AiLeng's diary 爱玲的日记: Our new house!

11.8.14 (Monday)

In about one week more, we will be here for THREE months! How time flies. And there were many things happened since I last updated on my blog.

So far, life here is good. As what I posted on my Facebook, There were too many things to give thanks to, especially to our Heavenly Father, for He is always there for us, sending His angels to look after us when we need one or more. For example, there was one day we were shopping at Kmart and while making payment using credit card, the cashier informed that the payment was voided. Hubby then remembered that he forgotten to transfer some money over to the bank account and luckily there was an ATM in the mall. He quickly went to the ATM and hoping he could do some online banking there. However, things did not turn out the way we wanted it to be! And suddenly, he met a brother in Christ walking passed him. Hubby told the friend about his problem and the friend suggested maybe Hubby can use his mobile phone to do the internet banking instead. Finally, Hubby managed to transfer some money and we could buy our stuffs.

The children are having fun times here as there are parks everywhere, children programmes at the mall and library. Abby's favourite place is Kmart especially the toys and books sections! I registered them with the local library here. And each of the member is allowed to borrow 25 items (including books and DVDs). There is also a reading programme for the children. They are required to read at least 3 books each month to get a small reward and also at the end of the programme, if they fulfil all the requirements, they will be given a medallion as a reward. So, both Abby and Ian will be receiving their medallion in Sept!

Hubby also passed his driving test at first attempt but I failed mine. Reason being, the examiner said I didn't stop at the STOP sign! I did stop but examiner said not obvious and not long enough! Gosh..this was how strict the transport department here! The whole driving test is about 25-30mins but for me, I just drove out from the test centre for like 5mins and I failed! I was pretty upset and disappointed. Hubby commented that I didn't give the examiner an impression that I can drive confidently! I need to retake the test again in order to be able to drive here. (Previously, our foreign driving licence is valid for 3 mths but with the new rule, if you fail your driving test, you are not allow to drive even if the period of your foreign driving licence is still valid) According to my friend here, if a police stops you, you just show the foreign driving licence and the police will let you go. Only thing is if you are involve in an accident, then you can't claim insurance as you are driving illegally. She also told me, if you go back to Msia, a police stop you while driving, just pretend you are foreigner, show Aussie driving licence and the police will let you go without asking for $$..haha! I am not sure how true is this but her friend got through it!

After staying with our friends for about 2.5mths, finally, we moved to a new rented house! We found this house from the advertisement on the newspaper. Initially, I didn't shortlist this house as the information given was so minimal, just the address, unlike other advertisements where you get information like the address, number of rooms, rental rates etc. However, Hubby spotted it and said we should try this address too, and thanked God, we inspected the house and met a very nice landlord! He is a 70yrs old Taiwanese man, who has been living in Brisbane for more than 20yrs. This house was inherited by him from his parents. There were 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms, furnished and utilities (internet, electricity and water) were included in the rental. The rental was $450/pw! We took a quick tour inside the house, and first impression was "old and not clean"! But we kept our options open and will inspect more houses before making the final decision. The owner was willing to reduce the rental to $420/pw if we are to sign for a one year contract.

We continued searching for houses and most of them were either old, not furnished or too expensive! After much consideration, we decided to rent the first house that we inspected, ie our current house now! We went back to take a second inspection and to our surprise, we thought that this house was actually not bad at all, and the location was strategic - close to markets, school, our church and Hubby's working place. Furthermore, the owner reduced the rental to $400/pw, seeing that we are new migrants and also brother and sister in Christ. We were really grateful and signed a one year contract with him. We couldn't believe that we found a place in such a short period and so easily. If we are to rent a place through the real estate agent, there are many procedures that we need to go through and it is very tedious. God really understand our needs and bless us with a good place to stay. The owner said he will need one week to clean up the house before we can move in.

About 3 days before we move in, I brought some stuffs over and saw that the owner was actually cleaning the house on his own! (we thought he might hire the cleaning services) I offered my help (after all, we are going to stay here, I have the responsibility to clean the house too) to clean the house. Because it was an old house and the owner rented to many people previously who didn't actually take care of the house properly, so there were lots of cleaning to do! I spent about 4hrs cleaning the kitchen itself, scrubbing the tiles on the floor, the cabinets etc..really a tough job but I am happy to do so coz I want my house to be clean and tidy. The owner said to me," You really like cleanliness!" I smiled and replied," Ya, we want the house to be clean and tidy, moreover, we have children, cleanliness is very important!"

It has been one week staying here and all of us are very happy and satisfy with the house. The children have their own room, and ample spaces to run around, more freedom as compared living with others. I usually walk to the market with the children to do grocery shopping and they are very happy to follow me, to help me carry stuffs. Next year, Abby will be going to school, which is about 15mins walk from our house and it is the second top government primary school in Brisbane!

As for jobs, both me and Hubby still jobless but we are working on something now. Will share more once it is more established.

Here are some photos to share.