This post describes our first few weeks in Canberra, from arriving on 23 September 2016.
About 14 years ago we bought an apartment in an area of Canberra called the Kingston Foreshore, which was just starting to be developed for residential housing. We thought that it would be a good place to live when we eventually wanted to down-size. We rented out the apartment while continuing to live in our house in Curtin.
We sold our house in 2011, when we decided to extend our stay in China. Now we were returning to Canberra and planned to live in the apartment.
We arranged to stay with my sister and her husband for a few days before moving into our apartment. But there were several issues with the apartment, and we ended up staying with them for two weeks. Thank god for little sisters!!!
I found the next few weeks very stressful. Why? We had moved house many times in the past - always a bit stressful, but I had always coped without too much trouble - so what was different this time?
Well, looking back I think it was a combination of several things.
Probably the most important was the apartment itself. It now looked much smaller than we remembered - how on earth would we fit our stuff in here? And there were structural problems too, such as the two water leaks from above (in our living room wall and bedroom ceiling). They would need to be fixed before we could move in. The apartment also needed to be painted, and new carpet laid. Lots of headaches!
Secondly, reverse culture shock. We were coming back, after 6 years teaching English in China. Yes, we had returned often during the 6 years, but this was permanent. We both missed our simple, yet enjoyable, life in China.
Thirdly, the weather. Normally, Spring in Canberra (Sept/Oct/Nov) is usually nice and I was looking forward to clear blue skies, warm days. But Canberra had had a very wet winter, and that pattern continued. The weather was wet, cold and windy - didn't really improve until December. Also our car began playing up - the starter motor!
And I guess age may also have something to do with it. What seemed a minor issue 10 or 20 years ago now takes on greater significance.
These things all came together in a "perfect storm" = stress!! Vera handled the situation better than me. Somehow I expected the move to go seamlessly and quickly, but of course that doesn't happen in real life ... dealing with tradesmen ... everything takes time (and money).
Here are some photos of our apartment taken during the first few weeks in Canberra. I'll do another post focusing more on people.
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| Canberra is about 300km south-west of Sydney. In 1901 when the six self-governing colonies united and became the Commonwealth of Australia, both Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities, wanted to become the National Capital. Finally a compromise was reached: a new National Capital would be built at Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne. |
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| Canberra is sited within the Australian Capital Territory, which is Federal land, similar to the District of Columbia where Washington is located. I grew up in Cooma, a small town 110 km south of Canberra. When I finished school I came to Canberra (the big smoke for us) to work and study. |
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| This map shows the central area of Canberra. Our apartment is in the suburb of Kingston, in the lower-right corner of the map. We are about 200 meters from the East Basin of Lake Burley Griffin (named after Walter Burley Griffin, the American architect who did the initial design of Canberra). |
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| The Kingston Foreshore development. Our apartment is at the corner of Eyre Street and Printers Way, just to the right of the sign "Kingston shops" (bottom left). Ours was the first building on this site - we could see the lake then , but now built out by other apartment buildings. Still, it's a good central location. I like riding my bike around the lake, and Vera often goes walking along the lake shore. |
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| We stayed with Peter and Aniko Carey for the first two weeks. Dinner, from left: me, Richard Carey and his girlfriend Liz Paver, Peter Carey, Adrienne Carey, Aniko Carey (my sister), and Vera. |
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| On our first afternoon in Canberra we met two engineers, Bryan and Wade, at our apartment to discuss the water leaks. Looks can deceive - I was NOT happy. But to give them credit, they acted quickly and were able to stop the leaks. Apparently teh whole building has suffered from leaks - poor workmanship. |
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| This corner of the living room was affected by the water leak from the balcony of the apartment above us. Wade cut a hole in the wall to see the extent of the leak. The skirting board and carpet had to be replaced once the leak was fixed. |
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| The living room / kitchen of our apartment. It also has a foyer, 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry and a fairly large balcony (3m x 6m). Total living area is about 120 sq m, plus balcony. That's about 3 times the size of our apartment in Qingdao, but at first glance it seemed totally inadequate for all our things. |
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| The view from the living room out to the balcony. Our apartment is on the 4th level. We kinda look at the roofs of surrounding buildings. The trees you can see are just getting leaves as Spring arrives. It was actually very nice looking across a canopy of green once all the trees got their leaves. |
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| We couldn't impose on Aniko & Peter's hospitality any longer, so on Thursday 6 October 2016 Leader Removals picked up our effects from storage and delivered to our apartment. Well, not everything. It was obvious that we had far too much "stuff", so we rented a small unit (1.5m x 1.5m x 3m) at the same Storage company and left a few boxes there for later retrieval. |
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| The helpful lads from Leader Removals - they took just 3 hours to move all our stuff into our apartment. |
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| We moved most things into our living room, to be sorted out. Wow, boxes everywhere - hardly space to walk around. How the hell is all that going to fit into our small apartment? |
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| The view of our living room 4 days later. Much better. We just worked at it slowly and systematically. Actually, the balcony proved very useful - that's were many boxes ended up while we decided where to put things. It was only a temporary solution, but at least we could move around the living room! The Salvation Army (Salvos) have a depot not far away, and we took a lot of surplus stuff there. |
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| Our friend Noel Cock was a great help putting together cupboards and other storage units. I am pretty useless, while Noel is able to put his hand to almost anything. Vera and I became regular visitors at IKEA and Bunnings. |
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| 20 October 2016. Finally the water leaks were fixed, and the holes and skirting boards replaced/repaired. |
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| Stuart McDonald did a great job with re-plastering the holes in the wall and ceiling. |
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| 21 October 2016. Stuart returned the next day and used his sanding machine in preparation for painting. |
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| 1 November 2016. Once the plastering and painting were done, the next job was to lay new carpet. We moved everything from the living room onto the balcony. |
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| The carpet-layer at work. |
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| First the underlay, then the carpet. We surprised how much new paint and new carpet lifted the whole place. It was starting to feel much more like home. |
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| 4 November 2016. The end result - the living room looked great, as did the other rooms. We still had many boxes to unpack, and other things to organise (like getting a dining suite, etc), but we are certainly getting there. It has taken six weeks, and I have a much better feeling now about this apartment - I think living here will be OK. |
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The beginning in Canberra was tough, so many unexpected issues to deal with. Friends told me to slow down, and take it one day at a time. They said it takes months to really settle down in a new place. They were right - I was far too optimistic and impatient. Even now (March 2017) after being back 6 months, we still have a number things still to organise.
The apartment is getting there - still stuff to do, but most of the important things are in place. Vera has done a wonderful job. She was/is my rock. Just so practical and sensible.
And then, in the midst of all the mayhem, on 3 November 2016 I got a job offer to teach an intensive English course at the Australian National University (ANU College). But that's another story - and will be the subject of a separate post.
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The next post will cover some of the people/friends we connected with after our return to Canberra; and the post after that will be about teaching at ANU College.
Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.
Alex & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
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