Hrm, so many little things I've meant to post and haven't because I've been so busy. Well today since for once I don't have to house hunt and the dishes are done and the laundry is running I guess I can spend a few minutes posting and catching up on long neglected e-mails.
Thanks to all my family who's been sending me updates. I appreciate hearing from you all and being kept up to date on things. If you're not related to me, well, some health problems in the family lately. (I love you Granner and think of you all the time, so get to feeling better!) Mom also had surgery on her birthday this week (what a way to spend a birthday).
V had a birthday this week too. We celebrated with a nice Japanese meal for lunch and pizza for dinner for the birthday boy. I think we're also going to try to go out to celebrate next week with friends here when we can get schedules coordinated.
Before Easter I had 2 things happen in one day that were fairly big -I had a wisdom tooth pulled out and I had to go dress shopping. One of those events was quick and low-cost. Dress shopping, however, was long and painful and so expensive in the end I took it back to the store. It didn't match the rainy weather for the event anyhow. V's sister was married on the beach but unfortunately we had some morning showers.
I'm really happy with my new dentist so far, which is good because I think I'm going to be seeing a lot of him in the near future after my checkup. The dentist was as nice as anyone who scrapes your teeth with pointy metal scrapers and drills can be. He's also from England originally. (Many people I meet here are from England or South Africa, not many locals.) I was pretty scared about experiencing health care in a foreign country, but I guess it's like every country there are horror stories and extreme cases.
What else? Oh , I finally got a cell phone. A red one. :) It's the most basic little prepaid thing I could get, but at least it gave realtor's a way to get in touch. It also took me 5 hours to go and get by bus and get back home, as somehow I got on a limited stop bus that didn't not let me get off where I expected and I ended up somewhere totally new. Then I had to find a phone there because it was getting too late to wait on another bus and take it back through traffic. Stores mostly close at 5pm here, yes, even the mall and grocery stores. 5 pm. Thursday night it does stay open a couple of hours later, and most things close 6-7 pm. Saturdays things close around 1pm.
So even though Wal-mart is a huge (and monopolizing, evil, & giant) store, be grateful for it you Americans! Cheap goods, variety, all in one store! Open 24/7
The best shopping here is a catholic charity store, like a salvation army store, called St. Vincent DePaul's. I went once and it was packed with people. It has everything and it gives me hope that we be able to afford things like dishes, silverware and chairs in our new place. Lucky we were able to scavenge so much, but some things we need for our new place we didn't previously have room for here with the in-laws stuff.
I've been sitting here listening to country music today while e-mailing and posting. Really odd for me I know, but it makes me feel like I'm back in Texas, which I really miss. Of course, when we come back, don't plan on dragging me to any Dixie Chics concerts Mom and especially Dad!
Gonna go enjoy the sunshine for a bit as it's a beautiful day today. Thanks for the comments and hope you all are doing well and enjoying the coming spring weather (if you're far enough south to be finished with snow that is!)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Exhaustion of the House Hunt
Hi Everyone,
Well the house hunt really has been a blood-thirsty hunt. V and I have been hitting real estate office after office day after day, and when he's had to work I've gone by bus. It's really competitive to be approved for rental and you see the same people applying at place after place, all with their organized binders of paperwork required for application, each of us hoping that we outshine the other candidates at at least one proerty.
These rental people usually require 100 points of identification, with points gained from each id document you can supply (such as drivers license, passport, other photo id, birth certificate, bank statement, utility bills, previous 4 rental receipts, car registration papers, a month's worth of pay stubs, written references from previous landlords, etc) And you have to have as many of those as possible, as well as personal references and work references. Also, you have to visit each property before you are allowed to apply, and they are only open for viewing for 15 minutes around lunchtime one/two days a week. Usually the first person to the house with a good application gets it, so we have to scramble from house to house trying to be first there and first to fill out the forms. And the houses are all spread out of course over several suburbs so we have seen a lot of the coast lately. Well, we drove by the coast anyway. I was usually too busy looking at the map to find the next property's location.
I've filled out dozens of applications now, and finally this week we got some nibbles. I'm not saying anything here for certain until the paperwork is signed and it's officially official. I'm glad we're at least being considered for some finally. It's been an all-consuming task. The bad thing is many places are only beaing leased for 6 months until they plan to rennovate the place, so in 6 months I get to go through all this again. At least then I'll have more Australian references so I don't have to chance they will call my poor USA contacts in the middle of the night. Thank you to all who let me list you as a reference; I really appreciate it. I don't know if they bothered to call the US, but you never know.
So hooray!, moving day seems to be in the near future and V and I will finally have a place of our own. I've had suitcases packed and ready to move for a few weeks now, so they'd better give me a key soon.
Cheers!
