BurbleChaz

If you haven't been there today, go and have a look at the other place.

Back already? Cool pictures, aren't they?

The flat hunt worked. We found a place we want. I'm slightly worried about how badly we want it. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth if we don't get it. Hey ho, on to the burblage:

We were rudely awakened from our rightful slumber by an estate agent at 0800. It's hard to be coherent in such circumstances, but I managed to add yet another property to the list for today. That made a total of seven. In a rare fit of perspicacity, I realised that my phone needed charging, so I stuffed it in a wall socket. Not so cleverly, I neglected to cancel the alarm I had set. Half an hour later, it went off. Being too lazy to, you know, actually fix things, I went back to sleep. For the next half an hour the conversation was like this: (Her)'That's your phone again'. (me)'Schneeurfl it'll stop soonzzzzz' (Her)'And that's still your phone' (me)'zzzzzzzzz'. I have a bad habit with phone alarms. I set them earlier than I need, then keep hitting 'snooze'. What I'm actually doing is training myself to sleep through alarms. It works well.

I had a plan involving the number 30 tram. Slight problem. It doesn't run on weekends. So we walked a lot further than we needed to, and caught a tram that dropped us about a kilometer form the first flat we wanted to see. There were Pointed looks. There may even have been Sharp Comments.

The whole Docklands area is still under construction. The street we were looking for has no signs yet. However, the flat we were viewing was on the eighth floor, and there was only one building over four stories within a hundred metres. Docklands has space. We had a look at the flat. It was very, very nice. Maybe a fraction on the small side, the second bedroom has no windows, and there's no bath. We could live there happily.

We were on a serious timetable, so we dashed across the river to City Road. The agent we met there was a real professional. The flat was spacious, light, and had everything we needed. The agent's skill became obvious when I looked out of the window. 'Busy four lane highway at the front,' I said, 'but at least there's a lovely view of the freeway out the back.' 'Yes - it's a real visual treat at night' she said. I admire that attitude. There are no problems, only selling points.

We trammed it back to Docklands to look at two flats in the same development. The agent for the first one wasn't there when we arrived. We were a few minutes early. The agent for the other one we wanted to look at was there, and was delighted to show us to the penthouse.

The comparison with the one on City Road is unfair. There, I had raised a few negative points and the agent had had a fixed-grin response to all of them. She was good. With this, flat, the agent didn't say a word. Neither did we. It was dumbfounding. Floor to ceiling windows on both sides, looking over the CBD on one side, and the harbour and bay on the other. You could stand in the kitchen and watch ships manoeuvering into the port. Then sit down for dinner, deciding whether you wanted to watch the sunset over the bay, or look over the lights of the city. It's almost indescribably perfect. It's also the most expensive of the seven we had planned to see. Certain Persons appear to have good taste. The price includes a gym and a rooftop swimming pool. Naturlijk.

We filled in the application forms and handed them to the agent. Our sneaky hope is that anyone else applying will take the forms away, fill them in and post them - by which time we will have a signed contract.

After this huge success, we went for a coffee. Well, that was the initial plan. It segued into a tiny little beer. We had another good stroll round Docklands in the sunshine. We're convinced it's where we want to be. If we don't get this one (which we will), we'll keep looking here.

We had an appointment with another agent at 1400. When we went to their office, nobody had any idea what was happening. Vague commitments to set something up were made. We weren't disappointed.

After strolling around some more, taking care not to turn round and point at 'our' flat every ten paces, we decided to go and look at another one on the list. Trams again, followed by a slight error on my part. I mistook a '/' for a '1' on our carefully-documented schedule, so we wasted some time looking for 17 Riverside Quay, rather than 7. Once we had that sorted out, we found the building. By the simple expedient of looking up. It's the tallest residential building in the world. (well, it was until those me-too types in Queensland topped it). It's about 90 storeys. The flat we were looking at was on the twelfth floor. I suspect that is the lowest floor with apartments. It was lovely. The views aren't so good as our the other one, but it was the size, style and quality we're looking for. The agent had another, similar one available on the 62nd floor. When he mentioned the price, we decided not to bother looking. I can only assume that each floor costs an extra $5 a week.

Then we went for a beer. I'm detecting a pattern here.

Shopping, gym, cooking, beer, blogging. Well, that's how I got here today.

I'm thinking about posting some of our recipes here. If only to remind us of the stuff that we cook, and maybe the wine we drink. It would probably bore My Valued Reader, so I may not. Also, most of our recipes are 'Fry up some stuff in a pan, add meat and a liquid, stuff in oven, go to pub, delicious', so there may be a limited value-add, as we say in whiteboard land.

Did I mention that The Flat has a good view of the footy ground? Or is that altogether too Australian?