Happy Birthday Mommy !!

Mel has been busy house hunting and exploring new areas. We saw one together on Monday and put in an application to rent it. It's in an area called Malvern East.
It's a big 5 bedroom/2 bathroom with a huge backyard. It's a nice area:

• 10 minute walk to the train
• the train ride in from there will be under 30 minutes
• there is a park at the end of the street.
• groceries, restaurants, and small shops are within 10 minute walk
• there is a big mall in walking distance.
  

The issue is that the bathrooms are tiny and gross. Our application was approved but we did not commit to it yet as we had more to see.

Mel found a town house that was near new and perfect inside, but has no yard, in an area called Bentleigh. However, it is:

• very very close to shops, basically the main street is 2 minutes away
• train is also 2 minutes away
• train ride in from there will be around 40 minutes
• 40 minute walk to the beach.
  
• House is stunning inside and we would have a big basement for kids to play.
  

Issue is no yard ( it does have a small courtyard for BBQing and eating outside) and a 5 or 10 minute walk to the nearest park. We also applied for this property as the inside is perfect for us.

Friday we went out with our relocation specialist and saw another 5 or 6 properties. There was one we saw that is a good middle ground between the two mentioned above. Its in a place called Camberwell.

• Interior is fairly new and nice
• Medium sized front and back yards.
• In a very suburbar area where kids can play on the street
• 5 minute walk to train and park
• 30 minute train ride to city
• 15 - 20 minute walk to groceries, restaurants, and shops
  

Only issue with this one is the area. Its a bit further to shopping and stuff then the
other two. Lots of parks though. We are going to go there tomorrow and walk around a bit more to get a better feel for the area before submitting an application on this one as well.


I think we will likely end up with one of these three. I think we would be happy in any one of the three, but it's a tough call between the three of them as they all offer different perks. The beach and shops vrs a yard vrs the perfect house.

It will be great to get this settled so we can move on the getting moved in and start spending our free time seeing the sights instead of houses. After checking out all three links give us your opinion in the poll or just leave a comment.

Summary of second week

So we are now two and a half weeks in to our stay in Australia. I've been at work for two solid weeks now and the work is starting to pile up on my desk. The project I have come here for is about half way through the design phase, which basically means we are attempting to say what we are going to do. Unfortunately, the big missing piece of the puzzle is my piece so I have 20 or 30 design documents that require my input. This phase of the project is scheduled to end at the end of June. There will then be a 3 or 4 week break until we start the next phase so we will likely get to do some travelling at that point.

The people I am working with are very nice, the work atmosphere is quite nice. People seem very intelligent and for the most part open minded. They seem to work longer hours then I am used to in Canada but I'm not sure if that is to do with Australia or Accenture. One difference here is that everyone takes a full hour for lunch and goes out. Very different from the eat at your desk and work thorugh lunch mentality I'm used to. Even the busiest of people drops everything and heads out for lunch at noon.



Jeff.

Australian Translation guide

Some common Australian terms and thier North American translations:

stroller = pram

to phone = to ring

rent = hire

diaper = nappy

elevator = lift

french fries = chips

take out = take away

power bar = power board

liquor store/beer store = bottle shop

consignment store = Op Shop

garbage = rubish

cookie = biscuit

A trip to the Zoo

MELBOURNE 193
Originally uploaded by wcm_melbourne

Our big weekend adventure this week was to head out to the Melbourne Zoo.

http://www.zoo.org.au/

It's located about 5 Km north of the City. It is Australia's oldest Zoo and was opened in 1862.






We started out with the rainforest area where they had Gorillas, monkeys, etc. There were about half a dozen gorillas that you could view from a number of locations. There were all in view and moving around so it was pretty nice to watch them for a while.








The big hit of this area was the butterfly house. It's a big green house filled with thousands of butterflies that you walk through. 2 landed on Mel's hat as it had a flower on it.

Next was the Asian area, big things here were the tigers and elephants. It was a fairly cool day ( 10 or 15 degress ) and most of the animals were out and moving around.

