Well I guess what they say is true reducing calories does EQUAL weight loss, who would have thought. For some reason I seem to have lost a little bit of weight here in Darwin. Really I think it is because when I lived in Canada L used to make some really big lunches (yummy) and since I am at home all day she doesn't have to do that. I really don't eat that much at home just cereal and fruit. My coke consumption really is about the same as it was at home. Speaking of coke I bought a kids happy meal at Mc'Ds yesterday and the small drink (not included of course) $2.50, they must tax coke like booze here that can be the only reason why it's expensive. So because of my diet I'll soon have a 2 pack for a belly, I'll never be able to afford a 6 pack here in Darwin cause a 6 pack of beer must be like $20.
Well I've gotten a new internet thingy this is similar to the other one but it gives my 8gig upfront and was $99 compared to 5gig @ $129. With a $50 recharge I'll get 6gig compared to 3gig with the other one. So this is a little better but hopefully when we get a place I can get full on internet, but that days a few months off yet. It's OK considering that I'm at home, I'm really not using it that much, I've been busy I'm always late picking up L.
Well we may get the microwave fixed next week, if the real-estate lady ever shows or calls. Now the tap is dripping in the laundry faster. The other day it was pouring out I had to shut off the hot water. It's at the point where you can't turn it anymore it's metal on metal. I warned the people but hey to get a plumber to fix a washers gonna cost $100. I'm sure they'd rather wait till it's totally messed up then he's gonna have to come in an replace the faucet as well. Not my money.
So things are settling in we're still looking for places hopefully something will come up soon as this place is so close to the road that at 5am when the trucks start driving by I end up waking up. No wonder I'm so tired. Compounding that is the people upstairs must belong to river dance or something they are always stamping and dropping things. But overall the place is clean and new and that's what counts. After saying that sitting on the couch feels like sitting on sandpaper so I'm well exfoliated on the legs.
The great thing about this place is we're always dressed like it's a holiday, I haven't worn socks yet and it's nothing but sandals and flip flops (thongs as the call them here), shorts and t-shirts. I'd grow a beard but L has her limits on how much of a slob I can be. But I must say that Darwin has been tough on clothes, I think it's the washing machine is junk. So far this place has ruined 3 of my shirts with the color running out of one shirt into another. L's stuff seems to be immune to stains, it figures she has more clothes than I do and it always happens to either something I paid a lot of money for (Holister shirt) or one I would really need (long sleeve white top). I'll just tell people they're tie died.
L has had training 3 days this week, Working with Aboriginals will have it's difficulties because they have what they call "sorry business" that's when a relative dies they don't take visitors for days to weeks (could be months). So in training they warned them about this. We have also read about this in some big manual they gave her last year so she could read up on things.
Oh HAPPY CANADA DAY everyone. I had visions of dressing up in my "I am Canadian" t-shirt today but here in the Northern Territories (NT for short) it's NT Day. We didn't get a holiday but they have fireworks in 2 separate places here. For a town of only 80k they sure know how to spend the governments money. Hopefully we can go to Mindle beach (the place we watch the sun go down a lot) but it'll be murder getting there. We may just have to ... walk (ugh) I just looked there is no free buses (too bad). I'm sure it wouldn't be polite saying "happy Canada day" to strangers. Well enjoy the day off hopefully it's a nice long weekend for you all.
Oh and HAPPY 4th OF JULY for all our American friends. I just looked they get a long weekend too. Wow long weekends in Canada and the USA, boy cross border shopping will be busy at Niagara falls.
For everyone else HAPPY SATURDAY and SUNDAY. I think that covers about just everyone.
I think we get one more public holiday then that's it till Christmas. It seems all the public holidays are in the first 7 months here then nothing. But hopefully the hot weather makes if feel like one long holiday but I can only verify that once the WET gets here (the hot rainy season).
Well take care all one of these days I'll get the picture situation worked out, but to be perfectly honest I really don't want to install Picasa on my laptop I'd rather wait till my computers from Canada arrive and mess them up haha.
Paul & Luna
PS any dentists reading this my tooth hurt
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Perils of Paul & Luna: CARnage
Well today I picked up our new car. I'll send pictures later (yeap like all the others I haven't uploaded). It's kinda strange not having L there for the fanfair but we can go back on Saturday for our picture. They say they'll send us as calendar with our pics on it. So we can count the days till our 2 years is up ... just kidding.
So everything is good here just the microwave is outstanding and I haven't received a call yet from the realestate lady. I guess she doesn't want to have to face a client or this is the type of work no one likes. Not making money doing house calls.
We did go out for dinner for our anniversay at the casino to the buffet and for a Monday it was quite busy and I only have 2 words for this buffet UNLIMITED COKE. The price a little cheaper than Mandarin not as good but it wasn't bad. Coke was included in the price so I had my $3 worth and no tipping. So this dinner was a ok buffet and we got to sit out on the patio because inside was freezing. Table clothes would have made things a little nicer but hey what can you expect I guess. The grounds of the casino are nice so we went for a little walk. Oh yeah it's 20% on Mon-Wed.
Today we go back for a 2nd look at a place, well it's my 2nd look and L's first. I want her to see this place. Although most places have ratty old appliances (if any) usually the oven is ancient (state of the ark as dad would say). Plus we have to get our own fridge and washer. we'll see what the bosses opinion is.
Ok later all nothing big to update no real Perils finally.
Take care Paul & Luna
So everything is good here just the microwave is outstanding and I haven't received a call yet from the realestate lady. I guess she doesn't want to have to face a client or this is the type of work no one likes. Not making money doing house calls.
