Martin has joined those of us who...

... work for a living.

Martin has just accepted a 6 month contract doing "proper work", i.e. in an office, not on a boat or similar. I am not sure if he regrets giving up his freedom or if he is happy to have something useful to do, but I guess we will know in a week or so. He will probably start on Friday and he'll be working for a Canon subsidiary who are located north of Sydney, close to where I go and see the customer.

The people we decided not to swap houses with has expressed an interest in renting it instead. They seem like a nice family, so we are seriously considering them, rather than the 3 night-club working sharers that also were interested. We should decide by the weekend.

BTW - the weekend includes Sydney International Boat show - so expect more news.

Life without TV

It is interesting how dependant you are of the TV. We have had 4 weeks of no TV now and it is quite frustrating. What do you do after work if you can't sit down and watch something relaxing?

The first week was worst. We had no Internet either - so we had to read books and watch borrowed DVDs on the computer (we have no lack of computers, currently 3 with more arriving).

Then we got Internet access and watched on-line moves. We used up 80% of our monthly bandwidh allowance in a weekend, so had to upgrade to 25GB/month. So now we can watch Swedish TV on-line, but we are not allowed to access BBC iPlayer from Australia.

This week is Cricket, 3rd Test against South Aftrica, so we will go to a sports bar. Never much seen the point of those before, but now I understand. Of course it is not the main game being shown as Australia is not playing, so we will not get the sound. Maybe there is a way of combining BBC Radio 4 LW and a sports bar?

Anyway, TVs and furniture should show up in around 3 weeks now and the sofabed will have been thoroughly tested for future vistiors.

A day on the north shore

Today we ventured across the Sydney Harbour bridge twice (once in each direction). Going out was fairly easy mid morning on a Sunday in sunny and clear weather. Coming back at night, in the rain was a different story.

We went to Balmoral, which is just North-east of Sydney. It has a very nice beach and views, and although there were kids playing in the water, it is too cold for me.

We then drove east along the shore-line, in-and-out of all points , looking at lovely $M++ houses and finally had lunch in Kirribilli. After lunch we continued to the North-west, and although we found some interesting places, there were really no nice beaches that side.

After picking up some food (you have to make the most of it when you have a car) we headed home. It was very confusing to figure out which lane to go through the tolls and then missed our exit into the city. After a bit of a de-tour I am happily back in the flat.

For those of you who are interested the pictures from our leaving-party are uploaded here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sissi.se/SissiMartinLeavingParty
If you have any to contribute - it would be much appreciated.

A day with a car

So, the long awaited rental car arrived and we went off this morning to find Toongabbie. I mis-read the map so we missed the motorway and took the sceenic route instead, going through numerous near identical suburbs. The house was really too far away from work, and probably a bit too small, but it was an interesting opportunity. I think the people who wanted to swap will be quite disappionted if we turn it down.

Then we set off on an adventure. As it was nice and sunny - we decided to go to Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains National Park. However the viewpoint was closed and the restaurant turned out to be just a cafe, so we ended up in a pretty horrible Malaysian-Chinese restaurant instead.

It was too cold to wander around comfortable so we headed back to Sydney in search of Food & Drink. We stopped off at a huge shopping centre, Westfield - Parramatta, but it was not very interesting. Heading home along Parramatta road was more interesting. Car dealership after car dealership for miles, with a few miles of furniture stuff in between. We found a discount bottle shop and bought a few cases of beer and some wine, at bargain prices compared to the city.

Rental car has arrived

We have a car for the weekend - so all exciting adventures are expected, like going to an out-of-town supermarket, look at places to park the boat(s) and hopefully not get lost, get caught by speed cameras, get stuck in Sydney Traffic or similar disasters. I think I'll let Martin do the driving.

Unfortunately the weather is still wintery with showers and around 12-15 degrees, but I am sure it will be fun anyway.

Hop Hop Hurray!

After a long day of walking to work in the rain and two customer meetings in a row - I come home to Kangaroo Roast with Oven Fries. Can't complain ;-) What would I do without Martin's cooking?

Have been given an Aussie movie to watch tonight by the guy who sits next to me at work. It is called "The castle". Bring it on - let's see what this country can produce on top of "Pricilla - Queen of the Desert", " Muriel's Wedding" and "Crocodile Dundee"...

Credit Card trouble

Today it was cold, and cloudy and even rainy for a while. So, not so wonderful as it has been. Martin asked me the other day after 2 weeks of constant sunshine, if you can get fed up with sunshine every day and I said no - I now know I am correct.

Today's task is trying to get a credit card - this is not easy. All card companies state you have to be a Permanent resident, which I will not be for another 4 years or so (if I am still here). However Amex have promised that because I am an existing customer, I can just call their customer service to switch my UK card to an Aussie card. I called and they said - apply on line. Tried to apply on-line, but they need addresses for the past 5 years and only accept Australian postcodes... So, called them again and they are now going to post me the forms. Maybe I get one - maybe not!

Winter & Plumbing & Houses

Today it felt like winter for the first time walking to work. It was sunny as usual, but the wind was ice cold. Even at lunchtime I had to wear my fleece walking to the pub, and we had to eat indoors.

The plumber has finally arrived to have a look at the damp patch outside the bathroom, which does not seem to dry up ever, the drain that does not drain and the dripping tap. Unfortunately he only managed to fix the drain and the tap, so the mysterious wet patch is still there.

Have agreed to go and look at the house in Toongabbie, but quite worried about the location. Also recevived a really low offer on the house in Stony - pondering wording of reply.

Potential House Swap

Someone e-mailed me this morning stating they have a house outside Sydney they want to swap for a house in Milton Keynes for a year. Sound like an interesting proposal, apart from their house is a little bit too far from work, but we'll see.

Still working on http://www.sissi.co.uk/ and hope to publish something later in the week.

No Sailing today

Martin went off to the Sydney Cruising Yacht Club, hoping to take part in today's race around the Sydney Harbour. Unfortunately it was "Ladies Day" and not many boats nor men were taking part, so he is coming back again. Hopefully we can get http://www.sissi.co.uk up and running today.