We eat lunch at a food area nead the elephant pen and saw one being fed. We then saw a second elephant do some tricks for a bucket of apples and oranges.



After lunch we did the outback area and say the kangaroos, wombats, wallabies etc. This area was not quite as nice as the others and the animals were pretty lethargic.

Lastly we saw the lions and reptiles but by this point the kids were ready for naps and we had to hit the road. There will still be lots left to see next time.

We bought yearly passes as the pass includes the other two Zoos in the area ( Werribee Open range zoo and Healesville Sanctuary ). The passes were about the cost of 3 visits so it seemed like a pretty good idea.

Village living

DSC_0286
Originally uploaded by wcm_melbourne

The suburbs here are centered around the train stations. Around the train stations there is almost always a small village area composed of shops, restaurants, and cafes. The village is then surrounded by the suburb. It seems the farthest you can be from one of these areas is about 20 or 25 minutes by foot.

Where we are now we are 10 minutes to one area and about 20 minutes to another.

Melbourne Musings

Some random thoughts and observations on life here...

Fences - Every house has a fence on all four sides. And not little knee high numbers, we're talking 4 - 6 feet high with little to no visibility through the fence. It seems they value their privacy above estetics.

Prices - Things here cost exactly what they say they cost...no PST, no GST. No Pennies. If lunch cost 8.50 then lunch costs 8.50. Not 9.13, 8.50. Things definitely seem more expensive here when you look at the price, but when you realize you don't have to add 15% to it, it's not that bad.

Beggers - There are no panhandlers downtown. I asked about this and was told an Australian is more likely to tell you to F$%^ off as to give you money.

Sliding Doors - There are automatic sliding doors everywhere. Not exactly sure why yet, but it reminds me of Star Trek.



Washrooms - There are permanent public toilets here in parks and on street corners. They have the requisite power sliding doors, muzac when you enter, and various other novel features. Very civilized.

Parks - Parks here are impressive to say the least. The city is divided up into suburbs each with it's own council. The councils try to outdo each other with thier park/play structure in order to attract people to their suburb. They put the parks in Canada to shame.



Lunch - Everyone here goes out for lunch. They take a full hour and eat what we would consider a large dinner. No eating a small sandwich at your desk and working through lunch here.

Chicken - They seem to love their chicken here. They have restaurants devoted to nothing but chicken. They have chicken steak, they have chicken flavoured potatoe chips.

TV - Most people here do not have cable. If you look up above the houses you'll see a sea of ariels. With that you get between 5 and 9 channels. There are a few major networks here and it seems most people make due with that. If you live in the city cable is available but it seems to not be the norm to have your house already fitted with it.

A/C and Heat - Air conditioning here is not that big a thing, I guess locals are accustomed to the heat. Most houses make due with a window unit for each floor. Some of the fancier places do have central air. They look at heating like we look at air conditioning. Space heaters, gas heaters..they are a luxury appliance here. The cafes break out space heaters for the patios at lunch when the temperature is around 10 - 15 degrees.

Photo site

Hey again, I've managed to upload a bunch of picture to a flickr site so people can see what we've been up to.

So far I've managed to upload pics from the flights and from Disneyland. I'll work on uploading more pictures from Australia tonight. The connection we have here is very slow so my only real option is to do it overnight.

The link to the site is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddlersdownunder/collections/

First Day of Work in Australia

I went in to the project office for a few hours last week. However, today was my first full day on the project. I took the train downtown which takes about 30 minutes from here. There is a station about 2 minutes from the office.

In general people here are very well dressed. Most men wear ties and dress pants if not full suits. Schools here all seem to have uniforms so even the kids are pretty well dressed. I'm starting to get the feeling that things here are much closer to England/Europe than to North America.

Work today was a full day presentation given to Aussie Post that included a mock up of Event Manager. It was a bit dry but it was useful to get a feeling for what the Aussie Post people are like. Strangely enough despite the fact that they are half a world away from CanadaPost and the names and faces are all different there seemed to be the same cast of charaters. Kind of like an episode of Seinfeld or something...there was the guy who knew everything about everything who asked all the inteligent question, then there was the guy who asked all the nit picky questions trying to prove he was the smartest guy in the room, there was the older women who did all the jobs no one else wanted to do, etc.

