CynOpt

Its been flipping hectic, but we're just starting to relax a bit now.
Current situation: got somewhere to stay, it wont do indefintely ( 1 bed unit ), but it'll do til we're ready to buy in 4-6 months or so.
I stupidly stupidly stupidly got a job the week I landed and agreed to start the following monday ( we only arrived the prev tuesday, so 6 days after landing ), so I was a mess that second week. I find it really hard to say no when someone offers me work.
I'm now getting close to the end of the second week of work, and have settled in pretty well. They're a nice bunch, although the head honcho back at the mothership is not my cup of tea, he's more east london wide boy yuppie than anyone i ever met in england. but hey, I deal with the clients, and they are cool.
Its been agreed that I can have 2 weeks off in July tho, cos i agreed to take this project on for them, so I can do my exploring then.
In between working and jet lag, we got
Bank Accounts
Driving Licences
( for both of those above, if you want them quickly, consider making appointments from the UK to pick up bank cards, and to get your licence, as they both will tell you to come back weeks later )
A car - shiny shiny.
Mobiles and wireless broadband ( no landline ) - we needed the bank cards and driving licences for these, cos we have no utitility bills.
And a new laptop ( yes of course it was an essential )
Plus a whole load of new clothes: work clothes and see list below.
Anyway, i deserve it, I am employed already.

We've arranged to meet some expat people next week, (Hi M&J)
and met a guy I hadnt seen in nearly 30 years on tuesday. Now I'm still in my 30's now , so we didnt exactly recognise each other on sight. But our moms are still in contact and as soon as they twigged we were in the same city, we were bullied into meeting up. The relief was mutual at our lack of second heads, and we had a good old night, with him bringing us up to speed. He's been here for 8 years, so knows the lay of the land fairly well.
We're going snowboarding with him in July, and possibly on the razz this friday, if we're up to it.

Kapri, get your ass over here girl, we have some beer drinking to do, and I'm investigating all the best bars for you.

We've also been getting involved in lots of family events, birthdays, oldies nights out ( met an 82 year old Irish bird, whose been here 54 years, and you could still tell she was from Limerick - she sounds more irish than me ), so its been non stop since we got here.
Out again tomorrow night, family meal, and then bliss oh bliss we have NOTHING whatsover to do on saturday. No Uk to Oz adaptors to buy, no phone calls to make, no mobiles to charge, no one we HAVE to meet. Just us, the new car and the melway. Theres a drive-in in coburg thats showing Indiana Jones. How cool would that be? A million million miles from Somerset, thats for sure.

Oh and for the love of all that is good and holy, BRING WARM CLOTHES. Slippers. Cardigans. Pyjamas. Wooly coat. Or plan to buy them shortly after arrival. They really dont have proper heating in a lot of the houses, and the non carpeted floors are C c c c old at 6 in the morning, which is when I get up now.
It is FREEZING here at the moment. I was breathing condensation this morning. Didnt have to chip ice of the car yet tho.

I'm walking to / from the station several days a week, thats half hour each way, so that should start to have a good effect in a few weeks time, also signed up for lunchtime pilates class in the CBD. - well the company insist I log a half hour lunch, so I'm damned if I'm gonna sit at my desk.
I start work at 7am, do 10 hours on monday and tuesday and then see what I feel like doing for the rest of the week. 2 more long days then 3 day w/e, or two normal days and a half day friday, or just take REALLY long lunches.
Unfortunately the pilates class is down the designer boutique street, that I could probably have gone years without discovering otherwise.
maybe I'll set a reward for myself...

Other than the designer gear, the prices haven't been too bad, you have to shop around, theres a lot more variation than in the UK. You can get stuff cheaper ( except books ), and dont dream of buying fresh food in a supermarket. Butcher, baker, fruit and veg, fishmonger, etc works out much cheaper, and its so much more enjoyable. and you can have chats with loads more people, cos they ALL want to talk to you. Or maybe its just our friendly faces

But go to a smallish supermarket and you can fork out $6 for a tiny block of ordinary cheese, or $4 for a tiny box of mushrooms.
Wine can be pricey, but they have wine discount stores, which charge half the price. Never buy wine in a restraurant if you can help it, theres loads of BYO places that will just charge corkage.
Oh and speaking of restaurants, apart from the curry house in my other post, they have been all, excellent quality and amazing value for money, and really good service.

So the rose tinteds are still firmly in place at the moment. I'm sure somethings are going to take the shine off, but for now, we're enjoying it immensly, and chuffed to bits we've made the move.

Margaret3

lol, made me laugh this post, goodonya, just feels upbeat and good.






and i luv your avator, thats the first thing that put a smile on me face

Laura and Tom

Hiya

Just wanted to say thanks for posting...I'm having a bit of a 'wobble' about the whole thing at the mo and reading your post has really cheered me up!!

Hope you continue to settle well...you certainly sound like you are doing!

Thanks
Laura

Kapri

Brilliant post! I'll be there asap to catch up on the beer drinking

Machiavelli

Brilliant Post!

M

macb03

Great post , keep in touch

boredbrit

Sounds like you're having a great time! What do you do for a living?

CynOpt

Thanks for all the responses, glad it cheered people up.
BoredBrit: I'm a code monkey (application developer), but my last job in the UK was chief code monkey, so being at the bottom of the pile and not having the option to say "thats a stupid idea, you should really consider spending your money on something else" is a bit grating.
When they said start again at the bottom and work up, I think I stepped a bit too far down in my enthusiasm to fit in, so I'm looking again.
But everything else is very very cool.

Meeting with co-expat went well on tuesday, gonna meet again at weekend, and we'll try and hit one of the Melbourne CBD friday night drinking meets the next time around, knowing someone else BEFORE we get there being very reassuring.

Ozzy Fever

I was waiting for you to post your update, so glad you are enjoying it so far you do seem to have settled in quite quickly.

Only 2 weeks until we fly just hope that we settle in as quickly as you have.

Nicky
XX

Jasonmb

Great update, hopefully will get to meet at the next Friday drinkers

joannesmith79

This may seem a real daft question, but do you get SKY tv. My fella is worried he'll not be able to watch any football

Vanessa

We get Foxtel which is similar to Sky and owned by the same company. Lots of football (or it appears that way!)