Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all - may 2008 bring much joy and prosperity to all!

We are doing really well here in Sale, Australia. There was some nasty medical politics initially which seems to be settling down, but apart from that, the people have been wonderfully welcoming and friendly.

Sale is a small town of about 13,000 people; it has all the amenities that one needs but is a bit short on some unique and interesting shops. There are plenty of other towns close by and Melbourne is only a 2 and a half hour drive away. The sporting and library facilities are excellent and the tennis and pool complexes are huge and impressive. The girls are at a private co-ed school - Gippsland Grammar - and are for the most part happy and settled. It has been interesting to compare the standards with EL schools: the girls are ahead of their Aussie counterparts in English and the arts, but behind in maths and science. They work more days a year here, but seem to work generally at a slower pace. The facilities at the schools are excellent and many classrooms have their own interactive whiteboards, and all have computers with internal networking. The kids all used to have their own laptops, but the school has moved away from laptops at school as it proved difficult to control what the kids were up to; instead, there are designated computer rooms around the school including the maths and science labs. Our girls are more articulate than their peers and also more polite; the Aussie kids swear a lot, but then so do most Aussies! The kids here seem to do more for themselves without control/involvement from the teachers; for example, the end of year plays would have production, sound and lighting all managed by the kids themselves, so the standard in the junior grades is not up to the standards we were used to at Clarendon.

The music here is also interesting: all children have to try a variety of instruments and many more are encouraged to perform in concerts regardless of their standard: very good for the children, but very tedious for the audience (especially as we as a family don't know the children yet) We don't as yet have a formed opinion regarding the education here, but I would definitely say that the EL schools compare very favourably with Gippsland Grammar in many ways.
Something that is very different here is the safety of our children: the school takes great care on outings with all arrangements, and that has been a huge relief to me compared with SA.

The country itself is also so safe, and where we live, we have no gates or fences or bars. I don't keep my doors locked at home and don't mind whether the car is locked or not. This aspect of our lives has been the biggest in terms of differences: we feel safe and secure at all times, and the girls are free to ride or walk down the road to visit friends, or to go to the shops on their own. I find this such a huge relief and appreciate the freedom we enjoy because of it.

The Aussies are also better off financially and the Government here encourages people to save and provides tax breaks accordingly. Tertiary education is also far more affordable as the kids can get interest-free student loans which they only start paying back when they start earning. Also, if they take a gap year after school and show that they are able to support themselves by earning AUS 18,000 in the year, they are given preferential student fees because as a group they have been shown to be more likely to succeed at their studies. There is of course also no affirmative action here and also plenty of scholarships around.

The only big downside here is the flies: it is unbelievable how many of these critters there are here and we can't believe that no-one has found a solution to the problem. There are some almost fly-free days, and then others that are so bad that you are afraid to speak outside for fear of sucking in a couple!

We have bought a lovely home on 2 acres just out of town and are looking forward to moving there in less than a month. We have also just bought a beautiful horse for Gabi; for those of you in the know, the horse is a 13 year old,14 hand chestnut gelding called Tambo. He was a brumby - a wild horse - who was caught near here near the Tambo River (hence the name) at the age of 4 years. He is a real beauty and Gabi is in her 7th heaven. We have made friends with a racehorse trainer Marion, through her daughter, Courtney - Courtney and Gabi are great friends; Marion has walked us through this whole process and it was she who found Tambo for us; she has known Tambo for 5 years so we are really very lucky. The house we are moving to has a large paddock for Tambo, and we will be putting in a ringyard for Gabi to practice in. Chloe is getting a puppy - a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, and Jaime will be getting a kitten. There is a chook pen (hens), so the Painters are going farming!

In the meanwhile, Mark is working hard to support us all and is enjoying his job. A helluva lot more civilised than EL with good nursing and lots of support. He does a lot more calls here but they are far more tame than the calls in EL. He does miss East London and his patients at Frere but knows that work at Frere would probably have been the death of him, one way or the other. I, on the other hand, am still embroiled in the registration process; bureaucracy here is every bit as bad as it was in SA, which is a surprise to me, so it's all moving very slowly. I'm not worried at all about the slow pace because there is more than enough sorting out to do with everything else and it's school holidays anyway. The longer I'm not working, the more reluctant I have become to start again!

Jeanne-Marie