Jenny, Paul and the Cool Disco

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.