What an amazing place.
Before we flew here last Thursday I had never been anywhere in the Pilbara. I've been to the Kimberly region, the south west, wheat belt, goldfields, great southern and obviously the metro area.
But the Pilbara was all new to me. Most people think I'm crazy for moving to a place I've never been before. And when they hear I have a newborn, 4 yr old and 5 yr old they think I've completely lost the plot.
But I've done it before. We moved to Corrigin with a 6month old and we had never been there before. And we loved every minute of it.
It's about taking that leap, trusting that as a family you can survive anything and about adventure.
My husband and I always say to each other 'there is so much more to the world, let's live it, explore it and learn from it'
So after Isla was born we began making our preparations to get the rest of our family up here to join hubby.
We planned to leave 4 days later. Miss5 however had been suffering from an earache so we put off the flight to make sure she was better. Then the day after having Isla I was at the dr with an ear infection. Can't fly with an ear infection, so we put off the trip for a couple days more.
I finally booked the flights for exactly one week after Isla was born. Two days before we were due to leave we were again at the Drs, this time with Mr4. He hadn't recovered very well from his ear infection from a couple weeks before and had developed glue ear. Basically he was deaf as a door knob (actually quite hilarious at times!) and the dr advised that if he was to fly up here his ear drum would likely burst. Bugger! We couldn't really put off the trip any longer though so we decided that Mr4 was going to do the two day drive with hubby and Zac the dog. It would be an all boys road trip.
So we did a last minute dash around and got the boys ready to go, trailer hooked up, Thermomix in the front seat, dog in the back and plenty of junk food to occupy them.
They left on Wednesday last week and drove the 1600kms with plenty of fun, plenty of stops and tonnes of junk food. I was actually jealous of what an amazing time they were having. The photos hubby was sending were great. Mr4 is a true country boy at heart and enjoyed the boys time.
Zac had a massive area to relax in (he hates car rides)
Mr4 and Zac having dinner, Mr4's reaction to seeing horses and a lunch break at the park.
As you can see they had tonnes of fun.
Thursday was the girls turn. We had the suitcases absolutely at breaking point. Mum had poked and prodded and pulled, pushed and squeezed until there was no room left. We thought we had finally remembered everything (we hadn't!). So off to the airport we went.
A quick stop for lunch at one of the crappy airport cafés and we were on the plane. Waving goodbye to mum (who was, of course, crying!).
We sat on the plane and the very first thing Miss5 did was get out the emergency safety procedure booklet and start reading it. Safety first!! Haha. We had packed lolly pops in case Miss5's ears gave her any grief and I had a packet of chewing gum because my ears were still playing up. As we started to take off I got super excited and was leaning over Miss5 trying to look out the window. She didn't like that so I sat back and fed Isla-she didn't have any problems flying though.
As the plane got up and settled into its flight Miss5 turned to me and said "when is the plane going to start flying properly?"
"It is flying, look at the ground you can see we are actually moving"
On the way up my ears were popping like crazy. I was officially deaf in my left ear. I got worried that it would be my ear drum bursting!! Miss5 asked me "when will my ears start popping?" I was so glad her ears were good.
The flight was easy, Miss5 coloured in and read the magazines, Isla slept and I relaxed back and tried to look out the window.
"I'm just closing the blinds because the sun is too bright up here" Miss5 said and blocked my view!
After I bribed her in to opening the blinds again she promptly shut them "it's just a bit cold out there so I'll shut the blinds."
The next time I was able to see out the window it was clear we were in red dirt country. I could see rocks and mountains and lots of red dirt. I was getting excited.
As we began our decent my left ear started getting really painful. Like really REALLY painful. And I was super deaf. I got really worried that my ear wouldn't last.
Finally as we got closer to Paraburdoo airport I got a good look out the window. We were landing on a runway in the middle of the sticks-literally! There was a long bitumen runway with nothing but red dirt and a little shed for the 'departures.' The entire car park was full of cars with orange flags on top, orange flashing lights and company stickers on the sides. And then right at the end our black 4wd with no bull bar, no stickers, no flag and no lights! It looked very out of place!
Hubby and Mr4 were standing at the gate waiting for us! I was so happy to see them.
We drove to our little house in Tom Price-a 45 minute drive to the next town. It was a nice little house but the company had found us a bigger house. So we had an apprentice mechanic living in our house-using our furniture (argh!! A 20 yr old male just does not understand about red dirt, washing machines and general tidiness!!) I was not happy about having someone else in our house, and he was to stay there until we left, as it was to become his house.
I was over living with other people. I had lived with other people for 3 months!! I was looking forward to bringing my newborn home and spending time just the 5 of us. I ended up sitting in our bedroom feeding Isla, changing her nappy in the bedroom and because the apprentice was sleeping in her room we had to move the cot into our room for the night!!
