Well here we are again – doesn’t time fly when you are enjoying yourself. Week 3 almost ended – does not seem possible but it is so better get used to it.

Not sure this week has gone particularly quick – almost as if have lost a day.
So what have we been doing this week. Well I guess I was on a bit of a high after the weekend in Cairns and the fantastic weather that was had up there – oh for more winters of 28 degrees C! Flew back Monday so a much cooler Melbourne – decided to go on a bit of a cost saving exercise and caught the bus from the airport into the city and then the tram from the city to home – cost $20 as oppose to taxi which would have been $50 so made me feel a bit better. Tues um er yeah Tues what happened on Tuesday? Can I phone a friend?? Know I completed one more job application then- not sure what else. Wednesday was mega day as in mega sale day – lots of 30 and 40% off everything – excellent timing me thought – was in there early – 8am to be exact. Was a bit of a let down in a way as there was hardly anyone else around. Apparently the stores had had a VIP open evening the night prior which had been a complete scrum and most of the staff had been working till past 10. So imagine how chuffed I was to breeze through a store with a handful of people picking up a 40% off here and a 35% off there – for example – I bought a dinner set including mugs and plates, four red and four white wine glasses and two serving bowls AND a monster set of cutlery for about £100.

Put another job application in – grief I must be heading towards double figures by now – ah just remebered what happened Tues – the cockroaches and the haircut! – more in a bit. Also ordered mattress – woman sales assistant was fantastically funny and had a very dry sense of humour – which is what I like about Oz – sales assistants are much more chatty and more fun and you can have a laugh with them as oppose to UK’s give us your money. Also got gym membership fixed so no excuse for lack of exercise now. And had a call from the Australian Tax Office and was amazed to find they had a record of my visit back in 1990... and that they had my old tax number – which they still had on their computer system – was amazed.
So Tuesday– well had a call from the letting agents – rang the guy back and he said – you have not picked up your keys – flippin eck I thought – I did say I was going away for the weekend and would pick them up the following week but I guess he tuned out at the that point. And he mentioned that the pest control guys had been round to do their stuff, that there may be a few dead ones appearing over the coming weeks (noice!) and that it had cost an arm and a leg – well not those words exactly but something to that effect.

Also had a call from the plumber to say that he had not been able to fix the shower head but had put in a temporary solution – get this – a tort wrench affixed to the pipe! Thank heavens am not moving in for a couple of weeks – thinking about it still not heard from him – better chase that up.

So went to pick up the keys and the condition report which is something the letting agent completes and the tenant (me) has to sign off. Then got a haircut – back to the old hairdresser had last time was there – and he remembered me which was pretty cool – had a good old chat with him and his new assistant. And a pretty cool tidy up too. Got home, cup of tea and a peruse through the condition report to find I could not read a word of it – which is something given my writing but this was something else! Just lots of swirly text.

Get me my camera!

Popped into town again to meet with financial adviser about getting my pension transferred – all very involved and lots of form filling – some of which was so coach and horses it was almost, “so which box shall we tick now?” else “what the heck does that mean?”
Today has been odds and sods day – went up to Camberwell to get vicroads licence – did not take long at all and heck I thought now I can get internet access for proper as oppose to going to the internet cafe everytime. How wrong I was. Anyhow got licence- yippee. Then passed by sofas direct to reserve mega comfy armchair and have a good old yarn with lady in there – she is so funny, off to arizona, must have been in there half an hour chatting – then popped into Chadstone – what a place of worship for shoppers worldwide – see www.flippineckhowbigisthisshoppingcentre.com – and managed to sort out tumblers – vacuum cleaners were a bit pricing though so that item of luxury will have to go on hold for the time being.

Managed to drop the car off back in town just in time – even thought cocked up a bit on the old road system and had to take a very roundabout route to get to the rental place. This arvo – another couple of job applications – oh and some developments – one rejection and one position withdrawn – which I found a bit of a blow as had spent about an hour on each application – so an hour invested to no effect – jeeze life is hard!

Also had a bit of a tidy up of the old hotmail.co.uk e-mails – running at around 20-40 a day – most info updates from uk and oz – some useful some not so – well is good to keep up to date I guess.

Looking forward to the weekend in Sydney – though saw the weather there on the tv this morning and they are having a torrential downpour – which is cool as the weather here over the weekend is expected to be good. Ah well. And had booked in a couple of days in Blue Mountains too – given last time I went there I could see about 2 metres in front of me (due to low heavy mist) – who knows there may be a sudden change – I guess the eucaplyptus will due me good (ref Wikipedia: Blue Mountains for more on that one).

Ah well – time to sign off and get some food. Till next time .