My Fear Share

Thursday 21st. Today the delivery of Lucy to Conlan is brief for me as I won’t go in. I want to transition away from being by her side 24/7. The pickup may go the same way and she might need to walk home alone, we will see.

I wanted to return to Macquarie because it gives me something to do, and the bank used nearly all our available time yesterday. I think two hours in a mall exhausts me as I was ready to return by 12 noon and that meant I could wait for Lucy at the top of Bridge St after dance. In NZ I’ve been used to doing Lucy pickups in a car…now I’m doing it on foot. Is this progress?

After a trip to the supermarket to organise food and further resources for the apartment the afternoon has been allocated for R & R due to the heat and energy levels being low.

One of the great things about Australia is that there is cricket on TV every night at the moment because of the Big Bash T20 – and its free-to-air!

Its Wednesday 20^th January. I think Lucy is tired from a combination of travel, increase in exercise and any lingering anxiety about her new surroundings. I get it and she has done really well to cope with these changes. She is a bit slower out the door today and we needed to head briskly over to Conlan so as to not set a bad impression regarding tardiness. We got there with enough time for me to give Paul a bit of grief about the finish to the Australia/India cricket test – great game, great result and great to poke an Aussie.

For me the morning is going to be relaxed while I take stock of what has been achieved, what needs to be done and consider what dinner is going to look like.

After picking Lucy up we used our Opal cards for the first time by jumping on the bus to go to the Macquarie Shopping Ctr which is about a 20 minutes trip. This mall is quite new and has far more to offer than St Ives. I’m even tempted to try and walk there on a day that is not so hot because it’ll be more than an hour one way.

Due to the scale of this mall and it’s unusual configuration we relied on an impressive water feature for our bearings and ‘lost child’ point. Today’s trip was to sort out Lucy’s bank account and debit card etc. ANZ had difficulty this time around because Lucy is a minor, but we managed to get it sorted after they scratched their combined heads several times. Aussies – no surprises there…

Back to Conlan this morning and we didn’t get lost – already an improvement on yesterday. The process of dropping Lucy off and making connections with Susan and Paul takes less time and I’m quickly off for another walk to St Ives. My plan is to walk as often as possible, despite the heat, as part of my goal during my time in Sydney is to get fit not fat.

Today I am returning to Telstra because I’m a sucker for punishment and to organise Lucy’s phone. Not much change from yesterday’s experience despite being served by a different person.

On my return to Conlan at lunchtime I took the opportunity to talk with Susan about Lucy’s nutrition and what her advice would be regarding breakfasts etc. It was important for Lucy to hear that she is now an elite athlete and the fuel needs to reflect that…not a message I could deliver on my own but it was well received. Conlan have their own café on site and this opens next week after the Australia Day long weekend.

We headed off to the supermarket again (a daily event until we are fully stocked) and we make choices that are more healthy. There will be no chocolate, biscuits, lollies or ice cream in the shopping trolley while I’m here…

Lucy starts The Conlan College at 8.30am this morning! I thought getting Lucy up and running was going to be interesting at best, but she surprised me and managed to be ready in reasonable time.  I had built a bit of wiggle room into the morning schedule for the ‘just in case’ and that proved necessary – I got us lost on the way there having walked 10 min in the wrong direction (cue the eye roll emoji).  Once that was sorted we arrived (already hot and bothered) with enough time to do the introductions.

Conlan is really flash. It is set up in a two-story office building, and incorporates the entire top floor.  Everything has been converted into an appropriate and modern dance studio and the owners/principals Susan and Paul warmly welcomed us.  We were both given the royal tour and you can tell they are proud of their college.

After leaving Lucy to do her warmup and morning session (in this first week the schedule is 8.30am to 12.30pm) I was able to slip away. I walked to St Ives Shopping Centre to sort out my Au bank account and phone. St Ives is 4km away through leafy suburbs which reminded very much of Highgate and Roslyn.

The Iranian woman at the ANZ was awesome and we were able to complete the banking process very smoothly, I wish I could speak as positively about the Telstra process – talk about chalk and cheese experiences. Finally I organised two Opal travel cards which are necessary for bus, train and ferry travel before heading back to Conlan.

Lucy seems to have had an ok first day but I’m not going to ask too many questions…

We have now been in Australia for seven days and finally found time to create this blog.  I have gradually set up what we needed to exist i.e. banks, phones and travel cards and resourced the apartment for what will be an eight week stay.

These first posts will be a rundown of those days.

Day 1: We left Dunedin last Sunday (17^th) and arrived into Sydney about seven hours later. This was our first real experience of wearing face masks for hours at a time – not fun but certainly necessary.

There is almost no one at any of the airports and we were out the door looking for a taxi, which we found really quickly. 45 minutes and $95 later we are dropped at the apartment, find the keys as arranged and in we go. 

So far so good.  Tomorrow is going to be a big day…

My blog is being refreshed with a new look and some new thoughts. My new mantra is all about peace and this image is of the front steps of my house. These steps were made over 100 years ago to celebrate Armistice Day in 1918.

I have carried this theme into the house and appropriately named it Te Rangimarie (one of the Maori names for peace). This choice reflects the history of the steps and the culture of the past owners of the house.