Oh what an year it was!!! We saw ups and downs, struggled and celebrated, our spirits toppled and took flight. Woah, that was a lot to happen in a single year. But like the adage goes, “All is well that ends well”. While we bid goodbye to 2014 and welcome the new year 2015 with new hopes and aspirations, I would like to look back and highlight a few events that stood out to etch our memories with their stamps. Here goes:
1. I ran my first ever marathon (I didn’t run any after that unfortunately. I had registered for one here in Sydney but it got cancelled for some reason after waiting for 2 months. Gah!)
2. Mantam had their first ever graduation day. They graduated from Kindergarten while in India. (But they went back to Kindy after coming here :-P)
3. I entered a swimming pool for the first time in my life. Our apartment in Blore had a pool but dunno what took me so long to take a dive in. In the last few days of our stay, I decided that enough was enough and took the plunge, literally. With cute little kids for instructors, it was so much fun.
4. I have started being conscious about fitness than ever before. Have been walking and working out as much as possible. Abbas gifted me a fitness band during Christmas. Yay to that 🙂
5. I started a Whatsapp group of all classmates from school and that has been the high point of this year. We have so much fun in the group pulling each other’s legs, reminiscing old times, mocking teachers, discussing all the funny memories. I’m so thankful for the technology.
6. Mantam have developed a passion for reading which is one of the biggest sources of happiness for me. They are seen reading all that they can lay their eyes on. Their love for words also leads them to write, which is great too. They write fearlessly by sounding out words and creating spellings. I can point out so many mistakes but I really love to figure out the logic behind those innovative spellings.
7. I think we have bonded together as a family more than ever before. We went through highs and lows holding each other for moral support. We have learnt the value of money and how we can lead life with basic necessities. Life has it’s own ways of teaching us lessons. We must inculcate the habit of learning those teachings for our own good.
8. We bought a car here as Abbas had to travel 3 hours to and fro work and all the responsibilities fell on my shoulders. We miss our beloved Bulu to a great extent but buying one was a necessity as it would reduce Abbas’s travel time by half and he would also be able to easily pick them. Will write more about the car and the situation under which we bought it in another post (I need to generate some fodder to survive the marathon huh!)
9. Abbas learnt to wash vessels, clean the house and even braid Mantam’s hair. (Not counting the toilet training as it has got a lot of mention already in the blog)
10. Last but not the least, we have become zen like! As in, we are no more bothered about what people say or talk about us. We are too far away to even be worried. We are enjoying our lives to the fullest.
PS: I think NZ and Oz are among the first countries to step onto the new calender year. We witnessed the dazzling display of spectacular fireworks and drifting off to sleep now. Tomorrow is Abbas’s birtdhay and lot is expected to happen. That’s why I thought of writing a post before going to bed 🙂
Happy new year to all of you in advance. All the best to everyone taking part in the blogathon.
Thank you so much for responding via emails and comments. I thought I will publish a list of all the participating bloggers today itself. Just in case I have missed anyone, it is purely due to my inefficiency or oversight. Please let me know and I will update this post immediately.
Are you excited? I am having cold feet already thinking about it. But yes, like Lifi said, it is becoming a blog tradition and I didn’t have the heart to miss it for the love of blogging.
I tried to mentally prepare the family for the storm about to come and this is how they reacted:
Mantam: Mumma, blog marathon matlab? Will you blog while running?
Abbas: Blog marathon again???!!!! Well, rephrase it and say our one month of separation.
Anyway, three cheers to all of us enthusiastic bloggers who took the first step of signing up to the challenge. Let’s rock it people! Bring it on Jan 2015.
We’re soon nearing the end of this year and stepping onto 2015. RM, Maya and RS took the initiative to start the Blogathon in Jan. This year RM is busy with chotu R and Maya is going to be on vacation. RS has been away since the marathon but yay she is joining us this time too. I thought I would do the honours. But I am not as good as Maya in organizing the whole thing so beautifully. I’m just gonna provide a link to her post which has a whole lot of topics listed for those days when we would run out of topics. I have already contacted most of the bloggers who participated in this 2014 Blogathon. There might have been newcomers or those who had not participated ealier but would like to join this time. Please leave a comment here or drop me an email at kamathseema1@gmail.com. I will post the final list of bloggers in the last week of this month. Please feel free to reblog this or spread the word among your readers. The more bloggers join, the merrier.
