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When you’re on the Expat forums you here people deciding to fly over to go on a “reckie”. This involves flying out and hanging out in Aus to see if you like certain areas etc. We’re living in the more Northern of the Western beaches at the moment and we’ve been considering where we’d like to live more permenantly. We’ve had our eye on Sellicks beach ever since we drove through it on our way to Kangaroo Island last time we were here. It’s a lovely beach town about an hour south of Adelaide CBD and it’s a lot more under developed than the area we’re living in . In fact it only seemed to have a Post Office and a Pizza house there! It is about 15 minutes from the bigger town of Noaralunga where there are loads of shops and things. I guess it would be like living in Studley, and popping to Redditch for shops etc. Except… it’s next to the beach and prettier.

We had a good drive around the streets (which didn’t take us long – not many there) and had a walk along the beach (which is gorgeous). It’s a very lovely spot and it seems to be being developed at the moment. Devine homes are building there and I the whole town is obviously going to tripple in size very quickly. This could mean that once it’s more developed the houses will raise in value and so it would be a good investment… or… it could mean what is currently a quiet and beautiful spot becomes crowded and we’d feel penned in. I guess it depends on the plot of land you choose to purchase for your home.

As you can see from the piccies above it’s a very beautiful place.

We also popped down to the next beach “Silver Sands” which is even smaller and the houses seem to be a bit more spaced out. There was one property with 14Hectares for sale… That’s way tooo big!! lol It’s way to early to be actually putting down a deposit but we fancied a drive and had a good time wandering around on the beach and having a think about where we might be this time next year. It gave us plenty to think about and consider. We’re going to need to think about what our priorities are in the future. We chose Adelaide because we liked being near the city and the beach and moving down there would mean an extra hours journey both to and from work. We’d need to weigh up whether that’s worth it or not. We are soppy gits and we hate it if we can’t hang out as much as possible.

Well it’s certainly given us food for thought …

This is the main reason!

We’re here! We arrived in a very relaxed manner tuesday night and booked into the same hotel that we stayed in last time. We both felt much better and it was a pleasant change actually knowing where we staying, what was around and what to expect when we arrived. Almost like, for once, we were coming home. Sad really when you consider it was just a hotel room! Never mind!

Adelaide is lovely and although it does get “freezing” (10 degrees) cold in winter we’re more than happy to stay and live here for the rest of 2007. There were several clues that we were too dumb to spot whilst we were here the first time which should have told us that we were to live her right from the start.

1. Adelaide’s “mall” – high street to you and me – is full of peices of sculpture.. Including these pigs…
Each one of them has an individual name.:)

2. There are beautiful beaches here which stretch for miles and miles. All white sand and turquoise sea…mmm

3. The central market with all it’s sights and smells is just brilliant when you can’t decide what you want for lunch. (I’ve done a little video for you but we’ll have to wait a little again..)

All in all we’re much happier that this is the place where we can live comfortably for a little while. Which is all good as a certain young lofian would say!

It has been a very stressful last few days however. It is really hard to find a furnished rental in Australia. First of all when you rent a place unfurnished here it literaly means you get nothing, not even the white goods. If you rent a place fully furnished it means you get everything… all the furniture, white goods, cups, saucers, pots, pans, sheets, towel, books, everything you could ever need..
There is no inbetween and it costs a lot to rent fully furnished.

Oringially LOF and I were hoping to rent a little 3 bed house with a pool with some furniture in it. We thought we’d have to stock the kitchen, linen and towel departments but that for 375 dollars a week we’d find somewhere lovely. In reality for 37h dollars a week we can rent a completely empty 4 bedroom house by the sea (with no pool) or a 2 bedroom “unit” (flat) which very much resembled Penn Grove – the house I rented in the 2nd year of UNi. Now don’t get me wrong I have very fond memories of Penn Grove, Bogus’ chair washing up, dunk wandering around in a skirt, Farty Mart appearing at the window and scaring the life out of me – but I didn’t fly half way around the world to live in a flat that was last furninshed in 1983! Mmm.. It was interesting to say the least and the poor sales guy was trying really hard to tell us that this was the best deal ever in the world.

To be fair to him it was right by the beach had the right number of bedrooms and space for an office and we could have had broadband in there so it kind of was what we were after. Perhaps the backpackers clothes that we wear most of the time give the impression that we would like to live like students as well as dress like them! Who knows.

We were a littel concerned there for a few days though as the second apartment we saw was even worse! It was in a nicer location thoguh and faced the beach which was great.

