Message home from Sham!

Hi all
I am still working on getting some pics together from Heenas trip, but in the meantime, here is a copy of an email Sham sent to family back home... kinda rounds up the last few weeks for now... more to follow in the next few days!

Hope you are all well... Apologise for not being in touch for a while
but thought I would let you all know what has been happening with us.
You can look at http://shahsinoz.blogspot.com to have a better idea of
what has been happening throughout our time here, but here’s a quick
update...

I stopped working about a month ago as my contract was up... In that
time we had a friend over from the UK so I was being a tour guide.
Kunj was working hard, making sure we had food on the table and a roof
over our head! The lease on our flat in Manly also expired so we
needed to find somewhere new to stay and say goodbye to having a beach
on our doorstep! We decided to move closer to the city for the
convenience of work and also a slightly cheaper cost of living... We
moved to Balmain... email us for address and phone numbers!
We’ll send some pictures of the new place soon. It is a lovely little
house and nice area. People say it is similar to Muswell Hill back in
London. We moved well with the help of a few friends and are now
settled.

We also got some good news this morning that Kunj’s sponsorship visa
has come through which means we are allowed to stay in Sydney until
2013!! We have been trying to get something like this sorted since we
came here (nearly a year ago) and finally it has come through! Talk
about last minute! This is really good news for us as we can properly
start to live. I can go back to work in the next week or so too!! BTW
– this also means that you can come and visit us now as we are here
long term!

On the down side... we did have a return ticket booked to come back
home in Dec, but this is now unlikely. We will probably come home
sometime next year for a proper holiday and see all of you guys!

I think that’s all folks! Keep an eye on our blog for more regular updates.

Until next time...

Take Care and we’ll catch up soon.

Love Sham and Kunj x

Old friends to visit!

Sorry its taken me so long to post this - Its been a VERY busy month or so!

As I mentioned in my last post, two of my oldest friends have been visiting Australia.
Natasha and the gang had a jam packed schedule of jetting around Australia for a few weeks and Heena managed to do lots in Sydney and manage to get a decent suntan considering we had the wettest October ever!

I did get to spend some time with Tash and her mum while they were here - and if I am honest, it really made me miss my mummy!

Hopefully her mum will tell my mum all about the meal I cooked and about how well we are settling here... that should have the desired effect of making my mum book her ticket over!

Sham was Heenas official tourguide and managed to take her to Palm Beach (of Home and Away fame), did the Bondi - coogee walk, visited Taronga zoo as well as various other must-do Sydney treasures!

I met them in the evenings after work - we took Heena to the Night Noodle Markets and she even managed a night out with the girls!

We did manage to pack lots into the weekends too with the Blue Mountains, a day at the races and a fun day of wine tasting carnage in the Hunter Valley all covered!




Heena would no dount name one thing as the highlight of her trip (apart from gossiping with me!!) and that is THE BRIDGE CLIMB!

More visitors = more fun food!

The last week has brought us a few visitors- my oldest friend Natasha arrived with here mum, cousins and aunty last Friday. Her brother Neal has lived here for a couple of year so its about time some family came to visit!
It was really weird to see Tash and her mum here. It was really lovely spending time with her mum - she is officially our first grown up visitor! Seeing her did make me miss my muumy though - especially when she was teaching me helpful cooking hints!

Yeaterday morning, one of my best friends Heena arrived! Bless her for braving that LONG flight all by herself to come and see us! She is staying with us for 2 weeks and Sham is in charge of being her tour guide! We have a few things planned for her though so she is going to get a taste of the life we love here!!

After getting to see my friends, the second best thing about having them over to visit is that they have all come bearing LOTS of crisps and chocolates!! I am considering setting up a stall at the market one weekend - I reckon I can make a killing selling Wotsits and Wispas!!

Finally, a massive Happy Diwali to everyone at home for the weekend - and we both wish you all a very properous new year!

xxx