Notes from the Sydney suburbs by a new resident:

The toilets at the train stations have blue lights in them. This is to discourage intravenous drug users -- they can't see their veins in the blue light.

The train seats on some of the trains are reversible so you don't have to sit facing backwards if you don't want to. It's brilliant.

GSM mobile/cell phones (with SIM cards) are awesome. You can pop your SIM card into any phone and it becomes 'your' phone with all your provider info and phone book, etc.

It's so handicap accessible! There are cabs that are modified to allow a wheelchair to simply ramp in to. No getting out and breaking down the chair! The cross walks are audible. Many of the lifts (elevators) have a second set of controls at wheelchair level.

The flies are almost as bad as you'd heard. They're worse in other areas. It's just a fact of life here.

Most (all new?) Apple products simply require a change of power cable to an Aussie type and will auto-negotiate the 240v/50hz power. (Yay!)

It's common for the shower in a flat to be constructed thusly: put a drain in the tile floor beside the bath tub, seal up the tile, put up some glass walls. Shower. Our bath room has two drains in the floor. One in the middle of the room and one for the shower. Weird.

Clothes dryers are tiny. We bought a decent mid-sized one (relative to the rest of the selection). I could probably lift and carry it down the stairs by myself if I had to.

I think Aussies who are Monarchists may have a bizarre form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'll probably be beaten up for saying that by some old lady with a "pip pip" sort of accent. But I think I might be on to something.

...the Eagle has landed. We have arrived. More later.

Last night Steve (Steve-who-wants-a-better-name-Steve) organised a get-together at the Roadhouse with my former co-workers. Was good to say bye to everyone. I'm gonna miss you guys. And "bye" to those of you who couldn't make it. Steve (Steve-party-animal-Steve) kept Sarah and Steve (Steve-my-friend-from-CA-Steve) entertained while I circulated the tables. Lessee... wmo, B, Nora, Dave, Selena, Evil-Jungle-Jim, Butry, Rusty, The Dude, Jerry , JasonC, Steve (steve-who-wants-a-better-name-Steve), Steve (you-know-Steve-K) and KD showed up (god... I hope I didn't forget anyone... please forgive me if I did). Got my awesome LoRs.

Patricia wrote to ask which continent I was on. I wrote back and gave her details, etc. Her reply:
Next week I am moving to Portland to assume your identity.
Funny. :)
So I offered to leave some unpaid bills. ;)

House is empty (thanks, Steve-who-wants-a-better-name-Steve!) except for the shipping boxes. Shipper is late. Waiting for them to find out why and call me back. 9 Boxes of my life will soon be slowly crawling to Sydney. I'm scared as shit and also excited. Mostly I'm just happy that we'll be together and in our own place.

We'll clean up and head over to Steve's (Steve-my-friend-from-CA-Steve) and hopefully relax for a night. Sarah flies out tomorrow at 6pm for LAX. I fly out the next day on the exact same flight. She then takes EVA to Taipei and has a 14 hour layover (poor baby...). I leave LAX and fly direct to Sydney. We get there an hour apart (her at 10:40, me at 9:20). I spend an hour with her mom all by myself (eek!). :) Then it's of to the realtor to pick up the keys for our place. I dunno how long we'll be off line, but expect more bloggy goodness as soon as we're back on line (if I don't write more tomorrow).

Someone needs to buy the Austin Powers DVD for us in December and ship it to us. hehehehe

The house is nearly empty. We have our futon bed, boxes and suitcases and... not much else. Inspection tomorrow.

SGI Octane for $750 with 6 month warranty! Shite!

Andy Kyte is also a tool. ;)
If one cannot quantify, monetarily, the contribution of a worker (much less actually explain what a 'knowledge worker' is), then one cannot measure productivity. He just likes the sound of his own voice.
See Andy Synergise

God... I never thought I'd say this but... I'm glad I'm leaving... Y'all can have him. Who does he think he is? He's misrepresenting the American people's will. He's trying to say that America doesn't truck with abortion in any way... except it's been legal since '73!!! Argh. This makes me so mad! I wish there was a way to set off an alarm that would force him to address this before the public.

And... God... The man is NOT intelligent and he should never have been put in office. All he will do is try to change this country to look more like his Fundamental friends (and friends who want to please the Fundies) want it to. He's a tool and will be bad for America. I hope voters will one day see him as such and not let it happen again. Hopefully the damage can be undone...

I'm so disgusted...

We have a place in Miranda (near the station and Miranda Fair. Whoop!). We sent our bond and rent and... Yay! We're set! The utilities will be hooked up as long as the power people can get their heads out of their asses. hehe They think we're in Caringbah or something). Sarah leaves on the 23rd, I leave on the 24th. We both arrive on the 26th (she has a sucky layover in Taipei... *suck*). The movers pack my shit out on the 22nd. 150 cubic feet of stuff (4.25 cubic meters, I think. I am so gonna suck at metrics for a while.)

Party at Rob's on the 29th. Can't wait. :)

Boosh!