The only good thing about going to see this place was that it itroduced us to West Beach and I had changed my mind about only putting house in the search criteria box on realestate.com.au. We were gettng really worried that the only way we were going to live in a nice house was to fork out for furniture or rent it (which turned out to be about the same price as another house’s rent!) lol. Not good times. We just had to keep checking the paper and the web until something came up…

and it did…

(I don’t know how long the link will work but click on the words it did.)

I promised some clips…

Here’s some…

Driving in to Ramsay Street.. Can you tell me whose house is whose? I pressed record a little early so you can check out a traditional Melbourne Suburb too lol – I didn’t want to miss any thing lol..

The guide is telling us why they need security.. lol.

Here’s Matt’s new friend… ( Ray look away when you get scared – it can’t bite you it’s in Sydney..relax)

Driving the Great Ocean Road

We’re not staying.. It’s sad isn’t it but that’s the way it is.

Brisbane is a beautiful, clean and lovely city. Much nicer than Sydney and with better shopping facilities! lol. It really hot, the people are friendly and we could afford a nice house in a nice area but… it’s not where we want to be. In the back of our minds we keep thinking about Adelaide. About how we could have the city 15 mins one way and the beach 15 mins the other. We’ve checked and we can afford the same kind of house with a pool there too so we’re getting on a plane on Tuesday morning and we’re going back.

It’s been really hard the last few days because we didn’t want to feel this way at all and in many ways if we hadn’t been around Oz and seen the other cities we’d be fine. The choice is definitely between Brissie and Adelaide. Both are beautiful places. Neither of us feel right here though and that’s no good.

We’ve driven around every part of the coast near to the city and there are no beaches. Manly has a lovely harbour and new houses with nice views over the sea but no beaches, no places to stroll around at night together. Renting is tight here there aren’t many places available. If we were going to buy we would be fine we’d be able to buy a 4 bedroom house with a pool and land but we don’t want to commit ourselves in that way. It’s too early and that’s too permanent.

We drove to a place called Redcliffe today where there are beaches but if LOF lay down his head would be on the sand and his feet in the sea! it’s not very impressive and the town has the feel that if it were out of season it would be very quiet indeed.

Brisbane is a lovely place to visit and we’re enjoying our stay but it’s not for us to live in.

It has some brilliant traits. I’m going to try and get a picture of the enormous bats which fly over the river at dusk. They have the wing span on a seagull! They’re huge. LOF pointed them out first and I though he was lying! lol. I was very wrong.
I Love the south bank where they’ve built a man made beach and there are some lovely restaurants overlooking the river.
the parrots that fly around are great too.
It’s always hot 36/38 degrees everyday so far with some spectacular storms.

I would be concerned about the television adverts advising you to store strips of wood and nails for storm season though! gulp!

I can see Catherine doing Cartwheels! lol and Mas. saying “Adelaide, yes, Beautiful”

After a 12 hour bus ride we arrived, check our selves into a hotel had a shower etc and bventured into the city to find out about rental places, caravan parks etc. We’ve booked ourselves into the Nestle Inn caraven park whilst we find somewhere to rent. We’ll be staying in a little self contained cabin (a porta cabin really) for a week. We’ve also booked a hire car to take us to places so that we can explore and find a good place to live.

One thing worries us. The lack of beaches.. Mmmm can it be true?
We’ll see…

So we left the hotel and carried the enormous teenage mutant ninja turtle bags a few blocks to Central Station. We waited and along came a big blue bus to take us away for a surfing holiday. We were greeted by Dylan and Tim who are exactly what you would expect a surfer to be like. Imagine the turtles in Nemo and you’ve got them – that image kept popping into my head everytime they spoke lol.

We put the bag on the bus and started to travel in the direction of surf camp. It took a lot longer than expected because (once again) a bush fire had started and the highways had been closed. Loads of locals lined the streets taking photographs and we were introduced to Elvis the water helicopter as he flew by. Must be scary to live somewhere near one of those fires.

On the bus we were told that the aim of the trip was to teach us to surf and to learn to appreciate the lifestyle and culture of a surfer. Basically chill out, drink alot and hang out at the beach. Sounds nice. Well most of it – alcohol and me do not mix well as we know!

It took us a little longer than expected to get to the camp as there were big bush fires again. These ones had closed the main highway which meant that Matt and I felt right at home in a big traffic jam for a couple of hours. The locals were out with their cameras taking pictures of the flames lapping very close to their own homes and gardens and I have to say I was very concerned for the well being of the little Quarley bears who would have lost several resting places. We were introduced to Elvis though, the big helicopter whose job it is to douce the flames with water that it pick up from the sea.

