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.
