Another week of progress and getting our details sorted out. We applied for tax numbers, got a bank account and yesterday we bought a car!
We've been doing so much walking over the last week and a bit. It's 20 minutes to the grocery store and we seem to go every other day almost. On Wednesday we walked into a couple employment agencies (they are very popular here) and one of them starting salivating when we said Dustin was a ticketed carpenter. So after filling out some forms and giving them his CV he is at work today! We had to get tools and some other work clothes for him. It was great because the guy he's working for gave him his contact at the hardware store so Dustin got all his basics for about $150 because the guy discounted everything he got. Not too bad considering tools here are easily a few times the price of tools at home. I think the cheapest hammer we found was about $30 but it was also not going to last. So to get the hammer he had at home was about $70! I think at home it would be $40-50 at most. That's one thing that we take for granted - having so many cheap things at our disposal at home. So Dustin also got a tool belt, a measuring tape, a utility knife and I think that's all to start. The cool thing is the employment agency also has some things he can borrow like rain gear and safety vests and a chalk line. He's building a retirement home about a ten minute drive from our place.
We have also spent the week trying to find a car. We've been wanting something big enough to travel around in afterwards so have been looking at station wagons, SUV's and minivans. But it was turning out that almost every ad we responded to, the people live in the other surrounding suburbs. So some of them weren't driving 30 minutes into town just to show us the car. It was starting to get frustrating because the bus service here is very limited and doesn't run on Sundays even. Then one that was actually close to us, the people changed their mind and aren't selling it for another couple months! We did find a fellow who was willing to come into the city to show us and we ended up buying a 1994 Nissan Terrano. It's kind of like an old version of the Pathfinder. We found a mobile mechanic to give it a look over and he found no big dramas so that was that. I will be tasked with cleaning it out but I want to get it insured before I drive it around much.
The car buying process is so simple here! The seller fills out a form and mails it saying he sold the car and we fill out a form and take it to a Post Shop (they are an extension of the Transport Agency for accepting forms and providing informations) saying we bought the car. Dustin didn't even have to be there and it costs $9.20 for the transfer fee! The car is registered until November so we won't have to renew that for a couple months and then because it's a diesel we need to pay additional road user fees on it. So you purchase up to 5000 kms and it works that you just add more when you use them up. Diesel is about 70 cents less per litre than petrol here so I think it's because it's not taxed as much, hence the road user fees. But I think it comes out about the same or less to run a diesel. But insurance isn't compulsory here on vehicles. I think we'll at least get third-party coverage though. So I have to get some quotes for that today.
Getting our tax numbers was also very simple, just go to the tax office and fill out a form. She took copies of our passports and sent it off for us. There was only one person ahead of us in line so there was no wait really. And the bank account was simple as well, just went to the bank and needed to show our passports. It's great here too because you can transfer amounts to anyone with their banking info so we pay rent right from our bank account to our landlord's. We paid first in cash so this week I can set up the payment. But even for buying a car or selling someone something you can always just transfer money electronically. Such a novel thing! And the fee to use another bank's ATM is only $1 here! So many great things about the banking here!
Oh I also got a library card too! We've been spending heaps of time at the library because there's free wireless here. Turns out that they chrage a small fee to take our DVDs, CDs or some of the newer books. But I'm not sure what city taxes are like so maybe they are fairly cheap and thus the user fees for those items. Still probably cheaper than a movie rental shop.
Now that we have a car we can explore the area further! Maybe we'll even surf this weekend if it looks good out! We're onto day 3 of straight sunshine which has been lovely! We'd been seeing a lot of rain up until then. We didn't go to the rugby game on Friday though because it was chilly and a bit rainy out. The stadium has covered seating but is open so hopefully it'll be nicer out for the next one.
I have been looking for work too but so far there hasn't been lots of jobs posted. I am still doing work online for organizing-guru Krista Green so I hope to keep that up and I might not need another job here. But I kind of want to work just to meet people and get a feel for the culture more.
Speaking of which, I will wrap this up so I can go home and have lunch and get down to some work. Hopefully we'll be a bit more snap-happy now that we can explore so there might be more photos coming soon. We walked down to the port the other night just to check out new spots and since we were still on foot we couldn't get too far. I am apparently getting quite old because my legs have been so sore from all this walking! We had probably been doing at least a couple hours a day in errands and exploring. On Saturday morning in our car hunt, we walked way up to the race course because people park their cars there for sale - probably about a 40 minute walk. But there were either too much, too small or too old! So luckily the library is probably only 10-15 minutes away from home because I let Dustin take the car today. Oh and we'll have to post some pics of our ride once it's all cleaned up nice!
