I had just arrived at the pick up area when one of the moms from Makena's class greeted me and introduced me to the person she was talking with. This mom always does this--it's such a thoughtful thing to do!! She explained that we are new and told the other mom how well Makena is doing. Then she said that Makena has been participating a lot more in class. Then her face lit up as she said to me, "Oh, I forgot to tell you! Madeline (her daughter) was telling me the other day that Makena said, "Bonjourno a tutti" in Italian class last week." Apparently, each week in class the teacher has the students take turns coming to the front of the class to say, "Hello everyone!" in Italian. Makena has been too shy to do it, that is until last week! Madeline was sooo excited for Makena; she couldn't wait to tell her mom. She said everyone in class started clapping when she did it.
And there I stood, tearing up at the thought of my brave little girl and all her wonderful friends.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Makena
I've only really glazed over Makena's leap into the big girl realm. I would be remiss if I didn't give some more details which have been both heart wrenching and heart warming. It's quite timely given that all of her classmates just started kindergarten this week.
Makena turned 5 on April 27th. The cut off to startkindergarten prep is April 30th. In addition, the school year started in February here, so by the time Makena started they were almost exactly halfway through the year (less 2 days). So, she's one of the youngest, if not the youngest and she's half a year behind. It was quite difficult to decide what to do. If we waited to start her in prep next year she'd actually end up 18 months behind if we ever moved back to the U.S. Also, if she didn't go to prep she'd have to spend another year in pre-school kinder. Combined for her and Kessler, the cost would be around $3500 per month. Yes, really! Another drawback is she'd go to kinder for a year then switch schools again. That just seemed like too much change.
So, we decided to send her to prep. Worst case, if she didn't catch up we'd hold her back a year. Next year she'd be ahead of the game rather than just starting.
The zoning for the schools here isn't always enforced. We have the option to go to pretty much any school. There are probably 5 that are near our house (within 3 miles). There's one school that does enforce their zone--and we are in that zone. We heard a lot of great things about the school, but we heard a lot of great things about all the schools. We checked that one out and liked it. On a side note, that's when I had to bite the bullet and drive. We checked the school out in the morning then Mark had to go to work. The receptionist asked if I could get the paperwork back to her that day so Makena could start the next day, a Wednesday. So, for the first time ever, I sat myself on the right side of the car--behind the steering wheel and drove Mark to the train station as I pleaded with the kids to be quiet so I could think.
When I got home I started to fill out the paperwork. I came across one labeled "Christian Religious Education". The sheet had a long explanation about the importance of values. At the bottom we had the choice to agree to the 30 minute a week class, a Judaism or Greek Orthodox equivalent or opt out altogether. There was no explanation for the other 3 options--just the Christian option. Along with the clear implication that your child will lack values if they don't participate in the Christian program. The tone was very much dismissive of other religions but in a very underhanded way. Coming from a school system where there's clear separation of church and state I was taken aback by this. Over the course of my life I have come to believe that religion is a very personal decision, especially the interpretation of religion. My preference would be for both me and the kids to receive a religion education that delves into all the major religions--not just one. And that is fact/theory based rather than faith based. After speaking with Mark, we opted out.
I drove the packet back to the school--stressed as hell from having completed my 2nd driving adventure. A few minutes after turning in the packet the receptionist came up to me and said, you marked "opt out" for CRE. I said, "yes." She said, "I just want to make sure you know, Makena will be taken out of the class while the remainder of the class stays for the CRE. Do you want to reconsider? It really is a lovely program." Again, I was floored. I asked if could sit in one of the classes; she told me I could not. But, she could provide some literature. All I could think about is Makena being escorted out of the class while the other students sneered at her--pelting the heathen with wads of paper. I didn't feel any better about any of it given the the receptionist's response. So, feeling in-over-my-head, I deferred the issue Mark. He called the school and spoke with the principal. He arranged a meeting with the CRE teacher. I felt so unsettled by all of this I couldn't send Makena to school the next day. I looked into other schools but found this is a Victoria policy, not an individual school policy. So, we went to school and met the CRE teacher. She showed us the material that would be covered and while it was pretty innocuous we still felt like it just wasn't appropriate. We decided to stick with our original plan.
I felt better after making the decision. I felt even better after seeing how the kids treated Makena. She really is a little rock star. Kids will run up to her and nearly knock her over trying to give her a hug. Though, one day I did hear one kid singing, "William and Makena sitting in a tree...." and William (I assume) was shaking his head back and forth abruptly--trying to get the other kid to shut up. I left not really knowing how to feel about it--except worry for my little baby. She has no idea what this means--she didn't even hear it though she was standing right next to me. Hell, I'm not sure I know what it means. But, I know I'm not ready for it!!
Besides that little incident, all things were great for Makena at Brighton Primary. Me though, well I felt totally disconnected. I just wanted to go sit in class so I could know what's going on. There was no orientation so we were flying blind. I hate being unprepared and playing catch up. Things like the uniform stressed me out. The last time I dealt with a uniform was when I was in the military--and that was no joke. Ironing each night for an hour, shining boots. I still remember the uniform regulation that we had to adhere to, 34-10. "Airman, you better check your 34-10!" I don't remember my own birthday most years, but I can remember that reg--so that will give you a sense as to why my little 5 year old's uniform requirements were a bit daunting to me. And why I nearly lost my mind when Mark dressed in jeans one day. "She'll wear dirty pants before she wears jeans!!!" I said, still half asleep running from room to room in a panic--trying to remember where the washing machine was because near it would be the dirty clothes hamper.
(That was just a few weeks ago. At the time, I would stay up until about 4:00 a.m. trading then I'd sleep until 7:45 a.m. I'd get up in a dazed state and drive Mark to the train station and the kids to school. Then I'd come back home and sleep from about 10:00 until 2:00--at least I'd try. I was never sure which duties I was waking up to--pick up, drop off.. but there was always panic. That didn't work out so well as evidenced by my "she'll wear dirty pants...." tirade.)
Back to Makena.. we started to learn the ropes. Among Makena's routines are a "reader" every night. It's just a small easy book that Makena reads to us. Now, Makena has never "read" to us. We've always read to her. We were starting to fret--I mean, don't they learn how to read before they start reading? Well, no. Mark sat down with Makena and she read the book from cover to cover. She sounded out words and looked at pictures to figure out the context.. and she read it. It was amazing to see. Now she does it night after night and we are still amazed. In addition, she has "The Magic 100 Words" that she needs to learn. It was a week or two before we realized these existed. Most of the kids are onto the 4th or 5th set of the 100 words. Makena is now on her 3rd set, ready for her 4th. Miss Greenslade said that most kids take several weeks to get past the first set. So, Makena is doing really well. Jeez, I start to smile as I replay her little voice, "if, on, the, they..." Such a beautiful girl.
Incidentally, I started this post over a week ago. On Wednesday of last week I found a worksheet in Makena's school papers titled, "Thank you, God, for colors." (Ironic that color is spelled the American way.) I sent her teacher an email. Apparently she didn't get the "opt out" notice. She apologized profusely and promised to make sure that Makena didn't attend the session that day.
