Second day in Sydney.

Met up with Allen and Deirdre this morning as they arrived on the morning flight from Hong Kong.

Saw an estate agent just before lunch. He showed me around two apartments. This is the first one, unfortunately picture quality is lacking thanks to my shaky hand. I really liked this apartment quite a lot and it was exactly what I was looking for. It's in a newly refurbished old listed church. The first three floors are the outside of the church and consist of flats, but they have extended the building up to ten floors or so for loads of new apartments.

It's a furnished one bed apartment with a massive window on the one north facing wall. The furnishings are all new and there is a part mezzanine level upstairs with study area and bedroom with bathroom. There are large storage cupboards and also a box room. Downstairs is one large open plan area with kitchen and living room. The actual area isn't that large but the big floor to ceiling window over two floors makes the place feel huge.

It's located in a good location for access to facilities and to the train station and a large set of bus stops. It's basically next to the financial district and a couple of blocks from the opera house. I guess a twenty to thirty minute walk to work or short bus hop.

The only down sides I could think of are that the building is so new it's still having the finishing touches put in and 40% of the flats aren't occupied yet, there isn't a balcony or great view, though the view is unobstructed and it is at the very limit of my budget. It's marketed at $900 pw but the estate agent says because so many properties are being rented in the same building and it has been on the market for a couple of weeks the owner is likely to reduce the price to around $800-825 for me. Remember my budget is at around $800 and I should be including utility bills in this figure too.

As I've said before if I find somewhere I really like I'm willing to add some of my own cash to rent the place for a year. It's not for long and probably worth it for some really nice city living space.

The second place I was shown was in Woolloomooloo! It's just east of the previous property and the agent did say I would need to catch the bus into work. The place was nice but not as good as the first property. It's located in an old sheep docks (shown) right beside a marina and navy docking port. The place was much
cheaper at $650pw and the apartments are mixed in with hotel rooms too.

The building was amazingly refurbished with lots of shops and restaurants on the ground floor and apartments upstairs. The bar at one end looked really good. There were plenty of other colonial style shops near by, as well as the start of Kings Cross street a couple of blocks away. Not sure whether this is good or bad as Kings Cross is like the same place in London, very cosmopolitin!

Anyhow the apartment was much smaller and east facing which isn't so good for the intense sun. I've pretty much dismissed this apartment and likely to go for the first one unless something better comes up.

Meeting another estate agent on Friday and waiting for one to call back today to show me a couple of places which sound similar to the first one here.

Talking with the estate agent brought up something quite funny. Woolworths came up in the conversation and he was saying that there is a really up market one in Sydney with fine foods. I had to tell him that Woolworths in the Uk is only a couple of steps up from pound stretcher and mainly sells pick and mix and no other food stuffs.

Should be going out with Allen, Deirdre and many of the Wallingford Software sales/support staff from around the world tonight, as the company has been having their 'sales conference' here in Sydney this week.