Amelia's 1st Birthday, a surprise visit and other things!

Dear Family and Friends,

We just celebrated Amelia's first birthday which as it turned out was a pretty amazing event. Mum and Dad had flown over secretly from England to be with us which was fantastic.

Not one of us knew, Dad had booked everything and not even told mum until 2 days before they were due to fly.

We had a great day. Amelia wore a special dress from my cousin Lisa and was showered with presents, the lucky little girl. The weather was perfect and I made a cake which came out extremely well.

The last couple of weeks since have of course been very busy with mum and dad here, working and christmas coming up so I am fitting in this blog very quickly!! Hence I won't write much now, but post these photos of the last couple of weeks.

With much love to you all and a very happy christmas!!

Caroline, Iain and Amelia xxxx

Amelia on her birthday with her cake

Amelia with a birthday present - her wooden trolley
On the see saw

enjoying the slide

At Symphony in the Serengeti

News from the hills

Enjoying a relaxing lie down with mum

Hi,

It's been a very busy couple of months here. I have started my new job at Lifeplan which is going well. The company is very family friendly so I can leave at a good time and we can be in plenty of time to collect Amelia from childcare each evening. It has taken me a little bit of time to settle in as I landed there with no department, all the marketing people had left and the job had been restructured with different priorities so it's taken a little bit of time to get to grips with who does what, where and how!! I have been recruiting my team and I have been very lucky to have Alison Brown working with me who I worked with at SGIC. I have been to Sydney to visit the staff there and am off to Melbourne in November to do the same. The Funds Management industry is quite complicated so there's lots to learn but I am enjoying it and that's main thing.

Amelia has started crawling which is very exciting and now she's getting about very quickly. She's very keen to walk and this week has started doing a yoga movement we would know as downward dog, we assume this is one of the progressions to getting up!! She is getting quite independent now and wants to do things herself including a messy exercise where she grabs the spoon with such force and won't let go - she wants desperately to feed herself but doesn't yet understand the idea of keeping the food on the spoon. Consequently our kitchen floor gets pretty messy!

Little Aussie munching Vegemite toast

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Alison from the UK was over here visiting. Ali and her friend Peter spent a few weeks in Australia and their first stop was with us. We had the best time with them and were very sorry to see them go.

We took them to wineries, down the Fleurieu Peninsula, had a BBQ so they could meet our friends, had fish and chips at a shack on a beach, I took Alison to my yoga class and we also spent a day in the city with lunch at Henley Beach. This was taken at Nepenthe Winery in the Adelaide Hills - taken by our visitor Alison - what a wonderful day we had.

Visits are never long enough. Although the last day with them was a disaster as I came down with gastro and had to go to my bed. I was supposed to be in Melbourne that weekend but postphoned it to November. Iain was away in Brisbane so Zoe, Pen and Alex all rallied round and looked after Amelia while I was ill.

This weekend Lifeplan are having their Christmas show at the zoo so all kiddies are welcome - we are taking Amelia - I think it will be a lovely day. The first of the Christmas celebrations. Iain has a work Christmas event - we are going to the adult one for him so it will the 2 of us joining his colleagues for a dinner. We have Melbourne Cup coming up next week so there's lots going on that afternoon at my work, sweeps, raffles, food and wine and of course the horse race which all the Aussies stop what they're doing and watch - I used to find it bizarre that a horse race stopped a nation for half a day but now I just enjoy it!!

Here's Amelia in her new dress sent by my parents.

We had a very exciting experience last night, there was a scratching at the door and when Iain went to investigate there was a koala sitting on the front porch. We're not sure what he wanted - I thought a cup of tea - but soon after he waddled off and went up the nearest tree!!

We got a photo of him once he was safely up the tree.

Here's Amelia and Dad on a walk this weekend

Anyway, that's it for now - here are some more photos - mostly of Amelia as usual!! Will get some of our visitors posted soon I hope. Amelia is 11 months old now and we have a first birthday celebration planned for her in Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens on Nov 17th.

Lots of love to you all xxx

Enjoying a bath - we are being very water concientious and bathing Amelia in her old baby bath so we don't use too much precious water every night.