When I picked Makena up from school, I asked her if she was taken out of the class. She said yes, along with two of her classmates. I guess she got to play on the computer. I've since had conversations with a few of the class parents. The difference between the States and Australia is quite fascinating--but I'll save that for another post.
Much more importantly, everyday when I pick her up from school--she comes bouncing out, scanning all the mommy/daddy faces until she sees mine. Then she beams this cheeky little grin as she schleps to me, with the lean that comes with lugging a backpack that's half your size. She grabs my hand and we walk to the gate and across the crosswalk. She always asks me where I parked and gives me grief when I tell her it's far--creating memories I'll never forget.
Makena turned 5 on April 27th. The cut off to start
So, we decided to send her to prep. Worst case, if she didn't catch up we'd hold her back a year. Next year she'd be ahead of the game rather than just starting.
The zoning for the schools here isn't always enforced. We have the option to go to pretty much any school. There are probably 5 that are near our house (within 3 miles). There's one school that does enforce their zone--and we are in that zone. We heard a lot of great things about the school, but we heard a lot of great things about all the schools. We checked that one out and liked it. On a side note, that's when I had to bite the bullet and drive. We checked the school out in the morning then Mark had to go to work. The receptionist asked if I could get the paperwork back to her that day so Makena could start the next day, a Wednesday. So, for the first time ever, I sat myself on the right side of the car--behind the steering wheel and drove Mark to the train station as I pleaded with the kids to be quiet so I could think.
When I got home I started to fill out the paperwork. I came across one labeled "Christian Religious Education". The sheet had a long explanation about the importance of values. At the bottom we had the choice to agree to the 30 minute a week class, a Judaism or Greek Orthodox equivalent or opt out altogether. There was no explanation for the other 3 options--just the Christian option. Along with the clear implication that your child will lack values if they don't participate in the Christian program. The tone was very much dismissive of other religions but in a very underhanded way. Coming from a school system where there's clear separation of church and state I was taken aback by this. Over the course of my life I have come to believe that religion is a very personal decision, especially the interpretation of religion. My preference would be for both me and the kids to receive a religion education that delves into all the major religions--not just one. And that is fact/theory based rather than faith based. After speaking with Mark, we opted out.
I drove the packet back to the school--stressed as hell from having completed my 2nd driving adventure. A few minutes after turning in the packet the receptionist came up to me and said, you marked "opt out" for CRE. I said, "yes." She said, "I just want to make sure you know, Makena will be taken out of the class while the remainder of the class stays for the CRE. Do you want to reconsider? It really is a lovely program." Again, I was floored. I asked if could sit in one of the classes; she told me I could not. But, she could provide some literature. All I could think about is Makena being escorted out of the class while the other students sneered at her--pelting the heathen with wads of paper. I didn't feel any better about any of it given the the receptionist's response. So, feeling in-over-my-head, I deferred the issue Mark. He called the school and spoke with the principal. He arranged a meeting with the CRE teacher. I felt so unsettled by all of this I couldn't send Makena to school the next day. I looked into other schools but found this is a Victoria policy, not an individual school policy. So, we went to school and met the CRE teacher. She showed us the material that would be covered and while it was pretty innocuous we still felt like it just wasn't appropriate. We decided to stick with our original plan.
I felt better after making the decision. I felt even better after seeing how the kids treated Makena. She really is a little rock star. Kids will run up to her and nearly knock her over trying to give her a hug. Though, one day I did hear one kid singing, "William and Makena sitting in a tree...." and William (I assume) was shaking his head back and forth abruptly--trying to get the other kid to shut up. I left not really knowing how to feel about it--except worry for my little baby. She has no idea what this means--she didn't even hear it though she was standing right next to me. Hell, I'm not sure I know what it means. But, I know I'm not ready for it!!
Besides that little incident, all things were great for Makena at Brighton Primary. Me though, well I felt totally disconnected. I just wanted to go sit in class so I could know what's going on. There was no orientation so we were flying blind. I hate being unprepared and playing catch up. Things like the uniform stressed me out. The last time I dealt with a uniform was when I was in the military--and that was no joke. Ironing each night for an hour, shining boots. I still remember the uniform regulation that we had to adhere to, 34-10. "Airman, you better check your 34-10!" I don't remember my own birthday most years, but I can remember that reg--so that will give you a sense as to why my little 5 year old's uniform requirements were a bit daunting to me. And why I nearly lost my mind when Mark dressed in jeans one day. "She'll wear dirty pants before she wears jeans!!!" I said, still half asleep running from room to room in a panic--trying to remember where the washing machine was because near it would be the dirty clothes hamper.
(That was just a few weeks ago. At the time, I would stay up until about 4:00 a.m. trading then I'd sleep until 7:45 a.m. I'd get up in a dazed state and drive Mark to the train station and the kids to school. Then I'd come back home and sleep from about 10:00 until 2:00--at least I'd try. I was never sure which duties I was waking up to--pick up, drop off.. but there was always panic. That didn't work out so well as evidenced by my "she'll wear dirty pants...." tirade.)
Back to Makena.. we started to learn the ropes. Among Makena's routines are a "reader" every night. It's just a small easy book that Makena reads to us. Now, Makena has never "read" to us. We've always read to her. We were starting to fret--I mean, don't they learn how to read before they start reading? Well, no. Mark sat down with Makena and she read the book from cover to cover. She sounded out words and looked at pictures to figure out the context.. and she read it. It was amazing to see. Now she does it night after night and we are still amazed. In addition, she has "The Magic 100 Words" that she needs to learn. It was a week or two before we realized these existed. Most of the kids are onto the 4th or 5th set of the 100 words. Makena is now on her 3rd set, ready for her 4th. Miss Greenslade said that most kids take several weeks to get past the first set. So, Makena is doing really well. Jeez, I start to smile as I replay her little voice, "if, on, the, they..." Such a beautiful girl.
Incidentally, I started this post over a week ago. On Wednesday of last week I found a worksheet in Makena's school papers titled, "Thank you, God, for colors." (Ironic that color is spelled the American way.) I sent her teacher an email. Apparently she didn't get the "opt out" notice. She apologized profusely and promised to make sure that Makena didn't attend the session that day.
When I picked Makena up from school, I asked her if she was taken out of the class. She said yes, along with two of her classmates. I guess she got to play on the computer. I've since had conversations with a few of the class parents. The difference between the States and Australia is quite fascinating--but I'll save that for another post.
Much more importantly, everyday when I pick her up from school--she comes bouncing out, scanning all the mommy/daddy faces until she sees mine. Then she beams this cheeky little grin as she schleps to me, with the lean that comes with lugging a backpack that's half your size. She grabs my hand and we walk to the gate and across the crosswalk. She always asks me where I parked and gives me grief when I tell her it's far--creating memories I'll never forget.