We did go out for dinner for our anniversay at the casino to the buffet and for a Monday it was quite busy and I only have 2 words for this buffet UNLIMITED COKE. The price a little cheaper than Mandarin not as good but it wasn't bad. Coke was included in the price so I had my $3 worth and no tipping. So this dinner was a ok buffet and we got to sit out on the patio because inside was freezing. Table clothes would have made things a little nicer but hey what can you expect I guess. The grounds of the casino are nice so we went for a little walk. Oh yeah it's 20% on Mon-Wed.
Today we go back for a 2nd look at a place, well it's my 2nd look and L's first. I want her to see this place. Although most places have ratty old appliances (if any) usually the oven is ancient (state of the ark as dad would say). Plus we have to get our own fridge and washer. we'll see what the bosses opinion is.
Ok later all nothing big to update no real Perils finally.
Take care Paul & Luna
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The Perils of Paul & Luna: AnNOTversary
Well have been so busy lately that we even forgot our wedding anniversary on June 18th. If mum hadn't have called it would have just slipped by. My friend Jeff emailed a day later 19th here 18th back home, because his is the same day, so I would have known after the fact but I guess being away from my job I didn't have Jeff to remind me that it was coming. So we haven't celebrated it yet we wanted to go to a buffet last night at the casino but the table they offered us wasn't that great and the place was empty. But they assured us it was all booked, a booking as they call it.
Oh and we've been married 6 years, and it just feel likeyesterday 10 years.
I put the money on the car and I pick it up on Wed morning. So I'll try to send a picture (yeah right no pictures out of me so far so don't expect much). This internet is killing me and we are down to about 1.5gig left. I may try a different company but people say it's is killer slow. But if I can do emails then I'd be ok. We'll see.
I saw a place today nice but way overpriced I saw a place in the same complex last Friday cheaper and bigger with a better balcony, so I'll see if we can go back there this week and take L there.
Actually I feel a little disheartend I called a few placement agencies and they don't really place computer programmers here much. They gave me the line "send in you resume and we'll ..." you know the line. But they had plenty of dishwashing jobs available if I wanted to do something a little different, I'm kidding, although they did say there I could take some temp work if I wanted doing ???? Guess I better get working on that resume, and for me that is a job I don't like. Mind you I L and I did a great job on her resume to get this job.
The weather here is great, not too hot and not a cloud in the sky. They are still doing a lot of burning the brush. The aborigionals used to do this in the past now the the city does it, although I think the aboriginals still do this elsewhere.
The microwave may get fixed soon, I'm supposed to hear from the real estate agent, I'm sure they'll want to visit to see it in action for themselves. I'm sure that the microwave will do it's 1111 tune for him/her and they'll know that it is really fried. Funny cause it looks brand new to me, must be a lemon.
Speaking of lemons we went to some nurseries yesterday and we saw a lemon tree with blossom on it. It smelled great so that's what I want. Things are funny, some of the house plants we have in Canada are plants they put outside here. In Canada they are cheap, here expensive. But other plants that look really cool and they are big here are cheap $30. So hopefully we get a place that we can have some really interesting plants on. One thing is for sure whatever we will get won't be anything like we have in Canada.
Mind you one of the best shows that they have here is the sunset. It's free (except for the price of gas), it happens every day (well so far cause there's been no rain), lots of people watch/photo/video it and no one ever claps when the shows finished ... well except me I do, they all look at me and smirk.
Well that's all for now not much peril going on I'm sure there's some out there somewhere to be found but things are starting to settle in except we have to take a loan to go to a buffet place at the Casino.
Oh and we've been married 6 years, and it just feel like
I put the money on the car and I pick it up on Wed morning. So I'll try to send a picture (yeah right no pictures out of me so far so don't expect much). This internet is killing me and we are down to about 1.5gig left. I may try a different company but people say it's is killer slow. But if I can do emails then I'd be ok. We'll see.
I saw a place today nice but way overpriced I saw a place in the same complex last Friday cheaper and bigger with a better balcony, so I'll see if we can go back there this week and take L there.
Actually I feel a little disheartend I called a few placement agencies and they don't really place computer programmers here much. They gave me the line "send in you resume and we'll ..." you know the line. But they had plenty of dishwashing jobs available if I wanted to do something a little different, I'm kidding, although they did say there I could take some temp work if I wanted doing ???? Guess I better get working on that resume, and for me that is a job I don't like. Mind you I L and I did a great job on her resume to get this job.
The weather here is great, not too hot and not a cloud in the sky. They are still doing a lot of burning the brush. The aborigionals used to do this in the past now the the city does it, although I think the aboriginals still do this elsewhere.
The microwave may get fixed soon, I'm supposed to hear from the real estate agent, I'm sure they'll want to visit to see it in action for themselves. I'm sure that the microwave will do it's 1111 tune for him/her and they'll know that it is really fried. Funny cause it looks brand new to me, must be a lemon.
Speaking of lemons we went to some nurseries yesterday and we saw a lemon tree with blossom on it. It smelled great so that's what I want. Things are funny, some of the house plants we have in Canada are plants they put outside here. In Canada they are cheap, here expensive. But other plants that look really cool and they are big here are cheap $30. So hopefully we get a place that we can have some really interesting plants on. One thing is for sure whatever we will get won't be anything like we have in Canada.
Mind you one of the best shows that they have here is the sunset. It's free (except for the price of gas), it happens every day (well so far cause there's been no rain), lots of people watch/photo/video it and no one ever claps when the shows finished ... well except me I do, they all look at me and smirk.
