Sydney: Oct 11 - Oct 17, 2011
So my first week in Sydney is now over. Tues-Thurs was fairly uneventful. We spent the week in “induction” (aka training) re-learning how to do basic things like send emails and use our computers. It was pretty boring, but I can’t complain about a slack week.
On Tuesday night, a few of us new starters and one of my friends went for drinks after work. There are a few people in my starting group that I get on with quiet well, so that’s good. Wednesday night I spent house hunting – I think I saw 5 places in about 2 hours. The housing market is really tough. Some of the places I’ve looked at absolute dives; I’m talking stained carpets, dirty walls, tiny kitchens, etc. The biggest issue with most of the places is the size; the bedrooms in some are the size of a bed. In others, the kitchen is literally a stove and a sink. Some don’t have closets, some don’t have dishwashers, and some say “internal laundry” when they actually mean “there is a place to hook up your own washing machine.” This wouldn’t be that bad, except for the average price of a 1 bedroom as described above, is $2,000 a month. Add to that the fact that an open house on a Saturday draws a crowd of 50 – 100 people, and it’s a nightmare. Something good come out of my house hunting on this day though,… I found a beautiful 3 bedroom place that I loved. The problem was that it was way out of my price range to rent on my own. Since I didn’t have any potential roommates lined up, I had to pass; the price was too high to risk taking it and then not being able to find anyone to move in. It was good though, to see that there are nice places out there, you just have to find them.
Friday night I had drinks in the office with the mining team and then drinks at the downstairs pub (/Asian dance club after 11pm?). A few of us roamed around aimlessly before ending up at Hungry Jacks (burger king) where I some how managed to spend $28. The casino and a walk in circles around Surry Hills also followed.
Despite the hangover, I had to spend Saturday looking for a place to live. I managed to drag my butt out of bed to be at a showing by 11am…. Which turned out to be terrible. I walked in, took one look at the kitchen and dirty walls and walked right out. Didn’t even need to see the bedrooms to know that I was NOT paying $700 a week for that dive. I then had an hour to kill before the next viewing, and was in the process of wolfing down my breakfast, when I ran into a girl who started with me. She was looking for one bedrooms in the area as well, so we spent the day wondering around together looking at all of the places we both had on our lists. (side note: why did I ever become a vegetarian – bacon is the best hangover cure. After my breakfast I felt SO much better).
At 2pm there was another showing of the 3 bedroom place that I loved from Wednesday. Larissa and I had been joking all day that maybe the two of us should rent it together and use the spare room as a closet/wardrobe. At 11am this seemed crazy, however after viewing a number of other terribly mediocre places, we decided that maybe it wasn’t such a ludicrous idea after all. We went and looked at it, loved it, and applied right away. This morning (Monday) I got a call saying that its ours. We still have to sign the lease, but I have paid the first week’s rent as a holding fee to guarantees it is ours. You never know what can happen, but Im pretty sure we will be moving in within a week!
The place itself is located in Darlinghurst/Surry Hills. Surry Hills was my top pick at location as it is a trendy suburb out of the CBD, but only about a 15 minute walk to work. The house is 3 floors and has a garage! The downstairs has two smallish bedrooms and a bathroom. The main floor has a large kitchen, a large living area, and a back patio and the upstairs has a master bedroom with ensuite. The entire place is brand new; the house is older, but its been completely redone (from head to toe) and no one has lived in it since the renovation. There is air conditioning in every room, power efficient appliances, etc. I am going to take the master bedroom (since I found the place) and Larissa is going to take the two bedrooms downstairs (one as a bed room, one as a closet!!). That extra room will also function as a guest room (SO COME VISIT ME). We are both pretty pumped; its gorgeous!
Sunday was the first proper beach day since I arrived, so after spending 2 hours in the apple store dealing with the fact that ios5 broke my iphone, and after skyping into Naomi's baby shower (which was kinda cool!), I met up with a couple friends from work at Bondi (both from the UK). We kept saying how weird it was that that is now our local beach; it felt like we were on vacation. It was lovely.
The big Australia/NZ semi final rugby world cup game was on in the evening so we went to a Surry Hills ‘hotel’ to watch. It was fun being amongst all of the fans going crazy, even though the Wallabies lost. As excited as people were though, the atmosphere had nothing on the way it was in Vancouver during the playoff run this year. Apparently rugby league is more popular in Sydney that rugby union (the style played in the world cup), so perhaps it will get more crazy come the rugby league season.
Today I am sick. Woke up feeling like hell and struggled through my first real day of work (which thankfully was not busy). Guess Im run down; I have been pretty busy and its stressful moving to a new country alone. Hopefully it passes quickly!
