Catching up with the Faery

We've been back in L.A. about four weeks now. In some ways, it feels much longer but when I close my eyes, I can smell Sydney. Enough about me, though.

Kids amaze me with their resilience. For the Faery, leaving Australia wasn't easy. The goodbyes had her crying for hours. Not the quiet kind of tears, but full gut-wrenching sobs. She's so much older this time, and understands the distance, the geography, the time apart. I think this is the hardest part about our decision to live overseas for a few years.

The new school year began a couple of weeks before we returned, and we decided to get her back into the swing of things sooner than later. Our flight landed on a Tuesday morning, and rather than wait until the following week (and for jet lag to completely disappear) we sent her to school that Thursday. She needed to see her buddies and have some structure to her days again.

I was expecting battles with homework, but it hasn't been too bad. For the most part, she's enjoying being able to show what she knows now with her improved literacy skills. There have been birthday parties, park playdates and Korean (Thanksgiving) performances. She's had some sad moments missing Australia, but she's not letting it get her down too much.

The highlight, though, has been her first visit to an L.A. Dodgers game at the Dodger Stadium. She went with J last Friday evening, and came home many hours past her usual bed time - her face flushed with the excitement of it all. Hotdogs, cotton candy, fireworks... she'd loved it all, and I think we have a new baseball fan on our hands.

I can't believe the wise little lady she's turning into at the age of six. She does me proud, every single day.

East, west, what?

(Click here for source)

A funny thing happened when we moved to the US.

I began to confuse east from west. This is actually a big deal for me, because I have a reputation amongst my friends and family as possessing superior map reading and navigation skills. My sense of direction has meant that I rarely get lost (but it has happened). People who need to turn the map each time they turn corners? I laugh and feel a little smug when I see others doing this (sorry, but I do). I think I've mentioned before that I love maps.

I've even been told I'd make an excellent rally navigator, which I'll take as a compliment.

Of course, north and south have never been confusing and for thirty odd years, I found east and west equally polarised in my mind... but some kind of malfunction has happened to the hardwiring of my brain recently. Only with east and west.

They were never mixed up when I lived in London or Melbourne.

After giving it some thought, I've decided that it must be down to the fact that I've gone from living on the east coast of Australia (Sydney), to the west coast of the US (LA). In Sydney, heading west meant going inland and heading east meant going to the beach. It's the opposite here in LA - is it any wonder that my poor brain gets a little addled? When discussing locations here and I want to mention somewhere nearer the coast from us, it comes out of my mouth as 'east'. Wrong. Likewise when we talk about inland from where we live. It comes out of my mouth as 'west'. The only thing that anchors the correct usage is if I think about where the sun rises and sets.

I always feel like such a goose when I mix them up. It's an effort that requires some mental gymnastics for me to stop and think before opening my mouth, so that I can get it right.

It feels backwards, and I can feel the same part of my brain twisting when I look at the short date here (or even worse, have to write it)... but that, I blame on the stupidly illogical American date format. Not my fault. East and west? I shouldn't be mixing those up.

Our drive back to LA from San Diego last week just confirmed how screwed up my brain is at the moment with this east/west business, when the job of navigation fell to me (happily, as I prefer that to driving).

I wonder if there is a term for people mixing their terminology for directions, when their frame of reference has been shifted... Chartis dysphoria? Because I just made that up, and it has a pretty cool ring to it, yes?

Just don't ask me where Santa Monica is in relation to the San Fernando Valley. I can find it in a flash on a map, but getting my mouth to say it correctly is another matter altogether...

(Click here for source)

New adventures in wi-fi

There have been plenty of these lately. The biggest adventure for me this year has been uprooting from here...

                                                                                














...to here.

That's right. From Sydney in Australia, to Los Angeles - otherwise known as La La Land - in the US.

When this most recent adventure of mine began earlier in the year, the luggage also included my husband, J, and our two daughters. Our eldest - who I'll refer to as the Faery - was three and a half, and our youngest - Miss Pie - was barely 10 weeks old. Crazy times, indeed. The reason? J had been offered a job that sounded too good to pass up. We felt it was time for a change, and time for a big new adventure. Pre-kids, we'd travelled, lived and worked overseas too - why not amp things up a bit?

Before the Big Move, I told myself I'd start a blog once we'd settled. Eight months on, and I realised I still hadn't done so, and here I am. Being a novice to blogging, this will be another new adventure for me, so feel free to join the ride as I babble and draw unfair - possibly biased - comparisons between life here in La La Land and the land Down Under, along with clichéd stories veering from the kids being wildly cute to them driving me crazy, and any other musings or mini-adventures that spring to mind.