Well that's all for now not much peril going on I'm sure there's some out there somewhere to be found but things are starting to settle in except we have to take a loan to go to a buffet place at the Casino.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
The Perils of Paul & Luna: I can see the light
Well the people at L's work said that they would give us the money if we bought the light bulbs for the kitchen and the hallway. If not it would cost the at least $100 to have a handy man come around. So we went to K-Mart and $18 later we should be able to see what we are doing in the kitchen.
So really all that needs fixing is the microwave. Of course once we get all this stuff sorted out we'll probably find a place to live. Now that's a good thing but our furniture hasn't arrived. L was talking to a lady at work who moved up from the southern part of Oz and she says it'll be 2 more months before she'll see her furniture. So I wonder what that's gonna mean for us. We looked at a place right on the beach today, well us and about 20 other couples. Needless to say I think that places will be gone by Monday. There is a place 1 row behind the front row that I saw on Friday. I want L to see it. It has a front and back balcony great for plants, can't say I don't look after my wife's interests. Of course if we move there soon plants is about all we'll have. I'll keep you postede.
Our car I think is ready. We drove to the dealer on Friday night and I was looking inside cars trying to figure out which one was ours. Of course the non mechanical one L said "maybe that one with the tinted windows", hmmm some days she surprises me with the obvious. Kinda messes it up for me I had some sort of great mathematical calculation that relied on aligning with the stars to figure it all out. But tinted windows beat that. I'll call the guy Monday we'll pick it up Tuesday or Wed.
So it's Saturday here not much house hunting this weekend, but we'll be hard at it again soon. L has a headache and is reading on the dusty couch. We are doing wash and the dryer is making a racket in the background. Now I've figure since it vents itself into the house and we have no heat ... yup it's our new heater, a little humid but we have to get used to humidity in 5 months.
Oh we also got a hair trimmer for me because the one we bought is 110v and we forgot to get the converter from my dad. So we went to the bargain store and picked one up for $9.99. Hey can't beat that. It's a little big but L should be able to handle it with 2 hands. I mean so what she shaves of an eye brow or 2. It's not like I haven't done that to myself by accident in the past.
Wow a big clunk then silence so that means either the dryer is finished or the circuit breaker in the dryer has flipped again.
Water here is interesting since it's not cheap, my brother would probably say "yeah cause it's costs a lot to ship and it's just water", we have been buying it in big plastic jugs. Not that big it's about 5 litres and it was like 7 dollars. Now I calculate it that's more expensive than milk. Maybe I have my figures wrong. So we bought water in this big cardboard box thing, it's kinda like the wine you can get in Canada in a box. Probably just as expensive as wine, no I think it was just over $3, I just checked it's 10 litres. Well the other one we bought before is just as much as milk. What a crazy country.
So really all that needs fixing is the microwave. Of course once we get all this stuff sorted out we'll probably find a place to live. Now that's a good thing but our furniture hasn't arrived. L was talking to a lady at work who moved up from the southern part of Oz and she says it'll be 2 more months before she'll see her furniture. So I wonder what that's gonna mean for us. We looked at a place right on the beach today, well us and about 20 other couples. Needless to say I think that places will be gone by Monday. There is a place 1 row behind the front row that I saw on Friday. I want L to see it. It has a front and back balcony great for plants, can't say I don't look after my wife's interests. Of course if we move there soon plants is about all we'll have. I'll keep you postede.
Our car I think is ready. We drove to the dealer on Friday night and I was looking inside cars trying to figure out which one was ours. Of course the non mechanical one L said "maybe that one with the tinted windows", hmmm some days she surprises me with the obvious. Kinda messes it up for me I had some sort of great mathematical calculation that relied on aligning with the stars to figure it all out. But tinted windows beat that. I'll call the guy Monday we'll pick it up Tuesday or Wed.
So it's Saturday here not much house hunting this weekend, but we'll be hard at it again soon. L has a headache and is reading on the dusty couch. We are doing wash and the dryer is making a racket in the background. Now I've figure since it vents itself into the house and we have no heat ... yup it's our new heater, a little humid but we have to get used to humidity in 5 months.
Oh we also got a hair trimmer for me because the one we bought is 110v and we forgot to get the converter from my dad. So we went to the bargain store and picked one up for $9.99. Hey can't beat that. It's a little big but L should be able to handle it with 2 hands. I mean so what she shaves of an eye brow or 2. It's not like I haven't done that to myself by accident in the past.
Wow a big clunk then silence so that means either the dryer is finished or the circuit breaker in the dryer has flipped again.
Water here is interesting since it's not cheap, my brother would probably say "yeah cause it's costs a lot to ship and it's just water", we have been buying it in big plastic jugs. Not that big it's about 5 litres and it was like 7 dollars. Now I calculate it that's more expensive than milk. Maybe I have my figures wrong. So we bought water in this big cardboard box thing, it's kinda like the wine you can get in Canada in a box. Probably just as expensive as wine, no I think it was just over $3, I just checked it's 10 litres. Well the other one we bought before is just as much as milk. What a crazy country.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The perils of Paul & Luna: Winning today kinda
Well I had my first hot shower since last weekend and I'm am super clean. Poor Luna I had to keep her warm with the hair dryer after she got out of the shower today. It's been kinda cold here 12c at night. Now that's just a normal summer night for you guys in Canada but here it's full on news. That and anything to do with a Crocodile seems to be news.
So showers fixed, TV is back, although I figured that would get fixed quick as it affected the whole building. We went to the library and got a few movies we watched Da vinci code, we finally had a version with subtitles we missed the whole other languages bit in the (cough copy) we saw.
So it's just the lights and the microwave. Now I did talk to some lady at L's work and she said she'd get back to me. So we'll see where that gets.
