Days 5-7:
Sorry we have taken so much time off from our last entry. We had allotted 21:00-21:30 for you, diary. Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves quite sleepy at 19:30 where we vow to write our daily entry from the comfort of our pillows…….that hasn't worked yet!
Your first question may be…"What happened to day 4?" Well, when you are in a state of perpetual motion like we are- day 4 seems like an eternity ago. We also didn't want to set the precedent that every day would get equal coverage. The only thing I will say about day 4 is that it was the day when we wanted to take a tour of the XXXX (Forex) beer factory
(For the curious, the price of admission of $20 for an 1hr 15 min tour includes 4 glasses of beer at the end-can't beat that!). As we were ordering beer at the brewery bar in an attempt to kill 10 minutes till the tour started, we were told apparently you can only drink their beer after the tour and cannot consume any alcohol before the tour in case the factory catches fire and in your drunken state, you decide to shelter yourself from the fire in a vat of beer. This was an actual explanation…… Unfortunately for the brewery we were really thirsty at the time.
Day 5 started out with an early interview for Cory.
Gotta love the question, "What is your greatest weakness?" Should one reach into the answer bag for the excessive drive & ambition? No, too obvious- how about the tendency to work too hard or the lean towards perfectionism? Needless to say- impressions were made, positive or negative, and I guess we will find out when the offers start flying in…. or we log on to research unemployment applications in Australia.
Since Cory was already in a full suit and there happened to be a mortgage auction on the 17th floor of the same building, we felt compelled to try our hand at finding our dream home amongst the rowdy gathering of locals. Hey wait, I guess we are a local! We held docket # 537…..c'mon lucky 537!!! We just need 1,500 sq. ft somewhere in the city- preferably on a river high-rise building with amazing views with modern/contemporary styling and underground parking. We were willing to go as high as….wait let's check both of our pockets…..yep, $1,150. Any higher than that and we'd be pushed right out of the bidding. The first house was just what we were looking for: high ceilings, spacious kitchen- the mention of granite or marble was made on many occasions- perfect! We were ready to get the bidding started at $500, but were trumped by another man in a suit who got the bidding underway with a bid of $1.2 million. Uh-oh- guess we'll have to wait for house #2. The pace was fast and frantic, but we found it funny that the auctioneer would say going once, going twice….and then crack a hilarious joke right before declaring the house sold in an effort to make bidders jump back in and place a bid. It really eased the tension, but seemed unnatural.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the chicken kebabs- the aforementioned day 4 ended with a failed kebab run, but we would not be shut out twice. As day 5 (Friday) drew into evening, we picked up South Bank kebabs and sat down by the beach to enjoy one of the finest creations this side of the equator. I don't know what we were thinking when we brought the kebabs into a neighboring bar- "We have our own kitchen, mate" the security guard told us. We think they were just jealous that their kitchen didn't make something nearly as fabulous. Kebabs in tummy, we reentered the bar to enjoy an eerily similar version of Jason Castro playing live. Maybe he and Michael Johns are already on tour here in Australia.
Day 6 ushered in the Greek festival in West End. It was like the New Mexico State fair except with Greek food, a nice grassy area, huge video screens, Ouzo…okay it was nothing like the New Mexico State Fair, but it did have a bunch of "fair games".
Cory decided to try his hand at the sledgehammer pound game (I think there is a more technical term for this game). The object is to try and pound the ground with a 20 kg hammer and see how much force you can generate. Cory scored a 114 (out of 150 possible) and was the highest of the evening that we witnessed. There were some poor 6'4" 250 pound men registering a mere 82. What did we get for this accomplishment?? A little blue stuffed dinosaur that we decided to call Mr. Popodopolous, in honour of this great festival.
Side note> We actually saw this on a menu here in Brisbne: fajitas (fah-hee-tuhs)- got a chuckle out of the two of us!
Day 7 was a monumental day. We finally received the keys to our new place and moved out of the hostel. If you have ever tried to move all you belongings across town via city bus, then you can appreciate what we went through on run number one of transporting everything we own to our new house. After making our first run, we decided that a taxi would be a better option for the remainder of the stuff and by 11:00 we had relocated permanently. The place is beautiful in the suburb of Toowong- Ma Dawgs joked that it was Toowong a drive for her to be able to come down……I would agree- WAY outside of her familiar quadrant.
