Debbie's Journal - May 2000

Don't really have a lot to say for my first news letter. With the telephone it is so quick and easy to ring rather than write. But this is a good way for us to tell everyone what is happening - I can never be sure who I've told what.

This is the first version of our new Web Site. Hope you have a cup of tea or coffee with you - that's the reason I chose the animated gif. (Can't remember what the animated gif was. - Deb 2015) I did plan to add something alcoholic, but unless we can find an animated gif with wine in it, it looks like the current grapey border is going to have to suffice.

Well, we're finally all down in Melbourne - pets, furniture and all. Luckily the project I was working on slipped, otherwise it would have been another 6 weeks before I made it here. The pets seem to have coped well. Tony said Mitzi was so happy, she did a "dance of joy" in her cage on arrival at the front door and, in no time, it was like she'd always lived here. Astra, on the other hand, went berserk and according to Tony keep meowing every night as if she had lost her mouse. It looks like her 'mouse' was me - she's apparently much more settled since I arrived.

The area we are in is great - we're close to shops and transport. It's a 30-minute tram trip in the mornings, although when I don't come home with Tony I take the train because it is only 20 minutes. However, the trams seem to come every 5 minutes during peak so it is not too bad. My only trouble now is making sure the car gets some exercise - we ventured out to a new shopping centre yesterday and it was the first time the car had been out in 1.5 weeks.

Boy is it getting cold here. The cold has aggravated the back strain I got 2 years ago and it is now so difficult getting out of bed and walking around. The house is completely tiled, except for the bedrooms, and you can just feel the cold seeping into you as night comes. I've already been warned by the locals that Winter has not come yet. Looks like we are going to have to invest in another heater. We've finally worked out how to use the gas wall heater and get the fan going on it, but it tends to only warm one room. All the heat ends up going into the 2nd bedroom which is basically a guest/store room.

Mitzi, as she did in Sydney, has a demarcating mat between the kitchen and the lounge so she knows how far she can go. We could let her throughout the house because it is tiled, but then she is likely to be tempted to run straight out the front door (or, as she's already done, settle down on the lounge for a warm and comfy snooze). She's discovered that she can get the mat to slide if she hits it fast enough. Her best effort to date, under the guise of being pleased to see us home, has been to move the mat about halfway into the lounge room.

I've discovered that the weather is a big topic here - basically because it changes so much during the day. It might be raining hard in the morning and then, by afternoon, it has cleared up and the sun is out. The worst thing has been the wind - my trench coat has come in handy. The wind is really freezing in the mornings, but by night it has dropped and it came be quite a balmy 13 or 14 degrees Celsius.

Although Tony and I now work closer to each other, we've managed to be on the farthest ends of the CBD. So far we have met only 1 day out of 10 for lunch and come home together about 50% of the time. Tony is enjoying the new job - he says it's "fun" but at the same time he has been there long enough that he now starts to get queries from all quarters. I've only been at work for 2 weeks but it is quite exciting to be part of a "writing development" team instead of on the sidelines which seems to happen with a "software development" team.

Mum, Dad and I spent 2 days meandering our way down from Sydney. I've told a lot of people this - the Autumn colours in the Southern Highlands and in NE Victoria were gorgeous. I'm still trying to finish off the film so that I can get the photos processed - we've still got photos from Los Angeles on the roll.

Well - I better finish off and let Tony have his computer back. I've got all good intentions of keeping this site up-to-date, but we'll see how that goes once we really settle into work and life here. There's no excuses for anyone not to drop an e-mail now - I've included a link on every page of this site!

And I'm also looking for personal web sites for the "Other Sites" page. That way, we don't have to bookmark everyone's personal web site and neither do any other rellies or friends.

Until next time!