No Internet over Christmas

It is very frustrating not to have Internet access. It takes 5-8 working days, and not many of them this time of year. I have escaped to an Internet cafe to check the most important things.
The move to Manly was very hard, but we are in and trying to unpack. Martin goes swimming several times per day and in the meantime we sit on the balcony admiring the view. There is nothing between us and Chile, South America. The building we moved to is very nice. In the city we lived in a block with many small units and young people who did not say hello and never seemed to stay very long. This building was built 1968. Very high quality. Everyone are very friendly.
Christmas eve we were invited for drinks at our next door neighbours. 4 hours later we exited having had a very nice evening.
Christmas Day we went to meet Asa from work and her dad who was visiting. We had a very pleasant afternoon and stayed longer than we planned, but just made the last ferry home.

Hurts everywhere (I really do appreciate my friends hard labour 8 years ago)

It has been so long since I moved house by myself, i.e. without a removal company.

History (skip by anyone easily bored, but read item 19)

1. MK - Sydney 2008, was done by a company sorted out by NSN and I was not even there (Martin was supervising)
   
2. London to MK 2003, was professional removers, but we packed most of it, but not in a day or two.
3. London (Soho) to London (Kings Cross) 2001, Hired 1 MAN & a Van - helped, but we did not have much in the flat
4. Cambridge to London (Soho) 2000, Borrowed the company van from Simoco. Bouncer from Night-club downstairs helped with tricky items (like a Swedish 200x160 cm wood framed bed which would not do very tight 90-degree corners), then the neighbours upstairs had a party and invited us and gave me a me a cranberry drink, probably something like a Cosmopolitan) but I was not trendy enough then - and still not am).
5. Cambridge to London (Kings Cross)2001, was done by an old guy half my size who could carry anything on his back.
6. Stockholm (Essingen) to Stockholm (Soder) 1999, by Martin and his friend Alistair, putting the sofa on the top of a very old Ford Escort - and other things as well.
   
7. Stockholm to Cambridge 1999, by professional removal company paid for by Simoco
   
8. KL to Stockholm 1998, professionals paid for by Ericsson
   
9. (Martin) Nanjing to Stockholm) 1997, paid for and organised by Ericsson
10. Nanjing to KL1996, very little stuff professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
    
11. Stockholm (Torsgatan) to Nanjing 1995, very little stuff, professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
    
12. (Martin) Stockholm to Nanjing, 1995. Professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
13. Stockholm (Torsgatan) into Storage 1995. Professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
    
14. (Martin) - Gamla Stan to Gotgatan 1995, organised and paid for by Ericsson
    
15. Guildford to Stockholm (Torsgatan) 1994. Professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
    
16. (Martin) - Alexandria VA to Stockholm (Gamla Stan) 1994, Packed by Martin, 3 cbm, Picked up and Paid by Ericsson)
    
17. Stockholm (Torsgatan) to Guildford 1992. Professionally removed, paid by Ericsson
    
18. (Martin) - Moved MK to Alexandria VA 1991 or 1992 not sure, Carry - on Luggage only
    
19. Stockholm (Asogatan) to Stockholm (Torsgatan) 1991). Professionally removed by all my friends and me. Thank you all so much! It was very much appreciated.
    
20. Linkoping (Hamngatan) to Stockholm (Asogatan) 1990, Cheap-ish professionals (I did not carry anything, but I got a free ride in the truck)
    
21. Linkoping (City - can't remember the adress) to Hamngatan 1989, did ourselves, but did not have much stuff
    
22. Linkoping (Ryd) to City 1989, did ourselves, but did not have much stuff
    
23. Linkoping (Ryd Student Room) to Ryd (apartment) 1989, did ourselves, but did not have much stuff
    
24. Linkoping (Tannerfors) to (Ryd Student Room) 1988, did ourselves, but did not have much stuff
    
25. Linkoping (Arbetaregatan to Tannefors) 1986, so close - carried it across tha road (I think)
    
26. U-V (Fresta) to Linkoping 1986, 0 we were 3 people leaving home, sharing the smallest truck available and helping each other
    
27. U-V (Skalby) to U-V (Fresta) 1977, I was only 8 so my parents did most of it. However I really wanted to have been allowed to sit at the back of the truck to help hold the 2m (6'8" cactus)

So, the point I am trying to make is, that the last time I packed up and was responsible for moving all my belongings was in 1991. Everyone I know then turned up to help. Having done it by myself with the help of Martin and a British back-packer found on Gumtree, I am very thankful, but also feel very old as I back hurt very much and we have another day to go!

CTP Green Slip

I finally received my Blue-slip for Little Car. This means he has passed the inspection, (MOT, Besiktning) and my next step is to get a CTP Green Slip. This is the Compulsory Third Party Insurance which I need to get before I can get him registered. Unfortunately the Blue Slip guy filled in the wrong model year (1963 instead of 1961) and I now have to get it re-issued. Ideally I need to get License plates by Monday when Martin will drive me up to Dural to collect Little Car.
I have been working out a suitable route, which is not the most straight forward one, but I feel it will be easier to drive back. Also I have no E-tag for Little Car, so cannot go on any of the toll roads.
Hopefully I can get the Green Slip tomorrow and after I have signed the new lease document for the apartment, I have the necessary proof of address needed for registration.
So Christmas with Little Car seems possible.

Eating out is not always fun

I ate out 3 times this walled glass, weekend. Friday lunch, Saturday lunch and Sunday lunch. It was all very bad, not sure why I am bothering.
Friday I went to Pirama just up the road from work. I had fillet of trout with chips and a glass of a glass of Verdehlo. No sure it can be called glass being only 150ml though. The trout was not properly cooked and the chips were luke warm and soggy.
Saturday we went to one of the pubs at Darling Harbour. I ordered a chicken wrap with pineapple without tomatoes and dressing. It came but the wrap had been sealed using mayonnaise so I could not eat it (why don't they state these things on the menu. Took out the chicken, lettuce and pineapple which I ate separately.
Sunday we went to the Frisco Hotel in Woolloomooloo, which had high ratings here: http://www.eatability.com.au/au/sydney/frisco_hotel
I think they probably wrote those themselves... To start with - there was no view. Then they did not have any English Ale, although it states outside on the red sign, they specialise in English Ale. They only had domestic cheap stuff which they only served in tiny little glasses. I ordered pizza, asking specifically about the tomato arrangement. I was told tomato meant real tomatoes, not tomato sauce and I therefore asked for it to come without. That did not work, it came without tomatoes but with too much tomato sauce to even begin scraping it off.
So I am going to cook my own food for a few days.

Cisra X-mas Party

Saturday was Martin's Christmas party, which was a bit more up-market than the NSN one we had in November. There was entertainment, speaches (by Japanese managers who knew very little english) and prizes to be won (mainly digital cameras - Cisra's main business is image research for Canon) and there was even a photo-booth for party-goers to take their pictures, in case they forgot what they were doing. We had to walk there and back but my feet, wearing party shoes survived. Martins colleauges seemed very nice.

Green light for Manly

So, we have green light for the apartment in Manly. We have found tenants for city pad (unfortunately they pay $150/w less than us - so we have to pay the difference) and our new landlord has accepted us. We just have to sign the contract, and the girls renting our current place has to sign theirs. Removal is booked for Monday 22/12 and I have enlisted two British back-packers to come and help with packing up our stuff.

We will now have plenty of space to receive any visitors and 50m to the beach. Read about Manly beach here:http://www.manlyaustralia.com.au/

Hopefully everything will work out now.

Dinner for Myself

Martin has gone off to a Christmas party, which I am not invited to, so I have the evening for myself. Not bad ;-)
As I had the this thinly sliced mega-long bacon left I decided to cook Sissi comfort food, i.e. Swedish fast-cook macaroni (imported by mistake) and make do bacon. It was very nice. I have only one more portion of macaroni left, so will save for next special occasion. You might think pasta is pasta, but these are special and I very much enjoyed it.
Friday is Sydney Newcomers Party
Saturday is Christmas Party at Martin's work
So better get into party-mode

It's going to be a chilly one

20-22 degrees just reported for tomorrow. The heading is the exact words from the weather-woman ;-)
I am not too un-happy. Two sleepless nights. I wake up automatically when it gets to 24 degrees. Turn on the A/C but have problems going back to sleep.
Thinking of you with snow ;-)

Books, books books

I started cataloguing my books on Google's bookshelf site: http://books.google.com.au/books?uid=14457350082791118126 to see what I actually have. I only did just under two shelves and got to 108, so I have no idea where I will end up. My idea was to export the list to Excel when finished, so that I can re-organise them into something useful when we move.
But as it seems like I have closer to 3,000 instead of the 1,000 or so I thought I had it will be a tedious task. Also, it does not look like I can export them to Excel after all.

