Flat Hunting in Sydney, and New Job!

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 @ 10:40 pm | Travel

Hello to all/both of my regular readers!

I’ve no doubt you’re literally bursting with excitement to here how I’m getting on in Sunny Sydney™! Well, I arrived here about, 2 weeks ago, and it’s going pretty damn well to be honest. The weather’s great, the job’s fab and the city is just as good as I thought it would be. It’s not a permanent holiday place, but as a big city to live and work in my first impressions couldn’t be much more favourable.

For those of you that didn’t know, I’ve taken up a position with dgmAustralia and I’m enjoying it all immensely. They seem to be a company who are real market leaders out here and helping to grow the market as a whole too, with an enormous amount of experience between them. I thought I’d been in this online game a while, with 4 years, but there’s one guy who has been working in online since 1996 and the days of UseNet! Green writing on black screens I think… Out here dgm work in affiliates, media, search, SEO and all aspects of online, such as leveraging the social media for their clients – there’s plenty of scope even in the market of Australia where the population is relatively low, broadband penetration isn’t great and customers really don’t tend to buy online that much… yet! It’s all changing, but certainly the growth curve is a couple of years behind the UK in terms of customer behaviour, and even the rules that good old Google apply out here, so UK affiliates can make a bit of a killing if they want to operate out here (if you do, give me a shout!).

Out of work, I’ve been keeping pretty busy – I’m living in the YHA at the moment, which is all well and good, but not the best place to hang around in the evenings, and so leads me to go out a bit more than perhaps I should!

Due to a slight budgeting error, I’m a bit short on the old readies until I get paid, so any donations are much appreciated – in particular the Percy Pigs that Jenny sent out have gone down a treat!

Last weekend I had a proper Aussie weekend. On Friday we had a huge BBQ at work, which was both tasty and great fun – a real meat-fest! Then on Friday night, through the magic of Facebook I met up with a guy who used to go to my school, Matt, who I hadn’t seen for 11 years! We went to watch the Waratahs rugby team in the Super 14’s competition. Matt’s a bit of a local celebrity at the rugby, he’s Club Captain of Mosman Rugby Club (with 9 teams!), and also a teacher and coach at a secondary school in Bondi. As a result about 50% of the stadium seemed to know him which was quite funny, especially when the kids got quite excited about seeing their teacher with a tray full of beers! He got free tickets, so that freed up some beer money. Then Saturday was Coogee beach (like Bondi only a bit less tacky, 20 mins on a bus from the city centre). Sunday was my first trip to the “footy”, or Aussie Rules Football as you might call it! The Sydney Swans thrashed the Port Adelaide Power by 141 to 70, a proper drubbing – particularly as the Power finished 2^nd overall last year! I really enjoyed the game, but perhaps more as a consequence of going with about 80 other hostel residents (resplendent in our matching caps) and the fact that I basically got to sit in the burning sunshine for 2 and a half hours and watch sport! Great stuff! It seems like a good game, but how much I’d like to watch it in the winter, I don’t know… To round off the 3 code weekend, on Monday I went to an NRL game (Rugby League to you and me!) with Robbie from my new work. We went to watch his local team, the Manly Sea Eagles Vs the New Zealand Warriors. The atmosphere was great and the Sea Eagles (or the Seagulls as I dubbed them!) thrashed NZ by 52 points to 6. Three good games and three wins for Hudson! If only Hyde and City benefited from my support so much when I was back home! I’ve realised that I can afford all this sport if I cut out the beer at the games – not drinking 4 beers pays for the cost of another ticket. The logic works in my head anyway, even if I miss the alcohol!

In-between all this I’ve been furiously hunting for a flat, ideally in a house share type scenario. To say it’s been difficult would be an understatement – there’s an incredible scarcity of rental accommodation at the moment in Australia in general, and Sydney in particular. For my £110 a week, I’m hopeful of getting a room in a 3 bed apartment in Pyrmont, near work, near the City Centre and near Darling Harbour. However, there seem to be about 10 applicants for every room! As a bloody Pom, I seem to be on the back foot; however I’m sure my natural charm (and access to rental income and the deposit) will win through in the end! I’ve been subjected to the rather galling process of a full interview with the householders and open house scenarios where you all have to wait outside until you’re called in for an interview – all very scary! The questions you get asked are daft, and I’ve not been successful so far, so I’ve put together what I believe the perfect answers should be in a flat hunting interview, all questions I’ve been asked!

Q: Are you a tidy person?
A: Yes – I’m really tidy; I love cleaning and always do my dishes. However, I don’t get uptight at all if you’re not tidy, I don’t mind what you do, so don’t go thinking I’m a neat freak. Indeed I’m quite likely just to do your cleaning for you!

Q: Do you like music?
A: Oh yes, I love music, I like [Insert name of band that is similar but a bit cooler than the posters you’ve seen around the house, or just guess. Not heavy metal or Drum n’ Bass]. However I only ever tend to listen to it very quietly or generally through headphones. Actually, the only time I will turn my $5000 stereo above volume number 1 is when we have a house party, and it’s then loud enough to make your ears bleed when you turn it up to 11.

Q: Do you like going out?
A: Oh yes, I love going out as well as staying in with my flatmates and cooking. I go out all the time ‘cos I’m great fun me, and I’d probably invite you. However I rarely get in after 11pm and am very very quiet when I do get in.

Q: Do you drive?
A: I’ve got a nice car, but I rarely use it. Due to this I’m more than happy for people to borrow it and indeed would relish the opportunity to drive people places at the weekend as I don’t drive much in the week.

Q: Do you have many friends in Sydney?
A: Yes, I’ve got exactly the right amount of friends to make you think that I’m popular, but not so many that would make you think that I don’t want to be your mate too.

Q: So this is Bruno who you would be sharing the room with…
A: Er… TAXI!!!

Q: Do you have a telly or anything we can use in the lounge?
A: Actually I was thinking my Harry Potter sized room was a bit small for my plasma screen and projector – I’d probably put them in the lounge. Also I’ve got a PS3 and an Xbox360 for you all to use, I never play them because I’m not a geek.

Q: How much do you earn?
A: Enough to make you think I can comfortably pay the rent and get the odd round in, but not so much to make you feel inferior. Definitely a salary and not commission that could make you think I’d struggle with rent some months, oh no.

Q: How do you feel about vegetarians?
A: Meat is murder/they’re fucking wimps and deserve to be shot (Requires a big judgement call).

Q: What about having guests over?
A: Well, so long as you keep the noise down and wear a cond… Oh, er, yes, I’m cool with that, but I rarely if ever bring friends back as I tend to stay at theirs.

Q: So, if we were to select you, would you want to move in?
A: Yes, definitely, but I’m not desperate or owt, honest. Please take me. Please.

Q: Do you like Celine Dion?
A: Fuck off and die. Painfully.

Right, I’ll find somewhere I’m sure – it’s just that when I see an advert with “Looking 4 1 person share flat with. im tidy an honest 4 mins chinatown and share 2 ppl” a little bit of me dies inside. Everything else is going fine and dandy, and the hostel is cheap enough and good really (free brekko!) so I shouldn’t complain!

Ok, that’s enough for now folks – ta ta!

PS I can highly recommend the new Will Farrell flick – “Semi-Pro”, made me really chuckle!