Success, or Buy Baby Love Nappies

Today started off even more hilariously than yesterday. We woke up with the sun about 4:30 am. Seriously, the sun comes up here really, really early. We don’t mind so much though, it’s kind of nice to be awake that early and have the time to enjoy our tea. We turned on the TV to check the weather and promptly saw the funniest commercial either of us had ever seen. Actually now that I think about it, I didn’t even see it I just heard it, but that was enough. It was for a product called Baby Love Nappies and the slogan was “Only Baby Love Nappies, with the poo poo pocket can handle the big poo explosions!” If TV in Oz keeps topping itself like this, I’ll die of laughter before I can come home.

We didn’t have any appointments until 9:00 so we took a leisurely breakfast. Leah is kind of in love with breakfast here because almost all of the options are savory. She had a spinach and cheese pasty and I had a bacon and egg biscuit. A little note about bacon in Australia, it’s not the bacon we know, it’s more like what we’d call Canadian bacon. I’m not complaining though, I’ve never met a cooked pig that I didn’t like.

Our first appointment was about fifteen minute’s bike ride from the hotel and we managed to turn it into twenty five. After a minor wrong turn we made it to the unit across the river in West End. Let’s say this unit made the shitty one yesterday look a bit like the Taj Majal. The owner was a creaky old man who told us the unit was “Just basic accommodation for a student.” Yeah, I thought, if the student is Chunk from The Goonies. It was right out of a slasher movie. We politely passed.

We then grabbed the city cat over to the Uni and parked our bikes, mine has a problem with the front brake and it’s going to take some tools that I don’t have with me. So we bussed over to the next appointment at 11. This one is over in Toowong about three or four kilometers from the UQ, and right near the shopping centre where we spent most of yesterday afternoon. This showing was actually for several units in an old Queenslander house that has just been renovated and turned into apartments. Queenslander houses are built on stilts to allow the air to flow all around since it gets so bloody hot here. They also have large verandas that wrap most of the way around.

We knew from the minute we saw it that this was the one. We took the largest one in the building, still $60 a week less than any of the shit we’ve seen so far. And this one is nice. It’s furnished and air conditioned. Since the whole building everything in it is brand new, mattress, dishes, silverware, tv, couches, everything. We really lucked out.

We grabbed a ride back to the real estate office with the agent and filled out the paperwork right away. Called all our other appointments for the day and cancelled. Then we made our way back to the Uni feeling pumped up.

When we got there we went to the bank and set up an account. That took about an hour or so and by the time we were done with that, we had gotten an e-mail from the rental agents that we’ve been approved. That’s it, two days in country and we’ve got an address, a bank account and are feeling quite pleased with ourselves. In fact I couldn’t help smiling at nearly everyone I saw all afternoon. We both feel like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

We sign the papers tomorrow at 9:30. We have to pay four weeks rent as a bond and two weeks up front. You can pay your rent every week if you like or you can pay six months in advance. They don’t care as long as you don’t fall behind. That’s going to take some getting used to.

We won’t have internet hooked up in the unit for a few days (I’m not sure how long really) so updates may be spotty for the next few days. We’ll try and post some photos soon, but the internet connection in the hotel is terrible, we can barely get e-mail to load let alone upload pictures. And full disclosure, we’ve been so busy with getting settled we haven’t allowed ourselves to do anything as frivolous as taking photos.

I should mention that since we have gotten here Leah has been fighting a cold, and has been a real trouper. I don’t intend to be making all the updates to this blog but Leah’s been sacking out even earlier than normal. It’s cute really.

A few observations from today:

-There are these really big ugly birds walking around campus that look like turkeys only their tails go the wrong way. I asked someone today what their called and surprisingly they call them Bush Turkeys.

-Savory pies for breakfast are brilliant

-google maps is missing a whole bridge that’s only a few hundred meters from our hotel

-Aussies like to suss things out for ya. I guess suss means figure.

-We actually heard someone say G’day today but not to us

-NO ONE HAS SAID G’DAY TO US, NO ONE.