Settled in the Sunshine Coast

Settled in the Sunshine Coast

So we have been in Australia for 10 days. The first few days were hectic - running around like crazy people doing house viewings, printing off and handing in CV's to jobs, getting shopping and food done. 

Things have calmed down a significantly now and we have settled into life on the Sunshine Coast. The first necessity of moving anywhere was:

The House

We moved into a house on Tuesday 16th September. It's right next to the main surf spot and between the 2 main beaches (Alex Beach and Mooloolaba Beach), only one road back from the sea. The house is beautiful:

The best bit? The rent. At only £276 each (£469 for both of us), it's costing far, far less than any hostel, hotel or tourist park, and much less than my old flat in Batheaston did! AND this one has a pool, garage and sun-soaked front yard....

The next necessity was:

THE JOB

After vast amounts of self-selling and distributing covering letters, CV's, emails and phone calls (We must have applied to around 30-35 jobs between us), I got a call to come into a very upmarket, multiple award-winning bar and restaurant for a trial shift. Competing against 2 others, the trial shift went well and I managed to get myself 30 hours a week bartending (at $20 per hour. Which is around £12.63. Which is vastly more than my hourly teaching wage....). After my first shift, Charlotte then got a call from the same bar to trial as a waitress. This is happening tonight (Friday 19th September) and hopefully it goes well!

So now one (hopefully soon both) of us has a job, and a house. That's fairly stable and pretty fantastic considering we managed to secure both by day 7 of being in Australia, barely time for the jetlag to go (incidentally I am still waking up at ridiculous times). 

There were still a few things needed to complete the move:

VITAL NECESSITIES

Transport was arranged pretty promptly, 2 bikes for a grand total of $100 (1 free from a garage clear-out, another new from K-Mart)

And lastly, but certainly not least, there is no point in living in a prime surf spot without the necessary tools to do so. And now I'm earning, my first wages helped procure this beauty:

So now all that is left is for Charlotte to get a job, and then everything will be completely and totally perfect.