Rules stand simple:
1. We will publish one post every day during the month of January 2015
2. We have free hand in terms of the topic and length of the post. We may want to refer to Maya’s cues from last year. She had really come up with interesting topics
3. Most of us might be in vacation during the first week. You might want to schedule a few posts or write a few drafts ahead so that they come handy on days you are occupied.
4. We are certainly going to need a few breathers here and there as it is not going to be easy to whip up a post every single day continuously for 31 consecutive days. You may want to publish some picture posts or pick up that tag you have been deferring for a long time.
5. Finally, it is a challenge. There are no hard and fast penalties for days that we are compelled to skip. Let’s just have fun along the way. But yes, I can assure you that finishing it successfully is very rewarding!
Hopefully the last! The beginning of July was pretty bleak. We were leaving no stones unturned to find any source of income. Abbas got a call one fine day and they seemed to be very keen to meet him. That was his first time going for a physical meeting, so he went formally dressed with so much gusto. When he finished the interview, he called me and began guffawing at the other end. I was clueless as to what to make of it. He said “Seemu, I got the job but you won’t believe if I tell you that this is going to be a 4 hour job” I was flabbergasted initially but later when he assured me that he was not joking, I too laughed it off. We had never imagined someone calling for a proper interview for a one time job of just 4 hours!! Abbas was asked to come the following week but he didn’t get back to them.
I had applied for apprenticeships in Baking, Early Childhood training, nursing, aged care and many other courses that I lost track of my applications. One day all of a sudden, I received a call when I was at the train station. The lady on the other end talked about me applying for some course and said that she wanted to discuss with me about it. Now due to the surrounding noise, I thought I heard she was speaking about the Baking course. I started speaking very passionately about how Baking was my life blab la bla. She quietly listened to me for almost 5 minutes. And once my rambling was over she politely asked me “It’s so good to know about your interest in baking but I’m puzzled why you applied for Early Childhood Training course then”. I was only thankful that I wasn’t facing the lady. I tried to make up for the blasphemy but then it was very evident to her. She still hung up on a polite note J
Second half of July brought about a couple of opportunities for me. I had a telephonic round with one company which got cleared and they scheduled a client interview on Monday the 29th. On Friday the 26th a guy from company R who had interviewed me back in May suddenly called me. They said they had a 3 week contract which would start from Monday and asked if I would be able to join. I couldn’t believe my ears and I asked him if he was sure about it. He said if I was ready to join, he would immediately send me the contract papers. I told him about the interview on Monday and asked if he can make Tuesday as the joining date. But he said that it would not look professional for him to tell the client to postpone the joining date and that if I could not join on Monday, then they had to look for other options. I told him that I would get back to him. Abbas and I thought about it and also sought S’s opinion. She advised that it would be foolishness to leave an offer in the hope that an interview might click. She said getting an entry is more important and it will be easier to gather momentum from then on. We blindly accepted the offer and I joined work on Monday. My contract got extended by two more weeks. Once it was over, the company R told me that they had received outstanding feedback from the client. So they were keen on taking for more projects. They were anticipating a 4 month contract where they were planning to propose my profile.
By then, my Project Manager at the client site had referred me to a friend of hers who worked for a competitor of company R. They took telephonic interview and offered me a 4 week contract. I called the HR at R and explained the situation. I told them that for me having a job is more vital so if they could assure me that they are going to take me for the upcoming project I can let go of the other offer but if they were still sceptical then I had to take up the offer. But since they were not in a position to assure me, we thought we must go with the 4wk offer. My first contract had ended on Thursday and I was on my way to sign the next contract on Friday morning. I got off the train and saw that the HR from R had left me a voice message saying he had something very urgent to tell me. I called back and he told that they had had a quick meeting with their General Manager and they had got approval to hire one resource. Since I was on their priority list anyway, they were ready to take me on their permanent payroll. I called Abbas and he told me to take a train back and go to the office of company R and finalize the deal before rejecting the other offer. I was on cloud Nine. It was a big achievement to get a permanent job here and I really wished to be associated with company R as they were one of the leaders in the field that I was working. I joined the company after a week’s gap.
