Social Butterflies

The thing we miss the most already is the friends and family we had back in London.  And even though we didn't see all of them all of the time, it was nice to know they were always there.  So now we find ourselves in a position where we know very few people.  

But we've been lucky so far and we have had a few social engagements already this week...

We started with a dinner out with Brad's new boss, Warren, and his lovely wife, Karlya, and a couple of their friends.    Karlya is also pregnant and just a couple of weeks ahead of me.  It'll be great to have someone with a baby the same age and seeing as this is their second child I'm sure they'll be fountains of knowledge for us.  Karyla has also offered to take me around the hospitals to see what's on offer.   I've read rave reviews on all of the Melbourne hospitals so I don't feel particularly choosy or fussy about which one we end up in.  The hospitals are like school districts where you have to go to the one in your borough.   A chicken/egg situation to find the house in the area of the hospital you want or the house in the area of the hospital you want!  

Friday I met up with Holley, a South African girl I used to live with in London about five years ago.  She lives in north Melbourne but came down to my neck of the woods for the afternoon.  Holley has been living in Melbourne since January and is so happy.  naturally, she's missing her London friends but her boyfriend has an enormous family in Melbourne so they've settled in rather quickly.  Holley came over on the highly skilled visa as she's a teacher.   

Sunday we found ourselves at a BBQ with a group of Saffa's that we'd never met before!   Through good old Facebook and our mothers having a mutual friend, they invited us to their place in west Melbourne.  What a lovely group of people, so welcoming and full of useful information for us.  One couple has been here for six years so have all the locals only knowledge.  The other couple has only moved over in January so have fresh experience of what we're going through right now.

Our Sunday visit had us travelling to west Melbourne which took just unider an hour with one changeover in town - not bad at all and easily done when you're used to London transport.   I'm sure it would be a much shorter journey by car.

So meeting all these great people has made us feel less worried about being friendless.  We have a way to go of course and if we do find ourselves on our ace then we always have Meetup.com or the St Kilda 'crazies'...