Bits and bobs

Hiya. It's C here.

Apologies for the silence of late. G started work on Wednesday, and I've been spending pretty much all day on the computer trying to find a job, so the thought of spending more time online has been too depressing. But it's time for an update, though this one won't be with the photos that I had promised my parents. The camera's in the other room and that's just too far to walk at the moment.

So. The good news is that we have a home to move into on Thursday! Hurrah! It's the house that we applied for nearly two weeks ago, so yay that it finally came through. We can't wait to move into our own (rented) place, believe you me.

Unfortunately, this hasn't come without a load of hassle. First of all, it took over a week for the credit check company to carry out their reference check on us. We had to chase up our previous rental agents in Australia to ask them to send back the reference request, which they finally did so this morning, our time. We cheered when we read their email saying that they had completed the reference and faxed it off. The cheering stopped, however, when G received a phone call this morning saying that we'd failed the credit check. Apparently there was no way that we were going to ever pass it because all of our previous details are Australian, not British. We both fail to see how this could be accurate, because that means that no one from un-British backgrounds would ever be able to rent somewhere in the UK. Which is not at all logical. And apparently the credit check company knew from the start that we wouldn't pass their process, but carried it out anyway at the request of the rental agency. Which also knew that we'd never pass it, but still made us go through and pay for it.

The upshot of this situation was that we'd have to give up the idea of renting this place, pay six months rent upfront or get a UK guarantor. The only logical option is the six months rent one, because it's likely we'd fail any credit check with other people if we applied for a rental property elsewhere. And we're tired of living in two rooms separated by a communal corridor. Six months rent would wipe out a lot of our savings. When G called to relay the news to me I was in Debenhams shopping for desperately-needed winter wear, but put all the clothes in my arms back on the racks (this was despite their storewide 25%-off sale). We were both mentally recalculating our plans for the near future, partly because G won't get paid until the 20th of December.

Needless to say, when I dropped into the rental agency to say we'd go with the six months option, I was short with them (when I really wanted to dramatically throw a cup of steaming coffee at Chris, the smarmy 19 year-old). Anyhow, he said he'd pass our details onto the landlord who would contact us directly to arrange the lease signing etc. So we never have to deal with him again! Double hurrah!

When our new landlady called G this arvy, he suggested that perhaps we could pay only three months up front...? Luckily for us, she agreed! Triple hurrah! So that's taken the pressure off things, and we were both able to relax somewhat tonight, instead of stressing about money.

Aside from housing issues, over the past week I've been hitting the job hunting path hard. It's a hideous process. How do you encapsulate your skills and experience into a handy 200-word summary, particularly when you don't have skills and experience that neatly fall into a pre-defined category? I've applied for jobs that I know I can do, but proving this in my application is hard. I can only hope my skills of persuasive writing are still working.

I hope everyone's holding up under the "rain" of terror (ha ha!) that Brisbane's been subjected to recently. It puts our 3 degrees (not including wind chill!) to shame.

Much love