Friday, August 13, 2010
76 Days
It's been 76 days since we arrived in Melbourne. I knew when we made the decision to do this that it would be hard. I haven't had a hard life by any stretch, but I have made a lot of hard decisions, like joining the military, moving across country and back and across again, changing careers.. having kids. So, I know that hard really means nothing without context. And, you have no context until you've had the experience. Now I know what hard is in the context of uprooting your family, your young family, and moving them halfway around the world and doing it in less than 5 weeks. Yep, it's hard.
It begins with utter exhaustion from your own jet lag, which is not the same as each of your child's jet lag which is not the same as your husband's jet lag. Then, there's the emotional and physical drain from everyone getting sick in parallel or taking turns, taking many turns. And then the worrying about how you'll take care of your basic needs like getting food when you have no car or finding a permanent place to live when you haven't a clue about... well, about anything. Then there are all of the decisions. Being decisive has never been one of my strong points. I'm tortured with practice around every corner. And, you must educate yourself before you can make a decision. Like--what's a "cap" for yourcell mobile phone service? How much bandwidth do we need from our internet service provider? Which neighborhood, which school, which car? Of course, there's the driving--accepting that the wrong side of the road is now the right side. Resistance is futile, to say the least. You must cope with all of this hard with the constant madness of the dangling loose ends back in your former home. And then there's the mourning of all that you took for granted, like your friends and family, having two cars, your husband's flexible work schedule, having to only worry about one time zone in which to get things done.
The hardest of the hard is done now though. Makena and Kessler are in wonderful schools. Makena is treated like a celebrity, both because she's the new kid and because she's so small relative to the rest. They love looking after her. When we're walking across campus kids of all ages are saying, "Hi Makena!". At first she ignored them--assuming they couldn't be talking to her because she didn't know their names. Now she soaks it up--running off to play when a friend greets her at drop off, never looking back at her proud mommy. I feel a little cheated that I didn't get the full run up to her first day ofkindergarten prep--but I'm so happy to see her happy.
Kessler loves his school as well. Apparently he's a hit with the little ladies in his class. He and some of his friends will end up in a fit of laughter that's contagious. His teacher says they laugh so hard they can't breathe. Kessler has the sweetest belly laugh. I can just picture him there giggling with his friends; it brings tears to my eyes.
It's amazing how much better things are when you know your kids are good.
It begins with utter exhaustion from your own jet lag, which is not the same as each of your child's jet lag which is not the same as your husband's jet lag. Then, there's the emotional and physical drain from everyone getting sick in parallel or taking turns, taking many turns. And then the worrying about how you'll take care of your basic needs like getting food when you have no car or finding a permanent place to live when you haven't a clue about... well, about anything. Then there are all of the decisions. Being decisive has never been one of my strong points. I'm tortured with practice around every corner. And, you must educate yourself before you can make a decision. Like--what's a "cap" for your
The hardest of the hard is done now though. Makena and Kessler are in wonderful schools. Makena is treated like a celebrity, both because she's the new kid and because she's so small relative to the rest. They love looking after her. When we're walking across campus kids of all ages are saying, "Hi Makena!". At first she ignored them--assuming they couldn't be talking to her because she didn't know their names. Now she soaks it up--running off to play when a friend greets her at drop off, never looking back at her proud mommy. I feel a little cheated that I didn't get the full run up to her first day of
Kessler loves his school as well. Apparently he's a hit with the little ladies in his class. He and some of his friends will end up in a fit of laughter that's contagious. His teacher says they laugh so hard they can't breathe. Kessler has the sweetest belly laugh. I can just picture him there giggling with his friends; it brings tears to my eyes.
It's amazing how much better things are when you know your kids are good.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wound tight.
I have a million more posts to make.. but this story has to be told and it won't hurt that it's out of sequence.
I'm high strung--just wound a little bit tight. There are several drawbacks to this. The first of which is that I tend to way over think things. Things are much harder than they need to be in my world. For example, I haven't put gas in the car yet. Perhaps it's because they call it Petrol. Perhaps it's because some of the stations are full service and I'm unsure what to do. Perhaps it's because I don't know on which side of the car the gas tank resides. Perhaps it's because the gas pumps are so different.. no place to put your credit card. Perhaps it's because I'm not sure exactly how to use my debit card. (Every time you have to tell the cashier whether it's cash,check cheque, or savings. It is our checking account, but we have to tell them credit else it doesn't work. Then we have to tell them pin or sign).
Until today, I've only had cause to get gas once and I conveniently waited until Mark was in the car with me to drive to the station. But, today, the light was on. There was some indication of how much mileage (or is it kilometerage??) I have left, but I wasn't really sure what it meant for practical purposes. I don't have a good sense for kilometers yet. It's really too much to ask for me to contemplate that while still having to remind myself to stay on the left side of the road.
With all that on my mind, I pulled into thegas petrol station. I hopped out and opened the door to the backseat to retrieve my wallet from my purse. Of course it was on the other side so I had to crawl across to get it. I pulled out my debit card and swung around to grab the nozzle and SCREAMED! The gas attendant was standing right behind me. He scared the living hell of me. Another drawback of being high strung. I can say I was just a wee bit embarrassed.
I'm high strung--just wound a little bit tight. There are several drawbacks to this. The first of which is that I tend to way over think things. Things are much harder than they need to be in my world. For example, I haven't put gas in the car yet. Perhaps it's because they call it Petrol. Perhaps it's because some of the stations are full service and I'm unsure what to do. Perhaps it's because I don't know on which side of the car the gas tank resides. Perhaps it's because the gas pumps are so different.. no place to put your credit card. Perhaps it's because I'm not sure exactly how to use my debit card. (Every time you have to tell the cashier whether it's cash,
Until today, I've only had cause to get gas once and I conveniently waited until Mark was in the car with me to drive to the station. But, today, the light was on. There was some indication of how much mileage (or is it kilometerage??) I have left, but I wasn't really sure what it meant for practical purposes. I don't have a good sense for kilometers yet. It's really too much to ask for me to contemplate that while still having to remind myself to stay on the left side of the road.
With all that on my mind, I pulled into the
Sunday, July 4, 2010
There was more to move in day
...but the post was already too long and that was without many of the necessary details to really give you an idea about how horrible the day was.
I'll sum up the rest, but before I do I forgot to mention more about the car deal. On Monday, when we went back in and selected the Audi there was some necessary negotiating. Mark said to Bernard, "ok, so is there anything we can do about the price." (It's amazing the standard blank white paper, price written in large font, then crossed out strategy is used across both hemispheres.) Bernard wrote the price down on the top of the page, crossed it out then wrote a price that was 20% less beneath it. This was much less than we hoped to negotiate and less than the fair market value of the car. That was the easiest negotiating either of us has ever done. And, they wanted to keep the car the extra day while the financing was being worked out so they could replace the tires. I think Bernard scored a customer for life. Between him and Fiona, I'm not sure how we would have managed.
