Phew! It is very warm outside and is likely to remain so for the weekend. This
is, after all, what summers are all about. While the readership may be happily
ensconced in the coldest season of the year, the writer is adjusting to February
falling in between the Summer Solstice and the Vernal Equinox.
Melbourne, you shall be delighted to learn is lovely. It seems that there is
much to see and do here, although we have been focussed on not seeing and doing
everything in our first fortnight. The most significant landmark that I have
investigated was Albert Park. I took a walk around the lakeside road while K
was meeting with her new employers on Tuesday morning. Albert Park is beautiful
despite the roadwork(s) that started this week in preparation for 2 April’s
major motor sport spectacular. I hope to take some more photographs over the
next few weeks to show the preparation that goes into turning the local beauty
spot into one of Formula 1’s best circuits.
Inquisitive readers may be interested to know what we have been doing if we
haven’t been sightseeing with cameras strapped to our persons. Our concentration
has been mostly on finding somewhere to live. As nice as the YHA is, we cannot
stay here forever. Firstly I would go insane at their restrictive and expensive
Internet access. More importantly, the said hostel is fully booked from 14 March
due to Melbourne hosting yet another major sporting event before the Grand Prix:
The Commonwealth Games.
Finding potential places to live is easy. Websites like
RealEstate.com.au facilitate finding properties
that match our requirements and our budget. The agents, themselves, however seem
to be trained in preventing people renting their landlords’ flats and houses.
When we were letting out the house in Crawley, we found the market to be biased
in favour of the tenants. Over here, we’re finding quite the opposite.
Our first encounter with a real estate agent (no fake agents, here!) was
terrible. When we stated our requirements and budget, she told us that they
didn’t have many cheap properties on their books! We found something that
looked like it matched our requirements and filled out a form to view it. After
some huffing and puffing, the lady behind the counter asked me for a AU$50
deposit and put the keys to the flat on the counter. I thanked her and asked for
some directions: End of the road… turn left!
K and I walked to the end of the road, turned left and consulted the map.
Turning right, then left and walking for about 20 minutes in the sun, we arrived
at the building. The entrance to the flat was tucked around a corner, but we
found that and inspected the flat. They would have needed to pay us to live in
it! We took the tram back to the office, to ensure getting back within the hour
and retrieving our deposit!
Thankfully our experiences since then have been better. We missed out on a
lovely house in a prime location, which was a real shame. Like a couple of other
viewings that we have been to, the agents will open the property for fifteen
minutes per week and a crowd of about thirty prospective tenants pour in and
rush to fill out an application form if the property is to their requirements.
How they pick a successful applicant is a bit of a mystery, but on the occasion
in question, they picked someone else.
We figured that we would probably stand a better chance of being chosen to pay
rent if we put two incomes on the application form instead of just K’s. As
such, the search for my next employer began yesterday. There are plenty of
positions on Seek that I’m capable of filling and I
have spent some time writing to the relevant companies and recruitment agencies
to apply for them. As nice as the idea of being a kept man in one of the World’s
most beautiful countries is, after a little under two months I found myself
itching to start working on software again. Or maybe it’s just the mosquito
bites?
I have mentioned to some of you that I have a great idea for a website that I
want to create, but in order to launch that I’m going to need money for
hardware, bandwidth and the like. So… hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to work I go! Of
course if anyone out there knows of any work that would suit me, then I’d be
happy to hear from you!
The plan for tomorrow is to take The Beast out for the first time since its
arrival in Melbourne and visit a number of potential dwellings. Sunday will be,
as the Good Lord intended, a day of rest. Now, though, the weekend has landed so
I can leave the applications in the relevant mailboxes and concentrate on
drinking cold beer and eating barbecued food.