One house, two people, no furniture.........

So we got the house! We moved in on Oct 19. It is SO nice to have some space! There's only so long one can live in a motel for and eat takeaways. We'll now have to start buying furniture, bit by bit. The boyfriend insisted that a TV was the first piece of furniture we get! Honestly. Men and their televisions. Surely a bed or a fridge would come before a television??

More photos to come!!!

It's also the little things that really make a difference. We can eat off proper plates and not paper ones! We can sleep in our own bed! The boyfriend can watch his beloved television at high volume up one end of the house while I read a book down the other end! It doesn't take much to make me happy.

I also wanted to share a rather embarassing story. Please factor in that this happened on a Friday afternoon when I was tired, after a big week at work at my new job. This story makes it hard for me to escape the "dumb blonde" cliche. Ok, so the boyfriend and I were in the supermarket. We were at the checkout. I've got one of those new debit visa/mastercard things that has the "pay wave" technology.

This means that for a small purchase, one can just tap the card against the eftpos terminal - that's it. Transaction done. No need to insert the card or swipe it.

So the checkout girl asks me to tap the card (She means tap the card against the terminal, as explained above, to make the payment). So what do I do? I tap the card with my finger.
And then stare at her with an expression that says "Yep, now what?"

HONESTLY. As if that's going to work. Tapping the card with my finger!!!
The checkout girl bursts out laughing, as does the boyfriend, who promptly calls me a loser.
Oh dear.

At least I left the store with a smile on my face - amused by my own stupidity.



 

House hunting in Shepp....

Hopefully this will be our new house!

So this is the house we're hoping to move into. It's in central Shepp so it's not far from town. The rental prices here are so cheap! It's great after the high prices in Auckland. It's 3bdrm with a big backyard. There's only 2 of us and we're yet to get some furniture so we'll be rattling around in this massive place! We should find out on Monday if our tenancy application is sucessful. Fingers crossed!

So if anyone's thinking about coming to Aussie to stay, come to Shepparton! It might be BYO bed for the time being! (Nah we would sort something if someone came to stay).

We also bought a car today so that's exciting. We now have wheels! Will take some pics soon and post them up.

If I had to sum up Shepparton so far, I'd say it seems like a decent place to live, it's warmer, the houses are cheaper, there's a real sense of community and there's definitely opportunities for those who are keen. I'm excited that a Melbourne shopping trip is only a train ride away!

But there's another side to Shepparton too that I'm still discovering. There's the crime, there's the nightlife and there's the less friendlier types. Today I was reading about a flat of girls who woke to discover a man in their house. He didn't harm them and just ran off....
I've also discovered that the "Nek Minnit" phrase is pretty popular here. It just makes me cringe. I'm over it. It's not that funny. I think Australians need their own phrase, not an old imported one from NZ.





 

All I want for Christmas is a real wardrobe. I'm over living out of a suitcase....

I have to say Shepparton is bigger and better than I remember it to be.......
We arrived in town on Friday night and headed straight for the pub....first things first. No, it was actually a chance to meet some of my new colleagues, so that was cool.
The people seem lovely although these thick Australian accents will take some getting used to.
I've discovered the term "ridgy didgy" which (I think) is like a way of saying that something is good/a favourite.
I spotted an ad for a pub in a local visitor guide that says: "We serve ridgy didgy meals....."

Part of Saturday was spent trudging through the rain to get into the middle of town. Men just don't seem to understand how important it is to keep one's hair dry...especially when you've carefully straightened it. We finally took shelter at a local motel and asked them to call us a taxi. The woman charged us 50c for  local phone call to the taxi company (which was free for her!). How rude.

Some pics below of the journey...Auckland to Shepparton....
We caught the train up from Melbourne and sat next to some "interesting" people.
There was a man from Western Australia who could hardly string a sentence together and laughed at everything. And another guy who told us all about how he has lung cancer and he's going to have to get part of his lung removed. He still had a packet of cigarettes in his pocket. Apparently if you've got lung cancer your fingernails are curved over and not flat.

And yes, I think we're both sick of living out of our suitcases already. It's a strange thing to pack up your whole life into a suitcase and wheel it around behind you. I hope to never lug a suitcase up a flight of stairs ever again. Don't people believe in ramps over here? Or staff who might kindly offer to help with luggage?

Catching the train from Melbourne

Traitor

Leaving Auckland....