Moving

Today was the day to do our shopping at IKEA. We ended up changing our mind last minute about some of the furniture as we got a few new ideas about furnishing our apartment. We still need to get a sofa and a TV stand, but the bed, computer desk and chest of drawers are on the way. Some deliveries are due tomorrow and some on Monday.

We found a really nice kitchen table, but the delivery will take seven weeks! Yes, that is a long time to go without a kitchen table. I saw a nice patio set at Bunnings (Home Depot equivalent) so that will serve as our kitchen table for the foreseeable future.

While shopping at IKEA, we picked out all these kitchen items but then realized that IKEA does not deliver small/breakable items. So we ended up leaving a cart full of things that we like, because we could not take it home. We will rent a car in a week or so and go to IKEA for our second trip to get everything else we need.

We are moving to the new apartment tomorrow morning, 7 am! I will take two suitcases and take the bus/train to the new apartment while Carla takes the rest of our things with our host in their SUV. We are VERY excited to be moving. The only important thing lacking at the new place will be a working Internet connection. They told me that it will take several weeks to get the connection going (as I am getting a specific type of a connection), but I hope that that is the worst case scenario. I'm sure I will figure something out in the mean time. :-)

Tiny beds

For the past six weeks, Carla and I have been sleeping together on a single bed. I don't mean ONE bed, but a SINGLE bed. As in, big enough for only person! As you can imagine, I have not been having great sleeps, though they are better than when each of us slept on a separate single bed.

There are several reasons for my bad sleeps, not all of them due to the bed. For one, this neighborhood is really noisy. Nearby grocery store gets deliveries at wee hours, trains pass by in the middle of the night and create an incredibly jarring noise. Then there are the birds, the roommates (one of which was banging a ball against the floor at 2:30am!), and the construction on the street.

The part where the size of the bed comes into play is that there is no room to move. When one of us tries to turn, the other one has to turn too. I have woken up in the middle of the night quite a few times to find myself right on the edge of the bed. If there was a fan on in the room, it probably would have tipped me over and I would have landed on the floor! Dangerous! :-)

Still, even with all these troubles, it is still better to share a bed than sleep by yourself. In a couple of days, we will be sharing a double bed in our new apartment. I am looking forward to that!

Life's a beach, and then it ...

Continuing from the previous post where I said that thou shalt enjoy every day, the weather on Sunday was a sunny 25 C. I thought the weather was great, but decided to go to the beach the following day as Monday's forecast called for 27 C.

Monday came around and the early morning was beautiful. It took me a bit to get ready for the commute to the beach and by the time I showed up at Bondi Beach the sky was overcast. "The clouds are not going to stop me", I thought to myself and plunked myself on the sandy beach. Not long after, a strong wind started blowing and had I continued lying on the beach, within several hours I would have looked like a sand dune. Just another bump on the beach.

To avoid all this sand flying around me and getting into every pore of my body (and into my phone, my poor phone), I moved to the grassy part of the beach. "Ha, now I can enjoy the view of the beach without getting harassed by sand in my eyes", I thought to myself. That lasted for about 10 minutes and then it started to rain. Sheesh! I have been going full force and working on getting us setup for the last month without taking any breaks, and now when I take one day off for myself, it starts raining. At any other time in my life I would have been seriously peeved about the situation, but this time was different. I realized that I can come to the beach 365 days of the year. In the past, I could do that only when I was on vacation. Now, I have at least 30 beaches within an hour bus/train ride or car ride from home. Ahhh, life is good!

A successful day

The big and expensive part of shopping for our new apartment is almost over. Today we bought a TV, fridge and a washing machine. In Australia, you have to bring your own washing machine and fridge when you rent a place. Local custom, I guess.

We decided to get a bottom freezer fridge, as this is something we had in Canada and had really liked it. It just makes sense to have the fridge part on top since you use the fridge side most of the time. The freezer is on the bottom, so there is a lot less daily bending over. When you are 6 feet tall (183 cm) you want to minimize how often you have to bend over. It is really not good for my back.

The second expensive shopping trip will take place this Saturday. We will go to IKEA and buy a bed, sofa, chest of drawers, and a few other things. I found several nice furniture stores in Sydney so we are debating whether to go cheap and buy IKEA furniture or to spend a bit more and buy quality items. I think we will end up buying most of the items at IKEA, but select few will be purchased elsewhere.

I am having a heck of a time finding cutlery that we like. Cutlery sets are really different here. Most cutlery sets that I have seen here have 8 different serving items. Three forks, three spoons and two knives. There is a dessert fork, a dinner fork and a fruit fork, then dessert and dinner knives, and three more spoons of varying sizes! I did find a few sets with only a spoon, fork, knife and teaspoon, but the fork and a spoon were way too big. For some reason, standard cutlery size here is HUGE. I am going to a specialty cutlery/dishes/pots store tomorrow with hope that I will find something more to our liking.

I know, I know. It seems that I have been really picky choosing not just cutlery, but most of the items for the house. I think I am being so picky because I finally know what IS and what IS NOT important to us. I also know what I like and don't like. This time around, I want to setup our place as close as possible to what we want (within the budget, of course).

