Paul and Sherri

Well, we have been here for  a few weeks now and are beginning to get established.  Paul has officially taken over in his new job and will have a week of work before they go on stand down for Christmas.  The Navy takes a month off for the holidays, because it is also their summer and the kids are out of school.  This is a little unimaginable to us, having a month off work, but we will be taking advantage of it and seeing as much of the area as we can.

Sherri has joined the Australian/American Womens Association and meeting lots of interesting people.  They get together weekly for outings such as tours and shows in the city, hiking in surrounding area parks, and their monthly LAW Review.  This last one sounded quite boring, until it was explained that LAW stood for lunch and wine!  We are surrounded by the wine country and it is a good opportunity to sample some of the local wines.

We have an interview at All Saints' College next week with Alex.  It is a private anglican school that we are hoping he will be able to attend when the new school year begins in February.  Since there is not an US military base here and no Department of Defense school, the military will pay to send dependents to a private school.  This works well for us, since the school district we will be living in is not one of the better districts.

Our household goods arrived earlier than planned and have cleared customs in what seems like record time.  We will be moving into our apartment on Monday, December 15th.  It will be great to celebrate Christmas in our new place.  Sherri is looking forward to having all of her kitchen ware back in order to cook for Christmas.  We have been eating out a lot due to the limited cookware in our apartment and the difficulty of planning meals without all the essentials.

The town we are living in is very relaxed and eclectic.  There are lots of interesting people, many of which we would call hippies, artist, and just plain weird.  It is not unusual to see people walking around town (or eating in a restaurant evidently) in their bare feet, or sleeping on the sidewalk if they please.  There are a number of backpacker hostels in the area, which seems to draw a large number of young people, and creates a lively night life.  Although all the shops and stores, including grocery store and target, close around five o'clock, the restaurants and pubs do a thriving business in the evenings.  In contrast to this, Australia has done very well in mining and there are a lot of people who have become very wealthy in the past few years.