scutterUK

.... pmsl yeah right.. as if!

well before anyone says anything then i will say this, I'm BACK!!! just got broadband fitted so i'm feeling more at ease now. I've been twitching away these last few weeks without my XP fix. (nothing to do with windows update either!)

got loads to tell and some pictures to post. Well i've been doing my canberra publicity bit you know. I've not had much time off since i got here so you'll have to bear with me on the lack, but there are some good ones!

anyway, first for now, here's my 'ute. I thought i was going to have to wait weeks before i could get the bike i wanted, but the local BMW dealer, who just happens to be round the corner from my flat...oh god i haven't told you about the flat yet.... anyway, the local BMW dealer had one 'round the back' ready to roll. 3 days after landing i had it ordered. a few days after that i was bombing around on it! it took 3 weeks to sort the rego out on it though... (long story will explain later).

so here she is. (see pic)

it's so funny riding round on it, i keep getting some right weird looks. A harley rider nearly dropped his chromed beauty while pulling away from some lights when he saw me coming. ... anybody would have thought he'd not seen a bike without chrome before... or a bike as big as this before.

The flat i moved in to was made for me and the bike. It's an old double garage converted into a flat. They've kept the garage doors on though so i can close them at night like security shutters. This is great for the bike as there's a gap 'bike sized' between the garage doors and the front door of the flat. it's like the bikes parked in the living room! (who needs tele).

ok,... i think i'm rambling on here. i can't say everything at once, but it i can type fast enough i'd try!

By the way, for all those folks thinking about canberra, then stop thinking! it's bluddy great! i can't comment on the night life much as i haven't had time to go far, but from what i've seen there's plenty to keep anyone occupied, and i haven't even been to civic yet! It's a beautiful place to walk/ride round, especially when it's sunny. i took a ride through the city the other sunday and i was starting to think everyone had evacutated! The roads where dead. Water is in short supply but when you see the amount of water these bluddy top loading washers use you wouldn't be surprised! Well i'll be doing my bit to help when my front loader turns up.


oh well! i need to go feed so i shall have to say tata for now. If anyone thinks i can answer any of your question about canberra, just ask. I probably wont be able to but i'll do my best!

oh yeah and if you want a higher rez version of the pic just let me know,..... i've also got the landscape photo in high rez too! ... yeah i was joking.

have fun

Leigh

tiredwithtwins

nice to see ya back again!!!
we missed you!!!

sue
xx

scutterUK

hehe bluddy 'ell were you waiting for me?

missed ya too.... feels nice to be home again.

tiredwithtwins

hehe....waiting for you? you know me too well...................

anyhooos, when do we get to see some more pics???
what about these wide open roads?
what are your neighbours like?
what are the shops like?
how much is juice for the ute?
done any surfing yet????

c'mon...we need DETAILS!!!!!!!

sue x
(ps wont let me put any smilies in!!!)

bundy

Good to hear from you Leigh - knew you must be having too much fun because we hadn't heard from you for a while.

So, it's all you hoped for then? I'd imagine Canberra is good for biking since the roads are always dead (or they have been every time I've been ). Have you had a look at all the mad embassies yet, including the shockingly dull British Embassy?

Ditto Sue - more photos! More news! How's the social life going? Work?

ProofReader

What a fab post! And to think that someone actually likes Canberra too!! (Tongue firmly planted in cheek.)

Flat sounds good, ute looks great and the view wasn't bad either!!

Best of luck with settling in, Leigh.

Look forward to hearing more.

Cheers,
Chris

scutterUK

okokok....jeees let a guy have his dinner why don't ya.

mmm lovely it was too.


right where do i start...ok more pics first.

tiredwithtwins

let me guess ....... chicken and gravy??

nice pics....keep em coming!
btw.....I recognise the parliament building, but what are the others?

sue

Simone

Hey Leigh, good to have ya 'back'.

Nice pics!

scutterUK

one of the biggest problems i've had since i got here was obtaining a proof of residency for the rego on the bike. when i went to the beemer dealer they said it would be easy, you just need your lease agreement for the flat.... ahhh don't have that as i'm renting off a friends wifes aunt. ok what about a household bill? ahhh noop not got that either, just moved in. right. driving licence? noop need proof of residency to get that. errrrm 3 months bank statements? dur, just got here. hmm.. well basically you're fuc... erm yes. well the long and short of it is this. The bike was already registered to the dealer as a demo bike so they had to transfer the rego to me. without prrof of residency they could do that, and i/they would be fined if i could prove it within two weeks. The beemer guy was great though and went out of his way to help. He kept ringing the registration place to try and get round the problem and after a few phone calls got to speak to a girl from the UK who had the same problem when she got here. So she waived (spelling) the fine and gave me more time to get a bill together, typically my first bill came 2 days later. So i'm now all sorted, i'm not saying anyone else would have had the same problem but with me not having a lease agreement which most people use i was pretty much stuck. so you've been warned! i've never been so glad to see a phone bill in my life.

oh yeah then i found out the fine would have only been $75 so i went through all that stress for nout.

apart from that everything has been sweet up to now. work is still a bit up in the air still, and would take too long to explain. but it's looking promising.