Well the house hunt really has been a blood-thirsty hunt. V and I have been hitting real estate office after office day after day, and when he's had to work I've gone by bus. It's really competitive to be approved for rental and you see the same people applying at place after place, all with their organized binders of paperwork required for application, each of us hoping that we outshine the other candidates at at least one proerty.
These rental people usually require 100 points of identification, with points gained from each id document you can supply (such as drivers license, passport, other photo id, birth certificate, bank statement, utility bills, previous 4 rental receipts, car registration papers, a month's worth of pay stubs, written references from previous landlords, etc) And you have to have as many of those as possible, as well as personal references and work references. Also, you have to visit each property before you are allowed to apply, and they are only open for viewing for 15 minutes around lunchtime one/two days a week. Usually the first person to the house with a good application gets it, so we have to scramble from house to house trying to be first there and first to fill out the forms. And the houses are all spread out of course over several suburbs so we have seen a lot of the coast lately. Well, we drove by the coast anyway. I was usually too busy looking at the map to find the next property's location.
I've filled out dozens of applications now, and finally this week we got some nibbles. I'm not saying anything here for certain until the paperwork is signed and it's officially official. I'm glad we're at least being considered for some finally. It's been an all-consuming task. The bad thing is many places are only beaing leased for 6 months until they plan to rennovate the place, so in 6 months I get to go through all this again. At least then I'll have more Australian references so I don't have to chance they will call my poor USA contacts in the middle of the night. Thank you to all who let me list you as a reference; I really appreciate it. I don't know if they bothered to call the US, but you never know.
So hooray!, moving day seems to be in the near future and V and I will finally have a place of our own. I've had suitcases packed and ready to move for a few weeks now, so they'd better give me a key soon.
Cheers!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Our own place
Hopefully by the end of this week I will have a new mailing address to share with everyone. I have been apartment hunting over this past month, but now we are getting desperate and I think we will take whatever we can find that is cheap.
It means so much, especially when living in a new country where everything is so different some privacy (where people do not just walk in anytime they please) and to have a little control over your own home. There are always rules, but it would be nice if a light gets left on or a door accidentally left unlocked not to have my character called into question.
I have found some great little apartments -in Austin. :) I guess I'd better look a little more in the Sydney area though, eh? Australia is a pretty place to visit, but I'm not so sure about living here.
Wish us luck finding an okay place!
It means so much, especially when living in a new country where everything is so different some privacy (where people do not just walk in anytime they please) and to have a little control over your own home. There are always rules, but it would be nice if a light gets left on or a door accidentally left unlocked not to have my character called into question.
I have found some great little apartments -in Austin. :) I guess I'd better look a little more in the Sydney area though, eh? Australia is a pretty place to visit, but I'm not so sure about living here.
Wish us luck finding an okay place!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Happy Easter Everyone!
I don't know about you but so far I have had a lovely Easter morning. V got up extra early despite working double shifts and extra holiday shifts and drove me to church (40 min by car, double that by bus). And you know what the most incredulous thing was? Several people there remembered me! From my one visit two years ago!
It's a lovely church and I'm happy to finally be there. It may be small (~25 people, including children), but it is an active, humble, and loving group of people. There are even several non-english speaking students who are learning English through studying the Bible (like the World Bible School and Lets Start Talking programs). Oh, and I loved that they served morning tea between church and class because anyone who knows me knows I slept in and skipped breakfast.
It's funny how different the dynamics are in a small group. There will be no falling asleep at church, LOL. (Not that I ever did that Mom and Dad -it's just a joke! Really!) Apparently they spotted me as a chuch member straight away because they noticed I knew all the words to the songs. They have also already helped me organize easier transport for church next week. I look forward to getting involved more.
Happy Easter everyone.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
It's a lovely church and I'm happy to finally be there. It may be small (~25 people, including children), but it is an active, humble, and loving group of people. There are even several non-english speaking students who are learning English through studying the Bible (like the World Bible School and Lets Start Talking programs). Oh, and I loved that they served morning tea between church and class because anyone who knows me knows I slept in and skipped breakfast.
It's funny how different the dynamics are in a small group. There will be no falling asleep at church, LOL. (Not that I ever did that Mom and Dad -it's just a joke! Really!) Apparently they spotted me as a chuch member straight away because they noticed I knew all the words to the songs. They have also already helped me organize easier transport for church next week. I look forward to getting involved more.
Happy Easter everyone.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Friday, March 21, 2008
A lovely hike
It's always encouraging to see signs like this one as you start your walk.
But the views were beautiful and it was a lovely day.
Ender really enjoyed the hike too. 
There were many beautiful Australian plants around to see, even though it's technically fall here now. This is a scribbly-gum, named for a worm that leaves a little trail of scribbles behind in the bark. Or so I'm told.
A short clip of video. I need a lot more practice at using the video camera feature on my camera I think. Hope you enjoyed the views as I did.
Friday, March 14, 2008
New Family!
