Anzac Day April 27, 2008

This weekend was a long weekend for Australia New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) Day. Celebrated every year on April 25th, it started in 1915 as a day to remember those who served in WWI at Gallipoli and paid the ultimate price. Its turned into a day to recognize all our “Diggers” (Aussie soldiers) who have served their country in all the conflicts we’ve been a part of. The entire country shuts down, at least until noon or 1 (it’s illegal to open before then) and pays tribute to our vets. Thousands of Aussies make the journey to Gallipoli every year for the dawn service and several services are held here. It is really quite amazing at how many young people are involved in this remembrance day, and it gives me hope for our younger generation yet. Perhaps all is not completely lost on them.

The weekend was absolutely gorgeous. After the torrential rains last weekend, it was nice to have blue skies and sunshine. We went for a walk along the beach Friday morning and up to the Spit. The Spit is the inlet from the canals/rivers to the ocean, and there’s a pier and a rock wall at the end of it. They also have dog-friendly beaches up there where dogs can run off the leash and surf, etc. Saturday morning we were up with the sun – I think my body is getting me in training – so we went back out there, this time with the camera. Here’s a couple of pics:

Inflation April 23, 2008

I had started writing a post about the Olympic Torch touching down in Australia and the whole China/Tibet political controversy issues surrounding the games, but when I went to cnn.com to learn more about what the actual issue is, a headline caught my attention: Australian Inflation Rises Steeply.

The price of EVERYTHING is going through the roof here. Houses, interest rates, petrol, food… They tell us that interest rates have to go up to make inflation go down. Apparently the problem is our economy is TOO good – the dollar is strong vs the US dollar, unemployment rates are the lowest they’ve been. I was never good at economics or accounting, but it seems to me a booming economy should HELP a country’s citizens, not hurt them. God knows how many people are at risk of losing their homes because the 3 interest rate hikes we’ve had this year alone have put financial strain on too many families.

Of course, as all these daily necessities rise, salaries and wages stay the same. It is such a vicious cycle, but what is the answer? Do we want the economy to crumble?

I heard on the news yesterday that the price of oil is up to $117US a barrel. I remember just a couple of years ago, petrol prices were on the rise because oil had gone over $50US a barrel. It seems like September 11, 2001 and the subsequent war that was born of that day, has caused long-lasting damage to the entire world. Everyone is effected by everyone else. There HAS to be a way to put an end to these rising oil prices. If only the motor companies would make hybrid and solar powered cars more affordable for everyone, if we could drastically reduce the demand for oil, then prices would HAVE to go down, would they not? That’s about the only thing I do remember from economics – supply and demand.

The Australian government hosted a weekend-long Twenty20 summit in which 1000 delegates discussed Australia’s future and goals for where they want the country to be by the year 2020. I think that shows great foresight by the government, but how many of their recommendations will actually be put into place? And that is still 12 years away…what do we do in the meantime?

I don’t have any answers, and I sure wouldn’t want any federal governmental job, but I do wish I had a better understanding of why things are the way they are. Makes me wonder if we wouldn’t have been better off staying in the US and riding out the recession going on there.

Government Stuff April 20, 2008

I wouldn’t say we left the US because of the way the Government was running it into the ground, but we weren’t happy with them, and hadn’t been for a very long time. About 7 years to be exact. Anyway, I haven’t completely figured out the Australian government yet, but I try to pay attention to what is going on and what issues are being discussed, etc. If you listen to the news, you’d assume the hot topics right now are plastic bags in grocery stores, binge drinking, and paid maternity leave. The government’s proposals on how to resolve these issues have me somewhat baffled.

We’ll start with the grocery bag thing. Someone has decided that the number of plastic bags we use at grocery stores is a HUGE environmental issue, and something has to be done. The govt. official in charge of this project wants to see plastic bags banned completely, OR see a charge per bag at the check out (10c-15c or so). I actually don’t really have a problem with either, as we make every effort to use our environmentally friendly re-usable bags every time we go shopping. My problem lies with the fact that I think there are bigger environmental fish to fry than plastic freakin’ bags.

Binge drinking…apparently its an epidemic here and the number of people assaulted/injured because of binge drinking is rising every year. The number of underage drinkers dying in car accidents is apparently also on the rise. Proposed solutions? Raise the drinking limit to 21, shorten liquor store hours of operation, close bars/clubs earlier, stop selling pre-mixed package drinks. Here are the problems with those.

If you raise the drinking limit to 21, you end up with a bunch of irresponsible 21 year olds. From my personal experience, by the time I was 18 and moved to the states, drinking was an old thing for me while other 18 year olds were getting their first experience with it and spinning out of control. Then when they turned 21, they went out and did it legally for the first time and had no sensibility about drinking.

