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.