Here to stay!

After five weeks of intensive job searching, enduring interviews and working a few 'in-between' jobs, we have both found proper employment, which means we are going to stay in Perth for at least the next year or so!

David got his first job after three weeks of searching and was casually employed at a factory, mainly working with generators. He gladly left that job a week later when he was offered a full-time role at a very organised and professional electrical company and he is now in his third week.

Jenny got her first job after two weeks of searching. It was a part-time role at a car rental company, which she couldn't stand! At least she got to drive new vehicles around Perth all the time and that way got to know Perth's surrounding suburbs quite well. She left this job two weeks later for a phone-based customer service role at a bank. While this wasn't something she really wanted to do, it did seem to be a great way of getting your foot in the door with such a big organisation. When she almost gave up on finding a marketing position, she got offered a job as a marketing manager at an IT company! So she left the bank and joined the IT company this week.

To celebrate the fact that we don't have to go through anymore interviews, we went to Margaret River last weekend! It's about 300 km south of Perth and a major centre for wineries. Of the 84 wineries in the region, we only managed to visit about six, which was probably more than enough! We tasted and tasted and nibbled and ate - it was such a relaxing weekend! The area is lovely and green and hilly and very close to the ocean where we saw lots of dolphins swimming in the water. We also had a chance to feed the pelicans with fish heads and fish guts, that was a lot of fun!

So our 'around Australia' trip has come to an end. We've absolutely LOVED traveling - we had the time of our lives! Australia is so beautiful and we had such a good time in Darwin thanks to our housemates and it was great being able to travel so carefree through southeast Asia. We've got so many photos and memories and met so many amazing/strange/beautiful/funny/cool people! We still intend to see heaps of this part of Australia, which is also very unique. Being full-time employed doesn't help but we intend to plan lots of weekend trips to all the great places around the south west coast. Plus we still need to get to the Kimberley region in the Dry.

We are planning to come to Melbourne for about a week by the end of May or the start of June - depending on when our tenants move out. We'll post it here, so keep an eye out, because we're planning to have a 'welcome home/goodbye' party and we'd like to invite everyone that has been following our blog to come around.

Thanks to everyone who's had an interest in our travels. It was very nice to read all the comments that were posted! Thanks very much and keep in touch!

Here to stay?

The past couple of weeks have flown past! We have both found work; not quite what we're after just yet, but it is a start and we have a very active social life at the moment! We met some great people in Perth to hang out with. Everyone here is so laid-back and friendly. People even greet you on the streets (in the right suburbs only, apparently) when you go for a walk in the morning. Perth seems to be like a very big country town, but with decent shopping and eating possibilities (unlike Darwin...). The beaches are beautiful and because we live so close to the beach (5 mins by car), we find ourselves splashing in the water at least three times a week.

(riding on the beach in Lancelin is hard work)

David has bought himself a kite and is having a bit of trouble getting into the water with it. It seems to be impossible for him at the moment to put his board on his feet and let the kite drag him over the water. He even lost his board on one occasion. Fortunately, another kite surfer retrieved it for him. But we keep on practising! And we have made a kite surfing friend who promised to help out one of these days, which will help. Jenny was supposed to have lessons last week, but the kite surfing school never called her. So she just has to make new arrangements with another school.

(David can control his 12m2 kite, but has trouble putting the board on his feet)

The temperature has been amazing for the last month. It is always around a breezy thirty degrees and it hasn't rained since we got here. Apparently it rains a lot in winter. We'll see.

(The back of our car is very comfy these days without all our camping gear in it)

Because we like Perth so much we are thinking of staying for at least a year, provided that within the next three months we will find jobs that we actually like. If this is not the case, we may as well travel a bit more, see the Kimberley area and enjoy our house in Melbourne for a bit more. It all depends on our work situation, but for now we're here to stay. So if anyone feels like a trip to Perth; contact us! We might be able to accommodate you!

Perth

As stated in the last post, we were hoping to swim with dolphins in Monkey Mia (Mia being ‘home’ in Aboriginal language). We didn’t get to swim with them, but we were surrounded by about ten of them, only a few centimeters away from us in the water. It was an amazing experience! The water was so clear and we could see so many of them hanging around, jumping in the distance and swimming closer to give us a nice glance at their babies. It was beautiful. There weren’t as many tourists, because it was the off-season, which made the experience even better. Five dolphins were fed four fish each and five girls choose a different volunteer each time to feed a fish to a dolphin. The girls liked David so much they choose him twice, which a couple of German tourists disliked very much! He only went to feed a dolphin once though, to give others a chance as well. The bay we saw the dolphins in is called Shark Bay. You can imagine how the bay got its name. We didn’t stick around long enough to spot the sharks, but apparently Shark Bay is the place to see hammerheads and great whites. The waters are unbelievably clear but also quite cool. Seeing the dolphins was definitely worth the 300km detour.

From Monkey Mia we drove south to Geraldton, the town we originally thought to settle down in for a few months. Unfortunately we weren’t too charmed by the place and since it is only 400 km south from Perth, we decided to push on. We stopped not too far from Geraldton right on the beach. We got there through a narrow four wheel drive track and had the whole place to ourselves. At such moments we really appreciate having a four wheel drive! We had some wine, cheese and biscuits (hooray being back in Australia) and watched the sun go down. The next morning, via a suddenly very busy highway (unlike anything we we’d seen in the past week) and the lovely vineyards of the Swan Valley we arrived in Perth. We settled in a caravan park close by the beach and got invited around to a friend’s place that night.

On the four day boat trip from Lombok to Flores in Indonesia, we met a lot of nice people, including one guy from Namibia. We kept in touch over the next few months and that night, two weeks ago, we met him at his friend’s house in Perth. It was great to catch up and suddenly we found ourselves at a party with him, his friend and his two cousins (all from Namibia). We met a lot of nice people and had great night with lots of drinks, which made us like Perth instantly. This, together with the beautiful temperature (30 degrees, but dry heat, a lot different from the Top End), made us think about staying in Perth for a bit longer than the initial three months. The next morning we met up with the Namibians again to go to this beautiful, very windy beach in Lancelin, a kite surfer’s paradise.

(Getting stuck in de dunes)

(Some people travel around in interesting vehicles. Jenny is adding her personal touch to the van here)

The next week consisted of getting to know the city, job searching and finding a place to stay. Through someone we met at the party we got to know someone who was looking for housemates. A week later, we moved into this place on a hill, about eight km from the city centre, with beautiful views of the city at night. It’s also only a five minute drive from the beach and right next to a huge shopping centre, very convenient.

(view from our balcony)

Jenny found work for now and she is starting tomorrow, while David is still looking for a job. We would like to stay in Perth for a year or longer, but it all depends on our work situation and our tenants in Melbourne. At this stage we’re still a bit uncertain but we definitely like Perth. The city is not too busy, has beautiful beaches with the clearest waters and great pizza!

The shopping centers are actually closed on Sunday and the supermarket doesn’t open until eight o’clock on weekends. It is very windy in Perth, ideal conditions for kite surfing, which is hugely popular here. David has bought himself kite surfing equipment and Jenny will get a lesson next week.

We’ll keep you updated on how things are going with work, kite surfing and general beach bumming. Hopefully we can bring some positive news on our work situation soon!