Well here we are at the end of our 2nd month in Sydney. We have jobs and a flat and are quite settled. We had a bit of a stressful time finding somewhere to live to begin with. We stayed in Wake Up hostel for the first 11 days, but got sick of sharing a 4 bed room with total strangers. Especially one of them cos he was a proper snorer and talked to himself when he was pottering around the room! Plus it was way too expensive to be living there for any length of time.

We checked out quite a few places, most of which were just rooms in shared houses but not much that we really thought we could see ourselves living in. We were probably being a bit too picky though. One place we viewed in the subburb of Petersham (about 15 mins from Sydney central on the train) was a self-contained room with ensuite bathroom, one double and one single bed (as bunkbeds), a fridge, microwave, kettle, tv, computer with free internet, and a large communal kitchen downstairs. It would have been ideal if it was a bit bigger, but basically the room wasn't any wider than the bottom double bed. It was probably the best out of a bad bunch but there was no way we could have lived in it as we would have been tripping over each other all of the time and getting on each others nerves!

The flat we decided to go for originally was right in the city centre and walking distance from work. It was another self-contained flat on the 9th floor of a block of flats, a lot bigger than the room we had viewed in Petersham and for more or less the same rent. We weren't totally sure it was the best place as it was a bit grotty and smelled of greasy takeaway food, but it was our only option as we were spending too much money at the hostel and nothing else suitable had come up. I went back to view it again while Rob was at work and decided it was too manky and we'd be better off in the tiny room in Petersham, but when I called the housing ageny the room had been rented out to someone else and there was now a month long waiting list. So we decided we had to just pay the rent for the grotty city centre flat for the next month, and try and find something better in the meantime.

The landlords, an elderly couple who worked from a little office on the ground floor of the building, had told us before moving in that they ask all tenants for a $200 cleaning deposit and then they provide a bucket full of cleaning products, brushes, mops etc. and for that reason they leave it up to the previous tenants to clean the flat before moving out and getting their deposit back. We managed to get the keys for the flat on the Friday, before moving in on the Sunday, and as the landlords wouldn't be in the office until the Monday to give us our cleaning products, we decided to buy loads of cleaning stuff on the Saturday so we could get in and give it a real good scrub down before we moved in.

We didn't realise how bad it actually was until we got back there on the Saturday. As Rob started by sweeping the floor, I started in the kitchen, scrubbing bench tops and cuttlery and crockery. I decided it would be a good idea to boil the kettle a few times to get rid of any scum inside, and as I tipped out the old water that had been in there for who knows how long, I was horrified at seeing loads of dead bugs come flying out with the mucky brown water! It was a strange kettle with only the tiniest hole to fill with water, there wasnt even a lid to remove. So when I filled it up again and emptied the water out, I could have been sick at the sight of more dead bugs, including a cockroach!! Eeewwwww!

Rob wasn't having much more fun sweeping the floors. It seemed in the piles of dust and dirt that he must have swept up over a thousand dead insects, no lie. It wasn't a pleasant experience. The more things we tried to clean, the more dirt and grime we came across. As we stripped the beds (which were made from 3 matresses piled on top of each other, no frame!) we found bugs crawling on the sheets and matresses. We put all of the sheets on a boil wash in the hope of killing whatever they were. By then we had had enough and decided we would clean the rest up when we moved in on the Sunday.

Once we'd moved all of our bags from the hostel to the flat and put all the clean bed sheets back on the beds, we noticed how old and worn they were and decided we would feel much happier if we bought brand new sheets. So we went back out to buy sheets and also a new shower curtain and even cuttlery as the ones there were old and rusty. We debated on a new kettle and toaster but thought it best to check with the landlords first so that we could try and claim the money back from them. We couldn't face going back to clean so we wasted a bit more time and went for lunch around Darling Harbour before heading back. We even rang the office of the flat we had viewed in Petersham to see if we could put our name on the waiting list for a flat in a month's time. It was the manager who had answered the phone and he told me about a studio flat which had just become vacant that afternoon and if we wanted it he would let his staff know the next day not to give it to anyone else. He was very sympathetic when I told him the situation we were in, but there was no way we thought we would be able to get out of our contract. He told me that due to the state of the place we would have a good case and that we should speak to the landlady that night and explain it to her and if we could get out of the contract by the end of that week, he would hold the flat for us and even give us a week's free rent. It sounded too good to be true, but realistically we knew we wouldn't be abe to get out of the flat early, or we would end up losing our $600 deposit.

When we got back to the flat, I carried on cleaning the kitchen while Rob started on the bathroom. As Rob helped me move the little oven to clean the bench underneath we were both disgusted at the sight. There was a half-inch thick layer of grease which was covered in dead bugs, stuck to the mess on the bench. I had to use the shovel to scrape the gunk off, it was so disgusting! It was at that point we decided that enough was enough, we shouldn't have to be cleaning all this mess up that other people had left, so we decided to leave it and speak to the landlady the next day and ask her to get some professional cleaners in. I was almost in tears at the thought of spending just one night there, never mind a month, and we tried to come up with some excuse to get out of our contract early. We came up with a story that Rob had asthma and it was affecting his health living in those conditions and we were to tell the landlady the next day that we were only going to stay the two weeks we had paid for and then get out.

