House Hunters International

We're on the hunt again for a new house to rent.  Our current home is in a suburb called Lane Cove which is really close to my office in North Sydney.  Although we love the location and the suburb, the house isn't working for us.  It has one small interior bath and the second bath is a combined laundry room with a shower, sink and toilet that has an outdoor entrance.  Winter's arrival has made it pretty much unusable - except for time-outs.  The boys hate it because its cold and usually has bugs in it.  The threat of having to go to "daddy's bathroom" for time-out is the most effective method we've found yet for shutting down whatever flip-out situation is occurring at the time.  Winter has also opened up the rental market a little bit and properties aren't quite as competitive.  We found a house (rental application is currently pending) just a few minutes walk from our current house that is 3-storey, 2 and a 1/2 baths (all indoors!) and same price.  To give you an idea of home prices, to live in this suburb that is close to the city, rent is about $5,000 per month.  We could find a larger, less expensive home further from the city but it would make our commutes much worse.  This move and increased cost of living has completely reset our expectations and standards ~ in a good way.  It has made us less materialistic, and more focused on experiences as opposed to accumulating nice things.

Also on the house front - we have semi-sold our house in the US.  The buyers are having to rent the place for about six months, but we have some rental income now to offset the mortgage and expect the sale to close in January.  I'm going to take this opportunity again to thank our neighbors the Euckers (hope you're reading!) who have done so much for us back home.

Matt is finally officially working for Dell AU.  He had been trying to find an opportunity here since October or so, and although feedback was very positive and they said they would really like him to be part of the organization over here, it came down to finding the right position and overcoming some hiring freezes that were occurring the first part of the calendar year.  In the meantime, he was still working for Dell US which meant working US hours.  He's still a Client Executive and the AU client is a University located in Melbourne.  It means frequent travel to Melbourne, but fortunately the flight is only about an hour and 15 minutes from Sydney.  His job will be different than the US as the product and solutions are not the same here.  In the US, the focus was more on IT services but the AU market is not as advanced as the US and the primary product is hardware.  For Matt, it will mean exposure to another side of the business and for Dell, they are hoping to broaden their services.

Happy Queen's Birthday

Despite my best intentions, I've come to the conclusion that a once every 2-month blogger is about the best I'm going to achieve.  I wish I could manage once a fortnight so I could use the word fortnight more often.

Happy Queen's Birthday!  It is Monday 11 June and a public holiday.  Australia (once a British Colony and now a member of the Commonwealth of Nations) is one of many members who still celebrates this holiday.  Interestingly, the Queen's actual Birthday is 21 April, 1926 but members celebrate on different dates.  For example, New Zealand celebrated on 4 June and Western Australia celebrates in September.  Speaking of September, Father's Day is celebrated in September here.  Mother's Day was the same as the US Mother's Day.  (Did you notice how I'm writing my dates?  That's just one of many differences we're getting accustomed to.)

It is raining here in SHEETS and SHEETS!  I have never seen anything like it.  The rain will fall just straight down at a steady, constant volume for days.  It's not like at home where it might rain for a couple of hours and then break for sun and rainbows.  Or rain during a thunderstorm with winds whipping it around.  It is also winter ~ the winter months are June, July and August.  The coldest it's been since we've arrived is probably low 40's but we're accustomed to central heat and a thermostat.  Many homes here don't have that, and our heat comes from these little portable gas heaters that heat the room they are in and not the whole house.  Will tell you more about houses in the next post ...