Gayshare.com.au, I found my new flatmate and friend, Michael Riches. He’s an Australian from Byron Bay and works for the Victorian AIDS Council. We searched high and low for a place that met all of our basic criteria for living with some level of comfort. A dishwasher, only 1 flight of stairs, a balcony, a place with some style, and close to public transit. After many attempts and at the last possible moment, as previously outlined in this blog, we found our new home. So yesterday, October 8, 2008 we moved in!!! As with all moves there are little details that go a rye and need to be taken care of as you go. The day started with a train ride to pick up our keys at LJ Hooker and Assoc., our landlords. 2 people, a 2 bedroom apartment, 2 set of keys, right? Seems only sensible! But no only 1 set of keys and there are 3 different locked doors to get from the street into the apartment. However, the most major obstacle of the day was to coordinate the movements of our belongings. Items that were spread over 4 places throughout Melbourne, 1 large load of Michael’s things from Byron Bay and 1 pile of boxes of mine that Australian Customs had so graciously allowed me to keep. (Hint: don’t try to bring a large can of bear spray AKA pepper spray into the country it’s a banned substance) The Melbourne items went fairly flawlessly. Michael had hired “A Man with a Van” and this guy helped us load up all our things from the various places and got them to our flat in 1 trip. The other deliveries of the day didn’t go so smoothly. Michael was expecting a shipping company to arrive with his belongs from Byron Bay around 11:30. I was hoping the firm helping me through customs would arrive around 2pm. This turned into about 3pm and 6pm respectively. It wasn’t all bad because this gave us time to get our local items unpacked, time for a little grocery shopping (trust me we had NO food in the house),get the extra keys made (at $5.95 PER key) and even some time for lunch. When Michael’s stuff arrived the 2 mover guys had a great idea of standing on top of their truck and passing everything up over the balcony railing. This worked like a dream for most of the lighter items. The few heavy pieces had to be carried up the flight of stairs. Thanks to the movers 
Michael and I got to direct and not lift! We spent the next several hours looking what he had packed away for what he hoped would only be 2 months and what turned out to be 18 months. While I checked dates on pantry items and started washing the dust off his kitchen wares. Michael (standing) and his friend, Jock (kneeling) set out to piece together some of the larger furniture. The one they’re doing in the picture is a day bed for our over night guests. So the gay inn is now officially open!When my boxes arrived it took only a few minutes to move 39 years and the 16 boxes of my life from the US into my new bedroom. I finally have all my stuff. The first
thing I did was make my bed with the blankets my mother had made for me years ago. This immediately gave the room a sense of home. The day was long but very rewarding. Near 8pm we headed out for some dinner and a few drinks to relax. Sitting after such a long day made us sore and not waiting to move again. Upon our return to the box kingdom, Michael and I had a few drinks to celebrate our new life and then puttered around some more before hitting the hay.
Thursday morning my first day with the new commute to work took about 30 minutes from the Balaclava train station on the Sandringham (sand-ring-ham) line. 5 minute walk to the train, 15 minute train ride, and 10 minute walk to the office. Not too bad and I don’t have to walk by that damn casino multiple times a day.
The outlook for this weekend is nice. Weather forecasted to be 27 degrees (81 F) and sunny both days. I have an extra band practice to get ready for the big concert on Nov 1st , the usual household errands to run, hoping to get a few more boxes unpacked and maybe get down to the beach with my sax. Hope all is well wherever you are! Please come and visit! Happy 50th Brithday to ED SHARICK back on October 8th!
No comments:
Post a Comment