Even if I can't do full updates all of the time, I'll try to at least pop some of my photos in here.

This is from our trip to Daintree Rainforest in Queensland over the holidays.

 

Nov 5, 2007

Almost an entire month has passed since I last wrote. How horrible of me. I know it's no excuse, but we really have not slowed down at all here. I've done some more travel, which I'll write about a bit here, and we've kept moving forward on the house.

For the most part, throughout this time, we've been spending our free time most evenings and weekends continuing to fill the house with furniture and other items. It's kind of a shame that Ikea doesn't have a frequent shopper program...we'd definitely have a free sofa or something by now if they did.

We've been getting out to visit Vegas every week. Well, at least Leslie has. When I'm travelling it's harder to take the half day to get out to see him. He's doing well and is less than two weeks away from coming home. It's been a long three months, but it's good to be close to the end.

Mixed in with some of our house stuff has been more exploring, particularly in the downtown area.

But first a quick note on terminology that we've learned relating to that. When we refer to the main section of Melbourne with all of the high rises and government buildings, arranged in a standard city grid pattern, we call it "downtown" since, to us, everything in our area is basically the Melbourne metro area.

We have learned, however, that that area is simply called "the city" here. And this is the case for all of the major cities. Everything else is the suburbs. The only thing that is actually Melbourne is the small section described above.

Anyway, we have explored more of the city (aka downtown). All of the travel books you read about Melbourne talk about it being the shopping capital of Australia. We could see this even in the suburbs where we are, but it's simply insane downtown. Along with the major shopping centers and department stores, there are hundreds of little shops, restaurants, and cafes tucked away down every street and alley. It's really fascinating to wander around and see what you can find.

One thing we made a special trip to was the Queen Victoria Market. It's the huge outdoor market downtown. A lot of it is where people go to get their fresh produce and meats. That part was fun to watch. Most of it, however, seems to have turned into a bit of a tourist trap shopping experience. While there are hundreds of different little vendors, it really just ends up being the same few styles of shops over and over, most of them selling things that residents of Melbourne would never even think of buying. Therefore, we bought a bunch of stuff.

Now on to work. The first of my two big trips in the past several weeks was back to Brisbane in Queensland. I was heading up there to spend a day and a half with a big new client that had recently signed up. A trip to Brisbane normally would not be a big deal. This one was, however, because I was going solo.

I hadn't done any travel on my own in Australia yet. I wasn't worried about the work part. That was easy. Oddly though, I wasn't worried about the travel part. It was just...different, but at the same time cool. I know that it may not seem like a huge deal, but it was pretty exciting to know that I could manage to get around (both flying and with a rental car) on my own in a strange city in a new country.

The trip went very well and the clients were very pleased with the time we spent.

While I was doing this, we were also getting ready for our next big events...in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The reason we needed to head to those cities was because it had been decided that our office would be responsible for Asia as well as Australia. I had always expected this, just not quite so soon. I guess that's what happens when we (the AU office) exceed our goals and impress the home office right out of the gate like we did.

The events we were going to do in Asia were to be similar to what we had done in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane a few weeks back...our "intensive" events. We wanted to get a chance to meet some of our existing clients who had had very little (and difficult due to time zones) contact with anyone at CA. Also, it was a chance for John to do his Sales pitch to any potential clients. That's right....I was going to Hong Kong and Singapore. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited, especially since we would have some free time to explore.

Prior to this trip, Kerri had spent a week in Raleigh to attend quarterly meetings and planning meetings at the CA office. She was then going to fly straight from the US and meet John and I in Hong Kong.

While she was in Raleigh, I decided that Kerri needed to attend a Hurricanes hockey game. We had been selling our tickets still, but one of the games while she was there had not sold yet so I convinced Kerri that she should go. (It didn't actually take much convincing...she was very excited)

Here was the fun part...the day of the game, we could listen to the radio broadcast streaming online. It was a Friday night game, so it started at around 9am Saturday for us. Throughout the game, Kerri was sending me instant messages on the Blackberry when something exciting would happen. When they would score, she'd record the cheering as a voicememo and send that.

The Canes lost the game (horribly, in fact) but she got to see a few fights (on the ice, thankfully, not in the crowd...we weren't playing Buffalo), a lot of scoring, and even a penalty shot.

