At last we have been able to put some decent photos of our house on our photo site. Have a look at the most recent ´link´ at the right of this page. (Or if you can not find it, look here ;-)
Further not a lot of new news. As you can see in the pictures we now do have our (red) lounge suit and (as mentioned before) our (snowwhite) couches. Yesterday we have been able to find a couple of nice rugs. To complete the furniture inside the house we are now waiting for the coffee table (has been ordered, a coffe table version of the dining table) to be delivered and we have to find some nice lamp tables to put beside the couches and along the lounge suit.
Ellen is still the only one working (;-) and enjoying it very much. Peter isn´t (yet) working and to be honest is enjoying his freedom very much too ;-). He has of course not given up looking for a job...
Monday, August 21, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Two weeks :-(
Hi all… it is really unbelievable but the last post is dated August 1. So that’s another two weeks gone just like that. Time to get you updated:
Ellen has had her first full week of work. She really enjoys it. Of course she is pretty tired every night when she comes home. It is a new job in a new environment in a new country. But after this first week she is already starting to get a grip on the work. Since she has been asked to fill in for someone who is on holidays now (managing 5 projects). The biggest challenge here is not the 5 projects themselves, but the fact that the person going on holiday first had another contractor to hand over his work temporarily, but then after a few days this contractor did not come back. So Ellen had to take over while the colleague was already on holiday.
In the last two weeks Peter is contemplating (thinking about somewhere in the back of his mind ;-) to maybe start doing something more with photography. Not so much changing career at once, but besides working in his current field, also put a bit more time into photography (try to get it a bit from hobby into amateur level ;-). And then see if maybe opportunities will arise in time to change careers.
Yesterday we have been at Marina and Mikes wedding. It was a ‘home’ wedding. In Australia it is very usual to choose your own location (which can be anywhere, like simply at home). The marriage consultant will marry you where you want.
Today we have said goodbye to Eddy, Elly, Lieke and Imke. We have met them in Tilburg last year (they were also at a xpdite meeting). They have been living here since November, but have now decided to go back (for a couple of years at least). To a certain extend we have now experienced the same as what our friends and family in Holland must have experienced when we left…
This Wednesday our sofa (the red one) will be delivered. So another piece of our home will be added. Step by step the house is now turning into a perfect home ;-)
We have made some photos of the house, we expect to publish some of them in the next few days!
Ellen has had her first full week of work. She really enjoys it. Of course she is pretty tired every night when she comes home. It is a new job in a new environment in a new country. But after this first week she is already starting to get a grip on the work. Since she has been asked to fill in for someone who is on holidays now (managing 5 projects). The biggest challenge here is not the 5 projects themselves, but the fact that the person going on holiday first had another contractor to hand over his work temporarily, but then after a few days this contractor did not come back. So Ellen had to take over while the colleague was already on holiday.
In the last two weeks Peter is contemplating (thinking about somewhere in the back of his mind ;-) to maybe start doing something more with photography. Not so much changing career at once, but besides working in his current field, also put a bit more time into photography (try to get it a bit from hobby into amateur level ;-). And then see if maybe opportunities will arise in time to change careers.
Yesterday we have been at Marina and Mikes wedding. It was a ‘home’ wedding. In Australia it is very usual to choose your own location (which can be anywhere, like simply at home). The marriage consultant will marry you where you want.
Today we have said goodbye to Eddy, Elly, Lieke and Imke. We have met them in Tilburg last year (they were also at a xpdite meeting). They have been living here since November, but have now decided to go back (for a couple of years at least). To a certain extend we have now experienced the same as what our friends and family in Holland must have experienced when we left…
This Wednesday our sofa (the red one) will be delivered. So another piece of our home will be added. Step by step the house is now turning into a perfect home ;-)
We have made some photos of the house, we expect to publish some of them in the next few days!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
ADSL (continued), flat tyre and work ...
Well, as usual (by now ;-) another week has gone by. Do we have anything new to tell ??? Yes, we have.