Spring in Adelaide

Dear All,

Spring is coming, we have temperatures of 18 - 23 degrees this week and it's a welcome relief to see some sun after some very cold and foggy weather in the Hills. Finally we have blue skies, and daffodils, camellias and other spring flowers are out.

The last few months have been very busy for us. Hence the reason there's not been a post for about 2 months!

In June I started the interview process with Lifeplan Funds Management for their Group Marketing Manager. It was an intensive process and I was offered the position a few weeks ago. I start with them on September 3rd so I am currently having a couple of weeks off as I finished work at the Adelaide City Council last Friday. I'm very excited as it's a great job with a family friendly company and the people seem fantastic.

James is now here and it's been lovely having him just around the corner. We see him and Zoe and the kids quite a lot and they have been great having Amelia now and again when we have needed babysitting.

We started a stock market trading course last month with a private company called HomeTrader. It's very enjoyable and of course the idea is that is will also be profitable for us. Most of the tutors are no longer working and make their income through it so although we have a fair way to go until we could get to that stage, it's certainly possible one day. Although I think I would miss the social interaction and the enjoyment I get from my work. Some modules have been trickier than others. In my 2 weeks off I am going to modules during the day and Iain is doing them in the evening so we don't have to find babysitters every time we go. Up until now we have been doing them together in the evenings.

My birthday was in July and in the usual fashion we celebrated for weeks! Iain took me to see Cirque De Soleil - they were here in Adelaide in July and that was wonderful. We had a trip to Melbourne and last weekend had a long weekend in Sydney and caught up with Dave, Stuart, Brandon and their girlfriends/wives/kids.

The weather was fantastic and we had a lovely time pottering around going to markets and eating fish and chips by the beach.

On Monday I took Amelia to watch our friend Pen from Scotland take the Australian Citizenship oath at the local council offices. I gave her the words to the Australian National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair, but she was more interested in eating the words!! It also happened that Susie from my yoga class was taking her oath that evening as well, she is from South Africa so I actually was there to witness 2 people I know! Pen is having an afternoon tea this Saturday to celebrate her new Aussieness and also her birthday so we are looking forward to that.

We are off to dinner on Saturday night with my hairdresser Anita and her husband which should be nice and then Sunday, Pen and I have a stall at Stirling market where she is selling her hand knitted beanies and tea cosies and I will be selling cards. Of course there's no money to be made for me from cards but they are my creative outlet and I enjoy doing them. The stall is a one off, just wanted to do it once and have the day at the market in the nice weather and have friends come and visit and buy a card, drink organic coffee from the organic market cafe and gossip with the other local stallholders.

With lots of love to you all - write soon with your news! Photos from the last few months below

Caroline, Iain and Amelia xxx

Winter is here

Dear family and friends,

We have had a very busy but enjoyable month. We have celebrated our first wedding anniversary on the 13th May. Thank you for all your cards and wishes. I can't believe it's been a year since we got married. Time has flown. Of course we've had the beautiful Amelia in that time so lives have been hectic.

We've also celebrated Iain's birthday on 21 May and he really enjoyed his first birthday with his daughter. I had a birthday helium balloon in the house and it lasted for about 3 weeks. Amelia was entranced by it, she defnitely couldn't figure out what it was but she had fun trying.

She's sitting up now properly, very few wobbles. In the last month she has also taken to solid food, and we're just starting on food with little lumps.

I am still busy with work at the Adelaide City Council, I have some interesting projects on the go and Iain has completed his trek around the country doing his business planning. It's the end of the financial year here in Australia at the end of June so now he has to present his plans and budget to the board and get their approval. This weekend therefore he will be busy with his preparation for that.

My friend Nat (bridesmaid) gave birth a few weeks ago to Thomas (Tommy) and he is very small, very squishy and very cute. I can't believe Amelia was the same size at one point!

So here are a few photos from the last month. It's cold and wet here now so we are usually to be found snuggling up at home with our new heating system.

Iain's birthday dinner.

My first meeting with Nat's new baby Tommy.

We went to see Hawthorn v Port Adelaide and Iain's team Hawthorn (the Mighty Hawks) won, he was mighty pleased.