Walking distance to absolutely everything, including the park and the river. Anyway, we are renting a two bedroom place at which the landlord also resides. She is away in "bush country" so we have the place to ourselves. We will enclose pictures later as the place is currently a mess. We intend to call this home for approximately 3-6 months and we are on a month-to-month lease with NO deposit- what luck! That is impossible to find anywhere near the city centre so we are very fortunate. We have our eyes on some beautiful places to buy, but we don't want to put the cart before the horse- an annual household income of $0 AUD doesn't look to good to the mortgage underwriter. On the flip side- we have calculated the taxes on this income and are very pleased with the figure. I'm not sure if unemployment would be the best tax strategy.
We woke up early on day 8 as Olga had her first big interview in the city. Cory decided to walk her down to the boat stop to catch the 5 minute ferry into town. The position is for an accounting recruitment consultant in a professional firm and would allow her to thrive in what she does best- make contacts and talk with people. Some excerpts from the brochure are:
Interviewing candidates on a general basis and for specific roles
Managing job offer process and negotiating salary packages
And Olga's favorite:
Organizing and attending regular client entertainment events-including sporting events, wine tastings and other entertainment activities.
Basically we'll need to hit up a lot of bars and hotspots to meet these potential clients- Cory has offered his assistance. We're also preparing for the HUGE game tomorrow! It is the State of Origin 1 between Queensland and New South Wales rugby match. It is the equivalent of the Super Bowl in the States, but the matches are a best of 3 played between Sydney and Brisbane that take place between May 21- August 16th. The match is the talk of the town and we will hit up a local pub and cheer when they do and yell at the referees when everyone is not cheering!
Cory looked up rugby rules on Wikipedia and they are starting to make sense.
Well, we gotta run to the gym. Gotta go burn the 603 kilojoules that we just consumed this morning (is that bad?)- dieting is going to be impossible down here.
Sorry we have taken so much time off from our last entry. We had allotted 21:00-21:30 for you, diary. Unfortunately, we are finding ourselves quite sleepy at 19:30 where we vow to write our daily entry from the comfort of our pillows…….that hasn't worked yet!
Your first question may be…"What happened to day 4?" Well, when you are in a state of perpetual motion like we are- day 4 seems like an eternity ago. We also didn't want to set the precedent that every day would get equal coverage. The only thing I will say about day 4 is that it was the day when we wanted to take a tour of the XXXX (Forex) beer factory
(For the curious, the price of admission of $20 for an 1hr 15 min tour includes 4 glasses of beer at the end-can't beat that!). As we were ordering beer at the brewery bar in an attempt to kill 10 minutes till the tour started, we were told apparently you can only drink their beer after the tour and cannot consume any alcohol before the tour in case the factory catches fire and in your drunken state, you decide to shelter yourself from the fire in a vat of beer. This was an actual explanation…… Unfortunately for the brewery we were really thirsty at the time.Day 5 started out with an early interview for Cory.
Gotta love the question, "What is your greatest weakness?" Should one reach into the answer bag for the excessive drive & ambition? No, too obvious- how about the tendency to work too hard or the lean towards perfectionism? Needless to say- impressions were made, positive or negative, and I guess we will find out when the offers start flying in…. or we log on to research unemployment applications in Australia.
Since Cory was already in a full suit and there happened to be a mortgage auction on the 17th floor of the same building, we felt compelled to try our hand at finding our dream home amongst the rowdy gathering of locals. Hey wait, I guess we are a local! We held docket # 537…..c'mon lucky 537!!! We just need 1,500 sq. ft somewhere in the city- preferably on a river high-rise building with amazing views with modern/contemporary styling and underground parking. We were willing to go as high as….wait let's check both of our pockets…..yep, $1,150. Any higher than that and we'd be pushed right out of the bidding. The first house was just what we were looking for: high ceilings, spacious kitchen- the mention of granite or marble was made on many occasions- perfect! We were ready to get the bidding started at $500, but were trumped by another man in a suit who got the bidding underway with a bid of $1.2 million. Uh-oh- guess we'll have to wait for house #2. The pace was fast and frantic, but we found it funny that the auctioneer would say going once, going twice….and then crack a hilarious joke right before declaring the house sold in an effort to make bidders jump back in and place a bid. It really eased the tension, but seemed unnatural.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the chicken kebabs- the aforementioned day 4 ended with a failed kebab run, but we would not be shut out twice. As day 5 (Friday) drew into evening, we picked up South Bank kebabs and sat down by the beach to enjoy one of the finest creations this side of the equator. I don't know what we were thinking when we brought the kebabs into a neighboring bar- "We have our own kitchen, mate" the security guard told us. We think they were just jealous that their kitchen didn't make something nearly as fabulous. Kebabs in tummy, we reentered the bar to enjoy an eerily similar version of Jason Castro playing live. Maybe he and Michael Johns are already on tour here in Australia.