In the meanwhile, Abbas also received a call back from the company D that had called him in May. He went through 4 rounds of interview and managed to grab a permanent job offer for himself too. We were hoping with all our might that he got that job as his profile had very less opportunities any way. I’m so proud of Abbas for he managed to impress the interviewers well enough for them to offer him a prominent role in the organisation. Given that it was the only opportunity on hand, we would have been screwed had he not made it! We were so relieved when both of us got permanent jobs and Abbas has been blaming me for all the success, happiness and achievement. It has been a bumpy ride but we made it to the other end of the tunnel. It wasn’t easy at all. This was undoubtedly the biggest challenge we faced but I’m elated to say that we came out with flying colours.
With both of us working, we had the big question of how we are going to manage Mantam after school hours. Will write about that in the next post.
I apologize to you my dear readers for leaving the last part in a ‘cliffhanger’ state. Here’s the continuation:
The best part of the stay at Ro’s place was that he had cooked one of the best Biryanis I had ever had. He even made peanut chutney to go along with idlis for breakfast the next morning. We had known Ro only through phone calls, so I didn’t know about their likes. As a safe bet, I had baked a batch of brownies and taken along. Luckily it turned out that Ro’s wife loves brownies. I was also bowled over by the hospitality offered by the couple. They had even kept a new toothbrush and toothpaste ready in the bathroom, just in case I had missed bringing mine. Ro dropped me to the airport next day and also sent two huge boxes of Bengali sweets. I also enjoyed some time out, the lone journey and the experience of exploring an unknown place on my own. I had cooked enough food for two days before I left and also trained Abbas to tie Mantam’s hair into plaits as he had to pack them off to school. He sent me a picture of how he had tied their hair and when I appreciated him, he replied that “Ok. Whatever! But it doesn’t mean that you will delegate this job as well to me”
I came back and as usual resumed desperately looking for jobs. Amidst all this, there was a huge rift between A and S and it went to a point where A walked out of the house with his bags packed. As good friends and well-wishers, we asked A to stay at our place. We thought it was a momentary skirmish and that they would soon reconcile. Things turned out extremely sour between the two and we were stuck in between without knowing what to say to whom. A stayed with us for a month and then moved on to a shared accommodation. They eventually got a legal divorce and currently both of them are not in touch with us. It was a mentally disturbing phase for us as well. We were already stressed with our job hunt, and to top it we involved ourselves too much emotionally in the entire episode as we had seen the two of them as a couple madly in love with each other. Mantam were also disturbed by it as they saw A and S having verbal spats in front of them. We saw them reacting uneasily even when Abbas and I had silliest of arguments. Abbas and I sat them down and explained to them the situation between A and S and that they had no need to worry as Mumma and Baba loved each other and were never gonna be separate. They did have a lot of questions and we had to tactfully answer all of them without giving them an indication that staying married was the best thing to do. We tried to make them understand that it was normal for people to get separated.
We stepped onto July with no progress at all on the job front. The anxiety only scaled new heights with every passing day. With friends, well-wishes, relatives and family constantly checking on us about jobs, the tension only aggravated. It was downright frustrating and humiliating to say the same reply every time. There came a point when Abbas and I had unnecessary arguments. We both could feel that it was not us, it was the situation that made us act insane. One day we had an extremely heated argument where Abbas declared that we will have to pack our bags and go back. I got so freaked out with his quick acceptance of failure and the thought of retreat. I retaliated by saying that he was free to go back if he wished to, but he had to leave alone. He said I was free to stay back but he would take Mantam along with him. (I’m laughing now thinking about it but I cried buckets then) I could not argue any further as he also blamed me for the situation we were in. I broke down. Mantam pitched in and tried to console me. I was inconsolable. All the anguish of the interview failures, hopeless anticipation of getting a job and the adversity that we were facing released themselves in the form of a stream of tears. I told Mantam that Baba wanted us to go back as we were not able to find any job in Australia. Tammu told Abbas “Baba, whenever we fail to do something you always tell us that we need to keep trying till we succeed. So, you should also try and try harder till you get a job”
Later that night, Abbas apologized to me for behaving the way he did. I told him that all the decisions we had taken so far in life were mutually agreed upon. We came here because we both decided it. And if we had to return, we both had to agree on it. And there was no way I was going to return as a failure. Now that we had jumped into the well, we had to learn to swim. We should not accept defeat so easily.