Lots of housing talk in this post, but its pretty much dominated my first week here. The way the market is, not finding a place and having to live in a box is a real possibility! That’s all for now.
On Tuesday night, a few of us new starters and one of my friends went for drinks after work. There are a few people in my starting group that I get on with quiet well, so that’s good. Wednesday night I spent house hunting – I think I saw 5 places in about 2 hours. The housing market is really tough. Some of the places I’ve looked at absolute dives; I’m talking stained carpets, dirty walls, tiny kitchens, etc. The biggest issue with most of the places is the size; the bedrooms in some are the size of a bed. In others, the kitchen is literally a stove and a sink. Some don’t have closets, some don’t have dishwashers, and some say “internal laundry” when they actually mean “there is a place to hook up your own washing machine.” This wouldn’t be that bad, except for the average price of a 1 bedroom as described above, is $2,000 a month. Add to that the fact that an open house on a Saturday draws a crowd of 50 – 100 people, and it’s a nightmare. Something good come out of my house hunting on this day though,… I found a beautiful 3 bedroom place that I loved. The problem was that it was way out of my price range to rent on my own. Since I didn’t have any potential roommates lined up, I had to pass; the price was too high to risk taking it and then not being able to find anyone to move in. It was good though, to see that there are nice places out there, you just have to find them.
Friday night I had drinks in the office with the mining team and then drinks at the downstairs pub (/Asian dance club after 11pm?). A few of us roamed around aimlessly before ending up at Hungry Jacks (burger king) where I some how managed to spend $28. The casino and a walk in circles around Surry Hills also followed.
Despite the hangover, I had to spend Saturday looking for a place to live. I managed to drag my butt out of bed to be at a showing by 11am…. Which turned out to be terrible. I walked in, took one look at the kitchen and dirty walls and walked right out. Didn’t even need to see the bedrooms to know that I was NOT paying $700 a week for that dive. I then had an hour to kill before the next viewing, and was in the process of wolfing down my breakfast, when I ran into a girl who started with me. She was looking for one bedrooms in the area as well, so we spent the day wondering around together looking at all of the places we both had on our lists. (side note: why did I ever become a vegetarian – bacon is the best hangover cure. After my breakfast I felt SO much better).
At 2pm there was another showing of the 3 bedroom place that I loved from Wednesday. Larissa and I had been joking all day that maybe the two of us should rent it together and use the spare room as a closet/wardrobe. At 11am this seemed crazy, however after viewing a number of other terribly mediocre places, we decided that maybe it wasn’t such a ludicrous idea after all. We went and looked at it, loved it, and applied right away. This morning (Monday) I got a call saying that its ours. We still have to sign the lease, but I have paid the first week’s rent as a holding fee to guarantees it is ours. You never know what can happen, but Im pretty sure we will be moving in within a week!
The place itself is located in Darlinghurst/Surry Hills. Surry Hills was my top pick at location as it is a trendy suburb out of the CBD, but only about a 15 minute walk to work. The house is 3 floors and has a garage! The downstairs has two smallish bedrooms and a bathroom. The main floor has a large kitchen, a large living area, and a back patio and the upstairs has a master bedroom with ensuite. The entire place is brand new; the house is older, but its been completely redone (from head to toe) and no one has lived in it since the renovation. There is air conditioning in every room, power efficient appliances, etc. I am going to take the master bedroom (since I found the place) and Larissa is going to take the two bedrooms downstairs (one as a bed room, one as a closet!!). That extra room will also function as a guest room (SO COME VISIT ME). We are both pretty pumped; its gorgeous!
Sunday was the first proper beach day since I arrived, so after spending 2 hours in the apple store dealing with the fact that ios5 broke my iphone, and after skyping into Naomi's baby shower (which was kinda cool!), I met up with a couple friends from work at Bondi (both from the UK). We kept saying how weird it was that that is now our local beach; it felt like we were on vacation. It was lovely.
The big Australia/NZ semi final rugby world cup game was on in the evening so we went to a Surry Hills ‘hotel’ to watch. It was fun being amongst all of the fans going crazy, even though the Wallabies lost. As excited as people were though, the atmosphere had nothing on the way it was in Vancouver during the playoff run this year. Apparently rugby league is more popular in Sydney that rugby union (the style played in the world cup), so perhaps it will get more crazy come the rugby league season.
Today I am sick. Woke up feeling like hell and struggled through my first real day of work (which thankfully was not busy). Guess Im run down; I have been pretty busy and its stressful moving to a new country alone. Hopefully it passes quickly!
Lots of housing talk in this post, but its pretty much dominated my first week here. The way the market is, not finding a place and having to live in a box is a real possibility! That’s all for now.
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