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Published: August 3rd 2009
Wow, what a week!
Though we think it was pure luck, Eric and I managed to secure apartment on July 31st in the heart of Perth city (or as they call it here, CBD). As we soon found out, finding an apartment over here is not as simple as our experiences back home renting. Here all properties are taken care of by realtors, and the agents are the one's to show you through the various properties available for renting (no private landlords like back home). Once you decide you would like to rent the place you then have to submit an application with the first week of rent...easy right? wrong!
The application is only the beginning and it does not secure the apartment...its merely a starting point, after which the realtors/owner then decide whether they like your application vs. others. We heard of up to 20 couples showing up at a single viewing of an apartment downtown...and given our situation (new to the country/no jobs!) we thought we were in for a fight. However, this is where our luck started. After viewing a few apartments outside of the city (and feeling a little discouraged at what we found) we landed a
last minute viewing of a place in the city. The realtor seemed very keen to rent to us and soon revealed that the other application she currently had on the place came from two 18 yr olds. She had also come to Australia as a 'back packer' 8 yrs ago and I think she could sympathize with our situation...that and I am sure she had a little more faith in us than the 18 yrs olds 😉
By Thursday we had the keys in our hand and are happy to say we finally have our very first place to call 'home' together. We've included a few pictures, its not big but so far it fits us just perfect...fully furnished and steps from the action.
In other positive news, Eric and I made it to our 1 month anniversary...and we are still going strong, whew! ha
To celebrate this milestone and the fact that we had just secured our first apartment as newlyweds we went out to dinner at a local steakhouse...I had steak, Eric had Kangaroo.
Since the last post I have had a few more temp agency interviews and it looks like I might have secured a
job starting in the next week or two...fingers crossed. Eric is continuing to hunt and meet with various contacts made in the city, everything seems to be going well so far...just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
This past weekend we met up with some fellow Canadians that Eric knows from UofT - Mike and Rita. Turns out they live just minutes away from our place!
We met up with these two, as well as June, on Friday for our first taste of 'night life' in a part of the city called 'Northbridge'. There are plenty of bars/clubs in this district and we managed to hop our way from bar to bar...some serious rug was cut.
Saturday Kevin's brother-in-law (Todd) met up with us at the Food & Wine show at the local convention centre. $30 gets you unlimited wine/beer/spirits and FOOD tasting....amazing. Eric and I sampled our share of local wine's from Margaret River (Auzzie version of Niagara on the Lake only way better!). Todd managed to get us all in for free, only catch was that Eric had to put on a brewery t-shirt & pretend he was working one of
the booths.
Sunday we met up with Todd and his wife Jenn (Kevin's sister) to see Harry Potter. For those who know me well it should come of no surprise that this movie choice did not thrill me...but I took one for the team because I was promised kangaroo sightings as part of the package.
Now on to the real purpose of this post - the battle of Eric & the kangaroo. Todd & Jenn drove us to a local TV station (large grounds bordering on a nature park). Turns out kangaroos frequent the grounds and can always be found there. We pulled up to find 3 roos hanging out to the back of a parking lot. As you can see in our pictures, we were literally able to get within feet for pictures. Todd advised Eric that if he wanted to get a little closer he should crouch down...so he wouldn't intimidate the little guy. So what does Eric do?...he gets down on all fours as if he is going to challenge the roo to a battle. Eric soon learned his lesson when the kangaroo shot up, puffed his cheeks and made a strange growling sound. Needless to
Food & Wine show - James Squire brewery
Eric got his picture with Chuck Hahn (right) - the master brewer for many of Australia's micro brewers. Eric was in heaven...just look at his face! That's Todd in the middle.say Eric looked a little pale after his near death experience...to be honest there was a small part of me that wanted to see him chased by this little roo, if only for the pictures and stories I would tell.
That's all the updates we have for today, this week brings more job searching, Pink concert on Friday, a trip to the zoo, more daily jogs by the water...and perhaps a Sunday patio session for some well deserved drinks with friends!
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