Thursday

Flights are booked, we go back to the UK on Monday morning. My heart is breaking, I drove home from my son's house in tears last night having left Charlie and Lewis both screaming, "Want to go with Nana!" as we pulled off the drive way.

It had been a fraught emotional evening, Dear Daughter in Law is dreadfully homesick and is getting more and more withdrawn, Dear Son had had a really bad day at work, hates his job, is trying to study for an exam which he has to take in the next 3 weeks, is sick of travelling each day, is pissed off that we are going home and the littlies are picking up on the tensions all round, hence why they wanted to come with Nana and Grandad last night.

I spoke to both of them this morning, Son is still as angry and pissed off as he was last night and is already wound up anticipating another rough day at work. Daughter in Law is tearful and quiet, the littlies are creating havoc in the back ground.

I feel like a traitor but unless something wonderful happens on the job front today or tomorrow, we will be on that dammed flight and my heart will be breaking all the way.

Harley

For the first couple of weeks after moving in here to our bedsit in the cow shed, we were constantly hearing motorbikes revving up late at night. We weren't too bothered by this, we are right next to a busy highway which never sleeps, so we just thought that it was traffic on the move.

But three weeks into our move here we spent the day at Kings Park, which is the most beautiful botanical park in Perth which over looks the Swan River and hidden away in the displays near to the 'wet' areas, I found a sign telling us about Perth's Motorbike Frogs (I am being serious, this isn't an early April Fools Day Joke', so when we got home I googled them and found..

Motorbike Frog

Litoria moorei is a frog well known in Southwest Australia, its notoriety deriving from the call suggestive of a motorbike revving up through its gears which gives it it's common name, the Motorbike Frog. Wikipedia

Now we know what we are listening to we look out for Harley as he become known, but have yet see him.

The past couple of nights he has been joined by Suzuki and Triumph  -  and the evenings are getting noisier !

City of Lights

Yesterday was Australia Day and we spent the evening watching the beautiful fire works display over Perth City.

I love fireworks at the best of times and it was great to be able to step out of how were feeling for a short while and watch the brilliant colours crash over the dark sky. The banks of the River Swan were teaming with good humoured folks enjoying their day, there were picnics and kiddies playing everywhere and even as the evening fell, people were walking, cycling and just sitting waiting for the explosion of colours.

I don't think any body could have been disappointed with the display, Perth City Council certainly put on a good show. Getting out of the City afterwards was another matter.......   :-) but I wont go into that....

Today has been another day of ups and downs. Hubby has had enough and wants to go home now, this minute..I want to wait until next weekend to see if there are any replies to any of the job vacancies that I have applied for and we are not agreeing on anything today. Its one of those days when you get up grumpy (him) and nothing, not anything is right with the world. Everything I say is wrong and I understand, really I do, but I am going through my own personal headaches right now and I cant deal with everything that he is feeling, its all too much to handle at one time. So right now he is sitting in bed watching a DVD and I am job hunting back home on the computer. Peace is restored, but it has been a fraught day and I am tired of thinking right now, tired of trying to work out what is the best thing for us to do.

I really don't know what to do and I keep hoping a bolt from the blue will hit me and point me in the right direction.

No Progress..

Its looking very likely that in the next two weeks we will be returning to the UK. Things are getting worse here  - Jim is about to have his wife charged with fraud and embezzlement and we are getting caught up in the hatred from both sides. I am having difficulty in finding a job that will take over my visa and I am being left with few alternatives. My heart feels like lead and tears are never far away. I have no home or job here and the same back in the UK. What we thought would turn out to be a new start for us is turning badly sour and I don't know which way to turn next.

Onwards and upwards I guess.....

Thursday

The decision has been made to close the company as it is trading insolvently.

Tonight all the lads (10 of them) will be told they are out of work. 4 of them were expecting to be sent to Malaysia the week after next, to work on a 'big project' which hasn't materialised (Jim stringing them along, hoping that one of his dreams without substance, would come true)

Today is a very difficult day and I can't wait to go home to bed.

Have applied for 5 jobs this week, but not heard anything yet - too early.

Have fingers, legs and anything else that I can cross, crossed.

Oh and one last piece of news, insects out here, all types, sizes and species, seem to think all their birthday lunches have come at once. I have bites everywhere, some of them are now sandwich plate sized.

They are hot, itchy and driving me mad and I am living on antihistamine's.

I so hope things start to get better.............xx

What to do ???

