Tuesday, November 30, 2010

What a Night!!!

I remember a month ago, it was Wednesday morning. I started my day with a cup of coffee, when i got the milk, i noticed that it was not cold. I then checked inside the fridge and sort of investigate if the rest of the stuff are cold or not. I then called my husband and informed him that the fridge is not working so he could ring up the plumber to check on it. My husband rung the plumber but the plumber was too busy he was not able to come within the week.

Every morning, i have to go to the shop to buy fresh milk and throw the milk that i bought the day before. All the food we had inside the fridge has to be thrown out in the bin because it all gone off.

Saturday comes, we were waiting for the plumber to show up. He kinda forget that he said he will come on Saturday afternoon, if my husband didn't made a follow up call we would have been waiting for nothing. The plumber manage to show up around 6pm at night. We were hopeful that our fridge will be running again, but, after hours of trying to figure out what happened to it, he wasn't able to fixed it.

The following day, my husband ring up one of our friend from Melbourne and asked him if they still have that fridge they've used before and if it is okay if we could use it. Monday after lunch my husband and my daughter traveled to Melbourne to pick up the fridge with the Ute. They didn't stay there very long.

While they were driving on the freeway heading towards  home, he noticed that there is something wrong with the ute but he didn't stop straight away. He just kept driving until the other driver signaled him that he got a flat tyre.  He stopped to look, the tyre was badly damaged, the rubber was already cut halfway around it. 

It was 6pm at night when my husband rung me and told me that he got a flat tyre and he needs me to bring him the spare one. I already put my son to bed at that time. I looked around the back yard for the spare one. Thinking that i've got the right one, i put it right away inside the booth of the car. I rung him back and described to him the tyre i have found, but he said that it was the wrong one. It was for the motor bike.  It's already getting dark and i have to look again around the backyard hoping that i could find it. I have seen one next to the trailer it was halfway buried with the soil. At first, i thought, it was not the one but when get closer and touched it, it moves. This time i am certain that i found the right  tyre.

I get my son out of bed and put him inside the car, even it destruct his sleep. I was already about 30km away from our house, when i noticed that the temperature gauge goes red and i realized that there was no water in the car. I kept driving until it gets hot and have to stop on the side of the freeway. I ring my husband again and told him that it will take a while for me to get where he is because the car is hot. It is so unfortunate, that when i looked inside to get the water bottle it is only half full. I have to wait at least 30 minutes before i could put the water in the tank. 

The traffic was a bit heavy that night. While i was in the freeway, every time a truck passed by, i felt the car moved. I could not help but thinking what i have seen in the television like that highway patrol , there are cars crashed into the other car that was standing still on the side of the freeway, with that thought, i was frightened and hoping it would not happen to me.

After the car cools down, i was able to get going, but i had to find a place where i could get some water before i could see him. I know that half a bottle of water would not be enough to get to him. I went to the hospital to look for a tap outside but i could not find one. I was about to go when i decided to have one more looked and had to park closer to the building. I remember that there was a toilet inside the building first door next to the entrance.  Pushing my son in the stroller and carrying an empty bottle with me, i walked inside the premises. It was a bit tricky filling the 3 liter bottle with the sink tap.

Anyways, I managed to filled the bottle with water and went to see my husband. When i got there, my daughter ran at me. She was a little bit frightened hearing all that traffic on the road and cold because it was a cold night. With no time to waste, we changed the tyre, even if we kept stopping when there is a traffic coming and put more water in my car right after.

On the way home, I planned to buy dinner for them. I went straight to KFC, but when i got there it was closed already. They only opened until 10.00 pm. There are still people inside the building but they were cleaning already. I went home empty handed and have to tell my daughter that KFC is closed already. I just cooked other food to fill there empty stomach. Anyway, they were so tired that they only ate a little and went to bed.






Monday, November 22, 2010

Playin' time

Wouldn't you love it when you have a perfect weather for two consecutive days and the kids were having  fun playing out in the backyard all day long?

Early in the morning, just before breakfast my 14 months old son brought his pair of shoes to me. He wanted to go outside. I put on his shoes but i didn't went out straight away because i was thinking of making a cup of coffee first. While i was in the kitchen, he was busy dragging his chair and put it next to the door and wanted to open it. Because, he was to small, he makes a noise to get my attention. When i went out from the kitchen to check on him, i find myself giggling and thought how clever this little man is?  He really wanted to go outside and play. I decided to make cup of coffee later when we come back.

