Australia - summary of the first couple of weeks

Although technically I have more time on my hands than usual, given I'm not working, time has been flying and I just feel tired all the time. 

 I've been trying to figure out why. 

 I don't think its just the pregnancy. Or just the heat (which is lovely).

Moving to a new country, no matter how well you speak the language, is an exercise in non-stop information processing and decision making: Where to go to get or do this? Where is it?  How to get there? How to pay for the transport? How do things work here? 

All new rules and ways of doing things.

Then there is the food. Where to eat if we're out? Where to buy ingredients if we're cooking at home? I take a while reading food packaging when I shop normally, but in a new place everything is new and each option needs weighing up and deciding upon. 

Its exhausting.

I've been extremely neglectful of this blog so I'll just summarise the past couple of weeks to get up-to-date.

Brisbane

We enjoyed a couple of weeks staying with friends in Brisbane.  

While Mr Duncan was working each day, I sorted out flights to Melbourne, somewhere to stay while we look for a rental, health insurance and insurance for Mr Duncan's expensive work computer kit which was a condition of his new employment contract.  

We both swam in the pool a lot.

I also borrowed the sewing machine to alter some of my clothes to fit my expanding waistline. I have a draft post on that I'll try to get up this week.

Brisbane was lovely and sunny and we were there just in time to enjoy some amazing tropical storms after they had endured nine months of no rain. Here are a few shots inspired by Marcy who always has such great pics in her posts.

Ben and Jerry's Open Air Cinema on the Southbank.  The bean bags are extremely comfortable.

View of the city from Southbank as the sun starts to go down.

View of the city from Southbank after the movie finished.  

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne last Monday.  I accidentally left my glasses case on the plane.  

At the 11th hour our serviced apartment was upgraded from a one bed to the originally requested 2 bed with balcony.  

It is great.  Spread over two floors it is larger than our home in London.   And about the same price, which puts the expensive glorified bedsit we stayed in for three nights before we left to complete shame.  

It is big enough for Mr Duncan to have his own work area and we're not in each other's pockets which is good, because he's been pretty tetchy of late.  I put that down to all the uncertainty - he prefers to be settled and surrounded by all his 'stuff'.  

The apartment is located next to a large park and only a ten minute walk from the city.  

It has a 'full' kitchen so I'm back to cooking, but with limited equipment and ingredients there is only so much I can do.  

We spent the weekend charging around lots of different areas trying to get a sense of where we might like to live.  We have until the end of January to sort it out but the rental market here seems to be quite competitive, so I'm a bit concerned our belongings will arrive and we'll have nowhere to put them.

Just before we left Brisbane I developed eczema on my inner arm for the first time in about ten years.  

I guess I've been eating less well than usual - its tricky when you're eating out or a guest at someone else's table.  

It could also be due to moving stress or the increased dairy I've been consuming because of Pickle as both stress and too much dairy are known triggers for me.  

I'm making a concerted effort to cut down on both and now that I have a kitchen, return to healthier eating habits. I've also been lavishly applying coconut oil to the eczema. 

Something is working as I've seen some improvement in the last day or two.

Pregnancy

Not much to report, but no news is usually good news.  

I registered with a doctor last week.  I kind of expected her to take my blood pressure and weight etc but she just referred me to a hospital and to a radiology clinic to book my 20 week scan.  She told me I should hear back from the hospital with an initial appointment date in a week or so.   

I sorted out medical insurance when we arrived, but there is a 12 month waiting period for maternity related services so I'm with the public system whether I like it or not. Which is actually fine with me.  The Australian health system is of a high standard and must be on a par at least with the NHS in the UK.  

I joined the library and got out a book on pregnancy in Australia, so hopefully that will tell me what to expect here.

Today I am 15 weeks, which is the time we lost Pipkin.  

As far as I can tell everything is okay, though thats how I felt with Pipkin until it wasn't okay any more.  The nausea has abated which is to be expected and I am bigger than I was with Pipkin which is reassuring.  

I had to give up on the hairband trick last week, so its just as well I put in the sewing time I did while I was in Brisbane!