Day 6: Back to Fantasy Fun Land

Oh Man. I cannot remember the last time I had a grin like this on my face. I cannot stop smiling. I almost started skipping earlier. The apartment search went very, very well.

Places here are very nice. I guess living in New York has lowered my expectations for apartments. I never thought I could like an apartment better than 29. It’s a good thing 29 can’t read because she would be crying. The jury is still out on whether or not Drew can read, but if he can, eat your heart out, Drew.

The whole experience was the opposite of apartment shopping in NYC. My housing consultant (Lynda – a nice mom with teenage sons) drove to my hotel and picked me up. She then proceeded to show me one fantastic, incredible place after another. They are all 2 bedroom, 2 bath spacious palaces with washer/dryers and tons of storage and modern kitchens. I almost insisted on taking the first place she showed me because I was so blown away. Lynda convinced me to look at a few others and assured me that one would be open for a while.

(In NYC you put down a down payment when you see a place or you lose it. When I got 29 it was literally a sprint. There was an open house craig’s list posting. I walked into the place at 8:45 am for a 9 am open house and agreed to take it at the same time some else did. The broker said the first person to come back with $500 cash could have it. I took off and so did the other guy, racing down the 5 floor walk up. I beat him back to 29 by about 30 seconds.)

The first place Lynda showed me was two tram stops outside of the city, and very near where I have been running each morning. It overlooked the park. All of the other places she showed me were right downtown in what they call the CBD (central business district). They were all great and my happy dilemma was how to choose. The one I eventually settled on is a short walk to work and was very modernly furnished. It’s near a lot of restaurants and shops and a dry cleaners. (I’ll post photos as soon as I can. I foolishly shipped the cord that connects my camera to my laptop, so photos are still a few weeks out, unfortunately.) Anyway, the new place is huge, has walk-in closets and is very convenient to everything. I’ll probably move in two weeks or so. I’ve never had a guest room before, so I’m all set for entertaining now. Let me know when you are coming to Melbourne.

On the work front, I am still formalizing the expectations for my role and getting up to speed. I did finally get a door pass today, so that’s a start. I have been learning all the new jargon. One variation here is that instead of building a business case, they use the term build a “business justification” which is unfortunately abbreviated to BJ. Some quotes from a meeting I attended today include, “That work can’t even begin until Gary gets a BJ.” “Carol is working on the BJ, but it is not finished yet.”

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, since my last Saturday both began and ended on an airplane and I could really use one on the ground.