Now, on to Asia. John and I got on a direct Cathay Pacific flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong that was scheduled to take off around 1am. The flight was how you want a flight to be...smooth, comfortable, and uneventful.

The timing of the flights was pretty impressive. About the time John and I got to the baggage area in Hong Kong, Kerri's flight from the US arrived in the same area. We gathered our bags and got in our hired car (essentially a nice taxi) to head to the hotel. We were staying in Kowloon.

Quick geography lesson for those who don't know...Hong Kong itself is actually an island. Kowloon is the major mainland area just across the water from the island. I actually knew this before I arrived, but not because of my top-notch education. I learned it from James Bond movies. I'm pretty sure that 007 has been to Hong Kong more than just about any city (other than London).

View Album Get your own

For those who remember "The Man With the Golden Gun"...the Peninsula Hotel still has green Rolls Royces. A whole fleet of brand new ones. We saw the cars on the highway and parked at the hotel.

The views on our first day were a bit foggy and smoggy, but I didn't care. I was in Hong Kong.

Having been a British territory until around 1997, just about everyone speaks english and all signs, etc are in english. Very helpful for those of us who don't speak anything but english.

We had time our first day to explore a bit. The great thing was that Kerri had been to Hong Kong many times in the past so she knew where to go for the good sights and shopping (both huge shopping centers and the small markets where you can haggle for just about any cell phone accessory imaginable.

I didn't care where we went. I was just enjoying every sight, sound...and smell. I had forgotten about the wonderful smells that can come from a crowded city in Asia. It really is a great part of the experience, but unfortunately one that can't be captured and shared very easily.

That night we wandered a bit and then hit the first of many restaurants where I had to act like I knew how to use chopsticks. The food was good..I just couldn't eat too much of it due to the extra effort involved in getting from plate to mouth.

The next day was our Intensive event. That went very well and wrapped up by around lunch time. After catching up on emails and a quick change of clothes, we did some more wandering around Hong Kong. John had gotten in touch with a friend of his who lives in Hong Kong and we planned to meet him for a drink later.

Being a local, John's friend showed us some great areas of the city that the average tourist most likely would never think to go. Dinner was at a tiny Thai restaurant hidden on the 2nd floor of a shady looking building with an even shadier elevator. But the food was incredible.

After dinner we started the walk back down the hill to the ferry back to Kowloon. Normally this would not be a problem. This night, however, was Halloween. Hong Kong has started to embrace the holiday. I didn't see a ton of costumes, just a ton of people. There were mobs of them in the streets to celebrate.

The next morning, we headed to the airport early for our flight to Singapore. It was about a 3 hour flight and went well.

As with Hong Kong, we had time to wander a bit. But instead of Kerri being the expert, John was the one with experience in Singapore. His younger brother has been living there for several years.

From our hotel we could walk to many of the major landmarks, mostly the old hotels from the old British days. Like Hong Kong, it was colonized by the British at one point.

The fun part for us was how different it was from Hong Kong. As crowded and dirty and fast-moving and loud as Hong Kong was, Singapore was clean, very green, laid back, spread out, and calm. It was a bit more westernized than Hong Kong, if that's possible. There may actually be more ex-pats than locals in Singapore.

View Album Get your own

Our Intensive event the next morning was incredible. I think the attendees found great value in it, but I may have learned more than they did about how we can help them. It was a great success.

We wrapped up the trip by checking out the Little India area of Singapore before catching our overnight flight back to Melbourne. I got to the house around 7:30am and propmtly went right back to sleep for a few hours.

At this point I am still kind of recovering and trying to get my sleep schedule back to normal, but the trip was totally worth it. It's exciting to think that I'll get to go back eventually.

While I was gone that week, Leslie had some fun with the girls (that would be John's daughter and Kerri's two younger daughters).

First, she offered to take them trick or treating on Halloween. Then, she took them to the zoo on Saturday afternoon. Everyone had a great time.

I think that is all for now. One thing to note, though, is that we all have to get used to new time differences. We started daylight savings time two weekends ago so we moved ahead an hour. Then, the US ended daylight savings time and moved back an hour. This means that we are now 16 hours ahead of the east coast of the US. Kind of strange that we didn't physically move but we lost 2 more hours of difference. Oh well.

Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to hearing from you!

Sept. 24 - Oct 9, 2007

You'd think that things would have started to slow down for us. We've been here almost two months. We should be getting settled and in to a normal routine.

That's what you'd think. And you'd be wrong. (which only partially explains the long delay since my last update)

When we last left you, I was getting ready to head out on a whirlwind trip for work. Because we have a lot of new clients here who had not had a lot of contact with anyone from our company until we got the office opened, and also because we recently bought our big competitor and want to move those clients over to our systems, we started what we call "ChannelAdvisor Intensive."

Basically, it's a half day classroom style session that we run. There are two options that the attendee has. They could do the "sales" one in an effort to learn more about what the company does (and hopefully sign up) or they could do the "services" one. I ran the services one. It was essentially some advanced tips, features, etc. for our existing customers.

We did the first of these here in Melbourne on Wed. the 26th of Sept. It ran all morning and then we used the afternoon to clear up emails and get ready for the next show. Early on Thursday we got on a plane for Sydney. Half the team had some flight delays, but still made it in time for the afternoon session. Same thing as Melbourne, just a different location. Once that was done, we packed up and went back to the airport to fly to Brisbane.

That's right...one day...three cities. The day started in Melbourne, stopped in Sydney, and ended in Brisbane.

Friday we got up early to do our final show at the hotel downtown.

Now comes the really cool stuff...

After that session in Brisbane, everyone's families were flying up to meet us there for a long weekend of rest and relaxation. So everyone's spouses and children arrived that evening on a flight from Melbourne.

Part of the reason for this extension of the trip was to scope out potential locations for our Catalyst event to be held next year (our version of the conference we do in Pinehurst in the US). But the first order of business was to have fun.

We piled in three separate Holden Commodore rentals and headed slightly south to the Gold Coast. This area is a very popular resort area. I think it gets compared to parts of Florida in the US (specifically Miami).

The hotel we stayed at was right near the beach so we had great views of the ocean. From there we had a nice short drive to Dreamworld. We all spent the day Saturday there riding the rides and having a blast.

The only challenge for the day was with my glasses. I have never had trouble with them at theme parks in the US. If I'm going to ride the big rides I sometimes put a strap on just to make sure they don't fly off. I had this in place but the operator on our first ride of the day turned me away.

I had to literally get a note from the doctor in order to ride the rides with my glasses on. Ok, well, not the doctor exactly. But she was the nurse on duty at the first aid station. I didn't care. It meant that I got to ride the rides AND see where I was going. I would not be as lucky the next day. Dreamland also had a small wildlife area where Leslie and I got to hold a koala. We were pretty amazed at how incredibly soft their fur is! That, and how bad they smell. But I guess you'd smell too if all you ate was eucalyptus!

For part of the day, the girls had a good time at the connected waterpark. I held on that fun because we had plans to hit another waterpark the next day.

That night, however, was time for more grown-up fun. After the youngest and oldest from our group (aka the small kids and their parents) called it a night. Lesie and I, along with the younger guys from the team, headed across the street from our hotel to the casino. Leslie had the urge to try some blackjack.

We wandered around the casino floor a bit, trying to figure out where we could try our luck. Being a Saturday night, it was quite crowded. Eventually, after camping out at a $5 blackjack table, a seat opened up and Leslie grabbed it. Shortly after that, the seat next to her became available so I hopped in.

While we were playing, a couple of the guys from our group jumped on to a $10 minimum table. By the end of the night, Leslie and I were up a total of about $70. We decided to stop when the table changed dealers and the guy hit 21 three hands in a row. It was a sign for us to call it a night.

Kris from our group was the big winner. He started with $100 at the $10 table and walked away with over $300. Needless to say, the next round of drinks was on him.

It was a sluggish start to the day Sunday. A late night at the casino will do that.

On the agenda for today was Wet N Wild...the huge waterpark. We got started later than planned, but it was ok. You only need so much time at a waterpark anyway. I hadn't done a waterpark in years and you know what....they're still fun!!! Even more important, I escaped without getting fried by the sun! I did, however, have to go the entire day without glasses. They were not allowed on the slides at all. No exceptions. It was still fun. I just had to make sure my group didn't jump off a slide and run to the next one without me...yeah, I'm blind without them.

