Surviving the Troggs

I'm writing this 2 days after returning from the most incredible 10 day adventure of my life and it seems that I've written a bit about the kids, stupid stuff I've done and nothing about any travelling! To date, I've been to Sydney (amazing), Tasmania (amazing) and Adelaide to Alice Springs (flipping amazing).

Seeing as I've just got back from the outback I should really write about that trip specifically. I'm going to do it in a few instalments because there is SO much to write about!

Here is a little snippet about ADELAIDE!

Sunday morning, I took the 11 hour bus journey from Melbourne to Adelaide to stay in the YHA, assuming that because it's a pretty well established hostel chain, I'd be relatively comfortable and safe. Er. No. I was indeed, stuck for two nights in some sort of hellish nightmare where I was convinced my 'rooms mates' were going to knife me in my sleep. They were three troglodytes from Queensland who spent the night texting some poor girl in Brisbane threatening to 'hunt her down and teach her a lesson' for stealing one of their boyfriends. Meanwhile, I am hiding at the bottom of my sleeping bag clutching my phone, kindle and iPad for all they are worth, terrified they are going to practice their 'lesson teaching' on me. Not a great start!

Nevertheless, I survived the night and scarpered off for my Barosa Valley Wine Tour, with a tour group aptly named 'Groovy Grape'. The tour guide turned up an hour late, leaving me a little worried that my holiday will be horrible start to finish. However, I met a great group of four other girls, all travelling on their own and we had a lot of fun getting suitably sloshed tasting about a gazzilion different wines from four different wineries topped off eith a BBQ of kangaroo and sausages. After that and the outback, I think I've eaten enough kangaroo to last me a lifetime.

Out of all of the wines we sampled (and there were one heck of a lot!) my personal fave was the sparking red from Jacob's Creek. Yum! Very popular in Australia for people who like to drink red but it's too hot to here! At the end of the tour, I returned back to my hostel at 3pm, hungover and desperate for a Hungry Jacks (thats Burger King for the non-Aussie folks). Thankfully the evidence of empty beer cans assured me that the Troggs would be kept away until my early 6am pick up for the next step of my adventure!

Outback Adventures: the take off!

Hurrah! Tomorrow is the big day! Having booked and paid for everything about two months ago, I managed to pretty much forget that I am actually going on this epic adventure. I know I'm only going for 10 days, but I'm very excited to be off exploring the 'real Australia'!

Leaving the family for my holiday has made me think about when I actually leave to go back home. I'm in the really fortunate position that I've found myself another job with a wonderful sounding family in Belgium starting in August and I've got so much to look forward to, including a jolly little jaunt down the East Coast, continuing my quest to find an Aussie surfer dude to fall in love with me (and therefore offer me full residency. Well a girl can dream, can't she?) However, I'm going to find it really hard to leave them, and I know I will always look back on my year in Australia as one of the best things I ever did.

I have so much to be grateful for to my 'Australian family' who have shown nothing but kindness and generosity, and to my 'home family' for encouraging me and supporting me and putting up with the odd waterworks due to locking myself in Charlotte's room, losing a child at the park etc. etc. via Skype to which my Dad says 'God Grog you look awful! Your nose is all red, you're all snotty!' (Thanks Dad!)

Oh I'm feeling all nostalgic and I can't remember the point of this post now... Anyway, I will keep you all updated on my 950 mile trip to Alice Springs. Got the Kindle charged and I'm ready to go!

Hasta la vista baby! xxxx

Yummy mummy nightmares

It happened. It finally happened. Four months of dreading this moment and it actually happened. I think it's one of those senarios that all new mothers, nannies, au pairs alike all dread. That moment when everyone from smug mothers to knowing Grannies give you THAT look. That look that without saying a word, says a thousand.

It happened on a normal Monday morning, where I decided to take Charlotte and Ben to the park. Off I go, double buggy in tow, everything under control until Ben starts to lose it. By the time I get to the coffee shop (needs must!) he's starting to make that face which tells me I have about three minutes until his face starts to turn purple and there is no way of reigning it back as he develops into full on screaming. Of course, the coffee shop is packed and that's when I start getting 'the look'. It wavers from the sympathetic 'oh that poor girl' which is fine, I can cope with the humiliation of being unable to control a 3 month old baby, to the 'that irrisponsible girl is too young to have children and she can't even take care of them!' When the pregnant barista starts asking me if it's my first, how I found my pregnancy and so on, I am mortified! To be honest, I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner, because at 22, it's not unreasonable to supposed that I have a baby, but the judgmental eyes make me feel even less in control, and about the size of a pea.

