One month in Sydney

We've been in Sydney for a month now and the holiday feeling is still lingering. It's a weird feeling knowing that we don't have a departure date, like if we were just here on holiday...this is it, this is home now! And it is a good feeling especially after having traveled and lived in Asia for the last 6 years knowing that it was all temporary. Today we decided to brave the crowds and catch the bus to Bondi for some fish and chips and Row wanted a dip to cool down at Bondi Beach. The food was good, the sea swim was refreshing but it was so dang hot, we didn't stay long.

On a "Justin-note", we bought him his first toothbrush for his 2 little bottom teeth just so that he gets into the habit of cleaning his teeth every morning and evening. Justin really just likes biting down on the bristles but hey, at least he'll learn soon enough that good dental hygiene is important.

Just a little pic of Justin enjoying his lunch....pasta with mashed beef and vegetables...all over his face!

Justin's first pair of sunglasses that he got courtesy of Popo, a freebie in one of her magazines.

Justin says no no no!

Justin gives his dad a kiss

Our 1st date night in Aus

Last night Row and I went on our first date in Sydney. My brother, BG very kindly offered to babysit Justin so that we could go watch Avatar. His only conditions were that Justin be fed, bathed and put to bed by the time we left. He also roped his girlfriend, Louise, into helping him out. Luckily for BG and Louise, Justin slept right through as he is quite clingy if he wakes up during the night and only I can put him back to sleep. Row and I really enjoyed Avatar and it was nice to go on a "date" again. Thank you to BG and Louise for baby sitting!

Happy Australia Day!

Today we celebrated our first Australia Day. In preparation for this, Row's aunt Gill sent us a starter pack consisting of an Australian flag, an Australian flag umbrella hat and an "Australia" cooler bag. Row's cousin organised a picnic out in a park in West Pymble. At the picnic, we met up with some friends, fired up the barbie (or braai) and had a nice, relaxing day out. It was hot but not too unbearable and the place where we had our picnic had nice shaded areas. The kids had a good time playing in the sandpit and in the playground. It's nice to live in a country that is so child-friendly!


Happy Australia Day!

Justin's new trick

Justin suddenly discovered that his tongue can come out of his mouth using his own free will. This video is a minute but all it shows is him sticking his tongue out,sorry, first-time mommy here finding every little thing her baby discovers he can do is quite precious.

It's getting hot in here

Yesterday the mercury hit 40 degrees!!!! What do you do when you don't have aircon and no pool and your baby is just so cranky from the heat? You fill up the bath with water, throw all his toys in and strip him and plonk him in there where he plays to his heart content. Thankfully today it's overcast and we had some rain so it's much cooler.

Justin's laugh and some of his tricks

Enjoy this video of Justin having a good laugh and generally just showing off.

3 weeks already

Wow, 3 weeks ago we landed in Sydney, time has really flown by and today was the first time we went to the beach! It was a scorcher of a day, 34 degrees, so we decided to go to Maroubra beach in the late afternoon. This was Justin's first time on the beach in the sea and much to his dad's dismay, he didn't take to it. When I sat him down on the towel, he was very much intrigued by the sand and was touching the sand. We thought this was a good signal so we headed down to the waves and he did not like his little toes in the cold water. He started making a crying noise but was fine as soon I lifted him up. I gave him a few minutes to get use to the whole sea-thing but every time I tried to put his toes in the water, he would start "crying". Hopefully next time he'll enjoy it more.

Justin is growing so much more independent and loves exploring his surroundings. He is quite the busy body!

Meal times has become a battle of the wills so I decided to give him his own spoon. It has helped although all he does it stick it in his mouth and chew on it.

More Justin-expressions. His top tooth is starting to cut so he chews on anything, including the camera bag.

I managed to get a photo of Justin waving. He was waving at the baba in the mirror :) He's slowly getting the hang of it, waving at people who wave at him. The other day (when this photo was taken) we went to the corner coffee shop and the waitresses know Justin and Row so they were chatting to him (Justin) and waving at him. Row held Justin's hand up to wave back. The waitress waved again and Justin used his left hand to hold up his right hand to wave back. It was too funny!

Tearful good bye

My mum left today and it was another tearful farewell. Thankfully mum is sensible so she made sure it wasn't long and drawn out, it was quick, like pulling off a band aid.
Thank you mum for coming out to help us settle down, we are really grateful for all your help, you made it much easier for us to run around while you had quality bonding time with your grandson. Hopefully we'll see you in May. Hope you had good flights and enjoyed your time here in Sydney. We love you lots!
Justin knows something has changed as he has been quite clingy since mum left. Let's hope he bounces back quickly. The little monkey has learnt some new tricks such as arching his back or lifting his bum up when he doesn't want to sit in his car seat. He doesn't like wearing a bib so he knows how to pull it over his head. He does the same thing when he doesn't want to wear a top. Since learning how to pull himself up, he's had a few bumps and knocks to the head. I had to make sure we knew the emergency number and lucky for us, we're currently up the road from the Sydney Children's Hospital, but hopefully we won't have any reason to go there.

Apartment hunting,chocolate O.D, Justin's expressions

Justin is now 8 months old and he is so much fun, he really keeps us entertained. He's discovering all the noises he can make and the expressions he can make. I particularly like his expression in the top photo, I call it his bull face because he scrunches up his face and then breathes heavily through his nose. The expression on the photo below it reminds me of an old man with no teeth. He's also getting braver, using anything he can to pull himself up.

