Driving around Darwin area today...trying to figure out where places are in relation to each other. How far schools, pools, lakes, etc. are from different communities. Slowly figuring out where we would like to live. After 2 days of looking at rental houses, it is nice to have a slower day.
Before we got back to the house we were feeling pretty done, ready to get out of the car. Just then our rental car started beeping, like it does when the fuel is low or your seatbelt is not on. Paul was trying to figure out what was wrong with the car. Then he noticed that the warning signal we were hearing was accompanied by a message on the odometer screen..."Rest Reminder" along with a picture of a big tree and picnic table. I kid you not. The car was reminding us that it was time to stop for a break.
The midday heat is quite something. The sun is pretty intense. We've been pretty good about staying out of the sun. We messed up yesterday...the kids were all asleep in the car so we stopped by a used car dealership to start our search. Paul and I were out for maybe 10 - 15 minutes. We noticed when we got home we both had a little sunburn.
We haven't had much rain since we arrived. I guess this is still considered the "build up", when the humidity is high but it doesn't rain much. It is supposed to be a relief when it starts raining a bunch. I'm glad we got here before the worst of the rain...much easier to get used to the whole driving thing on dry roads.
I get the feeling that not many people spend hours baking cookies or bread here. Many of the houses we have seen have smaller ovens than our microwave was in Alaska. I finally asked a realestate agent yesterday...what is up with these big fancy houses and the small ovens? He explained that not many people want the heat from baking to be INSIDE the house. Most people do their cooking on barbies (aka BBQs) outside. Keep the heat out there. Hmmmm, that will take some figuring out. Is there anyway to hook up an additional stove/oven out on the deck???
Tough to decide on housing...big fancy house with small yard or older house with bigger yard; closer to Paul's work or closer to schools; closer to green space or closer to trail system. One house we saw yesterday was gorgeous...lots of space inside, pool outside, small patch of green grass for the kids that was separate from the pool. Nice kitchen, gas cooking. It also had big beautiful windows...one side overlooked the ocean. The other side with floor-to-vaulted-ceiling windows?? A view straight into an apartment building. Hmmmm.
One thing I heard was vastly different in Darwin was the shopping. The kids and I spent a few minutes in a shopping center a couple days ago and there seemed to be LOTS of shops in there. Of course, in general, I hate shopping so I am not the best to judge. I guess the jury is still out on that one.
They use metric here, like in Canada. Funny how quickly you (or at least I) lose a relative sense of what different quantities mean. How much is 500g of sandwich meat? How many km is a 6 mile run? How many kilometers does a vehicle have on it when it has 100,000 miles? The only easy one to remember is the 0 C freezing point. I don't think I will get much use out of that one here.
Sending lots of love,
The Barry's
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