So, we had electricity. Life was definitely getting better. We still had no utensils, towels (bath/kitchen), pots/pans, bowls, plates, cups or anything similar. We did have toilet paper (thank goodness). We had no soap. Even as I write this 3 weeks later, I think, that doesn't seem too bad. But I remember the sheer anguish of trying to just get through the first day without any of the essentials. Banana bread was everywhere, yet there was no way to clean it up. There was no way to stop it from getting everywhere because we were digging in with our fingers to eat it. But, the beauty is.. I met Mark at the door when he got home at 6:30. I had to go check out our new wheels. When I came back to the front door I noticed a grocery bag on the doorstep--I had stepped over at least 3 times that day. What's this?, I wondered. Nothing more than yogurt (the squirtable kind), bananas and other wonderful food that Mark had brought the previous night. Since I didn't know it existed, I didn't know to look for it. Since Mark didn't know we only had the banana bread, he didn't know we didn't have it. All day we had all the great food at the door step!!!
I had to laugh.. but it was over now. We were in the house, the electricity was on, we had a car, Mark was home. I was happy.. for about an hour. We headed back to the apartment to make sure we didn't leave anything. I asked Mark what happened with the down payment for the car. In the haze of the I never coordinated with him about what to do. As I have mentioned over and over again, getting our money here has been extremely difficult. He said, Oh, I just paid for it with our debit card from back in the States. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. First, I knew we didn't have that much in that account, so the account was definitely overdrawn. Second, I've been trying to get whatever money we do have in there sent here for weeks. So, now I'd have to send money BACK there to cover the deficit. AND, Mark gave that debit card number to the apartment manager to pay our rent for the last 10 days. What a nightmare. We did sort it out, but it wasn't easy. And, it wasn't Mark's fault--it's just the nature of having a million things going on at once and not being able to communicate every single detail, even the important ones.
While I was at the apartment grabbing the rest of our stuff and getting it tidy, Mark and the kids went to the supermarket to get food for dinner. Mark was so incredibly proud of himself because he had enough foresight to buy a bunch of frozen food so we could sustain ourselves for several days. He didn't mention this until we got back to the house and he headed toward the freezer... the freezer we don't have. I did mention this to him earlier, but he forgot. As much as I'd love to give him grief for this, it's not too unreasonable to assume you have a freezer in your fridge. We cooked as much of the food as we could--as if it would matter. We would have to throw it out cooked or thawed because we couldn't eat it all anyway.
At least we had yogurt and bananas the next day.
I'll sum up the rest, but before I do I forgot to mention more about the car deal. On Monday, when we went back in and selected the Audi there was some necessary negotiating. Mark said to Bernard, "ok, so is there anything we can do about the price." (It's amazing the standard blank white paper, price written in large font, then crossed out strategy is used across both hemispheres.) Bernard wrote the price down on the top of the page, crossed it out then wrote a price that was 20% less beneath it. This was much less than we hoped to negotiate and less than the fair market value of the car. That was the easiest negotiating either of us has ever done. And, they wanted to keep the car the extra day while the financing was being worked out so they could replace the tires. I think Bernard scored a customer for life. Between him and Fiona, I'm not sure how we would have managed.
So, we had electricity. Life was definitely getting better. We still had no utensils, towels (bath/kitchen), pots/pans, bowls, plates, cups or anything similar. We did have toilet paper (thank goodness). We had no soap. Even as I write this 3 weeks later, I think, that doesn't seem too bad. But I remember the sheer anguish of trying to just get through the first day without any of the essentials. Banana bread was everywhere, yet there was no way to clean it up. There was no way to stop it from getting everywhere because we were digging in with our fingers to eat it. But, the beauty is.. I met Mark at the door when he got home at 6:30. I had to go check out our new wheels. When I came back to the front door I noticed a grocery bag on the doorstep--I had stepped over at least 3 times that day. What's this?, I wondered. Nothing more than yogurt (the squirtable kind), bananas and other wonderful food that Mark had brought the previous night. Since I didn't know it existed, I didn't know to look for it. Since Mark didn't know we only had the banana bread, he didn't know we didn't have it. All day we had all the great food at the door step!!!
I had to laugh.. but it was over now. We were in the house, the electricity was on, we had a car, Mark was home. I was happy.. for about an hour. We headed back to the apartment to make sure we didn't leave anything. I asked Mark what happened with the down payment for the car. In the haze of the I never coordinated with him about what to do. As I have mentioned over and over again, getting our money here has been extremely difficult. He said, Oh, I just paid for it with our debit card from back in the States. I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. First, I knew we didn't have that much in that account, so the account was definitely overdrawn. Second, I've been trying to get whatever money we do have in there sent here for weeks. So, now I'd have to send money BACK there to cover the deficit. AND, Mark gave that debit card number to the apartment manager to pay our rent for the last 10 days. What a nightmare. We did sort it out, but it wasn't easy. And, it wasn't Mark's fault--it's just the nature of having a million things going on at once and not being able to communicate every single detail, even the important ones.
While I was at the apartment grabbing the rest of our stuff and getting it tidy, Mark and the kids went to the supermarket to get food for dinner. Mark was so incredibly proud of himself because he had enough foresight to buy a bunch of frozen food so we could sustain ourselves for several days. He didn't mention this until we got back to the house and he headed toward the freezer... the freezer we don't have. I did mention this to him earlier, but he forgot. As much as I'd love to give him grief for this, it's not too unreasonable to assume you have a freezer in your fridge. We cooked as much of the food as we could--as if it would matter. We would have to throw it out cooked or thawed because we couldn't eat it all anyway.
At least we had yogurt and bananas the next day.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
We have a house!
We finally have internet access at our new house. There's a lot of catching up to do!
I'm going to try to pick up where I left off. We went back into the Lexus dealership on Monday, the Queen's birthday. We had decided over the weekend not to lease a car, but buy a used car, a relatively cheap one. We decided on a used Audi station wagon. I must admit, I had little interest in the car selection process. It's just hard to get past the steering wheel misplacement. Since Monday was a public holiday the finance department wasn't open so we couldn't leave with the car. Bernard let us take his car again!
As of Tuesday (two weeks ago) we were still in the apartment. We were approved for the house but we had a few ends that needed to be tied up. We finally got our money situation sorted out, at least well enough to get into the house. I was so excited to have a place. It meant we could finally start to really settle into our new life. The Relocation company contacted various utility companies to get the process rolling. On Tuesday I had planned to get the apartment packed up. But, the floodgates had been opened with all of our utility connections. I spent most of the day on the phone giving the necessary information for power, gas, phone, internet, etc. Mark needed to go to the real estate office to sign the lease and we had to pay the first months rent along with the bond. That was a bit of a hassle because Mark was already planning on leaving work early to go to the dealership to pick up the car. Now he'd have to leave even earlier. I had to meet him at the real estate office because I had had half the money we needed. We agreed to meet at 4:00.