I want to let you all know I've got 2 newly adopted little cousins in the family and I'm very excited about them. If you were at my wedding -they are the flower girl's new sisters. (Thank you big sis for forwarding on all the info!) I can't wait to meet them; looking forward to July.
Best wishes, welcome to the family, and lots of love to them. Not that they can read this, or even read yet. But, ya know.
Best wishes, welcome to the family, and lots of love to them. Not that they can read this, or even read yet. But, ya know.
Hi, I'm not sick or dead or anything!
Sorry I haven't been updating in a while. I have just been very homesick. Being homesick has nothing to do with where you are, it's where you aren't. I miss my loving family and friends very much. I miss Dr. Pepper. Heck, I even miss Wal-mart. (Stores here close down at night -can you imagine that? No 24/7, no buying groceries at 2 am anymore!)
V and I, and occasionally his folks have been busy the last few weeks with council clean-up. Once a year (on a scheduled basis) people around here all put things they don't want out on the curb. It's not normal trash -it's like the things people here would donate to churches, charities, or college students. :) It sits out on the curb until someone scavenges it (One person's trash is another person's treasure!) or eventually the shire councils haul it away to be recycled. Charities go around and loot if the have the man-power, people who run 2nd-hand shops, people who recycle metal for cash, and people like us who need furniture/dishes/etc.
We have many, many little treasures (and big ones) from our looting. We found cash (about $15, plus $5 canadian), metals which we recycled for more cash (Yes Dad, V finally got to haul a carload of scrap in for cash), this 19inch moniter I'm looking at to type this (and 3 other 17 inch ones), speakers for my computer, a 120 GB hard drive, a 7 ft couch, desks, computer tables, art supplies, set of black plates, 3 teapots and teacups, a whole complete teaset with tags still on, a Tiffany glass bowl, nice computer chair, drafting set, a working clothes-dryer (Yes!!!), and the list goes on and on... It's totally unbelievable what people throw away.
This is some of my favorite loot. It was all carefully wrapped in newpaper and put in a box, then piled with lots of other things...
We went to some really nice neighborhoods where people were just upgrading. It seems a shame to me that people don't rehome things. Recycling is all well and good, but isn't it better to use things that still work?
Anyhow, been busy on the days off cleaning the scavenged items and sorting them all. Good timing for us that cleanup was now.
Sadly, all the cleanups are over with now. Still very busy though -beautiful weather so V's job of feeding people is really busy. Easter weekend is coming up -and with it a wedding in the family here. Lots of people staying at the house in our 1 extra room and the rooms of our level we aren't allowed in, all here for the big event. Should prove to be really crazy. We are all hoping for sunny weather as we will be out on the beach. It's been really warm and summery here still, despite a few days in the high 60's-low 70's when Aussies declared winter had come early!
Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate hearing from everyone and miss you all a great deal.
V and I, and occasionally his folks have been busy the last few weeks with council clean-up. Once a year (on a scheduled basis) people around here all put things they don't want out on the curb. It's not normal trash -it's like the things people here would donate to churches, charities, or college students. :) It sits out on the curb until someone scavenges it (One person's trash is another person's treasure!) or eventually the shire councils haul it away to be recycled. Charities go around and loot if the have the man-power, people who run 2nd-hand shops, people who recycle metal for cash, and people like us who need furniture/dishes/etc.
We have many, many little treasures (and big ones) from our looting. We found cash (about $15, plus $5 canadian), metals which we recycled for more cash (Yes Dad, V finally got to haul a carload of scrap in for cash), this 19inch moniter I'm looking at to type this (and 3 other 17 inch ones), speakers for my computer, a 120 GB hard drive, a 7 ft couch, desks, computer tables, art supplies, set of black plates, 3 teapots and teacups, a whole complete teaset with tags still on, a Tiffany glass bowl, nice computer chair, drafting set, a working clothes-dryer (Yes!!!), and the list goes on and on... It's totally unbelievable what people throw away.
This is some of my favorite loot. It was all carefully wrapped in newpaper and put in a box, then piled with lots of other things...
We went to some really nice neighborhoods where people were just upgrading. It seems a shame to me that people don't rehome things. Recycling is all well and good, but isn't it better to use things that still work?
Anyhow, been busy on the days off cleaning the scavenged items and sorting them all. Good timing for us that cleanup was now.
Sadly, all the cleanups are over with now. Still very busy though -beautiful weather so V's job of feeding people is really busy. Easter weekend is coming up -and with it a wedding in the family here. Lots of people staying at the house in our 1 extra room and the rooms of our level we aren't allowed in, all here for the big event. Should prove to be really crazy. We are all hoping for sunny weather as we will be out on the beach. It's been really warm and summery here still, despite a few days in the high 60's-low 70's when Aussies declared winter had come early!
Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate hearing from everyone and miss you all a great deal.
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