Another new car!

We've finally reached the end of the queue for our long awaited Toyota Prius. Back at the start of November they told us 3 months wait. In March they said 2 more months. On Friday afternoon they called to tell us it would be ready sometime between the 16th and the 21st of April... and 2 hours after that they called to say it had arrived! We picked it up on Saturday morning. I think we have spent more time reading the instruction manual than driving it so far!
Did you know that there are 5 different methods to unlock the driver's door (and none of them involve a crowbar)! So far we have achieved 53 mpg on the car which is pretty good considering it generally improves with age. I expect to achieve much less efficiency on the commute to work as it is so short.

We've sold our house in Voyager Point

When we left Australia we were intending to rent out our house in Voyager Point (Sydney) rather than selling it as it is rather costly to buy and sell housing in Australia and we liked our house that we had put so much time and effort into. A couple of weeks into our time in America we received a phone call (after midnight, the agent didn't know we had left the country!) from an agent in Australia with a potential buyer (even though we had told the agent that we had decided to not sell). We would have said no, but the offer was high enough (above the previously estimated selling price) that it covered the costs of buying and selling. Add to this the fact that rental returns were not fantastic (relative to the property value) ... so in the end we decided to sell! We wish the new owners a happy time with their new home and garden. If you want to contact us via snail-mail to an Australian address, please use our parents' addresses (they are still at the same place they have been for over 20 years).