Wednesday 9th May

It is now Wednesday I leave for work leaving Kerry to arrange some viewings. It is becoming quite apparant that rental houses (decent) move very quickly. It is another fantastic day, sunny, clear blue skies and temperatures around the 21 degree mark.

Kerry arranges to view one in Frankston where we went when we arrived. Rob at work told me to stay well clear of that area as it is not the most desirable area. We then chat for a while and he gives me a run down on the areas which are the nicer areas. I call Kerry and let her know.

I try and register on-line for a TFN (Tax File Number). This means that I won't be paying 46% tax on everything. It is like our NI numbers and gets you on the system properly. It won't let me apply as I do not have a residential address in Australia yet. Kerry has the same problem when trying to ask about opening bank accounts. I also need to open a Super annuation account (like a pension fund). Again this I can't do until I have a TFN and an address. Also we cannot get a car until we have an address.

Kerry calls me about a house we had seen advertised in a suburb call Doncaster. I check with the people at work and they all confirm that it is a nice area with plenty of parks etc for the girls to play in. Kerry calls the agents and we arrange to view that evening. I have to ask to leave work early and this is not even an issue. Everyone here is so good to me with trying to help out.

I leave early and take the toys Rob has brought in for the girls back to the hotel. We then follow the map which was printed out for me to find the house. The viewing is at 5 and we arrive in plenty of time. It seems a very quiet area. The house is new and looks fine for what we need. It is only a 3 bedroom house with a tiny back yard. The way the houses around are set out it looks like the owner has bought some land and crammed 3 houses onto it. Looking around it seems a familiar trend. It certainly seens people are selling their back gardens for people to build houses on. The prices of houses are very high in Melbourne (cheaper than the UK but very expensive for Australia).

The agent Tasha is a very attactive blonde lady in her late 20's. She leaves us alone to go round the house and is not pushy in any way. Probably fancied me but with Kerry around didn't want to make it too obvious. We decide that we would like the house. Then we discuss with Tasha what we need to do.

We took along cash for the bond and the first months rent but they wouldn't take cash. Problem , it needed to be a bankers draft. As we have no address we have no bank account so we can't get the bankers draft. We explain to Tasha and we come to an arrangement with her to put it on a credit card. She then leaves us with a rental from which we have to fill in. We go back to the Hotel wondering how we are going to fulfill the requirements on the form...ie references, bank account info etc...

The house was goint to be avaiable from next Thursday so we push Tasha to try and get it earlier for us. She didn't seem to think that would be a problem.

We head back to the hotel in determined mood not to lose the house. We fill in the form as best we could and e-mail a few people asking them to be our references if needed. We cheekily put them down anyway as we needed to fax the form to Tasha the next day.

we order room service again and crash out...