I'm also waiting for a call back from the car salesman. I want to know if the cars gonna be ready so we won't have to rent for a few days. In this case I think NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS. Oh the laundry machine is singing to me. This is the 2nd time I did this load, the firsttime the powder did not dissolve it was just one big clump in the place where you put it.
We have been looking at places and I saw a place today not bad but it had this huge table thing that was made of 1 piece of wood. Must have been 2ft wide. It kinda took over the apartment, I think I'll get L to have a look but I want to be near the water and this place can kinda see it if you look between 2 buildings. Not exactly the same. We've seen other places ... what a mess, I bet who ever gets us as a tenant won't want us to leave. Since I'll be a full-time house keeper. Even the place I saw today the fridge was a mess. Hmmm better go check ours but we don't leave stains all over things.
So I hope this finds everyone well I hope your summer is getting on better I hear it's on and off in Canada.
Take care Paul on behalf of Luna who is working (I think she's training actually).
So showers fixed, TV is back, although I figured that would get fixed quick as it affected the whole building. We went to the library and got a few movies we watched Da vinci code, we finally had a version with subtitles we missed the whole other languages bit in the (cough copy) we saw.
So it's just the lights and the microwave. Now I did talk to some lady at L's work and she said she'd get back to me. So we'll see where that gets.
I'm also waiting for a call back from the car salesman. I want to know if the cars gonna be ready so we won't have to rent for a few days. In this case I think NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS. Oh the laundry machine is singing to me. This is the 2nd time I did this load, the firsttime the powder did not dissolve it was just one big clump in the place where you put it.
We have been looking at places and I saw a place today not bad but it had this huge table thing that was made of 1 piece of wood. Must have been 2ft wide. It kinda took over the apartment, I think I'll get L to have a look but I want to be near the water and this place can kinda see it if you look between 2 buildings. Not exactly the same. We've seen other places ... what a mess, I bet who ever gets us as a tenant won't want us to leave. Since I'll be a full-time house keeper. Even the place I saw today the fridge was a mess. Hmmm better go check ours but we don't leave stains all over things.
So I hope this finds everyone well I hope your summer is getting on better I hear it's on and off in Canada.
Take care Paul on behalf of Luna who is working (I think she's training actually).
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What else could possibly go wrong
Well the cable of course.
We have what must be an antenna line for the TV. Now we get about 9 channels. When I say 9 channels what it really is 4 channels are duplicated the first 4 of them are fine the 2nd 4 duplicates are ghosty, and some other channel. Now as of last night we have 9 channels of snow. If I stand holding the wire with one foot in the air the snow isn't that bad.
Hopefully this is affecting someone else in building.
Our water heater is supposed be getting fixed today possiby. Well they are supposed to call Luna, but since she is in training all day I doubt they'll be able to get a hold of her.
We put a down payment on a car now we need to see if they'll actually have it ready for next Wed. Something tells me the salesman may have stretched the truth on delivery a little, we'll see.
Ok gotta run doing our long stay visa application.
P & L
We have what must be an antenna line for the TV. Now we get about 9 channels. When I say 9 channels what it really is 4 channels are duplicated the first 4 of them are fine the 2nd 4 duplicates are ghosty, and some other channel. Now as of last night we have 9 channels of snow. If I stand holding the wire with one foot in the air the snow isn't that bad.
Hopefully this is affecting someone else in building.
Our water heater is supposed be getting fixed today possiby. Well they are supposed to call Luna, but since she is in training all day I doubt they'll be able to get a hold of her.
We put a down payment on a car now we need to see if they'll actually have it ready for next Wed. Something tells me the salesman may have stretched the truth on delivery a little, we'll see.
Ok gotta run doing our long stay visa application.
P & L
Monday, June 13, 2011
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Ok that was a cold show. Luna managed to at least get some warmth in her shower before work but mine 1 hour later was down right cold. In canada in the shower was hot but getting out in the bathroom the room was cold, but here it's cold in the shower and cold out.
It's the coldest morning since we got here, kind of reminds me of Canada. This is not acceptable in any way. We have no heat here. I had to unpack our new dryer to heat myself up with. Looks like I'll be wearing a sweat shirt in side the house today.
Well just a quick update to tell you that fiddling with the thermostat didn't give any results. Hopefully Luna tells the lady at work so we can get this fixed ASAP.
Take care all we miss Mandarine Chinese buffet if anyone can please send a huge take-out order.
Paul
It's the coldest morning since we got here, kind of reminds me of Canada. This is not acceptable in any way. We have no heat here. I had to unpack our new dryer to heat myself up with. Looks like I'll be wearing a sweat shirt in side the house today.
Well just a quick update to tell you that fiddling with the thermostat didn't give any results. Hopefully Luna tells the lady at work so we can get this fixed ASAP.
Take care all we miss Mandarine Chinese buffet if anyone can please send a huge take-out order.
Paul
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Perils of Paul & Luna : Condominium monium
Well the condo troubles continue, this weekend we tried to turn the air conditioner on in the bedroom. So I set it to 28c and let it run, at bedtime I decided to turn it off. So I got the remote control and ... dead. It was dead. Now I poked and proded the control and I could not figure out how to take the batteries out. So to turn it off I had to shut off the power via the circuit breaker. So when we got up the next morning, no hot water. So I figured that maybe it was attached to the same circuit but on the breakers it has it's own. So I popped off a plug and turned up thermostat, switched on the breaker for the air con and waited. Well the water came out luke warm at best. Now as I write this the top pipe seems to be hotter than it was yesterday. Now yesterday I turned down the thermostat to see if that works. So if you hear a huge scream that'll be me taking a cold shower.