So the next day we moved to the new house, the bigger house! Seriously I had just travelled 1600kms, hubby had spent 2 days driving and now we had to move house. Why?!?
The first night we had just the beds and the fridge in the new house. But at least we were here as a family-no one else! It was like heaven to me after living with others for 3 months.
For the rest of the week we slowly moved everything from the old house to the new house. And began the enormous task of unpacking. The kids thought it was Christmas. They had ALL their toys back, Miss5 was excited to have all her shoes back. I was surprised at how much they had both grown in the 3 months, half their clothes no longer fit. "Why is my pram so short?" Miss5 asked me. She had grown so much it seemed like her pram had shrunk!
Mr4 is happy as a pig in mud. Although he doesn't get the concept of the he whole town being called Tom Price. He called the old house 'small Tom price' and he calls our new house the 'big Tom price.'
All the other houses are called 'all the other Tom prices' I keep trying to explain to him that the whole town is called Tom Price-just like our old suburb. All the shops and houses etc are a part of Tom Price. He still doesn't get it though.
We have driven past the kids new school. Can't wait for them to be back at school next week!!
We have already been to the doctor. Just a post glue ear check up for Mr4. I was surprised to find there are actually 3 doctors in town. The last country town we were in only had 1. I was also pleasantly surprised at how thorough the doctor was. Without meaning to offend anyone I often find country doctors to be pretty average. It was a nice surprise :-)
There are a few things I have found different about the Pilbara compared to the city (or other country towns).
First thing that spun me out was that the schools are two story and all the classes are on the top floor-apparently this has to do with how hot it gets up here.
School goes from 8am-2pm instead of 8:45am-3pm. Wow! I have to be out the house by 7:50am!! Argh!
The 'white' cockatoos are covered in red dirt and look like completely different birds. There is also an awful lot of them up here, and I mean A LOT!
They don't have recycling bins! Seriously there is only one wheelie bin. Rubbish. We used to fill up two bins per week in the city I have no idea how we will survive with only one!
There are LOTS of prickles up here. Big, ouchie prickles. The kids now have 'outside only' thongs so they don't bring prickles into the house.
Everyone up here seems to have matching letter boxes. Seriously they do! You can drive down most streets and at the end of the verge there is a perfect line of white metal letter boxes. It's one of those silly things that most people would never notice but I find hilarious.
Two things that suck a lot so after about our new house-no dishwasher :-( This. Sucks. I got so used to always having a dishwasher that having to wash the dishes sucks.
The other thing, I finally have a good old hills hoist washing line, yay!!! But I can't reach it, no!!!! The thing sits so bloody high up in the sky there is no way I can reach it. So far I've been putting the washing through the machine and then getting hubby to hang it out and bring it in. I have no idea what I'm going to do once he goes back to work.
This week has been spent mostly moving house and settling in.
I'm happy to report that the big kids are sharing a bedroom with very little fuss. No staying up late talking, no 1000trips to the toilet, Miss5 is still completely dry (YAY!!).
My secret to stopping the kids from talking to each other all night-putting the chest of drawers between them.
We had our first little adventure the other day. Not that we went far. We took our 4wd on its first off road adventure and went up Mount Nameless. From our front yard you can see the mountain. It's beautiful, so up we went. The scenery from the top was amazing. It's one of those moments where you stop and think-this is breathtaking. We live in an amazing world. Nature is an incredible thing. It's what makes hubby and I say "there's so much more out there" we love travelling to new places and exploring new things. We hope to see a lot of the national parks while we are up here. We live so close to Karijini national park. We plan to explore as much as we can while here. We have our 4wd so we can go more places. It's quite exciting.
The top of the mountain
On the drive back down
Our 4wd on its first off road adventure
This is the town of Tom Price from the top of the mountain-we live on the edge of town, right hand side of picture.
I hope to be able to share some more amazing adventures and photos for you over the coming weeks and months. And hopefully next time I go somewhere amazing I take my SLR camera and I'll try my hand at getting some decent photos.
It's been a crazy week of moving, unpacking, settling in, sleep training Isla and teaching the big kids to use an 'indoor voice' while their sister sleeps. It's been tonnes of fun but I'm ready to get this adventure going.
Next week is school and play group and hopefully meeting some people in this super friendly town. The week after hubby goes back to work and I hopefully survive being housewife and mum to three kids. The week after that hubby goes away for 3 nights-my first time with three kids by myself. My biggest challenge that I can see will be getting the kids to school by 8am!! That's so early! And I'm definitely not a morning person!
No comments:
Post a Comment