Anyway, we manage to scuttle off, me balancing my skinny latte precariously ontop of the buggy trying desperately to leave as quickly as possible whilst Ben is still cracking it. Of course, by now Charlotte is bored and decides she wants to walk. That's fine, but I'm desperate to get to the playground so I can get Ben out and try to settle him before Lori comes to pick him up. So we are hurrying away and Charlotte trips and scrapes her knee. I now have full on screaming from Ben AND Charlotte, just as a yummy mummy sprints past in her skin tight yoga pants. Ground please swallow me up. Can it get any worse? OF COURSE IT CAN! Because we finally get to the playground and Charlotte needs a wee. So I shove everyone back in the buggy and race to the opposite side of the park praying she won't relieve herself before we get to the toilets. Hurrah, the potty training gods were on my side and panic is over. As soon as she's finished, Ben stops crying, Charlotte is skipping off to the playground and I can breathe a sigh of relieve (whilst ignoring the bitchy looks from yummy mummy number 2 and her beautiful son sitting quietly eating his fruit box).

Hey, Charlotte had way more fun kicking my bum whilst I pretended to fall over on the swings eating jelly snakes than him eating his mango, loganberry and acai berry fruit box whilst his mother shot me disapproving looks at my childish (aka fun) behaviour

Georgie: 1 Stuck up yummy mummy:0

There's a poo in the pool! And other stories

If you had asked me 12 months ago what I would be doing a year from now, looking after 3 (and a half) little monkeys is the last thing I would have said. However, here I am and somehow I seem to have found something that I might even want to make a career out of!

The most amazing thing about children is how the things that seem everyday or that we take for granted are so exciting and outstanding to them. They make you think about something in a totally new way, challenging your perspetvie on things. Kids laughter really is the best medicine, and they find hilarity out of the most mundane things. Jack is currently obsessed with me flicking myself on the cheek and pretending it really hurts. It's the small things!

We are currently in the process of potty training Charlotte, and she is SO proud of herself when she does wees in the potty that she wants to show everybody (and promptly spills it everywhere!) and even did a number 2 the big toilet which was the proudest moment in her 2 1/2 years. I say 'in' the toilet but I actually mean all over the toilet seat. I was horrified, and immediately called for Lori's assistance, neglecting to recognise that it is a big deal for her to be doing that without any assistance! However, her being a potty training superstar does mean that you have to remind her every 5 minutes to wee in the potty, not her underpants. It's exhausting and makes trips to the park so much more stressful because I'm so scared she's going to do a number 2 whilst hurtling down the slide. Nightmare! Oh, and yes she did do a poo in the pool. Fortunately she was wearing a water nappy, and the other two didn't seem phased by the fact that they were swimming in their sister's fecies. Oh to be young and care free. However, now I have dealt with poo in the pool, I feel I can deal with anything!

So here we are, me spending my precious hours off reading baby manuals and subscribing to parenting websites, whilst Googling activites such as how to make beads out of play dough. Im learning to channel my energies into creativity with the kids, with many successes (building forts being a personal faveroute) and unfortuantly, many failures (stress balls made with play dough and balloons, the most horriffic mess, just no)

Now the kids are off to the dentist, I am off to catch up on Gossip Girl and revel in the peacefulness of an empty house... xxxxx

I know it's been a while...

Life as an au pair down under

Its been a long time since ive actually written about my life in Australia, but I guess it's pretty obvious from my Facebook status' that I absolutely love my life out here. I apologise to those who are getting weary off with my gloating about the wonderful weather and more improtantly, the wonderful kids. If it makes you feel any better, it's been drizzling all morning and the kids are running wild today! However, it's my afternoon off so I can shut my door and ignore the world for a few hours. Hold that thought, Charlotte is banging my door down...hard to ignore the little monkey who defiantly has me wrapped around her cute little finger.

So as we are approaching the 4 month mark perhaps it is time that I assess my experiences, good and bad, what I've learnt and what has been the biggest changes for me.

Looking back over the past 4 months has been one heck of a journey. I am so darn lucky that I have landed with a family who I can honestly say, have exceeded my expectations of life as an au pair and have made me feel so welcome. I do refer to them as my 'Aussie family' and it makes me feel pretty teary eyed when I think about having to leave them. To know that Charllotte (2years) probably won't remember me in a few years time is horrible. To realise that I'm a temporary feature in their lives breaks my heart. I won't get to see their big milestones in life, but I have been so lucky that I've been able to know them and learn so much in the process. And we are only half way though!

