Tuesday 12 February 2013

Southern Summer Days

Our original plan was to move to Australia last August, right in the middle of Winter. That would have given us time to gradually acclimatise throughout Spring and maybe Summer wouldn't have been such a shock?! 

As it happened we arrived right at the beginning of Summer and we have been subjected to two months of scorching heat and sun. While we were fully expecting this (being Australia and all) it has meant that getting out and exploring our new surroundings is proving difficult.

We attempted one weekend to go out geocaching along a heritage trail near where we live. Within five minutes of looking we had to give up and retreat back to the aircon!

And the garden has been coming along slowly, trying to do as much as we can in the mornings and once the sun has set to avoid the heat of the day.


Seeds have been planted and are starting to sprout, so with all this sun things shouldn't take to long to start blossoming. We have got two massive rainwater tanks to water the garden with, so we can be liberal with the water without worrying about the environmental impact.

And we are now the proud owners of 500 worms, who will be shortly munching and converting our kitchen scraps into fertiliser and compost.


We did manage a short trip to Fremantle the other week. Fremantle is Perth's port, and being right on the coast there is always a refreshing sea breeze (the 'Fremantle Doctor'). 














This weekend is forecast to be in the late 20's which will seem positively cold, so we are hoping to do some more exploring of this beautiful coastline.

We splashed out and bought a new car. We were totally intending to just buy a $500 run-around car to get about in, but it turns out you simply can't buy cheap cars that actually run here.

Cars actually seem to keep their value really well, so new cars aren't that more expensive than second hand cars. So we bought a conservative little Hyundai i20 (with a Ghostbusters-themed number plate - unintentional) and are considering it more as an asset than an expense.


Nick's job is still going really well. I am having more trouble. It's strange that although it was my skills as an accountant that got us the visa here, Nick managed to get a job straight away and I am still looking after 2 months.

I've spoken to several agencies, and apparently it's a quiet time of year, and apparently there are a lot of potential applicants out there (boosted by migrants from the East coast and overseas enticed by the mining boom - doh!) making it more difficult.

So at the moment I am officially a starving artist as my tiny art shop trickles in a bit of pocket money for me! I can't say I really mind getting to paint and play with the cats all day. But it would be nice to be able to start saving some serious money up for the next adventure.

Luckily I have a generous partner and parents who make sure I don't go hungry!

4 comments:

  1. 'Starving artist', eh?! That should spur on further inspiration, surely? Great to hear your news, sounds like you're roasting gently. I'm sure work will kick in for you soon. Keep writing! Miss u both quite silly amounts. XX

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous?! It's me. I'm Dan. I'm not anonymous. I'm a name, not a number! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had guessed it was either you or Vic, no one else (with the exception of possibly Lucy and Steve) would be up this late!

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