The Sound of Settling

After four months and countless places to live, Emily and I have finally found a place to call home in Sydney.  We subleased in Elizabeth Bay for two months ending January 29^th.  We spent the entire month of February homeless.  We had a sublease in Kings Cross for five days directly after we left Elizabeth Bay. We rented from Emily’s friend for two weeks after that in Maroubra, then spent around 10 days living in hotels and lodges before finally getting approved for a very nice apartment in Darling Point. 

 Inner Sydney must have one of the hardest real estate markets in the world.  We started looking for a place in the middle of January.  The first place we picked out was in Elizabeth Bay in the building next to us. It was a perfect location and price, but the owner wanted us to lease right away, abut we had already paid for the last two weeks where we were.  Not wanting to pay for two places at once, the decision was pretty much made up for us.  The same week we were due to leave Elizabeth Bay my car registration was due, and that had to be taken care of (more on that later).  I work every Saturday morning, making it almost impossible to make the scheduled inspection times for open flats.  When we called agents to look at specific places we were always given the run around and told to just show up at the scheduled inspection time.  On one rare day off I walked to a real estate office to request an inspection in person, when I called, they always said that they were too busy.  I walked to the office and approached the guy in the doorway who was not actually working there, but just watching over the door, smoking at the same time.  When the agents finally showed up, I tried unsuccessfully to convince them that I could leave my passport and take the keys to look at a place 10 minutes’ walk from the office.  One agent finally agreed to show me but the problem of finding the keys was still at large.  The keys were never found.  The agent’s excuse was because it was the first day back from a long weekend, another agent who had the Saturday inspection did not have time to return the keys to the office so he could leave for his holiday early.  He suggested that I left $400 with him to hold the property for a week until I could look at it.  I was not about to fork any money to anyone in that office.  

After this Emily and I decided to never look at properties that were offered by that company, but everywhere we looked, the best places were managed by this dodgy company!  When we did make an inspection, an average of 10 other people were waiting with us to see any given property.  The real estate agents were almost always late, never answered their phone, and were rude.  Agents never showed features of apartments, they just unlocked the door, asked for a phone number and email, and made it looked like it was a painful experience to deal with the public.  I don’t know much about dealing with apartments in the US, but I would expect that there is at least some customer service, even if someone will not be taking a place.  

On February 16^th, we did finally find a place offered by an owner, but he turned us down the day we were going to move in for reasons that we will never know.  We had to book a hotel that night and subsequently stayed in hotels for the next several days. We changed hotels every three days because of rate changes, bookings, ect.  We even spent a weekend 20km out of Sydney in Parramatta during the Sydney Marti Gras, a massive LGBT gathering that made logging prices skyrocket.  We had strict guidelines for a place: Near transport, bathtub, light, airy, and not danky and old like our old place.  Not too much to ask for.  The problem with many places in the city is that price for a crappy moldy studio would be the same as a two bedroom house in the suburbs.  One inspection Emily went to had people bidding against themselves, with the apartment finally going for $485 a week.  

We finally decided on a beautiful place in Darling Point, close to where we lived before.  As we had to do with many properties before, we submitted an application which took about two hours, involving everything from work contacts to character references.  We had applied for about seven places before, but had not been approved before.  I had to pester the agent before he processed out application and we were quickly approved.  The place is a beautiful large one bedroom apartment with huge windows overlooking Double Bay. The carpet is a bit old, but that is likely why the price was lower than other units in the building.  

We moved in as quickly as we could on a Wednesday.  Emily had found a perfectly good bed in the street near her work that we put in right away, spending only one night on an air mattress.  Because I have been working so much, I left all the decorating up to Emily and she has done an amazing job.  She found all of the furniture off of Gumtree, Australia’s Craig’s List.  She found a free dining table, $10 for 4 dining chairs, $200 flat screen TV and entertainment center, $80 sofa bed, and everything we could possibly need for a kitchen for about $80.  She has gone above and beyond my expectations outfitting out place I am now proud to call home.  It’s so nice to finally have a place where we can relax and not worry about rebooking anything and we don’t have to clean up if we don’t feel like it. My mom is visiting in about two months and I can’t wait for her to see it.  Things are not slowing down for us as we are leaving for Byron Bay this Easter weekend for the annual blues festival.  

Rain City

The weather has taken a turn to the wet this week. After a sweltering January we have had floods this past week.  Last weekend was a long weekend, Australia Day, but the weather did not cooperate, raining on all day Sunday and Monday, totaling 130 mm in some parts of the city in 24 hours. Bundaburg and Brisbane in Queensland had major flooding that weekend too.  Today it has rained all day too. I spent the morning at work help clean out the flooded basement. It feels like Auckland all over again with the wet weather. We have moved from out old apartment and and the weather has not helped us. Maybe the global climate change has made Sydney a wet climate.