Where i live i'm literally 5 mins ride away from one of the biggest shopping centres in canberra, well outside of the city centre. Funny thing is i've not been there yet, i keep driving another 10 mins in the opposite direction to another large shopping centre which is easier to park in. get the picture? there's shopping centres everywhere. some bigger than others but you're never far away from food. There's also usually plenty of places to eat out around them as well so if you can't be arsed to make anything then a few mins walk and you're there. Now i understand that i might have just dropped in lucky and found myself in the middle of the shopping centre district but they seem to be everywhere.

The weird thing is about all this settling in a new place, or at least that i found weird, is getting back in to a routine. i don't mean the get up, work, go to bed routine but the shopping, living type routine. When i went to asda i knew exactly what i was going for and i knew where to get it. I can't get in to a routine of what to get when i do go shopping. i always come back with half of what i wanted and half of what i didn't want. still i can't complete. the food and everything here is pretty much the same as back home. i can't comment on whether it's cheaper or not but it seems pretty much the same to me. I just need to work out how i'm going to get a mop and bucket on the bike....

driving around canberra is a doddle. you just have to watch out for the other drivers most of which have become so complacent about driving around in a ghost town that they've become crap at it. if people driving up the middle lane of a motorway for no reason winds you up then don't come here as everyone does it! but then again everyone undertakes so it's not as bad.

Also if it wasn't for the speed camera vans parked all over this place would be perfect for bikes... vrrrrrooom vrroooommm. i took a ride to the country, only 10 mins down the road, and i soon found myself riding up valleys and along little twisty windy roads.... *sigh* heaven. i would have stopped and taken some pictures but i was enjoying the ride too much... sorry next time (maybe). i've been planning a trip to the coast when i've got the bike through it's first service so watch out for some pics then.

Well i couldn't leave you guys without covering the 'bugs' topic could i? I've been here a month, and up to now i've seen 2 cockroaches (one nearly dropped on my keyboard!) and 1 huntsman. The huntsman has nearly become a pet to us at work. he's been walking up and down the corridoor for over a week now, just making sure we all behave i think. I've seen other spiders and bugs but nothing serious. so don't worry if that sort of thing scares ya.

One thing that did make me look the other night while i was watch tele was an advert that came on warning people about the brown snakes which are highly active this time of year... you don't get adverts like that in donny.

oh yeah.. one more thing. the tele. don't believe a word of what you read on here. the tv isn't half as bad as what everyone makes out. i had a tele that would only show 1 channel for the first week and was quite surprised. yes agreed the adverts are rather frequenct, but the quality of the programs is at least on par with UK tv. now this is probably just me hating all the soaps, but there's a few good films on a week and at least something to watch every evening. (yipppeeee no eastender or corra, or or .. oh whatever they're called.) oh yeah, i had great pleasure in telling my mum what was happening in home and away.

well for now that's about all i can think of.... when i think of something else i'll let you know, and if i'm every let out to play instead of working all the time i'll let you know what happens.

that's all folks.... few it's good to be back.

ps sorry for any spelling or missed words, i'm too lazy to read back through all that to check it.... maybe proofreader would like to?

cheers all!

scutterUK

one's telstra tower,... erm and the other is a pole.

scutterUK

hehe cheers! it's good to be back... i have email again!!!

bundy

That's better Leigh. We like details.

Well, it all sounds pretty good so far and seems to be suiting you down to the ground. Long may it continue.

If you need a business opportunity, open a flippin' decent pub! Those backpackers passing through would thank you for it.

scutterUK

hehe sorry forgot to mention. i haven't been round them yet but i did last time i was here. It was quite funny seeing the massive american embassy, the lovely chineese embassy, and then that little grey box at the end... oh that's the british embassy. you thought they would have made a bit of effort wouldn't ya?

as far as the social life goes, it's pretty much none existant at the moment. Been working most nights and the weekends too. Apart from my mate who i knew before 'aussie' mates are pretty thin on the ground at the moment. gonna join the beemer club when i get time and i've been thinking about taking up archery too! well it's a start. at the moment though i think i need to concentrate on getting some money coming in to my bank instead of out of it all the time. The work i'm doing i wont get paid for for a couple of months so i need to be careful with the dosh.

it'll change though, i can feel it!

scutterUK

i thought about that funnily enough! and one you don't have to join to get in the door! What's that all about anyway? and don't get me started on bitter either.... vb my arse! lol ok that didn't sound good at all! oh well. you know what i mean.

cheers for that anyway. i hope it does all work out, if i can get work sorted better i'll be fine and able to settle more.