V8s- meeting the drivers

The Thursday before the V8 races came to town, the drivers had a meet & greet afternoon. Eli didn't quite get the concept of asking the drivers to sign things- he knows their names, why do they need to write it?- he was VERY excited about going.

We weren't sure how the afternoon was going to be set up, all we knew- he HAD to meet Jamie Whincup (aka "Janie"). Eli made him a card, that said "Jamie Whincup you are my favourite", which he spent a week stamping, drawing and colouring. 

He wanted to make cards for the other drivers too, but he wanted to tell them what number on his list of favourites they were, but we discouraged it, I don't know how Garth Tander would respond to being told he's 6th favourite on the list! 

We were hopeful of him also meeting his other Top 3- 

Craig Lowndes, 

Mark Winterbottom 

and Will Davidson. 

As it happened, he got to meet them all, as well as have a photo in front of the safety car.

First Assembly

At Eli's first school assembly, he won an award for participation.

He was very proud of himself, although a bit embarrassed about having to 

stand up in front of the school to receive it.

First Day of School

Eli has started school!! OK- so we're a term in, but better late then never....

Over here, the first year of primary school is called pre-primary. His teachers this year are Miss Wheatley (teacher) on his left and Mrs M (aide), standing on his right. Both these ladies are lovely, and they have been instrumental in ensuring he loves school. After all, this was going to be Eli's first big test- walking into school without his best mates, Ben and Harry. While he has definitely missed them, he has settled in well and is thriving.

He has started making new friends, and is lucky to have a small cohort of boys and girls who are quite similar in his temperament. Two of his closest mates live within walking distance, and because of the strict school boundaries here, all his friends here will be close by.

So far, smooth sailing- he earnt a merit award at first assembly, and is eager to go every morning. He was stoked to start receiving homework- he came home from school on the very first day disappointed they hadn't taught him to read- and is forever writing, drawing and doing "his schoolwork", often tasks he makes up for himself. The class counts every day, and he often can be heard singing from 1-200 at the top of his lungs (while sitting on the toilet!). Thankfully, he has started to receive class readers, as he is DESPERATE to read, and is dead keen now he has started learning thing in a more structured way.

I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough, but so far, so good!

The Big Move

What started out as a fairly innocuous conversation ended up with a fairly major move for the Dares this month.


Mid-winter, after months of everyone being sick and not being able to leave the house after 4pm due to a chronic rib problem that does not play nicely with damp Canberran winters, I said to Trev "I think it's time to move somewhere warmer. I've done 18 Canberra winters, I just don't think I have another one in me". After a few minutes thought, Trev agreed.  Leaving behind a lot of precious people was a tough call, but the lunacy of house prices in Canberra helped make the decision an easier one.


So over the next few weeks, we discussed our wishlist- must be warmer, not Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Darwin, not too city but city enough to have a shopping centre, etc. We finally decided that NSW Central Coast would be ideal, but Trev would apply for jobs anywhere in the country and we'd let fate decide. First flaw- 1 job in NSW, many in WA. Could we move that far? Yes, we could. And we did. 


When the WA Mental Health Commission heard Trev was job hunting, they did their best to get us here, and here we are. After a lot of packing, purging, and tears, we entrusted a removalist to put our belongings on a train, hopped on flights and headed over. All the farewells require a seperate blog post (and I'll get there, I promise), but after 3 weeks here, our initial thoughts on WA :


People are NICE!! Disconcertingly so. When the Canberra removalists forgot to put our belongings on the train, Trev rang them- Canberra side put out at our inconvenience (!!), Perth side can't do enough to get us here and settled. I dropped one of Eli's toy cars in Woollies today, and the lady next to me apologised, even though I'm pretty sure it was not her fault unless she had been using some kind of Jedi mind trick that had gone array. And at the traffic lights, someone has to miss the green light twice for drivers behind to toot- in Canberra they would have been bludgeoned to death.