As soon as i opened the front door, my son straight away hop into his tricycle and waited for his sister to pushed him around  along the foot path. Going back and forth for a couple of times and then we decided to have a rest on the grass.  While we were resting, my  daughter  decided to have picnic between the two of them. She went back inside the house to get some thing to eat. When she comes back she had with her a sliced  of banana and a bag of chips.  I quickly grabbed the dash board cover on the back of the car for them to seat on. We stayed out there for a little bit longer.
riding in the front of the house
 Comes afternoon, while i was doing my regular house hold chores, my daughter asked me if they could go out in the backyard with her brother and play. I told her to go and wake her daddy to look after them because i wasn't finished cleaning yet and so she did. They both having fun running around and jumping in the trampoline, playing with the dog. We also had a visit from our family friend with his two boys. My little boy don't even care that he was too messy and dirty, he was just having so much fun wondering around the backyard. he even get inside the dog kennel and hide in there.

inside the dog kennel with their friend


my son coming out of the kennel






His appearance with full of dust after crawling and playing around the backyard.
By the end of the day, even though they were so dirty all over but i know that they had so much fun playing together with their friends.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fighting with Depression

Days after giving birth to my second child, i started having sleepless nights, getting headaches.  When my son got a temperature when he was only two days old, at a very young age of his life, he already experienced too many medical tests. His been into antibiotic for 5 days after finding out that he got an infection. He needs to be connected with the nursery so they could keep an eye on him. I became a border mum just to be with him. After i come out from the hospital i had to leave him for one day in the nursery to finished his antibiotic. It worries me so much that every time when he's feeling uneasy  or a little bit sick i panic.  The first two months after he was born, was been toughed. There were times that we need to rushed him to the hospital because he got a very high temperature.

Day after day the feeling of being worried, agitated are getting worst and worst. Some days, i woke up in the morning feeling down, can hardly pull myself up to do things around the house. I also  get angry very quickly even when there's nothing to be angry about.  One day we went to Maternal and Child Health Clinic for my son's 4 months appointments, after the nurse examined my son she took time to  do  assessment on me. She gave me a questions.  With the results of my answer she suspects that i have a post natal depression and she advices me to see and talk to my GP (General Practitioner) and show him the copy of the assessment.

When i got home from our appointment with the Maternal and Child Health nurse i rung up the clinic and made an appointment to see my GP.  Unfortunately, i had to wait for a month to see him  because he is out of town at that time.
 
A month after, i finally see my doctor and he prescribed me an anti-depressant table (priztiq), which i am still taking until now. He also recommend to see and talk to my psychologist.

Since then, i make sure that i always kept myself and my mind busy. These are the activities that i do regularly.

* I joined in a play group together with my kids which meets every Fridays. A two hour session , to see and talk to other mums like me and at the same time my kids will have a time to play with the other kids.


*  Go out in the back yard and cut grasses, do weeding in the garden. Doing some paving in the backyard was the thing that i haven't imagined that i could do on my own, but i have done it!

* Visit a friend sometime in a week or two just to get out of the house.

* Go to the park with the kids.



















Sunday, October 31, 2010

Living in Australia

Coming from a different country like the Philippines with different family background and upbringing was very stressing for me when i decided to come and live with my husband in Australia. It was a huge step, not only that i will be living far away from friends, but also, i will be getting far away from my parents and siblings.

I arrived in Australia last November 2005 together with my 6 months old daughter. Not knowing what our life would be was a big challenged. 

I was frightened at first when we got out of the Airport. Now, we are in the different country with different race, background and  lifestyle. We will be living with my mother-in-law until we could get our own place to live. There were too many questions came through my mind. Two of which were:

*How will i adjust and accept the new lifestyle that i am in?
*How can i cope up when i get home sick?

I was very dependent to my husband, every time i do something or want to go somewhere i have to asked him to drive me, not like in the Philippines where i came from, if i wanted to go to the shop i would just walk up to the road and catch a public transport (Jeepney).  No need to wait for too long to get a ride because there is always another jeepney after the other. The first 3 month living here was a struggle because i really missed everyone at home. I was so lonely, although i have my mother-in-law whom i could talked to, but it was so different speaking your own dialect and talking to family member.


Looking back from the day we arrived, i realized that living in another country wasn't that bad after all. Now, I have many friends and acquaintances in different races and family backgrounds. I have learned  to be more independent. I take everyday as a new challenge not only for me but with my own family. I now call Australia a home away from home.