City slickers

We have both now been back in work for a few weeks and the old adage you forget you were ever away is too true!!!

We are both enjoying the new challenges our jobs present but are still trying to experience Sydney.

We have now firmly embedded ourselves in the local boozer! The point bar, it's less than 50 meters from our building and is a cool little place.

We have become friends with a few of the bar staff and bar managers. This culminated in them inviting James to go to a local rugby league game. A very drunken night in which Sarah was called as the cavalry to pick him up at 3 am!!

Sarah went out with some girl friends for a night of dancing in the city, this ended in Sarah walking half an hour home with no shoes on.

We are also on the hunt for a local sailing club as we want to get out on the water and enjoy some water sports. As yet one has not been picked.

The hunt for furniture goes on, dinning room chairs are our current target. Fingers crossed on e bay that will be sorted very soon.

We're all booked in to go away with James' parents to Hamilton island when they come over for a long weekend.

In the mean time bring on the bank holiday weekend, that's what you do when your full time I remember count down the days to the next holiday! Bad habits die hard!!!

This has been written on a mobile phone using a blogger app as we still have no broadband, so sorry about crap formatting.

Sydney - Future Music Festival and first few days at Google

So we have been in Sydney now for exactly 1 month. James has been the bread-winner for the last 2 weeks has been bringing in the salary while Sarah has been sorting out life in the back office (and waiting to start Google).

To celebrate our first month here we decided to go to Sydney's Future Music Festival at Randwick racecourse with our friend Emma (also from Wokingham who lives over here now).

It was like rolling back the clock 10 years to our festival days with  the likes of Fatboy slim, PVD and Sven Vath playing, plus new-ish acts Swedish House Mafia,Chase and Status, Oliver Huntemann, Friendly Fires and Gareth Emery!!! Awesome...

Now, these festivals are a little different to the ones we're used to at home.... Wait for it... they start at 12pm and finish at 10pm. It was held on the race-course in the city which was a 20min walk home! Result! This meant we were back at Emma's flat and tucked up in bed at 11.30pm. Compare this to Reading festival where you don't get home until 3 days later...

Sunday we all woke up after a great 8hours sleep and went out for brunch, and we didn't even feel hungover!

Sarah started with Google on Monday 12th March, which was an intro to life at Google which mainly consisted of a free food extravaganza (as always breakfast, lunch and dinner are free)...

Quote for the day from Sarah " I will NOT put on the 'Google Stone' ". "However the first day is an exception"

Who could turn down free magnum ice-creams, sushi, steak and salad, yoghurt, fruits, nuts, rice cakes with peanut butter, red bull, diet coke, fruit salad... to name a few.. mmmmmm (oh dear).



.

I'm feeling lucky...I'm going to be a Googler!!!

Yes I got it!!!!! (Sarah btw)

I'm Feeling Lucky 

I received a job offer which I have accepted for Google as a Senior Financial Accountant in the Sydney office in Darling harbour... Just 7 minutes walk from the flat.. 

I am feeling lucky

The plan is to start on the 12th March, meeting Laura my new boss for lunch next thursday!

Can't quite believe it!!! :)

The move into our new flat!

Saturday 25th Feb'12

The flat was actually the second flat we saw in Sydney, and we fell in love with it. It had 2 large bedrooms, 1 with en-suite (and dressing room), and an amazing open plan living/dining/kitchen area with outstanding views!! It comes with a large pool, sauna, jacuzzi, gym and has access to another larger gym and pool area too, plus tennis courts!!! A bit of a change from sleepy Wokingham... We couldn't quite believe it.

We immediately knew the flat location would be great as it is in Pyrmont, 5 minutes walk to Darling harbour, 23min walk to the main shopping centre/CBD and 4 minutes walk to the famous Sydney fish markets! Yummy!!

The move in the morning was a rather dis-organised affair as Sarah had a little hangover headache from the fiarwell BBQ and drinks do with Ro and Dan. We managed to plow through and move all the boxes and clothes up in the lift to the 11th floor without too much hassle.

Next came our deliveries of:
Sofa
Coffee tables x2
TV cabinet
Washing machine
Fridge/freezer
Bed and Mattress.

James had to pop out for a much needed hangover feed, whilst Sarah dealt with all the deliveries- which all turned up at once!! It was all was rather chaotic with 3 different delivery trucks at once!