I intended to complete this post today but it’s already close to midnight. I’m sorry but I will have to leave it here and continue in the next post.
I intentionally pushed the job hunt story to the end as it extended over the course of first three months and I thought it would be easier to explain with the preclude of how we settled in. When we came to Australia, the only people we knew here were A and S. Both had got jobs within a month after their arrival. We had thought that the hardest part was getting the visa and the house, school etc were anyway a piece of cake. We were not prepared to face the Baap of all struggles, as we didn’t expect it to strike us with prodigious magnitude. While we were at Gordon, amidst all the initial formalities and house hunt we were still actively looking for jobs. My problem was that I had expertise in X domain back in India but unfortunately for me X is scarce(To the extent that I only found one opening so far, which was only open for citizens to apply) in Australia. But luckily I knew a tool which was commonly used in X as well as Y. So, I had to apply for jobs relative to Y but apart from the tool related stuff, everything else was new for me. And I can’t lie to save my life, that too an impromptu one. I did get a few calls and I even had a telephonic interview where I sucked. It broke my confidence into pieces. Abbas consoled me – “It was obvious that you screwed up the interview as you are not a pro at Y domain”. That was the first failed interview of my life and many more were to come L Abbas, on the other hand, received just one call in May which didn’t proceed much as their pre-requisite was someone with a car 😛
Then came June and we got busy with House, School, planning of shifting, hunting second-hand stuff etc. We also noticed that there were no calls whatsoever and the job postings dropped considerably too. I received one call from company R and they called me for a catchup at their office. When I went, the HR and a senior interviewed me and then they connected me to an SME on call who asked more technical questions. At the end of ordeal, I was very positive and they seemed happy to take me too. When I came back home, the HR called me and informed that they were looking forward to taking me onboard but waiting for their client approval. Once they got that, they would like me to join from Monday. That was too easy and quick right? We were so hopeful about this job and were even worried how the shifting would happen as we were to move on Tuesday. But that call never came and we kept waiting that week. Then I finally picked the phone and called the HR. He told me that it was a shame that the client has still not come back and the change of their approval seems bleak as the Financial Year end is approaching and most companies will open up positions only from July once they allocate budget for the new Fin year. It shattered our hopes, devastated my positivity. Then is when we realized that we had come to Australia at a very wrong time. The job market would open up only in late July and pick up in August.
Abbas received one call in the first week of June from a company D which also went on-hold after the initial dawdling. Once we shifted home, we didn’t even have internet connection for two weeks. We came to know from Indian Store lady that we could access free internet at Library and she even suggested that we must keep an eye on local newspapers. Once Mantam started going to school, we would use the library and later A also lent us his pocket wi-fi to use. But there were hardly any jobs anyway. We started applying for all kinds of jobs. But even jobs like cleaning, storekeeping, receptionist, admin required a certification. Abbas even went to the mall in search of casual jobs in stores. But we didn’t find any. Nobody even responded. It was an extremely depressing phase. We were trying to calm our agitated souls by saying to ourselves that situation will improve in July. I made friends with a few school mums and even got an order to make birthday cake at one of their daughter’s birthday. I thought I would atleast do this and also put up a Henna stall or sell earrings etc.
Then came July and we were still in the pavilion waiting for an opportunity. We had reached the zenith of desperation. S had a friend Ro in Melbourne, who was also looking for jobs. We would frequently speak to him and he gave us a lot of new ideas. He even asked why we were only looking for jobs in Sydney? Since our Visa entitled us to work anywhere in Australia, he suggested that we must look in other states also. We widened our search and immediately I got a call for interview at Melbourne. We thought this was meant to be and Abbas told me that I must go. We booked flight tickets both ways and I was to stay a night at Ro’s home. With so much hope, I studied a lot on Y domain, prepared myself for the interview. It was like a Do or Die situation. That was the only ray of hope in sight. I directly went for the interview from the airport after landing. The bubble of hope burst right from the first question. I could sense that they were looking for someone senior with Y skillset and the kind of expectation that they had would take me years to get there. All I had prepared for was at intermediate level. I knew the outcome would be negative. I called Abbas after coming out of the interview and he put a brave face and told me to relax and enjoy the stay without any household stress. But later Abbas told me that he cried after hanging up. He felt so helpless for making me go through all this while he wasn’t even getting any calls.
