VanDijkTrack

We are already 1 year in Australia and this milestone is a nice moment for evaluation. It was an interesting year with many beautiful experiences and also many challenges. Coming here without knowing anybody made us realize and experience how important social relations are and how much you normally depend on others. On the other hand we also experienced that this made it a richer experience with many opportunities to learn about ourselves and our social life. It gave us also another view on daily life and culture in the Netherlands and Australia. A more detailed description of how we experience after 1 year living in Australia can be found on the following page: “evaluation Australia”

On a Sunday we went again to Boondall Wetlands Reserve for a walk. The salty environment creates an exceptional flora and fauna. In the Reserve many Indigenous art totems can be found which makes it even a more attractive to walk and look around. The pictures below show three of the many totems with their meaning.

Daily life goes on and so also the park parties. Jorick had a birthday party of a girlfriend in his class in a park. Ponies were organised for the kids to ride on. Also Nicole (being a girlfriend from her sister) was invited making it fun for both Jorick and Nicole. Nicole loves animals very much so she enjoyed it a lot as you can see.. The many parks are intensively used here for family meetings, parties, celebrations, etc.

Another day we went walking just a few kilometers from our home near the Lake Samson Vale. Already close to Brisbane you can walk for hours without meeting other people. This gives a real nature experience.

The 3rd picture above shows a spider in our garden. Many insects (and animals) have beautiful colors here.

That’s t for now. An update will follow sooner this time.

Cheers,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick

February was hot. The heat kept us from doing many activities. Just a simple walk during the day gets you totally wet from sweating. On average it is several degrees above 30 degrees Celsius and humidity is high as usual for a subtropical area. There were also some warnings to be careful because snakes were very active and present in large numbers. 

However, it is always good to have a BBQ, so we had several “barbies” with others at their or our home. To be honest not many people here are quick with letting you in their private environment. Several migrants told us that the Australians are very nice, but it stops at the front door. Nevertheless we have met many people and some of them we consider already as our friends.

The school holidays have ended at the end of January so the children had to go to school again. Both Jorick and Nicole were looking forward to start in their new class. Nicole is now going to year 2 (primary) and Jorick to the preparatory year. After two weeks they got used to the new rhythm and sometimes preferred to stay at home. Nicole continued her tennis lessons and started guitar lessons. Both Jorick and Nicole continued swimming lessons. Jorick had already two show&tell presentations. One about a favorite toy (Lianne the giraffe) and one about a favorite photo (his birthday party in Bosch en Duin with candles on the cake).

Also for Anita and Jan the normal daily life continued again. Anita started to work in a new project from Geriatrics/General Medicine to help develop a new service called Home Based Acute (Hospital) Care. Besides his consultancy work Jan started an MBA in the UK to refresh his knowledge and to get it formally recognized with a certificate as well.

After we bought a large trampoline already half a year ago we decided to create a playground in the bush garden. However first we had to remove many trees and to flatten an area with a machine (bobcat). This plan was delayed by a broken chainsaw and other activities. Anyhow this finally happened so now the kids have their trampoline and the swing. Perhaps we will also extend the area with a sitting area and a BBQ.

In the evenings suddenly crowds of Flying Foxes showed up. It seemed that several trees have blossoms they like to eat. Besides already all loud noises in the evening these foxes added another flavor.

Visiting the Samford Historical Museum we saw how the first settlers here started their community. 150 years ago the land was sold and in 1872 the first school was build. Al lot of old equipment some houses and a school are shown with some explanation on things developed.

It’s a bit weird that differences between summer and winter are limited. Nevertheless different animals show up during the year depending on the time of the year. During a party at the Sweeney Reserve some parrots showed up.

Also Grass Hopper are everywhere and sometimes real big ones show up like this one on the car. And of course they like a good concert as well.

The breeding season of the Brush Turkey is over and we didn’t see any chuckling. Though the Lace Monitors had a good time eating all the eggs that were laid inside. To end the game we have decided to clean up the messy mound also  being a breeding stove for many insects as well. So here we go.

Kind regards from us all.