Day 5 Update
Day 5 of since my arrival into Perth...
I've just finished cooking my second ever dinner, and again, it is instant noodles with Spam, bacon, egg and spinach. It's actually not as bad as it sounds! Though...you could probably serve me dog food and I would still think it's good...
I also washed clothes for the first time here too, which I have just finished folding. I'm being the most un-green person ever - I feel very ashamed that I HAVE to use the dryer! There aren't any racks here, so I wasn't able to just hang them inside the house. I tried to compensate by using this "Planet Ark" clothes washing powder. Apparently it contains no phosphorus or petrochemicals (pfft), and is biodegradable (technically they all are :p)....I bought it because it was the cheapest around, HA!
I met up with Barry Collins from Crown Removals yesterday - he is acting as my property consultant for the upcoming period of time. We drove around areas where I may be interested in staying:- East Perth, and South Perth. West Perth is another location we may be interested in, but I've been through there already on my own travels, therefore I didn't need to waste Barry's time by asking him to take me there.
I must say, I really enjoy the look of East Perth. It reminds me a bit of Docklands, but the community is well established, the design of the place ties in well with the existing city (unlike Docklands, where the Stadium was plonked such that it acts as a very large fence between Docklands and the City), and is well connected to the city via buses and trains, which are free! South Perth has potential too, since the ferry that connects South Perth and the City is cheap. In both situations, I have easy access to a freeway that runs counterpeak. West Perth also has easy access to the city and the freeway, but the community doesn't really feel as connected - a mishmash of offices and apartments. I'm not too keen on living in West Perth. If anything, we're going to be targeting East Perth.
Whilst we were travelling through South Perth, we managed to stumble upon a rather stranded looking real estate agent standing outside 19 Victoria Street (which happened to be one of my properties of interest). As luck would have it, he was waiting for someone who he was going to show around the house. However, he never turned up, and I did, so I got to have a look around the house! I took some photos of the place, which I will put up on Facebook.
The real estate seemed keen for me to put in an application for the property. Barry had a feeling that if I applied, I will be likely to get the property. I'll put this on the backburner for now; I want to go for a property in East Perth, so we'll see how that goes first.
Nothing much else to report for now, except that I am missing you all back there in Melbourne, and that I HAVE returned the shopping trolley.
Arrival
The Fremantle Doctor is in tonight, leaving air-conditioning redundant as the cool sea breezes burst through the large open doors and windows of the apartment...
I think I can get used to this :)
I've now spent a a day and a half in Perth, rather uneventful, and not much has changed since I was last here some 11 months ago. People are still complaining about daylight savings, water per capita usage is still the highest in Australia, shops still close at 5:30PM and don't open on Sundays, and it's still a very, very beautiful place to live in. The next week's forecast is for sun, sun, and more sun.
So what have I done during this time?
I arrived in Perth yesterday at around 12:45PM, waited ages to get luggage, and my cousin came to pick me up from the airport. He took me to my apartment, had lunch at McDonalds, before going to visit his parents (i.e. aunt & uncle).
The view from the apartment:
i.e. another one of my badly photoshopped panorama views
I met up with Anthony, Andrew and Ana for dinner, and then for drinks afterwards. So yes, I did spend my first night in Perth slightly drunk...but not too drunk. Not drunk enough to not make it back to the apartment at any rate. Quite a few louts on the train though, very loud ones. It makes it hard to hear yourself think.
Today was grocery shopping day for me, so I left the apartment at 9AM and walked into Fremantle to start shopping. It was a pretty decent 15 minute walk from the apartment to the shopping centre, and I bought some $70 worth of supplies that should last me at least a week. However, I realised that I don't have a car, and had no way of carrying eight bags of stuff from the supermarket back to the apartment. So, I pushed the trolley all the way home. It explains why I now have a shopping trolley in my kitchen.
I think now that I have to concentrate on finding a rental property. This is my quest for the next few days or so. It seems daunting at the moment, but maybe it might get better when I spend some time with the property consultant person on Thursday.
On other things, I think I'm taking care of myself... I took a shower after all, I'm cleaning up, I'm eating (instant noodles with spam, spinach and egg), umm....
The Vodafone broadband wireless here is terrible (infrastructure wise, anyway). I seem to be getting constant dropouts - at the time of writing, I have had to reconnect at least 5 times. I cannot wait to move into the rental property, and connect up some decent internet.
As I said, I have no car. I need to consider whether I should rent a car ($20/day for a week?), or wait till I get my car through the company leasing program. I've heard that it may take 3 months to get the car...if that was the case, then the car rental costs are going to go through the roof! Screw it, I'll stick to the public transport system for now, which, apart from the louts on the train last night, has treated me pretty well.
Am I worried about anything? Not really...except for finding a church. It's kinda scary just walking into a church not knowing if you'd fit in with the fellowship and all... I think I'm going to need some help here, or I may have to start up my own Jono church - one of the most spiritually uninspired churches ever (haha).
(reconnected for the 6th time)
I have been reading The Daily Bread, helps with keeping a daily devotional schedule....doubt it's going to be enough on its own though.
Anyway, that is all for now. Sorry if you were expecting a more introspective blogpost about life, love, and everything in between, but I should quit before I have to reconnect for a 7th time.
I will put up more pictures up on Facebook (which I may have to reconnect for an 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th time to finish).
Take care all
(reconnected for the 7th time before posting)