Of course it's not all been plan sailing. I'd be lying if I said I am enthusiastic and happy all the time. Life isn't like that. There have been days when I really can't be bothered to give piggyback rides all around the house, or days when I am short tempered and moody with the kids. But then there are days when we have so much fun doing wheelbarrow races or playing chase that I can't imagine what I'm going to do without them. And when Annabelle says something like "I really love you Georgie, I don't want you to go ever" something tugs at my heartstrings and I know I am so, so lucky to be where I am.

One of the main things I have come to learn, within the past few weeks really, is to take a step back and relax. I don't have to be perfect 100% of the time. The amount of times I've messed up (laundry being my biggest failure, how hard can it be to try not to shrink baby Ben's clothes!?) are probably off the chart. But then as Lori constantly reminds me, I've learnt so much already, and I've gone from looking after number one, to being thrust into the deep end with 4 kids under the age of 6. It's enough to challenge even the most organised and responsible human being!

I have so much more respect for mothers, and in the first month or two I was constantly emailing my mother saying "how on earth did you do it?!" Its true, motherhood is the hardest job imaginable. But also, the most rewarding. If becomming an au pair was supposed to give me more ambition to have a "real career" then it failed miserably. I'm not saying I'm going to rush off and have a billion babies ASAP, I am certianly going to enjoy my independence for as long as possible, because once you have a baby, you lose ALL sense of independence and selfishness for sure, but when I do become a mother, I know it's going to be bloody awesome!

For being the youngest of three, and very much the spoilt one, it's been one massive shock to the system looking after 4 kids, and it's not been easy, but I feel like I'm learning a lot about myself, about kids, and basically finally growing up a bit! If I'd done this before university I don't think I'd be up to the challenge. I'm learning responsibility, selflessness and above all, patience. Probably the three things that are my weakest qualities. I am incredibly proud of myself, and whislt there are days when I beat myself up over the small stuff, and not so small stuff (losing Jack in the park was possibly the worst day of my life out here), if I take a step back and look how far I've come, I'm doing pretty well really.

So as I finish off this blog, I'm feeling pretty happy, blessed and I think I might go and give Annabelle a big bear hug. Xxx

Learning to boil an egg

I read today in The Times (yes, I have the app on my ipad) that one in seven students entering into university cannot boil an egg. Now, I haven't read the Daily Mail's article about this, but I can be fairly certain that they have made it into some big 'the youth of today' article condemning all youths as irresponsible thugs. No, its not all idiotic lazy teenagers who live off junk food, nor is it students who have been in boarding schools all their lives who fit into this category of 'hopeless dependents' - I also could not boil an egg before I went to university. I made a scrap book which had on the front page 'a boiled egg takes four minutes!' I wish I was joking. The point I am trying to make, is that just because freshers may have never done their own laundry, picked up an iron, boiled an egg, the world is not coming to an end. We are not a degenerate generation. I managed to teach myself how to cook, do laundry AND got a degree. It is not difficult.

Three years ago I couldn't boil an egg, could barely navigate myself to the end of my street, and yes, I did manage to end up in Newmarket when trying to get to Swindon from Durham, yet now I am responsible for three children under the age of six and mercifully they are still alive.

When thrown into the deep end, be it university or moving to the other side of the world, we an adapt and if someone has managed to get into university (or get themselves successfully to the right terminal at the airport) we can assume they are intelligent enough to learn how to boil an egg. Hopefully.

Frauline Maria I ain't

Is it the fact that I live in a bungalow that the rain is really, really loud or is rain, like everything else in Australia, bigger, scarier and more dangerous here? Anyway, as the lightning peaks through my curtains and the thunder roaring so loud that I swear I just felt the bed shake (and no, not for the reasons those of you with a dirty mind are thinking of) I am starting to doubt my abilities as an au pair. I feel lightyears away from Maria Von Trap from the Sound Of Music, singing about ones Favourite Things' to the little darlings as the crawl into my bed on such a perilous evening. Rather, I am wishing I wasn't home alone, and cursing myself for being such a big baby. If I can't cope with a bloody thunderstorm, how am I supposed to look after three children?! For now, I shall hum to myself whilst thinking of spaghetti bolognaise, Pinot Grigio and Justin Timberlake. Ooh I feel better already...