A bit of a moody lighting shot of our kitchen which helps hide the fact that it aint really that nice!

This is the master bedroom... in fact the only bedroom. As I'm now in Australia I wander around topless wearing a cowboy hat as much as possible in order to fit in!

Well, this is our lounge come dining room. We bought the T.V. on the weekend from a garage sale for $180 (about 80 pounds).

One person's bad luck can be another's good fortune!

Well one of us now has a job and, fortunately for me, its Sadler. In a fit of desperation he went to register with an employment agency on Tuesday and got his first week's work starting on Wednesday. He's working in a warehouse putting lids on cartons of oil, stacking them on palletts and wrapping them in clingfilm! And the best part about it is that he has to start work at 6am (although he does finish at 2:30 and 12 on Fridays). So for the last two mornings I've waved him off at 5:30 and gone back to bed for an extra 4 hours uninterupted kip. But I don't know how lon this is going to last as I've got an interview on Monday with Select Education for some work over Christmas until I get my registration with the Queensland Board of Education. It's suprising how difficult it is to actually become a teacher in Oz - they'll take anyone in the UK compared to over here!

Our flat's starting to look a bit more habitable now. We're pretty much completely furnished (apart from a TV or other form of entertainment) although we had a bit of a fright with our gas cooker which started to billow smoke from the grill and shoot out sparks! Photos coming soon.

Anyway, I'm off to wander around town and have a sunbathe in the park - its awesome being unemployed!

Reality Sucks

Well we made it back to Brisbane. After leaving Darwin on the Wednesday we managed to travel about 6000km crossing 6 states in the course of 6 days. The two day trip back down to Adelaide on the Ghan soon lost it's luster once we were bedding down for our second nights sleep on the trot sitting up. The day after arriving back in Adelaide we drove 11ookm's (hmm... about 700 miles) straight through to Bairnsdale setting off at 6am and arriving 6pm that night. Although due to the different time zones we only actually spend 11 hours on the road.

We stayed the night with my Aunty Shirley and Uncle Terry again and the following day we were in attendance at an impromptu family gathering with Gran, Cousin Craig and Jodi and their two children Jake and Hayley all came around for lunch. About 30 pasties and several bottles of home made tomate relish later (I only had one honest although someone scoffed four, naming no names..... Craig!), we set off for Canberra where we were staying the night with Rachael's Aunty Leslie. We were treated to our first BBQ in Australia which was lovely and in the coming week was to be looked back upon fondly as it signalled our last night of nice food and comfort for a while.

The following day we drove towards Brisbane getting about as far as Tamworth before turning in for the night. We were in Brisbane by 11am the following day and after checking in at our hostel started looking for somewhere to live. It soon became apparent that all properties in our intended suburb, the West End, were about double what we wanted to pay. After all the fun of travelling around, seeing new things and enjoying ourselves the reality of real life hit rather hard. We both went to sleep that night in a minor depression reflecting on how tough we had it!

Things are looking up though. It's now a week since we first arrived in Brisbane and we moved into a small flat in Spring Hill, about 5 mins walk from the city center, this morning. It isn't anything special bit it does have airconditioning, comes furnished (with 70's furniture) and is fairly cheap (about 280 pounds a month). I've applied for a number of jobs ranging from fire extinguisher refiller to trainee tree lopper. As of yet no one has contacted and I'll be honest it was a little deflating to suddenly discover I was unemployable.
However, the reason became apparent to me today. Due to the CV I was sending out everyone was assuming I was an Englishmen (uselss Poms!) on a temporary working Visa, while the jobs in question were permanent postions. As a result no one was intersted in employing me. I've fixed this problem though by putting in bold type at the top of my CV that I'm an Australian citizen, hate all the Poms and can't wait until we win the Ashes back next year! On a more constructive note I've also registered with an employment agency.

Rachael is busy registering with the Queensland board of education but is looking for child care work in the meantime. After applying for one job she was informed she was too qualified but they put here forward for a Group Leader's (head honcho of the other carers) job instead - at least one of us is wanted.

The next update could be a while in coming but don't worry (that means you Mum!). I'll try and get some pictures of our new pad up at some point and keep you on track with the joy of job hunting .

Take her easy everyone.