I'm sitting here watching Today on channel 9. They're discussing whether dressing children up in superhero costumes makes them more violent. And I thought Japanese TV was vapid, self-absorbed and tedious.
When I called the real estate agent from yesterday's fiasco, she told me that she'd be there today, at the same time. So today, like suckers, we turned up at the designated time.
We were there. Guess who wasn't?
Slack.
In addition to being shocked by the prices here in Sydney, we're also unimpressed with the calibre of some of the real estate agents here in Sin City.
Our first weekend, we had a look at a place in Woolloomooloo. The agent was late, and when we rang the agency, were told that the time listed was a typo, and that we would have to wait another 40 minutes. When the agent finally turned up, we mistook her for a resident, since she was so casually dressed. In fact, a more cynical person might suggest that these were the clothes that she wore out on the Friday night. The fact that she unlocked the door, announced she was feeling unwell and would be in her car gave credence to the suspicion that she'd gone out, written herself off and was now trying to sleep off the hangover. Slack.
We turned up at the next open house about 10 minutes early. 15 minutes after the listed time, and with 5 people waiting to inspect, it became apparent that the agent was a no-show. Ringing the agency, we were told that we'd missed it - the agent had been and gone. Nice try, but when told that we had been there early, the agency changed their excuse - it'd be open tomorrow instead. Slack.
Today, it was pouring with rain, so we waited for yet another open house in the car. No agent. We rang, and the excuse was that the agent had turned up, hadn't seen anyone, and had returned to the office. Slack.
I can understand that the rental market might not be as glamourous and lucrative at the moment, but on each occasion, the agency has been quite clearly caught out lying. If that's the calibre of real estate agent here, how the hell do these people manage to get employed?
After a few weeks of upheaval, we've arrived in to Sydney last Thursday, after driving up from Melbourne (10 hours!).
Being back in Australia isn't quite so weird this time, as it was when we came back for two weeks in March. The only reason could possibly be that we acclimitised by spending a week or two in Melbourne and Hobart, up to now the only cities we've lived in for substantial amounts of time, rather than coming straight to Sydney, which is just plain weird in comparison. It's said that you're either a Sydney person or a Melbourne person; we're Melbourne people.
We're staying with Kathleen's brother in Surry Hills, about 15 minutes' walk from the Sydney CBD, but have to find a place of our own, as well as jobs, sometime soon.
