Testing Times

We've seen five properties now and none of them have been suitable. Jo and Gordon go home next week, at which point we take possesion of their sofas and their tables/chairs, so hopefully we will have somewhere to put them.

Today we drove to Gladesville on the north shore, which unfortunately didn't require a trip over the harbour bridge. Bridges are one of my obsessions. I've been considering my top five all day and they are as follows:

1. Tower Bridge
2. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
3. Sydney Harbour Bridge
4. Chelsea Bridge
5. The Brooklyn Bridge, New York

I've now been over all of them. Yes, I realise this is a bit autistic. I also have a short-wave radio especially to listen to air traffic control. Draw your own conclusions.

The trip to Gladesville was so that Darren could register with New South Wales medical board. He had to take just about every important document you can imagine (including his A level certificates), and there was a heart-stopping moment some three hours later when we thought he had lost his passport in transit (and with it, our ability to cash the travellers cheques, get paid and rent a house). There was quite a lot of sweating on his part and sulking on mine, but it eventually turned up after we turned the car upside down.

We've also been to Ikea today (to buy a highchair), which was quite surreal as the layout is pretty much the same as the one at home, but it's attached to a shopping mall. And we've opened an aussie bank account, so we are official now.

This evening we walked along the beach at Coogee (see photograph), which was much prettier than I remember. It was way past Ella's bedtime but she loved it, and shared some fish and chips with us while we took in the view. This is the first time we've actually felt we have started to get anything back for the enormous time and financial investment we've made in coming to Australia. The past few months have been really difficult and since we arrived here, we've had no time to stop and enjoy our new surroundings.

Sydney is beautiful. I wish everyone had chance to see it once in their lives.