What a relief, we had a great flight with Qantas from Singapore! They couldn't do enough for us, and managed to find us a row of 4 seats, so Crack could lie down and sleep next to us! He slept virtually the whole way and hubby and I enjoyed a few drinks and a movie.......and I thought those days were gone!
Sadly it was a short flight though, so when we arrived at 5am local time, we were all tired. We were the first plane to land....it was our pilot's last flight before retiring and I think he was keen to finish up and open the champagne!
Our driver was waiting for us and bought our coffees with his staff discount card before heading into the city to our temporary home on Kangaroo Point. What a place! We've really lucked out! We must thank both Tony and Lesley for sharing their lovely apartment with us whilst they travel South America (currently on Easter Island) and my clever mum and generous dad, for allowing us to "swap" a couple of months in the Coach House for Tony and Lesley's visit to the UK next year! We wouldn't be here, or in such a beautiful spot, without them!
View of the Brisbane River from the balcony
Open plan living area
Crack's room
Our room
Our enormous bathroom complete with walk in shower and jacuzzi bath (note toilet seat up - thanks hubby.....how many times!?!?!)
Whilst on the subject of our wonderful house swap - I'd like to recommend Homelink International - the website we joined to find a swap. There are so many opportunities to swap with people from all over the world - and it is a wonderful way to save money on accommodation (and transport too sometimes!) - which can mean the difference between going somewhere exotic or sticking to a short haul option! We'd highly recommend joining - if you are serious about swapping then the £115 a year joining fee is well worth it! Although I do recognise that part of the reason we are so enthusiastic is because we aren't swapping our house! It's not for everybody....
Yesterday we unpacked a bit, napped, swam and walked and generally tried to get on top of the jet lag. It seems to have worked for most of us, but sadly I was wide awake between 1 and 3 am, despite being tired! Fingers crossed for a better night tonight! Crack is settling in well, helped by finding a pink trike on the balcony when we arrived, along with a box of his favourite books that we shipped from home.
This morning we took the free city ferry from the dock right outside our front door, up the river to the centre and met our bank manager to pick up our Aussie bank cards. NAB have been brilliant, so easy to set up a migrant bank account and a 4% savings rate....hard to get that in the UK at the moment, might be worth keeping the account! We had some burritos for lunch and took the ferry home, where Crack is supposed to be napping but is mainly crying intermittently....
Our next exciting adventure will be trying to find the car in the underground car park, fit Crack's seat, figure out how to drive an automatic and navigate our way over Storey Bridge and back to do a big shop at the nearest Coles....ooh I can hardly wait!.....don't miss your next thrilling instalment.......back soon!
ps sorry that this post reads like an advertisement, but when you are exhausted and travelling with a toddler, I find you appreciate good service more than usual!
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