February 2006
Wednesday 1st February 2006 - Touchdown!That’s us here - wehey! Got here at 8am, so we just left our bags and went out for breakfast at a local place - run by a wee Glasgow geezer of all things (well he was apparently conceived in Glasgow - which was a bit too much information at that time in the morning!). Still, it was a lovely Scottish breakfast fry - something we should really try and get out the habit of having if I want to ever balance on a surfboard! Wasted some time going round some department stores looking at suits for interviews, and toys and things for Holly. Finally checked into our lovely apartment on the 21st floor - see the views below which we get from our living room and bedroom!
Strangely, our first priority has been to get food for Holly sorted out, as we ran out of her usual stuff, and she hasn't been taking the food from San Francisco...Then we have to source other baby amenities, then get some mobiles sorted, go to the bank and give them new address etc….. its all go !! I have an A4 page full of Things To Do so far! Thursday 2nd
Holly kindly woke us up at her new regular time of 6:20am – can’t complain – its good to get up early when its light outside. She slept fine - she is a wee star for always coping with all the different places we have been in over the last couple of weeks. Later on we went out shopping and got Holly some nice toys to fill in until the container arrives! This is a picture of Darling Harbour, round the corner from here...we're one of the last few towers at the far right of the pic.
Friday 3rd - Container is due into port today!6:15am - regular as clockwork. You wake up and there is wee Holly standing up in her cot, saying "Da" and "Mumumumum" with a big smile on her face - who could complain! Hired a car today for a couple of weeks – need to maybe buy one soon too…..weird to think you have to think about buying a car before many other things, so you can get about to look at places, houses, apartments etc - and we need to do it soon, as hiring a car can cost between £25-£35 a day by the time you add on insurances etc. The apartment here is lovely – nice plush carpets for Holly to safely stomp about. Plenty of space and huge bath and shower. Its so weird being here - its like we never left 2 years ago when we were on holiday – everything seems so familiar when you're out walking about. The weather has cooled down a bit, which is nice to get used to for us, although maybe not the occasional overcast cloud! Went out looking at all the northern beaches to see where seems nice to rent for 6 months. Back home when we started looking on the Internet for places to rent, we really liked Narrabeen (see from the picture at the top of this page), as it was right on the beach (this was the actual view!)
However when you get here it seems quite far away, especially when you need to get buses, trains etc to work and it takes over an hour of travelling each way! So I think we might look a bit closer to the city, like perhaps Manly or similar - its a bit pricey but you get loads of bang for your buck. Saturday 4th - Inspection Day
Went to inspect an apartment in Manly which we found on www.justlisted.com.au – which was a really lovely, 3 bed apartment. Its a strange process - you seem to seek out the properties, then most agents have it open house viewing on Saturdays, then if you like it you apply to the landlord, and find out in a couple of days if you are 'allowed' to rent it! So whilst we were in our initial apartment for 4 weeks to find a longer term property, its actually only a few weekends-worth of viewing and applying etc so we were lucky to find this place - and fingers crossed that we might get it (to rent that is! - its on the market to buy also for $900,000 !! It’s a lot of cash to rent over here, as they range from $450-$1000, but there is only a couple of hundred between a place far inland and a much nicer one nearer the beaches. So why pay a little less to go ages inland and then have no shops or atmosphere, whereas Manly has a certain buzz to it - lots to do for everyone for 8 months!. Then of course there is the view! Sheryl and Holly definitely like it (see below):
Sunday 5thWent down to Maroubra and worked our way up the coast past Coogee and then Bondi Beach, and on to Watson’s Bay where there are some absolutely stunning houses with views of the city skyline and harbour. All the "reserves" or parks are all full of locals having barbies, playing with frisbees or balls etc, and having a family picnic. There are plenty of people but also plenty of spare picnic tables, which are all nicely kept and there is no litter about. Monday 6thTook the house application over to Manly to the estate agents. They photocopied our passports and driving licence, and I gave them a statement from the bank showing our finances. I thought at one point they would want some blood, or perhaps a lock of hair as collateral. Tuesday 7thGot a phone call from the Estate Agents to say that our application to rent the apartment in Manly was accepted! The landlord preferred 9 months, but we negotiated it down to 8 months, as we don't want to go for that long at first. Once the Tenancy Agreement is