So, we are all moved in. It took all weekend, and that doesn't count the time it took to go to IKEA, and Target, and Kmart and Coles and the Big W (Aussie Walmart). Of course, we found the discount stores in order of decreasing prices, so we ended up buying stuff like pots and pans at the more expensive place. Sigh. But at least we now know where to go to get the rest of the stuff we will need for living.
The apartment is lovely. The land lord left us a brand new dishwasher, oven, flat cooking range, washer and dryer. We did find a fridge, and with all of our new, albeit cheap, furniture in place, the apartment looks good. Now it just needs a few touches to make it a bit more homey...plants, pillows, pictures and the likes. But that will wait until the bank account recovers a bit.
The weekend was mercifully cool for our move, and we were given the very generous loan of a friend's Land Rover Discovery. Greg and Marya made friends with a lovely Irish couple, Joanne and Paul, down the street. I met them on a trip to the park with all of the children (they have 2). Joanne is lovely. The kind of outgoing woman with whom you are instantly friends. Her husband also seemed like a real stand-up guy...another computer programmer. They are both the give-you-the-shirt-off-their-backs kin of people, and I hope that we will be able to stay in touch through our stay here, and after they have their next baby, which is due in about 2 weeks!. Anyway, on the first time that we met, we agreed to buy their monstrous TV. We got quite a deal on it, since they just wanted to be rid of it. The best part was that they offered us their Land Rover to transport the giant (we certainly were not going to be able to carry it on the train). I kept referring to it as "the truck", much to Joanne's consternation. She'd keep saying, "Don't keep calling it a truck. It is our cool Disco". It sounds better with an Irish accent.
The thing was a beast. 4-W drive, and built like a tank, with very stiff gears, and not so smooth shifting. Paul did all the driving, and managed it rather well, given the size of the monster. I was most impressed with his ability to get it in and out of parking spots. His mastery was demonstrated when we had to take things home from IKEA, and he maneuvered it in a very very busy loading dock (about 10 times busier than I have ever seen IKEA in Ottawa) to back into a diagonal loading space. One thing was sure...if we got into an accident, we were not going to be the ones hurt!
The last couple of days have been spent assembling furniture, more trips to the Big W for dishes, and coat hangers, and generally trying to stay out of the heat. They are having the worst heat wave that they have had in a century. Today is 41 degrees, and a bit humid. The apartment has no air conditioning, and is generally quite comfortable because it is very shaded, but for the last 24 hours is getting warmer and warmer. Still, we are staying inside as much as possible. I've gotten myself a cute little white sun hat to avoid any scalp burns, and we have our morning ritual of sunscreening, that takes about 10 minutes. Paul is almost done peeling from the last burn, so hopefully that will be the worst of our Australian sun exposure. I feel really badly for the tennis players who are currently competing in the Australian Open. We've been following from the sidelines, and were planning to go down and catch a game, but I just can not imagine sitting in the heat for hours. So, we'll see if the heat breaks before deciding on whether or not we will catch a game.
We have no internet for the next little while, so the e-mails and calls may be sparse, but we are thinking of everyone at home. Now, I'm off to keep Paul company as we try to avoid the heat.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Lovely Melbourne, utes and crosswalks
This week has been mainly consumed with trying to set up an apartment.
As the "free fridge" thing fell through, we had to go out an buy a fridge. They don't leave a lot of space in apartments for fridges...our fridge is only 55cm wide (that's less than 2 feet!). There is a surprising demand for fridges in this city, though I suppose not really a shock given that apartments don't come with refrigerators.
We forked over a significant amount of money for a comfortable bed...we reasoned that, since we will spend about 1/3 of our time here sleeping, we should at least get a comfy bed. Then we found this amazing place that sells furniture that is nicer than stuff from IKEA, but cheaper. So, we are all outfitted for furniture and appliances and now just need odds and sods.
That done, we did spend Wednesday this week touring the city. Of course, we probably saw more by pounding the streets on our own for the last couple of weeks, but we wanted someone to point out the interesting sights and not just the furniture and appliance stores.
Melbourne has to be one of the most public-friendly cities in the world. They run a free tram that circles the city-center. There is ongoing, recorded commentary, but it's difficult to hear over the din of locals who use the tram as regular transport.
There is also a free shuttle bus that goes around some of the highlights of the city, harbour, river and a few parks. The driver gives commentary. You can hop off and on at any point of interest, but it is a bit slow to use to get between points. Great, though, for seeing points of interest. We have found some great parks that we want to visit.