While on the topic of glasses, at dinner one night John's 7-year-old daughter, Charlotte, asked me why I wear glasses.
"Because I can't see very well," I replied.
"Why don't you just get a guide dog?" she inquired.
"Because I don't have to feed these." I answered, while pointing to my glasses.

It was priceless.

That night we had dinner at a restaurant at the hotel (that somehow managed to have high chairs, but no kids menu...try to figure that one out). The younger guys (the ones without children or spouses) ran to the airport to head back to Melbourne that night at the end of dinner. The rest of us were staying on to check out the meeting spaces at the hotels.

Monday morning we met with the sales folks from the hotel to look at their conference space. They were friendly, but their spaces were either too small or shaped weird and would not work for our events. So we walked across the street to the big convention center.

Being a convention center, they obviously had the space. It was just a matter of what was available when we wanted it and what rooms we would need. They had everything from small meeting rooms to a full size arena.

After lunch and a late checkout, we loaded up the cars to head north. We drove back past Brisbane up to the Sunshine Coast. Our next stop was a very different type of resort. It was a more family oriented location. A little older and more laid back.

But we had work to do here as well. After several loud buffet meals (adults were seemingly outnumbered 3:1 by young, screaming children) we were skeptical of whether we could do our conference at this place.

The next morning, the sales team at the hotel changed our minds and won us over. The location, as it turns out, is going to be perfect for the event.

After a long several days away from home, we headed to the Gold Coast aiport to fly home. The airport was tiny (one gate). But we thankfully didn't fly in a little puddle jumper. We were in a full size jet. It was almost bigger than the airport!

The rest of that week, back in Melbourne, was spent recovering and catching up on work.

For Leslie and I, we got back to trying to turn our house into a home. Friday night we made another journey to Ikea to try to get something to sit on. Up until now all we had was a bed, an air matress, and my video game chair. We figured Friday night would be good so it would be delivered on Saturday while we waited around for our TV guy.

The TV service we were getting is Foxtel. We were getting the full package to start (no choice on that) and threw in the IQ box...their DVR system which we had missed since leaving Raleigh.

Mr. Foxtel was scheduled to arrive, in true cable guy form, between noon and 5pm on Saturday. No big deal. Plenty to do around the house while we waited.

There was just one problem...I had been searching the online tv guide to see if they ever show hockey here. Well, they do. Not only that, they were going to be showing the Canes vs Penguins game at 3:30pm on Saturday!!!! Right in the middle of our installation window. This was stress I simply couldn't handle. Would Mr. Foxtel make it in time?

Not to worry though...Mr. Foxtel (well, more accurately...Foxtel-san, once we met him) actually arrived early. Once the box was hooked up, I immediately set it to record the game (and then did a test recording of the Simpsons to make sure it worked).

Now it's time for a small side story about Foxtel. But this one is only for the guys. I don't do this often, but this is worth mentioning...

One of the channels we get here is the E! channel, like we had in the states. One of the shows in the US on E! follows Hugh Hefner's (Mr. Playboy) three young girlfriends. In the US, it's really just training grounds for the guy who does the graphic blocks over nudity. Here in Australia, they haven't hired that guy yet.

I knew that this country was more laid back than the US, but I didn't expect full nudity on regular TV, any time of day. I'll leave it at that. Back to our story...

I spent the rest of the day putting my huge grill together. Yes, it took the rest of the day....putting the legs on twice (once incorrectly, once almost correctly...they're still not right, but it hasn't fallen down yet)...two trips to Bunnings (think Home Depot) for various home improvement items, including the gas tank for the grill.

It was all worth it though. That night we enjoyed some steaks from the grill followed by the Canes beating the Penguins 4-1. The Fox Sports channels here show several hockey games each week so hopefully the Canes will turn up again in the schedule.

Sunday we had plans to head downtown to see the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation exhibit since it was leaving in a week. It was incredible. It was filled with artwork and sculptures from the artists who did the concept and design work on the Pixar films. It's based in NY so if you ever get a chance to see it, definitely check it out.

