It is Saturday morning in our second week of term and we are slowly settling into a bit of a routine. Shem is dressed for work as they have classes on Saturday too! Our house is attached to the boarding houses in a similar fashion to GGS heads of houses – a door via Shem’s study. The house is a hive of activity this morning with room inspections being carried out. Shem is feeling very superfluous as the student house leaders run all aspects of the house and do it very well. He has just said that if he left the Barwon Boys to their own devices like this they would eat each other!! – Mark you might be in for a shock!
Shem has started rowing – and yes it is the middle of winter! and yes it is pretty cold out there. Shem gets to hop into a arctic like dry suit to hit he water, it goes right over the top of his work clothes – handy. He is coaching a novice crew (phew!) and really enjoying it.
It is cold, but not crazy cold – and obviously Dibs is not feeling it at all!
Temps have been 0-10 degrees range since we arrived and the kids can play outside most days.
The kids are doing really well. They have settled into school really well. They are loving casual clothes – particularly Chloe and I am learning to say nothing!
The school is a similar size to St Roberts but includes year 7. The premises was converted from a Middle School (4-8) to its current K-7 format two years ago. The biggest benefit of this is the large spaces and fully equipped music, science and gym facilities. The kids do music three times a week and are currently learning the Ukulele. What is quite unusual is that they finish for the day at 2.15 – before they started catching the bus we were home by 2.30 with long afternoons stretching ahead of us – especially if the weather is bad. Now at least they don’t get back till 3. They absolutely love catching the bus, there is a group of campus kids who catch it from the front gate – its great and more importantly it is YELLOW like in the movies!
There are lots of children the same ages as ours. We had a boy called Jack and his dad Mark knock on our door last week and introduce themselves. Apparently Jack came home from school and said we had a new boy start in my class today – he is Australian! Scott thus bought him over to meet dibs! Dibs also has another friend Dylan who catches the bus with him, but goes to the french emersion school up the road. Dylan and Dibs are doing dance and basketball classes together.
On campus the Girls have Julia, Kyala and Riley in grades Prep, 1, 2 & 4 at school with them and Zoe (grade1) and Kiara (grade 2) at different schools.
Very lucky children (ours that is!) I think.
We have discovered there is a big craft beer culture here – you can buy bottles individually (long neck size) for around $5.50 and there is so many to choose from – Shem and I are diligently working through the range!
Dibs had a great birthday on Thursday and was very excited to spend is first and only birthday at school – he has always been sad that his birthday is in the holidays. I even baked cupcakes for him to share with his class. He received a skateboard from Grandparents (which he got to build himself) he chose a completely gold deck!
He also received a GoPro and has taken a video tour of the campus for your enjoyment.
Go Pro Photos
GoPro Skateboard tour – you get a really good look at the concrete around the school!!:
The Fitzgerald Family 
Happy Birthday Dibs. Hope you had a great bday. So glad you have all settled in. It looks amazing. We are up in Bright and Trini and I caught up with Jane and we had a mojito for you Fi. Anyway loving the blog. Keep it coming. Love Kel x
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Thanks Kel,
Jane sent me a photo of you having drinks – I was very jealous!
Xx
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Awesome post! Loved Shem heading out on the water. Makes me long for January rowing (always flat water!). Great tour of campus with the GoPro Dibs. And good job making your way through the craft beers. Love them. If you ever need a favour from Liam, slip him a Fat Tug and he’s sure to say yes. And thanks for the reply re: the broom and mop. It is so funny… can’t teach an old dog new tricks!
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All looks good Fi! Lu and Nell have been happily reading about your adventures, although Nell said to me in a worried voice the other day “Are they going to live there always?” to which I reassured her that she would get another concert performance from one of our favourite. And I see dance classes are on the cards now, so they are bound to be more entertaining. Happy Belated Birthday Dibs! Glad to see he is putting in some miles around the campus on the skateboard. Getting ready for Australia Day BBQ we will have beer and lamington for you. Slip and Slide and cricket on the cards also. Anyway, glad you are settling in. Bee good. LMLN xxxx
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Wow! How excited I was to read your updated news; especially how all the kids are travelling at school. Great to hear Shem is loving the rowing even though it is very cold. I bet the kids feel really grown up being able to choose their casual clothes each day and catching the bus. Love the photo of the three of them walking up the street, it looks like they’re on their way to school? Is it still a bit dark there as the street lights are on? Glad to hear they have all settled into school really well, especially Jemima. Glad to hear that she still loves doing the blue book each day! HA!
What a wonderful selection of beers you are working your way through; all sounds absolutely amazing. The photos of Shem on the water looks picturesque; so flat and calming. Our ocean down here certainly has been quite choppy; much like a washing machine over the hols. Can’t say over summer because we’ve hardly had any sunny days! They’ll all come when we get back to school I suspect; it will be truly perfect weather then I suppose?
Happy Belated Birthday Dibs! So glad that you were able to celebrate your birthday at school! You have done a great job building your own skateboard; looks as cool as the coolest kid in the family! Hope you have lots of fun scooting around your neighbourhood with your new friends as you take in so many new sights! Cool video too! Mrs Niewman would be really proud of you!
It certainly looks absolutely amazing where you are; great photos! Looks like a beautiful part of the world to visit! I wish!
Keep enjoying every minute! Glad to hear everyone has settled in so well! BIG hugs to you ALL!
Love Mrs T 🙂
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Love reading the update. Missing you all
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Hi Dibs this is Seb I hope you had a happy birthday and I am wondering what you are doing and I love your new skate board I watched the video of you skating it looked so cool. Please tell me how fun the skiing was🚡
From Seb
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