There are parks everywhere (well, almost green...it's pretty dry here these days). In almost every park is a city-run bar-b-que where they supply the gas. This Tuesday evening we attended a bar-b-que hosted by Greg and Marya for the fellows at Greg's hospital. Everyone brought salads and meat and appetizers, and Greg and Paul bar-b-qued while I ran got to play with some of the kids. It was great fun, and we could hardly believe that we just had to show up at the park and use their grills and tables. It was great! On top of that, this city has true public restrooms. On major streets and in parks there are green boxes in which there are flush toilets, and there is always toilet paper.
The city is quite clean, aside form the graffiti that lines all of the train (above ground subway) routes. The city also has the best public transit system I've ever experienced in Europe or North America. Trains form the back-bone. Trams connect major streets, and then there are buses running on all of the small streets. Even Paul has been happy with it, and he is not a fan of public transit.
What we are both still trying to get used to is crossing the street. Cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. So, we are still working on looking right first, and then left. We've both just started looking both ways all the time to make sure that we don't miss the mac truck barrelling towards us. It is always interesting getting a tram, because it takes a certain degree of mental gymnastics to work out from which side it will come and where we have to stand to catch it.
One thing that we have noticed in our walks is that cars here are mainly similar to those in North America (a surprising number of Fords), except for the utes. This is pronouced you-ts, as opposed to oo-ts. These are kind of like the Australian equivalent to a pick-up truck, except that they are supposed to be a combination of a muscle car and a truck. If you search "ute" on google, you get a North American native tribe, and you get the Australian vehicle. They are pretty funny looking, and they are everywhere!
Tomorrow we move in to our new place! We should be getting the fridge and microwave and bed delivered, and will spend part of the day on a shopping spree at Target, where we are hoping to get cheap towels, sheets and dishes! We'll miss the company of the Moore family here, and the big beautiful house with air conditioning, but are looking forward to having our own space. I'm particularly looking forward to unpacking my suitcase!!!
As the "free fridge" thing fell through, we had to go out an buy a fridge. They don't leave a lot of space in apartments for fridges...our fridge is only 55cm wide (that's less than 2 feet!). There is a surprising demand for fridges in this city, though I suppose not really a shock given that apartments don't come with refrigerators.
We forked over a significant amount of money for a comfortable bed...we reasoned that, since we will spend about 1/3 of our time here sleeping, we should at least get a comfy bed. Then we found this amazing place that sells furniture that is nicer than stuff from IKEA, but cheaper. So, we are all outfitted for furniture and appliances and now just need odds and sods.
That done, we did spend Wednesday this week touring the city. Of course, we probably saw more by pounding the streets on our own for the last couple of weeks, but we wanted someone to point out the interesting sights and not just the furniture and appliance stores.
Melbourne has to be one of the most public-friendly cities in the world. They run a free tram that circles the city-center. There is ongoing, recorded commentary, but it's difficult to hear over the din of locals who use the tram as regular transport.
There is also a free shuttle bus that goes around some of the highlights of the city, harbour, river and a few parks. The driver gives commentary. You can hop off and on at any point of interest, but it is a bit slow to use to get between points. Great, though, for seeing points of interest. We have found some great parks that we want to visit.
There are parks everywhere (well, almost green...it's pretty dry here these days). In almost every park is a city-run bar-b-que where they supply the gas. This Tuesday evening we attended a bar-b-que hosted by Greg and Marya for the fellows at Greg's hospital. Everyone brought salads and meat and appetizers, and Greg and Paul bar-b-qued while I ran got to play with some of the kids. It was great fun, and we could hardly believe that we just had to show up at the park and use their grills and tables. It was great! On top of that, this city has true public restrooms. On major streets and in parks there are green boxes in which there are flush toilets, and there is always toilet paper.
The city is quite clean, aside form the graffiti that lines all of the train (above ground subway) routes. The city also has the best public transit system I've ever experienced in Europe or North America. Trains form the back-bone. Trams connect major streets, and then there are buses running on all of the small streets. Even Paul has been happy with it, and he is not a fan of public transit.
What we are both still trying to get used to is crossing the street. Cars drive on the left-hand side of the road. So, we are still working on looking right first, and then left. We've both just started looking both ways all the time to make sure that we don't miss the mac truck barrelling towards us. It is always interesting getting a tram, because it takes a certain degree of mental gymnastics to work out from which side it will come and where we have to stand to catch it.
