How did I leave it so long?!  Well, moving house and everything associated with that (lost power cables, misplaced memory card readers, sorting out the internet…etc) had a lot to do with it, but rest assured I was still taking pictures! Ok here we go….

Day 179

A day that I had been waiting for for the past *FIFTEEN* years. I grew up an enormous New Kids On The Block fan and my loyalty has never wained. When I heard that they were touring again my heart leapt with joy, and leapt even more when it looked like I was actually going to be in the right country at the right time for this. We had unbelievably good seats and the photo makes it look like we were further away than we really were (you can blame that on my camera phone). The tickets clearly stated “no cameras allowed” and being a rule-follower, I followed but when we arrived there were other signs that said comact cameras were ok, just not SLRs or video cameras. I wish I had been more rebellious. But at least I had my camera phone. The plate of cheap and nasty nachos with cheese (that came from a bottle I might add, bleurgh) was actually DINNER as we had spent the whole day up to this point moving from the old apartment into the new. I still can’t believe we actually made it to the concert.

Day 180

Hooray! Our first morning in the new apartment! DrMrNin had to work today so I spent the day getting things organised to make it liveable in the most basic of senses (i.e. locate and unpack bathroom and kitchen necessities).

Day 181

I got me a lamp.

So it turns out that the living room in our apartment doesn’t have any lights which isn’t something I have ever encountered in a domestic residence back in England. Here instead of having a conventional light that hangs from the ceiling, the wall switch is associated with a nearby plug so the occupants are obliged to purchase some form of lamp. So I did just that. This here model is from Ikea. Not an uncomfortably bright uplighter (DrMrNin likes relative darkness when he watches TV), but not something so dark that it’s not worth having. It is however not enough light to knit to, so I think the household will have to reach some compromise at some point.

Day 182

Day two in the new apartment. Again it was spent unpacking so not much time to play around with the camera except for a quick mirror shot in the bathroom which is by far the sunniest room in the place.

Day 183

Yes, the bathroom definitely has the best light for most of the day, but the patio has nice light in the morning. Another day of unpacking. Exciting stuff.

Day 184

I have been in the country three whole weeks now!

Day 185

Attempting to set up the surround sound for the TV, connect up the surround sound on the DVD player and run all audo through the receiver. Having been the primary technology consulant back at the family home in England, I’m used to a fair bit of cabling but this was beyond a joke (this was at the beginning, before all the sockets had stuff sticking out of them). I felt pleased with myself though as I only had to make one phonecall and it was indeed as illogical as I had suspected- the cable for the subwoofer plugged into a completely different place to the rest of the speakers, used a completely different type of cable and only had one connector instead of two or four. I also managed to connect the CD player too. Now all we need is for the cable TV to be switched on.

Day 186/365

The caption says it all. They have free internet there too.

Day 187

I’ve been trying to get a fair bit done each day, but we’re still surrounded by boxes.

Day 188

One of the great things about already being good friends with the neighbours is that evenings are usually very social.

Day 189

One of the happiest discoveries that I have made online so far is that very nice people from various parts of the world regularly upload episodes of my favourite Australian soap, Neighbours onto Youtube. I’ve been watching it religiously since I was 11 years old and I’m overjoyed that I’ll still be able to watch it over here in America. I’ve been spending many happy bedtimes catching up with an episode or two before going to sleep. Thankyou all you Neighbours uploaders, you know who you are, and please keep them coming

Day 190

Today I took part in a usability research study down at Yahoo! HQ (which is a MASSIVE campus I might add). I would tell you all about it, but I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement so I’m legally bound, hee hee!

I also forgot to wear sunscreen too…. muh! Fried skin galore.