Before I get started, I want to let you all know, we've discovered that calling America is cheaper for us than making local calls. Go figure. Now that I've been waking up at 5 am, I can talk by phone with Salt Lake people from 1 pm until 9 pm your time any day, so give me a call, or let me know if you want me to call you. Bob could probably only do that on a Friday or Saturday because of his work. For Virginia or New York, we can talk between 3 pm and 9 pm your time, again Friday or Saturday being best for Bob.
You can call us internationally by dialing 011 61 421 929 442. Our mailing address is
905/120 Mary Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000
The reason I've slacked a little on the blog is because I've been so occupied with house-hunting. Rio Tinto has provided us with a "relocation specialist" who is really wonderful. On Saturday, she drove us around Brisbane for hours, for the sole purpose of just showing us what the different neighborhoods are like. We really fell in love with two neighborhoods called "New Farm" and "Bulimba." The best thing I could analogize to is living on Main Street in Park City. You could live on the main street and walk out to find a ton of great cafes and restaurants, but just a block or so away are some great houses and apartment buildings. Of course, they also happen to be the most expensive places to live in Brisbane aside from downtown. There is a home in Bulimba that I hope opens up. It's cheap, huge, and in Bulimba. It has everything!
The biggest hurdle we've encountered is the bedroom size. People here just don't have a need for large bedrooms. I feel a little silly now because before we moved here, we were interested in buying a king-sized bedroom set, and we kept complaining to each other about how none of the online stores in Brisbane had king-size beds available, and their idea of a "set" is just the bed and nightstands. Well, now I understand why. A standard set here is a queen bed and 2 nightstands, and the reason is, the bedrooms are an average of 9' x 10'6" or something along those lines. Price does not make a difference by the way. I looked at a couple places that are about $3,250 per month, and there's no difference in the bedroom sizes - people here don't place value on that. An increase in price results in a larger living space, or just a nicer place overall - not a bigger bedroom. And, now we have our brand-new, never-been-used, king-sized, chunky, solid wood sleigh bed with matching dresser and armoire to fit in there. Ugh.
After several days of solid house-hunting, I stumbled across this place yesterday that might do the trick. It has an ENORMOUS 11'9" x 12'6" bedroom that just might fit our bed, one nightstand, and a dresser. And, if we squish the bed into the corner, so that there's no walking space on one side of it, we'll still be left with a roomy 3'1" for walking on the other. After what I've seen, that sounds good to me!
On top of that, it's actually a really beautiful apartment. It has a beautiful guest room that'll fit the queen set comfortably, with its own private bathroom and patio (hint hint, you guys better get your butts out here!). It's about 1,000 sq. ft., and has a really large living area, and a 300 sq. ft. patio that's really beautiful. It's in Toowong, and just across the street from the river, so we can take a public transportation boat to work if we want. It's right by a huge shopping mall, a public transport hub, and tons of restaurants and things to do. We're planning on submitting an application as soon as they open in a few minutes.
Besides the house-hunting, we've had a really great last few days exploring the areas outside of the CBD. On Friday afternoon, we walked across the bridge to the other side of the river, to an area called South Bank. Brisbane hosted the World Expo in 1988, and it looks like the center of it all was at South Bank. It's really amazing over there. They have a big ferris wheel we intend to ride sometime that towers over the whole city. There's also what they call a "man-made beach", which is really a huge recreational pool about 50 feet from the river, and they've imported a ton of white sand from the coast so that the pool looks like a beach. The whole area is landscaped really beautifully, with fountains, pools, and huge walkways with arching steel beams covered in purple flowering vines. We passed a ton of restaurants I'd love to try sometime. That's also where you can find the art museums and ballet and opera houses.
Further down, it led to a remote walk down Kangaroo Point. Brisbane is surprisingly hilly in some areas, and at Kangaroo Point, the Brisbane river has cut down through an elevated area, creating some huge cliffs on the south side of the river. I saw my first spider down there. It was a St. Andrew's Cross Spider, which is not only harmless to humans, but wikipedia describes its venom as having "potential as [a] therapeutic medicinal agent[]." For a day, I thought I had nothing to fear.
That evening, they brought us along to a Christmas party their friends were throwing. We all arrived in our sundresses and tank tops to celebrate Christmas. The highlight of the party for me was the local dessert they served - Pavlova, or "Pav" as they call it. It's essentially just meringue, baked until the outside is crispy but the inside is soft, and topped with whipped cream and fruit (passionfruit being the favorite, but berries, kiwi and banana are also pretty common). You should all try it this Christmas. This recipe looks pretty incredible (icing sugar = powdered sugar).
Bob started work Monday, and I've begun my job search, but I think I'll save those stories for a different day. Cheers, and Happy Holidays everyone!
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