One thing that we have noticed in our walks is that cars here are mainly similar to those in North America (a surprising number of Fords), except for the utes. This is pronouced you-ts, as opposed to oo-ts. These are kind of like the Australian equivalent to a pick-up truck, except that they are supposed to be a combination of a muscle car and a truck. If you search "ute" on google, you get a North American native tribe, and you get the Australian vehicle. They are pretty funny looking, and they are everywhere!
Tomorrow we move in to our new place! We should be getting the fridge and microwave and bed delivered, and will spend part of the day on a shopping spree at Target, where we are hoping to get cheap towels, sheets and dishes! We'll miss the company of the Moore family here, and the big beautiful house with air conditioning, but are looking forward to having our own space. I'm particularly looking forward to unpacking my suitcase!!!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Surfing down under
Paul can swim!!!
Marya and I spent the early part of the morning making food for the day, and then she and Greg tried to round up toys and clothing and little boys, and then the 6 of us headed for the beach.
Ocean Grove Beach is a relatively small beach a bit west of Melbourne. The drive took about 90 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Grove,_Victoria
View Larger Map
The beach was pretty, but really busy, and apparently less busy than most in the area.
Greg, Paul and I started with surfing lessons. There wasn't much to the lesson - here's the front and back of the board, here's how you get on the board, here's how you ride a wave, and here's how you stand up. However, the standing up bit...rather tricky. Paul managed to stand up for about 50 milliseconds, which is way better than I did - I never got beyond a crouch. We both went under several times and swallowed a lot of salt water. But what fun!
http://westcoast.customer.netspace.net.au/surfing.html
We spent two hour trying to catch a wave and stand up on the surf boards, and after two hours our rental/lesson time was over and we had to call it quits. So, we sat on the beach socializing with some of Greg's residency colleagues, and watching the kids play on the beach. It was really cute watching 2-year old Luke run after the older boys, and watching 4-year old Isaac content himself building an impressive sand castle.
Paul spent much of the day making sure that I was covered in adequate sunscreen. He forgot himself, though. We all got a bit of sun on the back of our hands from having them on the boards, but Paul's hands, feet and ears looked like cooked lobster. No fun at all the next day when we had to walk around the city.
We finished our day with, what else? Icecream. The kids fell asleep on the way home, and we weren't too far behind.
Marya and I spent the early part of the morning making food for the day, and then she and Greg tried to round up toys and clothing and little boys, and then the 6 of us headed for the beach.
Ocean Grove Beach is a relatively small beach a bit west of Melbourne. The drive took about 90 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Grove,_Victoria
View Larger Map
The beach was pretty, but really busy, and apparently less busy than most in the area.
Greg, Paul and I started with surfing lessons. There wasn't much to the lesson - here's the front and back of the board, here's how you get on the board, here's how you ride a wave, and here's how you stand up. However, the standing up bit...rather tricky. Paul managed to stand up for about 50 milliseconds, which is way better than I did - I never got beyond a crouch. We both went under several times and swallowed a lot of salt water. But what fun!
http://westcoast.customer.netspace.net.au/surfing.html
We spent two hour trying to catch a wave and stand up on the surf boards, and after two hours our rental/lesson time was over and we had to call it quits. So, we sat on the beach socializing with some of Greg's residency colleagues, and watching the kids play on the beach. It was really cute watching 2-year old Luke run after the older boys, and watching 4-year old Isaac content himself building an impressive sand castle.
Paul spent much of the day making sure that I was covered in adequate sunscreen. He forgot himself, though. We all got a bit of sun on the back of our hands from having them on the boards, but Paul's hands, feet and ears looked like cooked lobster. No fun at all the next day when we had to walk around the city.
We finished our day with, what else? Icecream. The kids fell asleep on the way home, and we weren't too far behind.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Arrival
After 30 hours of travel, including about 22 hours on airplanes, Paul and I arrived in Melbourne. We were greeted by Greg and his 4-year old son Isaac. It was so nice to see a friendly face, and super-nice to have a ride from the airport.
Greg has been in Australia with his wife, Marya, and sons Isaac and Luke for the last year while he did a year of neonatology fellowship. The family is lovely, and the boys are a lot of fun...they provide a very early wake-up call at 6am, and I have no idea where they get all of their energy, but they are very cute. And smart! The current craze is dinosaurs, and Isaac knows the names and food preferences for all of them, it seems. Luke, who is only two, prefers the megalosaurus, and is very cute following his brother around in everything that they do.
