Two Days in Canberra

Rob and I had an unexpected little outing to Canberra. He was called in for an interview and I tagged along to see if I would like to live in Canberra. For those of you who don't know, Canberra is the Capital of Australia . It was a planned city built with the purpose to become the capital just like Brasilia was built to be the capital of Brazil. I thought both cities had a lot in common even though I have not been physically to Brasilia and only know it through TV and pictures.

Canberra has new architecture and is very spacious place. It has beautiful parks, natural life and the shopping is great! We had dinner in a very nice Italian restaurant which I enjoyed the chicken pasta with white wine sauce and Rob got the veal a parmigiana. For dessert we had tiramisu who was nothing else but sponge cake with cream, no hint of coffee or amaretto a real disappointment.

It was very cold in Canberra (it has a ski resort near by so you can imagine that it is cold there), I was all dressed up like winter which was strange. I never expected to be so cold here in Australia for some ignorant reason I thought the whole country was warm and hot! By the way we are not moving to Canberra, it wasnt that we did not like the place but with the baby on the way I wanted to be near family and friends seeing that most of my family is in Holland. Well hope you guys enjoy the slide show with the few pictures we took while in Canberra.

Spring in Perth!!!

First of all I want to say that I am sorry for my silence regarding my blog posts. Its been a very hectic August, not only were we looking for a house (which by the way turned to be a very exhausting experience) but also Rob is looking for work. We did find a house which we liked and we are now waiting for all the paper work to be accepted.

On the baby front everything is going very well. I will have my next ultrasound in a couple of weeks which of course I will post the pictures for all of you to see the little jumping bean growing into a real size baby. I still cant feel the little bugger move, even though everyone is asking me, "Have you felt it yet???". It is just a weired concept that I can feel my child move inside of me, I don't know why but I always get images of the film Alien when the thing explodes out of the chest of its host (hahahah). Oh well it is one of my favorite films...another thing that is becoming increasingly annoying is everyone turning to me and saying, "Enjoy your life now because it will be over soon." Talk about positive attitude towards starting a family, than they are surprised why women get post natal depression. Wouldn't you get depressed if the only thing you hear is that you life will be over when your child is born and when you finally popped it out, not only you need to deal with the fact that you have a tinny life to take care but also all those words of "wisdom" of people around you come to hunt you? I wish that there was a kind of law against being negative around pregnant women. Well sorry guys for all the rant on pregnancy ordeals but I needed to get it out of my chest. I am finally experiencing the happy hormones which they talk so much about. I do feel much better and also it feels like I can take the world, its a nice feeling.

For the rest Perth is getting warmer and all the wild flowers are coming out to greet us. I do love spring I think its my favorite season, not too hot and all that fresh air with flowers everywhere. Last weekend was our birthday (Rob and I have birthdays on the same day) so we gathered his family and went to Kings Park for a picnic. It was a warm sunny day and all the flowers were out. I took some very nice pictures of the park and all the flowers. I hope you enjoy them. I also added in my web album pictures of the Rugby game which Rob, Julia and I went to watch. It was so fun to cheer with all the Australians and it was my first Rugby game so I had a blast! Also in the same album there is pictures of the car that we bought which Rob and I love. So I will only add the pictures of our birthday on the blog and for the other pictures please go to my web album. I will soon update the blog again, please be aware that if the house goes through we will be arranging everything to move so it might take some time for all the updates to come through. Oh I am also working on a little overalls for the baby, I already started knitting it and I already done 50% of it, will post pictures when its done. Well I hope all of you are well and enjoy the slide show.

