Category Archives: Family

The One Where We Move to Tasmania from the UK

July 28, 2013 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 146 Comments

A statue of Louis Bernacchi at Hobart waterfront with the text 'Moving to Tasmania from the UK'

We are moving house again. Not a little move, but a big one.

We are moving from the UK to Tasmania.

Yikes.

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I can tell you the exact moment that I made my decision.

It was a beautiful sunny day. I was sitting on a bench in a playpark, the sun on my face, drinking a cup of tea and making easy conversation with another mum – someone I’d met all of forty minutes earlier. Her young son was gurgling contentedly on a picnic blanket at her feet, while mine had just jumped off the slide and was running up a small hill towards the swings, when suddenly he stopped and shouted.

‘Mummy! Mummy! Come and look at this! It’s a parrot! Lots of parrots!’

I walked towards him, and sure enough, there were five or six brightly coloured rosellas walking around, squawking and pecking at the grass.

DorkySon was enthralled, and something flicked in my head at that moment.

Yes, I said to myself. Yes. We can do this. We can move to Tasmania.

And so we are.

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A Happy Harris Holiday

July 8, 2013 By in Family, Scotland, Travel Tags: , , , , , , 19 Comments

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a four-year-old boy. Imagine that your favourite things to do are playing with your cars and trucks, spending time with your family, and running around outside to burn off all that energy that you have. Then imagine that you can go on holiday for a week and do all those things, every single day.

Lucky old DorkySon has just had one of the best weeks of his life up on Harris. It is always a pleasure to spend time back on the island that was my childhood home. It is one of those places where the pace of life is slower, where there are only imperceptible changes from year to year, and where I am always greeted like an old friend. It’s an even bigger pleasure for me now to watch DorkySon enjoy the same simple things that I did as a wee girl.

Isle of Harris beach Continue reading →

One Week: Spring

June 5, 2013 By in Family, Harpenden Tags: , , 6 Comments

It has been very quiet around here, with not much news to share, but I can never resist the opportunity to join in with Older Mum’s One Week project, which she runs once every season.

This week it’s time for us all to write a post reflecting on Spring.

It was a long time coming but now – in the first week of June – it finally feels like Spring is here. It’s a little blustery out, but there has been sunshine for the last four or five days, and it’s meant to carry on into the weekend which is good news because we’re going to our first barbecue of the year. I’m also sporting my first sunburn of the year. Never bloody learn… Continue reading →

Live in the Now: May

May 29, 2013 By in Family, Harpenden Tags: , , , 7 Comments

The Bank Holiday weekend was a good reminder of how important sunshine is. Everything seems easier, everything can be done with a smile on your face, everything seems more possible when you open the curtains to a warm, bright day instead of a cold, grey one.

We had one of those weekends where it didn’t feel like we were doing very much, but we still seemed to pack it in. A lovely lunch and an afternoon at the park with a friend we hadn’t seen for a long time. (‘Jeez,‘ she said. ‘Is this what people do in the suburbs?‘) A drink at the pub in town with a beer garden where, to DorkySon’s delight, there was a bouncy castle set up. A little potter around the farmer’s market to pick up some local honey and strawberries. And some bread and ham. And some cheese and radishes. Oh, and some chicken, and some ribs. And some freshly ground coffee… Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who wrote ‘I can resist anything but temptation.’
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