The family has been renting a house in the Elsternwick suburb of Melbourne. The house is beautiful - deceptively small from the front, but huge, and airy inside. All of the houses here seem to be long and narrow. The floors are either white tile or pine wood, and the house is filled with color. The back room is a livingroom/diningroom/playroom and is constantly filled with dinosaurs these days. The entire back wall is 12-foot windows. This seems to be a bit of a theme here, with the many-windowed walls.
For our first day, we got settled, and then headed out to get a mobile phone and a bank account, both necessary to do just about anything here.
Over the next 3 days we pounded the pavement of Melbourne, trying to find an apartment. It was hot! Not that I'm complaining after the freezing cold in Ottawa. On our first day of hunting we mainly walked - and boy did we walk! About 12 km all around the city getting the lay of the neighborhoods, and a sense of where the hospital was in relation to everything else.
By day 3 in Melbourne we had specific apartment apointments and knew more of what we wanted in a place, so applied to two different apartments. Getting an apartment in Melbourne is completely different than in Canada. Firstly, furnished apartments (including a fridge) are very rare). Then, there are no business offices in the buildings. Real-estate agents are contracted to let out each apartment. They do this by going through all of the applications for the apartment, and recommending a few to the owners, who have the final say. There are often up to 60 applicants for a single apartment, particularly when it is close to the university. About 3 to 20 people may show up to the open houses that they have for apartments, but that doesn't guarantee you the place. So, we had no idea what our competition was. But, day four, we had success, and are feeling like we won the lottery.
We were only scheduled to see 3 apartments that day. We applied to the first two, and weren't impressed with the last one but asked the real-estate agent if she had any other places that were nice, non-student-like and maybe a bit different. She did, and was nice enough to show it to us that day. She even drove us to it and told us that it hadn't been advertised because she didn't want to sift through several hundred student applications. We loved the location - in between the Central Business District, Lygon Street (Little Italy) and Brunswick street (cafes and shops), and right across the street from the beautiful Exhibition Park.
The building looks like a Tuscan villa, complete with fountains and greenery, and there are benches and little walkways between the different sections. Here's a link to the google map at street level:
View Larger Map
We were charmed. The apartment itself is shaded, and not too big, but with a nice patio on which I think we will have many breakfasts and suppers. We applied then and there, and the next day the agent called to say that we had not only gotten the apartment, but the owner wanted to move a fridge and washer and dryer in for our use. Wow! So, we are going to feel more secure after we meet with the agent in 2 days to pay the bond and confirm, but we are pretty happy for now.
Getting an apartment had allowed us to spend a day relaxing, and then start getting stuff for an apartment. Today, we found a pillow, started to look for a bed and bedding, and found Paul some swimming trunks - tomorrow we go to Torquay Beach with Greg and Marya and the boys, where we are both going to take surfing lessons! I've never seen Paul swim, so this promises to be fun.
Greg has been in Australia with his wife, Marya, and sons Isaac and Luke for the last year while he did a year of neonatology fellowship. The family is lovely, and the boys are a lot of fun...they provide a very early wake-up call at 6am, and I have no idea where they get all of their energy, but they are very cute. And smart! The current craze is dinosaurs, and Isaac knows the names and food preferences for all of them, it seems. Luke, who is only two, prefers the megalosaurus, and is very cute following his brother around in everything that they do.
The family has been renting a house in the Elsternwick suburb of Melbourne. The house is beautiful - deceptively small from the front, but huge, and airy inside. All of the houses here seem to be long and narrow. The floors are either white tile or pine wood, and the house is filled with color. The back room is a livingroom/diningroom/playroom and is constantly filled with dinosaurs these days. The entire back wall is 12-foot windows. This seems to be a bit of a theme here, with the many-windowed walls.
For our first day, we got settled, and then headed out to get a mobile phone and a bank account, both necessary to do just about anything here.
Over the next 3 days we pounded the pavement of Melbourne, trying to find an apartment. It was hot! Not that I'm complaining after the freezing cold in Ottawa. On our first day of hunting we mainly walked - and boy did we walk! About 12 km all around the city getting the lay of the neighborhoods, and a sense of where the hospital was in relation to everything else.