The 3 hour time difference to the East Coast has advantages- the cricket starts at 7am (with brekky, very civilised), and the lunch break is at 9.30, just in time to pop out for some groceries and be home for the afternoon. It finished early enough to scoot around, do some token cleaning and think about dinner before the evening's T20 game starts.


The 3 hour time difference to the East Coast has disadvantages- no matter how many times you tell people, it's really best to put the phone on silent and face down overnight, or else be woken at 4am for Christmas & birthday messages.


It's WARM! While Canberrans are still in hoodies (I'm told), Eli has gotten used to just wearing jocks around the house, and has mastered boogie boarding with surprising ease.

There's no Aldi or Costco, and shops can't give you enough plastic bags. Very hard to get used to coming from a place that banned plastic bags in November, but handy seeing as my green bags are still on that train yet to leave Canberra with our belongings on it. And while Canberra shops are multi-level, mostly the ones here are one level but spread over several acres. Apparently Waussies don't do stairs and escalators. 


So even though we are missing some bloody fantastic people, the nightly chats with Jacob during Vodaphone's free hour of calls mean I'm talking to him more each day than I was when we lived in the same house, and so far, the signs for the Dare Waussies are good.

Eli's 5th birthday

Eli turned 5 this week, it has gone so fast!

We had been wording Eli up that 5 year olds play with Lego, not Duplo, se we gave him a basic starter set, and he got some more off the Yeomanses, and the Coxes.

The only thing he had specifically asked for was a blue monster truck. I searched high & low....

Woo-hoo!!! Blue monster truck!!

Trev made him a chocolate cake, with Freddo's and M&Ms, and he had various friends pop in to sing him happy birthday and bring more presents.

So all in all, a good day was had by all. Next year is a party year, so we'd best start thinking now....

Jacob's 18th birthday

My baby is 18!

Celebrations were called for. We had an early dinner at Hog's Breath with Jen & Floyd, and the Cox boys.

Eli filled up on lemonade, so was bouncing, and as I'm doing OcSober I couldn't have a beer with Jacob, but Trev did.

Then at 8, more friends arrived for dinner & drinks.

It was quite a lovely evening, though very much thrown together at the last minute, as Jacob hadn't organised anything when I first started nagging him in August.

Thanks everyone for coming!

Jacob's school photos.

Jacob so really gets a blog devoted just to him- mainly because he's all grown up and rarely home these days :(

However, a few weeks ago he brought home his final school photo ever, so I have hunted up all the school photos I could find of his (a couple of years are missing, no doubt are in his room somewhere, and that's his private space, so I will ask him if he has them next time I see him).

So, from Preschool to Year 12, here is the collection of his school photos, and it proves no matter how handsome and photogenic you are (and he is lots of both), sometimes you just can't take a good school photo. Maybe it's to prepare you for the fact our licence photos are always bad!

Preschool 1998

Kindy 1999

Year 1, 2000 

Year 3 2002

Year 4 2003

Year 5 2004

Year 6 2005

Year 7 2006

Year 8 2007

Year 9 2008

Yr 11 2010 (this one's my favourite!!)

Yr 12 2011 (this is very closely my 2nd favourite)

Washing up

Winter on the golf course

It's cold!

We are due for our first winter sleet tomorrow

(we had an autumn sleet a few weeks back)

and it is seriously cold.

So, this is how Eli rugs up for the golf course at the moment.

Franklin Bear

Last weekend, Eli bought home his Preschool's class bear. He had to take care of him for the weekend, show Franklin the things he likes to do on weekends, then I had to write up a page, with photos, to put into Franklin's diary.

On Friday afternoon, they watched TV, baked Wombat a carrot cake, and had a bedtime story after dinner.

On Saturday morning they went to the golf course, of course.
Eli showed Franklin how to practise putting.

Apparently, Saturday was Wombat's birthday (Eli had been telling us all week before hand).

So all Eli's soft toys had a birthday party for Wombat, and we all got to eat the carrot cake that Trev, Eli & Franklin had cooked on Friday night.

And on Sunday, Franklin came to AFL, which Eli has just started.

It was a bit sunny!