Martin just called to inform me there was a fully decorated Christmas tree on his bus to work, which I think is a bit over the top. I used to have a small USB powered tree attached to my laptop, but it seems to have been lost moving here.

Proper Sunday Lunch

Martin expressed an interest in cooking a proper Sunday lunch today. Roast Lamb with a mix of roast potatoes, onions, carrots, leek, garlic and parsnip. I agreed but suggested we buy the food at the food hall at David Jones. I really like shopping there.
It was as nice as I intended. We found some lamb already marinated in red wine, garlic and rosemary, a variety of vegetables including a very long parsnip (around 35 cm) and some mangoes for desert (mixed with strawberries I bought yesterday and ice cream). I also bought stuff for the rest of the week, "wagyu" beef burgers, organic pork fillet and thin sliced bacon (at least as long as the parsnip). Martin then went off to buy some interesting (and much more expensive than I would have got) wines, in their wine shop. That included a couple of his beloved Marmadukes and a couple of nice bottles of Verdelho, while I got some cheese for tonight.
Everything (that should be) is now in the oven and smelling very nice.
I should check the receipts though and see if it really is much more expensive to shop there.

All clean and tidy

One of the things I miss most here is (apart from Swedish bacon and cheeze doodles) someone to do the cleaning and ironing. I have advertised but obviously not in the right places, which means the cleaning has been left to me and Martin and we only iron what is absolutely necessary, therefore the apartment is not necessarily as pleasant as it could be and sometimes my shirts look a bit rough around the edges.
However, as we are planning to move to Manly, we need to get out of our 1-year lease on the current apartment and the letting agent was showing it to people on Saturday. We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning cleaning and tidying everywhere and it now almost looks like our house in Stony when Lynn has just left. It does not look like a place where I have lived for any amount of time.
I really hope he managed to find someone who liked it as I have no idea how to keep it like this until next Saturday....

Trial Commute

Today Martin dropped me off in Manly on his way to work, outside the building where we will look at a flat tomorrow. He wanted me to check how long time it would take to get to work, and if I thought I could put up with it, as he thinks he really likes it.

I was dropped off at 7.50. At 8.10 I had walked to the ferry terminal. This could be shortened if I use my silver scooter (but it is quite hot) or if he actually drives past the ferry terminal on the way to work and drops me there. The ferry left at 8.15 and arrived on time at Circular quay at 8.45. If I had known the 443 but would leave at 8.48 I would have tried to catch it, but as I did not know I had to take the 8.58 one instead, which dropped me outside the office at 9.20 - so all in all 1,5 hours. Not ideal.

On the other hand my boss is happy for me to work from home and only show up in the office when I need to. I think we'll consider it if we like it, especially as Martin thinks it is a good idea and he can learn to surf.

link is here:

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403630970&f=0&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=74567086&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1228106791

Book Editor

In the movie "the Holiday" Jude Law's character is a book editor. That seems like an excellent job. I read so many books, and to get paid for reading books, and commenting on how to make them better... that must be the best of jobs. I am on to the job site right now!

And Martin did not get angry, he just asked me to make a DVD of RHEL (Linkux RedHat) and I have not stopped multi-tasking as still writing my blog, looking for houses, watching the DVD, drinking wine and helping Martin start up the computer... (he has a degree in Computer Science, I just remember one of our old ones had 2 x power on buttons, one at the back and one at the front ;-)

In Trouble

Martin has spent the past 2 hours downloading a new operating system, called Fedora for his new toy. It had not quite finished by the time he went down the pool for a swim, so he left it running. He has also just spent 30 minutes carrying his new mega-big computer-toy back from China-town and looked absolutely exhausted, but there were no taxis as the police had closed off the street for some reason.
In the meantime I have been watching "the Holiday" on DVD, drinking red wine and looking at houses for sale in Cambridge, UK. It is frustrating not being able to buy a house here, so I look elsewhere. I did find house in my old street, Harvey Goodwin Avenue, which I quite fancy. In any case I decided to stop multi-tasking and focus in the movie, so I closed the computer.
That killed the almost finished down-load.... so, I am not really looking forward to Martin coming back from his swim hoping to install it.
I did re-start it... it has done 5% and estimates another 3h 22min.
In the worst case I will offer him a copy of the latest Linux Red-Hat, but it has no license ;-(

Girls Night In

Martin was away for after-work drinks so I invited some of the girls from work for a Girls-Night-In. We played Nintendo Wii, ate cheese and managed to drink almost 9 bottles of wine between 5 of us. We had great fun though and I now have a whole creation of Miis that will run around when I play. We were all pretty quiet at work today. Maybe next time we pick a weekend. Unfortunately I have no pictures.

A Rainy Sunday

Weather here has been deteriorating for a while now. Spring does not seem to be a very nice time weatherwise. Today it rained, so decided to stay in and move things around. That included furniture, books, CDs (and copy them to my Laptop), VCDs (and copy them to an external HDD), DVDs, Singles, Stereo (and connect it up), etc. Not sure if it is any better, but getting slightly organised. Still many months to go before it is really liveable, and hopefully we have found something nice by then.
Martin is cooking Lobster tails with oven fries, and I am drinking Tyrell's Verdhelo with that.

Car Shopping

As the weather was not too good we decided to go car shopping. we really do need a nice-ish car. The Mazda 121 we have on loan is not much fun to drive and not very comfy, as not A/C. We are not sure what we are looking for, so just wondered around the car dealerships to see if we saw anything we fancied. I found an Audi A4 Estate, a few years newer than my Audi in the UK, but it was around AUD 35k and too much for a car I think. I also quite liked a 3-series BMW coupe, which was just under AUD 40k.
Martin was quite keen on getting some sort of flat-bed truck ??? then a Volvo XC90 as it had DVD players in the back and he could put me there ??? but he also quite liked a baby-blue Audi A4 convertable or a larger version of the Toyota Yaris.
I think we have a while to go before we find something suitable.
It is a shame the German cars are so expensive here, I don't know much about Asian ones.
Karin, we did look at Hyundai and they suggested something smaller than the Santa Fe, just slightly smaller and still 4-wheel drive, but I think it is too large to drive around in. However it was fairly cheap, around AUD $25k brand new.

X-mas Party

Yesterday we had the company Christmas party. Very early, wonder if the city venues are all booked up in Sydney or if the company is just trying to save money. I was a bit concerned with the dress code which was stated as cocktail dress / formal attire. I really did not want to wear a dress so settled finally on black trousers and a silk shirt. However the trousers I has in mind had no pockets, and as was not wearing a jacket there was no place to put keys, money and phone. How do these people think that design trousers without pockets?
Finally I found a pair of black trousers that have always been to small, but I have had hopes to get in to. As the Wii Fit is telling me I am doing well, I had a go as a last resort, and I could wear them. They were not even uncomfortable, so I am very happy.
The party was not anything special. Just a closed off area of a Sydney bar, about 5 minutes walk from home. It was dark, the wine was pretty horrible so I ended up drinking beer, and the food was passed around on little trays. Just nibbles like pieces of chicken and lamb, small portions of risotto in "Chinese takeaway"type containers and bits of veggies. However I ended up talking to a nice crowd from work so not bad overall.

Nearly Perfect

We decided to go to and look at the house yesterday afternoon and it is nearly perfect. It has very large living and dining areas, large modern kitchen, separate study & guest bedroom/bathroom on the entrance floor, with large balconies of the dining and living areas. Downstairs there are 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms and an additional living room opening out to the pool. There is also a large double garage. It is really too good to turn down.
I had a look at commuting times and by bus it is around 2 hours each way, so I will probably have to drive. Unfortunately Sydney traffick is terrible and I will have to keep renting a garage space near work, as there is no parking.
I will try to find someone else who lives in that area to see how they get about getting to/from the office.