Parking, when we first got here we asked a guy in the lot, where can you park and he said "wherever ?", so we did. Two days we got letters on the car saying we are parking their spot, so we asked work where was the parking they contacted the building and they gave us a map. Now we looked at the map and it indicated that we are supposed to park under the building. Which is ok but you need a garage door opener which they didn't supply. So we are now parking on the street.
So what else is wrong, the microwave still doesn't work, the dryer only dries on warm, and the dishwasher cannot take a full plate standing up. We have to lay all plates on their sides in order to wash them, we don't wash 1/4 of the dishes we did in Canada, cause we don't have any. Oh and when we do a load of laundry we have to put it in the dryer as 2 loads, which take twice as long to dry. Luna left a towel outside to dry and it's like sandpaper so that should either be good for drying ourselves off or for exfoliating.
We have been looking at cars and I think we have decided on a Hyundai i30, white, 1.6L automatic, hatchback. Someone asked why we are picking white automatic. Well automatic because Luna and I can't concentrate on driving on the WRONG side of the road and change gears and white because any other color in this heat makes the car an oven. Hatchback so we can carry stuff like, fridges and stoves, washing machines that we may need to get when we find a new places. Oh and we are getting the windows tinted for an extra $600. They said we should but paint protection from fruit bat droppings but that is $2400 that's 10% of the cars value. So I think not I'll have to wash it off. Their droppings are acidic and can eat thru paint if left on.
So today we are going to give Luna's new GPS a spin to determine if it's any good. So far it won't show a preview of the route like her old one. But it's only $100 (we miss you Costco). Hopefully it'll suffice. Just enough to get her in the general area and back to work.
We only have a week and a bit before we have to return the car so we need to put a down payment on the car on Tuesday and this car is not in their lot but is in their ???? area. Where they put the cars together, I don't know what that means I thought cars would come assembled, but I think it's something to do with having some Australian content in the assembly that keeps the taxes or something down.
I'll try to make some more videos it's just this internet limit is a killer and there is no end in sight it's pay as you go here and 3gig is $30 for 30 days use it or loose it. Heck that was 4 days worth at home with youtube video watching. Needless to say there's no youtube watching going on. Not that I miss it much but youtube uploads are restricted. I thought Vietnam was a 3rd world country but it seems in some ways Darwin is a little 3rd worldie.
So some good news, this town seems to have a lot of things going on as in markets, there are 3 every week and there is one on Thursday and Sunday at a place called Mindil beach. Where everyone goes to get some food and watch jugglers and watch the sun go down. Now you would think that this sort of thing would die after a few weeks but there are thousands of people there every time it's open and they bring wine and beer and watch the sun go down whilst sitting on the beach. We have been there 3 times and every time the sun went down without any issues, I wanted to clap but I'm affraid they'd send me in for a mental health assessment. People video'd it, pictured it and I don't think all these people are tourists. So to get about 3-5% of the cities population out twice a week is quite a feat I would think. The food is ok. Mostly meats, vegetables are a luxury here. I think that poor diet is a problem here for Australians and aboriginals alike.
We found a store the other day that had bananas on for $7.95kg instead of the usual $12.95 so we bought 3, 3 bananas not kgs heck we're not millionaires you know. It had other things priced pretty good. So we'll be back 4 sure.
Coke, I do not know what coke has against Darwin (not sure about the rest of Australia) but it is really expensive. A 1.5 litre bottle in the store 2 for $5. Now Pepsi is 2x2litre bottles for $4. I guess coke is more popular in Oz. Now the cans I bought from Kmart don't taste all that good. So I mostly stick to water, expensive 24 bottles $10, or milk $3 for 3 litres if you buy the store brand. Luna's drinking water and orange juice and we have tea once and a while but we can't find our type of tea here even though we know they have it in Oz. So once we run out then I guess Luna is off of tea because it's decaf and regular tea keeps her up at night.
We have been driving around Darwin looking at places so much that I could become a real estate agent. There are lots of houses on the market as well as apartments for rent. Good for us I hope, but we can't buy they are expensive for what you get.
It sounds like there are gonna stick a carbon tax on things here in Oz. Even though they Lady prime minister said she wouldn't. I haven't been keeping up on things much here but I'm sure that'll stick the price of gas up. Although it is a coalition government here so maybe they'll just delay as long as possible because taxes usually get people un-elected.
I must admit that the weather has been amazing, it was cold at night although lots of people are saying it's cold, for us Torontonians it's just right. No humidity and sunny every day. There was a fire the other day in a field but the paper said it was a controlled burn. Didn't seem like it was very controlled to me it was burning in all different spots and we only saw the fire department sitting at the gas station, probably a wise place to protect.
The Australian forces have a big presences here in Darwin and every so often we get to see fighter jets flying around making lots of noise. Although they are the outdated ones that the Canadians are trying to replace.
They have a place like Lowes/Home Depot here. It's smells kinda funny must be some sort of dirt or something but it's huge and clean. We bought Luna's GPS at a place similar to Staples and the prices on hard drives seem pretty good. Some prices on things are a little better cause taxes are included, others are a little more, and others a WAY more. Over all we are way better off in Canada except for the weather. Even healthcare wise you are better off.
OK well I gotta go gonna see if the shower is cold, warm or hot (please be hot). Since I am writing this email offline (can't afford sending packets out to the interent it'll eat up my 2.5 gigs that are left). I will report back what the water heater situation is.
Take care all we love you and miss you all, we miss Oceans Chinese food store (good prices and lousy service beats HIGH prices any day).
I'll write in the week. Please write us (cough Luna cause she's the only one with friends) she reads them all it's just that I won't let her on the computer to write you back hahaha.
