The Shifting Sands

Christmas wasn't so "white" as most of the white stuff was turning to ice and slush. Alan, one of Chris's work colleagues, and his wife Donna joined us for Christmas lunch. In Germany, the traditional lunch is a roast goose, potato dumplings and red cabbage. We decided to avoid the red cabbage but the goose and dumplings were superb. Thanks Kate. The girls loved all of their presents especially the sled. We also enjoyed a number of saxaphone solos from Ada. To walk off the excess of lunch we went for a stroll down to the main pedestrian street to visit the local markets. It was only around 3.30 pm when we left home so, as you can see from the pictures, it gets dark early. Yesterday, the 26th, we went for a walk around the lake which is next to our apartment building. For the history buffs, the tudor-esque, neo-Prussian building is Schloss Cecilienhoff where Stalin, Truman and Churchill signed the Potsdam agreement which determined the occu

This is our apartment and streetscape in Potsdam. Our apartment is one of 6 and we are on the bottom left as you look at the building. Kate has been working hard on her driving skills and we plan on heading out again this afternoon to practice the drive to and from the school. As a result of yesterday's practice run everyone else in the family now has a few more colourful expressions in their vocabulary.

We landed in Berlin on Sunday morning with an outside temperature of minus 19 degrees celcius. Nothing works in minus 19 degrees celcius! It has been a whirlwind four days with city hall registrations, banking bureaucracy, shopping at Ka De Wa for Goose and all the appropriate trimmings like kartoffelklosse (which look like mashed potato balls with fried bread inside!!!), exploring Christmas markets and drinking gluwein, throwing snowballs at each other, marveling at the beauty of snow flakes the size of Ada's hand and of course driving on the other side of the road. We are all a little worse off for that experience! We have been blessed with the most wonderful relocation agents and have not found anything too hard to cope with. Our Christmas tree is beautiful - at least we think so. Happy Christmas Friends and Family - thank you for your support in our moving to Berlin - you will love it when you visit!

Well today we really do leave Australia. We have just spent two busy fun days with relatives in Queensland and now our 115kg of checked bags and Lucy, Ada, Chris and Kate are in the Qantas lounge awaiting our flight and avoiding all last minute requests for more shopping! The sadness and excitement are palpable and the German social(?) systems evident as a stream of emails have hit my inbox saying we cannot register at City Hall as we do not have health insurance in Germany and we must get medical certificates in Australia in order to do so! Too late she cried! Friends and Family this is simply a farewell as we go on our next adventure. Love and Happiness