signed, and we have a proper lease, we can always continue it from month to month at the end of the 8 months. Wednesday 8thWent to sign the lease (12 page booklet of legal-eez!) for the apartment in Manly. I'm sure its for our own protection too, but it feels a bit lop-sided in the favour of the landlord. Hung about the area, so that we could meet the agent in the afternoon to measure the spaces for the laundry and fridge etc to go into and get another look at the place. Thursday 9thWent a drive out to Parramatta - which seemed a bit of a run down, deprived place. Then we got lost in the local shopping mall, and forgot where we parked the car, and took about 40mins to find our way back and get out the damn place! Friday 10thWent a drive up north to Gosford, and several places all around the Hawkesbury River, trying to see places to live, and get a feel for what it would be like if I had to drive down to work from there. Found a lovely wee place called Umina Beach, which is just over the bridge over the Hawkesbury River, and down through the parkland to a wee villagey beach place. The houses are about half price to that of Sydney and the pace of life is far slower and laid-back. Not that everyone in Sydney is buzzing about, as "Sydneysiders" are laid back to start with, its just that this wee place somehow felt even more laid-back! Get this funny feeling we will end up staying here, as we always end up going back to our first gut feeling. Saturday 11thSheryl and Holly went out a wee walk, whilst I stayed in putting all my details into the Seek website, and updated my CV (or resume as they prefer to use over here), and prepared draft covering letters etc. Sunday 12thWent out to Wahroonga (40 mins NW Sydney) to see Craig Morrison and his family. What a lovely big house he has in a lovely leafy area. They made us a nice bar-b-q lunch, complete with roasted chicken, sausages, corn and peppers - not forgetting the "bundies" - Bunderburg Rum and Coke all ready mixed up in a bottle. Then we went out to the local national park - Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park where we sat under the shade of a huge tree, playing around with the kids, and chilling in the afternoon "shade" of 32°C! Monday 13thWent down to IKEA and then to a place to get our new white goods - we need a fridge, washing machine and tumble dryer (for non-sandpaper towels!). After ages of mind blowing facts and figures, we ordered the lot. Despite the assistant trying to talk me out of it, I always fancied a big American-style top-loader, regardless of the extra cost - so we got a big Whirlpool one - they are good coz they wash your clothes in 30 mins - don't know how they do it but the stuff still comes out clean! This is where I pretend that Sheryl types into this too and it is actually here that is getting a bit obsessive about the workings of the washing machine! It still feels like we are on holiday, but I suppose this is one of the things that helps to make you realise you are actually here for good! Still feels strange though... Although Holly seems happy enough (see below) although as I type this, the wee rascal behind me has just torn a paper towel into smithereens on that very sofa and was about to eat it ! I don't know how someone so small can climb onto that sofa in seconds!
Tuesday 14thStarted looking for cars in anger today. Went out to a dealership up near Craig Morrison's, where they had a Toyota Landcruiser Prado for sale
but it was pretty basic trim for the money, so we went across to "Car Town" i.e. Parramatta, where there is about 3 miles of dual carriageway surrounded by car lots and showrooms. Then we went to Parramatta as this is mega-car land... Wednesday 15th In order to save boring Sheryl and Holly to tears with MORE cars to look at, Sheryl and Holly went for a walk into town, while I drove out west to "lovely" Parramatta again to see some more used cars for sale. Had to pick up my license, which I stupidly left at a garage yesterday, whilst out test-driving some of their cars. When I got there the guy had left it at home, so while I waited on him to go home and pick it up, I sat about on the back of a flatbed pickup in the car lot, in the baking, overcast heat, chatting with some Greek-Australian geezer about life, politics, Bush, and how he set up an olive oil business when he was 6 years old! An interesting insight into real life Australia. Also got some post today from Edinburgh! Brian Thomson had sent through a couple of CDs on the 7th of Feb, so that's just 8 days AirMail - not bad! Things to do tomorrow:
Thursday 16thHolly had a sleep in till 8:30am - catching up on lost sleep yesterday. She is still settling in fine, and has a nice wee routine. Went to Medicare office to register with the public health care system (there are loads of them everywhere, as there are always loads of people needing to claim back fees paid to doctors etc - I don't know why the government insists that ALL doctors and hospitals bill directly for their fees!). Showed them our 3 passports, filled out a form and got our temporary medicare numbers / IDs there and then. Only took about 10 mins in total. Going out again this afternoon to look at more cars !
