Binarynomad

The past few days have been pretty low key, a large wet storm has moved in from the coast, the beaches are closed and we discovered that when it rains, it downpours. (luckily it is still warm enough for shorts, t-shirts, and sandals) So, Kristen is adjusting to her school schedule and I am slowly building our home network. I got an LCD (for my shuttle) and a Canon bubblejet printer, which I then hooked up to our temporary wireless network so she and I can print from our laptops. One nice benefit (of the Airport Express)is we can now play any of our iTunes collections over the wireless network and have it come out the TV speakers.

Brian Huddleston & Kristen Spinola
1/88 High Street
Southport, QLD 4215
Australia

(the 1 is the unit number)

We finally got it! Yesterday, within about 1h period, we got a call from both the rental agency and from the car rental place. The rental agency was ready for us to fill out the final paperwork and pick up the keys.

The car place was ready for us to check one of our options.We first checked out the car, automatic with air (88 Toyoda Corolla), I bit banged up, but they would first process it through their shop and then give us full coverage for 3 months, including registration, all for $1700. We liked the deal, they still needed a day or two to get it sellable. (we got another call today with a second possible option that will be ready for inspection on Friday, which is great, I’d rather have at least one or two options).

We then headed over to the Rental agency, filled out all the forms, signed here, and here , and there, over here, and…etc. Grabbed the keys, and went straight to the store, and purchased ($179 AUD) of stuff, drove home unloaded, then grabbed a kebab before heading over to the hostel and emptying our room. WE ARE DONE!

We got to sleep in our own beds and wash in our own showers (and not have to lug our stuff back to the bedroom), it was so nice. The only problem was breakfast, we had bread, peanut butter, jam, cerial, milk, cheese, BUT…. no knives, no plates, no bowls, no spoons, UGH! So that ment another shopping spree this morning for another ($179 AUD) worth of stuff. We are finding that generic brands are our friends.

One thing to warn the visitors about, we are next to a major street, you hear the traffic, you don’t have to see it (bunches of bushes) but it is there. I’m slowly getting used to it.

Today I had the power transfered to my name and asked to have a phone setup so we can get DSL, unfortunately we discovered that it can take 21 days to provision broadband (AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!)

We went shopping at the Slavo (Salvation Army) again and got a toaster, phone, desk (which I have to wait for delivery today), hopefully after getting our car and clothes washer tomorrow we will be completly done! Then it is just school and play.

We are still waiting to hear from both the current residents of the unit and the car rental place (guh), but this should go much easier today. I just dropped Kristen off at school (for her orientation), and I’m off to the ocean for some surfing lessions. Woot!

UPDATE:

I had a blast, they took us out to an area call “The Spit” and then had us perform some warm-ups and then a run (they wanted to make sure we were fit enough to get into the water). They had us perform a number of practice steps while on the beach with our boards, before letting us out into the water. We all lined up and took turns going out to the main instructer in the water. At first he would hold our boards and have us lay upon it and then would push us with the waves as we paddled, once we had enough speed, we would attempt to stand. I was up most of the time, and was able to stay up until I ran out of wave. As we got better, they started sending us out in groups and then let us play to our hearts content. Let me warn you, surfing is a workout! My body is so sore, but I had a great time.

So playing at the beach was a blast, I had forgotten how strong the ocean can be. The waves were only 8ft high, but the current tossed us around like rag dolls. I got rolled a few times, once flipping my legs up over my head, but I recovered just as quickly and dove in deeper. We only stayed out for 1h’ish but that was enough, I can now see why everyone is so fit, that was a massive workout. Swimmers are only allowed to swim between two flags posted on the beach, the lifeguards move these flags as the conditions allow. There are a number of these areas up and down the beach. One thing we kept noticing was that the washback of the water kept pulling us outside of the flags. It’s really easy to see how people get quickly get in trouble.

After drying off, we headed back to the hostel to relax for a while. I pulled out some dice and taught Kristen how to play Farkle and she taught me Cadis. (I like the game but, per Kristen, it is earning me the name butt-head 🙂 )

Yesterday I wandered around Surfers Paradise and found a Surf shop that does rentals. I spoke with Sean for a while and started learning the differences on the sizes of the surfboards, bodyboards, different fins, clothes to wear, etc. It turns out that the water doesn’t get cold here until (their) late winter (yay). I’m seriously looking at buying a board.

Today we had to return our cute (AC, cd, auto windows, auto locks, automatic transmission) KIA for a Nova (no ac, tape player, manual windows, manual locks, stick shift) until we can buy a car. Given our price range, I think we are going to end up with something more like the Nova in the long run. I have to say, driving stick wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Shifting on the leftside seems more natural. I thought I’d have to do some practicing before getting on the road, but I just hopped in and went.