Our (snow-white) couches have been delivered last Wednesday. They´re beautiful! And before you are all going to put comments about the pictures: .. Finally the last problem with Telstra/ADSL seems to have been solved. We did have adsl for 2 days last week.
But guess what, the 3rd day (Friday) suddenly we did not have any connection to the internet anymore. So, again it was time to ´climb in the telephone´. To cut a long story short: The day after buying a DIY package (see two posts ago) ourselves at the Telstra shop, there was a little note from Australia Post in the letterbox. It said: ´Final Notice´… Or in other words, the ´lost´ package from Telstra was at the Post Office now. We went there, explained that we had bought one ourselves now, and sent the package back. The same day we installed the DIY package, and everything went perfect. But then as said last Friday suddenly our connection with internet was gone. First checking everything (all cables connected, all lights on the modem on green etc…), but the only thing that was not ok was the actual ´internet´ light. Anyway, after calling Telstra it appeared that they had received the returned package. And then someone thought that we did not want adsl anymore, so simply cut off the adsl definition for our telephone number. If he or she would have had a good look, he or she should have seen that the returned package was connected to a cancelled order-number, and that there was a new order-number. Anyway, it was all possible to correct but it would take 3 working days max to get the connection back. Since we are pretty dependant on internet I told them I did not like that, but was reassured that we should still be able to use our old dialup account in the mean time. Of course, the first attempt did not go right, and indeed after calling (again) another colleague said that is was not possible to go back from adsl to dialup with an account. But she could mend it by simply creating a temporary account for us to use. And that is what we have done since Friday. Then the day before yesterday (Sunday) I tested the adsl modem (just in case ;-), and what do you know… we seemed to be back online through adsl.
So, we only have to call Telstra again (promised to do that) to let them know that we do not need the temporary account any more. We have not done that yet but will do that today or tomorrow. Of course you can imagine that we will do so with a bit of fear… What else will go wrong when we tell them to shut down the temp dialup account… ;-)
After this not so short story after all (;-), yesterday morning Peter drove back after doing a little shopping, and from a certain moment he heard a funny sound every time he made a turn to the left. Even when doing it slowly it did not sound good. Arriving home he had a good look at the car and found that the rear right wheel was flat (or at least pretty empty, wheels don´t actually run flat these days). So, he had to replace the wheel with the spare one. Now by itself this is not so special, but for him it was the first time in his life that he run a flat tyre! He is am hoping this is just coincidence, but it could be that the change of running flats over here are a lot bigger than in Holland, since there is a lot more rubbish on the road. We´ll have to wait and see what the reality will be ;-). Today we brought the punctured wheel to the dealer to get it repaired. They repaired it, put it back on the car (and put the spare one back under the rear of the car where it belonged, they checked the pressure on all tyres and finally cleaned them all). The total cost of this all was ….. 40 dollars ! A lot less then we were actually expecting.
Now then finally some good news about the work situation. Ellen was called last Thursday by the recruitment office. The company that Ellen had had an interview with 2 weeks ago, and that had said to look out for a more senior role for her, has asked the recruiters if she would still be available. They do not have the more senior role available just yet, but (the recruiter and us think) they just did not want to let the change to get Ellen go. So they have now offered her a 6 months contract as a project manager. Starting with small projects for now. We expect they will probably offer her a permanent job after that ;-). She is asked to start next Monday (August 7th), which is pretty fast! Ellen is on one hand very happy to start working of course, but on the other hand it will be the end of the freedom of the last 4 months for her. The best part of this contract is that she will earn (before tax) even more than in Holland. Knowing that the tax is a lot less than in Holland, Peter almost doesn´t have to work anymore ;-) ;-)
In the mean time Peter has done another interview and (only just) got a result of an interview back that he did three weeks ago. Unfortunately they have found someone coming from another oil & gas company, so have chosen that candidate. They did state he was a close 2nd, and would like to keep him in their database for when other opportunities will arise. So, although being rejected, still not a bad result by itself.
