Monday, 1 November 2010
Moved house again!
Quick blog post - just to let you all know that I have moved house! This one I will be in for at least 6 months, possibly longer. It's right on the coast in Cottesloe (one of the more affluent areas), and the view from my house goes right out onto the beach. I will post some pictures when I am done unpacking stuff.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Long time no see
So it has been another long while since my last blog post - mainly because very little has actually happened. Actually, to be fair, quite a bit has happened in this last week. Most of it to do with me spending money.
I got my tax return which I had intended on saving most of, but I ended up paying a fair bit out on bills and rent, and also paying for my new phone. Oh, and buying some new clothes. And some more new clothes.
On the bright side my income will be increasing since I just got myself a job at the Leftbank pub, working as a glassie (click the link and have a look around!). Hopefully this will go well and I can get a few more hours in, rather than just on sundays. We shall see. It's a pretty damn nice place, perhaps not to work, but the times I've been there before as a customer it was good - from what I can remember that is.
In other news, my housing situation is up in the air at the moment. I had anticipated in moving into a house on marine parade, but Simon's housemate has already told his brother that he can move into Simon's room instead. Which clearly causes some problems. I'm hoping that Simon manages to explain my situation, in that I need a house to live in, I wouldn't just be room sitting for 5 months. Anyway we will see what happens, I can always try and find somewhere else to live.
That pretty much sums up everything for the last month - I was out for dinner tonight and happened upon a second hand bookshop. Lo and behold I found some Robert E. Howard books that I hadn't even heard of before! For those of you that don't know he wrote the Conan books (hence Conan the Australian) and is my favourite author. Needless to say I bought the books, but I won't be reading them until I have finished my current book.
Bye for now, I'm off to bed.
I got my tax return which I had intended on saving most of, but I ended up paying a fair bit out on bills and rent, and also paying for my new phone. Oh, and buying some new clothes. And some more new clothes.
On the bright side my income will be increasing since I just got myself a job at the Leftbank pub, working as a glassie (click the link and have a look around!). Hopefully this will go well and I can get a few more hours in, rather than just on sundays. We shall see. It's a pretty damn nice place, perhaps not to work, but the times I've been there before as a customer it was good - from what I can remember that is.
In other news, my housing situation is up in the air at the moment. I had anticipated in moving into a house on marine parade, but Simon's housemate has already told his brother that he can move into Simon's room instead. Which clearly causes some problems. I'm hoping that Simon manages to explain my situation, in that I need a house to live in, I wouldn't just be room sitting for 5 months. Anyway we will see what happens, I can always try and find somewhere else to live.
That pretty much sums up everything for the last month - I was out for dinner tonight and happened upon a second hand bookshop. Lo and behold I found some Robert E. Howard books that I hadn't even heard of before! For those of you that don't know he wrote the Conan books (hence Conan the Australian) and is my favourite author. Needless to say I bought the books, but I won't be reading them until I have finished my current book.
Bye for now, I'm off to bed.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
The process begins
What's been happening recently? Lots!
A couple of weeks back I went back to the UK to visit family and friends, as many of you probably know. I had an awesome time, if not slightly hectic. Having my nice 18 hour flight + timezones, getting home and going out to the pub the next night after catching up with family, and continuing the trend most days of the week. It was lucky I received compensation for my nose, it funded my holiday and I spent an ungodly amount of money! Shopping with Mum, hanging out with mates, going on a road trip with Dad - very productive holiday I think.
The latter part of my holiday was spent at a music festival, Sonisphere. It was incredible, mainly because of the guys I was there with, we had an awesome time and drank lots of beer, albeit warm. WARM! Anyway, the bands were incredible, highlights of the festival were Skunk Anansie who definitely had one of the most entertaining live performances - their singer is crazy! Also Alice Cooper was good, had a very amusing stage show, I think he died about 5 times. Rammstein, who were the band I was most looking forwards too, were also very good, although they had to cut their set short by an hour. This was due to people being trampled at the front (apparently) so that was very disappointing. Oh well, maybe they'll come to Australia.
Now I'm back in Australia (seems like I never left) everything is pretty much the same. Main news is that I'm applying for University now - hopefully getting into the University of Western Australia. I slightly misunderstood the application process, which I will now clear up for the rest of you. I was under the impression that I had to apply for 4 different subjects, similar to the A-Level structure. What it actually is, is 8 units, and they recommend that you take 4 units from 2 different subject areas (effectively doing 2 degrees if you followed it through). This makes things a lot easier, since I am hoping to do either Psychology or Philosophy. I sent my certificates off today to the office and hopefully they will send them back with some good news. I have no idea how long this process takes.