We've been doing so much walking over the last week and a bit. It's 20 minutes to the grocery store and we seem to go every other day almost. On Wednesday we walked into a couple employment agencies (they are very popular here) and one of them starting salivating when we said Dustin was a ticketed carpenter. So after filling out some forms and giving them his CV he is at work today! We had to get tools and some other work clothes for him. It was great because the guy he's working for gave him his contact at the hardware store so Dustin got all his basics for about $150 because the guy discounted everything he got. Not too bad considering tools here are easily a few times the price of tools at home. I think the cheapest hammer we found was about $30 but it was also not going to last. So to get the hammer he had at home was about $70! I think at home it would be $40-50 at most. That's one thing that we take for granted - having so many cheap things at our disposal at home. So Dustin also got a tool belt, a measuring tape, a utility knife and I think that's all to start. The cool thing is the employment agency also has some things he can borrow like rain gear and safety vests and a chalk line. He's building a retirement home about a ten minute drive from our place.
We have also spent the week trying to find a car. We've been wanting something big enough to travel around in afterwards so have been looking at station wagons, SUV's and minivans. But it was turning out that almost every ad we responded to, the people live in the other surrounding suburbs. So some of them weren't driving 30 minutes into town just to show us the car. It was starting to get frustrating because the bus service here is very limited and doesn't run on Sundays even. Then one that was actually close to us, the people changed their mind and aren't selling it for another couple months! We did find a fellow who was willing to come into the city to show us and we ended up buying a 1994 Nissan Terrano. It's kind of like an old version of the Pathfinder. We found a mobile mechanic to give it a look over and he found no big dramas so that was that. I will be tasked with cleaning it out but I want to get it insured before I drive it around much.
The car buying process is so simple here! The seller fills out a form and mails it saying he sold the car and we fill out a form and take it to a Post Shop (they are an extension of the Transport Agency for accepting forms and providing informations) saying we bought the car. Dustin didn't even have to be there and it costs $9.20 for the transfer fee! The car is registered until November so we won't have to renew that for a couple months and then because it's a diesel we need to pay additional road user fees on it. So you purchase up to 5000 kms and it works that you just add more when you use them up. Diesel is about 70 cents less per litre than petrol here so I think it's because it's not taxed as much, hence the road user fees. But I think it comes out about the same or less to run a diesel. But insurance isn't compulsory here on vehicles. I think we'll at least get third-party coverage though. So I have to get some quotes for that today.
Getting our tax numbers was also very simple, just go to the tax office and fill out a form. She took copies of our passports and sent it off for us. There was only one person ahead of us in line so there was no wait really. And the bank account was simple as well, just went to the bank and needed to show our passports. It's great here too because you can transfer amounts to anyone with their banking info so we pay rent right from our bank account to our landlord's. We paid first in cash so this week I can set up the payment. But even for buying a car or selling someone something you can always just transfer money electronically. Such a novel thing! And the fee to use another bank's ATM is only $1 here! So many great things about the banking here!
Oh I also got a library card too! We've been spending heaps of time at the library because there's free wireless here. Turns out that they chrage a small fee to take our DVDs, CDs or some of the newer books. But I'm not sure what city taxes are like so maybe they are fairly cheap and thus the user fees for those items. Still probably cheaper than a movie rental shop.
Now that we have a car we can explore the area further! Maybe we'll even surf this weekend if it looks good out! We're onto day 3 of straight sunshine which has been lovely! We'd been seeing a lot of rain up until then. We didn't go to the rugby game on Friday though because it was chilly and a bit rainy out. The stadium has covered seating but is open so hopefully it'll be nicer out for the next one.
I have been looking for work too but so far there hasn't been lots of jobs posted. I am still doing work online for organizing-guru Krista Green so I hope to keep that up and I might not need another job here. But I kind of want to work just to meet people and get a feel for the culture more.
Speaking of which, I will wrap this up so I can go home and have lunch and get down to some work. Hopefully we'll be a bit more snap-happy now that we can explore so there might be more photos coming soon. We walked down to the port the other night just to check out new spots and since we were still on foot we couldn't get too far. I am apparently getting quite old because my legs have been so sore from all this walking! We had probably been doing at least a couple hours a day in errands and exploring. On Saturday morning in our car hunt, we walked way up to the race course because people park their cars there for sale - probably about a 40 minute walk. But there were either too much, too small or too old! So luckily the library is probably only 10-15 minutes away from home because I let Dustin take the car today. Oh and we'll have to post some pics of our ride once it's all cleaned up nice!
Great to hear that things are going well.Can't wait to see pics of the new wheels and hopefully it isn't standard but of course it must be right hand drive?? Fun!!!
ReplyDeleteIf only our tax system was that efficient....
ReplyDelete