There will ALWAYS be underage drinking, no matter what you make the age. If a 16 year old is going to drink and drive, he or she will do it whether the age limit is 18 or 21. Underage is underage. The only way this might help is if 16 year olds don’t know anyone over 21 who will buy them alcohol, but lets face it, everyone knows someone.

If you shorten hours of liquor stores, people will just go earlier and buy their alcohol. If you shorten bar/club hours, people will drink faster because they know they don’t have as much time to drink. None of these options will stop the bingers from bingeing. The only answer I can see is better education on the effects and dangers of binge drinking. That said, the stupid anti-drinking commercials on TV are not effective. There’s one on TV of a group of young people playing pool, and this guy asks “Angie” if she wants another drink, to which she stops and imagines herself winning an olympic medal, climbing mt. everest and kicking some ninja butt before responding “nah”. Then she looks at the camera and says, “Wow. That felt good.” How about you show images of car wrecks, images of people in wheelchairs, show the people who have been affected by binge drinking, send a clear message about what being intoxicated can lead to. I feel very strongly about this issue and I hate to see time and money wasted on solutions that won’t work.

Paid maternity leave is another thing I feel quite strongly about, because I’m a woman and because I’m pregnant! So right now, there is NO paid maternity leave. Companies have to give you 12 months maternity leave, meaning they have to hold your job for 12 months, but they don’t have to pay you for any of it. There is a “baby bonus” scheme in which you get a $4200 lump sum payment when you give birth. The govt. feels that younger women are getting pregnant to get the money, and that the money isn’t being used for the child, but rather to buy TVs, cars, etc. So under 18 year olds now get the payment in installments, and if you are a known gambler, alcoholic or drug user, you get vouchers instead of cash. I think that’s great. They’re talking about introducing a mandatory 14 week paid maternity leave, but I’m unsure as to who they expect to fund it – the companies or the govt. If they expect the companies to fund it, then I suspect women between the ages of 18 and 40 will have a problem getting work. There’s also talk about implementing the paid maternity leave but dropping the baby bonus. Ok, so who will pay 14 weeks maternity leave to stay-at-home mums? The government?

This weekend there was a 20/20 summit that politicians and some Aussie celebs attended. They were supposed to be discussing issues affecting Australia right now. They just said on the news they also discussed Australia becoming a republic in the next 2 years. If you call yourself a “republican” in Australia, it means a much different thing than to call yourself a republican in the US. We don’t have a republican party, we have Labor and Liberal. A “republican” is someone who wants Australia to separate from the commonwealth and the queen. If you are a US republican, then here you’d most likely support the Liberals, and if you’re a democrat, you’d most likely support the Labor party.

I hope they don’t rush into anything on these issues. So far it seems they’re just throwing stuff out there, and not thinking about every angle of the consequences. How can I get into politics?

Long Awaited Post April 17, 2008

A week and a half ago we moved into the place we’re renting from my mum. I thought I had planned enough ahead to have the phone and internet switched on upon arrival, but apparently bigshot phone companies are just as incompetent here as they are on the other side of the world. First, they connected our phone number to the wrong line, so some poor woman had her number changed without realising it! Then, because they f*d up, our ADSL internet connection was stuffed up because the phone number didn’t match the address I’d given them. That all got sorted out, just in time for us to wait the 3-5 days for internet to be connected, only to find out the day it was connected, our phone line went out! That took another 24 hours to fix. So finally, we have internet, and phone. To top it off, there’s something wrong with our antenna and we have a guy coming out Tuesday to look at it to see why our TV reception is so bad. And did I mention the ants I keep finding trails of?  BUT, I’m not complaining (really, I’m not), because it could be much worse. Next week we’ll be all fixed!

I can’t believe that in just a matter of weeks we’re going to be parents. I’m trying to be calm and relaxed, but sometimes I just get plain freaked out. So much responsibility, so much to do and I don’t know how to do any of it. Nappies, feedings, sleeping – do you put them on their back or stomach? I can never remember! We have birthing classes starting in a few weeks. If I remember correctly its 5 or 6 weeks, 1 night a week. Hopefully that will help ease my mind, and not freak me out more!

I have been feeling ok – I still tire easily, which I guess is understandable. And I think the indigestion is starting. I don’t think I’ve ever really had it before – its not a very nice feeling! Feeling like you need to burp/puke all the time isn’t very pleasant. A few weeks ago I had a couple days in a row of swollen ankles and feet, that didn’t feel so good either. And walking around a lot makes my ankles hurt. Oh the joys of pregnancy! Other than all that, the belly is growing and he is moving around ALL the time now. It is fun to poke my stomach and wait for him to move around or kick back, like a little game we play. It still blows my mind that there’s a tiny baby in there making all those movements.