Driving Little Car

Today I drove Little Car around the rural outskirts of Sydney called Dural. We passed Lars & Mia's old house on the way there and continued another half hour or so, in the borrowed Nokia Ute (Utility Vehichle, i.e. truck). Little car is beeing attended to, by one of the main guys in the Australian Midget & Sprite Club, Colin Dodds, and has a load of new shiny bits now. He will also in the next few weeks get some new metal bits, like half a floor.

Colin told me there were very few Midgets this old in Australia and all were privately imported, which make me feel Little Little Car is quite special.
I did take him for a drive, although I do not have insurance yet, but it was very rural. It felt really nice driving him again and I know he is in safe hands.

Colin puts out seeds for the wild parrot and this King Parrot called Fred, stop buy most days. He ate out of my hand when I held up some seeds. I really like to get a house where I can get Parrots come around for lunch.

The afternoon was spent moving our surplus stuff from one garage to another (hence the borrowed Ute).

Stupid Viewing Time!

They will only let us view the house in Newport on Monday afternoon at 2.30 pm. That is a bit of a stupid time for people who work. But I guess they are expecting that the stay-at-home wife goes around looking for properties and make the sole decision.
Apparently the guy who is renting out the house has not completed on the purchase yet, so the people who currently own it does not want the rental agent there more than once a week, and not on weekends or evenings.
It is probably around an hours drive from work, so we'll see on Monday if we can get away, but I get a bit pissed off with them.
Tomorrow will be 32 degrees, so possibly off to a beach.

Up the Budget

We decided to up the budget so that we did not have to compromise so much on the living. It is clear Sydney is extremely expensive and that a huge chunk of our earnings will have to go on rent. They also announced yesterday on the news that they would axe the fast ferry to Manly because of the credit crunch, so I started to look a bit further away (and we would have to drive). I found a house on 8 Hallesmith Road that seemed to tick most of the boxes at twice the rent we are paying at the moment (AUD$1,500/week), but sent it to Martin anyway. If he continues to work we should be OK (but I doubt he will want to work if we lived there - so a bit of catch 22). However, when I got home the rent had gone up to AUD $1,600/w. That explains the rental market in Sydney at the moment. However, we will make an appointment for Saturday and see if it is as nice as it looks like on the picture. They say in the advert it has a sandy beach at the bottom of the garden... Link below:
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403603841&f=10&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=74500731&m=0&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1226536954

Thinking of Bali

Yesterday they shot the "Bali Bombers" who were convicted of staging the bombing of a nightclub in Bali in 2003. Their final statement was that if they were going to get killed their friends would get revenge. At the same time our friends from Taiwan would like to meet on Bali for a few days in the sun. I was hoping it would be cheap, but it is not. Probably because people have already booked their trips. However, there is a slight chance we will go to Bali via Darwin just before or over Christmas.

020 7993 8335

Our new "UK" phone number has been set up and now rings on our Sydney phone, instead of our computer, which means I don't have to be logged on for you to call. The new number is: 02079938335 or for Swedish friends +44 20 79938335 and is charged as a normal UK land-line.

Little Car update

Little Car is continuing his journey on the back of a truck through the Sydney area. He has now arrived in the northwest being attended by a member of the Midget & Sprit Club. He is quite hopeful to be on the road at some point. Not perfect but having been fixed up to the required Aussie standards without braking my bank completely.

Manly - Fairlight

We had a long list of properties lined up for Staurday in the Manly - Fairlight area and it was hard work rushing around back and forwards to make it on time. It did not help that they had the Saturday driver on the Manly Ferry. He was late, arrived at the wrong side of the wharf and took ages to park.

We were very late for the first apartment. It was a large 220 square meeter 3-bedroom unit with great views.

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403563961&f=30&p=200&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=7795563&m=1&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1226188524

Positives: Great views from all rooms, reasonably close to the ferry, very large, double garage

Negatives: $1,100/week, very dated bathrooms, cheap kitchen probably at least 10-15 years old

Then followed a few that were not interesting at all, until this one:

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403592701&f=30&p=200&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=7795563&m=1&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1226188524

Positives: Modern, tiled floors, great view from the living room, reasonably close to the ferry, double garage, pool, tennis court

Negatives: A bit strange decor, Not as large as the others

And finally we went back to the large one we saw lat week:

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403558009&f=30&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=21363757&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1226183998

Positives: Huge, lots of storage, nice view from balcony, cheaper

Negatives: Single garage, only nice view from outside, grotty carpet, 40-year old kitchen and bathrooms

So, what do you think?

Wii Fit Progress

I have now graduated from "Short Distance jogging" through "Long Distance jogging to "Around the Island jogging".
Charissa - will you come by and try to beat me? or perhaps we can do 2 Person Jogging?
I am also doing well in Advance skiing, ski jumping (but Martin has the current record). Beginner Step and some other ones, whilst I need more snow boarding practise ;-)

Melbourne Cup Day

Melbourne Cup seems to be a mix between the dress-up day at Ascot and the Grand National. People in Melbourne (Victoria) get a day off work to dress up and go to the horse races, but the horses do not have to jump, they just run.

We, here in Sydney - NSW, just get lunch. This includes steak, wine/champagne and watching the races on telly upstairs in the cafe. Being a trainee Aussie I have to comply - hard work ;-). Number 10 won, his name is "Viewed" quite suitably. The company actually encouraged us to bet on the horses, but I was too busy working in the morning.

For some reason it is very quiet in the office this afternoon, wonder if the winners & losers have gone to the pub to celebrate or drown their sorrows? Seems to work both ways?

I feel a bit sorry for Dave, one of the engineers on my project. He is based in Melbourne and should have had the day off. Instead he spent the day with the customer here in Sydney doing Acceptance Testing and he did not even make it to the office for the lunch.

Taxing

When it comes to doing your tax returns it is not easy having to deal with 3 countries, but I am making progress.

• Today I managed to lodge my Australian tax return after a trip to the tax office. They told me a should consider myself resident for tax purposes, which means I pay less tax and will get more money back ;-)
• I found an error in my Swedish Tax Return which means I am asked to pay too much tax, but they will take at least another month to respond, so now I have to send money to Sweden just to pay tax I will get back in a month or so ;-(
• I still have not heard anything about my UK tax return I lodged in January, have chased them but nothing yet, and I have to do next years now ;-(

Clovelly visit

Finally we made it out to Clovelly to visit Lotta with her family. Lotta was introduced to me by Lars & Mia who Martin and I came to visit 18 months ago here in Sydney. Lars is my friend from upper secondary school. We did a project on Turbo Pascal (tells you how long time ago it was) together which was quite fun. Apparently Lotta was in our school as well, but a couple of classes below, but it was actually Lars' wife Mia, who found Lotta on a site for Swedish mothers in Sydney. Anyway, I met Lotta last year and really enjoyed a couple of drinks on her balcony today. Although we got together a while ago in the Syndey Cafe when she was in Sydney CBD (Central Business District), this is the first time we all met up. We are planning another lunch date on our balcony before they go to Sweden for X-mas. I will also investingate the options for joining the Swedish Chamber of Commerce for both of us.

I never thought I'd miss Chris

When Chris Evans took over Drive-Time from Johnny Walker in 2006 I was not best pleased, having listened to Johnny for years driving home from work. However presented with no other suitable alternative I grew to like him and I miss his shows. So, this afternoon (working from home as the Intranet & e-mail was down in the office) I decided to "listen again" to yesterday's show and I am really enjoying it.
I still wonder how we would survive without the Internet?

Today was the hottest day since March 2007, around 37 degrees. Within the next hour the temperature is forecasted to fall at least 15 degrees in 5 minutes with a thunderstorm following. I really hope Martin will make it home from work in time. The weather here really cannot decide what it wants to do.

Looking forward to meeting Lotta & family this weekend.

A Mad Week

This has been a completely mad week. My project is nearing completion and we have been doing Acceptance Testing with the Customer. It has been hard work, even though I did not do any of it myself (thanks to Dave, Nishant, Richard 7 Bonny).
Now Friday late afternoon I think everything is back on track and I will try to come up with something nice for dinner.
We are going back to Manly tomorrow to look at some alternative apartments and we'll see if we find something nice.

