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