Big Day Out

One week ago last Friday I took the day off and Emily and I went to Big Day Out, a massive concert at Sydney's Olympic park featuring over 50 bands and brutal heat. The weather leading up to the event was seasonable but on the day of the show, the tempiture pushed to record levels. The high for January 18th was 46°C (114.8°F). This was the hottest day ever in Sydney. We arrived around noon and the mercury was already over 35°  We ordered frozen mixed drinks only to watch them melt in front of out eyes.  We wondered around several venues and finally chose the wrong one: a concrete bowl with local bands playing. The music was great, but there was no shade and we did not want to venture out to the most pit where water was spraying the concert goers.  We later took up shelter in the main stadium where many bands were playing but we were so miserable we don't remember much from acts like Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  We soon discovered that a strong breaze was being blocked by the stadium and it was at least 10° hotter inside than outside. Water was also hard to come by. The drinking water taps were located very far from the stadium and bottled water inside was $4.50.  This should be a crime when it was so hot. We did recover nicely to take stadium seats to see the two headline acts, The Killers and The Red Hot Chill Peppers. When the killers started their set with "Mr. Brightside," the entire arena awoke from a sun-induced funk and the ground was awash with people rushing in like ants to get close to the stage. The show was awesome from that point. When we left we encountered more trouble when the Sydney Olympic Park train platforms were super overcrowded and I was very worried that someone would get trampled when the train arrived. Of course the train was 10 minutes late and it was not air conditioned. I got separated from Emily when we boarded and I was stuck on the lower level of the double deck standing with my head lilted because of the low roof. For some reason the train which was supposed to be a direct service to Central station turned into a local inner-west train, stopping at every stop to the city. A 20 minute train turned into a 45 minute cookie oven. Everyone on board looked like they were just through a war zone with many blank stares. We did finally arrive in Central safe and sound and I had time to reflect on my first large concert: It would have been totally different if it was not as hot, so I am willing to try it again. 

Its Heating Up in Sydney

Today's high was 28° C (82°F), tomorrow it will be 30°C(86°F),and Friday it will be 38°C(100°F).  Last Tuesday the high was 40°C(102°F).  I work outside and I fell every degree of the heat no matter the scale.  I have been doing traffic control outside a construction site in North Sydney since the first week in November.  I stand outside and direct traffic entering and exiting out site.  I also wave through traffic, through.  It's a pretty boring job but the pay is good and up until last Tuesday the weather was fantastic.  I learned that most union construction sites in Australia shut down after the temp reaches 40° and I learned that we are definitely not a union site, as work continued as normal.  Australia is known for oppressive heat, but at least Sydney is cooled by ocean breezes.  We also started a boot camp workout in the evenings which is fun, but definitely not cool. To add to the heat misery we have been notified that we need to find a new place to live by January 29th, and I need to sort out car registration by January 30th.  If the heat and stress get too bad, I will just have to jump in one of Sydney's amazing beaches and think abut swimming away...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  We will be heading to Port Stephen's for Christmas tomorrow for a few days. Port Stephens is 2.5 hours north of Sydney. We will be in back for Boxing Day  and New Years eve in Sydney, which is supposed to be great. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas

The banners around Sydney say Happy Christmas and I will try to be only happy and will definitely not be merry this Christmas after having our apartment broken into.  We live on the bottom level and I was naive to leave the window in the lounge room cracked for fresh air.  While we seeped someone came into our place and took both of our computers, my ipod Emily's bank card, her prised bag, sunglasses, a gift card, my credit card and some new shoe inserts. Yes someone took shoe inserts. So now one week before Christmas we have to deal with this. Someone took their time. They thumbed through Emily's purse, my backpack and my wallet and selected things to take. They then placed my wallet back inside my shorts pocket. They took time to take the computer charger cord for Emily's computer.  Things are not any value to anyone else, the computers are over two years old and likely worthless at a pawn shop. This all happened as we slept. We have a fan running on out room and did not hear a thing. Needless to say this is very disturbing.  We will go away to Port Stephens for Christmas and get away from this gritty, grimy city.  Hopefully our stuff will still be there when we return. 

Bridge Tavern

I have been in Sydney for almost two months now and I have been a bit slow writing about my last night in Nowra in late October.