Paul and Luna (in absentia or the kitchen).
SHOWER REPORT:
Well it was a little more than warm today and lasted enough for us both to have a quick shower. But we had the faucet cranked on full heat. Now really we should be scalded on that setting but we were just not shivering. I also see that under the sink there is some sort of thing that mixes cold with the hot I think it's some sort of safety feature. But the pipe on the hot water heater should be too hot to touch and it is not. So I have upped the thermostat maybe it needed a reset, it's probably the element or the thermostat is fried.
Parking, when we first got here we asked a guy in the lot, where can you park and he said "wherever ?", so we did. Two days we got letters on the car saying we are parking their spot, so we asked work where was the parking they contacted the building and they gave us a map. Now we looked at the map and it indicated that we are supposed to park under the building. Which is ok but you need a garage door opener which they didn't supply. So we are now parking on the street.
So what else is wrong, the microwave still doesn't work, the dryer only dries on warm, and the dishwasher cannot take a full plate standing up. We have to lay all plates on their sides in order to wash them, we don't wash 1/4 of the dishes we did in Canada, cause we don't have any. Oh and when we do a load of laundry we have to put it in the dryer as 2 loads, which take twice as long to dry. Luna left a towel outside to dry and it's like sandpaper so that should either be good for drying ourselves off or for exfoliating.
We have been looking at cars and I think we have decided on a Hyundai i30, white, 1.6L automatic, hatchback. Someone asked why we are picking white automatic. Well automatic because Luna and I can't concentrate on driving on the WRONG side of the road and change gears and white because any other color in this heat makes the car an oven. Hatchback so we can carry stuff like, fridges and stoves, washing machines that we may need to get when we find a new places. Oh and we are getting the windows tinted for an extra $600. They said we should but paint protection from fruit bat droppings but that is $2400 that's 10% of the cars value. So I think not I'll have to wash it off. Their droppings are acidic and can eat thru paint if left on.
So today we are going to give Luna's new GPS a spin to determine if it's any good. So far it won't show a preview of the route like her old one. But it's only $100 (we miss you Costco). Hopefully it'll suffice. Just enough to get her in the general area and back to work.
We only have a week and a bit before we have to return the car so we need to put a down payment on the car on Tuesday and this car is not in their lot but is in their ???? area. Where they put the cars together, I don't know what that means I thought cars would come assembled, but I think it's something to do with having some Australian content in the assembly that keeps the taxes or something down.
I'll try to make some more videos it's just this internet limit is a killer and there is no end in sight it's pay as you go here and 3gig is $30 for 30 days use it or loose it. Heck that was 4 days worth at home with youtube video watching. Needless to say there's no youtube watching going on. Not that I miss it much but youtube uploads are restricted. I thought Vietnam was a 3rd world country but it seems in some ways Darwin is a little 3rd worldie.
So some good news, this town seems to have a lot of things going on as in markets, there are 3 every week and there is one on Thursday and Sunday at a place called Mindil beach. Where everyone goes to get some food and watch jugglers and watch the sun go down. Now you would think that this sort of thing would die after a few weeks but there are thousands of people there every time it's open and they bring wine and beer and watch the sun go down whilst sitting on the beach. We have been there 3 times and every time the sun went down without any issues, I wanted to clap but I'm affraid they'd send me in for a mental health assessment. People video'd it, pictured it and I don't think all these people are tourists. So to get about 3-5% of the cities population out twice a week is quite a feat I would think. The food is ok. Mostly meats, vegetables are a luxury here. I think that poor diet is a problem here for Australians and aboriginals alike.
We found a store the other day that had bananas on for $7.95kg instead of the usual $12.95 so we bought 3, 3 bananas not kgs heck we're not millionaires you know. It had other things priced pretty good. So we'll be back 4 sure.
Coke, I do not know what coke has against Darwin (not sure about the rest of Australia) but it is really expensive. A 1.5 litre bottle in the store 2 for $5. Now Pepsi is 2x2litre bottles for $4. I guess coke is more popular in Oz. Now the cans I bought from Kmart don't taste all that good. So I mostly stick to water, expensive 24 bottles $10, or milk $3 for 3 litres if you buy the store brand. Luna's drinking water and orange juice and we have tea once and a while but we can't find our type of tea here even though we know they have it in Oz. So once we run out then I guess Luna is off of tea because it's decaf and regular tea keeps her up at night.
We have been driving around Darwin looking at places so much that I could become a real estate agent. There are lots of houses on the market as well as apartments for rent. Good for us I hope, but we can't buy they are expensive for what you get.
It sounds like there are gonna stick a carbon tax on things here in Oz. Even though they Lady prime minister said she wouldn't. I haven't been keeping up on things much here but I'm sure that'll stick the price of gas up. Although it is a coalition government here so maybe they'll just delay as long as possible because taxes usually get people un-elected.
I must admit that the weather has been amazing, it was cold at night although lots of people are saying it's cold, for us Torontonians it's just right. No humidity and sunny every day. There was a fire the other day in a field but the paper said it was a controlled burn. Didn't seem like it was very controlled to me it was burning in all different spots and we only saw the fire department sitting at the gas station, probably a wise place to protect.
The Australian forces have a big presences here in Darwin and every so often we get to see fighter jets flying around making lots of noise. Although they are the outdated ones that the Canadians are trying to replace.
They have a place like Lowes/Home Depot here. It's smells kinda funny must be some sort of dirt or something but it's huge and clean. We bought Luna's GPS at a place similar to Staples and the prices on hard drives seem pretty good. Some prices on things are a little better cause taxes are included, others are a little more, and others a WAY more. Over all we are way better off in Canada except for the weather. Even healthcare wise you are better off.