Day 6 ushered in the Greek festival in West End. It was like the New Mexico State fair except with Greek food, a nice grassy area, huge video screens, Ouzo…okay it was nothing like the New Mexico State Fair, but it did have a bunch of "fair games".
Cory decided to try his hand at the sledgehammer pound game (I think there is a more technical term for this game). The object is to try and pound the ground with a 20 kg hammer and see how much force you can generate. Cory scored a 114 (out of 150 possible) and was the highest of the evening that we witnessed. There were some poor 6'4" 250 pound men registering a mere 82. What did we get for this accomplishment?? A little blue stuffed dinosaur that we decided to call Mr. Popodopolous, in honour of this great festival.Side note> We actually saw this on a menu here in Brisbne: fajitas (fah-hee-tuhs)- got a chuckle out of the two of us!
Day 7 was a monumental day. We finally received the keys to our new place and moved out of the hostel. If you have ever tried to move all you belongings across town via city bus, then you can appreciate what we went through on run number one of transporting everything we own to our new house. After making our first run, we decided that a taxi would be a better option for the remainder of the stuff and by 11:00 we had relocated permanently. The place is beautiful in the suburb of Toowong- Ma Dawgs joked that it was Toowong a drive for her to be able to come down……I would agree- WAY outside of her familiar quadrant.
Walking distance to absolutely everything, including the park and the river. Anyway, we are renting a two bedroom place at which the landlord also resides. She is away in "bush country" so we have the place to ourselves. We will enclose pictures later as the place is currently a mess. We intend to call this home for approximately 3-6 months and we are on a month-to-month lease with NO deposit- what luck! That is impossible to find anywhere near the city centre so we are very fortunate. We have our eyes on some beautiful places to buy, but we don't want to put the cart before the horse- an annual household income of $0 AUD doesn't look to good to the mortgage underwriter. On the flip side- we have calculated the taxes on this income and are very pleased with the figure. I'm not sure if unemployment would be the best tax strategy.We woke up early on day 8 as Olga had her first big interview in the city. Cory decided to walk her down to the boat stop to catch the 5 minute ferry into town. The position is for an accounting recruitment consultant in a professional firm and would allow her to thrive in what she does best- make contacts and talk with people. Some excerpts from the brochure are:
Interviewing candidates on a general basis and for specific roles
Managing job offer process and negotiating salary packages
And Olga's favorite:
Organizing and attending regular client entertainment events-including sporting events, wine tastings and other entertainment activities.
Basically we'll need to hit up a lot of bars and hotspots to meet these potential clients- Cory has offered his assistance. We're also preparing for the HUGE game tomorrow! It is the State of Origin 1 between Queensland and New South Wales rugby match. It is the equivalent of the Super Bowl in the States, but the matches are a best of 3 played between Sydney and Brisbane that take place between May 21- August 16th. The match is the talk of the town and we will hit up a local pub and cheer when they do and yell at the referees when everyone is not cheering!
Cory looked up rugby rules on Wikipedia and they are starting to make sense.
Well, we gotta run to the gym. Gotta go burn the 603 kilojoules that we just consumed this morning (is that bad?)- dieting is going to be impossible down here.
20 May 2008
5 comments:
Hey - photos and stories, alright! Man, you two are going to have the greatest time. We are very jealous. I think I'm going to start using some of that Aussie slang in my everyday conversations. No more references to 'hobos' it will now be 'bogans'. Talk with you later. Great blog.
-Kdog & Ctrain
Another comment to request more updates from you two. More Oz! More Oz! Some of us have to live vicariously through you two.
-KB
Hey, just found you're blog/journal thing. Not sure if you guys will get this comment or not, but you are both greatly missed at GT abq. This place sucks worse now:) I'll send an email to say hi too, in case you don't see this on a post from June... hahaha
Awesome photos and commentary! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the updates, although you do look a LOT older. What are you going to do to top '30'...move to Antartica? I'll have to send you a tuxedo.
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