I had a good discussion about Aussie rules football with a guy from work today. Seems there are mens leagues around and its not uncommon for foreigners to give it a shot. I'll have to investigate that some more and see if I can't try it out.

Mel took the kids to an indoor playground today. By all accounts it was great place. Not so much indoor playgournd structures as a giant room with lots of inflatable bouncy object to climb and bounce on.

We checked out a house tonight in Bentleigh. It was pretty nice and a good price. not sure if we should take the first one we see though...have to talk to our relocationist and see what she thinks about it.

Also went to the bank and opened a new bank account with ANZ after work. You can get debit cards here that also work like visa cards but without credit. Basically it lets you use your debit card anywhere they accept visa. Seems like a good idea to me, not sure why we don't have that in Canada yet.

I think thats all for today...I'll try and update the previous posts some more tonight if I don't fall asleep first.

First half week

Well, we've survived the first half week here. Here is a run down on what we've been up to.

Tuesday: we arrived at our house around noonish. We assigned rooms, checked the place out, and then headed across the street to the park to let the kids play. We met a Dad there who Mel quickly grilled about the area. We found out the location of the nearest grocery store and shopping area.

After the park we walked to the grocery store and bought stuff for dinner and breakfast. Food prices here are much higher than in Canada. After getting back from the store we all had naps and managed to sleep for about 6 hours !


Wednesday: walked to the beach with the kids. It was about a 30 minute walk from where we are staying now. We then walked along the beach for about a kilometer and then walked back to our house. In the afternoon I took the train and an airport shuttle to the Airport to retrieve a lost bag. Well, it wasn't really lost...seems we just forgot to grab it off teh carousel. I guess it was to be expected with the number of bags we had.




Thursday: We took the train downtown around 10 am or so. We got off at Southern Cross station and then walked to the Aquarium. The kids were not themselves and didn't really enjoy it. We bought a family membership so we will be back when they are in better moods. The star of the place is a giant room where it feels like you are in a fish bowl and the sharks and rays are outside swimming around you. Very cool.. . I then left Mel and the kids and went to work from 12 - 4 for a brief introduction to the project and team. After work I picked up our rental van. Turned out to be a gold Kia version of our van back home. I quickly adapted to driving on the left side of the road and made my way home without incident.

Friday: Mel and I loaded up the kids and drove around some of the other suburbs in the bayside area. We checked out a few houses from the street and let the kids test out some of the various parks.

Saturday: Went out exploring again, this time checked out suburbs in the central-east area of the city. Much bigger houses, much hillier area. Also found a K-mart and filled a shopping cart with toys for the kids.

Sunday: We went to a mall we discovered while driving around... It's massive and very nice inside. It was cold and rainy so it was a good way to spend the early part of the day.

The Big Flight

We had dinner on Sunday night then headed over to our hotel around 6 pm to catch the 6:40 pm bus to LAX. The bus was on time and there were no major issues getting back to the airport. Checking in was a bit chaotic but we managed to get it done without losing our cool.

We then ended up with a 3 hour wait at a gate that was completely under construction. Fun, fun, fun. For some reason the kids were wired and did nothing but run in circles for the whole time. This time around we managed to pre-board and the flight attendants let us have our pick of seats. We needed 3 windows for the car seats so ended up with 2, 3, and 2 in three rows. The kids all fell asleep shortly after take off and slept for the first 6 or 7 hours of the flight. On the flight they give you dinner at around 1 AM and then turn off all the lights and try to make the night portion of the flight last for the next 12 or so hours. Then they feed you breakfast right before landing. I guess it's there way of helping you adjust to the time change. But trying to keep three kids happy on a plane in the dark for that long is not easy ! However, there were no meltdowns and they didn't really get fussy till right near the end of the flight.

Once off the plane we had to go through customs. It was very quick as the line was short and all our visa stuff was in order.

