Our new home!

Here, I am just going to post lots of pics of our new house, which we love :)

Front, and front door:

When you come in the front door, our lounge is first (with stairs to the left) - and we have a SOFA now! I LOVE it!

Otherwise, you're looking through to the kitchen/dining area - photos below were pre-sofa, hence empty room on right of first one :)

The kitchen is nice, with gas cooker and electric fan oven. Also, Iain gave us a wee coffee maker (he got a new one so was chucking his):

The dining room is pretty big :) And it leads out to the back yard via french windows.

The yard is pretty basic, an alright size (room for table+chairs, a washing line thing (it's like an airer style thing) and a barbecue (YAAAAAAS!!). We don't have pics of it yet cos we've not really been out there much - once we get garden furniture we'll take some :)
Just off the dining room is the utility room and a downstairs toilet:

Also downstairs there's a wee (but fairly roomy) understairs cupboard:

Exciting times... It's better now, it has beer in it... :)

So, upstairs...

When you get to the top of the stairs, turn right into the master bedroom (later), left into a wee study area:

...and then on into the second bedroom (also a decent size) - it will eventually have a bed!

Both bedrooms have doors leading into the bathroom, which is also pretty big:

Our bedroom is fairly huge:

As is our bed :)

And it has a walk-in wardrobe.
Before:

And after:

So yeah, that's our new pad. I love it, so does the Dave man, we're pretty happy :) And, obviously, have lots of space for guests ;)

Cxx

I am a liar-face...

Yeah, so regular updates.. Ahem...


Anyhoo, we finally have home internet (!) and a comfy sofa (!!) from which to post so I thought I should put up some pics :) Or at least attempt to...


This is from our trip to get here - sleepy/spaced out, arrival in Changi airport, Singapore:

This is the flight tracker thingy on the airplane:

Look how far away we are!

We got to Melbourne and were picked up at the airport, I've talked about our few days in Melbourne in a previous post, but here are some pics from there (it seemed lovely, through our jetlagged haze):

Then we got to Adelaide and zoned out for a few days... :D 

Over the first few days (and still now) I was very excited by the mad birds they have here, including larikeets:

and birds that sound like R2-D2 - they're magpies Jim, but not as we know them (they're about 50% bigger than our magpies - they're frickin HUGE!):

The zoo is also RIGHT BESIDE where we stayed, and my work (it's about midway between the two). We have yet to get there but I really want to see the main attraction, so apparently it's an early trip for that (pandas sleep a LOT):

Also. Adelaide likes it some duck crossings. They have lots of signs for them, and they're all different... 

One of Dave's favourite things about the temporary accommodation was the orange tree that was literally right outside our door:

I liked that this is what was between there and work:

There are parks circling the city centre, so my walk to work still cuts through the park and now takes in the Botanic Gardens too, which is another post in itself. The park is very pretty, and they have free public-use barbecues. I love Australia. 

Anyhoo, more later, this is getting long. But yes. We like it here :)


Cxx

Settling in

Hello! We've been here more than a week now so I guess it's time I updated this... In summary though, we're in Australia! Wheeeee! :D 


When we first arrived we stayed with Meg and her family in Melbourne for a couple of days to recover from jetlag and stuff. It was so so nice seeing Meg again, I can't believe it's been YEARS since I'd seen her! We got to meet her lovely husband and gorgeous daughter who was initially shy but gave us goodbye cuddles by the end! They were great, and very patient with our rubbishness due to jetlag! We will be going back to Melbourne for a visit hopefully in the not too distant future when we have money and are a bit more functional as people... :D 
Our taxi from Megs house to the airport to fly to Adelaide was an adventure in itself. The taxi driver was a nutter! Friendly at first, chatting away, telling us about how he had lived in London for 4 years, working as an accountant, asked where we were going so Dave (who was sitting in the front cos he's a giant) said Adelaide, to which the taxi guy said "Ah! Murder capital of Australia!" and then asked if we were going for a holiday. Dave explained that, no, it was because I had a job there. Cue transformation from genial taxi driver to Ranty McRantrant - why was I coming over taking Australian jobs, he didn't have a job (flying in the face of the evidence before us that he did in fact have a job as a TAXI DRIVER), how could I get a job when he didn't have one etc etc etc etc... Dave tried to explain that I got the job because I was quite specifically qualified for it and had trained for a long time to be so. "I'm trained too! I have a Masters in Accountancy!" - aye, ok, but she's an immunologist... 
In the midst of his ranting, he missed the turn off the freeway (?) to get to the airport and got lost, ended up driving round this wee airfield thing a couple of times before he figured out how to get back on track. We had mostly silence the rest of the way. Haha, nutcase. Thankfully we had given ourselves LOADS of time to get to the airport for our flight... 


We got picked up at the airport by my new boss, who was very nice and friendly, drove us to our accommodation and offered to drive us anywhere we needed to go for flat viewings etc for the next few weeks. He's maintained that stance, which is nice, telling me not to worry about being in the lab until we find a house/flat, and repeating his offer of driving us around a few times. Everyone here is totally baffled by our lack of transportation - the public transport is fairly poor, laughable in comparison to Glasgows, although since the population is lower and more spread out, it is easy to understand why. So, we will be getting a car as soon as we can afford one! 


