Check out the Health Service

Thursday 27th March 2008
It’s been a busy but uneventful day today; we took the kids to school as usual and then went to a computer internet provider to check out the rates services available. As usual we were bombarded with information and numbers that we didn’t understand and after a while we just had to ask them to explain it in English which they did. Although it was a very slow process it confirmed a few things that we had already been told and we also found out a fair bit, but it is still not easy and because we also want to use cordless phones in the house we have to be even more careful to make sure we get the right system.
So after being confused for about ½ hour we were told to go away and ring assorted telecom companies to set up the lines in order that we can get what we want out of our phone and broadband. I’m sure it must have been easier when we just used to bash rocks together.
After that we went to the Café to deal with emails etc before going to another domestic appliance shop to compare prices. Yet again we spent ages looking at and discussing the benefits of every Fridge/Freezer/Dishwasher/Washing Machine/Dryer/Iron/Kettle/Toaster and Vacuum Cleaner in the shop, when we had finished the shopping list the girl asked us to come back later to pick up the prices.
We then went for lunch and sampled our first Jaffle Pie, for those of you that have not had one before they are like a Breville toasted sandwich except it is pie shaped and they use pastry instead of bread. They are actually quite tasty and they come in loads of different flavours, the Australian idea of what things should taste like are a little bit different to ours though but we will be trying them again some time.
We then went to pick the kids up from school and had a meeting with Kristian’s teacher who wanted to let the parents know how she was going to work the class because it is a new class, created because of an increase in numbers. Unfortunately only two other parents turned up apart from us which was a bit of a shame because she was obviously hoping to summon up a bit of support, we have volunteered to listen to children read in the mornings and one of the other parents already helps out so she has got some extra support.
After the school meeting we went into town to do the weeks shopping and pick up the prices for the Fridge/Freezer/Dishwasher/Washing Machine/Dryer/Iron/Kettle/Toaster and Vacuum Cleaner that we had looked at earlier, the prices were not up to much so we won’t be going back there.
The weeks shopping as usual is a nightmare, the kids have taken control of the shopping trolley and are in danger of filling up the A&E with their driving. Of course we don’t know yet where A&E is or if they have one out here, they might rely on the Flying Doctor out here for all we know and that would not be good because we have been reading in the papers that they are so overworked at the moment. Did you know that if you are in the wrong part of the state and get ill it can take up to 22 hours to get you to hospital, now even the NHS can normally do better than that?
Anyway while the kids were running wild with the shopping trolley we loaded it up then went to the checkout, the queues are enormous and only two tills are open which according to the kid on the checkout is because the company spent too much on staff over Easter (perhaps we should have bought twice as much last week, if only they’d warned us).