I needed to assemble our new stroller so I could make the trek to the train station. For the life of us we have no idea why we sold ALL of our strollers before we left California. We didn't really use them anymore, except for the jogging stroller. So, it kind of made sense to get rid of the rest, but not that one. The store had a choice of 2 apparent jogging strollers--one was over $700 and the other was $1400. We nearly choked. If there wasn't soooo much walking to do I would have opted not to get one, but we end up walking a few miles a day and that just isn't fair to the kids. And, we (Mark) plan to do some races so we'll need a good stroller for that. So, we bought the cheaper one. Unfortunately when I was putting it together I came across the big warning--not intended for running. Oh well. There doesn't seem to be a good reason why it can't be used as a jogging stroller. It does seem like they have better standards for strollers here.
So we headed to the train station. I had to wake the kids up from their nap--they had only been asleep for about 15 minutes. Kessler was really pissed and uncooperative. I had to convince him to stay in the stroller by holding his hand while I pushed the stroller. I was also balancing Mark's dry cleaning in a sophisticated white trash bag. I called Mark just after 4:00 to tell him we were running a little late. "You're not going to believe this", he said. "The bank closed at 4:00." He was right; I couldn't believe it. Mark headed to the real estate office to see if we had any options. The "I'm gonna do as little as I can to get by" receptionist said that we could pay with a credit card, but there would be a 3% fee. We were happy to have the option. She couldn't help us at that moment though because she had to go to the post office. And anyway, one of the property managers was at the property because a neighbor called to report the blaring house alarm. So.. we waited. When he and the receptionist returned Mark was down the street getting food for the kiddos. We did finally get it all squared away.
Next Mark needed to go to the dealership to get the car--only he didn't have his passport and they needed that to seal the deal. So, the kids and I rushed to the train station then schlepped up lovely Hampton Street back to the apartment. I scanned the passport and emailed it to the finance manager at the dealership. (I'm so glad we bought the printer/scanner!). Everything was good, except it wasn't! The external finance department wanted 10% down now. As you know, getting our money here has been difficult. (At the time of this writing, we still haven't received Mark's last 2 months worth of paychecks from the states). So, Bernard lent us another car for the evening so that we could move our 20 bags to the house.
At this point it was dark, late and cold. We scurried through the apartment attempting to pack as much as we could to take to the house. Mark hadn't seen it yet except for a few drive-bys a few days earlier. I was excited for him to see it and to see it again myself, without the owners' boxes everywhere. So, we pulled up to the gate and pressed the button on the remote. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. So Mark got out to inspect the gate. Nothing. We decided to just use the pedestrian gate which is slightly less convenient but not impossible. It's pitch black--we fumbled with the 20 keys on the key chain until the front door finally opened. We searched for the light switch and turned it on. Nothing. The power had obviously been turned off. That doesn't really make sense since the owners were in it over the weekend.
Oh well, there's still a job to be done. We realized that there's a beeping sound that hadn't stopped since we opened the door. A few seconds later we heard the blare of the alarm. At the property manager's office earlier in the day he happened to mention that you press 1 to stop the alarm. That's exactly what it does. It stops the blaring alarm, but it doesn't disarm it. So, every 20 seconds the alarm sounded. We know how to make friends with our neighbors!!
We were all beyond exhausted at this point. Mark had to return the car to the dealership by 7:30 the next morning. We still had 2 more loads to bring over from the apartment. Mark dropped us off at the apartment and made one more trip. We needed cleaning supplies for the apartment as well so he had to add a trip to the supermarket on his to do list. It was 10:00 p.m. at this point.
I did a bit more packing and got the kids in bed then crashed myself. Mark finally turned up after his late night errands and he was finally able to sleep as well.
We decided that Mark would drop me and the kids off at the house on the way to the dealership--we'd take our last load then. I had to be there for the delivery of our new mattress between 8:00 and 9:00. It actually was kind of lining up well, in theory anyway.
We rushed to get everything unloaded because Mark had to drop the car off and get to work by 9:00. We still had no power and it was freezing!! I spent some time unpacking but my fingers were so numb I couldn't feel them anymore. Besides, every 20 seconds I had to turn off the alarm. The rest of the time I had the constant beeping reminder that I'd have to turn off the alarm in 19, 18, 17.. seconds.
Mark had bought a loaf of banana bread for us the night before. What a life saver. We dug in, literally. At about 7:45 I realized that I had no cash, cash I needed to pay the delivery driver! There are so many things that I have been desperate for the last several weeks--one was definitely our new bed. The mattress at the apartment was extremely hard; I woke up aching everyday. I called Mark as if he could do anything. He had returned the car and was on the train to the city. There was nothing I could do but hope that I could sweet talk the guy into letting me drop the money off the next day. They showed up promptly at 8:00. I delivered the bad news.. he was more than understanding. Looking back I realize how pathetic I must have looked. The house had hardly anything in it. I was freezing; still only in a T-shirt because I just hadn't gotten around to finding something else to wear. It was so cold you could see our breath inside; in fact it was colder inside than it was outside. Then there was the constant beeping and blaring of the alarm. He told me not worry about bringing the money to him; just put it under the mat and he'd pick it up on the weekend. Thank you!!! With relief I closed the door and attempted to lock it. Hmmm.. you need a key to lock the door from the inside. Okay, I retrieved my keys and locked the door.
I went back to the kitchen because we had brought some milk over from the apartment; I wanted to make sure it made it to the fridge. That's when I realized our fridge is just that; a fridge with no freezer. How is that possible? I also realized that we didn't have a dryer. It said in the lease that one was provided. So, I called my relocation specialist, Fiona.. wonderful Fiona, and had her add that to the list of rental furniture that we were having delivered later in the day. I noticed a binder on the counter in the middle of our stuff. It didn't look familiar. I decided to investigate. It contained everything you ever wanted to know about 5 Plunket Street.. but specifically, how to turn off the damn alarm!!!! YAY!!!
I entered the code and the beeping stopped!!
Now, the kids had been feral since we arrived at the house. They couldn't move from one point to another without running, jumping and screaming. At least it was keeping their body temperature up and it wasn't the slighted bit annoying on my frayed nerves. I was too cold to do anything else so I decided to make the bed and.. get in!!! We had bought linens over the weekend.. which included the dooner (queue evil music). A dooner is a pristine white blanket on which you must put a dooner cover. Which is like a big pillow case with buttons. Similar to a duvet, but doonerare extremely common here. I set out to put the dooner in its cover with the dexterity of a fence post, cursing non stop. Dooners were invented by the devil. After several minutes of wrestling with the bastard I was able to button it; mind you the corners of the dooner were no where near the corners of the cover.
I convinced the kids to get in bed with me. That lasted all of 6 seconds. They kept finding excuses to get out of the bed, letting all the warm air out from under the dooner. We went outside for a bit because it really was warmer out than in. Only, I had to find the keys to unlock the front door. I decided to leave them in the door, which was a good idea until I needed to get out the back door. We came back inside; I think at this point I made the startling discovery that all the door handles and light switches were nearly at my eye level. The kids can't reach them. I know this because I heard screaming from somewhere within the house. In a panic I raced to save them only to find them standing on their tippy toes trying to reach the door handle. I spent the better part of the day opening doors, closing doors, turning on lights, finding keys to unlock doors, wiping bums, lifting kids to wash their hands. Any bets on how many times I asked myself, "what the hell have you done moving here!??!"