I was going to also post some rants about the government, but I think I’ll keep them for a separate post. Now that we have internet, I don’t have to try and cram everything into one blog post!

If I Knew Then… April 10, 2008

People always say, “If I knew then what I know now…” and wouldn’t it be nice if we’d had the foresight when we were younger to know what our future lessons and mistakes would be.

But for blog’s sake, if you could tell your 18 year old self 5 things that you know today, that you wish you knew then, what would they be? To clarify, you have to assume you still live the last x years the same way you did, but what little (or big) things along the way would have helped you today? Does that make sense? Here’s mine:

1. Put all your bonuses from work in a separate account and don’t touch them
2. Don’t sell your Honda civic
3. Don’t stop paying into your Roth IRA account
4. Spend less money on clothes and more money on weekends away
5. Find a wedding site with a really nice indoor weather backup

In 2 1/2 Years April 9, 2008

I was going through my computer files today and found the Christmas letter I sent in 2005. Its amazing what can happen in 2 1/2 years. We thought 2005 was a huge year and that we had become “adults” because we were engaged, living in our own house with our dog and cat, we had to make the decision to put the cat, Colby, down when he got pancreatitis…those were adult things to me. Now 2 1/2 years later, we’re married, sold our house, took a 3 week vacation in Europe, moved to the other side of the world and found out we’re going to be parents. Now who is all grown up? I guess its nice to see that we’re progressing onward and upward, taking the next steps in our lives and moving into the next phase. I think it is going to be the greatest stage of our lives yet.

A Pregnancy Newsletter April 8, 2008

I had an appointment at the hospital today to have an anti-D shot. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but Mike and I have different blood types, which means its possible that Nicklas has a different blood type than me. That can cause my body to develop anti-bodies which would most likely attack the next baby’s blood system and kill it. Crazy the way the body works, isn’t it?

Anyway, they gave me a newsletter to read while I waited to go in for my shot. I don’t know if its the pregnancy hormones or what, but I had to stop reading it while I was waiting because I was about to burst into tears. They’ve written a letter from your baby on the front of it, it got me a bit choked up. Here it is:

Well it’s been really great floating around in here for the last 36 weeks, but I’m starting to get pretty squished up now. I wonder what happens next? Although I don’t realise it now, pretty soon I will be venturing out into the big wide world. As soon as I’m born I’ll be alert and looking for you. Everything will be new to me and I’ll need you to hold me close and help me to feel safe and secure. I’ll need lots of cuddles. I’ll love to feel your skin against mine. I’ll love to hear the sound of your voice – I’ll recognise your voice straight away because I have been listening to it since I was eight weeks old in the womb. Talk to me softly and sweetly, sing to me gently. Love me to bits! I’ll need your love – it will help me to grow.
Love,Your Baby

I think it was the recognising my voice that got to me. I told mum, “Awww, he can hear me.” She said, “Yeah, better stop all that cussing!”

Our Own Place & Settling In April 5, 2008

I’ve been away from the internet for a few weeks, and technically am still away from it. But I managed to find a connection out there to post this. We should have our own internet connection late next week. We moved into a townhouse today. We’re fortunate that my mum was in a position to invest in a property and we are renting it. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, split level place with a nice back patio that will be great for eating once we get an outdoor setting. We didn’t have that much stuff to move, but its still managed to take all day. My feet are absolutely killing me.

Up until now, we haven’t had a “home” in Australia, we’ve had places we were staying. This is finally a place we can call home, and we’re both hoping that helps us to settle in a little more. I think I am having a tougher time than Mike is, but I kind of expected that when we moved. It is hard to be away for 11 years and then to try come back and fit in. I feel like I have to find my place in the family again and that hasn’t been really easy. We left a lot of good friends and familiarity in Atlanta and its going to take us a while to find that here.

Little Nicklas has been kicking and squirming away. I can’t wait for him to be here. I know there’ll be no sleep and there’ll be dirty diapers and there’ll be crying and screaming and puking…and I still can’t wait! I have an appointment at the hospital Tuesday for an anti-D shot. With my blood type being rh neg and Mike’s being rh pos, there’s a chance the baby’s blood is creating anti-bodies which could harm the next baby (assuming there is a next baby!). Its amazing what the human body can and will do.

The only other big news really is that Mike got a promotion at work and is the shop foreman. They’re also sending him to Sydney for a 2 day class in May. I’m so proud of him.