It's been a while since our last update and we're already cruising well into 2010. So this post will be a quick summary of what's been going on these last few months.
February brought about the end to my nice little vacation when I found myself back to work. I'm sticking within HR but this time with a family owned and operated transport company that operates in 9 locations across the states of Australia. They do some warehousing but mainly transport of liquids to those on pallets. They have their own mechanics, fleet of trucks, and washbays (to wash out the tankards). It's definitely a different type of environment both working in Australia but even in the industry itself. Fortunately for me, we live rather close to work so I'm not traveling an hour and a half like some of my co-workers. But this also means that I'm getting in a lot more practice time driving (yikes!).
We did finally connect with family here in Melbourne. Anthony has a cousin here that he had never met but they're here with their 2 sons for what was initially a 2 year but now 3 year overseas assignment. Lovely couple, very nice and outgoing. Too bad they're on the East side of the bay and we're on the complete opposite West side of the bay. But regardless, it was nice to know we have family here.
March was a very busy month for us. One of the highlights was attending the Melbourne Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park. Anthony has been before when he lived in Europe but this was a first for me. We opted for General Admission tickets since seated (but uncovered) tickets were running from $400-$800 per person (yikes!!). The General Admission tickets covered Thurs – Sunday (day of the race) so Anthony popped in for a little bit to watch them take some practice laps. We went on Saturday for the qualifying laps and the first impressions had to be clearly how LOUD it was! We bought ear plug which definitely helped but there was some crazy people that were walking around without ear plugs, they must have been deaf already.
We spent several hours walking around, having a gourmet sausage, looking at the old race cars on display, watching the beer girls dance (horribly), watched some jet planes zip around overhead, and of course the 3 qualifying rounds. I did notice that the men's bathroom had a enormously long waiting line whereas the women's bathrooms had no line whatsoever. You hardly ever see that happen! We cleared out just in time before the mass exodus and the rain. There were events well into the night including a concert but we were exhausted already.
Sunday was the actual day of the race and it poured!! We opted not to attend in person and not because of the rain but because the viewing areas were less than ideal. Regardless if you were in the actual seated stands or general admission and roughing it on the grassy hills, your field of view was still limited to what was immediately in front of you. So besides the split seconds that the cars zoom by in a blur, you were watching the giant TV screens anyways. And if we were going to watching something on a TV screen, then we might as well watch it in the comfort of our home where we could see things clearly, get better coverage, and hear the commentators clearly. I think I'll leave next year for Anthony to visit on his own. An experience in person once was enough for me.
March was busy because we also started house searching. No not to buy, we're not allowed since we're not Permanent Residents or Citizens, but to rent. As much as we like the location of the first place we moved into, it was just waaaaaaay to old and nasty. I cleaned and scrubbed it for 2 weeks straight from top to bottom. It changed a few shades of color but was still very yucky. We just couldn't feel comfortable in the house. Plus with no heat or air conditioning, it was just getting unbearable.
They have an odd rental process here. You can search online for rental properties and they list inspection dates and times. Now that may not seem so odd except the inspection time is usually limited to a period of 10-15 minutes then they boot you out. If you're interested then you get an application from the agent and the owner and/or agent gets to pick from all the applicants that applied. So there's no time to test the electricity, look under all the sinks, open all the cabinets, etc. It's almost like a whirlwind in and out and the next time you see the place would be if you were selected to rent it and it's your move in date. So needless to say, it's a very tiring process. Some Saturdays we'd have a list of 10 properties to look at starting at 9am and ending at 5pm. All I can say is, thank goodness for GPS.
So in the end, we moved a little further out west but to a much newer development area. It could almost be called a master planned community. It's probably their closest thing to what the States would call a golf course master plan community. It does have a very American feel to it. We found a gated section of this community, which is good for us and our crazy dogs that sometimes like to dart out into the streets. This was reinforced when just a week before we moved, we heard a blood curling little girl scream on our old house street and Anthony rushed out to help. Come to find out the girl and her mother had just opened their gate to step out and their little dog ran out into the street and was run over. After some panicking and Anthony barking commands since everyone else was in shock, another neighbor grabbed the dog and the girl and mother and took them to the closest vet. We never did hear what happened but it was just another sign that a gated community would only serve to help keep our "kids" safer.
So we're in the new place as of the first of April. A world of difference and we can already tell we're happier and even the kids are happier as they're playing a lot more, a lot lot more. We do notice that nobody takes care of their yard here, front or back. It's just full on weeds. We imagine it's because of the water restrictions so they're not yard obsessed like we were in the States. But yeah, the yard looks absolutely horrible, but what the hell, it was that way when we moved in. I'm thinking Anthony can do with a push mower, you know one of those simple motor-less blade system that you just push around. That'll make Anthony appreciate his gas mowers even more!
One of the disadvantages of moving further out was that Anthony's bicycle commute to work is now longer, an hour each way. It'll take him a few weeks to fully adjust but so far he's been handling it very well. We'll see how well he copes when full on winter comes around!
Well, that's it for now, you're mostly caught up. Hopefully we'll have a more interesting post for you all next!
- julie