When we did arrive at the camp it wasn’t exactly as glamorous as it appears in the brochure. The estate was clearly once a very lovely and luxourious resort then some bright spark realised that if they took one of the villas with a mezzanine bedroom and open plan lounge, kitchen and diner they could rip out the furniture and squeeze enough bunk beds in there to house 18 people. It was very compac and Bijou! There was a bathroom and toilet with one shower in. The water was from a bore hole in the ground and was not suitable to drink. Instead they provided rain water in cooled tanks for us to swalllow – very nice.

There was a shower block with 6 showers and two loos in it. This was a strange place too though. There were contemporary, posh sinks with lovely pebble effect tiling and nice mirror and then there were 6 sheds with a shower in each lol. Most of them were occupied by at least one spider and some dead moths. LOL. Ah well we’ve slept in a swag in the outback so it wasn’t all that bad but the brochure does make it look very much more snazzy than it actually is!

After we’d had some lunch we went to the first beach. It was beautiful and very empty. It’s situated in a national park which means that not many people visit it as it’s not all that touristy. Perfect for beginning to surf. we laid our surfboards in a semi circle for the first lesson and put on our wet suits.

We were told by Tim and Dylan about what each of the parts of the board were and then he showed us how to find our “sweet spot” – to find it you lie on your board with your feet hanging off the end and make sure that you’re body is in the middle. This way you won’t over balance and fall off. You ahve to be ready to jump straight into your “sweet spot” as soon as you find a wave that suits.
The aim of the first lesson was to learn to “ride the waves” to make sure that we could catch one and stay on the board all the way to the beach.
in order to do so you have to jump on the board, lie down in your sweet spot and paddle. When you’ve got the wave you think you want to catch (that make it sound like a choice – the next one heading for you is the one that will take you not the other way around!) you wait until it hits the back of you feet push you feet up so your toes rest on the edge of the baord and they’re pointing upwards and count to three. 1,2,3 then you ” grab your nipples!”. I know. I know it sounds mad and I though they were joking too. They’re not though. It’s basically a silly way of reminding yourself that your hands need to be under your breasts/ chest and its an excuse for a couple of males to mention nipples! lol Anyway you grab your nipples and then push down with your hands on the board, pulling yourself up so that your weight moves \back propelling your forward.

at the end of the lesson we all went into the water to try it out. It was ok and despite” wiping out” (falling off into the sea and drinking alot of it) a few times I eventually manged to get myself “all the way to the beach” Woo hoo. I rode dem waves!

Time for lesson 2 – STANDING UP- GULP.
To do this you follow the same technique and add a sun salutation at the end. You 1,2,3 nipple, push up do a downward dog (stick your bum in the air) pull your right foot forward and stand up. Easy on the sand… Not so simple when ‘floating’ on a mean looking wave. lol.
I tried. I tried a lot but I couldn’t find my “sweet spot” fast enough to manage to squeeze it all in before I got to the beach. You have a cord attached to your leg thoguh so the board never goes far away.

The first time I tried to stand up it was the cord that was my down fall. 1,2,3 nipple. Up Downward dog – cord trapped. wrapped around other leg! Arghhh SPLASH salkty sea drink. Doh!
Second time. Come on. 1,2,3 nipple. lift, leg up…. come on… leg. Doh! Crash! No Sweet spot off and leg just wouldn’t lift up before I fell off the side!

\Third time. …. Crash into another boarder. lol

Along comes Dylan to give me a hand. Good good. 1,2,3, nipple, lift, push up… KNeww.. why is that on the board? Oh no. Just lie down… don’t fall off. Oh i’ve made it to the beach though! woo hoo.

Dyaln:” What happened? Where’d that knee come from? you have two chances to stand up you know. You wasted it. Don’t waste the waves they’re precious…”
Oh dear sensing laid back attitude does not include surfing… mmm.. Never mind. Keep trying.

I managed to half stand up once before it wqas time to return. On the up side i can now ride a waveon my belly with skill and can even make the board go left and right to avoid other surfers… Good start I think..

We’re leaving the big smoke for the beaches in the morning. We’re off surfing.
We’ve had a good time in Sydney. It feels like a proper city and the weather has been very kind to us 37 degrees today! lol.

The bridge, the opera house and the tower are all exactly as you would expect and the mixture of the old and new is very nice. It’s still very pretty. My favourite bit is “the rocks” where there are narrow cobbled streets and bistros/bars with a view. Very lovely.

We went to the aquarium and a large shark kept coming up to the glass to make friends with Matt and reassure him. Matt didn’t agree – He’s sure it’s evil. lmao. It’s just a big fish with wonky teeth. lol.