Blog
June 8th until June 14th 2004
Australia Migration
Tuesday 8th June 2004
Today is interview day. After scouting out where the Hudson
office is, Ann took me in Liam's car and I went straight in. The interview was
pretty standard, but I am so out of practice that it was a little strange to get
back into talking about myself without going too far. I think that I came across
well, but the bad news was that there were no jobs immediately available to me,
and that it was often hard to get into the industry unless I was previously known
to people. This would mean that I have to take a couple of steps down the ladder
to take a role that would get me in the door of a company, so that I could be
premoted from within. I have always been premoted in previous jobs, so this is
not really a problem. Only a slight bump to my ego (although some people would
say that that is not a bad thing!).
I went out into Shirley's garden to have a look today. I noticed that some of
the roses needed dead-heading, so I offered to do it. Shirley gave me everything
I needed, but then told me that I should wear some of her leather gardening gloves.
Before she handed them to me, she shook them vigouously, and then inspected in
inside for spiders. Apparently, the Redback is highly poisionous and likes to
make it's nest in dark spaces. The pea-sized spider can kill you, but apparently
that is not as bad as the slightly larger white-tail spider that when it bites
you, your skin is eaten away gradually.
So, as Shirley handed me the gloves, I had a good look myself, closed my eyes
and then slowly slipped my hand in. I was relieved to find that I was still alive
and that my flesh was still in one piece.
It's Liam's 71st birthday today. Thomas gave his grandad
a card, as did Ann and I. For a treat, he took us all to Gawler to have a lunch
at the Kingsford Hotel, a combination of restaurant and gambling establishment.
I had half a kilo of fillet steak, and Ann and Liam had fish - Shirley sticking
to her Chicken. Thomas tried a chip for the first time, and was an absolute
gem - quiet and well behaved.
Wednesday 9th June 2004
Another fine winter's day in Adelaide. The temperature
is 21 C and the sun is shining. The sky is blue, not a cloud in sight, and people
in the streets are wearing jumpers and scarves. A slight breeze, but not enough
to cool the warm air.
Liam and Shirley took us down to Glenelg to show us what the seaside part of Adelaide
looks like. We dropped in on an Internet cafe, where Liam and Shirley like to
get a coffee and cake. The staff were so friendly and helpful for Thomas, and
the serves of cake were huge! A little walk down the street and we could see some
of the older buildings, and then go down to the sandy sea front where we could
see the new development of appartments, shops and restaurants. It was quite lively
and busy for winter, but then again the winter in Adelaide is better than some
English summers. I took some snaps of the tram that runs from Glenelg to Adelaide's
Central Business District (CBD), and some good pictures of the 
Glenelg sea front.
Thursday 10th June 2004
We have been in Australia for a week now. It already seems
like home. I am getting used to the way that things work, the way that there are
more TV adverts than programs, and how the same TV advert can be shown twice in
the same Ad break...
I have been careful to put aside my ideas and memories of England to get used
to the Australian way of life. I look at the kerb for street names, smile and
reply hello when some stranger stops and asks me "how's it going?" for no reason,
I have even got used to the bright sunshine and blue skies being called "winter".
I am looking forward to starting work so that I can learn all the new parts of
Australian culture that I don't get from family.
Today Ann and I went out with Liam to look at some more cars. We had a look at
three yards, but only saw two cars that were interesting. The first yard had a
salesman that was a little too friendly and a bit pushy, but at the same time
seemed to have no memory of the cars that were in the yard. We liked a few cars,
but in the end there was nothing that we could afford, and all the stuff we could
afford did not have everything we wanted. The only car that was interesting was
a 1995 Ford Laser, but it was nearly $12,000 and out of our price range.
It was vital to get a car with Air Conditioning, and Ann wanted a car with automatic,
and Thomas needed a car with four doors and a big boot.
The other car yards had a better range of cars, and Ann took a Ford Mondeo out
for a drive. It drove well, and was in our price range - but Ann thought it was
too big. We ended our day's car shopping with no progress.
In the evening, I went out to the cinema with the girls. Just me, Shirley, Linda,
Marie, victoria and a friend. Brendan was there too, all of us to see Harry Potter
3 on the day that it was released. There was a large queue of children who had
tickets, all waiting to get in to the cinema. The film was enjoyable, but it was
made considerably better by the atmosphere from all the children who are obviously
very much into the films and the books.
After the film, the girls and Brendan went home with Linda, and Ashley took Shirley
and me home in the green car. It went quite well for a 20 year old car - it was
a little bit of nostalgia to see a car that needed a manual choke to get started.
Friday 11th June 2004
Two major events happened today. Ann and I went out and
bought a car, and I had an interview with an agency, this time for a specific
job.
We finally had decided to agree to get the Ford Laser, so all we needed to do
was drop in, take it for a quick test drive, and then pay for it. Ann and I dropped
in at around 10am, expecting that we would be able to leave before lunch, so that
we could go to the supermarket but of course the used car lot people were not
going to let that happen. We tried to negotiate the price down from $11,900 to
$9,500, and the Vietnamese 'manager' was not having any of it. I think that we
are still on 'London pace' because this discussion seemed to be so slow, with
this Mr Nguyen chatting about business without actually engaging in actual negotiations.
After what seemed like an hour of talking and filling in forms, we eventually
settled on $10,000 - but then we needed to arrange insurance. South Australia
is the only state where it is not compulsory to have insurance, but we still did
not want to run the risk of hitting a new Mercedes or BMW, and then have to spend
the rest of our lives paying it off...
