Here is a short summary of things we have been doing lately:

We have been fixing some minor stuff in our appartment after moving in.

We rented a van to go and buy some furniture.  We had our first experience with driving at the left side of the road: It does feel strange when you want to use your directional lights and the window wipers start moving.

We already ate Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Korean.  You can find alot of different types of asian food here and it is very cheap.

We have visited the Sydney opera house, went to a play in the Paddington Cellblock Theatre, visited the Sydney aquarium, went to Manly, to Watsons Bay, Bronte beach and Cronulla.

We had our first Belgian guest on visit in our appartment.  Joren will be backpacking in Australia the next year.  His trip started in Sydney where he bought a car.  He will continue his trip in the direction of the Australian outback towards Alice Springs

The goods we shipped here finally arrived so as of now we are able to cook ourself. Until recently we went eating out every day since we shipped all our kitching stuff here so we didn’t have to buy everything we already have again .

We went to inform to take our first surf lessons, but the classes of that day were already full. So we still have to wait a bit before we can share some experience about that.

Home-work travel takes 35 minutes door to door during the peak hours for me.  I have a direct bus connection leaving in front of the door and arriving 100 meters from my work.

Joelle found a job as a marketing assistant.  Travel to work takes here 45 minutes door to door.

Some new pics are available over here

Next to working, I have been constantly looking for, and visiting appartments during the last 2 weeks . Last week I applied for an appartment, and it was assigned to me, out of a total of more than 20 applications.  Indeed, finding something to rent is a little more difficult over here than in Belgium.  There is much more demand than there is offered, so that means not only that it is diffcult to find an appartment, you also have to pay a nice price for it

Yesterday I moved in to the appartment and unpacked the stuff I took with me on the plane.  Since the stuff we shipped by boat is only arriving on the 4th of september in Sydney, our appartment is still quite empty until now.  Saturday will be a busy day again for visiting shops to buy stuff like cleaning equipment and all sorts of other things I still need.  Next monday Joelle also arrives in Sydney so as of then we can buy all the rest that we are still missing.

The first day I tried to complete as much of the formailities as I could: I went to the department of immigration to evidence my visa and have the proper label added in my passport. Afterwards I applied for my Australian tax number. Next to that I went to all of the different banks to inform about their different accounts, and after comparing, I opened a transfer and savings account. I also went to buy some food, because the evening when I all shops were already closed.

Today before noon I went visiting 3 different appartments. One of them was very nice but still it had quite some disadvantages, so we won’t apply yet for these. In the afternoon I went to the eastern beaches: Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte, Clovely and Coogie. Afterwards I went to back to the center and went watching the rugby game Australia – New Zealand in a pub in the old part of the city: The Rocks.

Check out some of the pictures from the first 2 days:

Sydney	Eastern beaches

Those who want to follow what we are doing Down Under can bookmark one of the following URL’s:

Travel blog URL: http://www.voipsec.eu/?cat=11

Travel blog RSS feed: http://www.voipsec.eu/?feed=rss2&cat=11

Facebook: A new topic on this blog should normally automatically appear on facebook if you are in mine or Joëlle’s friends list.

If you want to know what’s to see in and around Sydney, check out the following youtube movies. Be warned that the first 3 have a little bit of a commercial flavor.

The Australian Travel Guide: Sydney

3 Minute Sydney & Surrounds

The Australian Travel Guide: Australia

Sydney In 24 Hours – A beachlover’s guide

Yesterday evening around 20.30h I arrived in my temporary service appartment. It’s a nice appartment with an oven, microwave, dish washer, fridge, washing machine, driying machine, big flatscreen tv and all kitchenware included. I’m on the 47th floor of the building so on the terrace I have a quite nice view over a part of the city.

The trip with Qantas from Brussels to Sydney went smoothly. For my transfer in Londen there were no cue’s at the security checks or transfer busses, and in Singapore I had time to exit the plane to go to the taxfree area to buy some power adapter convertors. I’m also happy with the second stop: now the flight from London to Singapore was about 12 hours, and Singapore to Sydney about 6 hours. I don’t know if I would have liked it if this was a direct flight from 18 hours non stop. About the Qantas airplanes, there you have alot of leg space. Every passenger also has a personal tv where you can play on demand movies and tv episodes with a very large range of choices (100+).

After arriving in Sydney, I was also happy that all my luggage arrived at the destination. Afterwards the customs service in Sydney also went quite smoothly. The only problem I experienced during the trip was that the taxi driver dropped me off at the wrong hotel. Luckely the hotel I was supposed to be dropped at was in the same street, so I didn’t have to walk too far with my 4 bags.

After I unpacked I went to check out the closest area’s in the surroundings of my accomodation, being China Town and Darling Harbour.

Tomorrow I will go to the bank to exchange money and inform about opening a bank account. Then I will go and do some food shopping. After this I will try to take a tour with the Sydney Explorer bus around the city to explore the different suburbs to see where it would be nice for renting an appartment for the rest of our stay.

Yesterday I received some good news from the immigration team of the company I work for: The visa application for myself and my girlfriend to work in Australia for the period of 2 years are approved!

This means that our adventure can go on as was originally planned: From august 2008 we will move to Sydney, Australia!

How it all started

My interest to work abroad already came when I was doing my masters degree in Sweden. In first instance I wanted to start in Sweden after finishing my masters studies, but employment opportunities in the IT/IT Security sector were not that promising at the time I was graduating in 2005.

After I started working at Ernst & Young in Belgium, my interests for working abroad returned on a seminar in Alicanté in Spain with colleagues from other countries somewhere in September 2007. There I talked with somebody from Portugal who had been working for the Sydney office in Australia for the period of 2 years. Back in Belgium I also heard some other very positive stories when talking with someone who had been studying in Sydney. Even my girlfriend was telling some positive stories about Australia.

After doing some research on the web about Australia and more specific about Sydney, I started investigating the possibilities for arranging an internal transfer within my company with the Sydney office. Having obtained contact details about various persons over there, I started informing to see if there was a position free for an IT Security job, and luckily enough, there was!

Multiple interviews later, I received a job offer from the Ernst & Young Sydney office. I then started informing about the possibilities within Ernst & Young for working out this fantastic opportunity. Since Ernst & Young is a big international company, there appeared to be multiple possibilities available for establishing international transfers between countries all offering different kind of advantages. I chose to make a transfer for the limited period of 2 years (which can be extended up to 4 years). This means that both for going there and for coming back the shipment of personal goods and flights are covered by the company. I can also ship a container with 1000kg of personal stuff. The only disadvantage is that it is shipped by boat, so on average it will take up to 60 days to arrive. The first 2 weeks of our residence are payed by my company. In this timeframe I will have to arrange housing for the rest of our stay. Another advantage me and my partner have during the period we will live in Australia is that we will have the Expat status, meaning that I will have some tax advantages.

Planning

Our planning for the next days/weeks:

Thursday 24 July 2008: the movement company will come home to take all our stuff to ship with a container

Saturday 26 July 2008: Farewell drink

Wednesday 30 July 2008: Flight Wouter to Sydney

Sunday 24 August 2008: Flight Joëlle to Sydney

Check this site from time to time to read some more about about our Australian adventures!