Moving in and settling down.

No pictures today as I forgot to bring my camera with me to the hotel to access the internet.

Finally got to actually move into my new apartment on Saturday. Roger helped me move my stuff to the new place with an estate style taxi. Had fun trying to figure out the tradesman entrance to the building as I was told when moving in to use that entrance instead.

I'd already prepared for moving in by buying loads of cleaning stuff from Woolies. I have to give the place a good clean top to bottom, would you lot have expected anything less? Something very strange happened while I was cleaning. I was upstairs hoovering while listening to music and didn't hear someone knocking on my front flat door. I did just hear someone come in and call for me. It turned out to be another estate agent who was showing some old biddie around my flat!!!

I was quite shocked to have a different estate agent showing a prospective buyer around my flat just as I was moving in. From the estate agents point of view he said it was quite normal for a landlord to want to sell a property while it was being rented out. I mentioned that I had just signed a minimal six month contract. He didn't seem bothered by this at all and asked whether he could show his client around the place. I didn't see why not so let him lead her around, next time though I'll expect some sort of reasonable notice. Lucky I wasn't doing my cleaning in only my pants!

I'll have to call my estate agent tomorrow to find out what is going on and whether the place will be sold from beneath me forcing me to move out. God knows what's happening here though. I did think that maybe it's a sneaky ploy by the landlord to encourage me to sign a 12 month contract rather than the 6 month one that I have signed. I am tempted to sign a 12 month contract now though as I quite like the place. Maybe I'll give the place a week to see what it's like to live there for seven days before committing myself to it.

After moving in properly I'm generally very happy with the place. The two air conditioning units don't work really well though and don't cool down the place that much. It felt like ages last night before I managed to get to sleep. It was much much too hot in the bedroom, especially with the air vents and open mezzanine area and bedroom overlooking it. All the heat from the downstairs rises and collects upstairs making upstairs quite warm all the time. Not too good really.

Also discovered that the church in the next block has church bells which ring quite loudly on Sunday mornings! Went out shopping for lots of house things this morning. Even though the place is furnished there are so many little things that I still needed to buy, larger cups, coffee mugs, tea towels, desk fan, sideboard dish drainer (the flat has a dish washer but I doubt I'll ever use it seeing as I like washing up so much), Bose sound system for my iPod so I have music.

There is an ironing board in the property, but it's only a mini one with small legs on each corner. God knows how it's meant to be used to iron shirts though. The legs on the corners get in the way of trying to iron one side of a shirt at once. Grr!

Had to do a food shop to stock up my cupboards a little. Not having a car makes it difficult to be able to buy all the stuff I need in one go. I had to make two trips and the local supermarket is only a small inner city one so doesn't have much in the way of fresh veg in stock. I'm sure I'll get used to buying food two to three times a week. I wish I had my S2000 here, I have a parking space for it in my apartment and it would be really nice to be able to drive outside of Sydney central with it. Mind you the police here are quite ruthless on speeders, so I'd be likely to loose my driving license from speeding quite quickly.

I've not met any of my apartment neighbours yet and don't expect to be friends with any of them really. Was going to go to the nearest Fitness First gym this morning but after not sleeping very well last night I really wanted to lay in a bit rather than visit the gym. I'll have to introduce myself there later on this week instead. Got very chatty with one of the 24 hour security guards though. A guy named Nick who was very friendly and offered me loads of helpful advice.

There's a Starbucks opposite my new flat, they apparently have WiFi computer access so I might be able to log on there over the next couple of weeks. Otherwise don't be surprised if this blog isn't updated till I get internet access at home which will hopefully be in a week or two.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying reading my experiences while out here. Miss you all... xx