It was time to eat. The banana bread was gone. All we had left was regular bread. The kids wanted nothing to do with this. I finally decided they'd eat if they were hungry enough. Then wonderful Fiona turned up with hot chocolate and pastries! I told you--she's amazing. We jabbered on and on and we started talking about the power. She was surprised it had been turned off. We talked through it a bit and I recalled being told by the power company that I needed to turn off the main power switch before the power could be transferred. When I spoke with the people that arranged all the utilities connections, they said not to bother. It occurred that maybe the property manager had turned off the main power. Then the light bulb went off. Just this past week Fiona had power issues and had to turn the main breaker off at her house. So, she knew it would be outside. I never would have guessed this. So, we headed out to find it. And wouldn't you know it the main switch was off. As soon as we flipped it the outside lights came on! We raced in to turn on the heater! Woohoo, we had heat!!
Fiona did a walk through of the house to make sure all the scuffs and scratches were noted on the move-in sheet. Then she was off. The furniture rental people came by to drop off the dryer, 2 twin beds, a sofa set and a desk. Things were looking up. But, we were starving. The kids finally ate the bread.
...to be continued.
I'm going to try to pick up where I left off. We went back into the Lexus dealership on Monday, the Queen's birthday. We had decided over the weekend not to lease a car, but buy a used car, a relatively cheap one. We decided on a used Audi station wagon. I must admit, I had little interest in the car selection process. It's just hard to get past the steering wheel misplacement. Since Monday was a public holiday the finance department wasn't open so we couldn't leave with the car. Bernard let us take his car again!
As of Tuesday (two weeks ago) we were still in the apartment. We were approved for the house but we had a few ends that needed to be tied up. We finally got our money situation sorted out, at least well enough to get into the house. I was so excited to have a place. It meant we could finally start to really settle into our new life. The Relocation company contacted various utility companies to get the process rolling. On Tuesday I had planned to get the apartment packed up. But, the floodgates had been opened with all of our utility connections. I spent most of the day on the phone giving the necessary information for power, gas, phone, internet, etc. Mark needed to go to the real estate office to sign the lease and we had to pay the first months rent along with the bond. That was a bit of a hassle because Mark was already planning on leaving work early to go to the dealership to pick up the car. Now he'd have to leave even earlier. I had to meet him at the real estate office because I had had half the money we needed. We agreed to meet at 4:00.
I needed to assemble our new stroller so I could make the trek to the train station. For the life of us we have no idea why we sold ALL of our strollers before we left California. We didn't really use them anymore, except for the jogging stroller. So, it kind of made sense to get rid of the rest, but not that one. The store had a choice of 2 apparent jogging strollers--one was over $700 and the other was $1400. We nearly choked. If there wasn't soooo much walking to do I would have opted not to get one, but we end up walking a few miles a day and that just isn't fair to the kids. And, we (Mark) plan to do some races so we'll need a good stroller for that. So, we bought the cheaper one. Unfortunately when I was putting it together I came across the big warning--not intended for running. Oh well. There doesn't seem to be a good reason why it can't be used as a jogging stroller. It does seem like they have better standards for strollers here.
So we headed to the train station. I had to wake the kids up from their nap--they had only been asleep for about 15 minutes. Kessler was really pissed and uncooperative. I had to convince him to stay in the stroller by holding his hand while I pushed the stroller. I was also balancing Mark's dry cleaning in a sophisticated white trash bag. I called Mark just after 4:00 to tell him we were running a little late. "You're not going to believe this", he said. "The bank closed at 4:00." He was right; I couldn't believe it. Mark headed to the real estate office to see if we had any options. The "I'm gonna do as little as I can to get by" receptionist said that we could pay with a credit card, but there would be a 3% fee. We were happy to have the option. She couldn't help us at that moment though because she had to go to the post office. And anyway, one of the property managers was at the property because a neighbor called to report the blaring house alarm. So.. we waited. When he and the receptionist returned Mark was down the street getting food for the kiddos. We did finally get it all squared away.
Next Mark needed to go to the dealership to get the car--only he didn't have his passport and they needed that to seal the deal. So, the kids and I rushed to the train station then schlepped up lovely Hampton Street back to the apartment. I scanned the passport and emailed it to the finance manager at the dealership. (I'm so glad we bought the printer/scanner!). Everything was good, except it wasn't! The external finance department wanted 10% down now. As you know, getting our money here has been difficult. (At the time of this writing, we still haven't received Mark's last 2 months worth of paychecks from the states). So, Bernard lent us another car for the evening so that we could move our 20 bags to the house.
At this point it was dark, late and cold. We scurried through the apartment attempting to pack as much as we could to take to the house. Mark hadn't seen it yet except for a few drive-bys a few days earlier. I was excited for him to see it and to see it again myself, without the owners' boxes everywhere. So, we pulled up to the gate and pressed the button on the remote. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. So Mark got out to inspect the gate. Nothing. We decided to just use the pedestrian gate which is slightly less convenient but not impossible. It's pitch black--we fumbled with the 20 keys on the key chain until the front door finally opened. We searched for the light switch and turned it on. Nothing. The power had obviously been turned off. That doesn't really make sense since the owners were in it over the weekend.
Oh well, there's still a job to be done. We realized that there's a beeping sound that hadn't stopped since we opened the door. A few seconds later we heard the blare of the alarm. At the property manager's office earlier in the day he happened to mention that you press 1 to stop the alarm. That's exactly what it does. It stops the blaring alarm, but it doesn't disarm it. So, every 20 seconds the alarm sounded. We know how to make friends with our neighbors!!
We were all beyond exhausted at this point. Mark had to return the car to the dealership by 7:30 the next morning. We still had 2 more loads to bring over from the apartment. Mark dropped us off at the apartment and made one more trip. We needed cleaning supplies for the apartment as well so he had to add a trip to the supermarket on his to do list. It was 10:00 p.m. at this point.
I did a bit more packing and got the kids in bed then crashed myself. Mark finally turned up after his late night errands and he was finally able to sleep as well.
We decided that Mark would drop me and the kids off at the house on the way to the dealership--we'd take our last load then. I had to be there for the delivery of our new mattress between 8:00 and 9:00. It actually was kind of lining up well, in theory anyway.
We rushed to get everything unloaded because Mark had to drop the car off and get to work by 9:00. We still had no power and it was freezing!! I spent some time unpacking but my fingers were so numb I couldn't feel them anymore. Besides, every 20 seconds I had to turn off the alarm. The rest of the time I had the constant beeping reminder that I'd have to turn off the alarm in 19, 18, 17.. seconds.
