I'm off to Brisbane

2 weeks ago there was a severe storm in Brisbane causing a lot of damage. As I now work for the Emergency Services Team at the Red Cross I'm off to Brissie for a week to work on the recovery effort. Planning to catch up with Alan McAlpine, another ex CRACite and expat while I'm there. It's 30 degrees there - brill!!!!!

Get 'orff my laand!

We are now the proud owners of a piece of Tassie - just copy/paste the following address into Google Maps

24 Cliff View Drive Allens Rivulet Tasmania

Just love the Oz home (and land) buying process. You like the look of somewhere, you: -

• sign a contract stating how much you are offering
  
• state what conditions you have, e.g. subject to us being allowed to build on this plot,
  
• when you are going to pay, e.g. one month, two months
  

The vendor rejects or accepts one contract and that's it.

OK, you still have to employ a conveyancer to check stuff, but there's no gazump/gazunder, no chain falling apart!

Scary mary - offering on a plot of land

Yes, we have decided to offer on a plot of land we like. The vendor has already signed a contract with another buyer but, we understand, has some clause that allows them to review other offers. It all sounds rather mysterious but we hope they accept our first offer, although suspect they won't.

It is just over 3 acres, although I am convinced that the measure of an acre here is smaller than in the UK, so it looks like 2 acres to me!

Picture included below

Apparently I'm in Malaysia

Well, according to my bank account anyway! Although statistically it must only have been a matter of time before someone cloned my debit card it was still somehow disturbing to see the money disappearing from my account! Thank God it's just a matter of a phone call to the bank and the money is returned and the card stopped.

Julie's got a job

Started at the Red Cross on Friday. I'm working part time (3 days a week) until July training volunteers who help out in emergencies/disasters in team leadership. I already love it. Lead my first training session next week, which will be a little daunting, but fun. I'll get to travel around the state which will be a great way to find possible holiday spots! Not too many nights away from home though, which is also great.

A lot of jobs here are contracts rather than permanent so I assume that I'll have an array of jobs over the next few years. An exciting prospect......

Monthly retrospective

Observations on the nature of things here in Tas: -

1. White cars - why oh why are 75% of the cars/commercials here painted white? Who knows! I can understand them not choosing yellow, or Nissan-pink, but there are other colours in the rainbow.
   
2. Advertising immaturity - more Pearl and Dean than Saatchi and Saatchi, most of the TV adverts involve the voice-over man shouting about the product. As if I really needed a deafening broadcast about polypropylene water butts.
3. Catalogues - it appears that retailers regularly produce a catalogue showing a small selection of their stock; think Richer Sounds or John Lewis brochures. But, rather than having an 'on-line' web-store containing a full stock list with prices supported by e-commerce facilities, they scan their 'catalogue' and shove a PDF copy on their site. Crappo.
   
4. Seasonal veg - the small population of Tas, and probably Oz overall, results in limited buying power compared with, say, Tesco or Sainsbury. In contrast to the fairly stable prices year-round in the UK, the quality and prices of fruit and veg here rises and falls in line with the seasons.
   
5. Cold houses - not sure of the figure, but we guess 90% of the houses here don't have double glazing or thermal insulation or central heating. They tend to have a wood burner and/or air conditioning units that either heat or cool. With Winter and Spring temperatures not much more than the UK then houses can get cold. One more reason to build our own.

He's having a laugh!

Smoke is finally taking his first steps outside this week. Although the amount of time he spends outside is increasing he comes in at regular intervals to check we're here and to say hello which is sooooo sweet. We have also noticed that he goes out and then comes in to go to the toilet before going out again! We had left his litter tray down whilst he got used to using the cat flap, but now he's just having a laugh!!