The past few weeks have flown past. There has been a lot to get to grips with - new shops, new living accommodation, new places to visit, new ways of life. Oh and the temperature !!! over Xmas, where we are in the Perth Suburbs, the temp reached 43 degrees !!!! Boy is that hot, especially for a large, bald Scotsman, who loves the cold and the rain at the best of times! He looked like a large boiled beetroot for several days as his body struggled to acclimatise - and getting very little sleep at night due to high temperatures too and little air cooling where we are living (large concrete block ex stable where the walls retain the heat) did not make for good tempers for several days.

Now things have gotten slightly worse. The company we both came out to work for, is going bust and has maybe only a couple of weeks left before they go bankrupt. Hubby has already been laid off and not been paid for 8 days that he worked, me I am still here, but have no idea if I will get paid this week either.

This affects out ability to stay in Australia in several major ways. I am the main Visa holder, which means that I have to stay employed for us to stay here. I can move to another company, IF they are prepared to take over my visa sponsorship.Hubby can work for who ever he likes, doing what he he might choose to do, me I have to find a job WITHIN the field that my visa is issued for (Quality and Environmental Management) So far I have applied for 3 positions and heard nothing back as yet.

Further complications are, the company we are working for is my husband's brothers and they are fast falling out. We are also living in his ex stable block so if we fall out, we also have no where to live. The whole situation is becoming untenable and we believe that my brother in law is seriously mentally ill - so does the rest of his family, wife, sons etc. Oh and my sister in law has just been charged with fraudulently altering company documentation........its getting worse by the day to be truthful.

So, at this point I don't know what is going to happen. I am trying to keep positive, but its hard. I am coming into work to see a man who quite honestly is the WORST business man I have EVER come across, who has made MILLIONS and I do mean  MILLIONS, but has squandered it all away, who is refusing to deal with anything, but is talking openly to me about starting a new business in February, whilst not dealing with any of the current problems and is seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is penniless. The only way that this company has made any money has been through the hard hard work of his previous management team, but Jim thinks he did it all on his own and there is no body cleverer than him.

So, we are at a real predicament point. I think if I get paid this week, we will be lucky. There don't seem to be that many jobs advertised for my skills, if we walk out etc we have no where to live....but if we stay, we may not have any money either.

We, my son, daughter in law and hubby had a long long heart to heart last night and have decided that we give it a couple of weeks job hunting here and may have to move in with them if necessary (which really I know none of us wants, as they don't have a big house) and then we may have to make the decision to go back to the UK. To no jobs and no home.

I feel dammed if I do and dammed if I don't, this morning.

Oh, and Jim is up most nights, talking to God and telling him what he is doing wrong as he (Jim) knows better than God how things should be run..............

November the 10th 2012

What a beautiful birthday ! We went into Perth City Centre as arranged with my son and found the coffee bar that he had suggested that we meet at. Hubby ordered the teas and we sat and watched the world go by for a while, then just after my Son had phoned us to say where they were, my son and daughter in law came around the corner with the double pushchair, the two littlies asleep in the sushine.

Us grown ups hugged and hugged and talked non stop for about ten minutes and then Charlie woke up. He blinked himself awake and stared at me for what seemed ages, then he finally smiled a huge smile of recognition, was released from his pushchair straps and climbed straight on to my lap, his head buried in my neck. 'I want to go nana's house' was all he said as he snuggled there. We hugged and rocked, me and this little man, while we all talked, waiting for Lewis to wake too (he HATES being woken, so its always advisable to leave him to wake up by him self if possible :-)

A few minutes later, he woke - loudly as always ! He didnt need any time to recognise us...'DWANDWAD!!!!' (he can't say Grandad) he shouted - he only has two volumes, loud and louder that little man! Then he was released from the pushchair, also climbed on my lap jostling for space with Charlie, and sat, totally ignoring me, playing with his Grandad lol

We went for a lovely birthday lunch in Northbridge and sat catching up on the events, both side of the Indian Ocean for the previous three weeks. Son and Daughter in Law are staying in a holiday let for the first three months while they look for a longer term let and they had settled in well. They like us, had already been to Perth several times to visit relatives, so it wasn't as if they had arrived somewhere they didn't already know a little bit about. My son had started his new job and was enjoying it, which was good and we were due to start work two days later, on the Monday.

David my son bought me flowers and a gift voucher and I had a lovely card from him and Sonia and a separate one form Charlie and Lewis.

'To Nana, all our love on your first birthday in Oz,' it said, 'Love from Charlie, Lewis and ?'

?

I looked up from the card to two smiling people.....

Grand baby number three is due in July...............now we will have our hands full !!!!!!!