Here I am relaxing with a cup of “real” coffee….well except they don’t have those cool Coffee Mate creamers that I have come to love in the US…enjoying the view off my little apt balcony of the marina and harbor of the Ross River. What a life I have right now!!! I am sooooo blessed I can not believe it!!! But once we get into a house I will have a lot of work to do to get it in shape I think so I had better enjoy this life of leisure now while I can!!!

Yesterday I walked to the realtor’s office and got our applications for the rental of the house so we will be filling those out, getting together our documentation that we exist (everything here is based on a point system of having a total of 100 points to verify you are who you say you are) which would be passports, birth certificates, pay stubs, etc. I also have to figure out how we put the deposit down—I assume we just give them cash since we have a savings account with a debit / ATM card and I don’t think they even use checks here or I sure haven’t seen anything about that. Guess I should read my bank info a little bit today!! That might help!!! If I can figure it out!!!

Chris had a good day yesterday–I think he is getting into the groove of things but it is definitely a huge responsibility and they are really counting on him to make some changes and move things along that need to be moved along. I have to learn to let him have some down time when he gets back at night and not start “yammering” at him right away. I have always missed this part of the new job because I usually moved well after he started a job so I was not around for the “intense” part and believe me–this is intense. I don’t know how he is learning a new culture, new industry, new job, new names and all that he is doing but he seems to be doing it well from what I can see. The CEO and one of the finance guys are flew in last night for their 5 year strategy meetings this week so we got elected to eat dinner with them which was fine—no problem but I must say I was a little nervous about it. They walked from their hotel a couple streets over the bridge and we met them and took them to the one restaurant that we like here that is open on Mondays. A lot of them are closed on Mondays. We had a nice meal and conversation and I think they just kind of want to make sure we are making the transition okay. I think everyone worries about the Americans!!! But the dinner was nice and we had good conversations along with work talk which I am learning more about sugar than I thought I could ever know!!!

Just checked our account and the good news is that Chris got paid! Once they get his tax file number filed he will get more in the bank —they kind of take a big chunk out of your money here to say the least until you get established with a number which should take about a month. Now we have to make sure that our renters in the States wire their money into our States account on the 15th so I will have to check that tomorrow to make sure it got in. I am sure I am forgetting something—I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps some of our mail that is going to Mason City is not getting forwarded but I hope I am wrong. I tried to get everything changed over to the South Dakota address but most of the stuff that Terri is forwarding to us is the stuff I had already changed addresses on so…….maybe the rest is just junk that isn’t forwarded anyway. But I ramble on….

Not sure what I will get into today–it looks like it might rain today which would be odd. It is in the 70’s and humid and our little Aaron is freezing in Melbourne—said it was 40 when he woke up. He only has a little thin sheet and cover on his bed and needs a blanket so hopefully he will get that today. I guess they do have space heaters in the apts so he can use that but I think he should have come over in summer and not winter!!! He is not used to the cold that they have in Melbourne. What a difference in where we are and where he is!!

I guess I have bored you all enough so I will quit for this morning!!!! More tomorrow!