I do think that we will stay in Sydney/Australia for a while and I want that experience to be enjoyable. Life is too short not to enjoy every day.

Shopping - where the deals are

You know you are an expert shopper when you can advise locals on where to find deals in Sydney! I have been running around and looking for deals that now I know all (or almost all) the places to find good, inexpensive items.

I have found the best place for cutlery, knives, and other kitchen necessities. Peter's of Kensington http://www.petersofkensington.com.au/Home/ has the lowest online prices in Australia, and is located in a suburb of Sydney. I will pay them a visit next week and load up on some cutlery and knives.

Kmart and Target are good bets for buying any household products. MYER and David Jones (the local department stores) are too pricey. Bing Lee and Harvey Norman are the equivalent of FutureShop or Visions in Canada. You can buy your computers and kitchen appliances there, but the prices are still not that great. Wait for a sale, or even better, negotiate. It seems that all these stores will negotiate the price of any electronic item. I've even had them offer to lower the price without me even asking. Nice!

The places for deals in Australia are what they call 'Seconds' stores. These stores sell appliances, and electronics that have been lightly cosmetically damaged, have been discontinued, or have had the packaging damaged during transportation. I found quite a few deals in one of these stores and will be purchasing a washer and a fridge there. Shopping in a store like that will save us $300-$500. Works for me!

Grocery stores are pretty much dominated by Coles and Woolworth's. Coles has better prices, and is much closer to our new home so that is where we will be doing all our shopping. There is an ALDI (German grocery store) nearby. ALDI has some amazing prices on food items, but it is touch and go, so you always have to finish your shopping with a trip to Coles.

We bough one of those 'old-lady grocery carts' as that seems to be the thing here. We will be walking a lot, and not having a car, all these groceries have to get delivered to our place somehow.

Not taking a risk is RISKY

On Friday, I went to IKEA for the second time in two weeks. As I like to be efficient (i.e. do two things at a time), I was listening to Anthony Robbins' "Choose Your Destiny" audiobook while shopping. So I ended up listening to Anthony Robbins for five hours!

I love Anthony's audiobooks. They give me such great ideas and inspiration to keep going. In this audiobook, Anthony was talking about how people have a need for certainty. People want to know what is going to happen, that they will have a job, that things will work out. But if you have too much certainty, how much fun is that. Would you really be happy if you knew everything that was going to happen to you over the next 30 years? Not really! Life would be boring.

So, even though people have a need for certainty, they also have a need for uncertainty. People want to be surprised; they want things to change; they want to try something new without knowing how this new thing is going to feel/taste. That's when Anthony said the statement that really made me think: "The quality of your life is directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with." I wholeheartedly agree with the previous statement. I do recognize that not everyone will agree with the previous statement but it is something that I have embraced in my life over the past couple of years.

I/we have been making decisions over the last couple of years that have involved increasing levels of uncertainty. Even though not all of our decisions have gone the way we planned, I feel a lot more confident about our abilities to make things happen. We are more flexible, resilient and ready to make 'risky' moves. I hear people ask us how come we do all these 'risky' things, while at the same time they do not realize that NOT doing what we are doing is also risky.

I believe that there is a not a single safe, guaranteed thing in the world. (Dying is guaranteed, but definitely not safe.) Staying in your current job is not safe since you could be laid off, miss on a great opportunity by not changing, or stagnate personally. I understand that what we are doing is risky, but so is doing nothing.

I just realized that I have never really verbalized what I had just said. The idea has been in my head all this time, but this is the first time that I have actually put it in writing. Please comment on the the risky/non-risky decision thinking. I would really love to hear your comments! Remember, nobody is wrong, we all have a right to our opinion, and I would love to hear yours. This applies to my Croatian/Bosnian readers too. Don't think I did not know. :-)

Signed the lease

We signed the lease for our new apartment and are moving in on August 30th. Woohoo! Just a few more weeks.

Now we need to pick out some nice furniture at IKEA. The IKEA store here in Sydney is really good, so we should have no problems getting most of our furniture there. For non-essentials, like TV and other items that we can live without for a few months, we will wait for the sales. I have noticed that everything is expensive here, but if you pay attention to the sales and wait, you can find some real deals. It also helps to shop in non-prime locations.

Renting an apartment in Australia is a bit different that in Canada, as you have to bring your own fridge and washing machine. I know, it is weird! What happens if your fridge won't fit in the new place?

We also had to put one month bond (rental deposit) which is held by the government. I prefer the government holding the cash, rather than the landlord. But it is a good scheme for the government as they get to hang on to all this rental deposit money for the whole city and use it for free without paying interest. Sneaky government!

Speaking of interest rates, I am currently getting 3.5% in a savings account, and there are a couple of other banks where you can get 4%. That is not bad, especially since I am getting only 0.75% on my savings account in Canada.

We will miss the place that we are staying in now, as the host is a really good cook. On the other hand, we are looking forward to having more privacy and customizing the place to our own taste.