Next up we had to collect our luggage and go through quarantine. This was much longer...They were searching a lot of bags and our flight was one of about 3 or 4 that arrived at the same time. Luckily we were not forced to unpack any bags , i think they took pity on us, or more likely they didn't really want to have to search our mountain of bags.

When we made it out our van was waiting for us. It was an 11 passenger minibus with a trailer. We loaded up and the driver delivered us to our short term accommodation house in about 45 minutes.

To Live and Cry in LA

Next up on the agenda was a few days at Disneyland and the new California Adventure theme parks.

Day 1.

We headed over to Disneyland around 10AM or so which was when it opened. However we had special tickets that would have allowed us in at 9AM so we just managed to beat the big rush. This allowed us to ride the Buzz lightyear and Autopia rides with almost no line ups. These would prove to be Wyatts two favorite rides as well.

Day 2.

We tried the California Adventure park today. It was a lot less crowded and had some great kids rides...or so i thought. They also have a "It's a bug's life" kids water park. The kiddie rides here were very short and very tame...almost pointless really. Although I suppose the kids did seem to like them.

In the bugs life area there was a flying cereal box ride, some bumper cars, spinning lady bugs, and the water park. We tried a few of these but the lines seemed to outweigh the fun.

There was a second kids section called toontown. The whole area is themed to look like a cartoon village where Mickey Mouse and his friends live. They have some playgound type stuff here and few more grown up rides. We took Wyatt on the roger rabbit ride and he didn't like it. A bit too scary I guess. They also have a small roller coaster here but I think it might be a bit much for him.

Mel and I rode the big rollar coaster here while Julia and Zak watched the kids. It was pretty fast and a great way to save money on lunch.

Day 3.

Back to Disneyland today. We got there early and managed to get to ride on Dumbo, the Carousel, and many other of the classic rides. We got more rides in in the first few hours then the rest of the day.

We went over to the other side in time to watch the Pixar parade. Wyatt really enjoyed it as he got to see all the characters from his movies in the parade.

Day 4.

We went back and forth between the two today. Did the stuff that the kids seemed to like the most. We left around 4 or so to have dinner and catch the bus to the airport.

First Flights...

Well the trip started out very well.

The volume of luggage and kids was a bit much at first. Once we checked all our big bags things were a bit better. The travelling toddler straps were great when in use. They allowed us to strap the car seats to our carry on bags and then wheel the kids in thier seats through the airport instead of having to use a stroller. The problem was that they were a bit tought to install and everytime we had to go through security or get on the plane it was a 10 minute ordeal undoing and redoing them all.

The first flight from Ottawa to Chicago was delayed due to bad weather in chicago. However, they decided to board the plane and hope they would be allowed to take off. After getting all the seats installed we spent about 20 minutes on the runway just waiting. The novelty of the airplane was great and the kids did not complain much at all.

Once in the air the kids fell asleep and the flight was uneventful. Wyatt stayed awake the whole way and fell asleep just as we landed.

Because the flight was delayed we were in serious danger of missing our connection in Chicago to LA. We quickly strapped up the kids and seats and then did a mad dash through the terminal to get to our new gate. When we arrived boarding was closed. However, due to some timely mechanical issues with the plane it was delayed and they allowed us to board. They had to shuffle some people to get us all together but we ended getting 7 seats all together in the end. This flight was about 3.75 hours and again the kids did well. Wyatt and Maddy were a little fussy towards the end of it and Cooper was his typical easy going self and wasn't bothered by any of it.

Once in LA we gathered up all our luggage and headed to the curbside to catch our bus to the hotel in Anahiem. The first bus passed us right by but the next one showed up 20 minutes later and we quickly loaded up and boarded it for a 40 minute ride to anahiem ( luckily it was a greyhound bus and had lots of room for our stuff ).

the hotel was nice. Sadly the toddler pool and splash area was under construction. We ordered a pizza and let the kids run wild in the hotel room till fairly late. We managed to get 2 adjoining rooms so it was lots of fun for them to run back and forth between the two rooms.