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Published: March 11th 2008
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Well, we've been here for a little over three months now - so time for an update I reckon.
The time has just flown by, although we have only been here for three and a bit months, it feels like a lot longer. We have managed to cram quite a lot in in that time, so I suppose that makes it seem like we have been here longer.
We feel really settled, especially now Emma is working. Things have just fallen in to place. We have made a few friends and we're out every weekend exploring, and seeing what's going on in the city.
The weather has been great on the whole. We've had some racking storms and some pretty cold days, but mostly the weather has been fine, dry , warm and blue skies. Pretty much every weekend has been great with long hot days.
We haven't seen any snakes yet, but we've seen some wild possums and plenty of spiders. Check the one out in the picture - that's a Huntsman on our bedroom wall. A pint glass only just went over it, and it's not even a fully grown one! I caught a really
The block.
Things are moving at the block. They have started puting the drainage system in the road in front of the land. nasty looking black spider in our bedroom last night, it was wicked fast and had long front fangs. It could even climb up the inside of the glass when I caught it.
Work for me is going very well. The Chief Draughtsperson resigned a few weeks ago to start up another office. I was asked to step up and take the top spot, so things are moving pretty quickly for me in here. The office is nice, the people are all great and we're getting some good work coming in. It's a great company to work for, I'm really enjoying it. We have a sub-contract office that we use a lot in the Philippines, and I have to go out there shortly to see what they are up to, free holiday!
Emma had a tough time finding work. She applied for lots of jobs, but kept getting continually knocked back. She had her details in with a lot of agencies, but they all said the same thing - although her experience and education is exemplary, companies here like people to be very specialised in one thing only. A couple of different agents said that there are jobs around
Who's that handsome chap?
....after a hard days surfing at Point Leo. Still haven't got a tan though. that would be perfect for Emma, and that she would be snapped up for them - but they don't come around often. So, she was a little disheartened and took a job in my office looking after the document control section for something to do until something came along.
Then, there were a couple of jobs advertised in the paper for the Australian Industry Group - they do lots of different things, but the jobs advertised were for a employment law telephone advisor and a team leader for the employment law section. Emma thought she would apply only for the telephone advisers role so she could get her Australian employment law experience up to speed quickly. She put in an on-line application and received a call within a few hours. The National Manager called her and asked why she hadn't applied for the Team Leaders role? Emma explained the feedback she had had from other applications and agencies, and thought that she would need to start at the bottom. The National Manager of the AIG said she would like Emma to come in for an interview, but she would be interviewed for both the advisors job and Team Leaders
The City.
It was the water festival over the weekend. We spent Saturday in the city. job based on her previous experience and education. So, off she went a few days later for the interview - which she thought went very well. Then, a call came through a couple of days later from them - could Emma come in for a second interview, with a different interview panel. A bit odd Em thought, she thought maybe they wanted to offer her one of the jobs but were unsure and wanted a second opinion. Anyway, off she went for the second interview, which is where it got very interesting. Basically the National Manager had resigned a few weeks earlier and was so impressed with Emma's interview that she put Emma forward for her own job! So, Emma applied for a job as a telephone advisor and came away as the National Manager! Two promotions before she even started, they joked with her that she'd be CEO before her start date. Needless to say, she was very pleased. That was about a month ago, she has settled in very well and is really enjoying it. She has to fly to Sydney next week to carry out a staff review on her staff based in Sydney. A right old
Birdman Competition.
How far can you fly over the river with home made polystyrene wings? jet-setter now.
So that's where we're at work-wise. It's certainly helped us settle in that we both have good, stable jobs. The rest is easy, just getting on with things and seeing what's around.
We haven't done anything too exciting as yet, we've been so busy with work and with sorting out the new house that we want to build. Most weekends we either go down the Peninsula, into the City or out into the countryside.
The Peninsula is lovely, there are some great beaches. The weather has been fantastic most of the time, so if we get a hot Sunday we chuck the body-boards in the boot and head off to our favourite beach - Point Leo. It's never packed, has nice sand and some small waves, perfect for body-boarding beginners like myself. We went last Sunday and watched the young iron men & women training on the beach. I was shattered just watching them!
Most Saturdays we head out early to a suburb a bit further along from ours called Camberwell. We've found a great Italian cafe where we get a cracking breakfast. There's a great fruit, veg, meat & fish market there too.
We'll then head into the city to see what's going on. The City is lovely, always something happening. We went a few weeks back and there was an urban festival on. We watched break-dance competitions, freestyle MC competitions, beat box - it's was really entertaining. Last week was the Food Festival with lots of stalls selling nice things to eat. This weekend was 'Moomba' water festival. They had a couple of huge fairs, a birdman competition where people make home-made wings and contraptions and see how far over the river they can fly, ( usually not very ), there was live music in Fed Square and a waterskiing & jumping competition on the river - a great atmosphere and the weather was splendid, blue skies and 34 degrees.
This weekend was a long weekend for Labour Day. On Monday we jumped in the Pajero and headed for the hills. We found some great unsealed roads through the Dandenong ranges and spent a few hours off-road driving around the woods. Great fun. We stopped in a place called Olinda, a picturesque little village up in the hills where we had a lovely lunch. It was 38 degrees and beautiful -
not bad considering we're over a week into autumn. From there we headed home via Berwick to see how our land is progressing.
The road up to our block is well on the way, the curb stones and pavement have been laid up about two thirds of it and the substrate is down. Wont be much longer before they tarmac the road. They have put the main drainage in in front of our block, but they haven't started pulling the old house down yet. The last correspondence we had from them said that they expect title release in November, so still a good wait before we can get on and start building.
Mum & Dad arrive in a little over five weeks, we're really looking forward to seeing them. We have a packed itinerary to cover which includes a trip along the Great Ocean Road and a few days in Sydney - including a walk over the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge for Dad and me.
So, that's about all for now. Now that we are both settled with work we can relax and start exploring a bit further afield. There are so many places to
visit and things to see, we need to make a list and start heading further out each weekend. Next up will be the Grampian Mountains, they look awesome. Although we have had temperatures of high 30's all weekend this weekend, last week the higher mountains got their first snow! So, a few weeks time and we'll be heading off to Mount Baw Baw to try a bit of snow-boarding.
We now have a Skype account, so if anyone wants to talk to us for free over the internet just grab a headset or a cheap USB phone and sign up for a free Skype account. Our username is - tony.emma
Tara.
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