OK well I gotta go gonna see if the shower is cold, warm or hot (please be hot). Since I am writing this email offline (can't afford sending packets out to the interent it'll eat up my 2.5 gigs that are left). I will report back what the water heater situation is.
Take care all we love you and miss you all, we miss Oceans Chinese food store (good prices and lousy service beats HIGH prices any day).
I'll write in the week. Please write us (cough Luna cause she's the only one with friends) she reads them all it's just that I won't let her on the computer to write you back hahaha.
Paul and Luna (in absentia or the kitchen).
SHOWER REPORT:
Well it was a little more than warm today and lasted enough for us both to have a quick shower. But we had the faucet cranked on full heat. Now really we should be scalded on that setting but we were just not shivering. I also see that under the sink there is some sort of thing that mixes cold with the hot I think it's some sort of safety feature. But the pipe on the hot water heater should be too hot to touch and it is not. So I have upped the thermostat maybe it needed a reset, it's probably the element or the thermostat is fried.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Perils of Paul & Luna
Hi all this is an blanket email to all of our friends across the world (all 3 of you).
I hopefully have BCC you all so you don't get a wack load of other peoples email addresses.
Well it's week 2.1 here in Oz it's Wed so we've been here officially 2 weeks. We have been looking for cars and apartments. As far as cars the tsunami in Japan has severely hampered any chance of getting a Japanese car so it's down to just Kia and Huyndai, and they are really the same car company so the car we are looking at is small, cause gas is 1.51 a litre here. But it must be white and automatic.
Apartment shopping is interesting most places come with on or the other applicance missing. Usually fridge and washing machine. Some have outside laundry, like in the outside. And others have communial laundry. I wonder if you have to fold other peoples underwear ?
The weather here is nice every day and should be like that until Oct. They say we may not get rain until then which explains why the google street view of Darwin looked pretty dry.
We are in a unit which is not bad and our car is a boat, it's huge and takes $75 to fill it.
If you didn't hear food is expensive here except McD's ice cream cone which is 50c taxes included. So $30 of fruit and veg is on small bag here. Banana's 12.95kg. But we're over that now. The internet is expensive and so is phones. Although to call canada is only 4c a min on a phone chip/plan/whatever it is. So that's reasonable.
I was complaining about the price of coke but I broke down and bought a case $14 for 24. I don't know what pop companies have against Darwin but coke is $3 in McD's. Thank god milk is cheap if you buy the store brand $3 for 3 litres.
It was my birthday the other day and I have put up a video of me getting a birthday cake (doughnut). It's on http://youtube.com/muddcliff
Doughnuts, a Canadian can't survive here. They are $3 each. Now they are fancy and all but 3 bucks folks. We got a deal the other day 6 for $1, which was 1/2 price at the Coles. Oh the 2 places here are Coles and Woolworths. They are the grocery store, they also between them own Kmart, Big W, gas stations and the government. Someone said 30c from every dollar goes to Coles I think it was.
Someone upstairs keeps playing this song "Miss Jones and me", don't know who it's by.
Luna is at her 3rd day at work. I'll try to describe it as it was told to me.
1st day got a desk, it's a big workspace she says, got a log in for her computer. Logged in, logged out, couldn't log in againk, had to get IT to fix it. Sounds like Luna with her computer luck. She isn't sitting with her team just yet they are shuffling desks around. Guess no point just yet they need to see if she'll stay. One lady we were emailing went back after 2 months we don't know why.
2nd day went in for training, she says she can do things here without the clients permission, call welfare, call family. I'm sure I'm missing things but that's idea. The indegnous can have their payments forced onto a card 70-80%. This is then like a bank card that they can only buy non alcohol stuff with. But it doesn't have their picture on it so any one of the same sex here can use it. They seem to get good welfare payments here Luna has a client with 3 kids gets free housing and (not sure if I can say amount) but it's damn good. Her first client seems to be an easy one, in my opinion at least and they want her to get it off the books quickly 12 weeks she says.
One thing is she cannot bring anything home no case notes nothing. They supply a car and a phone and they have to both be returned at the end of the day. She wants a GPS so we'll need to get that. But we were told she'd have to drive a 4x4. That isn't true they have Corolla's and Yaris's. The 4 door types we have in Canada.
I'm sure when we come back to Canada to visit she'll have lots of stories to tell and maybe she can come in to Peel CAS and do a powerpoint presentation. Ok I'll do the powerpoint and she can talk. But she has described some large differences in the system here.
It seems to buy alcohol you have to present id which they scan. If you had any alcohol or violence issues no booze purchases for you. Although that doesn't stop you from buying for friends it seems. My dad would say it was like that when he came to Canada you had to get a license to purchase alcohol although they didn't have scanners in those days.
Luna says their computers are the old fashioned ones, what I think she means is that they are not laptops. No working from home, although she's been late 2 days already and she's only been at work 2 days. I guess social workers curse.
I see I have 3.45 gig left of my 5 gig that I bought. so I have to use it up before 90 days which I can't see that as being much of a problem. I can't watch youtube videos as much or upload them. I had grand plans for YouTube but that's on hold. Maybe when we get home interent it'll be different. But for now we're pretty much information limited. There is free interent at McD's but dial up was faster. I have not checked out the downtown area they say that it's free there. One of the libraries also has it but the one we go to only offers 1 hour computer use and YouTube is blocked (curses).
For people at Emergis (Jeff, Vu) and Peel CAS (Vi, Monique) I only have a few people there on my list. If you can think of people that may want to read this email please forward it on. If you received this email forwarded it to you please email us and we'll add you to this list so we can keep in touch.