Some of the rest of the time was spent exploring more of downtown. All of the travel books say that Melbourne is the restaurant and shopping capital of Australia. I saw why that afternoon. Every side street and alleyway has a shop, cafe, restaurant, bar, etc. It's actually quite cool looking. I'd say that I think things are going to slow down now, but that's just not true. I have a few more potential trips in the near future that I'll fill you in on when they get closer.

It's just amazing to us that a) we've been here two months already and b) we're in Australia. We still have those moments when we do the "Holy crap, we live in Australia!" It tends to happen randomly throughout the week, but it does still happen.

At the same time, we are occasionally amazed at how far we've come since we arrived. We are starting to get used to some of the little things that we noticed as different when we got here. Some of our "green-ness" has started to fade as we adjust to the way of life here. And I think that's a good thing.

We're getting comfortable here, and not just because we finally have furniture to sit on.

Sept. 3, 2007

Wow, I sure have fallen behind here. And there is so much to share now too!!

So, where did we leave off from last time? I think my last quick update mentioned that I got to do a quick trip to a winery called Seville Hill. We went for work to taste some stuff and pick up some bottles as gifts for clients.

Since that time we've been hitting the real estate and car stuff pretty heavily. I took some time during the week last week so that we could do a little car shopping.

And great news!...we have a car...sort of. All of the financing is approved, but since my visa is not 100% final, they won't let me take delivery of the car. Really pretty annoying. Once we physically have the car, I'll tell everyone what it actually is and share some photos. Hopefully that will be this week but I really don't know at this point.

On Wednesday last week we got up and went to see Vegas. He's still doing well. This was Leslie's first time seeing him since we all got here so he was excited to see her. We even spent some time in the outside section of his pen. Very odd...Vegas outside is a different concept for us.

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday were pretty normal. Did some work, researched apartments/houses to rent. That was about it.

Friday, however, was quite cool, for me at least. I did my first of many day trips to Sydney! Obviously I don't get to see much of the city in a day, but it was still great to go (especially since the weather in Melbourne was windy and rainy all day while Sydney was warm and sunny).

I went with Kerri and John to visit a prospective client not far from the downtown area. After landing, we walked over to the Avis car rental garage to pick up our car. It's actually cheaper to rent a car for a day than take cabs in Sydney.

Our car was something to behold. As we walked up to it, I jokingly said, "I bet we have THAT one." and sure enough...we did.

I don't think that even the Crayola people could come up with a word that would do this shade of purple justice. Even this photo doesn't quite tell the story.

The type of car was the Holden Commodore. Holden is the GM brand here and the Commodore is their main sedan. Was a nice car...from the inside. You know your car is an attention-getter when the shirtless guy at the intersection who wants you to pay him to clean your windshield gives you the big, emphatic thumbs-up.

We made the short drive to the parking garage near the office of the potential client and stopped at a coffee shop to regroup before going to do the sales pitch a few floors up in the attached high rise. We were on the 25th floor pitching our software and services to a big wine retailer here.

As we were getting settled in to the conference room, John asked I had seen the view. As the blinds were closed due to the mid-day sun, I hadn't. But knowing that we were on the 25th floor, I figured it would be pretty cool. I was right.

From Sydney Day Trip

It was a great view of the main downtown area, the harbour, the opera house, the bridge, everything. I didn't get to see anything close up, but it just makes me realize that we have to get there to check it all out.

After a rather successfull meeting, it was back to the purple monster and off for some lunch. Since it was my first time in the Sydney area, John and Kerri decided that they wanted to take me to Bondi Beach. I wasn't going to protest.

Bondi Beach is the big, popular beach area in Sydney. It's also where the Aussie celebs hang out. In this photo, supposedly people like Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, etc. own places in that white building on the right.

Even though it is still technically winter, there were still people hitting the water, sunbathing, etc. John and I took a moment to pose for a photo with our fine rental automobile.

We found a greek restaurant across the street for some lunch before heading back to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne. The team here is going to be working hard to try to get me to eat some seafood. Now, I'll try some things, but one of the selections they chose at the greek place was not on my list. At first, it looked like a small bowl of onion straws or onion rings. Only upon closer inspection did I realize that they were tiny little fish that had been breaded and fried. Yeah...like the little fish you keep as a pet...the whole thing...fried...to be eaten...whole. No thanks.

