I Have a New Apartment

Well last week was so frustrating, I was waiting for a money transfer from the UK to my new Australian Bank account, without the money I couldn't move into my apartment, it arrived on last Thursday and i went early and had to walk across town with $8000 in my pocket, i was concerned but if anyone had tied to rob me i think i would have bitten their fingers off as I was getting desperate to move out of the crappy Comfort Inn hotel, now that is an oxymoron, how could that place be called comfort Inn, they were as incompetant as anyone could imagine, one kitchen staff member, who was running in and out in a morning trying to take orders and cook at the same time, he could take between 15-25 minutes to prepare breakfast for someone while trying to take orders for people, I knew the nightmare it could be so i was there at the opening of the door at 7.00am. anyway after my money transfer i was moving in friday, the big day, I arrived at 5pm and was greeted by the agent, she handed me the keys and then got me to sign all the agreements and invited me to a barbecue at her apartment, it was her daughters 18th and something else but was basically just an excuse to drink and eat, and then she let me loose in the apartment. I had 3 weeks of laundry to wash, it was the first thing i did, i threw all of my shirts and underwear in the wash, far too much stinky laundry, then i spent a couple of hours just arranging my few things i had with me, i then went to the barbecue, her apartment was identical to mineonly a mirror image, it was very nicely furnished with expensive looking tropical furniture, i was taken to the patio and allowed a beer, several other folks turned up and belive this, everyone had moved to Darwin within the last 12 months, it was amazing, it seems this is a real boomtown. We all ate and drank, me on beer and everyone else on champagne, I dont know why, i really dont like it, far too dry for me. there were two groups on the two patios, one for the daughter and her friends and one for the old farts. one of the couples we were with seemed to think they were not as old as they looked and kept popping into the other group, she was 40'ish and fat and with a very open shirt on, with a large cleavage exposed, this was suprising for me, her husband(boyfriend maybe) seemed very effeminate and was very animated with his hands and then they were talking about heir gay friends and the gay nightclub, so i just assumed that they were bi-sexual. Anyway the more she got drunk the more silly she became and I was then told that she was telling everyone about her boob job, ( hence the display of cleavage) and then she dropped out one fo the boobs for all the young folks to have a look at, as you can imagine all the young men, were turning their faces away thinking crazy drunk old woman. I never get suprised anymore about what some folks do at parties when drunk. as the night wore on people left and then when the strange couple left, we all talked about them , which is what parties are for, discover peoples weaknesses and then tear them to shreds when they leave.

Since the party i have managed to get a cell phone, organise the land line to my apartment, the internet and cable TV, so by next friday i will be a normal human being again. I wenbt shopping for food saturday and bought a little bit of food and some cleanign stuff and the total amount spent came to $175, i was shocked, i have nearly no food at home and i spent all this much, what the hell is it going to cost me each week when I get jenny and the little girl here.

I managed to meet a really nice older lady in the apartment, she had heard me toalking to the agent and recognised my British accent, She is British and lived out in the far eat for many years, she had lived in Vanuatu, a small french speaking island, and then we by accident got speaking about my bird watching hobby and it turns out she is the treasurer of the Darwin Naturalists Club, not people runnign naked on the beach but animal lovers. I have even been invited to join the club and go on the next trip next weekend to a very good natural lake, called Billabong in Australia, it is about 150Km away and suppoed to be a very good spot, i will try and find someone to ride with rather than drive myself, got to get used to these dirt roads first.