BurbleChaz

We're almost done with the move. After work today, we went to the serviced apartment and packed all of our clothes into forty-seven jumbo-sized bags. We took as many as we could carry on the tram to the new place. I left the Nest Builder there and took the car back to the serviced apartment. You can actually (very, very nearly) see the serviced apartment from our new panoramic penthouse. There's an interesting perspective effect. As you look along the street towards the CBD, the buildings get higher the further away they are. This gives the impression that it's about a five minute walk. It's actually quite a bit further.

It took me over forty minutes to drive the car back. The baggage had been breeding in the intervening hour, but I managed to cram it all into the huge boot of the hire car in two spine-crushing loads.

After a not-entirely-authorised right turn across some tram tracks (nearly being demolished by a tram), I was back at the new place in five minutes. Rush hour here is intense, but quite brief.

We had some fun looking out of the windows at torrential rain squalls. The temperature this evening is about 5 degrees outside. The squalls bring gusts of 30 knots. A good day to stay snuggled up inside. So we went out. We have no food yet. After a chicken chilli burger (full rush achieved), we spent some time dodging freezing rain squalls and scoping out the surroundings. It wasn't long before even we old Scandinavian hands decided it was just Too Damn Cold, so we whiffled back home. I spent a surprising amount of time trying to persuade the climate control system that eighteen degrees is not the appropriate point to wind up the cooling. I suspect this battle will take a while to win.

Tomorrow, we're going shopping for a car. The Nissan Nasty goes back on Monday. Car dealerships have a fundamental flaw in their business model. You need a car to get to the forecourts. The people with the most pressing need for a car are thereby prevented from ever getting one. This approach is common across almost every industry we've done business with here. The DSL provider advises you to check your order on their website. The mobile phone company asks for an alternate phone number. The banks, on the other hand, don't ask much. But then, they don't do much either. Except charge $6 a month for stealing your money. It turns out that the error they had attribuded to the Thai restaurant was the bank's mistake after all. On their current form, I am going to assume that everything - up to and including the current foul weather - is the bank's fault until they've proven otherwise.

So, car shopping tomorrow. We've decided on a few models we'd like to have a look at, and The Locals have advised us on a place to start looking. There will be tyre kicking, sharp intakes of breath, tutting, incredulous appeals to common sense, protestations of poverty and, with any luck, a deal agreed. I'm looking forward to it.

The Smug Geek has managed to get a 3G data link from her laptop, so I may be able to publish this tonight. I'll certainly report on our progress with cars tomorrow.