So, back to the Sydney airport. We fought through rush hour traffic only to slightly miss our 5pm flight. But we knew this was going to happen so we got on the 5:30pm flight. Needless to say, there are a lot of flights between the two cities.

I got home around 8pm and we dove in to looking up rental places to inspect the next morning. We found six that we wanted to check out.

The first place we looked at in Mitcham, at around 9am, was something to behold. We really regret not taking photos of it. Upon walking through the doorway we immediately realized why there were no interior photos online.

Not only was each room covered in hideous, dark, 40-year-old wallpaper, each room got progressively worse as you walked through the house. Think of a pattern that you've seen. Any pattern, doesn't matter. Got one in your head? Good. Yes, that pattern was on the walls of this house. We quickly left this location and moved on to the next.

The next place was in Donvale, just slightly to the north of Mitcham. When I say "slightly" I mean, like 2-4km. The suburbs here are more like what we're used to simply calling neighborhoods, but they each have their own post code here. We had three places to check out in the same basic area in Donvale.

The first one had some major potential. A nice little three bedroom 1.5 bath cottage type house in on a nice looking little street. Nice hardwood floors throughout. Recently updated kitchen. Nice back porch and back yard area (within a fence that is connected to the car port). Overall, one of the first places we saw that we could really picture ourselves in.

We had seen one the week before in Mitcham, very close to the new office, that was more like a townhouse that we kind of liked. Good location, tons of space, but it had kind of, well, weird space. We couldn't see the best way to do the living rooms and stuff. That, and it had very blue carpet everyway. Still, we had put an application in for it.

Back to the place in Donvale though. Amazingly, we were the only ones to show up for the inspection. Usually there are at least 4-6 families/couples checking out each place. We were alone. So we got to talk to the agent and she said if we got our application in quickly, they'd see it first thing Monday and we'd have a great chance at getting the place.

At this point we had more than 30 minutes before looking at the next place which was right around the corner, so we explored a little bit. We found a great little shopping center right around the corner. It had a Coles (the nice grocery store chain here) and a ton of great little places to give it a cool downtown feel (eventhough we're in the 'burbs). There were a couple of bakeries (great fresh pastries in the morning), a butcher, a market with fresh fruits and veggies, a great flower shop, a couple of cafes and restaurants. It was great, and it was all within a short walk from the neighborhood we were just in.

I'll wrap up the rest of the "Quest for a House" for Saturday quickly here. We looked at 4 more places that morning. Two were...eh..ok. Two were...eh..no chance.

We then had the rest of the day to do what we wanted so we hit yet another big shopping center/mall in Ringwood (feel free to Google Map these different suburbs I mention...it's easy if you just look for Ringwood, Victoria, Australia).

Saturday night we rented "Wild Hogs" from the rental place down the street. Leslie is the official member. Kind of exciting actually. No permanent address. No car. No drivers license. But we can rent DVDs!

Also, on Saturday, we coordinated plans to have dinner Sunday evening with Shinko and her boyfriend, Kevin. (For those who don't remember, Shinko is one of Laura's good friends from high school and college who has lived in Melbourne for the past 4 years)

Sunday...we slept in.

View Album Get your own

When we got up, we decided, kind of spur-of-the-moment, that we should go check out the Melbourne Zoo. We knew that we wouldn't be able to see it all and still be able to get back in time for dinner but we went for it anyway. It was totally worth it.

We actually joined the "Friends of the Zoo" program which is one annual fee with unlimited access to the zoo (plus two more zoos in Victoria, discounts at the shops, etc.). We figured that if we go to the zoo more than twice in a year, it pays for itself. Sold!

The weather was perfect, as usual, and we checked out about half of the zoo. We made sure to see the Australia section, naturally. It's so unlike a US zoo. The section with the kangaroos, emus, etc. was just an open area for the most part. One big emu just kept walking up to people (and scaring the bejezzus out of them).

Next it was back to the house to change for dinner. Shinko recommended a place called Riva in St. Kilda. Hopefully you just Google Mapped St. Kilda to find that it is right on the water. It's a very trendy beach area just outside of downtown. We got there just before sunset and the views of the water and the city were unreal.

From St Kilda

We met up with Shinko and Kevin and had a drink and some exceptional food along with some great conversation as we caught up on the last several years.