However, as I went over to my bed I noticed there were more of the bugs that had been there the previous day and they were crawling over my bags and my pillow! That was the end of the road for me and I couldn't stop the tears! We were so despereate to get out of there that we decided we were going to check into a hotel for the night and not spend another second in that dump. I called the landlady straight away and told her that I needed to see her the next day, that the place was disgusting and not fit to live in. I told her we were moving to a hotel and that I would explain the situation to her in the morning. Before we left, we took photographs of the greasy gunky mess under the oven, the washing machine pipe which emptied into the bath, the drying machine hung on a wall bracket which hung precariously over the bath, the window that didn't shut properly with a two inch gap at the top, plus the lovely bed bugs and live cockroaches that we came across at the last minute! We thought we would have a fight on our hands trying to get our money back so we needed proof.

Luckily, the landlady was understanding (she had never seen the state of the rooms as she was afraid of lifts) and she handed me our money back as soon as I walked into the office the next day. I gave the Peterham office a call straight away and once I had viewed the flat I paid the deposit and we moved in the following day (after a couple of comfortable nights in a posh hotel!)

So our new little flat is small, just a studio type room really, but at least its our own space and definitely a million times better than the bug infested horror! We have a double and single bed, sofa, tv, coffee table, 2 large chests of drawers, 2 fridges, microwave, kettle, sink and a computer in our room with free internet. We also have an ensuite bathroom and there is a large communal kitchen downstairs and a washing machine and dryer on each floor. We've had no problems here except that we were woken up at midnight the other week by the fire alarm going off in our building. We seem to be plagued by fire alarms! The loud beeping was accompanied by a repetitive announcement to evacuate the building. So we quickly got dressed and trotted off downstairs, to find everyone in the building had taken refuge in the communcal kitchen instead! Well that wouldn't have been a good idea if there really was a fire! But we decided not to brave the cold early morning air and plonked ourselves onto a couple of the kitchen stools instead waiting for the fire department to arrive. Just another rude awakening, and probably not the last we'll experience on our travels! [And yet another fire alarm early this week at the most inconvenient time; while I was in the shower and Rob was eating his tea! Like I say, not the last I'm sure!] Oh and we've had a couple of uninvited guests in our first week in the flat (cockroaches!), but luckily we've not seen any for a while. Seems they're hard to avoid over here.

We were feeling a little bit homesick during our first couple of weeks in Sydney. To begin with I was feeling that due to not having any money and not being able to find a job or a place to live, but then we heard very sad news from home that our grandpa was very poorly and that made it all the more difficult being away. The first thing on my mind then was to find out if we could make a trip home in case the worst happened. We just felt like we needed to be with the family and we were both feeling very depressed and that we needed a break from being away. The inevitable happened and our beloved grandpa passed away on 25th May. Luckily we found out that because we were on a working visa, our insurance covered us to fly home for the funeral and then fly back out to Sydney, so we planned a week off work and booked our flights straight away. It was such a sad time for all of our family but we felt a lot happier that we could go home and be there to support them all and to say goodbye to our grandpa who we love so much. Rest in peace Grandpa. xx

We haven't done many touristy things here as yet. We visited Bondi Beach in our first week when the weather was still good and we've been to Circular Quay and viewed the Sydney Harbour Bridge (a lot like the Tyne Bridge!) and the Opera House. We've also had a couple of walks around Darling Harbour which is really pretty. And we visited the Wildlife World last weekend and saw our first koalas! We met up with a few friends in the first couple of weeks who we had met in New Zealand and we also managed to get a night out with Nigel and his friend Rachel on our first weekend in the city. We had a great night, although I was refused entry to a club, apparently for being too drunk! I really wasn't but the bouncers in Sydney can be a bit funny and refuse people all the time for silly reasons. Even Nigel went out for a smoke later in the night and was refused entry back into another club. The bouncers were obviously just being a bit strict as we've heard they always are.

My first job here in Sydney was at a clothes shop. I was only there one Friday from 1pm-9pm and I was really looking forward to it as I've never worked in a clothes shop before and I thought it would be fun. I've never been so bored!! There was nothing to do but pick up clothes and straighten out the hangers on the racks. Glad it was only one day!

We are now both working at a publishing company which we managed to get through Rob's friend Nigel. Rob knew before we even got to Sydney that he would be able to start work straight away, but I had a bit of a difficult time in the first couple of weeks trying to find something and was worried I wouldn't be able to find anything at all and would have to cut the trip short due to having no money. But then Nigel came to the rescue and got me a job as well so I will be forever grateful! Thanks Nige! ;-) The work itself isn't all that exciting, but for me it's so different from what I am used to doing as a secretary that it's a refreshing change. Rob has a bit more responsibility doing quality monitoring, and at least its bringing in some much needed cash! The people there are really nice too, so we've settled in really quickly. We kind of feel a bit like we are just doing the same old thing that we did back in Manchester; working, eating, sleeping and having no money to do a lot at the weekends, but we keep reminding ourselves that its only for another couple of months at most so that we can save a little bit of money to do the rest of our trip.

So I guess the next update will be once we've set off on our travels again.......watch this space...!