Coming to the school part, we were apprehensive about how Mantam will cope up with the new environment, culture and walking mid-year in to a class where the kids had already bonded. The major concern was also that they were finding it hard to follow the accent. They had completed their Kindergarten in March and would’ve joined 1st Std in June had they been in India. But here when we approached the school, the Principal suggested to get them admitted to Kindy again. Her point was that the Year1 students had already completed half a year and it would be difficult for Mantam to catch up with them. But if they were to join Kindy, there would be no pressure on them and they could adapt to the new environment within 6 months and then graduate to Year 1. We couldn’t agree more with her and decided to go for it.
We were walked around the school, told about the regular activities that happen and introduced to their class teacher. Their teacher Ms.Mathews is an extremely sweet lady and she warmly welcomed Mantam to her class Kindy Purple (KP). The school timings were from 9 AM to 3 PM. And they had 3 breaks in between: Crunch & Sip at 10 where they had to eat a fruit or vegetable, Recess at 11.15 where they could eat any snacks and lunch at 1. We could send the food from home or order at the school canteen. The school fees were borne by the government along with the transport. We just had to pay for uniforms, books and term fees which included cost of any excursions, photo sessions or any such activities which were optional. All this collectively didn’t even reach 1/4th of the amount that we paid every year for schooling in India.
Mantam were nervous on the first day they went to school. We had been preparing for them for this day for months together. But the previous visit to school had gotten them cold feet. They honestly admitted that they might not understand what the teacher would say to them and vice-versa. We boosted their confidence by saying that there were kids from countries where English is not spoken at all and those kids also studied in this school and there was a dedicated teacher to help them out. We told Mantam that it would a matter of few days for them to pick the accent as they already spoke and understood English. Fortunately, this school is one of the most multicultural schools in Australia with kids from more than 64 countries studying. On the first day of school, I had to stay back home as the fridge was scheduled for delivery at 9AM. So Abbas took them to school in the school bus. We were worried all day but also excited to pick Mantam and hear about their first day in school.
Both Abbas and I went before 3 and waited for the school bell to ring. We heaved a sigh of relief looking at the two bubbly little girls of ours running towards us. Their mood was a total contradiction to that in the morning. They were in love with the school, the teacher and the class. Ms. Mathews had assigned an Indian girl Mishti (who also had a twin sister in a different section) as a buddy to help with their transition. Ms. Mathews told us that they were doing fine but mostly clung on to each other, which was obvious. She asked us if it was okay to make them sit separately and we nodded in agreement. As days passed Mantam started opening up gradually and making most of all the activities conducted at school. As of now, we find it hard to follow their accent and ask them to repeat what they said many times to understand their speech. (I’m not joking, I swear)
Although Mantam had got free passes from the school to travel by bus, we had to buy tickets if we travelled along with them. Abbas used to go in the bus to drop them in the morning and come back by foot while returning home and the other way round while picking them. I would tell Abbas to let them go on their own as all the other kids did but he was adamant to go along. At that point in time, we were spending every damn dollar after much of dilly-dallying after weighing the spend between the want and need. Spending $5.60 per day seemed such a waste of money to me. After a bit a coaxing, Abbas decided to let go. Then we prepared Mantam to make the morning journey to school on their own and slowly after another couple of weeks, they started to do both journeys by themselves. Either Abbas or I dropped and picked them at the station.
Coming to the their life at school, they did find the transition a bit difficult. Because the tables had completely turned for them here. In India, they were taught writing first even though they were hardly able to read and it was the other way round here. They write only what they can read and writing is not given much priority because they believe that once children learn to read well, they can automatically write. The only homework they had was to take a book back home every day and read it along with an adult. They had to record the book they had read in a booklet and there were some awards at different milestone as 25, 50, 75, 100 books and so on. Each book was labelled based on the level of reading. Mantam started from Level 1 while their peers were at level 5 or 6. And I am so proud of them for they reached Level 7 already and are at par with their classmates. They also completed around 80 books.