Went way out west (about 1 hour drive) to Minchinbury, where there was a place called Auto City - a big yard with 20 or so car dealers under big wind sails, all sitting in their wee air-conditioned portakabins with mirrored glass, keeping in out the sun! At first I went to view a Red Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4
but its air-con was broken. Then I saw a 1994 GLS model, with nicer trim, but the electrics packed in on me at the lights during my test drive, and I had to pop the bonnet and play around with the battery terminals to get it started again - and it didn't change properly from 2nd to 3rd gear! So that was a bad omen! As I was just about to leave, I saw a couple of other cars, and finally settled on a nice Ford Explorer Limited 4x4, albeit metallic purpley mauvey colour (its hard to define! so here's some pics).
It comes with all the toys - leather, climate control, cruise control, electric everything, seats with memory settings!, and thankfully the petrol is quite cheap over here ($1.09 per litre = 47p ) as its a 4.0 litre V6 (and I think it does about 17 mpg !!) Friday 17thTook the hire car back to Red Spot Rentals www.redspot.com.au - no hassles. Sorted out insurance over the Internet. Went with a company called Vero (via the HSBC website) which was several hundred dollars cheaper than the main players www.nmra.com.au & www.aami.com.au. Got the cheque out the bank, and jumped the Penrith (limited stop) train to Mt Druitt station. $6 one-way - took me just over an hour. Roasting hot in the train - air con faulty or non-existent. Passed a few "interesting" places on the way. Sat 18thWent a drive down to Helensburgh (pronounced Helensburg) to see what the housing was like. It was quite spread out, but seemed to retain a village-like atmosphere, with a bit of country-bumpkin thrown in! We continued on down to Illawarra and as far down as Fairy Meadow - which is where my mate Andrew used to live when his family went to live in Australia for a few years back in 1981. I wonder if it has changed much since they were there ? We got to enjoy some nice thunderstorms and pelting rain - although we were inside Woolies at the time doing our grocery shopping and watching the locals' preferred techniques for nipping in and swiping some liqour before yelping out to the car park with glee (and that was just the couple of 40 year old guys!) Sunday 19thWent out to Westfield shopping centre (lots of them here - heard on the news that they have just merged with someone, and become the largest property owner in the world!) They had an Early Learning Centre of all things, which we had to go into, and ended up buying Holly loads of things, bath toys, a talking teddy, and a wee wicker pram for her favourite doll. Went a detour to Bondi Beach on the way home, as Holly had fallen asleep in the car, so to give her a longer sleep we just kept on driving, watching the petrol gauge slowly creeping downwards as we went.... I'm so glad the petrol is half-price over here. Pity they don't do big diesel Ford Explorers! Monday 20thGot a call from the Crown people (moving & shipping company) to say that our container had cleared everything and was ready to ship, and should meet our requested date of Thursday 23rd Feb (had to get all our stuff delivered in time for my birthday on the 24th). Sheryl went out with Holly, while I trolled through the recruitment websites, reading through the 294 IT Project Management jobs in Sydney - Inner and trying to narrow down the ones to apply to! www.seek.com.au Tuesday 21st - Got the keys todaySunny again today - but its been thundery in the afternoons.... Holly is walking about better - walking like Frankenstein with her hands out to steady herself! although I don't know how she managed to learn to walk, when every time she wants me to pick her up, its as 'transport' - as she just points as if to tell me where she wants to go! Went to to get more essentials, such as a toaster and a kettle. Its like buying your first house again, where all the things that we had to use up to the last minute, after the container had left, or anything that didn't go in the container, has to be bought again over here. So that's basically :
There doesn't seem to be as many places to buy on the internet over here, so its harder to comparison shop and you have to troll round loads of physical shops the 'old-fashioned' way. Also, saw my first creepy-crawly today - a wee tiny spider, which I thought was flat and dead at first, till I poked it, and it came alive, and turned around to face me all aggressive-like, albeit only a centimetre in length! I think it was a We were over in Manly getting the keys for the new place we're renting for 8 months. Once you give them the 'bond' for 4-weeks rent, they give you the keys. Just spent ages staring out at the views, trying to let it sink in that you are actually going to live here for a while.