The insurance salesman at the car yard gave us a better quote than we had got
from any of the local insurance companies, so we decided to use him. After about
2 hours with him, we had almost come to the conclusion that it would be better
to pay the 50% more to arrange insurance over the phone than sit and listen to
this guy go on about how important it was to have insurance. We had already agreed
within 5 minutes to get the insurance through him, and I don't quite know where
the time went, but it was probably listening to his stories about his upcoming
fishing trip to Queensland, or his history about being in the Air Force, his family
history about his father being Russian and him being born in Germany, etc., etc.
It was a bit of a relief when we were able to get away so that we could go to
the bank and get the cash, but when we got back, there was more discussion and
delay. We were explaining that I had a job interview at 3pm, but this did not
seem to speed them up. We didn't get home until 1:45, and so I had to quickly
dress in a suit and then dash down to the CBD to have my interview.
The car went really well, and Ann found a park close to the recruitment company
office and so I got there a little early. The interview went really well, and
over-ran - which is always a sign of a good interview. He asked me all the usual
questions and went through my resume with me. The difference was that this interview
allowed me to focus my answers into a specific position, and so most of the responses
I gave were just for that job. I hope there is some success - if so, then I will
be working for Origin Energy for maternity cover for 12 months, with prospects
for promotion into other roles.
Poor Shirley had to look after Thomas all day today. She says that he was fine,
but I hope that she was not just saying that. I can just imagine Thomas screaming
that he is tired, and then whining that he does not want to sleep when he is in
bed. Well, at least we know that Liam and Shirley can look after Thomas for a
whole day, including feeding and changing him.
Saturday 12th June 2004
We started by going up to Tea Tree Plaza to buy a few things.
It is a large shopping centre in English terms, but about average in Adelaide
terms. If you know London, Tea Tree Plaza is a little smaller than BlueWater,
with two levels and six large department stores with smaller fashion and mobile
phone shops in between. I bought all the ingredients that I needed for the Chicken
Tikka Masala that I was to make for everyone that evening. In Woolworths there
was such a variety of foods and ingredients that there was no problem in getting
everything I needed. The store layout was very compact, and the shelving gave
me the impression of "pile it high, sell it cheap", because it is more like warehouse
racking.
After we dropped off the shopping, we all dropped in to Mawson Lakes and started
looking at houses. We went to the new development, looking for "open inspections"
or houses that were for sale and would let anyone come in and have a look. We
ended up just going around two luxury show homes. The first house had 4 bedrooms,
3 bathrooms (including 2 en-suite), a large open-plan kitchen, seperate laundry
room, a study and three rooms that could be used as dining rooms, plus a "home
theatre" room, and in total it was about 280 Square meters, which is a bit of
a change from 98 square meters that we had in Walton. The house was ideal and
just what we wanted - but only $280,000 (that's £115,000). Land is extra, and
an average plot is $120,000, with a place that has views it can cost $250,000
or more.
The second show home that we saw in Mawson Lakes was much more grand - and a bit
over the top. It was double-height with a "parent's retreat" upstairs with the
main bedroom and ensuite, and a balcony looking over the view. The house was so
over the top, with columns, marble and corner jacuzzis everywhere. Gold taps and
fittings everywhere, but the bad thing about the show house was the finish - crooked
seams and tiling, not what you would expect from a house that costs from $600,000
(without land).
Shirley and Liam went out to church in the evening, so I had the kitchen to myself
for cooking dinner for everyone. I think it was a success, except when I spilt
curry sauce all over Shirley's clean table cloth!
Sunday 13th June 2004
Today Ann, Thomas and I went out in the new car to drive
to the seaside. Semaphore is only a few minutes away, through industrial and uninteresting
townscape. Whilst driving, Thomas fell asleep in his baby seat, just before we
got within sight of the sea, so we decided to keep driving instead of stopping
and waking him up.
We drove along the coast road, along the line of sand dunes, marram grass and
rows of pine trees. Ann noticed that they had done lots of work on some of the
access and walkways - with very natural looking wooden walkways that are not quite
straight and so look more in harmony with the scenery. There were a few people
out with parachutes and kneeboards, making use of the wind and whitecaps.
As we drove past North Haven and the marina with lots of new housing developments,
but we decided that it would not be the place to live, because we are not yet
sea people... As we drove around Port Adelaide, I noticed that in Australia they
are far more proud to fly the flag than the British are - nearly every building
had a flag, something that I think England really lacks. We stopped near Fisherman's
Wharf market where we had a look at the bric-a-brac and some of the baby toys
that were there. Thomas seemed interested in the boats, and enjoyed the live music
at the pub where we had a quick spot of lunch.
We arrived back home to find Linda and Brendan, and so Linda helped with some
of Ann's forms. Shirley's roast beef was sizzling away in the oven, and it was
not long before we were stuffing ourselves with a fine roast, not leaving room
for the apple pie made from apples in the garden - but we managed to squeeze it
in.
Monday 14th June 2004
Today is a bank holiday in Australia. It's the Queen's
birthday - celebrated in Australia but not in the UK (weird!). As it's winter
here, we have just had a big rain storm, and puddles are forming everywhere. No
more than half an hour later, the sun has just come out, and there is now a warm
blue sky over Salisbury.
Ann and I went in to central Adelaide today to look at housewares. We went to
a large furniture store where we played with all the sofas for a bit. The prices
are really quite affordable if you convert it to pounds, but in Australian dollars
it is the same cost against income as it would be in England.
We went down into Unley, but instead of going down the more commercial area, we
chose to go down King William Road, which is a parallel street to Unley Road but
more quaint with the fashion shops and cafes which Ann and I love. I really enjoyed
the kitchen shops with their chrome, glass and white china. Australia still amazes
me with the large shops with large stocks of varied items, but no customers and
of course no queues.
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