My continued work efforts!!!

Chris has mentioned most of our recent news on his blog, so I will update you on my committed and continuous effort to find work (honest!).

On Monday 27th Feb I travelled to a school in Berwick (in the south east of Melbourne). I was greeted by a miserable receptionist who looked at her watch disapprovingly when I said I had an appointment with the head at ten o’clock (it was only 9.30 but at least I was early!). Anyway the head couldn’t have been nicer; we had a chat about my teaching experience and skills in the UK (so of course I made it all up Jules and painted a picture of myself as the most hardworking and best teacher in the land!). When he left the room to photocopy my documents he winked and said I would be perfect for the placement- nice one! The job was in the bag. It is for a two week placement in Prep (same as our reception) and could be for a longer period. The teacher I am covering is having some long service leave and boy does she look like she needs it!

Anyway I spent the rest of the day getting to know the little darlings. There are only 18 kids in the class (government targets are 1:21 in a prep class- are you jealous yet Jules!). The head was quite taken a back when I said we have a government target of 1:30 in our reception classes. The kids were lovely and did not have a problem with my Birmingham accent. I told them I had come from England and they thought I had come all that way just to see them! They had a strange collection of names with the only English ones been Amy, Josh and James. The rest seemed to have American names like Caitlin, Madison and Lauree. At the school all adults are called by their first names; it was really strange the kids calling Donna when they needed help.

I met the staff and they were a strange bunch like teachers always are (only joking they were fine). There were a few ex-poms on the team including a lady from Scotland, a girl from Oldham and a lady from Essex (who insisted on calling me a Northern!).

I will be working at the school from the beginning of Term 2 which starts 27th March. Therefore I need to find something else for the three weeks before. I am still waiting for my police check so can’t do any childcare/ kindergarten work yet. I have handed my CV into a couple of clothes shops (something to do before the teaching starts). I also have an interview with a teaching agency tomorrow so I won’t been a lady of leisure for that much longer!

Love Donnie

I'm the only gay in Melbourne

Before I can write about our latest news I have to tell you about my strange early morning encounter with an Australian drag queen!!!! The last couple of nights we have been awoken by a noise that sounded like someone pacing up and down on metal steps. Last night I decided that I needed to investigate this noise further. Chris thought that it was coming from the flat along the way so I went to have a look……

At approximately 4am I went over to the apartment in question and popped my head around the balcony. This is where I met Australia’s answer to ‘David Thomas’- I’m the only gay in the village or in this case Melbourne!!!!!!! He promptly introduced himself as Taz or Tas (something like that). He then asked me if I liked his make up and proceeded to tell me that he is from Perth but is playing the clubs in Melbourne. At any other time, this conversation would have been at the least interesting, but at 4 in the morning I did not want to discuss make up tips with Dame Edna!!! However he continued to ask my opinion on his shoes and photos of himself in full drag. If Chris hadn’t have been awake as well, I would have thought this to be a strange dream brought on by too much Aussie wine!

Anyway when asked about the noise he put it down to workmen (they have been doing some construction work this week). It was only when he showed me his shoes bragging that they had six inch heels and he had been practising walking in them that the truth dawned on me. WE WERE BEEN WOKEN UP BY AN AUSTRALIAN DRAG QUEEN MASTERING THE ACT OF WALKING IN SIX INCH HEELS –IT COULD ONLY HAPPEN IN AUSTRALIA.

To end the story I told him that I believed his catwalk sessions were keeping us awake and would he mind practising at a more suitable time! Things went quiet after that, let’s hope that he doesn’t decide to rehearse his cabaret act tonight!!

Bye for now
Don

Welcome Baby Hannah

Monday 27th February

Well as we all know the best thing has happened- the birth of beautiful, gorgeous Hannah Helene Brown. She really has got everyone so excited and happy to be part of her life! The photos show that she has indeed inherited the Bailey good looks and will no doubt grow up to have the Bailey wit and charm!!! Maybe I will be next- Chris has gone a little pale at the thought of it! Anyway, congratulations to Claire and Martin again. We are all so proud of how Claire coped with the whole thing (it puts me off- Chris just sighed in relief!).

Loads of Love
Auntie Donna & Uncle Chris xxxxxxxx

Life down under Donnie style!

Hello Everybody! Sorry about the lack of blogging lately but I’ve been busy having a fabulous time in Melbourne. The weather has been consistently good and we have been exploring the sights of Melbourne and beyond. There are our highlights to get this blog up to date:-

• My birthday (another year older not the slightest bit wiser!) It was a really hot day and we spent the afternoon drinking wine by the Yarra River. On the evening we had our first dinner out in Melbourne at a restaurant called ‘Eurasia’. It was brilliant having a birthday in the sun, will I ever have a warm birthday again I wonder!

• Williamstown. This is a delightful little place, a short train journey from Melbourne city centre. It has a nice beach with golden sand and lots of grassy places to have a picnic (which we did, next time we will try to use the outdoor barbie to cook some kanga burgers- sorry Skippy!)
  