Baby on board: Jumping Bean

I am aware that many of you had no idea of the great news that I am about to tell you! After a year of trying and with some sad results along the year; we are finally pregnant!!!! Yes I am 12 weeks pregnant and just had my first ultrasound yesterday! For some reason I didn't believe it was true till yesterday, after seeing my little peanut I was sure enough that he/she is here to stay. I changed its name from peanut to jumping bean because throughout the ultrasound it kept jumping around and having fun while we were watching. Jumping bean is about 5 cm at the moment, it has all its limbs and is healthy. Rob and I were so surprised because we expected not see much with the ultrasound (we thought we would just see a little blob hahaha) but than there it was a perfect mini baby with its little hands waving at us! We found out that I was pregnant a couple of days before leaving to our honeymoon in Brazil. So I didn't even go see the doctor because I was just scared that something would go wrong again so I decided to wait. I just enjoyed my honeymoon and just when I arrived here in Perth Australia did I go to the doctor. They did all the tests and everything is fine, which gives me an immense relief. For the rest everything is fine over here DOWN UNDER. The first week we just slept a lot and since then ts been non-stop with all the immigration papers. We bought a new car last week, a Subaru outback 2008. We are also at the moment looking for houses because we are staying with Rob's parents at the moment. Rob is looking for employment too. So everything is slowly arranging itself. Well this is all the news I have to give you all. Rob and I are very happy with the baby, I am sure all of you are too! Well enjoy the pictures of jumping bean bellow:

The photo above is from Kim Mallroy photographer.

Honeymoon in Brazil!

There are not enough words to describe how wonderful our trip to Brazil was for Rob and I. Not only it was a great honeymoon but for me it was special because I haven't gone back home in 11 years. I had a chance to meet up with some of my old friends and also to meet with my two sisters who I had missed so much. We started our trip in Sao Paulo, (were I was born and were one of my sister's lives) we stayed there for 7 days. It was great to meet Henrique after 11 years, he hasn't changed much, just that know he works very hard and has a wonderful sweet girlfriend (soon to be wife I hope!). Carolina also went to Brazil at the same time as us so we caught up with her and her sisters, which was great! My neighbourhood has changed so much that I almost didn't recognise it. The school which I used to go to high school has been demolished and now its a car park. Although the neighbourhood has changed and grown, it has also become a very trendy area with all the best bars and nightclubs. It was very strange to be there with everyone because it was the same but at the same time very different. I felt like a tourist which made me a little sad. Also I had a chance to have some great pizza (my city really has the best pizza in the world) and great steaks. I had a chance to spend some time with Regina (my oldest sister) and it was very nice to see her and my nephew Alexandre. I was happy to find them well and it was great to catch up with them after 4 years. Rob had a chance to go fly a helicopter in Sao Paulo and he absolutely loved it! The 7 days flew by so fast and before we knew it, it was time to move on to Buzios. We took a bus to Buzios (8 hour drive) and arrived in the morning. My sister Rulla picked us up at the very small bus station of the town. It was so nice to see her because I hadn't seen her in 14 years!!! We talked over some breakfast and after I had to have a nap because I didn't sleep in the bus over the excitement of seeing her after so many years. We truly loved Buzios its such a pretty town and the beaches are just like paradise. The food was very good and everything about it was just perfect for our honeymoon. I had enough chances to meet up with my sister and catch up. We stayed in Brigitta's a bed&breakfast in the center of town. The rooms were perfect and every morning we had breakfast with a sea view (what more do you want!). We had some great pizza's also at the Pizzaria Dolce Vita where the chef/owner was a very nice and funny Italian man (who by the way was a very well known tennis instructor in his younger years in Italy). Almost every day we had some pizza or some pasta there because it was one of the only restaurants which the price was fair and the food was just amazing. We went out occasionally to some bars at night with my sister but Rob and I were always so sleepy that we weren't much fun, I think the whole wedding and move was finally catching up to us. We also did a day tour through Rio de Janeiro, were we went to the Maracana, Sambodromo and The Christ. I loved the big statue of the Christ it was just very impressive. The days flew by and before we knew it we had to go. I said sad goodbyes to my sister and promised that it would not take another 14 years for me to go visit her again. I hope you enjoy the slide show!