The intervening time since then has mostly been spent walking all over the city to view flats - mostly total dumps but we have seen one or two we liked so fingers crossed we'll be able to live in our own place soon! Most places are unfurnished so we'll probably need to buy pretty much everything, but once I start getting paid (hopefully the end of this week, woohoo!) that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I've also been getting to know my new work colleagues. They all seem pretty friendly, giving lots of advice and tips for places to rent/shop/eat etc. Our lab doesn't do lab meetings (or take part in departmental seminars, hehehe), but we have coffee every morning at 10:30 in the meeting room beside our lab, it's a really nice set up :) AND we have a proper coffee machine for the lab, one that grinds the beans in front of you, it's awesome. So yes, I think I will like my lab :) 
We've been out a few times for dinner and things - we went to a house party our first Saturday here hosted by some folk I knew from forums and things, it was nice getting to meet a bunch of new folk. We did end up forming a sort of Irish/UK enclave with another Irish couple we met there... heh... Also, James and his wife (who is another group leader on our floor, their groups are sort of all in one megagroup) took us out to a VERY nice Italian place on Thursday, which was lovely, and we went over to Iain and Yvonnes for dinner (and wine...LOTS of wine...) last night. Iain is the guy who first suggested I write to James, so we are very very grateful to him :) Dinner was really nice and it was good chatting about the oddities of Australian life with some Glasgow ex-pats!


Anyhoo, I can't think of anything else that's been happening - mainly it has been flathunting so it'll be a wee while before we're properly settled still. But I am REALLY looking forward to having a house! :D Also, it'll be a two-bedroom place so if anyone wants to come visit... ;) 


Hope you enjoyed the stream-of-consciousness...I'll try to be a bit better about updating more regularly so posts don't tend towards War and Peace length...


Cx

Daves first blog

Hey all, I've been told that I've to contribute to this and as it helps put off looking for a job I'm gonna kick the arse out of it.
Oz be good and the old cliche of the little things that are different being the oddest is true. Cans of juice are 375ml as are bottles, Pints are not emperically measured (unless specifically stated) and a beer pint is 425ml which, I'm sorry Oz, makes no sense at all in any measure!
Saying that, it means the beer has less time to warm up in your hands and I'm probably less likely to drink myself stupid. Both bonuses. Neither make up for the $7 drinks.

We are currently staying in Katherine Lumley College as temporary accomodation provided by Catherines work which is pretty cool. It's just a butt and ben really with a wee orange tree outside.
Oranges, by the way, are way tastier just off the tree. I didn't think there would be much to it but I picked one off and smelled it and it was ace so took another. Ate one and left the other 'till the next day and the next day, hardly any smell in comparison and the taste was just not as good.

Ooops, flat viewing (pain in the buttocks). I shall write more soon.

Dave

We're here!

Well, it took bloody AGES (turns out Australia is quite far away) but we finally made it! Points of note from the journey are: 

• BA (with whom we flew to London) are much nicer than Ryanair, and they give you breakfast that is surprisingly tasty, for free! (or rather, no extra charge).
• Heathrow is pretty boring compared to Changi airport in Singapore.
• Changi airport, with their airport transit hotel that lets you check in for 6 hours during your layover without clearing customs and rechecking in for your flight, is the nicest, and definitely cleanest, airport I've ever been in.
• Sleeping on an airplane is pants, although I suspect business/first class is more bearable...
• Melbourne is pretty, and has awesome crazily juxtaposed modern and "traditional" buildings all through the city.
• Australian food portions are HUGE!
• My friends baby is mad cute :)
• Australian coinage is weird (their $2 coin is teeny tiny).
• Winter, at least in Melbourne, is a lot like a nice autumn at home - sunny, quite cool but warm in the sun, kinda crisp. 
• Jetlag sucks.

Well, I think that's all for now. We're heading to Adelaide tomorrow, so that's kinda exciting. We're really looking forward to actually getting there and getting a flat and everything sorted and getting going with the whole thing! I will try to remember to post more as and when stuff starts to happen :)

This isn't strictly about our trip, but....

.... I own this now!! 

Thanks to my in-laws and lab folk, for the combo birthday/viva/leaving presents that made this possible... ;) *sniff* I love it :D 

Departure in T -9 days!

So the point of this is to let folk keep up to date with how things are going and what we're getting up to in Australia, without being spammed by email updates! Also it's probably easier to keep all the photos and things in one place rather than billions of emails. Hope you enjoy reading! If nothing else, it gives us a wee diary of our time away :)


Firstly, I passed my viva yesterday!! :D Hurray! So I get the job in Adelaide and we can legitimately move there in a week and a half! Very exciting :) It's come up so so quickly, I guess cos we've been mad busy it's been easy to kinda push it to the back of our minds, just doing whatever things had to be done (booking flights, sorting visa etc) and then getting back to normal life without dwelling on it a great deal. I sort of think it'll take a few weeks or even months for it to register that we've actually moved! Madness. But I'm pretty sure when it gets to January/February and temperatures are in the late 30s and 40s, it'll hit us... :p 


Well, short and sweet to start, I am going to get ready to go and see the lovely Dr Burt, who foolishly decided to have a holiday in Japan just before we leave so this is my last chance to see her for AGES :( Well, til next year when she comes over to visit.... ;)