G'day, our flat is huge as!

We have a flat now! It’s a large two bedroom on the Gold Coast Highway, about 2 minutes from the beach and a 10-15 minute walk into town. It’s starting to feel like home, but we need a few more decorations. We finally have our own washer and dryer, although the dryer steams up Ryan's bathroom like a sauna and it’s missing a dishwasher. On our first night here we decided to flip a coin (best of 19) to decide who gets the big bedroom. Luckily, I won.


This is our kitchen and dining room.


Our “living room” with a little touch of home. The TV picks up about 7 channels over the air, so we get some decent TV here. Most of it is delayed by a few weeks but House seems to be on time, as are a few others...


This is the rest of our living room, including the den which we constructed. We still don’t have Internet access, although it has been ordered and we hope to have it soon. Australian Internet access is very expensive and restrictive…


This is Ryan’s bedroom. He’s very ashamed of the broken lamp that came with the flat and hopes to replace it soon. Both bedrooms have sliding doors to the “patio”.


And this is my bedroom. We have two bathrooms, one as an en-suite to my room and the other near the kitchen.


This is our patio with access to both of our bedrooms.


And this is the view from our patio towards the center of town. You can kind of see the Q1 tower in this picture – it looks better in person.

After we settled in to our apartment we began job hunting. Ryan was the most successful on the first day, landing a trial shift at “Seafood Mania” as a cashier, and setting up an interview at a clothing store. He’s not very happy at Seafood Mania, and now that he’s started at the clothing store as well (which has better benefits, people and pay), he’s planning on quitting. Seems easy to find two jobs!

It took me a few days to find work, but when I did, it came in waves. I had an interview at Nandos, and after getting the job there as a cook, got a call from a night club to come in that night and work as a glasser (busser). I've been juggling both jobs for a while now with some 2-3 hours of sleep most nights, coming home at 5:30 or 6am and starting at 10am at Nandos. Both jobs have ups and downs, so I’m weighing my options and will probably quit one in the next few days.

We plan on taking a couple of pictures of the places we work at, and posting them on here soon. Shortly we’ll update you on how the jobs are working out, and any side trips we may take. For now, we need to find the time to take some surf lessons.