ID-Mad Place

I thought Sweden was the worst place in the world when it comes to ask for ID in various situations, however Australia is close or even worse. You can still buy things on your own credit card without ID, but you can't:
- Get a pre-paid SIM card for your mobile
- Post a parcel, however small, abroad.

Today I had to go home and get my Passport in order to send a parcel consisting of a pair of slippers and a birthday card...

Christmas - No Way yet

I went off to the Broadway shopping centre (30 min walk) as Martin had hurt his foot and I needed new swim-wear. It is funny, we have now unpacked absolutely everything, but I cannot find any swimming gear apart from what I brought in my hand-luggage flying over. So, here I am looking for a new swim suit, really hot after half an hour walk in 30+ degrees, walking into a totally re-decorated shopping with Christmas stuff everywhere. It really does not make sense.
Lars & Mia, any suggestions for X-mas Day? Bondi sounds a bit tacky... but maybe it is something you should do at least once before you get too old?
Could not find anything that fit me so bought some "boarders" which are surfer trousers (ladies not boys ones) and 2 x swimming T-shirts with sun-factor 50+ built in (one for me and one for Martin).

Visiting time

Saturday Martin drove me in the borrowed little Mazda 121 all the way to Penrith, half way to the Blue Mountains to visit Little Car. It was great to see him again and he was not half as bad as I expected him to be. There were a few new rust patches and a the floor panels were a bit damaged, but overall the main problem seem to be Australian regulations. A part of it seems to be that the company he got sent to have very high standards and will not do anything less than perfect. They finally quoted me AUD $26k+GST for the bits of work they could see and told me there would be more they could not see at the moment.

Since then I have been in touch with the Sprite & Midget Club, who have sent me a nice e-mail and seem happy to help. We'll see what happends next week. Please spare a thought for Little car if you have any spare.

Lord Nelson Hotel

Friday night we went for a very long walk. all the way to 19 Kent street (we live on 355), all because Martin wanted to visit some fancy pub he had heard of, called the Lord Nelson (hotel). Hotel is a bit misgiving as all pubs here are called hotels whether or not they have any accommodation. It was a bit bad timing though - we ended up with the after-work crowds and first did not get in. We were told that it was full, but two people just left, so they let us in. It was not an understatement, it was completely packed. But they do serve a wide variety of beer in pint glasses and they brew their own beer on site in the cellar. I had Quale Ale and Martin had a Trafalgar Pale Ale. We decided to go back mid week next time - Charissa, would you like to join us?

Wrong Language

I am reading an Ian Rankin novel in Swedish, that was given to me by a well-meaning Swedish lady I met a few weeks ago. I normally do not read translations and it is really confusing. I keep translating each sentence back into English.
Today was the coldest ever 22 October ever recorded. I think around 11 degrees.
I am on cooking duty - so off to create a masterpiece Thai red curry with chicken (and some vegetables for Martin). As it is Wednesday we will stick with Banrock Station Semillion-Chardonnay with that, and save the fancy stuff for the weekend.
Have made an appointment to visit Little Car on Saturday.

Wo Shi Bu Hao

Falling apart

My family consists of me, Martin, Little Car and Kent (the penguin).

I have just heard from the Classic Car restorer that Little car is completely falling apart and will cost at least AUD 20k to pass the Australian regulations. That is not to make him perfect, just to register him. We are talking SEK 105k and GBP 8.5k. He is worth a lot less than that in money, but to me he is part of my family and worth a lot to me. I have no idea what to do.

On top of it all, my favourite penguin is loosing his head.

Help - any advice is appreciated.

New Toy - Finally

I finally got my mobile phone. You can't really believe it when you work for a company called Nokia Siemens Networks and it takes you 4.5 months to get a phone, especially as you are walking around using a SonyEricsson one infront of customers. But, it arrived today - a Nokia E66, which probably have more functionality than I ever figure out to use.
So far I have made calls, received calls, sent & received text messages and synchronised it with outlook.

Odd Measurements

Today we went to Coogee. why? Well we did not know where to go so I told Martin to pick a page in the guide book and he chose the one with Coogee mentioned. Not great - too touristy.

The great confusion / realisation today is Australian beer sizes. Since we arrived we have not understood them. What we normally get when we order a beer is a "Schooner" which is 425 ml in NSW (New South Wales). This is too small, but most restaurants will not serve pints. I found out yesterday that you can order pitchers. The guys behind the bar looked at bit odd when I ordered it, so today I asked for a jug instead and that was easier. Question is - how much is a Jug/Pitcher? well, according to the measurement line it stated 1140 ml. What sort of measurement is that? Well I started to think about it and a pint is 57 cl, which makes a jug 2 pints = 570*2 = 1140. So Australia is not really metric, they just pretend to, to fit with some new legislation.
However, back home I did some more investigations and beer glass sizes are really different in each state - you should read the description below and then compare it to (Pint / half pint):
http://www.australianbeers.com/pubs/ordering/ordering.htm

Watson's Bay

Today we ventured to Watson's Bay, which is the North-east corner of Sydney (without crossing the Harbour Bridge). We took the ferry from Circular Quay (which is not circular at all) and it took around 30 minutes to get there. Watson's Bay has the first original Doyle's Restaurant, but we could not get a table. They are only open for lunch between 12-3pm which seems a bit short when they are fully booked. Instead we had a beer at the pub next door and then went for a walk to explore. Unfortunately we found a beach almost immediately, so it was just to settle down for a delay while Martin went swimming ;-). Then we walked to the South Point Head and it had a great view over the sea and passed another beach, which had nude swimming which did not stop Martin, but I managed to persuade him to wait (as I was too shy to sit at the beach and wait for him while he was swimming). After another swimming stop (at a normal beach) we had lunch at the pub. Wagyu beef burgers which were OK. Then we explored a bit more and Martin had another swim.
Watson's Bay has lots of very nice houses overlooking the harbour and see, but I have a feeling they are all over budget.
Pictures will be published shortly on the usual site.

In my eagerness to get my hair as blond as possible as quickly as possible I have managed to burn my head. I thought the hair would work as sunscreen, but not very well apparently
so I may have to wear a hat tomorrow!

Off to buy some cheese for eating on the balcony this evening with some nice wine.

In Recovery mode

Today is the day after the team-building event at Teregal beach. We started off with laser-taging, which was pretty silly. I have previously played indoors wearing a vest so that you can feel when you get shot, but this time you had some funny sensors on your head, and crawling around in the forest which was not much fun.
The afternoon was spent more pleasantly. We played lawn bowling, which is a bit like boule and then it was time for the wine appreciation and cocktail making course. Wine appreciation included tasting of 3 different wine, and then a competition. The wines were the worst possible, all the ones I really would not choose (a Sauvignon Blanc, an Oaked Chardonnay and a Merlot). The competition was guess that wine, which turned out to be a Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon from 2007. During Cocktailmaking we learnt to make a Cosmopolitan and a Summer Blizz, both tasted OK and I am now an expert at filling a Martini glass exactly.
Afterwards I had, what was supposed to be a relaxing massage, but it hurt quite badly and still hurts :-(.
The evening was OK-ish, not great. We did get unlimited free drinks, but it was not that fun. They shipped us back to the office around lunchtime today and most of us decided to work from home in the afternoon for some reason...

Drive Testing

Today I went out Drive Testing with the radio guys. We had a laptop connected to a GPS which showed a map of Sydney, where we were, the location of the 3G base stations and the proposed routes. we also had 3 mobile phones connecting to the laptop. One was locked to 3G, one was locked to 2G and one was free to choose. Then we made the 3G phone call the 2G phone continously and the 3rd phone was calling a landline. We then started driving around counting the hand-overs the phones made between base stations and also when the "free one" went from 3G to 2G. All very much fun, but I got a bit car sick as looking mainly on the computer and not on the road.

Tomorrow is the beach-party so off to do some packing ;-)

Remedial advice - how things change

One of my younger readers has advised me that it is no longer a fashion faux-pas to wear socks with sandals, just like other things that are so popular with the youth nowadays and was totally unacceptable when I was young, like showing off your underwear in public. He suggests I wear socks in my sandlas to aviod my feet being stripy, so I attempted to try it out on the balcony after work. However, it defeats the purpose of sandals. My feet get very hot, and I actually like the stripes.