Apart from this, they would get homework every Friday which had to be submitted on the following Wednesday. This homework mostly had fun activities for them which made them think, learn and explore in an amusing way that it didn’t feel like a burden. For example, “Look at the sky, observe the clouds and note down what patterns you saw”, “Help mum/dad with 3 household chores”, “Go to the park and play with your friends, write about your experience” and many such. They also got homework online on two different websites where they had logins. One day every week they had “Show and Tell” where the kids were either given a pre-decided topic or a free-choice to speak upon. Each kid walks up to the front of the class and wishes the class Good Morning, speaks on the topic and then waits for their questions / comments. The kids raise their hand and the speaker chooses a couple of kids and answers their question. Now this speech is absolutely impromptu and we never made them learn anything. Sometimes they do ask what they could speak on a particular topic. We suggest some cues and they pick it up from there.
On Mondays, the kids are given notebooks to record their journal writing where they get to document about their weekend activities. (We got the journal book back last week and I will share in a later post all that they have written. A few are hilarious and a few amazed us) Every Thursday they have sports, Library and Computers on Wednesday and Music Class on Tuesday. There is a school right on the opposite street for differently-abled kids. The music classes are conducted in that school along with the students there. Hence, they learn singing with hand signs which is called signing choir. Mantam have now learnt some 3-4 songs with proper hand signals. It is so beautiful to watch.
They had a few activities like Pajama Party where they had to go to school in their Pajamas and also decorate their favourite doll and take along. I was surprised to see that all teacher were in their Pajamas too They had multicultural day once where every child along with teachers dressed in traditional attire of their country of origin. It was a visual treat that day to see such an event come alive. There was “Dress like a book character” day. Once there was a mini Fete organized by kids of Year 6 where the younger kids were given the liberty to shop on their own. Mantam were on cloud 9 to go and buy what they liked on free will. (We had given them 5$ each) Manny managed a great and bought so many things and also bought something for a friend who had ran out of money. Tammu didn’t have fun shopping, just like Abbas I guess. She bought a couple of petty things and didn’t even know how they were priced (Typical attribute of Abbas, I tell ya! He always comes back home without knowing the cost)
All in all, Mantam had a fabulous time in KP. We are planning to split them into different sections from next year onwards. Sharing some pictures:
Winter uniformPyjama PartyMulticultural DayManny dressed as the Grouchy ladybug (Book Character Day)Stuck Black circle cutouts on tutu skirt using stapler, made the antlers using pipecleaner and pompoms, stuck it on black hairband.Pippi Longstocking with mismatched dress and the distinct plaits.
Although we had a good time in Gordon, we were yearning for our own space. It had been a long month of living in a single room, searching all suitcases to find one small thing. Since we had told Donny that we would afford a single room, they had attached a single bed to the double bed in that room. Now Abbas and I have never slept apart, we are so used to each other’s touch. We decided to make Mantam sleep at the edge which is attached to the wall, I would sleep in the middle and then Abbas. I was placed in a strategic location which was the joining point of both the beds. Due to my weight, the single bed would plunge down while the double bed was firm and stayed in place. It was a funny and uncomfortable position to sleep in. If I would move completely on the single bed, Abbas would fall on the ground, and Mantam almost occupied the double bed. We had told them that they would have to sleep in their own room once we moved in to our home. With the hype of how fast they are growing and how cool it was to have a room to themselves which would be dedicated to all their stuff and toys, they were easily sold.