Mark had bought a loaf of banana bread for us the night before. What a life saver. We dug in, literally. At about 7:45 I realized that I had no cash, cash I needed to pay the delivery driver! There are so many things that I have been desperate for the last several weeks--one was definitely our new bed. The mattress at the apartment was extremely hard; I woke up aching everyday. I called Mark as if he could do anything. He had returned the car and was on the train to the city. There was nothing I could do but hope that I could sweet talk the guy into letting me drop the money off the next day. They showed up promptly at 8:00. I delivered the bad news.. he was more than understanding. Looking back I realize how pathetic I must have looked. The house had hardly anything in it. I was freezing; still only in a T-shirt because I just hadn't gotten around to finding something else to wear. It was so cold you could see our breath inside; in fact it was colder inside than it was outside. Then there was the constant beeping and blaring of the alarm. He told me not worry about bringing the money to him; just put it under the mat and he'd pick it up on the weekend. Thank you!!! With relief I closed the door and attempted to lock it. Hmmm.. you need a key to lock the door from the inside. Okay, I retrieved my keys and locked the door.
I went back to the kitchen because we had brought some milk over from the apartment; I wanted to make sure it made it to the fridge. That's when I realized our fridge is just that; a fridge with no freezer. How is that possible? I also realized that we didn't have a dryer. It said in the lease that one was provided. So, I called my relocation specialist, Fiona.. wonderful Fiona, and had her add that to the list of rental furniture that we were having delivered later in the day. I noticed a binder on the counter in the middle of our stuff. It didn't look familiar. I decided to investigate. It contained everything you ever wanted to know about 5 Plunket Street.. but specifically, how to turn off the damn alarm!!!! YAY!!!
I entered the code and the beeping stopped!!
Now, the kids had been feral since we arrived at the house. They couldn't move from one point to another without running, jumping and screaming. At least it was keeping their body temperature up and it wasn't the slighted bit annoying on my frayed nerves. I was too cold to do anything else so I decided to make the bed and.. get in!!! We had bought linens over the weekend.. which included the dooner (queue evil music). A dooner is a pristine white blanket on which you must put a dooner cover. Which is like a big pillow case with buttons. Similar to a duvet, but doonerare extremely common here. I set out to put the dooner in its cover with the dexterity of a fence post, cursing non stop. Dooners were invented by the devil. After several minutes of wrestling with the bastard I was able to button it; mind you the corners of the dooner were no where near the corners of the cover.
I convinced the kids to get in bed with me. That lasted all of 6 seconds. They kept finding excuses to get out of the bed, letting all the warm air out from under the dooner. We went outside for a bit because it really was warmer out than in. Only, I had to find the keys to unlock the front door. I decided to leave them in the door, which was a good idea until I needed to get out the back door. We came back inside; I think at this point I made the startling discovery that all the door handles and light switches were nearly at my eye level. The kids can't reach them. I know this because I heard screaming from somewhere within the house. In a panic I raced to save them only to find them standing on their tippy toes trying to reach the door handle. I spent the better part of the day opening doors, closing doors, turning on lights, finding keys to unlock doors, wiping bums, lifting kids to wash their hands. Any bets on how many times I asked myself, "what the hell have you done moving here!??!"
It was time to eat. The banana bread was gone. All we had left was regular bread. The kids wanted nothing to do with this. I finally decided they'd eat if they were hungry enough. Then wonderful Fiona turned up with hot chocolate and pastries! I told you--she's amazing. We jabbered on and on and we started talking about the power. She was surprised it had been turned off. We talked through it a bit and I recalled being told by the power company that I needed to turn off the main power switch before the power could be transferred. When I spoke with the people that arranged all the utilities connections, they said not to bother. It occurred that maybe the property manager had turned off the main power. Then the light bulb went off. Just this past week Fiona had power issues and had to turn the main breaker off at her house. So, she knew it would be outside. I never would have guessed this. So, we headed out to find it. And wouldn't you know it the main switch was off. As soon as we flipped it the outside lights came on! We raced in to turn on the heater! Woohoo, we had heat!!
Fiona did a walk through of the house to make sure all the scuffs and scratches were noted on the move-in sheet. Then she was off. The furniture rental people came by to drop off the dryer, 2 twin beds, a sofa set and a desk. Things were looking up. But, we were starving. The kids finally ate the bread.
...to be continued.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
So, let me tell you about our weekend...
Friday night Mark and I prioritized what we needed to do today. Saturday morning we woke up and realized we were all wrong. We need a bed, washer, dryer, linens, but we forgot about a car. So, we decided to head to the car dealership (car yard as the locals say) and get a car. There's a string of car dealerships right next to one of the train stops, so that part would be easy.
When we arrived at the train station, Mark bypassed the ticket buying machine. This is a capital offense in my book. You have to get your tickets ASAP because there's nothing worse than having the train come and go while you're still fumbling to get your money out of your pocket. It's a 20 minute wait for the next train. As I was trying to get the money out of my purse Mark called me over to the tracks to show me the men working up ahead. Damn. Then, over the intercom we hear the announcement that the tracks are being worked on--go catch the bus. We look up and see the men in orange jackets beckoning to us to go to the bus stop.
We waited about 15 minutes for the bus. Apparently when the trains go down, the buses go from train station to train station, unfortunately, we only knew our stop based on a visual from the train. I decided that Mark was capable of sorting it out until after a few stops Mark pops out of his seat and runs up to the driver. Then the driver promptly pulls the bus over. Mark responded, "no worries" and beckons to me that "this is us." And he was right; we quickly reached the string of dealership.
Over the last several days we've discussed how we will acquire a car. We decided we'll either buy used or lease a new one depending on the terms. We were burned with Mark's last car; it was worth far less than what we owed. My Landcruiser retained its value much better than Mark's BMW M3. It was disheartening. Anyway, we agreed to just start at one end and go to the other end until we find something reasonable.
The first dealership was Lexus. They apparently have good hybrids and since gas (petrol) is so expensive here it was worth checking. As Mark was talking with the girl at the front desk, this older, bald guy walked up to us. With an extremely thick French accent he told us that he had an appointment in about 10 minutes. He asked what we were driving to which we answered, the bus. He said, "Oh no, there will be none of that. You will take my car for the weekend." I was certain I misunderstood him, either way, we kind of want our own car. He gave us a brief rundown of how much it would cost to lease a new hybrid--much more than we wanted to spend. With a bit lost in translation we agreed to wait for him until he was done with his client. We checked out the used cars on the lot and played in a little kid area they had set up. He told us it would be about 40 minutes. He checked on us a few times and in about 40 minutes he was done.
He told us that he would like for us to make an appointment with him for Monday so he can have time to properly discuss our options. He insisted we take his car for the weekend. So, we did. He and Mark went to go pick it up. Then Mark drove to the apartment to get the car seats for the kids. Though, Bernard suggested that we could buckle the kids in the back seat and just drive carefully, if we wanted. I'm not sure if he could see my eyes bug out of my head, but he promptly said, "well, maybe not."
