The House Fairy and other stories.....

The river near us

Maciek had told Amelia to make a wish to The House Fairy, to find us a nice house to live in.  And sure enough she came through with the goods much to Amelia’s delight.  It’s not big overall but the bedrooms are huge and there’s so much storage space that there are cupboards and wardrobes that we haven’t been able to fill.  The bathroom is new with underfloor heating and so is the kitchen even though it’s tiny.  This kitchen has an oven, and a kettle, but no microwave or freezer!  The owner is meant to be trying to get us one.  Oh well, you can’t have everything.  The décor leaves a lot to be desired.  Apart from new flooring and the abovementioned renovations, the rest of it looks like it was bought from a deceased estate jumble sale fifty years ago, and not in a retro way!  And it smells like great great grandma’s house that’s been empty for years everytime you walk in.  My favourite piece though is the old tapestry hanging on the wall of the kids room that belongs in a 16th century castle.  We also found out when registering our residency at the local town hall that there is a man also registered at this address who was born in 1913. The man at the town hall said that he has probably died and the current owners have forgotten to deregister him. Then Maciek said we’ll look for him under the floorboards as there seems to be a bad smell coming from there.  The Austrian man found this very amusing and made Maciek repeat the joke to me when I had returned to the desk after taking Noah outside (before he wrecked the place and ate all the complimentary gummy bears). The Austrians are not known for their sense of humour, more for hiking and yodeling and spraying manure all over the place, and they all sound like Arnold Schwartzanegger when speaking English. 

Speaking of weird and wonderful, I sent a wish to the Sleep-In Fairy on our first night here.  With the most annoying church bells in the world far behind us and shutters on the kids bedroom that plunge the room into darkness even in the middle of the day, I held high hopes.  And to our delight, we had a glorious Sunday morning sleep in until 8am!

Since getting involved in the school I have met so many people.  Mostly British women married to Austrians, but some who have moved out here with their families.  We’ve been blown away by the help they’ve offered, and somebody always knows somebody who can help us with work and accommodation.  People I haven’t even met yet, are emailing me about meeting up so they can come with me to the library and show me how it all works so I don’t have to fumble through on my own, or take me to the doctors to register.  I’ve had texts and phone calls just to see how we’re getting on and asking if there’s anything we need.  We’ve heard there are lots of Australians living here too, but have yet to meet one.  The population of St Johann is 8500, so it’s small enough that word travels fast, and Maciek had a meeting today with the Manager of a tiling company and a strong possibility of work until Christmas which will help us get through the winter.

First day at school

The first week of Nursery and Kindergarten for Noah and Amelia is over.  It wasn’t as bad as we anticipated, getting up early and out to school on time (they start at 8am) after 3 months of no routine.  Noah loves it and wants to go everyday, and when we turn into the street where the school is he yells ‘yay kindy!’  And to our complete surprise, Amelia has loved it too.  We expected tears and clinginess, but apart from the first day she has skipped in to the classroom with a wave, a blown kiss and a huge smile, and coming home with stories of all the new things she has learnt.  I was a bit shocked though at being asked to sign a form to give the school permission to administer medication to the children to prevent illness associated with radiation after a nuclear plant disaster!  Not something I’d ever given any thought to, so naturally I was taken aback!  Apparently all schools around Europe need to get this permission from parents after the disaster at Chenobyl and more recently Japan.  Austria has no Nuclear Power Stations, but every country surrounding it does.  I signed it, thinking the likelihood of it happening is minute.  What else could I do??? 

We have no English channels on the T.V, so have no clue what’s going on in the world a

s we can’t understand the news, that is when we can find a news channel.  The kids don’t seem to mind.  We’ve listened to The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song in French, Polish and German, and it’s funny watching Die Simpsons with the distinctive voices we’ve come to know having been dubbed over.  The German Marge has a lovely smooth feminine voice, and Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in the German ‘Analyse This’ is just not the same.  Scrubs was on yesterday which was funny, and not because I could understand the humour!

Anyway, it’s the weekend and I’m sending another wish to the Sleep-In Fairy.

So for now, Asta La Vista, Baby.  I’ll be back.

Tell me when this hike is over!