We had applied for internet connection just two days before moving as that is when we got the agreement signed. Now the internet provider had an SLA of 20 days but we thought they might get it done quicker but that was not to happen. The only saviour was the 1 GB data limit that I had on my phone which we decided to use sparingly for e-mails and any essential browsing. The tragedy for Abbas was that he missed the FIFA world cup in the process. My heart went out to him when we saw FIFA merchandise, deals etc when we stepped out and he would hang his face in a frown. This was the first FIFA that the soccer freak was missing. He would use my phone to just catch up on the scores of the matches everyday
There was a lot of confusion on the eve of our move. We had called the same Chinese guy who had helped in shifting the things we had bought from S to A’s garage. (I had forgotten to mention that we had to again hire a taxi to get the two carton boxes that we had shipped via air cargo. These boxes were also placed in A’s garage) We had found another bed on gumtree at Pymble (close to Gordon) and the lady had agreed to wait till 12th to be picked up. We had strategically planned to hire a van which would pick our suitcases, then pick the bed from Pymble and then pick all the things from A’s garage and finally unload everything at our home. The Pymble lady had specifically told that we were to pick it before 9 as she would not be at home after that. The van guy said he couldn’t make it that early. So it was a mad rush looking for van hires. Whatever we found were exuberantly priced. After a lot of tension, we finally found one who charged $85 for 1.5 hours and then $30 for every half an hour, which was the cheapest thus far. We booked it immediately for 1.5 hours. We said we would extend if the situation demands. All was well till the lady who took the booking called back and said that the guy will reach around 10. We had to call the Pymble lady and ask if it was possible for us to bring the bed out of her house and wait in front of her house. She had no qualms with it but her only concern was that she had to leave at 9, and since the bed was in first floor she said it wouldn’t be possible for one person to bring it down. Since the van driver wouldn’t be there, I had to accompany Abbas. So we checked with Kelly and Mendell if they we can leave Mantam with them for some time but Kelly already had some prior plans that morning. Taking Mantam would be difficult as they would have to walk a lot. Luckily Mendell solved all the problems by offering to drop us at Pymble with all our suitcases. It would also mean that the van driver could directly come to Pymble, which would save some time from the 1.5 hours that we booked it for. Since the van would accommodate only one person to sit in the front, we decided that after bringing the bed down Mantam and I would take a train and go to Hornsby, grab the house keys form the real estate agent and wait for Abbas.
As planned, we went to Pymble early morning wrapping up our existence from Gordon, bidding an emotional goodbye to Kelly. Mendell dropped us at Pymble and he offered to wait for some time so that he could drop Mantam and I to station so that we didn’t have to walk back all the way (Such a sweetheart he is) Abbas and I brought the bed down and he casually asked the lady if she had anything else. And we ended up picking a round dining table with 4 chairs and a display unit (which was not at all needed then but Abbas liked it a lot and thought it was unwise to let it go) Abbas stayed in the garage and we left in Mendell’s car. We reached Hornsby, picked the keys and I thought I would wait for Abbas and enter the new house together. But Abbas messaged that the van guy is running late. So we thought we would go home and wait there. Abbas waited for 4 hours there as the guy came at 1. I had picked some gozleme in Hornsby, we grabbed a bite each. Mantam wanted to poo but I asked them to control as there were no tissues We whiled away time waiting, waiting and waiting some more.
The van finally arrived, picked everything from A’s garage and reached our home. By now it was already an hour down. We started unloading everything and placing it in the courtyard in front of the apartment. There were only 5 minutes left and the guy asked if we needed him to move things upstairs. He would charge 30$ even if it would be 1 extra minute after 1.5 hours. Well, at that point in time, we were spending every dollar thinking of it at Rs.55. We told him to just help us in moving the washing machine in the last 5 mins as there was no way we could manage it. Once he left, we slowly started carrying little by little upstairs to the 1st floor. Mantam helped a lot with whatever was within their capacity. It took us almost 3 hours and we were dead by then. Every single muscle in the body was singing giving a chorus effect. It took us a week to put everything in right place as I had opened all the boxes and suitcases together. Then organized everything after putting a lot of thoughts to which room would be whose and where to keep what and so on and so forth. Attaching a few pics of the house.
Woah, it’s a super long post. Kudos to those of you who managed to not fall asleep midway.
PS: Regarding Abbas’s toilet training, I was elated that this house had a separate toilet with no water outlet at all and was at a distance from the bathroom. So he was bound to let go of that mug 😛
PPS: We bought only the refrigerator, microwave and vacuum cleaner first hand as many suggested that buying electronic items second hand was not a good idea. We ordered them from Appliances Online and they were delivered two days after our move.
