House, Car, Phone.


Phones.
We've all got mobiles now, even my 9yr old (ridiculous I know, but there you go). I'm on Optus, Mrs Chippy and the three kids on Vodaphone, all pay-as-you-go. I'll change to Vodaphone later, 'cos its a better deal.
BTW, nothing seems straight forward, you have to produce photo id here just to get one of these phones.
Two of our phones (we bought our old ones from the UK) were 'locked'. They said they'll unlock 'em for us...$20 each! Bugger that! We found codes off the net and done the job ourselves

Car
Go me a run-around for now. I'll give it to the lad when I've got a 'proper' car. It's a Nissan Pintara....a bit like a Bluebird.
Lucky me....it lasted a whole three days before it broke
down
Despite having a warranty, I've had to pay to have the damn thing towed back to the garage ($65). And before you think to yourself, "I would'nt have done that", let me assure you I did'nt come quietly, and I'm looking into to the legalities of getting my money back.
BTW, 2nd hand cars here are bloody expensive!

House (to rent)
Found a fantastic place. Five beds, views across a mountain, North facing pool, spa, double garage, the lot. Hopefully signing the paperwork today. Only snag is we may have to wait a couple of weeks for someone to move out.

So, that's it so far. Two out of three on my immediate to-do list.

Well done Chippy,

sounds like you've got most of it sussed, mate.

keep us posted, eh?!

sounds like you are doing OK, how are things looking on the employment front?

Not too worried about working at the moment Taff....after nearly 20 years of graft I'm having a bit of a rest.

How did your trip go anyway?

Bollox.

The house we wanted fell through the other day.....the owners changed their mind and have decided to stay put. What really pissed me off is that they spend a week stalling us whilst they made up their minds. Meanwhile a second house that we had our eye on (our 'plan B') got rented out as well, leaving us with bugger all.

So......we're still homeless.

Chin up 'ol son. Plenty of spots under the South East Freeway. Best spots are between QUT and the Victoria Bridge, watch out for Crazy Al though. His tourette's makes him appear a bit unfriendly, but he's really a nice guy once you can see through the spittle.

Thanks for the tip Florida....nice to see you rear your unsightly head with such dignified concern for my well being.

But enough of this sympathy. You leave me teary-eyed.

Despite my unfortunate circumstance, it would seem I have found me a shack in a place called Kenmore. I will check out the local plots under the freeway though...its always good to have a back up plan.....

I hope it all works out for you soon. We found it hard to rent a place when we got here - too much demand and not enough Supply...but we got somewhere in the end.

I don't know what your local paper is, but buy it on a Saturday early and there should be lots of ads in there for houses to rent. This is how we ended up getting our place, as we found most of the agents were useless.

Good luck.