  
• St Kilda. We have visited this place a couple of times already. It has a good sized beach and lots of quirky clothes shops to explore (only window shopping for bums like me!) It also has the best cake shops that I have seen (mom you would love it) Oh man I lovvvvvvvvvvvve de cakes (Little Britain style). We treated ourselves to a couple of cakes for Valentines Day and I selected a Rum Baba (your fav dad!).

• Getting drunk down under. Dave and Jill have been in Melbourne for the last week or so and have provided us with the perfect excuse to try the pubs and bars of Melbourne. Well basically there are loads to try ranging from Irish pubs to swanky cocktail bars. We have sampled countless bottles of Australian wine (apparently they have a wine glut so we are doing our bit to help reduce the surplus!). Most of the Australian kids seem to be into rock, punk and Indie music which is great to see (Chris took Dave to an Indie club with punks with Mohicans and he nearly died!). The Aussies also have a lot of their own home grown bands which play middle of the road rubbish!
  
  
• Melbourne Zoo We took advantage of the ‘buy one ticket get one free offer’ and visited the zoo. We saw loads of animals and watched the keepers feeding the spotted leopard and the crazy pelicans. We had fun watching the monkeys (they are always the most amusing!).
  
  
• Chilling in the park .Whilst Chris has been working hard, I have taken advantage of the lovely weather by spending several afternoons sitting in the park chilling and reading a book (I am trying to find work honestly). It is nice to be able to do things for myself for a change (sorry Mom but I do like to read lots like dad when I have the chance!)
  
  
• Dandenong Ranges National Park. Yesterday we took advantage of the Sunday saver ticket which allows you to travel anywhere in zones 1, 2 or 3 for approx £1- bargain! We travelled on the train to Upper Ferntree Gully (great name for a train station) and ventured into the afore mentioned. We walked through the picnic areas envious of all the Aussie families enjoying al fresco dining and several tinnies- what a great way to spend a Sunday. It beats watching Fartbeat although guess what they show it on tele here too! (no wonder they have a clouded view of us poms).
  
  
  Anyway I have rambled on enough for today. I will blog again soon to keep you up to date with our adventures. Hopefully my police check will come soon so that I can join the workforce, until then the sunshine is waiting for me.
  
  Bye for now
  
  Donnie XXXX
  
  PS For some reason we can’t upload photos onto our blogs at the moment- so no photos of a suntanned Donnie I’m afraid.

Doonas, wak and thongs

Well hello I am back! I have been unable to update my blog since Hong Kong due to the lack of internet access. Life at the moment is great- Melbourne is a superb place with lots to see and do! We are living in a fantastic apartment in a complex that is brand new- so we are the first people to live here. We have a plasma TV, air conditioning and a comfy king sized bed (I do like my kip) and even a dishwasher! We have access to a pool, gym and sauna so there is no excuse to not lose weight!

Life has been very frantic trying to secure a flat in such a short space of time (we had to have three extra nights in a hotel to provide more flat hunting time). Everything is now set up; we have bank accounts, tax codes, stamps in our passports to prove our work rights and my registration card for teaching on the way. We are now true Melburnians!

The Australian people are very friendly and like to offer help if they can. As expected they are very laid back although they do seem to make things more complicated than we do. We can rent property fairly easily whereas here you have to fill in countless number of forms; we can set up Broadband in a matter of minutes whereas in Oz they have to validate your application. Despite the overuse of paperwork and red tape they really are a nice bunch!

I am now learning a new language- we did find it amusing when our Aussie Estate Agent told us that our King sized Doona was going to be delivered to our room ( it turned out to be a Duvet!). They wear thongs on their feet (flip flops); glad I found that out before any embarrassment occurred! If something is not very good they say it is wak. Will I lose my brummie accent and return to Blighty with an Aussie twang- who knows only time will tell.

My favourite places in Melbourne at the moment are Southbank and the Docklands. Southbank is set along the Yarra River and is full of places to eat and drink (Dad you would love it- I can picture you here supping your wine!). The Docklands is a new part of Melbourne that they are injecting a lot of cash into( not sure if it was around when you were here Claire) You can admire the boats and yachts and watch races here and guess what- eat and sup wine here too! Now you can see why these are my favourite places!

My favourite days so far have been Australia Day (26 Jan) and the final of the Australian Open (29 Jan). They had loads of events going on to celebrate Oz day with the climax been a fireworks display (Martin you would have loved it- the best I’ve seen except London NYE of course).It was also the hottest day so far 41C so I had to keep my moon face covered!

We paid for ground passes for the men’s final of the Australian Open (tennis to those who don’t know!). We got there early and sat in the garden area in front of the big screen. It wasn’t long before we are surrounded by Greek Marco fans dressed in the Greek flag colours. The Aussie press loved winding them up and filming them (I think it was a novelty to them to see so many fans so geared up). Anyway we decided to support Federer and really enjoyed watching the Greeks go very quiet when he started to take control of the match!
Anyway enough for now hope everyone is well and enjoying the British weather we here it is mighty cold (ha, ha). It’s my birthday tomorrow so we are going to head to the Southbank for the only posh meal we will have had in Oz so far. We have managed to sample the wine though!

Loads of Love

Donnie XXXXX