Day 2: Time to Get Connected
The groceries here are a trip. At Woolies we bought some cereals and Soy Milky so here is the spread from our first morning...
Another thing that is different is the coffee. At the townhouse, we don’t have a traditional coffee maker. What we had to do was buy coffee bags, similar to a tea bag, but you add hot water and you get a cup of coffee. They are not bad, but we needed an extra caffeine boost so after brekkie we headed out to the Oxford Street Cafe Strip for one long black (two shots of espresso plus hot water) and one flat white (coffee with milk). We enjoyed reading the paper and people watching.
When we were pretty sure that the stores downtown would be open, we headed down to the Murray Street Mall. It is not a mall as we would envision it in the US. It is actually, just about three blocks where they close off the road and there are shops, restaurants and people EVERYWHERE (even on Sunday)! It is quite similar to how I remember the Downtown Crossing area in Boston, except cleaner.
We hit the Telstra store and got hooked up with two new phones. The idea of being able to check Facebook after being “off-line” for 4 days was mind boggling! Plus, Larry had to turn in his laptop before we left so he was very excited to check e-mails and be able to access his work e-mails.
We had lunch at David Jones, the Australian version of Neiman Marcus. The Food Hall there has lots of exotic ingredients. In fact, there is half of an aisle dedicated to American food. What do they have? Aunt Jemima, Crisco, Jif Peanut Butter, Zatarains and Bone Suckin’ Barbecue Sauce. Really? Is that how they see us? Oh, the jar of pumpkin puree (Libby brand) that is normally 0.99 at the grocery store and occasionally buy one get one free is $7.00!! Please send pumpkin puree!
Again, we managed not to starve and actually feast on garlic and scotch steaks. Delicious!
Day 3: Money Money Money
The goal of the day was to verify our bank accounts. This meant, driving into the city, navigating the one way and two way streets and finding a place to park. People that we have spoken with have told us that Perth is a very manageable city and thus far, it has been. Without much problem, we located a parking deck and the bank. The process to verify our account was quite simple but did take a lot of time. We were almost late for our first apartment viewing.
We got to the apartment viewing a bit early and had some time to explore. We thought that we wanted to be in Subiaco, but of course, you never know until you get there. The parts of this suburb that we saw prior to the viewing really piqued our interests. Unfortunately, the apartment was not that great, very old bathroom and quite smelly. Plus, on a lease break, the owner was still getting paid by the prior tenant and was not feeling so generous in reducing the rent ($525 per week!). After the viewing we had more time to explore the area and we knew Subiaco would be for us.
After the apartment viewing, we headed back downtown to JB Hi-Fi (a kind of cross between Best Buy and Radio Shack) and got my MAC Book!! We also got a printer, paper and some pens (so I can write my to-do lists!). We were supposed to be able to get on line with the MAC book and our phones but that did not happen. At least I was able to start writing.
Day 4: Home Sweet Home
Subiaco is a bit of a high rent district, so the apartments available in our price range leave us in a similar situation as the toothpaste aisle - very little selection. After what happened with the other smelly, apartment, I was apprehensive that the small character home that we saw on this date would also be smelly and old or have a water heater occupying an entire closet like another place we saw. But we headed to the viewing and we were surprised to find gorgeous floor boards, adequate closets and patio areas in the front and the back of the house. We made application for the apartment and I am happy to announce that we will be living at 107 Park Street in just a couple of weeks.
This is our tree-lined street:
The house is on the cutest cobble stone street. The car park is around back with ally access. Plus, we are only two blocks off the cafe strip and are within walking distance of Farmer Jack’s (a produce laden grocery store) and a Coles (another grocery store). I will post more pictures of the house and the area once we sign the lease next week.
After all that went down, we decided that we had done enough for the day and we headed out to Scarborough Beach. The sun was shining and the sand was soft and warm. The waves were beyond words and partially beyond pictures. Larry wanted to put his toes in the Indian Ocean.
and I decided to follow
and yes, the water was cold.
Day 5: West Australian Bureaucracy
We had a task for every day and this day was getting driver’s licenses. Since we came from the US, another English speaking country (we could debate about that), we did not have to take any written or practical driving exam - thank goodness! What we did have to do was go to the West Australian Licenses Bureau, their version of the Registry of Motor Vehicles or the Tax Collector’s Office.
We walked up and had to take a number. I thought I would be waiting for a very long time and in fact made a point to bring a book with me, but my number got called before Larry even got his number! We were in and out of there in about 20 minutes with our licenses! We were legal and now more importantly, we could buy a car.
So off we went to Osborne Park, the auto-mall of Perth. We have been going back and forth for about 3 weeks about what car to purchase. Cars are very expensive here. The 2008 X3 that I purchased for $35,000 is $138,000 here (that is not a typo). There is an incredible import tax on most European luxury vehicles so we were not going to be BMW owners any more. We did some research and decided to try a Jeep Wrangler.
We pulled into the Jeep dealer to have a look around. They had a 2008 Wrangler that looked good to us so we decided to have a ride. The car had upgraded sound system and Bluetooth which is important as driving while holding a cell phone is illegal. We gave them a copy of Larry’s license and we got the keys. The truck was large and rumbling, but more importantly, when we took the first left turn out of the dealership the Jeep sloshed as though there were several liters of water in the dashboard!! We had no idea where the sound came from, but that coupled with the rust on the emergency break and driver’s seat made us run, not walk, away from the Jeep.
Day 6: We need a Ride
We had our rental car until the end of the month, so the fact that we hadn’t arranged a vehicle yet was not that bad, but still we wanted to have something in the works before Larry started. We went back to Osborne Park and wandered into Volvo to have a look. We did really well by Premier Motors and we are now proud owners of a S40 sedan! The negotiation process was quite painless and we ended up with an umbrella.
Here is a picture of me with the car guys:
Day 7: Rest
The last week has been exhausting. So now that we had checked off all our to-do items, it was time for a relaxing morning at home. We got the printer set up and actually unpacked some of our bags. I was getting a bit tired of living out of a suitcase. In the afternoon we picked up the car. We only had to sign about 3 times AND, the dealership set us up with some really good insurance, which is not required in Australia.
When we picked up the car, we also got a bottle of wine and a wine cooler!
Here is the new ride!
What we didn’t get was the picture of the rainbow that came out when we picked up the car. The was really pretty, but when we got home, we realized that it had rained on the laundry that we had hung out to dry. Our washing machine is relatively normal sized. Our dryer has an opening the size of a dinner plate. Our new apartment doesn’t even have a dryer!
Being here, you realize how much we take for granted in the US: the discount you get on cars because of the size of the population (I’m not going to disclose what we actually paid for the S40), being able to get a venti sized coffee and having a really big washer and dryer. But our clothes dried, we have coffee bags and I think that I will be just fine without the excess as long as I can have kangaroo and red wine ravioli!
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