The ozzy dream part 4

With Jel's batman mobile we had a chance to view houses. The general rule is to know which suburb you want to move into. Then find a real estate agent in the area or check out several sites like domain.com.au or realestate.com.au where all the owners and real estate agent advertises. Choosing a suburb was not an easy task cause its really important for registering schools, upbringing of kids, groceries, safety and public transport. Ohh... melbourne suburbs are enormous although the city (CBD = central business district) is small. Reading somewhere that the best suburbs are located south east of Melbourne we focused generally there which I believe is a good idea. Its nearer to the beach, several shopping areas and good schools. The only downside is that most Muslim community and schools are up north.

The house hunting task was enjoyable if you weren't in a hurry like us. Its nice to inspect all the houses and neighborhoods. Some are realllyyy nice but a few rundowns. The agents wont even layan if you havent inspect the houses and the inspections are on a schedule. Sometimes when you view houses there would be like 10 others just like you. So our strategy was to offer 3 months advance payment to up our bid being jobless, new and all. It worked perfectly. The agent taught us a few tricks to sweeten the deal like writing a cover letter, informing that we still owned a house back home, submitting our bank statement and extra collateral. Alhamdulillah God helped us cause we got the first house we viewed (we viewed more than 15 houses) and applied (applied 2 and got both... baru nak apply yang lain tapi agent dah confirm kata dapat). Its our 2nd choice out of all the houses we viewed but we really love the house. Its been nearly 3 weeks and we still love it just that we wished more furniture but that can wait until we paid all the debts as for now we are all set. We also think we made the right choice by seeing the lovely comments on the pics on facebook.

After a few days with Jel's bat mobile we started to feel guilty (Kesian Jel siap naik bas pergi kerja for a few days. Thanks bro) and rented our own car. A nice blue Mitsubishi gallant. Zareef suka giler kata macam transformers. Semua kereta kilat and baru dia cakap transformers. The plan was to rent for a couple of days (to beli perabot and stuff for the new house) but we ended up renting it for a whole week. I calculated on the 4th day that the weekly rates were cheaper with the renting of the baby seats and all. Yes you have to rent baby seats for kids below 7. Serious giler about the rules again and the baby seats for jenis yang bolt to the back seat sandar tu.

So apart from 'tengok2 je' from one shopping mall to another, we took the chance to visit several playgrounds, St kilda beach, riverside and travel in the city. Sometimes we got lost but its all fun (thanks jel for the GPS.. tapi kadang2 argue gak ngan info gps ni) cause you explore more when you get lost. Another thing, everybody here has a Melway book. Its a big directory and maps and sometimes you look up a address in sites or booklets you see them referring it to Melway pg X and grid Y. Compulsory to have but it'll cause you $50. We love it cause its soooo detailed.

After the week is up we had to return the car and its back to the public transport. Before doing that we pretty much covered what needed to be done. We even tried to find a car way up in Carworld, Richmond (about an hours drive). Its like 10 dealers joined together to set up the place. Big and various of cars but we didnt get one cause convincing the ladies was not an easy task. Maybe it was for the better cause I was rushing it. Hate to move around with the kids on public transport. Zareef suka sangat buat perangai especially when Zara joins in. Tension and embarrassed in front of people. But we survived and alhmadulillah we had recently got our car.

About shopping a few tips on what we learned. All the washer, dryers fridge i think the cheapest place is Good Guys (first hand) cause they give 60days guarantee if you find it cheaper anywhere they will pay you the difference. Siap kalau bayar cash dapat discount (macam kat mesia) but tech stuff like TV's rasanya Dick's lagi murah. Baju2 simple you should try Big W, Target and K-Mart. Perabot seperit biasa Ikea. Groceries kat Coles and Safeway (macam giant and tesco). Dont buy a mobile phone if you plan to get a post paid plan instead sign up and ask for a phone and you have to top up a little per month. We got an iphone each (always wanted one) with telstra cause kitorang amik home bundle package and it comes cheaper and intercalls are free. So our Mobile, Foxtel (macam astro), Land line and Bigpond (macam streamyx) semua under Telstra. Figuring out what company/brands and packages was hard especially dia ada lock-in contract semua. So just something to share and we might not be so optimal in our choices.

About the car, our very very very helpful (just ask anything and he makes sure we settled in well in every way) Sri lankan neighbor (we really like the guy + family) introduced a friend who was a mechanic (sri lankan too) and got us a nice red nissan pulsar. Its cheap and runs very smoothly just the inside looks really old. Bought our baby car seats, registered with VicRoad and were are all set. Even got it insured over the phone although I havent paid anything yet. Senang asalkan bayar bak kata Jel.

So the only thing left to do is put the kids in daycare which is costing us a bomb but good to know the Centrelink will be paying nearly half (jobless lah katakan). Maz has already started working so at least ada income lepas ni.. takdelah bleeding cash and I can stop being so kedekut. After Zareef goes to school (very near the train station that we will be using everyday) the worldcup will start. All in perfect timing. Zara will still be at home until I confirmed a job. Insyallah I will hear the confirmation soon from SPausnet. Met the boss (his from PJ.. small world huh) and he said he is recommending me and I have to wait to be called for the medicals. Insyallah everything will turn out fine. We will work hard for it and tawakal saja pada tuhan. Insyallah.

So thats about it. Any questions you are free to fire away. Sebab ada kawan tu tanya awek2 kat sini cun tak and my answer is Yessss!!! ada banyak variations and stylo2 especially dekat city but whatever it is I think Maz paling cun lah.