After dinner we came back to the house to fill out all of our rental applications from Saturday. The place we really liked in Donvale, had an online application we could do. The others would have to be faxed. On to Monday (today)...

I got up for work as normal and started the 20 minute drive to the office. When I was about 5 minutes away from the office my phone rang. I answered it using my cool bluetooth speaker thing. It was the real estate agent for the Donvale house we liked. They had gotten our online application and we were already approved!!! We had the house!!!!

So, we're now working through all of the details and will be taking care of the deposits and signing the lease tomorrow afternoon. We're very excited to get in and start making it our own. I'm especially excited to get a grill in the back yard. I've been without one for too long now.

Oh yeah, I also got a call that we were approved for the blue carpet place too, but we had already made up our minds. Donvale it is!

We'll be in touch with our next adventures soon!

August 21, 2007

It's been a few days since we arrived here in Melbourne so I figured it was time for a good update on what we've been up to since leaving Raleigh.

Our flights were, thankfully, uneventful. The L.A. to Melbourne leg was as long and uncomfortable as we expected but we were at least seated by a window and the seat next to it (but nothing really helps 14 hours in Economy).

More important, however, was the fact that Vegas made it the whole way without trouble. We had to pick him up in L.A. (literally from the baggage claim area on the same belt where golf clubs are sent out). He was a bit shaken up, but otherwise ok.

Once we had him, we had to get him checked in and sealed into his travel crate around the corner at Qantas Freight. We had several hours before our next flight so we got to take our time here. While waiting we met a nice guy named Travis who was checking his cat in for his move to Sydney. Once we were done there he was kind enough to give us a ride back to the main terminals so we could get checked in for the big flight.

After a bite to eat and a slight delay, we were loaded on the big white and red 747 and on our way. We were scheduled to leave just before midnight on Wednesday.

We arrived in Melbourne about on time at around 8am Friday morning. Yeah…no Thursday this week. Immigration check in was no trouble. A couple of quick stamps in the passports and we were on to baggage claim. Amazingly, all 7 of our bags (including golf clubs) arrived in tact.

Next it was time for customs. This one had us somewhat worried since we had a lot random non-clothing items in our bags. Thankfully, they didn't really care about that stuff.

What they did care about, though, was my golf shoes. One of the questions on the customs form asks about dirt or soil. I said "no" that I was not importing any. I never even thought that my golf shoes or clubs could have some dirt or grass on them. Once the customs guy started asking me, I knew right away that my spikes were loaded with dirt.

He told me that I was looking at a $200+ fine (for the dirt, for lying on my customs form, etc.). Welcome to Australia!!!

But, I decided to play the "I'm moving to Australia" card, and it worked. He said, "Well, I can't fine someone who's moving here. As long as you understand why we're doing this, we'll get the shoes cleaned up and move you along."

So, they cleaned the shoes (rather poorly, actually…they must not be THAT concerned about the invasion of NC soil) and we moved on.

We walked out to the waiting area and saw John and Matt from the CA office right there waiting for us. John gave the Melbourne quarantine station a quick call for us to make sure Vegas was taken care of (which he was, they had already picked him up) and we then headed out into the (pleasantly) cool day to load up John's car with our bags and head to our temporary house. Kris was waiting there with a cell phone for me and some basic food items in the kitchen.

The guys all left and we started to unwind a bit, starting with much needed showers. After that, since we didn't yet have a rental car, we walked down the street to the nearest mall (shopping center) to see what kinds of necessities we could find.

Conveniently, John called right when we were about finished filling a shopping cart with items. He drove by and gave us a ride back to the house where we promptly crashed for an hour…just in time to get up and force ourselves to eat some dinner and then turn in for the night…for about 13 hours…we had finally hit our wall.

The next day, feeling somewhat refreshed, we walked to the corner where there happened to be a rental car agency which happened to have one Mitsubishi Lancer left on the lot for us. Against everything I had ever learned, I jumped into the right side seat and headed down the left side of the road to another shopping center with a Target. Yes…Target!!! We were back in our element now.

The Target experience is a little different from that in the US, but still similar enough for it to help us to adjust. The excitement from this outing (other than the driving) was the fact that Leslie temporarily stole a bottle of water. It seems that the cashiers are not used to customers having an open beverage when they go through the line (or queue, as it's called here). It wasn't until we paid and left that Leslie realized the mistake and ran back into the store to pay up. Starting off as a thief, while ironically appropriate, was not what we wanted to do.

