etc and I'm still not entirely convinced that he's fully settled, but he is doing really well. Not so good at the whole sleep caper yet but then again, he never was! He's crawling like a mad thing, pulling himself up on anything he can find, and actually crawling into anything he can get his paws around, like suitcases, or the fire place! All this activity of course results in bonked heads but he's tough. He's also loving the garden and hooning round under the clothes line - a unique Australian experience! I'll have to remember to take the camera out there next time. He's met Purry our cat and they seem to get on pretty well. Purry has even let Marty pull his fur, tail and ears without complaint and he still hangs around! It has been wonderful to have him back.

I spent the first day in Tassie (a Saturday) sitting in front of a computer finishing off a grant that was due the next day. Not at all fun with the ground going up and down under my feet - at least that's what it felt like! The rest of the week was spent talking to banks, medicare, looking for somewhere to live and chilling out with the Roo getting him settled. We still haven't really caught up with many people, and those we have seen have been flying visits. We'll get there though. For the first week we were all in bed by 7pm at the latest! Which of course meant Roo was ready to roll at 6am.

I started work on Monday and have been there for a week. I'll write a separate post about that later. Short story: all is going well. The new building it pretty awesome although going from my lovely office in Texas to a cubicle sucks, no matter how nice the cubicle may be.

I can't say too much about how it feels to be back in Tassie yet because we're taking it pretty slowly but it sure is beautiful here! It isn't like I forgot how stunning this place is but it still takes my breath away whenever I look out the window. We are staying with Jo's folks until we work out where we're going to live (rent or buy? argh!) and the view from their place across the mouth of the Derwent river is just sublime!

The view from the front doorstep

Same view, stunningly different evening!

A very foggy day and some good old Aussie telegraph wires

Moving here is totally different to visiting... Usually we try to pack all our favourite activities, people and food into a week or two. Now that we know we don't have that kind of time limit we're letting ourselves take it really slow. We're working on finding our feet, getting into the rhythm of work, beginning to socialise and slowly working out a longer term plan. We've been pretty stressed about the whole house thing but I think we just need to relax a bit more and really enjoy Tasmania! We both have phones now so if you want the numbers please email me (jac dot wabbit @ gmail dot com) - we'd love to hear from you!