It is interesting how quickly things change. When I grew up "wicked" meant bad (i. e. evil, like witch or the wicked robot in Transformers), not cool as it is being used today.

Looking forward to Thursday - company beach event. Among the activities are: "Taste that wine", make your own cocktail, SPA treatment, surfing lessons and finishing off with a fancy dress party with a beach theme (not taking part, but will wear my wet-suit jumper in case someone tries to throw me into the sea).

Working on Stripy Feet

Today did not go as planned.
The weather forecast this morning said cloudy, thunderstorms and 15-20 degrees. As there is nothing to do in the city when the weather is bad we decided to go to Manly to see if it was more fun there in bad weather. As usual the weather forecasters got it wrong. Arriving Manly dressed in Jeans and Hoddie we immediately got too hot as it was around 30 degrees, sunny and no cloud in sight. However we had 2 properties to look at today, one townhouse which was a bit grotty, as being inhabited by 3 x sets of surfer dudes and 1 3 bed apartment which had a great view but the building was not great. Don't think we will go for either but we shopped new shorts and decided to remember to always bring swimming gear, short and sandals whatever the weather forecast is.
Martin went swimming 3 times during our Manly trip but I still think the water is too cold and working hard on getting my stripy feet in order ;=)

Little Car is not well

Just off the phone after having talked to the mechanic who was going to make sure Little Car made it safetly through the Australian import jungle and he tells me he will not pass. Apparently there is too much rust and they are much more worried about that here. He will send Little Car to someone he knows to see if anything can be done and how much it will cost - but told me not to keep my hopes up.

I am really sad.

My first visitor

Help, I am having a visitor to our chaotic flat!.
I am off tonight to an evening arranged by "Swedish women in Sydney" where we are meant to exchange books and magazines with each other and then eat dinner at one of the pubs. I thought I'd ask Asa fram work who is also Swedish and she wanted to come along, but it does not start till 7pm so I suggested a glass of wine on my balcony after work, as I live between work and the bus stop - She happily agreed with the plan, but now I have to do tidying!
At least I have cleared a path from the front door to the balcony, but the flat is still pretty much full of too much stuff. We really need a bigger place (or less things - but that is not an option).
Anyhow, I hope it does not scare her too much.
I am bringing the lastest issue of Privata Affarer, a book called Mosippan and the complete "Berts Betraktelser" for someones kids and whatever other books I can find in Swedish that may interest someone and I hope to gain something interesting as well as manage to speak Swedish for a whole evening, which is not as easy as it sounds...

Now you can comment - I hope

I think I have finally managed to change my settings so that I can receive comments from anyone now. Please try ;-)

WALL-E etc.

As the weather was not so good we went to the cinema to see Wall-E, I assume it is around back in Europe. It is about a robot who is left on earth cleaning up the rubbish who falls in love with another robot visiting earth to check if it is getting more habitable... It was quite sweet.

I am now reading the latest Faye Kellerman book called "Cold Case". Sheila - you can borrow it when I see you next ;-)

Martin os cooking Risotto with Chicken, Bacon and prawns and I am drinking a South Australian Semillion called Barossa by Peter Lehman wines with that.

Wii - playing is going forward and I am mastering new games every day.

Enjoyable shopping

Had another go at having lunch at David Jones food hall. we thought we'd try the noodle bar this time, but there was a long queue so went back to the grill bar. It was not as good this time, but it never is, is it? Still enjoyed the grocery shopping afterwards: Free range pork fillets )I do like eating pigs who have been living outside), Free range chicken thighs and large prawns for the risotto Martin will cook tonight, 2 types of cheese, Tzatziki, Humous and a baugette and some interesting wine for the afternoon balcony rest finished things off.

On the way home I got the Da Vinci code DVD as I have now finished the book, so I guess that will have to provide the evening's entertainment as Australian free telly is not much fun. Unfortunately they only had region 4 - so will have to watch it on the HP.

Clocks goes back here

Just chatting on-line to a friend in the UK, waiting for her to come on-line on my work comuter - as work chat only works on work computer....
Next week it will get worse, as we move another hour away from Europe - and then when you guys in Europe move your clocks it will be even worse....
So going to be a bit detached for on-line stuff for the next 6 months or so. You can always get me on e-mail or Yahoo!

The Da Vinci Code

I have resisted to read the Da Vinci Code until now. When it came out there was so much hype about it that I really could not be bothered. I like to pick my own books for my own reason. I also did not see the movie. However, I have now given in.
Faced with having lunch on my own and wanting to go out somewhere I needed something to read, so went to our little kitchen for a magazine of some sort. The only thing I could find was an old copy of this book, so I thought I'd give it a go over lunch. Now, lunchtime the day after, I am half way through - and I did not even take it home with me yesterday.
Oh well, guess I'll finish it over the weekend and then watch the movie...

No Rain or?

It is interesting watching the weather forecast on telly. No rain is a big Negative! I moved here 'cause I liked the idea of sunshine. Tomorrow's forecast is 33 degrees and a chance of a thunderstorm, which seems to be good news to the weather reporter but I will get wet walking back from work.

Martin has cooked fish stew with prawns, calamari and salmon with cream and saffron, served with rice and white wine... so off to dinner

Too late & too hot

We were not fast enough to get the house in Curl Curl. We'll have a look at some other ones this weekend.
Also, this country is too hot! Thanks Lars for recommending A/C, however the one in our apartment can't cope and it is only early spring!

Narrabeen, Dee Why and Curl Curl

I had shortlisted 6 properties for this week's search. The first one was quite far north in Narrabeen. It was a house on the beach-side of the road, but it had a house in front of it, so the view was very limited. It also was quite run-down. Obvioulsy had been rented out for a while, so a no-go.

Next we had a couple of places in Dee Why, a few km south. We had never been to Dee Why beach, so thought we'd explore. Dee Why was more cosmopolitan than the other places we have been, with lots of bars and restaurants, supermarkets and shops. It also have a nice beach and pool, so seemed ideal. I ended up looking at a 3-bed apartment on my own, as Martin went for a swim. It was actually quite nice and larger than our current one. It was also almost brand new with an outside entertainment deck and small garden. It had no view but was very close to the beach.

After a quick drink we continued off to what looked like a large detached house with a double garage, even closer to the beach. A prime example of you get what you pay for. It was really dated, like it had not been touched since the 1940s or so. Although it was large and a great postion we can not live there. It is something I would consider buying and doing up, but not renting.

Finally, after a quick lunch we went off to Curl Curl, where we have tried to view a house for a few weekends now. It has the most amazing view of the sea. It was quite nice, but a little on the small side. I think we are still considering it, but not 100% sure. Link is here:http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=403459363&f=0&p=10&t=ren&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=56482154&s=nsw&snf=rbs&tm=1222739735

And picture is the one on top - not sure how to move it...

Dinner was lobster tails on the balcony. This Aussie life is not too bad ;-)

Unfortunately Forty

So, as my friend stated in an e-mail recently, I have joined the club of those who managed to survive to become 40! Who would have thought that...


This year I got an actual present. For those who are not familiar, I usually get a selection of cards, which have a possible present written on each. Then through various elimination processes, not always fair, I end up with one of them.
This year Martin had lost the cards, he claimed he could not remember where he hid them, so he got out to buy me a present instead. I got a Nintendo Wii console and games! We spent the morning playing tennis, skiing, boxing and other interesting things. we did not take into account our tiny over-crowded living room, but it worked out in the end.


Lunch was booked at Peter Doyle's, which is a very nice restaurant overlooking Sydney Harbour, Harbour Bridge and Opera house. We had a table just on the edge of the water and the weather was perfect. I started off with a traditional Prawn Cocktail, and then I had Grilled John Dory with Chips, as one lobster a week is probably enough. I finished off with a small dessert of Mandarin mousse. With this we had a local Hunter Valley Simillion (several bottles). This took most of the day and in the afternoon we just lazed around at home.

