Work

Finally I am back at work! It's been another long break for me what with the shoulder injury, emigrating to Australia, shoulder treatment, Julia having a baby and me becoming a dad and the last few months of trying to find the right job but we got there eventually. I started back at work a week last Wednesday and it feels something like normality has been resumed and the final pieces of the crazy jigsaw of our lives have fallen into place.
I've started working a couple of days a week at a dental practice in Preston - which is about 25mins drive from where we are in Essendon. And hopefully in the next month I'll also be working with the same dental practice at their branch in Moonee Ponds (only 10mins from home).

I'm still finding my feet with my new job. There are a lot of new things to get used to especially the paperwork, the computer system, the surgery and the patients. Fortunately teeth are pretty much the same, whether you're in Scotland or Australia so the actual dentistry I'm doing is very similar to what I'm used to.
Preston is a very multicultural area of Melbourne with a particular high population of people from South East Asia and China. Walking through the streets near my surgery is like walking through another country. There are Vietnamese Restaurants, Greek Cafes, Chinese Grocers, Italian Bakeries and Japanese Sushi Bars. Beside my work is a big Asian supermarket where I will be able to find all the weird ingredients I need for my cooking I've not found anywhere else, and behind that is Preston Market.
The market is probably what Preston is best known for and it is just like a smaller version of the famous Victoria Market. It has the same incredible range of seafood and fresh meat. There are veg stalls and noodle bars and pie shops. I think we might start doing our weekly shopping there as it is all a lot cheaper than the supermarkets.

The multicultural aspect of Preston also means I have patients from absolutely all over the world. My nurse is from Venezuela and the receptionists are from India. The patients I have seen so far include Egyptians, Italians, Sri Lankans and Greek. By and large there is no great language barrier because most people speak good English but there are times when I don't altogether understand the patient, the patient doesn't understand my nurse and then the nurse doesn't understand my Scottish accent. It doesn't help that the busier I am the faster I tend to speak and the more Scottish I become. Then no one understands me.

I don't mind this too much. I am more concerned by the fact that my accent tends to change over time to accommodate patients, so I have a worrying feeling I might very soon start to develop a dodgy Scottish/Australian accent, for which I can only apologize in advance for. You have been warned.

Aside from my return to work we have been busy seeing family. We had Easter dinner with Paul, Simone and Claire. Paul cooked an amazing roast pork on his high tech bbq - the crackling was spot on. Thanks guys for a lovely lunch. We have been up to Ballarat again to see Larry and Ange and then we had them over to our house just last Saturday for lunch. Julia cooked a nice Coq Au Vin. Everyone seems to be cooking up a storm these and I am very spoiled.

The footy season has started and by that I mean AFL not soccer. AFL is massive in Australia and particularly here in Victoria where it originated. There is wall to wall coverage of it on TV at the weekend and the newspaper's sports sections are packed full of commentaries and news and tipping. I thought the coverage Rangers and Celtic had back in Scotland was big but it's not as big as AFL. It is an obsession. I have enjoyed watching a few of the games and supporting my local club Essendon. I might even get to a match. I am slowly learning the rules and as soon as I understand more I will devote a separate blog to explaining this wild, anarchic, mental sport to you.

Isla is now a great big happy, chubby baby. Seriously - her thighs are like the michelin man. Her big bonce is weighed down even more by her great big jowly chops. She is drooling a lot and spewing a lot and talking a lot. She loves to lie in her cot and chat to the ceiling. She doesn't like being made to go to bed. She can sit up a bit now and complains when you put her on her back. She loves kicking stuff, especially her mum's face. We've been playing a game in the bath where she has to kick the rubber ducks off the side. Now anytime she see's a duck she instinctively tries to kick it. We may have to discourage this as when she's old enough the very rare Wood Ducks in the pond at our park might get a good kicking.

expert duck kicker

Our Anniversary

Julia and I have been married for six years and on Saturday we celebrated our Anniversary. We arranged a babysitter (thank you Nicole!) and went out for dinner at a Thai Restaurant in Moonee Ponds (a suburb just 10 minutes away from us). It was quite a fancy Thai meal - the green curry we shared had mussels, scallops, prawns and barramundi in it. After our meal we found a cafe across the road that served amazing churros (Spanish style doughnuts) and chocolate sauce. We were completely stuffed.

churros!

For the most part, the last couple of weeks have been very quiet for us. Julia has been catching up with friends and family (she had a trip up to Ballarat with Isla) and going to doctors appointments and the mothers group. I have been sorting out my arrangements for work and have had a few meetings around Melbourne. I am very glad to say that I am starting work this Wednesday! Thank goodness. I am looking forward to putting yet another long hiatus from work behind me and getting on with normal life. Julia is also looking forward to having a more normal routine which doesn't involve me hanging round the house with her and Isla all day. Though it has taken what feels like a long time to get back to work, I am really appreciative of all the extra time I've had to hang out with Julia and Isla. I feel like I've got to know Isla properly over the last few months and am confident doing most things with her (I will admit that changing a pooey nappy still gives me the boke though). I've been able to enjoy watching her change from day to day and week to week and I will miss that when I'm back at work.

Isla has been busy discovering her feet recently and the very sight of her little toes wiggling about can fill her with great excitement. She is good at chatting and likes to sing along with me and Julia (for some reason her favorite tunes at present are hits from the 80s, especially Karma Chameleon and Take On Me).

The weather has been unusually mild for Autumn (or so I'm told) and it is still in the mid 20s most days with lots of sunshine, though some of the trees round here have started to turn. And this weekend it is Easter - yes, Easter in Autumn! Easter is a much bigger holiday here in Oz than it is in Scotland and there is going to be lots of Easter egg hunts and family meals. I might even try a roast!