Once that was taken care of, we dropped off our packages in the car and went back inside (much to the dismay of the vultures in the "car park" who were swooping in for our great spot….some things are universal. After that we headed back to the house to relax, make some dinner and enjoy the satellite TV we have that has the never-ending supply of The Simpsons, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, Drew Carey, Family Guy, Entourage and other slightly out of date US shows (not that we're complaining).

That was about it for our initial shopping experiences. We were amazed at both how much things were just like the US but how many little things were different. Some examples:

• Eggs are not refrigerated in the stores (though everyone says they pop them in the fridge once they get home)
• When you pay with a debit card (or any card) you are asked if you want "cash out" instead of "cash back" as we hear in the US. The first time I heard this it took the girl about 3 times repeating it before I knew what she was talking about. Prior to this, the only place I had ever heard "cash out" was at a casino.
• All four wheels of the shopping carts turn. It took me a while to realize why my cart was all over the place until I realized this. Handy for pulling the cart to the side to get out of the way, but rather out of control otherwise. I've noticed that no one truly has full control of the cart. Oh yeah, they're not carts…
• Shopping carts are called trolleys. Which I guess is still better than "buggy" that we've heard in NC before.
• You'd better like butter if you order a sandwich…if there is bread, there will be butter on it.
• There are no pennies. Therefore, all sales are rounded up or down to the nearest 5. Sometimes this works in your favor, sometimes not.
• A Milky Way is a 3 Musketeers and the 3 Musketeers are nowhere to be found (most likely waiting on their visa like me)
• Many imported items are very expensive, such as a paperback book for $20 or a 6 pack of Corona for $21 (it's best to stick to the Aussie beers for this and many other reasons).
• Finding unscented toilet paper (called toilet rolls in the stores) is very difficult.
• The locals will eat a sandwich with peanut butter and vegemite (and butter) but think that a PB and J is repulsive (yet they do like jelly).

On to Sunday…John from the office had invited everyone from the team (and their families) to his house for a nice relaxing Sunday lunch to welcome Leslie and I to the country. Kris picked us up around Noon and we drove to John's house.

The hospitality we've experienced from everyone since arriving is truly beyond words. We have been fully welcomed into their world and their families. We were at John's until close to 6pm just relaxing and talking after we at a great meal.

Things started going slightly down hill after we got back to the house though. Jet lag was still with us and Leslie wasn't feeling too well so we still hit the sack early.

We were both up early on Monday. For me, it had a bit of a feeling like I was heading back to school…I was looking forward to it, but some of the unknowns were creating some anxiousness. This was the first "new" job I'd gone to in almost 7 years. While I know the company very well, everything else was different. It was exciting though.

For Leslie, Monday morning was not good. Whatever was making her feel bad Sunday night had gotten plenty of rest and was ready to make her feel miserable all day.

Kris picked me up for work and Leslie tried not to get some rest. My work day went just fine as I eased into my responsibilities here. Our temporary office location is actually the offices and warehouse from Kerri's (the head of the office) old business. It's quite a mess, but it works until we get into the permanent space, which looks to be very nice.

By Tuesday Leslie had not improved. We went to the doctor (who is John's sister-in-law, naturally) and she confirmed that Leslie has a really nasty flu that is going around. The really bad news is that it should stick around for almost a week. The good news is that she was able to eat some soup and popsicles (harder to find here than you'd think) tonight and keep them down. Hopefully tomorrow will continue with some improvement while I'm at work.

On Thursday I'll be home for a bit while our big shipment of stuff from the US is delivered. Pretty exciting. We're hoping to get to go see Vegas that day too.

Our next big tasks will be to find our own place to stay, and to find our own car. Once we do that, we'll be free to start checking things out a bit more.

So, other than the flu that has invaded, things are going well. The weather is incredible (though the lack of rain is actually part of a bad drought). Having a winter that is in the upper 50s and sunny during the day is perfectly fine with us.

I'm not sure what we have in store for this weekend. It will depend on how Leslie is feeling, but we'll try to keep everyone posted.