Our (snow-white) couches have been delivered last Wednesday. They´re beautiful! And before you are all going to put comments about the pictures: .. Finally the last problem with Telstra/ADSL seems to have been solved. We did have adsl for 2 days last week.
But guess what, the 3rd day (Friday) suddenly we did not have any connection to the internet anymore. So, again it was time to ´climb in the telephone´. To cut a long story short: The day after buying a DIY package (see two posts ago) ourselves at the Telstra shop, there was a little note from Australia Post in the letterbox. It said: ´Final Notice´… Or in other words, the ´lost´ package from Telstra was at the Post Office now. We went there, explained that we had bought one ourselves now, and sent the package back. The same day we installed the DIY package, and everything went perfect. But then as said last Friday suddenly our connection with internet was gone. First checking everything (all cables connected, all lights on the modem on green etc…), but the only thing that was not ok was the actual ´internet´ light. Anyway, after calling Telstra it appeared that they had received the returned package. And then someone thought that we did not want adsl anymore, so simply cut off the adsl definition for our telephone number. If he or she would have had a good look, he or she should have seen that the returned package was connected to a cancelled order-number, and that there was a new order-number. Anyway, it was all possible to correct but it would take 3 working days max to get the connection back. Since we are pretty dependant on internet I told them I did not like that, but was reassured that we should still be able to use our old dialup account in the mean time. Of course, the first attempt did not go right, and indeed after calling (again) another colleague said that is was not possible to go back from adsl to dialup with an account. But she could mend it by simply creating a temporary account for us to use. And that is what we have done since Friday. Then the day before yesterday (Sunday) I tested the adsl modem (just in case ;-), and what do you know… we seemed to be back online through adsl.
So, we only have to call Telstra again (promised to do that) to let them know that we do not need the temporary account any more. We have not done that yet but will do that today or tomorrow. Of course you can imagine that we will do so with a bit of fear… What else will go wrong when we tell them to shut down the temp dialup account… ;-)
After this not so short story after all (;-), yesterday morning Peter drove back after doing a little shopping, and from a certain moment he heard a funny sound every time he made a turn to the left. Even when doing it slowly it did not sound good. Arriving home he had a good look at the car and found that the rear right wheel was flat (or at least pretty empty, wheels don´t actually run flat these days). So, he had to replace the wheel with the spare one. Now by itself this is not so special, but for him it was the first time in his life that he run a flat tyre! He is am hoping this is just coincidence, but it could be that the change of running flats over here are a lot bigger than in Holland, since there is a lot more rubbish on the road. We´ll have to wait and see what the reality will be ;-). Today we brought the punctured wheel to the dealer to get it repaired. They repaired it, put it back on the car (and put the spare one back under the rear of the car where it belonged, they checked the pressure on all tyres and finally cleaned them all). The total cost of this all was ….. 40 dollars ! A lot less then we were actually expecting.
Now then finally some good news about the work situation. Ellen was called last Thursday by the recruitment office. The company that Ellen had had an interview with 2 weeks ago, and that had said to look out for a more senior role for her, has asked the recruiters if she would still be available. They do not have the more senior role available just yet, but (the recruiter and us think) they just did not want to let the change to get Ellen go. So they have now offered her a 6 months contract as a project manager. Starting with small projects for now. We expect they will probably offer her a permanent job after that ;-). She is asked to start next Monday (August 7th), which is pretty fast! Ellen is on one hand very happy to start working of course, but on the other hand it will be the end of the freedom of the last 4 months for her. The best part of this contract is that she will earn (before tax) even more than in Holland. Knowing that the tax is a lot less than in Holland, Peter almost doesn´t have to work anymore ;-) ;-)
In the mean time Peter has done another interview and (only just) got a result of an interview back that he did three weeks ago. Unfortunately they have found someone coming from another oil & gas company, so have chosen that candidate. They did state he was a close 2nd, and would like to keep him in their database for when other opportunities will arise. So, although being rejected, still not a bad result by itself.
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