Our bedroom, the bed and cabinet we got from SThe shower area in the bathroomThe bath tubThe bathroom basin with cabinetThe utility / laundry.I was in two minds about posting this pic but thought it needs to be recorded to capture the biggest milestone of Abbas’sMantam’s roomThe dining tableThe display unitKitchen SinkDishwasher was built-inBuilt-in wall oven (What a delight!). But we had to buy the refrigerator and microwave.The drawing room
One day Abbas saw a cockatoo in our backyard and he immediately armed himself with a slice of bread and marched closer to the bird. The bird was unfazed at the approach of a human being who seemed very determined. Abbas put his hand forward which had a piece of bread and to our surprise the bird stepped closer to Abbas and pecked on his hands to grasp with its beaks. We jumped in glee. I ran in to get a camera to click pictures. Now, this bird must have spread the word among its community. Sooner we had almost 15-16 visitors each day. We would await their arrival every single day and even worry and lose patience in anticipation on days that they didn’t turn up. There was also a fun co-incidence that some or the other good thing would happen on days that they came. We were very sad to leave the birds when we left Gordon. A and S had told that they hadn’t seen so many in Hornsby.
After we moved to our new home, that was the one thing we missed. To add fuel to fire, we could see a couple of birds flocking the balcony in the opposite building. We wished for them to come to our balcony but how would they know that we were going to give food to them? One day when I was in the kitchen I saw a cockatoo in the nearby tree. I immediately went to the balcony with a slice of bread. I whistled to the bird showing the dangling piece of bread from my hand. And the bird immediately flew and sat on the balcony fence. That was just the beginning. Within no time, we had our small balcony filled with around 2 birds, it was a sight to watch. Even passerby would crane their neck to look at the rare sight. Not only did cockatoos visit us but also lorikeets and small sparrow like birds.
I had written an entire post with this title last week but I did some blunder and it went unsaved Writing it again as this was an important part of our initial life in Sydney. So, here goes:
As I had mentioned earlier, we were living in Gordon in a shared accommodation. There lived a Chinese lady S with her barely a year old son J. She mostly kept to herself and it was hard to tell that such a small kid lived next door as there was hardly any sound coming from her room. She would go out in her own car which was parked outside the house. We exchanged smiles whenever we bumped into each other initially. After a couple of days, Abbas (being the talkative bloke that he is) broke the ice and initiated a conversation with her. Slowly we began talking more and started sharing our life stories with each other. S had lived in Sydney for many years and was moving to another place soon. We came to know that the only reason that she was there was to sell off few of her belongings. Abbas made no delay in inquiring about the items that she had. It would be a good deal for both of us. We needed basic things when we moved in to an empty house, she needed to sell them as quickly as possible. She took us to the Storage place where she had hired a room to keep her things. We decided on buying a cot, a small cabinet, a toaster, washing machine, 3 storage boxes and a soup pot. All her items were as good as new and she was giving them away for an extremely reasonable price as it was easier for her. On the way back she drove us around Sydney to show the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Sydney Fish Market and also an area where she used to live and showed us a market where we could get cheap groceries. We enjoyed her company as she gave us a lot of information about life in Sydney. She was also sweet enough to set up a Chinese van hire which was very cheap to move the goods to A’s garage which was in the same street as the house we were going to move to. We were yet to get the keys to our house.
She would tell me that she loved the smell of my coffee. So, I made a cup for too. After that I used to always ask her before making coffee. One day Abbas mockingly asked her what she was going to cook for us. She took it seriously and made dumplings for us from scratch. I enjoyed seeing the entire process and learning from her. When she left, she gave a lot of hair accessories as gift to Mantam as she loved their hair. J was an adorable kid and was the most easiest to handle. It must have been because of the fact that he had only seen his mom ever since his birth and he knew that his mom has a lot to do. He never even squeals when his mum puts him on the pram when she is busy doing something. She gives him finger food and he happily nibbles on them without any fuss. He would come to all of us with such ease. We grew so very fond of him. S had been through a lot in her life and it was amazing to see such immense strength and vigour she had in herself. Single parenting is extremely hard and we were in awe of S with the way she made it seem effortless. We really missed S and J after they left us. We still remember them and wish both of them all the happiness in the world.
The Opera House
Harbour bridgeSunset at the Sydney HarbourSea Food Platter – It had Prawn, Basa, Mussels, Oyster, Octopus
Sydney Fish MarketLive Crab
Preparation of dumplingsWe were a happy bunchMaking of dumplings
Anecdotes of Two-riffic Twins 