So, we used Bernard's Lexus all weekend. It felt a bit funny, but boy what a relief. We used it to drive to Southland mall; and what a mall it is!! We went to one of the department stores to buy a printer. We do have a decent printer coming across the sea with the rest of our stuff, but we've found not having a scanner/printer to be quite a pain--from wiring money, to signing leases, to doing my immigration paperwork, we are severely debilitated without one. Waiting 6 weeks for the rest of our stuff just isn't an option. Anyway, we couldn't find anyone to help in printer department so we moved to the washer/dryer task. Talk about daunting. The cheapest washer/dryers were about $600 each and they looked extremely cheap. The salesman said they were. Don't expect them to last more than a couple of years. The best ones are made in Germany, and they cost about $2000 each!!! Homes aren't typically built with a venting system so you have a range of ways to deal with that. We decided to push that task off as well.
The same sales guy helped us look at TVs. He took 20% off of a floor model that was already on sale. When he went to sign us up for delivery, Mark said, "can you throw in a DVD player for free." He laughed. When he was done he gave us the receipt--on which was a free DVD player.
We left feeling quite good. We headed to another computer store, but the printer selection was dismal. While I was at the restroom Mark took the kids for ice cream--no wonder he's the favorite. We decided that the first store did have the best selection of printers; Mark should just head there while the kids finish their cones. 20 minutes later he was back with the best printer they had. It was $498. Mark initially said no and agreed on the next model down, but they didn't have any in stock. The sales guy again pleaded his case as to why the $498 machine was the best. Apparently, the printer cartridges last an extremely long time--something like 28,000 pages. Insane. He said it would pay for itself in no time. Mark agreed but asked if that was his best price--he knocked the price down to $409!! Mark came out of the store beaming at the deal he just scored.
Next we headed to look for mattresses. An hour or so later, Mark received a phone call from the printer sales guy. He told Mark that he screwed up, the printer actually comes with an additional $100 rebate AND if we buy another set of printer cartridges, we'll get an additional $100 rebate on top of that! It was too late to make it back to the store before they shut so we went back today and got our rebates!! Best of all, we won't need to buy anymore ink until the kids are in college!!
Pretty exciting stuff! Though, I'll never be able to buy big ticket items by myself because I just don't know how to bargain!
What a great weekend though! And tomorrow is a public holiday for the Queen's birthday, so it's not even over!! :) The dealership visit should be interesting as we are feeling pretty indebted to Bernard. I'm sure that was what he was counting on, but it really made our lives a lot easier!!
When we arrived at the train station, Mark bypassed the ticket buying machine. This is a capital offense in my book. You have to get your tickets ASAP because there's nothing worse than having the train come and go while you're still fumbling to get your money out of your pocket. It's a 20 minute wait for the next train. As I was trying to get the money out of my purse Mark called me over to the tracks to show me the men working up ahead. Damn. Then, over the intercom we hear the announcement that the tracks are being worked on--go catch the bus. We look up and see the men in orange jackets beckoning to us to go to the bus stop.
We waited about 15 minutes for the bus. Apparently when the trains go down, the buses go from train station to train station, unfortunately, we only knew our stop based on a visual from the train. I decided that Mark was capable of sorting it out until after a few stops Mark pops out of his seat and runs up to the driver. Then the driver promptly pulls the bus over. Mark responded, "no worries" and beckons to me that "this is us." And he was right; we quickly reached the string of dealership.
Over the last several days we've discussed how we will acquire a car. We decided we'll either buy used or lease a new one depending on the terms. We were burned with Mark's last car; it was worth far less than what we owed. My Landcruiser retained its value much better than Mark's BMW M3. It was disheartening. Anyway, we agreed to just start at one end and go to the other end until we find something reasonable.
The first dealership was Lexus. They apparently have good hybrids and since gas (petrol) is so expensive here it was worth checking. As Mark was talking with the girl at the front desk, this older, bald guy walked up to us. With an extremely thick French accent he told us that he had an appointment in about 10 minutes. He asked what we were driving to which we answered, the bus. He said, "Oh no, there will be none of that. You will take my car for the weekend." I was certain I misunderstood him, either way, we kind of want our own car. He gave us a brief rundown of how much it would cost to lease a new hybrid--much more than we wanted to spend. With a bit lost in translation we agreed to wait for him until he was done with his client. We checked out the used cars on the lot and played in a little kid area they had set up. He told us it would be about 40 minutes. He checked on us a few times and in about 40 minutes he was done.
He told us that he would like for us to make an appointment with him for Monday so he can have time to properly discuss our options. He insisted we take his car for the weekend. So, we did. He and Mark went to go pick it up. Then Mark drove to the apartment to get the car seats for the kids. Though, Bernard suggested that we could buckle the kids in the back seat and just drive carefully, if we wanted. I'm not sure if he could see my eyes bug out of my head, but he promptly said, "well, maybe not."
So, we used Bernard's Lexus all weekend. It felt a bit funny, but boy what a relief. We used it to drive to Southland mall; and what a mall it is!! We went to one of the department stores to buy a printer. We do have a decent printer coming across the sea with the rest of our stuff, but we've found not having a scanner/printer to be quite a pain--from wiring money, to signing leases, to doing my immigration paperwork, we are severely debilitated without one. Waiting 6 weeks for the rest of our stuff just isn't an option. Anyway, we couldn't find anyone to help in printer department so we moved to the washer/dryer task. Talk about daunting. The cheapest washer/dryers were about $600 each and they looked extremely cheap. The salesman said they were. Don't expect them to last more than a couple of years. The best ones are made in Germany, and they cost about $2000 each!!! Homes aren't typically built with a venting system so you have a range of ways to deal with that. We decided to push that task off as well.
The same sales guy helped us look at TVs. He took 20% off of a floor model that was already on sale. When he went to sign us up for delivery, Mark said, "can you throw in a DVD player for free." He laughed. When he was done he gave us the receipt--on which was a free DVD player.
We left feeling quite good. We headed to another computer store, but the printer selection was dismal. While I was at the restroom Mark took the kids for ice cream--no wonder he's the favorite. We decided that the first store did have the best selection of printers; Mark should just head there while the kids finish their cones. 20 minutes later he was back with the best printer they had. It was $498. Mark initially said no and agreed on the next model down, but they didn't have any in stock. The sales guy again pleaded his case as to why the $498 machine was the best. Apparently, the printer cartridges last an extremely long time--something like 28,000 pages. Insane. He said it would pay for itself in no time. Mark agreed but asked if that was his best price--he knocked the price down to $409!! Mark came out of the store beaming at the deal he just scored.
Next we headed to look for mattresses. An hour or so later, Mark received a phone call from the printer sales guy. He told Mark that he screwed up, the printer actually comes with an additional $100 rebate AND if we buy another set of printer cartridges, we'll get an additional $100 rebate on top of that! It was too late to make it back to the store before they shut so we went back today and got our rebates!! Best of all, we won't need to buy anymore ink until the kids are in college!!
Pretty exciting stuff! Though, I'll never be able to buy big ticket items by myself because I just don't know how to bargain!
What a great weekend though! And tomorrow is a public holiday for the Queen's birthday, so it's not even over!! :) The dealership visit should be interesting as we are feeling pretty indebted to Bernard. I'm sure that was what he was counting on, but it really made our lives a lot easier!!
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