Row and I have seen 15 apartments this week and we've only liked about 5 of them. It is scary to see what is out there and the rental that they are asking for. Getting an apartment is quite cut-throat here; it involves applications checking employment, reference checks, bank statements and rental history which makes it quick difficult for us as neither Row nor I are currently working, we don't have a rental history and our bank accounts don't show much so we have quite a difficult task up ahead. To make things worse, there is a shortage of housing in Sydney so people pretty much resort to adding on an extra $10 to $20 per week in the hopes that this will make their application successful. But we have no choice but to keep looking otherwise we'll be homeless so everyone hold thumbs that we have at least 1 successful application.

The last few days we've been indulging and over-eating. Gareth and Karin were in town so we went out for yum cha with them on Thursday and then for Japanese ramen that night. On Friday we joined Louise's (my brother's girlfriend) family for lunch at the Sydney fish market and munched our way through a seafood platter consisting of fish and chips, scallops, prawn kebabs, cooked oysters, calamari and squid heads. On top of that we also bought raw oysters, sashimi and soft shell crabs. For tea we met up with old friends at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe and I OD'd on chocolate. I ordered an iced chocolate and then to share, we ordered a strawberry dipping plate which is fresh strawberries and a pot of chocolate to dip the strawberries and we ordered a chocolate custard eclair. I will admit that I was too busy stuffing my face to take photos but take my word for it that it was all delicious.

Wave ta-ta

One of the most important things to do when moving to a new place is deciding where to live. We're currently in the eastern suburbs, in Randwick; BG's a few minutes away in Zetland and his girlfriend Louise is also a few minutes away in Maroubra. Today we decided to go explore the suburbs on the other side of the Harbour Bridge, in North Sydney....St Ives to be exact. Apparently alot of the South African Jewish people gravitate towards that neighbourhood but we decided to check it out anyways. Wow....they have real houses there...like big ones...with gardens....and some of them even have long driveways.....and best of all...NO WALLS WITH ELECTRIC FENCING!!!!! It's a really nice area, very quiet with lots of trees but a wee bit out of our budget but at least now we know where to aim. St Ives is a mere 20kms (give or take) from the North Sydney city centre but it felt like it took forever to get there. But the drive was not in vain as we found a South African butcher who sells boerewors (SA sausage) and biltong (dried meat) and dry wors (dry sausage). It also sold Mrs Ball's, Five Roses, Raj curry powder, Aromat, Chappies, Safari dried fruit, Ouma rusks and the ones that had me the most excited....Astros and Chockits!!!!!! But I held back as it's only a couple of days since we left home. After this long trek out there we have come to the conclusion that we'll probably stay in the Eastern suburbs as it is much closer and more accessible to downtown.

Anyhoo....the whole point of today's blog post was that while we were deciding what to do and where to go, Justin started waving!!!!! Mum was ironing and waving at him and he eventually just copied her actions so it's not the perfect wave and it's definitely not the Queen's wave but it's so cute.

Tourist attractions

With my mum in town to help us settle down, we've also been able to enjoy the tourist sites with her. Today we went downtown to the Belgian Beer Cafe for mussels to celebrate our good friend's birthday. 

After lunch we took a walk down to Circular Quay to the Sydney Opera House, a sight that still takes our breath away even though we've now seen it a few times. From the opera house, we're also able to see the Harbour Bridge.

Justin in his new surroundings

Justin has been an absolute star and has adjusted quite well. Row and I were quite worried about the 2 long haul flights that we had to take to get to Sydney but we worried for nothing. On our flight to HK, Justin didn't get a bassinet so he had to sit on our laps for 13 hours. Thankfully he slept most of the way as it was a night flight. On our flight to Sydney, we were able to get a bassinet for Justin and again, he slept most of the way as it was also a night flight. It took him about a week to get over his jet lag but we didn't mind as he would sleep at his usual 7pm, wake up at 10pm and go back to sleep until about 9am. Now that he's over his jet lag, it's back to the usual 6am wake up calls. Justin has experienced a lot of change in his short life time so he seems to be adapting a lot quicker now.

Justin's going to be 8 months old on Wednesday, where has the time flown to? He's crawling around really fast, still doing his leopard crawl. He's also started learning how to pull himself into a standing position and even stood on his own once. Now that's able to pull himself up, he's also started to try climb up things....now the fun begins! We haven't had a chance to take Justin for a baby wellness check but he has definitely put on weight, probably weighing about 8,5kg. He loves his food and is a good eater. We did take him for an immunization and he cried when he got this one. Thankfully Row was holding him so I didn't have to look. He has 2 little teeth so he's drooling alot and loves to blow bubbles and make raspberry kissing noises.

Raspberry kisses!

Standing by myself

Pulling myself up on anything that will hold my weight

Happy New Year!

A new year, a new country, a new start! The Ming family have finally landed in Sydney, Australia. After having spent an amazing 4 months back in South Africa amongst family and friends, it was really sad to say good bye to everyone AGAIN! But it was something we had been working towards for a long time and we were looking forward to another new adventure. After stopping in Hong Kong for 1 night to catch up with ex-colleagues, friends and family, we landed in Sydney on New Year's Eve. We expected some jet lag especially for poor Justin, but we thought with the time difference, we'd be able to ring in the new year with a little more oomph and tra-la-la-la seeing as this was Sydney, baby! Unfortunately, after dinner the Mings decided to call it a day and went home at 10:30pm. Although by the time we had finished showering, it was midnight and we could at least wish each other happy 2010.

We've been in Sydney for 8 days now and it's been rather hectic. Thank goodness my mom came with us as she has been a great help, babysitting Justin while we house hunt and take care of other administrative issues. In between ticking things of our "new migrants" list, we have been able to do some fun touristy things. Last night, mum and I went to watch the Broadway musical "Wicked" while Row, BG and Louise babysat. It was a fun night out with my mum and we thoroughly enjoyed the musical and even bought the souveneirs to take home.

                                    New Year's Eve dinner at BG's apartment