Since we’ve been here, Kristens eating habits have rubbed off on me. I’m eating about (1/3 to 1/2) of what I used to which is actually working out great, I’m losing weight and still feeling pretty energetic. I’ve started revisiting and old time comfort food for breakfast (tea + toast and sliced chedder cheese) I used to eat this back in Cyprus all the time. Most of the other meals we’ve been splitting, this has helped cut costs quite a bit. The few times I’ve cooked, we’ve had some stir frys (round one bombed, round two was much better), and I found all the ingredients for tacos (which turned out great, and then turned into taco salad for two more nights), and the other night we ordered and split a small (by American standards) pizza. I’ve found it is hard to cook in a shared kitchen.

Today we found out that we might have to wait until Thursday before we can enter the new apartment, which sucks for Kristen because her orientation runs both Tuesday and Wednesday. We are hoping to talk to the current residents and see if there is anyway to speed up the transition. (wish us luck)

…Argh…Phppth….

I’m having problems posting to my blog from this (free) library computer. They have a number of security programs in place that don’t like the text editor that it uses. The only alternative is to use the Hostel comptuer (@ $2/20 min).

Since it looks like we are getting our place tomorrow we decided to revisit the car rentals. There’s a rental agency that (as bad as it sounds) is called Rent-A-Bomb. Yes, they have older cars but they are fully registered, insured, and cheap. We started asking about extended rental periods and found that they even sell their cars. Now we are looking for a car to keep us on the road for a year, and I really doubt some of these will last longer than that, BUT for $1700 AUD we get a small Toyoda Corrola (don’t know the year) that is an automatic and has 6 months of registration. I asked him what happens if the car craps out on us and he said that if we brought it in, they would do the labor for free and only charge us parts. We’re thinking this just might work out.

This weekend we are pretty much killing time. We REALLY want to move in, unpack our stuff and have a bathroom/kitchen to call our own, but we have to at least wait until next Monday (perhaps even Tuesday). So, we get to kill time this weekend. This morning we went shopping (to at least price) some of the requirements (bed sheets, bathroom stuff, etc) and we found a working microwave at Salvation Army for $30 AUD (thats only about $21 USD) Sweet! It wasn’t the newest but it works.

We’re planning on running out to the beach and playing in the water today. (sunscreen is our friend) We’re going to play it safe and only fry ourselves for 2h’ish. (wish us luck and lots of “not burning”)

Well after much stressing (mostly on Kristens part 🙂 ) it looks like we’re getting the place.  We still have a bit of waiting until the rental agents can contact the current residents and workout a exit/entry time.  We really are hoping everything can happen this Monday, that way Kristen can relax and get ready for her orientation on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We also need to extend the car rental so we can run around and furnish during the week.  We hope to get our own car after the house is delt with.

On the other hand, to kill time today we drove around to look at some alternatives (some were REALLY nice), we drove out the the Spit (a break between the bay and the ocean) where I’ve heard there’s some really nice fish reefs, then we headed over to Surfers Paradise for the first time to actually see the beach…….OMG….I want to move here!  It was beautiful, unlimited beach (miles and miles and miles) of pure powder sand, deep blue ocean and the best surfing waves I’ve seen.  I no longer worry about possibly being bored.  Infact, the only worries I forsee are sharks and sunburn :). ( I cant wait until we have a place so I can have my scuba gear sent from the states)

Kristen was looking at the weather in Alameda (it was something in the low 40’s F) but I think we both are slowly getting used to the temp (28-30C).  Rightnow I’m looking at a totally useless bunch of clothes that we thought we might need (jeans, windbreakers, etc).  Maybe the winter might help.  We also found out that this is the raining season, which is kinda cool, wet but warm rain is fun to play in, especially when it dries out about 20min after the clouds clear.  There have been a few nights now that I’ve woken to a complete downpour that seemed to come out of nowhere.  I figure another 2 weeks and we’ll be acclimated.

So I’ve got (hopeful) good news and bad news. 

The good news is that we’ve found the apartment we want.  It has lots of room, two bathrooms, nice kitchen, partially furnished (including sofas and beds) security parking (even for guests) a LARGE porch, a pool just outside our door, on a major street, and near a major bus line (goes to the uni and the beach).

The bad news is that we don’t know if we have it yet (cross your fingers), and that it is only a 2 bedroom place, so visitors will have to either take the sofa bed or crash with us.

I was mistaken on what number to drop when calling me from the states, you have to drop the 0 infront of the 4. (NOT the zero in front of the 1)

My mobile number is:

(04) 0173 0508

From the states, you dial (011) to get international, (61) for australia, and then the number:

011 61 (4) 0173 0508

BTW: Pricing on cellphones just got nicer, it turns out that all inbound calls (even international ones) are free.