Australian language

You would think that moving from Canada to Australia you would be able to understand folks down here. Well, almost, but not quite. :-) They have quite a few words and expressions that differ from what is used in Canada.

For example:

-if you want to turn someone in, in Australia you call the dob-in hotline

-you buy capsicum instead of peppers, and the police use capsicum spray

-they eat rockmelons, while in Canada we eat cantaloupes

-if you are a bad driver, you are a hoon

-if you a gay, you are a poofster

-Australians greet you with: "How you going?" which usually makes me wonder how to respond

-they go to uni, which is shortened university

-they put their luggage in the boot of the car, as opposed to a trunk

-they have a lot of roundabouts, while it is hard to find traffic circles in Canada

-you plug in electrical devices into a power strip, instead of a power bar

-instead of buying brown bread, you buy wholemeal bread

-you alight of a train, while in Canada you get off a train

-after a divorce, the ex-husband was paying her maintenance (child support)

-paper money is referred to as notes, not bills

-TV has an in-built tuner, not a built-in tuner
-the preferred flooring in Australia is timber, not hardwood (but they mean the same thing)
-you go to level four, not the fourth floor
-you take a lift instead of an elevator
-you try on clothing in a fitting room instead of a change room

-you lift the bonnet, not a hood of your car

-diapers are called nappies

-lorry is the semi (truck)

-in Canada you pay property taxes, while here you have to pay rates

-sunnies are sunglasses

That's it for now, but I am sure I will hear a new one next week.

The new apartment

I was waiting to blog until this Saturday because we were supposed to sign the lease on that day, but no luck with the lease yet. This was the first time that Carla had seen this apartment. She was really concerned about the lack of cupboards in the kitchen. I had shown her pictures of the apartment but the pictures did not convey the whole story. There is also an issue of the current tenant wanting to stay a few more days, so we have delayed signing the lease until Monday.

Carla is feeling a bit better today about the lack of storage space. We came up with alternative ways of storing dishes and food, and will look for more ways to optimize what we have to work with. The apartment is only 59 m2 (600 squared feet) which is not much, but you don't get much space here in Sydney. You CAN get a larger place, but as usual, the larger the place, the larger the rent. Our apartment is located in Chatswood, NSW, if you are interested to see where it is in relation to Sydney.

I think that the apartment is pretty nice. It is roomy enough, and since there are just the two of us, there should be plenty of space. The apartment has two balconies, which we can use for storage. There is a long swimming pool at the top of the building with a beautiful view of the neighbourhood. The gym room is tiny, but sufficient for what we need. The train station is only three minutes away, and a large grocery store only seven minutes away. There are two huge malls less than 10 minutes walking distance from our place so we are going to enjoy that. Not that we are big shoppers, but there is a Borders store (Chapters-like bookstore) in one of the malls and I can see us spending a lot of time reading magazines there. :-)

We also have Kmart, Target, Aldi (cheap German grocery store), and several electronics stores in the vicinity/mall. Since we are not planning to get a car for the first next while, it is nice to have all these amenities within walking distance.

Carla's school is about 27 minutes by train, and then another 10 minutes by foot. The good thing about taking the train as opposed to the bus is that there is usually enough seating room on the train, and the train ride is a lot smoother. Carla can sit and do all her required reading on the train. Well, maybe not ALL the reading as she has A LOT of reading to do. Carla is pretty much spending all her free time reading, even weekends are reading days. Reminds me of my MBA days. :-)

I am really happy to see Carla enjoying her law program. She is really getting into it, and is totally eager to learn and understand the material. There is an added difficulty because she is not familiar with Australian legal/legislative system, but she is picking up that knowledge very quickly. I am SO PROUD of her! Go Carla!!!

Our homestay

We are currently living in a homestay here in Sydney for the first month. It was difficult to get any other kind of accommodation on short notice and for short term so homestay was a perfect solution. A homestay is a household where an Australian family hosts international students. Each student has their own room is are provided with breakfast and supper. This particular homestay has eight rooms, six of which are used by international students.

Students get up at different times so we usually don't see anyone in the morning. In the evening, all the students and the Australian family members gather for supper. It is an interesting mix at the table, as there are students from Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand, Japan, Jordan, the host's wife is from Taiwan, and now they have a crazy Croatian/Canadian too! :-)

The stories we hear are amazing, especially since the host was born in South Africa and has traveled all over the world. Then, we compare how in/expensive things are here or at home, or we compare customs and laws between countries. I was trying to explain to them how cold it gets in Canada in the winter, but I don't think they got it. The only way to understand -40 C is to experience it. Brrrr!!!!

We are getting really spoiled here as our host's wife is a great cook. It is great setup for us, we come home and the supper is ready! Almost makes us want to stay here a little longer and not hurry to find an apartment. Not to worry, I am working on finding us an apartment and will probably have one reserved for us this weekend.

I am really looking forward to having a place of our own. It has been almost seven months that we have been living like nomads, sleeping at friend's and family's places. We are very grateful for their hospitality! Hope we can repay the favor in the future.