Anyway, I must be off, I have an early start at work tomorrow - damn these infernal sales, they never end!
A couple of weeks back I went back to the UK to visit family and friends, as many of you probably know. I had an awesome time, if not slightly hectic. Having my nice 18 hour flight + timezones, getting home and going out to the pub the next night after catching up with family, and continuing the trend most days of the week. It was lucky I received compensation for my nose, it funded my holiday and I spent an ungodly amount of money! Shopping with Mum, hanging out with mates, going on a road trip with Dad - very productive holiday I think.
The latter part of my holiday was spent at a music festival, Sonisphere. It was incredible, mainly because of the guys I was there with, we had an awesome time and drank lots of beer, albeit warm. WARM! Anyway, the bands were incredible, highlights of the festival were Skunk Anansie who definitely had one of the most entertaining live performances - their singer is crazy! Also Alice Cooper was good, had a very amusing stage show, I think he died about 5 times. Rammstein, who were the band I was most looking forwards too, were also very good, although they had to cut their set short by an hour. This was due to people being trampled at the front (apparently) so that was very disappointing. Oh well, maybe they'll come to Australia.
Now I'm back in Australia (seems like I never left) everything is pretty much the same. Main news is that I'm applying for University now - hopefully getting into the University of Western Australia. I slightly misunderstood the application process, which I will now clear up for the rest of you. I was under the impression that I had to apply for 4 different subjects, similar to the A-Level structure. What it actually is, is 8 units, and they recommend that you take 4 units from 2 different subject areas (effectively doing 2 degrees if you followed it through). This makes things a lot easier, since I am hoping to do either Psychology or Philosophy. I sent my certificates off today to the office and hopefully they will send them back with some good news. I have no idea how long this process takes.
Anyway, I must be off, I have an early start at work tomorrow - damn these infernal sales, they never end!
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
New house
So, the move has been completed and I am settled in to my new house, albeit rather chilly. In fact, I woke up this morning and the house was freezing. I went outside and found that it was actually warmer outside my house than it was inside. You can imagine what it's like at night. That's by the by anyway, it's an awesome house. I love it! It helps that I've got a huge TV set up in the lounge, and a bar fridge right next to the sofa.
It definitely has been lived in - about three of the doors actually shut properly, the other ones can be slightly wedged in the frame, or have to be held in position by rocks. There is fake brick on (part of) the rear of the house which is hilarious, and the front foundation wall has fallen over so the balcony is wonky. There's no inside toilet (dunno if I mentioned this before), and there's a big shed in the back which contains most of the unused furniture.
The garden is an overrun mess, both in the front and rear - however there's a nice collection of half-rotted post in the front garden. The interior walls are fairly sturdy though. Overall it's a good house, considering the location and price ($300 p/w for 6011!!).
Click here for photos
It definitely has been lived in - about three of the doors actually shut properly, the other ones can be slightly wedged in the frame, or have to be held in position by rocks. There is fake brick on (part of) the rear of the house which is hilarious, and the front foundation wall has fallen over so the balcony is wonky. There's no inside toilet (dunno if I mentioned this before), and there's a big shed in the back which contains most of the unused furniture.
The garden is an overrun mess, both in the front and rear - however there's a nice collection of half-rotted post in the front garden. The interior walls are fairly sturdy though. Overall it's a good house, considering the location and price ($300 p/w for 6011!!).
Click here for photos
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Jumping ship
So, in two weeks time I am moving house. To which house I am unsure of at the moment, but I am sorting this out next week. Hopefully. My current housemate Gareth also needs a place to stay, and since he is a FIFO worker he is going to apply for the lease and pay the bond. I'll just be the housekeeper and we'll split bills and rent 50/50. There seem to be a few places fairly local to here for around $250-350 per week, so between two of us this should be fine.
I shall take photos of the house that we get so you can all see my new house! It'll be a big effort moving though, I've managed to claim some furniture, but I'll need to buy sets of cutlery, pots and pans and God knows what else. Should probably make a list. I've already got myself an iron and ironing board, so I'll still look good even if I have nowhere to keep food and nothing to eat it with.
