A new beginning

Roger and I arrived safely in Perth at 15.00 on Tuesday 13 September. We had a good flight though did not sleep. We caught up on a few movies instead!! It sure is good having your own personal screen.

My sister Irene picked us up from the Airport and drove us to my younger sister Brenda's home in Brentwood. A lamb roast was in the oven cooking away. How yummy for us. We had a good first nights sleep and a little sleep in, so didn't really experience jetlag.

Irene drove us to Roger's first GP appointment Wednesday afternoon. We were both upset, but the Doctor was wonderful and very understanding. We have made a good choice (made the appt from Germany!). Irene took us for a nice coffee and to have a wee peek at the unit we will be staying in for 3 months from beginning of November.

In the evening of drove Brenda's Honda CRV for the first time. Brenda had a knee replacement about 7 weeks ago so is unable to drive at the moment. It was good to have her sitting beside me and she gave me a lot of confidence. It wasn't really a problem driving.

Thursday Irene picked us up and we visited the Neurologist. He has a few ALS patients and it was good to chat with him about things. It also helped to have Irene with us. He will start the ball rolling for Roger to have ongoing help, but this will take a while to get into the system.

The first few days we were feeling very lonely and missing our wonderful friends in Schopfheim and Basel. It is such an empty feeling to go having so many friends and finding it hard to catch up with them all, to no friends. If only we could have brought them all with us! We had a bad day last Monday but have kept things in balance since then.

The good news is that Roger has bought a City Bike (European name - he is going to start a new trend!!!) and is now enjoying the freedom this brings him. He has had a nice big wire basket installed on the back so that he can be useful and go shopping for us all!! He will have to leave his bicycle helmet on though as he finds it hard to put it on and take it off. His new bike is a soft light blue and helmet to match! We are not sure how long Roger will be able to ride the bike for, but I personally am very pleased we have bought the bike straight away so that Roger gets maximum use of it whilst he can. When he can't ride it any more, then it will be my turn (ho hum!!). Sorry I can't show you a picture of the lovely bike. You will have to wait until November when we can access the internet more readily and download our piccies. So, be patient.

We went to Church this morning and Roger wanted to drive. And now we both know he can't drive anymore and this makes us feel very sad. It is sad to see Roger losing so many things. It is actually breaking my heart. It means I am having to pick up a lot more things that Roger was always willing and able to do. So many adjustments are having to be made all the time and this will continue into the future.

At the moment we are both in good spirits and really we do have so much to be thankful for. Staying with Brenda is a real treat. She has such a lovely home that she moved into on 16 August. We are very comfortable here and she is spoiling us. The weather in Perth has been amazing. Rather cold in the morning and evening and beautiful and sunny during the day with temperatures between 22 - 28C. I would love to go for a swim, but my swimming pal (Irene) said it is still too cold for her. But maybe I can convince her soon.

I will try and blog regularly to keep you all up to date with our happenings. It's not going to be as exciting as being in Europe though, but I'll see what I can do!!