We have been here two weeks already and it seems like a lot longer. While I have been busy at work, Leigh has been busy getting the house sorted and stopping the kids from destroying our rented home.
The first week was frantic, sorting out all the immediate tasks. Getting a phone, cable, car, visas stamped etc. All of course without a car. The buses in
We managed to squeeze in a visit to the Aquarium on our second day; I have attached a few more photos. The weather was scorching that first Sunday. Being the sensible Scots that we are, we plastered on the factor 20 and set out with a bottle of water to get the train, (we finished the bottle within the first 30mins and bought several more throughout the day). We nipped through the park and ran the last 100 yards when we saw the train coming. 10mins later you are in
The aquarium was loads and loads of fun. We saw lots of brightly coloured fish and sharks. Plus of course the deadly sting ray! We bought a yearly pass that gets us unlimited access and discounts and various other benefits. We just need to go three times in a year and we have made our money.
Monday – Friday was work, work, work, stress, stress, stress and quite a lot of late night phone calls and early starts. The only good thing about being busy at work is that the weekends come round quicker.
The next weekend we went to the ZOO! I love the Zoo and took a ton of photos; I have uploaded a very very limited selection. Again we bought a yearly pass which we only need to use twice and again we have made our money. Given the weather we are much more likely to spend our weekends outside and the kids just love all the animals. The highlights of me were the gorillas and the tigers. The zoo is in an amazing setting, lots of covered areas and a great view over the city. You can get a cable car up and down to the ferry terminal which travels over the entire zoo. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the weather was 37 degrees. Fortunately for us that is very rare in October, and it actually made the headlines on the news. Leigh bought me a weather station for my birthday, so expect some weather updates as the blog continues.
Sunday was a little more sedate; we walked down to the local mall and bought some supplies and a double buggy. We realised that we are likely to do a lot more walking and even though Adam is pretty good, he gets tired after several miles.
Monday – Friday for me was again work dull work. Leigh bought a car! We got another Honda CR-V sport. Very similar to our old car but with a few subtle differences. It’s a 2.4 litre instead of 2.0, its got leather seats, but strangely only air-con and not climate control. We got an excellent deal on the price mainly because it is WHITE! Looks a bit like a large Police truck, but fortunately there are a lot more white cars here, so doesn’t stick out too much. We also had to buy a new car seat for Emily as they have different standards here and the seats attach into a hook on the roof of the car. We are considering getting the windows tinted to get that Drug Dealer look. But here it’s useful to keep out the UV rays too.
We also got a rental laptop supplied by the delivery people that lost our one. It’s not too bad and at least means that Leigh can check her mail and search on google for various different things. We have to use dial up at the moment, broadband gets installed on Wednesday. I had forgotten what it was like… you may as well get a drink and a bite to eat while waiting for a page to load.
The weekend ticked along pretty quickly again and we decided to make use of our new car and toured the city shops little. We were trying to find SatNav and found a good one in our local mall and got it all up and running. “Betty” as the lady in the machine has now been named, is very helpful. It makes driving in a large strange city much easier and has given Leigh more confidence to find places without needing to pull over to consult maps. There are a lot of “no right turns” in
We used our new found directional sense on Sunday to go out to Manly Oceanworld, (we get in free with our Aquarium passes), and see the beach. The aquarium is not a big and impressive as the one in town, but they have lots of sharks and a giant turtle. They also have all the spider and snakes to freak you out. It’s slightly different from
We had a quick wander along Manly beach and a look in the surf shops before driving home.
Been trying to think of anything amusing about Ozzy life… bananas are still $2 a go…. Oh and they abbreviate everything, some examples:
Doco – documentary
Soco – Southern Comfort, I jest not… its even on the billboards
Rego – mandatory car insurance, a bit like a car tax.
This Avo – Yes they do say this, its not just in Neighbours.
I am sure there are loads more which I will update you on.
Weather Report:
- Current temp: 20.6°C
- Recorded min: 10°C
- Recorded max: n/a
- Feels like: 20.6°C
- Humidity: 51%
- Rainfall since 9am: 0.0mm
- Wind: ENE 13km/h
- Wind gusts: 17km/h
- Pressure: 1028.9hPa
- First light:
- Sunset:
- Last light:
- Moon: Waxing crescent
- Days until DST starts: 6