Wednesday 22nd - Our lease starts todayGot a call at 7:30am!! to tell us our fridge etc will be delivered between 3 and 6pm. Just as well we were almost awake! Also, the rental agent just called there, to say that he had dropped round to the new place and left us a bottle of wine and a "welcome to Australia / new home" card. Bonza! as they say over here (whatever that means!) Gotta go get a shower, its 10am and I've spent ages fartin' about with this website malarky. Thursday 23rd - Container gets delivered todayNeed to be over at Manly for a 9am delivery of the container. It takes about 30 mins to drive over, but I want to leave at 8am in case the traffic is busy. Woke up at 6am (which was far too early - dark outside!) but I got up anyway just in case I fell back asleep. Sneaked about for a couple of hours, as Holly is in the travel cot in the bedroom. with us as this place in Darling Harbour is only a 1 bedroom apartment. (However it is worth it when you are woken up my her standing up in the cot with a big beaming smile - I think she quite likes the company. I drove over to Manly. Nice and slow (as they reduce the speed limit from 60kph to 40kph around the schools during the "school run" times, morning and afternoon), and there is always traffic cops aplenty trying to catch people who still go at 60. It's only for a short distance before and after the school - makes sense to slow down. Anyway, typically, the container lorry didn't come till nearly 11am - a bit laid back these Ozzies - I've never had someone turn up at the time they say they will. Ideally suited to me - I'm always at the coo's tail ! Two guys and a full size 40ft lorry - looked like loads of stuff. So my task in the baking sun (again) was to stand with the "bingo list" - an A4 sheet of consecutive numbers, marking down the numbered packages which come out the truck, making sure that all 144 items are present and correct. Then they unwrap most of it and take it up in the lift, or down to the garage (if I can compare the same number on my own list of whats to go where). Its far too stressful trying to keep it right, and not lose track as they chuck the stuff out. Its like trying to pack 2 weeks of groceries coming down the supermarket checkout and you need to put it in alphabetical order into the bargain - nightmare. Somehow they got the big leather sofas in the wee door, but the big wardrobe had to be taken back down and put in the garage, which with a bit of tight packing skills, I managed to squeeze in the other 3-piece suite, 2 mountain bikes, the big Silver Cross pram, and about 20 tea crates, and still have enough space to squeeze the car in (as long as you don't mind using the (wrapped) sofa as a bumper stop to give you that last 2 inches for the electric roller door to come down and not bang the big ugly bull-bars (not my choice!) on the car. All in all it went smoothly... only a few pictures had some glass broken, and the pasta jar, and vase were broken but nothing else. Sheryl came across on the Ferry later on around tea-time. This is where the ferry comes in.