Anyway, here is the end result: We obviously need a little more furniture ;)

Our lounge area, taken from the kitchen

Taken from Balcony

Our Bedroom, dressing room and bathroom

The guest suite (yes, your more than welcome!!) However as you can see no bed... we have roll mats ;)

And finally: Our balcony:

Our view from the balcony onto Anzac bridge

Anyway, i'll leave you a view of our sunset on our first night:
(We were also treated to the fireworks over Darling harbour)

And sunrise on our first morning:

Finally:

James started work with Appsense on Monday 27th Feb (and flew down to Melbourne), whilst Sarah awaited eagerly for the final offer pack from Google! She had got through 9 interviews, a review with the senior finance team and the senior exec review panel (with Larry Pages' signature ) was due on Monday 27th... Nearly there!!! :)

Last days with Jasper, Ro and Dan!

Our move in date was set for the 25th Feb'12, exactly 2 weeks from arrival date.

We had most things organised, the car was packed up and we had all our orders ready for delivery on the move day:

Our furniture for delivery consisted of: A sofa, TV cabinet, washer & fridge freezer, bed and coffee tables! Not much for an empty flat!

So on thursday and friday we decided to spend some quality time with Jasper, Dan and Ro before we left:

Jasper was teething quite a bit so he was a little poorly, but it didn't stop him from brushing James' teeth:

Jasper also helped out with pool cleaning! (Distraction technique working quite well)

 The friday night before we moved we had a BBQ of surf and turf cooked by Dan:

 Followed by 6 bottles of wine and port!!! Not such a good idea looking back on the night of a house move...

We all woke up need paracetamol and asprin and James had to drag Sarah out of bed.

We both want to say a big thank you to Ro and Dan who put us up (and all our crap we bought) and gave us so much advice!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

See next blog for flat move.....

Reorganising your life in a week

So the excitement of arriving in Sydney was great, but the task to setup a life was greater.

We had in all necessity sorted the flat however did need to sign on the dotted line, this was to occur on Monday 20th February in the mean time the task list grew...and grew...

1. Get tax file numbers
2. Change driving licenses
3. Apply for a credit card
4. Go to see the bank to get draft for the rental bond
5. Find a sofa, 
6. Find a mattress
7. Find a bed
8. Find white goods, research white goods
9. Organise gas and electric
10. Buy kitchen utensils, pots and pans
11. Buy crockery...

All while Sarah continued the job hunt and James prepared to start the new job in 10 days.....

Needless to say its the 21st February today, James starts work in 7 days and we're still not sorted!

The new list as of today:

1. Got tax file numbers supply them to employers
2. Change driving licenses - still not done
3. Apply for a credit card - declined as we have no credit history!!!
4. Go to see the bank to get draft for the rental bond - Done
5. Arrange delivery of the new sofa
6. Arrange delivery of the new Mattress
7. Find a bed - still not done
8. Find white goods, research white goods - still not done
9. Buy crockery...- still not done

As you can see some items have gone, some remain and some have changed but its still a long list so sorry for no exciting blogs!

We will blog over the weekend with pictures of us in the new pad though!

Welcome to Sydney

the trip had actually come to an end......but the adventure was just beginning.

We flew from Auckland to Sydney on the 11th February to setup home for a bit.

We were staying with James' cousin Rowena and her husband Dan and their little boy Jasper. The first few days were spent relaxing, enjoying random rain storms! and eating and drinking. The following days would be chaos!

James had secured a job with a software vendor he worked with in the UK and Sarah was 9 interviews down with Google. So the decision was made that flat hunting for a place with no less than the following characteristics was required:

1. Sea or harbour views
2. A balcony
3. 2 bedrooms
4. Mirrors on the cupboards
5. A gym
6. A swimming pool
7. Close to the CBD
8. Not ground floor
9. Walk in wardrobe
10. Parking space
11. Preferably furnished
12. Air conditioning

So in a city the size of Sydney no problem right.......yeah right!!!

The process to obtain a flat is complicated and stressful to say the least. Firstly normally you don't get shown around a property on your own there are organised open houses where 5 or 10 people may turn up mid week at weekends its 30. Then there is usually one or two people who know the process who turn up with all their documents and take it there and then!

So we quickly learnt to adjust our way.

We have now virtually secured a flat, we sign on the dotted line on Monday.. so here's hoping!

Here are some pics:

And we got all 12 on the list!

Just a quick snap from Darling harbour

Friday night we're off partying with our good friend Emma who we used to go clubbing with us in 2000!!! How time flies: from Wokingham to Sydney! Such as small world!