Weekend preparations

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from our InternetService Provider informing us that the credit card we were using for payment was due to expire. As I was at home this morning I decided to call them and give them details of the new one. However, they did not want to talk to me. Although I had the account number, my address and all other details, they needed to speak with Martin. But, I did not want to change anything or recive anything, I wanted to pay. Could I not do this, when it was actually my e-mail address they hd sent the reminder to - but no. That is inflexible customer service for you.

Off to the customer for a meeting in the afternoon and saw a couple of what appeared to be fat pigeons from the back, walking around in the bushes. Suddently one turned it's head and turned out to be bright pink on the front, and definetly had the head of a parrot. It was the weirdest combination of parrot/pigeon I have ever seen. I have no idea what it was and if it was an accident or an actual species. I will do some research later. Picture attached will be added when I can get my phone to communicate to the computer.

Tonight I am off to IKEA to deal with their, most likely equally hopeless, customer service. I need to get the broken part for my chest of drawers replaced. Hopefully Sydney rush-hour traffic bvehaves. It is quite practical that Martin works near my customer sometimes so he can pick me up after work.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend. Weather is forcasted to be 25 degrees and sunny both days here. We are looking at houses on the beach on Saturday and eating a very long lunch at Peter Doyle on Sunday, most likely containig at least one lobster.

A few steps forward

CostCo delivered on their promise and sent the missing part for the bed. It had changed slightly since we bought it, but not more than could be fixed with a screwdriver and some brute force. It was a bit strange sleeping in a bed again, and in the bedroom. The bedroom is quieter, but brighter. Need to sort out the blinds for tonight.

I also finally found my sandals. I now know what size they are so I can order a few more pairs on-line for the next 10 years. Nowadays, if I come across anything I like I always by at least 2, so that I have one for the future when the first one is worn out. Does that make sense?

The importance of doing unpacking properly

In the search of my lost favorite sandals, I came across a half unpacked box on the balcony that appeared to have an assortment of shoes in it. I went through all of them, but no sandals, just a large box at the bottom. That box contained an electric fan for Little Car, that needed to be fitted, so after work today we went off into Suburbia to deliver it.
The new SatNav system was not to be trusted though. This morning it routed Martin 10km the wrong way and two tolls along the motorway. This evening the sensitive touch screen directed us to Cooper Road instead of Cowper Street, so we were a bit late. However the mechanic was still there and will fit it over the next few days.

Today I am eating Spaghetti with a Bolognese sauce made with Minced Kangaroo, Red wine, Carrots, Onion and Celery (no beef and no tomatoes), but I am sure it will be nice. With that we are drinking a 2005 Brokenwood wine from Hunter Valley, called "Cricket pitch" made of a mixture of Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot & Shiraz.

Marathon & David Jones

Woke up early as it was too hot to sleep. we have started using the A/C in the evenings, but turn it off before we go to bed, so early mornings get very hot. I got up and decided to have a few minutes out on the balcony before going back to bed cooled down, and found out the Sydney Marathon had just started (7.20) and they were running past my building. I felt a bit sorry for them running that early as there were not many people out on the streets, so I clapped at them from the balcony, but it really gets to hot later in the day.

We went out on town to buy some stuff (a new SatNav for Australia - so that we get all the speed camera warnings), new sandals (but did not find any - Michelle, you have to come and visit soon and bring some I can order from the US), the new Wiggles DVD (I am sending Lars & Mia's daughter Julia one I got for free in the Sunday paper the other week, and they advertised a new one being released so I thought I'd buy that as well, and then we had lunch at David Jones.
David Jones is the closest to Selfridges or Harrods or possibly a combination of NK & Ostermalmshallen that you get here. They have a great food hall with a lot of nice food counters with small eating bars in between. We wanted to eat at the grill bar a few weeks ago, but it was too full, but today we got a space and it was very pleasant. Then we went shopping and found "Wagyu" beef fillets at AUD $170 / kg (around GBP 75/kg or SEK 930 I guess....). We did not buy any of that this time - maybe next week :-) but a few other nice pieces of things to eat on the balcony this afternoon, and some lobster tails we might get for next week as well.

More of the Northern Beaches

As we quite liked it last week, we decided to explore more of the Northern Beaches. Yes, I know, it is expensive and far from work, but what ios the point of moving here for a better lifestyle, if you are in the city?
We started off going to Manly. We have been there before and there is not much to rent at the moment as summer is looming and whatever is not let, is being advertised for holiday lets, but we wanted to drive north along the coast all the way, and get another look at the place on the way. manly is still nice, but it does not seem to have much mooring space for Martin's boat(s).
From Manly we drove through Queenscliff, through tho Curl Curl. There is a house to rent there overlooking the ocean and minutes walk to the beach and rock pool. Unfortunately it was not open until 1.30, but we had a good look at it from the outside and the beach area. It is very nice but a bit isolated. You will have to drive to get to Manly or Harboard for dinners, but there is a bus both to Manly ferry wharf and the city.
From Queenscliff we drove through Dee Why through to Collaroy. Dee Why beach looks nice, but the way they have built around there there are a limited number of properties with ocean views. Collaroy is one of the places we went last weeks. It is a little bit down-market when it comes to
fine dining and evening entertainment, but they have a cinema and a fast bus to the city & Manly. We looked at 2 properties here. Martin quite liked the second one, an art deco duplex with a view of the beach and ocean and minutes walk to the rock pool. However it was AUD $1,000/week and was not entirely my style. It felt a bit dated, but probably spacious enough - we'll see...
Martin went swimming twice, but the sea is still too cold for me. Around 16 degrees.
Late afternoon was spent sitting on the very sunny balcony in 35+ degrees reading a book and drinking Strongbow cider we managed to find somewhere last week.

Better ending to shit week

It's been a pretty shit week workwise, with a customer playing games and being overall difficult. After a final meeting Thursday evening and a few conversations this morning, we have calmed things down and hope to move forward without too much trouble.
Today I went out for lunch with Rianna from work and met her husband and son, who has just moved over here, having the usual beers and thai curry in the nice place up the road. The weather is more or less perfect (28 degrees and no cloud in sight).
Tomorrow we will go back to the Northern beaches and have a look at some more properties. No doubt Martin will go for a swim we'll find some nice places to eat lunch.
So, off early and "working from the balcony" this afternoon.

Exploring the Northern Beaches

We decided to explore the northern beaches area today. That is really north-east of Sydney starting around Manly and going about 30 km (20 miles) north along the east coast. The reason for this was that we need to find a place for Martin to park his boat and somewhere we might like to live when we decide to leave the city. Martin has found some island called Scotland Island that he is interested in living on.

We stopped in a few places on the way, Collaroy, Bayview, Whale Beach etc. There was an open house in Bayview we went to look at. we quite liked it, although the view was not that great. It was up for Auction and the guide price was 2.5M AUD, so maybe not. It was close to the various marinas, but the bus to work would be 1.5h+walking time.

Whale beach was nice as well, but quite expensive and also too far from work. I think Narrabeen, Collaroy or Curl Curl might be suitable compromised (although I am not known for compromising).

I took some pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sissi.se/NorthernBeaches?authkey=bltyP3fOzqM#

(remember to incluse the # at the end otherwise it will not work).

That's CostCo for you

For those of you who are not from the UK or the US, there is a US chain of stores called Costco, which also expanded throughout the UK over the past few years. They sell all sorts of things, including food, furniture, books, clothes etc.
Anyway, we bought our bed there a couple of years ago, and as I mentioned a few days ago, the removal company lost a part, so we can't sleep on it. I wrote to Costco's customer service in the US on Tuesday and explained what the bed looked like and which part was missing. They forwarded my mail to the UK HQ who told me they would look at it. Today they sent me an e-mail and asked for my address so that they could post me the part. I do call that customer service.