Also, met some of the neighbours too (I had put up a wee "sorry for hogging the lift all day today" notice etc to keep them sweet. Also met an Irish woman, Siobhan, across the road, who has been over here in the same wee house for 11 years and still renting, who was very welcoming and friendly. Holly, was being here usual wee crowd pleaser - like when we go out and about and she's turning her head round to check out everyone who goes past, to make sure they are saying hello to her - I honestly can't imagine where she picks this up from ;-) Had to wait until 7pm to switch the electrics back on, so that the bill could transfer to my own provider, rather than the landlords. Drove back home later at the back of 8pm - getting dark. Drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (as we do every time we go from the CBD (Central Business District - Ozzie for "Downtown" or "City") but it was a new experience in the dark, with it all lit up from underneath - spectacular. Can't believe we climbed up the bridge the last time we were here! * Need to start typing less per day! * Friday 24th Feb - Happy Birthday To Me!Got a couple of phone calls from the family back home, and a text message from Wendy to say Happy Birthday. Sheryl and wee Holly webcaming (made-up verb!) whilst I'm talking to her brother on the phone. Went over to Manly again and unpacked more boxes and put the clothes and ornaments in their rightful places. Got a card from the wee woman downstairs, who looks after the block of flats, tends to the gardens, and her son is the wee maintenance man. It looks like she made it herself - or bought it like that. Very nice - welcoming us to "Caprice" - (the name of the block of flats or "units" as they call them). Took Holly out a walk down along one of the tree-lined beach promenade,
and bought some sandwiches, and went back to the flat for lunch, out on the balcony, watching the ships and yachts go around. When I came back in there was a basket of flowers at the door - it was from Crown, the relocations company www.crownrelo.com to welcome us into our new home, and to thank us for using them - very nice of them indeed. Later, after more flat-packing of boxes and tidying up, we went down to the sea front for a wee poke of chips and some sea air - my birthday meal of choice - tops! So nice to watch everyone out at 7pm at night, some surfing, a few teams of beach volleyball, joggers, skaters, cyclists, power walkers and kids playing on the climbing frames. Total outdoor lifestyle. Its a bit like our lasting memory of Manly the first time we saw it... It was twilight to almost dark...and only the moonlight and some soft streetlights to light up the beach, and about 20 or so groups of all ages, either sitting on the beach, or the sea wall, some with candles, others just rugs, kids playing flourescent frisby, dogs chasing sticks, just so many people out and about enjoying the quiet and cool evening down at the beach. Very mixed, of all ages. Amazingly different to Girvan de la Buckfast. Not a single eejit in sight. They have their numpties over here too but not too many so far. Saturday tomorrow - more boxes and cleaning and putting up beds and cabinets again. Worse than IKEA as we would have chucked out the instructions years ago! Saturday 25thWent over to Many later on as they are still showing the place to potential buyers - we are renting it whilst the owner is trying to sell it to someone once we move out, and it often takes months to sell a place over here, but with a place with a view like this, and close to the beach, the agent expects to sell it quite quickly. Sunday 26thFilled the car to the brim with all our bags and some extra toys, and foodstuffs bought while here in Sydney. Couldn't see out the back window for bags! Just as well the lift takes you down to the internal car park! Half expected to be going to the airport to check in our bags and travel to somewhere else - didn't quite feel like you we're moving to your next new 'home' (at least for the next 8 months). Funny how you can get so used to a place, for it suddenly to be just like a hotel room again, rather than a pseudo-home, as the cleaners come in to chase us out and change the sheets etc for the next lot of people. Running about daft, taking two lots of stuff at a time down the lift to the car, and then in between taking phone calls trying to organise a telephone line to be connected into the new place. Came into Manly and moved in our bags, and unpacked into our home sweet home for the next 8 months at least. Its taking a while, as we can't stop looking at the view, like a fart-in-a-trance! Was a muggy day - so there was plenty of thunder and spectacular bolts of lightning at night time! Monday 27th - Garbage Collection Day!Woken up at 6am by the midden-men / midge-men! Green bins for garbage - Yellow for Glass, Plastic & Tins. Blue bins are for cardboard, but get collected another day. Not exactly hot news - but its all part of sorting out what needs done and settling in. So rather than going back to sleep, I just got up and sat out on the balcony (dressed of course!) and watched the ferries coming and going, sadly working out whether it was a 3 or 4 rotation of ferries, depending on the time they leave here, and come back again....not much else to do at that time in the morning other than sleep, and I need to get the times into my head when I need to get to work in the morning. I can see them in the wharf from the shower window, but I've still got just over 5 mins to get there, and its a bit hot to be running around. Tuesday 28thPlumber came at 9am to at a drip in the garage from the unit above - as we are storing a lot of our boxes in the garage, so I asked the estate agent to get it fixed. Started getting our mail in the new place, although the wee postie in his bright orange T-shirt and khaki shorts and boots comes around 2pm each day!. Starting to feel like this is for real and not a dream....especially when one of them is an electricity bill / statement.
(c) Jim Noble |
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