Autumn in the Hills

Dear Family and Friends,

For the past week or so it rained almost non stop in the Hills. While we would normally groan about this, it's been so long since we had good rain that we are very pleased. The garden has been well watered and hopefully some of our plants will spring back to life. We have had such tough water restrictions that keeping some of the plants alive has been a challenge.

Autumn has arrived and living up here means that we can really see the seasons change. The trees are starting to turn and display beautiful reds, golds and yellows. Iain and I had a fun day a few weeks ago pickling some quince and some onions. So many people grow so many things in their gardens here. Zoe has a walnut tree and I could take a whole page listing what you can buy on the roadside, apples, quinces, onions, chestnuts, to name just a few.

The most exciting news of the last few weeks has been James's marriage proposal to girlfriend Zoe who we are very fond of. James is leaving us tomorrow after 3 months to head back to the UK to sort out settlement on his flat and also apply for the required visas he needs to be able to come back to stay for a 12 month period. He is also looking at the options he has for setting up over here doing the foreign currency exchange work which would mean getting sponsored by a company so it's a bit complicated.

Over the last month or so we have said adieu to my friend Charleen who has moved to New York for an exciting job with Grey Worldwide advertising and also Chelsey who has moved to London. But we have welcomed back to the country Jane and Jason who have been living in London and are now in Melbourne.

We are hoping to get across to Melbourne in the not too distant future to see Katina's new place and catch up with friends. Iain is busy for the next few months flying to see colleagues in Perth, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne to start the new financial year business planning. So we'll have to figure out some dates.

A friend and I have started up a new working women's dinner group once a month to catch up with ex colleagues and meet new people. We held our first one on Tuesday evening and it was a lot of fun. I managed to get gravy all over my white top so Iain was very amused when I got home. I'm worse than Amelia!

Amelia has been growing and is now into 6-9 month clothes. Mainly because of her length. I think she will be quite tall.

She has settled into childcare 2 days a week while I'm at work and she seems to be very happy there. We have been impressed with the quality of care that she receives.

Amelia and I have both been touched by the cold bug and have been feeling very snotty and dry so hopefully that will disappear soon.

This May we are looking forward to meeting Nat's baby who is due on the 20th, our wedding anniversary on May 13th (yes its been a year already!), my first mother's day also on the 13th and Iain's birthday on the 21st. So lots to celebrate.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks.

James with Amelia (ours) Amelia (Zoe's) and Mitchell

Looking happy after getting home from childcare

Local trees

James and Zoe

Iain and Amelia having a chat

Easter 2007

Hi all,

Lots to tell since my last posting. I have returned to work 2 days a week at the Adelaide City Council which is great for the brain drain. I have Amelia on a waiting list down at a childcare in Aldgate but in the meantime, my retired friend Raice is looking after Amelia on a Friday and I work from home on a Tuesday.

Iain has continued travelling around the different states meeting his new colleagues and catching up with friends. On Thursday night we went out for dinner with Iain's management team and I picked the place. As a work funded dinner I picked Chloe's which is a beautiful posh restaurant, we ended up drinking 1965 Argmanac which just about blew my head off, but was fabulous.

Over Easter we have friends staying from Perth. They have come to watch the Rugby at Adelaide Oval.

On Friday we took them to the Meadows Country Fair and then to Hahndorf for lunch and a meander. Then we were invited to go to meet James' girlfriend, Zoe's family at her house for drinks. The whole family were there so we met Zoe's mum Eloise, her brother Dion and his wife Bree and their kids Elliot and Adeline.

We are having a quiet Easter weekend, enjoying time at home with Amelia in the beautiful Autumn sunshine and then on Monday we will take our guests, Ruth and Eleanor to the Barossa, it's the Barossa Vintage Festival at the moment and there's lots going on.

Below are photos from the last couple of weeks and this weekend so far.

Iain with Amelia at the Meadows Country Fair

Iain with his stein, a 1 litre dunkel beer in the German town of Hahndorf. As the Good Friday licensing laws dictate, to have a beer a meal has to be consumed so a Bratwurst was also enjoyed.

My stein was smaller!! Family photo in HahndorfOur guests from Perth, Ruth and Eleanor outside the German Arms Hotel

James saying hi to Amelia