The Baynhams

This was our first weekend that we spent on the nearby Lake MacQuarie. Despite our best efforts, we couldn't manage to shake Gina off the inflatable water-biscuit and she can hardly walk today because she aches so much!

She was bouncing around so much Sian nearly fell out of the boat laughing.

Everyone got a try at piloting the boat, Sian and Rhiannon mastered the steering but Gareth just wanted to push the throttle full forward, that's my boy!

We all had a go at something in the water, whether it was water skiing or in the tube; Gina's brother Joe got a real fright when he fell in and was completely surrounded by jellyfish who started "sucking" him.

Gareth loved it, and wouldn't take his sunnies off all day.
















Joe won the award for the most spectacular falls into the lake, he must have drunk about 10 pints of the stuff! For those in the know, the "dragon" made its first guest appearance too......no photos luckily.

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We've finally moved into rental accommodation, and can at long last use wardrobes; no more having to live out of suitcases. The girls are delighted to have some space to themselves and Gareth is just happy to find bugs in the garden.

Here's a snap of the outside of the house, and it also includes our new car too. The house has 3 bedrooms and a gorgeous pool and huge back garden.

We now have broadband so will be "back-dating" the last month, so keep an eye out for previous posts being added. We thought that we'd just start with what is happening now and work backwards....


As you can see, Byron is settling into his office quite well. It's at the back of the house as he likes to be within shouting distance of the kitchen. As long as he's close to his beloved flag he should be happy enough!

His window overlooks the swimming pool and he has his trunks nearby at all times in case he gets too hot!!

Below are some more pictures of the house, including the pool and a view of the back of the property.

















It really is a great location, and it's just superb to see pelicans and parrots flying all around us. The cuckatoos are the noisiest and kukkaburras the hungriest; they eat kangaroo meat of all things.

We are spending loads of time around the pool as you can see from the pictures below...

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Hello at last from Singapore!
We so nearly thought we wouldn't make it!
Turned up at Heathrow airport over 8 hours before our flight was due to take off, sat back, relaxed for a while and then eventually headed down to the check-in desk. Thought nothing could go wrong until for some bizzare reason the visas were refused on the airline system....AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! After a very tense 45mins and a few phone calls between the airline and the emigration dept in Canberra it was sorted. It turns out that because the kids have dual nationality the wrong passport numbers were being processed.
So here we are hot and tired in Singapore but feeling really happy and excited.
We would love to go freshen up and change our undies and smelly t-shirts but a bottle of water has spilt inside the hand-luggage and everything is dripping wet!!!! Never mind! Oz here we come!!!!!

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At last! After only 63 weeks since we lodged our formal application we have been granted a permanant family visa!!!! Things are crazy here, Our house has almost sold (the new owners have moved all but their mattresses into our Garage!) We will be moving out in less than 2 weeks and actually flying on about the 3rd of October! Come back soon for an update!

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Gareth started pre-school this week and absolutely loved it!!
The only tears were when it was time to go home!

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We had a fantastic weekend in Wales with a lovely meal in The Gadlys Arms for family and friends on the Saturday and a relaxing day in Mumbles on the Sunday!

Thanks to Julie for suggesting chips in the park! The kids had a fabulous time splashing around in the open air pool.
It was a lovely way to spend time together on what may well be our last weekend in Wales before the move to Oz!

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Possibly our last time to see the amazing Northampton Balloon Festival. It has been fantastic seeing it over the last 9 years. It has always fallen on my birthday weekend and so we have regularly had visitors stay with us that weekend.





We have such funny memories of Nessa + Niamh, Carrie, Julie, Huw, Kerry + Lou, Charles and Sue all joining us on different years! Here are this years snaps!

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"Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to me...!!!"

Thank you everyone for all the lovely presents and cards.
Gareth has made the most of having our undivided attention while Sian and Rhiannon are away in Wales. He has "helped" me to rip open all the parcels and cards! He was particularly puzzled by one of my presents (a foil bag of soothing tea/dried flowers with a see-through panel that lets you see the contents) after staring at it for a while he looked up with a grin and said "Me know!...Its rabbit food!" All we need now is the rabbit!

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Congratulations to Sian and Rhiannon for earning swimming certificates and badges this week in Wales!

Rhiannon got TWO 5 metre badges and Sian got her 10, 25, 50 and 100 metre badges.

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Gareth and I went to see Noddy this weekend and he was mesmerised!

He wasn't too impressed when the 6 foot goblin tried to nick his lollypop!

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Here's our current status:

• House has sold, although the survery hasn't been completed yet
  
• All Australian Visa documents have been completed and sent
• Six suitcase size boxes are on a container half-way across the world

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We had a lovely birthday weekend for Mr B following a long (14 1/2hr!) drive back from Ireland.
We managed to squeeze a huge amount of candles onto a chocolate cake which set the smoke alarms off!

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We had a lovely escape to Mum and Dads house in Duncannon in July.
Mum helped accompany me on the mammouth 14 hour journey from Northapton to Wexford(Thank God for the new portable DVD players we bought the week before!)
Byron took the sensible decision to fly over for a long weekend and avoid the horrible ferry crossing!


We had some great days on the beach and Sian and Granny even made it into the water for a swim! They were blue afterwards but happy! We had great picnics with flasks of coffee and scones from the local village shop. Rhiannon dropped one of Dads scones in his cup of coffee causing a big splash of scalding coffee to land on a rather delicate area- Good job they arent planning on any more kids! (I hope!)


We had a particularly amazing evening at the Hook lighthouse on Mums Birthday. There was an open air concert at the foot of the lighthouse, Bag pipes and a pipe band against a background of moody sky. It was very emotional as it was our last time to be there for the forseeable future. The composer of the concert was explaining the background to his music was influenced by the many people who had emigrated from the area in the past- a very fitting end to an amazing place that is full of memories for us as a family.

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