10 years in Australia

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day Rob and I arrived to live in Australia. Back then Rob had a shaved head and I sported a short spiky bleached thing. We had just finished 4 months travelling across the US, the Cook Islands and New Zealand, and carried no more than a backpack each. At the time we knew we were here for the Millenium and the Sydney Olympics (both staggeringly memorable events) but I'm not sure we knew we'd still be sitting here 10 years on. We've lived in 6 different houses, had 4 different jobs - Rob 9 years at IBM and now at QBE, me at New Woman and the The Sydney Morning Herald. We've managed trips to San Francisco, New York, Connecticut, England, Scotland, Italy, Cape Town, New Caledonia, Bali, Lombok, Cambodia, Vietnam, New Zealand, some more than once or twice. We've learned to sail and sailed ourselves around the Whitsundays twice, we've dived on the Great Barrier Reef, driven up and down the east coast of Australia, finding a favourite beach and town along the way and popped to the big red centre to look at the rock. We've paid high taxes, but discovered the hard way they were taxes worth paying, as we've seen inside more hospital rooms that anyone should in a lifetime and came out not just alive but highly impressed with the level of care. We found property here is an expensive as London, which is why winning the lottery forms most of our long-term financial plan. We've eaten amazing food, drunk fine wine and been invited to some brilliant parties. We've made fantastic friends and more than doubled our circle thanks to many of us having children around the same time. And best of all we have produced two beautiful dinky di Aussies of our own, born in the same hospital room, who couldn't love each other more than we love them, and who are beach-loving, water babies. Here's to the next 10 years, may they be as happy and lucky.