Another landmark: I got my permanent residency as of last Friday. As I applied for this outside Australia (I was still in Brussels), I also had to finalize the application outside Australia. So I flew to Auckland, New Zealand, had a short holiday and got my permanent residency!!! YES.

I’m a very happy guy, you know. I’m here just over 3 months and already have a job, apartment and my permanent residency. What’s next on the list???

Seems some of you had a quite good look at the pictures of my apartment, as I got quite some remarks, like: - “Next time when you take a picture of your bedroom make sure you make your bed beforehand.” - “Who’s the woman in the bag?” On one of the pictures was the plastic cover bag of the pillows I bought and there’s a woman on it. - “You better set up an online reservation system because we all want to come over now and enjoy the view as well…” - “Are you ever coming back to the Netherlands?” Good question…, next trip is not planned yet.

I just took the pictures quickly on the day I moved in and I didn’t really pay attention, but you did!! I rented this (furnished) place initially for 3 months, but probably I will stay a little bit longer. According to my friends who came over for the house warming party (we tested how many people fit on the balcony; at least 9!!) I’m not allowed to leave this place before next New Years Eve!! We will see… At least I have THE view of Sydney for the moment and for me that’s also a reason to live in this city, although not the most important. I also have a parking spot, but no car yet. For the moment this is ok as the office is a 10 minute walk and the ferry is a 2 minute walk. I think a lot of people moving to Sydney would like to have this view to start with and after a while you probably want some more space and you move out to the suburbs.

What else is going on?

We are having a nice summer over here and are enjoying the open air concerts (Jazz and Symphony in the Domain), the open air cinema in Centennial Park and Australia Day. The inevitable bush fires already claimed their first victims and there’s a severe water shortage in Sydney.

Paul, where I stayed the first two months, has “infected” me with his “wine love” virus, so I started with my own modest wine stock. As I don’t have a lot of place my wine cellar is underneath my bed for the moment.

I picked up my salsa classes again, although this time cha cha cha, djive, rumba are also part of the course. I still feel like a “houten Klaas” sometimes, but maybe I get there one day.

There are two things I really want to do this year: 1. Do a lot of diving. Before X-mas I did the Rescue Dive Course and later this year or early next year I want to start with my Dive Master Course. I decided to spend my first salary on my own dive equipment and I can tell you it feels good diving with your own equipment. I joined a dive club in Sydney and they organise quite some dive trips in and around Sydney. 2. Explore New South Wales. Two years ago when I was here, I travelled a lot through Australia with Marcel, but we didn’t really explore NSW. So that’s what I’m going to do now.

You know what’s funny? You know the expression “going Dutch”; which means if you go out for dinner, everybody pays his own bill. But if you go to a party here, you most of the times bring your own drinks (also called BYO = Bring Your Own). I thought the Aussies descended from English convicts and not the Dutch???

And I also had already the first visitors in my new place: Désirée and Janina. After their visit for New Year they did some more working and travelling and when they were back in Sydney after their Alice Spring trip they stayed for a couple of nights before flying back home to Germany after 6 months. It was really nice having them over as they took really care of me: they cooked, were my alarm, asked were I was going at night and left me a lot of reminder notes when they left (water the plant, don’t forget the put the alarm, stay clean). There last days only had one subject: shopping. I was really surprised it all fit in their backpack. On their last night I took them for a cocktail in the Shangri-La hotel. This cocktail bar has glass all around, so the views of Sydney are stunning. Afterwards we caught up with Sonja and Mark and had a couple more drinks. (PS: Who is going to drink my beers now??? And thanks for the wrap recipe!)

Did you know the presale for the World Cup Soccer 2006 started already? The only problem is that you can only buy tickets now without knowing who will be playing. But you can sign up for follow-your-team tickets!! I will try to be in Europe and hopefully se some matches. Who knows, but maybe Australia will qualify this time??

So the last ten days I was in New Zealand. I stayed with Robert and Eva most of the time and they took me around Auckland, the western beaches, Rangitoto Island, and I tasted a lot of Sauvignon Blanc (NZ produces great SB, thanks for your advice Lynne). One dinner I will never forget anymore. We went to St. Tropez, a French restaurant, and we really laughed our asses of. We were using a lot of words with double meanings, played around with the different languages and at the end I asked the waiter to borrow the camera from another table and take a picture of us. And he did!!

Robert and Eva also moved to their new home so I gave them a hand moving. It’s a brand new house, which was used by the designer as a show model on an exhibition. He used a lot of wood and their’s a lot of space in the house. But now they live in the Western part of Auckland and should be called Westies, which means they have to wear black shirts and drive a ute (= pick-up).

I also went up north for some diving at the Poor Knight Islands and the wrecks of the Tutukaka coast. Fantastic dive company (Dive Tutukaka, http://www.diving.co.nz/poorknights.htm) and great staff. If you ever go there, I can recommend them. They sank two navy vessels just outside the harbour and a lot of life developed in and around them. The islands are beautiful, a lot of arches and caves. We saw a lot of scorpion fish, morays, nudibranchs, and others saw also carpet sharks and stingrays.

I stayed in a backpackers in Whangarei and the manager was a guy called John. 70 Years old but still very vivid. He recently even did a parachute jump!! And he took as to the glow worms. Amazing, we were walking through a small forest at night and everywhere we saw little blue lights.

And when I flew back to Sydney I was wearing my Australian flag undies, which I got from friends. And although it was only 7.30 am I asked the stewardess for champagne when she served breakfast. First she looked a little puzzled but when I told her I had to celebrate my Australian residency, she completely agreed. I even got a refill.

Cheers, Ruud

Pictures: 01. Australia Day - Ferry Race.JPG 02. Australia Day.JPG 03. Australia Day.JPG 04. Last Night Desiree and Janina.JPG 05. Auckland - Sky Tower.JPG 06. Smelly Gannets at Muriwai.JPG 07. Gannet.JPG 08. Scorpion Fish.JPG 09. Grey Moray.JPG 10. Clown Nudibranch.JPG 11. Jason's Nudibranch.JPG 12. Jewel Anemone.JPG 13. Robert and Eva in front of their new home.JPG 14. With Robert and Eva on Rangitoto Island.JPG