I can't believe coming back to my blog after all this time that I've had so many visitors. Wow!
It's been a very busy time for me. After being contracted to do some work for Sabona soon after I arrived in Australia, the work load has increased and most recently I was appointed editor of the magazine, which is for people from Southern Africa living in Australia. It's an awesome opportunity for me, pretty nerve-wracking too! The first issue that I was involved in editing is due from the printers any day now. Can't wait to see it after all the work that we've put into it.
In addition to myself as editor, we had someone new to do layout so the magazine really has a whole fresh new look.
In addition to the magazine, I continue deal with emails and other queries. We get a range of questions coming through the website every day and it's my responsibility to answer or find an answer as the case may be! To say that I've had to make lots of contacts during the last few months is an understatement. I certainly don't know the answers to most of the stuff myself! Facebook has become an amazingly useful tool -- it is incredible what technology can help us achieve.
So enough about me...the rest of the family are doing well. Phillip is busy at work and doing lots of networking, through the Sabona Business Network and other networking groups. Slade and Kai are both doing well at school. Kai has just a two months of kindi left and then will be in prep (grade R) when school goes back after the long holiday. Being one of the oldest in her class she is SO ready to go to big school. Her main concern is the uniform which she is not very keen to wear. She's become quite expressive with her clothes often looking at what characters on TV where and wanting to dress up like them. The other day she came through from her bedroom wearing leggings and shorts and proudly told me that she was dressed just like Fely, who is one of the stars in the new Hi5 series that's started on TV here!
Slade is doing well at school and his teacher is so happy with the way that he's come out of his shell since the beginning of the year. He has a good group of friends, and is pretty confident about his ability at school. I am so pleased with the way that his reading has come on, and he's really enjoying being able to read. I got a children's book to review for Sabona in the post yesterday, and he picked up saying "I'll be able to read that."
Sabona has kept me really busy during the last few months and in some ways I think has kept my mind off the familiarity of things in South Africa and family and friends being so far away. I certainly do think it's true that when the excitement of the first few months of being in a new place wears off a little things can be quite difficult. And I'm grateful that Sabona's kept my mind off that. I did feel really sad though when Kai got upset after a recent skype with her cousin, who is the same age as her, and told me that we should never have left South Africa. Pretty heart-breaking, but it was past her bedtime so I had to put at least some of the sadness down to being tired, and I know that she's enjoying many aspects about living in Australia. On the really good side, we are all very excited that my mom is coming for two months from the beginning of December. We are really looking forward to showing her around, and being able to do lots of things together during the long summer holiday.
And my Dad also arrives for a week just after Christmas and we'll be heading up to the Sunshine Coast for five nights at the beach. We are all really excited about that -- Slade had a wonderful day at the beach recently and just loves getting into the waves with his boogy board.
