Sydney Australia - Part One

Our new home.

We flew with Jetstar and it ran smoothly, no complaints. A shuttle bus took us to our choosen hostel. The cheapest area for hostels is in Kings Cross. It is not hard to see why - people who have been there know what I mean! My Grandma Smith told me about Kings Cross before I left, describing her experience in this red light district a long time ago. I laughed when she told me the stories - I laughed again when we walked the neighbourhood, what a sight! It is Amsterdam on a smaller scale: plenty of homeless, tonnes of hostels, watering holes and prostitutes hanging out doors wearing very small smalls in the middle of the day. We didn't mind it because we never saw trouble and felt unusually comfortable.

We stayed in 2 hostels, neither were any better than the other. Dirty, smelly and cramped. We made sure we were straight on the job hunt.

In the first week I secured a job (Jon in the 2nd week) and a home. The job hunt had taken its toll, mainly because we were not getting much sleep in the noisy hostel, crazy Germans keeping us awake all night. We signed up with a company called Travellers At Work (TAW), a job website that specialises in short term work. We had to invest $69 each. A risk because they do not guarantee work. We spent each day in there sending out applications and inbetween this we searched for a place live - it costs the same to rent as it is to live in a hostel in Sydney! We used Gumtree at first to assist with the hunt, most landlords do not look after the properties, we seen quite a few scummy holes! One place was a one level old office type building next to warehouse with bars on the window - ermmm no thanks.

TAW offered to set an appointment with Furnished Property Group. They told us we can arrange a contract for only 6 weeks at a time, perfect! Even if we didn't work we could just about afford it. We went for a tour of the properties in our budget. We were spoilt for choice! We loved the 2 we had seen that day and decided to discuss in the park. 20 minutes later we signed the paperwork and were told we could move in that Saturday - wooo hooo! The only thing is that we didn't have the job and then I was starting to feel the pressure.

I went for an interview for Christmas Decorators, I would have had to go around the city center and decorate malls, hotels etc, sounded great until I found out they paid pitence and wanted me to work 60 hours a week +, that would of taken the fun element out of Sydney!

Nethertheless, I had no choice but to accept - just in case. Luckily for me, I got a call a day or two later from TAW offering me an interview. I had no idea that the office/admin role I had applied for was there! I went and I am surprised Karin (my Dutch boss, and now good friend) gave me the job! I was so tired after being kept up by the Germans, my brain didn't work and it wasn't the smoothest. Anyway, I think she took pity on me and I have been there since running the back office with my intern (Marie) by my side, I love it.

I started working and Jon was tirelessly still applying. We couldn't understand why he hadn't had the same luck. Sometimes he would get calls and the voicemail system would delete the interview contact details, very frustrating! He managed to work a few days for a Polish guy, dropping flyers in letter boxes. It was a long day for him walking 15km in one day. Cash in hand though which bought some relief.

After week two, we were starting to worry that the Sydney dream might not actually be the dream we hoped. Tired, stressed and virtually broke!

I work with girl called Chloe, she sits in our office and works for a seperate company that specialises in landscaping called Ecoplant. She mentioned that she needed new blokes urgently, Jon jumped at the chance, spent a whole bunch of $ on a white-card course, steel cap boots and work gear and was working a couple of days later. He hasn't looked back either. Both jobs sorted, and relax. Finally we started to fell good again and thought it was a bout time we started to see some of the sights! We hadn't even managed to see the Opera House up to that point.

He gets up at around 5am and works til 2.30, I do 10-6. He gets to see lots of different suburbs and enjoys the outdoors planting, digging, drilling! Plenty of sun cream required!

The apartment we chose is on Broadway, a great location. Everything in the city is within walking distance, 30 mins walk to work for me. Jon can be placed on landscaping projects anywhere in the Sydney suburbs so he generally gets the train but Central Station is only 10 mins walk away from our place :-)

We live in a large converted bank. The rooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room is spread over 2 floors with about 30 people sharing. All the flat amtes are great. A shopping center across the street, Glebe (a small bohemian village with oodles of restaurants and cafes) 2 minutes walk away, and a park right outside our door, bliss! To get to Bondi it is a train and bus journey ride, so we don't go as often as we would like.

Everything organised, we enjoy weekends out and meeting too many new friends!