The New Place

Well. We’re all moved in, we actually were a few days ago, since we really don’t have that much stuff accumulated. So by the end of Sunday we were done. About the new place… I’m going to be honest. I’ll start with the good news! YAY! The location is much better. It takes 10mins bike and 30mins walk to get to town and the beach is even closer! The IGA and bottle shop (booooze) is about 3mins bike, maybe 10mins walk. And we bought lights for our bikes so going to town after dark is possible and Kate and I have already completed the late night drunk bike ride home (Don’t worry parents, we wore our helmets)! Another positive about the place is that there is no road noise like the previous place, as we are now in a quiet burb and away from even our street since we’re Apt 3 in a row of 6 townhouse type units. The final good news is that the back deck is quite nice and relaxing. Oh! And in general there are almost NO mozzies here!
Ready for the bad news? Because there’s lots. The first being that there is a girl, Coral, probably early 20s, living in the converted garage with her son, who is about 4 years old and is loud like any 4 year should be. But we were not informed at any point in time previous to our arrival that this would be the case. If it had, we would probably have found another place. Second, the place is a total sty. At first we though Coral had just trashed the place in the first week she had lived here (she moved in a week prior to us). When we showed up to move in she said she had had a party the night before and hadn’t cleaned up yet. Little did we know that her party mess was the least of our problems. In general the place is a little dirty. Kids hand prints and general muck on the walls, carpets that have seen better days. But it’s the kitchen that is total sty and absolutely filthy. The counters and cupboards are covered in a layer of grime, most of the dishes, utensils, and other cookware look to have been put away without being cleaned. The floor is sticky. The fridge has an odor. The walls are DIRTY. Also, you should know that I have an innate disgust of cockroaches and as much as I’d like to say there is a “bit” of a roach problem, that would be a blatant lie. There is a cockroach problem, flat out. How Amy, the owner, lived in such a mess is a mystery to me. For the first few days I probably killed 6-12 roaches during my time in the kitchen per day, while cooking no less. We have gotten into the habit of rinsing and a lot of the time washing the dishes and cookware before we even use it. So far I have cleaned the cupboard doors and handles of about half the kitchen and the countertops and backsplash. Kate took on the big task (she got the rubber gloves) of cleaning out under the sink. We also put a little bowl of baking soda in the fridge and the smell in there seems to have improved. Coral bought roach traps and spray, so we placed the traps around the kitchen and I sprayed in all the cracks and cervices. I would like to think/hope that the problem is decreasing. I have seen a few bigger roaches, like 2cm-ish, what I classify as medium-small, come staggering out into the open looking like a drunk roach, obviously having drank the roach bait kool-aid. This morning I saw one flip on to its back and cease movement. I crushed it just to be sure. One place we didn’t spray was around the oven and stove top (the spray was highly flammable). They seem to be living in the cracks around the two appliances and are often seen crawling in and out of the burners (electric stove, woof. And no drip pans either, super woof) and there are some chard bodies down there too. I’ve gotten rid of roaches in Texas so I don’t see why I can’t get rid of them here. Well I can see actually. Coral is a single mother who seems to have a lot on her plate, and not cleaning up after herself in the kitchen could lead to never getting rid of the fuckers. Ridding of roaches takes total commitment: always wiping up your mess; doing your dishes, or at least rinsing them right away; taking out the garbage regularly; and not leaving puddles on the counter! Ugh. Okay, I don’t want to talk about roaches anymore or the bad smell in that room that has yet to go away :(

In other news:
-We had an excess of zucchini in the fridge (Diva took them from the old house cuz no one wanted them) so yesterday I made zucchini bread. So good!
-Diva is in Perth visiting Elliot until the 17th. His sister is getting married and Diva is Elliot’s date.
- We booked our trip to Tasmania in January! We will meet up with Chelsie and spend a week there!
-Christmas is less than 3 weeks away, but it feels like May in Texas to me here, so I might just skip it this year? Maybe I won’t be sad that I’m missing it at home if I just pretend it’s not happening?
-Yesterday I went on the Lighthouse walk. The lighthouse is up on a hill at the tip of the bay. I also stood on the most easterly point of mainland Australia on the way to the Lighthouse. Very beautiful views on the walk, pictures coming soon!
-On Saturday night Kate’s cousin was in town and we all went to see “Australia” the movie. I thought it was very good, although Nicole Kidman added nothing to the film. It made me want to visit Darwin... so I probably will in a few months!
-An odd thing about the new place that I forgot to mention above is that in a neighboring unit there is a piano or keyboard and every morning at 8am someone starts playing this piano. Every morning at almost the same time, always wakes me up since our window is open. Weird.
-I've got to start posting more often, these are getting way too long!