I shall take photos of the house that we get so you can all see my new house! It'll be a big effort moving though, I've managed to claim some furniture, but I'll need to buy sets of cutlery, pots and pans and God knows what else. Should probably make a list. I've already got myself an iron and ironing board, so I'll still look good even if I have nowhere to keep food and nothing to eat it with.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
So half of 2010 is gone!
Seems to have gone by rather quickly too. It feels like it was just yesterday that I arrived in this country, and now 8 months have gone by and I'm halfway through 2010! How time does fly.
Finances seem to be the main topic of the last week or so. Everybody is after my money! I have to pay a contribution to have the house professionally cleaned since we are moving out, which is fair enough I guess - not that I spend enough time here to make a mess as it is but that's by the by. The mechanic wanted $750 to fix my car, after charging $115 to have it serviced. The service on the car was fine but I'm not paying out more than half the price of the car to have it fixed. Apparently I can fix most of the problems myself anyway. I'm also having to pay out money for things that I'll be needing when I move out, such as an iron and ironing board. Not sure quite what else I'll need yet, but I've got a couple of weeks to find out. Hopefully 'semi-furnished' means that there's a fridge where we are moving to.
That's another point, it's not definite that we (Gareth and I) are moving into this place in Cottesloe yet. I hope we are though, since it's in a good location for work, and jogging too. Speaking of which, I went for a decent jog up and down the beach today. Very nice.
Not much else to report other than I'm BLOODY EXCITED about going to this music festival. I cannot wait. Can. Not. Wait.
COME ON JULY!
Finances seem to be the main topic of the last week or so. Everybody is after my money! I have to pay a contribution to have the house professionally cleaned since we are moving out, which is fair enough I guess - not that I spend enough time here to make a mess as it is but that's by the by. The mechanic wanted $750 to fix my car, after charging $115 to have it serviced. The service on the car was fine but I'm not paying out more than half the price of the car to have it fixed. Apparently I can fix most of the problems myself anyway. I'm also having to pay out money for things that I'll be needing when I move out, such as an iron and ironing board. Not sure quite what else I'll need yet, but I've got a couple of weeks to find out. Hopefully 'semi-furnished' means that there's a fridge where we are moving to.
That's another point, it's not definite that we (Gareth and I) are moving into this place in Cottesloe yet. I hope we are though, since it's in a good location for work, and jogging too. Speaking of which, I went for a decent jog up and down the beach today. Very nice.
Not much else to report other than I'm BLOODY EXCITED about going to this music festival. I cannot wait. Can. Not. Wait.
COME ON JULY!
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Done and dusted!
I went for my 14km run today! Lots of fun, even though I managed to get a blister on my foot. Thankfully the rain held off and we had a fairly clear run. I got up at 6am this morning to get ready (after going to bed at about 9pm oddly enough). Drove up to the street that it was on, hopped out and let Orlando drive my car home. Which was lucky because he filled up the radiator fluid for me.
Anyway, start of the race was slow, since everyone was packed into a small area, but once we were out on the road things picked up a bit. It took me about 15 minutes to find the right pace, but once I was there I was motoring along. I ended up completing the run in about 1h 15m ish - can't remember exact time. But I am satisfied with the time, and I really sped up towards the end, perhaps the last 5km, since I found I had lots of energy left and there wasn't far to go. It was extremely satisfying too, running past everybody - whereas at the beginning of the race it was me who was being run past!
I guess the advice that you shouldn't start off at such a fast pace paid off, since I maintained a regular pace throughout the whole run.
Anyway, now I'm back I have to mow the front lawn, edge it and pull up all the weeds between the paving slabs. House inspection on tuesday, so it has to look pristine.
Pictures of me before the race here and here
Anyway, start of the race was slow, since everyone was packed into a small area, but once we were out on the road things picked up a bit. It took me about 15 minutes to find the right pace, but once I was there I was motoring along. I ended up completing the run in about 1h 15m ish - can't remember exact time. But I am satisfied with the time, and I really sped up towards the end, perhaps the last 5km, since I found I had lots of energy left and there wasn't far to go. It was extremely satisfying too, running past everybody - whereas at the beginning of the race it was me who was being run past!
I guess the advice that you shouldn't start off at such a fast pace paid off, since I maintained a regular pace throughout the whole run.
Anyway, now I'm back I have to mow the front lawn, edge it and pull up all the weeds between the paving slabs. House inspection on tuesday, so it has to look pristine.
Pictures of me before the race here and here
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