You can email Luna at lunas.perils @ hotmail.com
And me at pauls.perils @ hotmail.com
To be safe just email me at pauls.perils @ hotmail.com that way it'll get looked at and if it's for Luna I'll tell her about it.
Take care all we miss and love you all, but mostly I miss the 60gig internet allowance (and to think I hated Rogers).
Paul & Luna (although she's at work)
http://paulandluna.com
I hopefully have BCC you all so you don't get a wack load of other peoples email addresses.
Well it's week 2.1 here in Oz it's Wed so we've been here officially 2 weeks. We have been looking for cars and apartments. As far as cars the tsunami in Japan has severely hampered any chance of getting a Japanese car so it's down to just Kia and Huyndai, and they are really the same car company so the car we are looking at is small, cause gas is 1.51 a litre here. But it must be white and automatic.
Apartment shopping is interesting most places come with on or the other applicance missing. Usually fridge and washing machine. Some have outside laundry, like in the outside. And others have communial laundry. I wonder if you have to fold other peoples underwear ?
The weather here is nice every day and should be like that until Oct. They say we may not get rain until then which explains why the google street view of Darwin looked pretty dry.
We are in a unit which is not bad and our car is a boat, it's huge and takes $75 to fill it.
If you didn't hear food is expensive here except McD's ice cream cone which is 50c taxes included. So $30 of fruit and veg is on small bag here. Banana's 12.95kg. But we're over that now. The internet is expensive and so is phones. Although to call canada is only 4c a min on a phone chip/plan/whatever it is. So that's reasonable.
I was complaining about the price of coke but I broke down and bought a case $14 for 24. I don't know what pop companies have against Darwin but coke is $3 in McD's. Thank god milk is cheap if you buy the store brand $3 for 3 litres.
It was my birthday the other day and I have put up a video of me getting a birthday cake (doughnut). It's on http://youtube.com/muddcliff
Doughnuts, a Canadian can't survive here. They are $3 each. Now they are fancy and all but 3 bucks folks. We got a deal the other day 6 for $1, which was 1/2 price at the Coles. Oh the 2 places here are Coles and Woolworths. They are the grocery store, they also between them own Kmart, Big W, gas stations and the government. Someone said 30c from every dollar goes to Coles I think it was.
Someone upstairs keeps playing this song "Miss Jones and me", don't know who it's by.
Luna is at her 3rd day at work. I'll try to describe it as it was told to me.
1st day got a desk, it's a big workspace she says, got a log in for her computer. Logged in, logged out, couldn't log in againk, had to get IT to fix it. Sounds like Luna with her computer luck. She isn't sitting with her team just yet they are shuffling desks around. Guess no point just yet they need to see if she'll stay. One lady we were emailing went back after 2 months we don't know why.
2nd day went in for training, she says she can do things here without the clients permission, call welfare, call family. I'm sure I'm missing things but that's idea. The indegnous can have their payments forced onto a card 70-80%. This is then like a bank card that they can only buy non alcohol stuff with. But it doesn't have their picture on it so any one of the same sex here can use it. They seem to get good welfare payments here Luna has a client with 3 kids gets free housing and (not sure if I can say amount) but it's damn good. Her first client seems to be an easy one, in my opinion at least and they want her to get it off the books quickly 12 weeks she says.
One thing is she cannot bring anything home no case notes nothing. They supply a car and a phone and they have to both be returned at the end of the day. She wants a GPS so we'll need to get that. But we were told she'd have to drive a 4x4. That isn't true they have Corolla's and Yaris's. The 4 door types we have in Canada.
I'm sure when we come back to Canada to visit she'll have lots of stories to tell and maybe she can come in to Peel CAS and do a powerpoint presentation. Ok I'll do the powerpoint and she can talk. But she has described some large differences in the system here.
It seems to buy alcohol you have to present id which they scan. If you had any alcohol or violence issues no booze purchases for you. Although that doesn't stop you from buying for friends it seems. My dad would say it was like that when he came to Canada you had to get a license to purchase alcohol although they didn't have scanners in those days.
Luna says their computers are the old fashioned ones, what I think she means is that they are not laptops. No working from home, although she's been late 2 days already and she's only been at work 2 days. I guess social workers curse.
I see I have 3.45 gig left of my 5 gig that I bought. so I have to use it up before 90 days which I can't see that as being much of a problem. I can't watch youtube videos as much or upload them. I had grand plans for YouTube but that's on hold. Maybe when we get home interent it'll be different. But for now we're pretty much information limited. There is free interent at McD's but dial up was faster. I have not checked out the downtown area they say that it's free there. One of the libraries also has it but the one we go to only offers 1 hour computer use and YouTube is blocked (curses).
For people at Emergis (Jeff, Vu) and Peel CAS (Vi, Monique) I only have a few people there on my list. If you can think of people that may want to read this email please forward it on. If you received this email forwarded it to you please email us and we'll add you to this list so we can keep in touch.
You can email Luna at lunas.perils @ hotmail.com
And me at pauls.perils @ hotmail.com
To be safe just email me at pauls.perils @ hotmail.com that way it'll get looked at and if it's for Luna I'll tell her about it.
Take care all we miss and love you all, but mostly I miss the 60gig internet allowance (and to think I hated Rogers).
Paul & Luna (although she's at work)
http://paulandluna.com
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
2011.06.02 Happy Birthday Marina
A friend of ours Marina is having a birthday and since we couldn't take her to Thai Pepper our favorite restaurant we decided to ruin her eardrums by singing Happy Birthday.
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