On the other hand I contacted IKEA here in Sydney and asked if they might have a spare part for the broken chest of drawers. They told me they may or may not, and they only way I could find out was to go to their store and ask them. They did not keep an inventory of spare parts and the store would not take incomming calls, so I could not call ahead and check. We'll go out there over the weekend, but I don't have high hopes.

advantages and disadvantages

There are quite a few advantages to walking to work:

Walking against driving:

• If there is a road accident, you can probably walk around it and it will not slow you down
• You don't have to worry about speeding tickets
• You don't have to pay for parking - or even try to find a parking space
• You don't have to pay for petrol/diesel

Walking against taking the bus:

• If there is a road accident, you can probably walk around it and it will not slow you down
  
• You can leave whenever you want to - you don't have to hang around the bus stop
• You don't have to sit next to someone who smells of last night's garlic
• You don't have to pay the fare
• It does not get too hot

Walking against cycling:

• You don't end up sweaty at work
• You don't have to wear a helmet (which you have to here and is stupid)
  

Walking advantages against all:

• If there is a traffic accident you can walk around it and won't get delayed
  
• You wake up breathing fresh air
• You can enjoy the views of the water and the sunshine (except for 2 days a year when it rains)
• You get some unexpected exercise without noticing
• You get a nice sun-tan and blond hair
• You can easily stop off at the shop on the way home
  

In addition - I still can't get used to working in an office again.

Advantages to working in an office:

• You save on phone bills - just talk to whoever you want to talk to by visiting their desk
• You can apply your charm better if you are face to face and make people do things for you with a smile
  

Disadvantages to working in an office:

• People can come and bother you when you don't want them to
• Your boss insists you have a desk phone (I have one now that I nicked from another desk - but it is not connected ;-)) - He did not say it had to be connected.
  
• People put things on your desk and expect you to read them . Just found out someone put 2 envelopes on my desk back in July giving me a $2,000 pay-rise... a bit of a surprise as I just found them today
  
• You collect papers (when I worked from home I did not have a printer - well, I had one but it did not have any cartridges in it)
• It is hard to pretend you are in a meeting
• You can't work from your balcony or your bed
• You have to dress in nice clothes every day
• You have to eat whatever yucky lunch you can get hold of - instead of cooking your own

Anyway - just some thoughts for today... what do you think?

Not a totally shit day

After having had a completely shit day at work on Friday (they migrated my mail-box and lost all my e-mails, my team-leader forwarded something to the customer I did not want him to send, it rained more than I have ever seen before on my way home etc.) I actually had a pretty good day today. I refused to work over the weekend and just ignored my work PC, and after leaving at 4.30 pm on Friday I had no idea how much irritating stuff might have arrived until this morning, it was quite a relief to notice it was not too bad. Most of my e-mails (that they had lost) trickled in during the morning and the commercials for phase 2 of my Traffic Intelligence project seem to have been finalised.

At home we still have chaos, but we are making progress. We now have a study area with the monitor and keyboard etc all set up (doubt I will use it, I just sit in the sofa anyway), I have managed to separate my clothes from Martin's to some extent, and we have found the ironing board (but no ironing lady yet ;-( ). I can't see that we will stay in this little flat for too long, but we will take the time needed to find somewhere really nice. Tonight I am off to look at a replacement garage for the one I was not allowed to rent previously. It is not as nice, but at least we have somewhere to park the laser which will arrive on Wednesday. Little car has also been released from customs, but need to be serviced and checked before I can take him out. A nice guy who specialises in British Sports cars will take care of that.

First Day of spring

Today is first day of spring, and what a great start! It is like all the trees got programmed to get their leaves out over-night and the sun is shining with not a cloud in sight. It was very hot walking to work and I can only imagine what it will be like in the summer. I'll have to take the bus to get the benefit of air conditioning. Getting home I found the thermometer on the balcony and it was showing 31 degrees - which is not bad for spring. I went away planning for our first dinner on the sunny balcony, but had to re-plan as I suddenly got reminded that it was only first day of spring - not summer. The sun went down :-( It still gets dark before 6pm.

No posh lunch today

For the first time since arriving we have not had a Sunday lunch in a posh eatery, for various reasons.
a) We've done all the obvious waterfront seafood eateries - Lars & Mia, need some suggestions please
b) It was not sunny
c) They had an event called Malaysia Day - so thought we could pick up some decent Malaysian food
d) We had lots of unpacking to do, so could not really motivate spending several hours on lunch, given the reasons above
The Malaysia Day did not provide anything delicious, so we stopped for a quick burger on the way home. Overall the event was not very interesting

Unpacking is moving forward. We have almost fitted all the furniture in a reasonable configuration and most of the books are unpacked as well. It will be another week or so of chaos but we are doing much better than normally when moving houses

On the news today we were told it had been the coldest August in Sydney for 65 years. Hmm, considering it is in the middle of the winter I had expected worse. Most days has been 8-10 degrees in the morning and 15-20 in the afternoon, which I consider a very decent winter. However my friends at work have been complaining a lot.

The tedious task of un-packing

Last night we went out to watch the cricket in the bar next door and for once England did a good job and beat South Africa. Unfortunately due to the time difference we could only watch the first session and had to listen to the radio when we got home.

We have started un-packing and re-organising. It is not entirely easy to fit all of our belongings into 88 square meters, or just your normal 2 bedroom flat, but we are making progress. Martin is making me un-pack absolutely everything, even boxes I have not opened since I left Sweden last in 1999. I guess he has a point, un-pack and use or throw it away. Today I think we have done around 30 boxes and there are only about 10 or so left.
Unfortunately the bed was not put together properly, so we are back sleeping on the sofa bed, until we find the missing part, but at least we have a proper mattress etc.

The garage I rented for Little Car did not work out, so today I have also been looking for another one. As he is still stuck in customs, I have bought a little bit of time.

Tomorrow we will meet the people we have swapped cars with and get the keys to their Mazda 121, which we will use as "shopping & exploring" car. They got the keys to our Audi yesterday and did not complain yet about the fact that I spilled 5 litres of paint in the back seat just before I left.

Our stuff has arrived

On wednesday our stuff arrived minus boat and car which are still stuck in customs. I was right - the flat is way too small. It was very chaotic when they tried to fit everything in and un-pack. We still have probably 50 boxes left to un-pack but we are getting there. I found one I had not un-packed since I left Sweden in 1999, so probably don't need the things in there. However it is nice to sleep in a bed and sit on a sofa and have a table to put things on. There is no room for a dining table so happy we did not ship that. We will have all our dinner parties on the balcony.

In the middle of un-packing and cooking of dinner the firealarm went off. I am sure it was not me, as I had to disable the smoke alarms early on in order to be able to cook dinner each evening ;-). We waited for a while and looked out from the balcony, but could not see any smoke, but as it did not stop we went out in the lobby where we met our neighbours. The guys at the fron of the building could not see anything either and just when we decided to go back in, the speaker system told us to evacuate. We thought of taking the lift, but in the end decided to be good and walk down the 19 floors.
around floor 13 we could no longer hear the alarm, so got out to the lobby to take the lift back up. The lift was full of firemen who asked if we had a swipe-card for the 20th floor. We offered to take them to 19 and they could walk one. Scary, what if there really is a fire on a specific floor and the firement can't get access?

I hate shopping!

I really do hate shopping. They never have anything I want, or if they do - they don't have my size.
Bored with the contents of Sydney City we ventured out on the train and the bus (no car yet) to the big outlet stores. I was after some work trousers, just plain cotton chinos. Normal trousers nothing strange or odd. In the Ralph Lauren store they had Ladies ones which had low waist and flared legs, and Men's ones which were normal and straight but not my size. I have figured out I can by kiddie ones size 16-18 years, but they did not have those either.
So, off to the Tommy store. Same thing there. Girlie ones were weird. Gave up on trousers, off to get some boat shoes. They had them in several shops but only men's sizes. Are there no women sailors out there? Were do you buy your shoes?
Finally I found a shirt, which Martin bought for me (together with his trousers which were very nice). The shirt was typical me though, stripes in three colours. Mainly blue, but one red sleeve and one green sleeve.

Just got the keys to the garage I rented for Little car and Little boat ;-)

Belongings on their way

My stuff is arriving!
The only thing so far is that Quarantine complained about the wheels on Martins boat-trolley. They were apparently dirty and we were charged 350 AUD for cleaning them. That is about 175 pounds or 1800 Swedish kronor. You might ask, buy bother paying that much for cleaning - the only other option was to have them disposed of. That cost 275 dollars as they still have to clean them.

