Week 2...

...and although we are over our jetlag, we are not sleeping well. Flo seems quite bewildered about all the different beds she has slept in and there has been quite a bit of uncharacteristic bed-hopping. We have been staying some nights at Maria's on the coast in Hastings and some nights at Dad's in the country in Kent. The weather has been amazing so we have been outdoors a lot. It might sound weird but we seem to be doing more outdoors here than we did in Sydney. We are enjoying country walks, village pubs and whole afternoons at the local park, at Dad's. We are in Hastings right now where we are looking at houses to buy. Over the weekend we took the kids down to the seaside for a solid session of skimming stones from the beach and spent the afternoon in the next door neighbour's pool and having a bbq. We had so much fun, it made England's devastating loss in the World Cup yesterday a little easier to bear. This week we are off to Surrey to stay with Rob's sister Helen and her family. From there Rob has to jump in the car early Friday morning morning to pick up our old next door neighbours Steve and Barbara from the airport when they fly in on holiday and to hand deliver Rob's NZ passport and visa which has just arrived in Sydney. Then it's onto Suffolk to see Rick and Justin and to attend their annual village bbq. The house hunting is taking its toll and we are totally over it -fingers crossed we find something this week we both like and can afford.

Almost a week here..

... and despite feeling as if we have totally missed getting jetlag - i.e no nocturnal wakings and kids sleeping 12 hours a night - we are clearly all shattered. Last night I slept from 8pm until 6am. I was almost in tears I was so tired. Flo fell asleep in the car the other day at 4pm and was put to bed and slept until 6.30am. What have we achieved so far? We have bought a new car, which we love and is the nicest car we have ever owned. We feel very grown up and important driving it, loving the in-car sat nav and walnut dash. We have viewed several houses, including one we had our hearts set on when we saw it online from Sydney. When we saw it in person, the garden was too small to even consider it, despite the house itself being a stunning renovated Victorian terrace. We were also slightly alarmed by the next neighbour telling us about the brother she cares for with Parkinson's Disease who yells and screams at night. I loved it however. Rob loved a 1930s semi, but after you see Victorian houses, 1930s homes feel too pokey and small with low ceilings and smaller room sizes. On Tuesday we made an offer on a house we both walked into, looked at each other and said 'yes!'. Unfortunately our offer was rejected and we don't think we can manage to offer the full asking price. We were pretty gutted as its location was amazing - on the west hill of Hastings, just a few hundred feet from a huge park overlooking the channel which was spectacular on the glorious sunny day we viewed it. More to see this weekend however and at least two look like they might be perfect. The weather has been beautiful since we arrived - long, hot sunny days and of course low humidity compared to Sydney. We are still getting used to it being light at 9.30pm and again at 4am. The girls are of course bored senseless and despite Maria brilliantly taking them for many of our home inspections, they aren't getting to do much more than sit either in the car or other people's houses. Today we changed direction in our house search and headed inland from the coast to the picture perfect village of Egerton in rural Kent, complete with village pub, school, post office and shop, as well as glorious country views. The cottage we went to look at was unfortunately much too small but the the garden and outlook were nothing short of breathtaking, with a field of cows on the one side, another field being ploughed by tractor and another full of horses in a sanctuary. You could have heard a pin drop, even over the occasional moo, neigh and tractor whine. We stopped off for lunch at the Smarden Bell, a beautiful old pub I used to visit in my youth, in another perfect Kentish village. We sat in the pub garden, while the girls played football (we are all gripped by world cup fever and the fact that England have just scraped into the next round), drank local cider and beer and feasted on good ploughman's lunches. Overhead small planes did loop the loops and other tricks before landing at a small airstrip nearby. It was heavenly. Today is our 15th wedding anniversary so Rob and I are off to the Tickled Trout tonight, a pub a few villages away from Dad's house, and the location of our wedding rehearsal dinner in 1995.

The Duthies of.......

No pics yet but just a quick update. We spent an entirely blissful, final full day in Sydney. As we were staying in the Taylor-Bigg's divine Tamarama flat, we walked down the coast path to Bondi and stopped in at Bondi Icebergs fora cokctail for old time's sake. It was only 3pm so we had the place to ourselves, which was just as well, as the girls went crazy in the hanging pod chairs while Rob and I sipped a cherry caprioska and a cosmo and looked out at the surf. We walked the length of the beach and had dinner at North Bondi Italian. We flew out at 3pm on Friday and had as fine a flight you can have with two kids. The girls were mostly engrossed by the films and endless supply of food. Rob and Inoticed how much less room we now have on planes as the girls have got so tall. Sleeping with a child's foot half wedged up your nose is harder than it sounds. The girls slept really well on both flights and for the whole drive to Dad's from the airport. Am slightly in the loon zone as I type this, despite a pretty good night's sleep as I am certain I should now be asleep not awake. We have been here 24 hours, have already found the car we're going to buy, narrowed our house inspection list to 3 places, shopped at Sainbury's (Heaven) and been to the village school fete. I have just come back from a run around Barming, the village I grew up in. It was so lovely seeing the old village hall, the ouses of my friends plus the house I grew up in. I'm amazed at how beautiful the setting is - surrounded by fields and rolling hills with church steeples and farmhouses, and how litte of this we appreciated growing up. Today we are heading to my sister's for Sunday lunch and to met our new nephew/cousin Ethan who is 6 months old.

So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, goodbye

This was a big week of goodbyes. Rob and I left work - me celebrating with a final chicken and cashew nut lunch with my marie claire team, and Rob with a whole afternoon of boozing at Olympic park with the QBE misfits.We also sold the car this week and picked up a rental and saw lots of our furniture walk out the door with its new owners. We are now down to one couch and a dining table and chairs, plus beds.

On Saturday night we went to the leaving party organised by Julia, with a little help from Brett and a big group of mates. Brett made a lovely speech and, in spite of my huge fear of publc speaking, I was really pleased with my speech of reply which I hope encapsulated our feelings about 13 years of life in Sydney. It's weird to think Rob and I have lived as adults in Sydney longer than anywhere else. It was great fun and a highly emotional night with lots of tears but brilliant to realise most of our mates will be in the UK at some point in the next year or two. Here are some shots taken by Sam on the night

We devoted Sunday to lolling on the couch in front of the fire and Tv until 1pm when we were joined by George and the kids and walked up to Annandale for lunch at Vicini before running home in the rain. Brilliant. Am v excited to have found 10 websites in Britain selling just wellies.