By day 3 in Melbourne we had specific apartment apointments and knew more of what we wanted in a place, so applied to two different apartments. Getting an apartment in Melbourne is completely different than in Canada. Firstly, furnished apartments (including a fridge) are very rare). Then, there are no business offices in the buildings. Real-estate agents are contracted to let out each apartment. They do this by going through all of the applications for the apartment, and recommending a few to the owners, who have the final say. There are often up to 60 applicants for a single apartment, particularly when it is close to the university. About 3 to 20 people may show up to the open houses that they have for apartments, but that doesn't guarantee you the place. So, we had no idea what our competition was. But, day four, we had success, and are feeling like we won the lottery.
We were only scheduled to see 3 apartments that day. We applied to the first two, and weren't impressed with the last one but asked the real-estate agent if she had any other places that were nice, non-student-like and maybe a bit different. She did, and was nice enough to show it to us that day. She even drove us to it and told us that it hadn't been advertised because she didn't want to sift through several hundred student applications. We loved the location - in between the Central Business District, Lygon Street (Little Italy) and Brunswick street (cafes and shops), and right across the street from the beautiful Exhibition Park.
The building looks like a Tuscan villa, complete with fountains and greenery, and there are benches and little walkways between the different sections. Here's a link to the google map at street level:
View Larger Map
We were charmed. The apartment itself is shaded, and not too big, but with a nice patio on which I think we will have many breakfasts and suppers. We applied then and there, and the next day the agent called to say that we had not only gotten the apartment, but the owner wanted to move a fridge and washer and dryer in for our use. Wow! So, we are going to feel more secure after we meet with the agent in 2 days to pay the bond and confirm, but we are pretty happy for now.
Getting an apartment had allowed us to spend a day relaxing, and then start getting stuff for an apartment. Today, we found a pillow, started to look for a bed and bedding, and found Paul some swimming trunks - tomorrow we go to Torquay Beach with Greg and Marya and the boys, where we are both going to take surfing lessons! I've never seen Paul swim, so this promises to be fun.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The engagement
After requests for the details, I'll start the story of our adventure together with the story of our engagement.
Paul and I have been talking about our lives together for a while, so the fact that Paul proposed was not a big surprise. But the way in which he did it was sweet.
New Year's, after everyone had gone home from the party, Paul gathered my family and I in the livingroom so that we could open presents. When it got to mine, I opened four books from Paul. They were in unusual order for wrapping, and not in a size-based stack, and there were inscriptions in each of them. The inscriptions, read in order of the books that were wrapped, formed a Shakespearean sonnet about enduring love. On the top of the first book was a sticky-note saying "Since you like a puzzle..." The problem was, what was I supposed to figure out?
The books were :
1) New York Times crossword puzzles edited by Will Shortz
2) Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLellan
3) The Book Club by Mary Alice Munroe
4) We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
The hint was that the order was important. So after a bit, and with Paul getting worried that he was going to have to tell me, and me nervous because I was getting that this was going to be a proposal, I figured out that the authors' names asked the question:
Will Hugh Mary Mee
I said "Of course", but Paul had a sweet speech about why he chose to do it at my parents' home and with them around, which had my mother crying. Then he got down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?".
It was a proposal that sets a new standard, in my mind. That he put my love of my family as a priority was extra special. So...we haven't discussed the wedding yet. One stress at a time!
Paul and I have been talking about our lives together for a while, so the fact that Paul proposed was not a big surprise. But the way in which he did it was sweet.
New Year's, after everyone had gone home from the party, Paul gathered my family and I in the livingroom so that we could open presents. When it got to mine, I opened four books from Paul. They were in unusual order for wrapping, and not in a size-based stack, and there were inscriptions in each of them. The inscriptions, read in order of the books that were wrapped, formed a Shakespearean sonnet about enduring love. On the top of the first book was a sticky-note saying "Since you like a puzzle..." The problem was, what was I supposed to figure out?
The books were :
1) New York Times crossword puzzles edited by Will Shortz
2) Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLellan
3) The Book Club by Mary Alice Munroe
4) We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
The hint was that the order was important. So after a bit, and with Paul getting worried that he was going to have to tell me, and me nervous because I was getting that this was going to be a proposal, I figured out that the authors' names asked the question:
Will Hugh Mary Mee
I said "Of course", but Paul had a sweet speech about why he chose to do it at my parents' home and with them around, which had my mother crying. Then he got down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?".
It was a proposal that sets a new standard, in my mind. That he put my love of my family as a priority was extra special. So...we haven't discussed the wedding yet. One stress at a time!
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