Movin' on up

go ahead. sing the song (whichever version you chose to go with is fine). you know, deep down, that you want to. it's been in my head for a few days while i was thinking about this post. i realize it has been a while since the last post, but when you keep reading, you'll understand why.

life has been busy and a bit hectic the past month or so. we got notice from our property manager (they don't do landlords here. agencies do all the work) that we had to vacate our place within a month or so. which, we were kind of expecting, but were hoping to avoid. you know how it is. anyhow, with the housing market as it is in perth, that started to stress us a little. i believe the rental vacancy rate is less then 1%. yikes!

john had just finished exams when we found out, thank goodness! he's been wonderful, doing all the searching for places, sending in our applications, schmoozing with the property managers, etc. we applied for a few places and got didn't get them. it was frustrating to say the least, but it worked out for the best. we (john) found a great place about 1.5 blocks from our previous house. it's much nicer, it's stand alone and it has a little yard. it's been mostly renovated by the previous owner, but the bathroom still needs some work. we're thinking of naming it "hamilton" because it's nice, but there's some sketchy components... :) luckily, it's in our rental agreement that the bathroom will be renovated in september.

needless to say, most of our evenings revolved around looking at properties online, making phone calls and packing up. you'd be surprised at how much we've accumulated in 6 months time. anyhow, we have successfully moved into our new place on friday (but we moved our stuff into the cellar on wednesday, then were homeless for 2 nights) and are slowly chugging away at getting it all set up. it looks great and already feels more like home then our other place did. you'll all have to visit to understand. i'll post pics at some point, but i'm at work right now eating lunch, so i can't.

added to the stress of finding a new place to live is the fact that i am looking for a new job. which in itself isn't that bad. there are a ton of vacancies around here. unfortunately, none of them are the right one for me right now. instead, i'm doing locum work. so, while john was busy looking for houses and picking up extra hours at work, i was busy getting to work in perth by 7:30am and treating until 5:30 or so, before heading home and passing out on the couch. the guy i'm covering works like a maniac. i don't know how he does it, cause i'm not even seeing as many patients as he does. but whatever, it's good money.

i've been making some contacts in the physio world to simplify my work situation. as i was told on a course this weekend by another attendee: "in perth, if you want a good job, it's not about what you know but who you know". which i'm sure is true everywhere. on the plus side, i am finally making the necessary contacts and finding links to all the clinics i would like to work at, so that's good. i'm hoping something comes of it soon. and i decided that my canadian accent is good for me in this situation, because people remember me. i think it makes me stand out of the crowd! yay canada!

speaking of canada... we did celebrate canada day with a few of john's school friends. the shin dig was lacking canadiana but everyone was wearing red and white, we only played canadian music and i drank canadian club :) isn't that authentic enough? next year we'll be more prepared.

at the moment, we are still without internet in our new place, and without a landline (it will be the same as previous. we just need to buy a phone) we still have the cells (or mobiles, as they say). but if you're wondering why we've appeared to drop off the face of the earth, it was because of the above.

hope all is well
xo