July 15, 2003
This whole money conversion thing is a pain. It doesn’t help that apartments are list rent by the week, not month and utilities are billed by the quarter. Stupid Australia.
Spent all day looking at apartments. First place looked really dodgy (another piece of British slang I've picked up). It was a 5 bdrm house that didn’t seem to have been kept up very well. 2nd place was old w/ a fairly nice old lady to match.
3rd place was really nice. Pauline (the rental agent) picked us up which was soooooo good after spending all morning walking. It was only 2 bedrooms, and a small 2 bdrm at that. The big selling point, besides being clean, was that it was 2 blocks from Coogee Beach. After seeing the first 2 places, the apartment in Coogee looked like Heaven. The girls thought is was “really cute” so of course they liked it. The only problem was that it was small. Probably wouldn’t be comfortable for the throngs of people that will be visiting the girls. (Family and friends, you gutter brains :) After seeing the place, I voted to cancel the later (6:30 PM) appointment we made. I figured it was a waste of everyone’s time if we were just going to take the Coogee, anyway. Patrick (not Patrice, not Petrie, which I thought his name was due to his thick accent), the housing office guy, said he wouldn’t bother going to see it because it was way out in the suburbs. We decided to visit anyway, just to see it.
We had a grumpy bus driver. The situation wasn’t helped when Ana decided to give him a $20 instead of paying w/ exact change just b/c he was being grumpy. After getting on, we realized we didn’t know where to get off, and now we couldn’t ask the bus driver b/c Ana had pissed him off. Thankfully, b/t the 3 of us we are able to figure out most things so there weren’t any problems.
Michelle was outside sweeping when we came down the street. It was a HOUSE. An honest to goodness, place for grown-ups, house. Michelle and her family had lived in the ground floor before deciding to build a second story and move up there. The house has hardwood floors that look nice (minus the paint spots). It’s HUGE! This created a real dilemma. This place was MUCH bigger, not to mention cheaper that the apartment in Coogee. I don’t know if Michelle was sensing our hesitation or just really nice, but everytime therewas a pause she would throw something else in. She had already said she would furnish the place w/ new renal furniture, but she also said she would give us her extra dishware, sheets, and stuff. All stuff we would have to buy. Looks like too much to pass up. Most of dinner was spent thinking about which place we should take.
Stepping back, having 2 places to choose from after only being in town 2 days isn’t too shabby.