Anyhow, if everything goes to plan they will be moving in everything except the boat and the car in the flat on Wednesday. I have no idea how everything will fit, but will be working from home and direct the removal lads - and if some things don't fit, I now have a parking space for little car, with some additional storage space. I will sign the contract tomorrow and it feels good to have somewhere to store the surplus items and that Little car has a dry and safe place to live. I am not sure when he will arrive as he has not cleared custome yet.
I think I will have to do some more clearing out anyway and sell some more things on Ebay (Tradera). The thing is, the flat is 88 square meters which is really not small for 2 people.

Will let you know how it goes and how much does not fit ;-). I know some of you are reading my ramblings (as I have a counter), but not who - feel free to leave comments - so it is not just a one-way communication. I think you can choose if your comments are private or public ;-)

When in doubt - Use Excel

Have spent the morning analyzing the effects of the sales team giving away things on my project for free - again! At lunch time we agreed it was just a small disaster for my department, but not for the company as a whole, so they got OK. I however had to analyze the changes to explain the difference between my expected baseline and the newly proposed one. After several hours of trying to understand the extent and reasons for the changes and get the figures to tie up, I made a brand new Excel spreadsheet to analyze how things were linked. It did not tie up (I was not as stupid as I thought) so asked a work mate to help finding the variance. It turned out there was a mistake in a previous spreadsheet that had not been spotted. This lowered my margin even more. At least now, all figures tie up - and I can spend the weekend working on explanations.

But not tonight - need a few hours off. Martin is buying and cooking something exciting for dinner.

Parking for 2 cars

You suddenly remember you live in the City when Parking becomes a major problem. Our flat comes with one underground parking space, but we are soon to be with 2 cars. Little Car, obviously are coming over and we have also arranged to swap one of our cars in the UK with the family from Sydney who are rentling our house, so I need another space. As their car will not be registered to us, we cannot get an on-street parking permit, so we have to rent another space.

Yesterday we looked at a space which was advertised as secure, but it really wasn't. It was just a space in a parking garage that could be accesses by anyone. However, today I spoke to a lady who claims to have a secure lock-up garage for rent about half way between home and work. I will have a look at it tomorrow, hopefully it is nice enough for Little Car, and then we can have the "every-day" car in our building.

Parrots and other fish

Most of the time I don't really think about being in Australia as different (apart from that it is sunny every day), as most things are the same, but when you get parrots flying around in the wild you suddenly stop and notice. There were several of them outside a house and they were really nice. The picture above is taken without zoom and they were not scared of me at all.

As it was Sunday, we headed off to the Fish Market for lunch. You can choose to buy your lunch from "take-away" places around the market and then sit outside in the sun and eat, or eat at one of the proper restaurants. As all the nice tables were taken and the Seagulls seemed a bit aggressive, we decided to try another branch of the Doyle's Restaurants. The food was nice (I had grilled Whitings and Martin had Tandoori Barramundi), but the service was not great. Also, the desert menu was very limited, so in the end we went to the deli counter in the market and brought home cheese, bread and wine for consumption on the balcony. Really looking forward to furniture arriving...

Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/sissi.se/ParrotsAndOtherFish

Bills

Yesterday I asked a friend to collect a letter from my apartment in Stockholm, as inflexible Swedish government companies cannot mail things to addresses abroad, and I needed some information to register Little Car here in Oz. If I had not needed this, she would not have gone there and discovered 2 other extremely important documents that had been sent to the wrong address.
Fortunately Insurance Companies are more friendly and without discussion took the blame for sending me my insurance bill to the wrong address, waived the late fees and also ensured that the 500kr fine I had received from a 3rd party, for not having paid my insurance was also waived. In all, I feel a bit better than this morning when I received all of this. Thanks Malin ;-)

On another note our hot water tank in the House in Stockholm gave up a week ago, flooded the kitchen and now needs replacing. At the same time our Central Heating boiler for the House in the UK may need replacing as well, to pass the Gas Safety Certificate criteria. So a week of many, and some fairly expensive bills :-(

I think there is a saying in Sweden stating "an accident never comes alone" and I think it might be correct.

Balmain

Today we wentured to a very nearby suburb called Balmain. It was 2 stops on the ferry which is really just across from where we live. A girl from work lives there and said it was nice. It was, but it is quite a wide area so you can't see the water from everywhere.
We walked up Darling Street, which is the main street going through Balmain, but also ventured off the track when we saw something interesting. One of those things was a very large old house, overlooking the water, and another was a "swimming pool" named after some Australian swimmer who got drunk during the Tokyo olympics. It was not really a swimming pool, but more like a part of the harbour closed off, with decking around.
We also walked past a house which was "open for inspection". A bit like Sunday viewings in Sweden and a concept that has not taken off in the UK yet, where property that is for sale is listed with when you can go an look at it. We just happened to walk past the sign and went in. It was quite nice, but they had too many bedrooms upstairs which made the rooms quite small, and there was not much of a garden. It was also $1.5M so out of budget.
We had lunch at the balcony of a nice pub and afterwards walked past where I think the girl from work lives and it looked very nice. The bus back into the city took only a few minutes so it is not a bad spot.
I also managed to buy a DVD copy of "Love Actually". I really like that movie. I watched all the "taken out" bits and then the whole movie with commentry by some of the actors seeing it for the first time since they filmed their parts. It was great.
Now looking forward to Martin's cooking. He has not done a great deal this week as he has been working for 4 days and is very tired, but it smells nice ;-)

A Chinese meal

Sydney has a decent China town which include some quite authentic restaurants. We came across something that did not look very expensive one evening and decided to try it. The restaurant was your usual Chinese with plastic tables and cheap chipped plates. The food comes when it is cooked and in no particular order and is put on your table without much care.
The menu is also quite interesting, you can for example order "Pig's ear salad" and a few other things most people I know would not eat - but they also do the most amazing "deep fried pork with pepper". In comes a mountain of pork pieces wich have been fried just right.

We now go to this place almost every week. Yesterday we decided it was time so I went to queue for a table whilst Martin went to get some beer (you have to buy your own beer in the shop next door). Fortunately I got a table almost straight away and decided that we would try the "Home made noodles with beef" as well. Both dishes were excellent and the total bill came to round $30 which is very reasonable.

I have been informed by our removals people that the ship with our stuff on is due in Sydney on Friday, so if everything goes OK we will have furniture next week - and maybe Little Car the week after ;-)

Lazy Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday we went off to discover the Rocks. We have been in the touristy part before, but realised last week, when looking at it from the other side of the water, that there was more to see. We found an elegant looking wine cellar at the far end of Kent street, Some really nice old town houses with water views, converted shipyards into apartments we can't afford and then we wondered through the weekend market down to the quay.

There were several people doing the Harbour Bridge climb, where they walk on top of the arches of the bridge. Maybe we'll fit that in one day.

We had lunch at Peter Doyle's fish restaurant. They asked if we wanted a long or a short lunch, and we thought short - which was 2 hours. However, we stayed much longer. For the first 2 hours we had a waterfront table with a view of both the Opera house an the Harbour Bridge. We spent those hours in the sunshine with a sample starter and a bottle of Semillion, followed by Barramundi & Lobster accompanied by a bottle of Chardonnay. Unfortunately at this point our 2 hours were up and we got moved to a table with a less interesting view. We then finished off we a cheese plate and dessert wine before heading back to the flat.

Pictures are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sissi.se/LazySundayAfternoon

This is a very good example of a Lazy Sunny Sunday Afternoon.

Boats, Boats, Boats

Today we went, as long planned, to the Sydney International Boat show. The normally empty Darling Harbour was filled with boats. Martin had already done a pre-view on Thursday while I was working - so tried to steer me in the right direction. However, while he could spend half an hour on a boat chatting to the experts I decided to have a look at as many as possible to try to get an understanding on which ones I liked, which size would be suitable, and value for money. We looked at all the big makes but I quite liked the Hanse ones, a 37 or 40ft, whilst Martin still talks about a Sea-quest 36.



He took me around to look at what he calls "Bendy-Toys" - Benetau's I think which are supposed to be really nice, but I was not much impressed. We also look at Hunters (apparently no good for passage making) and some others. As you may have figured out, I don't know much about sailing boats, but I like there to be teak-decking on the top, a nice G&T area with a table and cup-holders, a decent shower and workable kitchen + 3 x double births in case we bring some of you guys on a trip. Is that too much to ask for?

Finally I got talked into a 3 hour sailing lesson for $20. Think I will save that one for the summer.