On the last night of my Nowra experience I got a crash course in Australian bogan culture. Melbournians pride themselves and their city with the abundance of culture. The culture I experienced firsthand in Nowra was the real deal, not a faux city culture. My workmates kept telling me about the “awesome” Thursday nights at the Bridge Tavern. Thursdays at the local watering hole involved topless barmaids serving drinks. I had been to the establishment in question about two weeks previously. The first experience at the Bridge was one to forget, I had been kicked out of the bar after I ignored an middle aged rather portly looking Aboriginal woman who said “hey baby” to me at the same time she was blocking the doorway leaving the men's restroom. I ignored her and within 30 seconds a hand was on my collar and I was escorted outside and greeted by the drunk hoards of locals who were refused entry. I was not drunk when this transpired. I later learned that the door man was mates with the woman and she was obviously looking for some action.

So I did have my reservations about going back inside this same bar and especially at the same time as their busiest night of the week. I arrived alone, expecting to find my workmates inside, they would be easy to find because of their high-viz shirts, or so I thought. Once inside I realized that I never should have went home to shower because everyone in the bar was wearing high-viz tradie garb. I looked around the bar for several minutes before ordering a beer from a non-naked male bartender and settling in and sitting nervously in the corner of the room all by my self. I had a view of the entire place, two pool tables and about a half dozen tall round tables with bar stools on a green carpeted floor. Two women were in stripper attire, topless and g-string bikinis. These girls were the highlight of the bar, the top attraction in town, the beacon of light for many patrons inside, the highlight of their week.

I tried to strike up a conversation with a couple guys playing pool but they were only emitting inaudible noises that only escalated when the girls approached. Their billiard skills were terrible and I was about to leave when I finally saw my workmates entering from the smoking area. I was relived to fine some familiar faces. They were slightly drunk and just had been hanging out in the 'pokies'(video poker room, I guess they tired of the scene quickly too). They challenged me to a game of pool and I obliged. We had an odd number, they sleeked out another player, my workmate Ben had no trouble finding one: The outback dust slid off wide brimmed hat as sand ripples remained. His weatherbeten skin would put an elephant to shame. An eye patch over his left eye partially covered a full facial tattoo, akin to blackbird wings fully outreached. Feathers in his hat were a likely extension of his face. A metal rod on his right leg kept him upright. Covered in rags his bony frame hid his inner pirate.

“G'day, Pirates' the name,” he cracked as I was introduced to my playing partner. "Guess why they call me Pirate? I am missing an eye and have me peg leg!" He revealed his bare eye socket to me and did a small jig on his feet. It turned out that I was facing my workmates, not allies like I expected. Ben added, “you look like you can hold your own in a game of 8 ball, I'm always weary of the quiet ones.” I was ready for this night to be over before the first que was even racked up. My game went terminal, and I missed every shot I took and Pirate and I were easily routed by my two workmates. Pirate was none too pleased and after the end of the game he came over to me and screamed: “I thought all Americans had big balls!” At the same time he reached and groped me with his bony fingers. I felt totally violated, but I remained calm to remind him that that it was an AC/DC song and that they are Australian not American.  

I had my chance to leave again when the topless bar maid made her way to the pool tables and one of my workmates told her all about my pool ablities and how I missed every shot. She turned to me: She was tall and slender with silky tan skin and roubust breasts that were soft and real. She had long dark wavy hair reaching to the middle of her back: her face was pleasant until she opened her mouth and revealed crooked yellow teeth and said in a very nasal Australian accent: “Wow you suck!”

She collected all of her tips from the pool players and moved on. In the middle of all the commotion I saw a very confused older gentleman with the name tag wondering around looking lost. He came from the other room and was a part of a group party. Barry was his name according to the white sticker, his face was even paler as he struggled to find the restroom.  I peered into the door he ventured from and it revealed a family restaurant in the very next room! I was wondering why so many normal looking people were walking through the bar to the restroom and back, then disappearing again. I followed Barry inside the restaurant and looked around and was about to order some fish and chips when a familiar voice cried out: “Joe!” It was one of my roommates' girlfriend. She was leaving Nowra just like me and she was hosting her going away party that same night. She was with a group of friends and it was much more comfortable to hang out with this group. She was going to attend flight attendant school starting the next week in Sydney. I was told that the food at the Bridge Tavern was some of the best in town so people just figured that boobs and beef just go together well on a family Thursday night in Nowra.

I had to walk back through the bar to use the restroom and was trying not to let the door hit me on the way out when I was accosted by a man who was peddling porno dvd's. Later I learned that he sponsored the entire event every week and his company is known as Blue Rocket. I told him that I was not interested in his blue penis pills or sticky dvd's and went on my way. Everyone I met before Australia told me that Melbourne was the mecca of culture when I found real Australian culture in the middle of nowhere. The guidebooks have it wrong. Off the beaten path lies some of the weirdest places that many travelers never see.