Awww, come on

Remember in my last post, how I was all boasting about being recharged and refreshed and ready to get back into my research. Well, I think I jinxed myself. My first week back post-holidays went like this:

Day 1:
Unpacking, laundry, groceries. Asleep by 7:30pm, exhausted by the flight.

Day 2: Awake at 5am (because crossing the international date line will do that to you)
I was looking forward to my first bike ride in three weeks. I packed up my basket full of the books and papers I had barely cracked open during holidays, dropped Gus off at school, and started off to Uni. It was hard going, and I attributed this to my previous three weeks of sloth and gluttony. On my way up the first hill though, another cyclist passed me (one of those hard-core, lycra-wearing ones, typical in Sydney) and yelled at me "Your back tire is flat". I looked back and sure enough, it was really low. So, I stopped at the nearest gas station to put some air in the tire, except that when I unscrewed the cap, any remaining air came out and the little air thingy retreated into the tire. Aaaargh! I tried to get it back out, but it was beyond my abilities. Also, since this was my third flat in my back tire over the past couple of months, I figured it was time to bring it into the bike shop to get looked at (my bike skills being limited to pumping air into the tires).

I ended up walking the remaining 5km to the nearest bike shop and left it with the bike guy, who - between the aussie accent, aussie terminology and bike terminology - was totally incomprehensible, but I did manage to figure out that I could pick it up after lunch. Afterwards, I walked to the nearest bank machine to pick up some cash, only to type in my pin wrong enough times that the machine wouldn't let me try anymore. I then walked to the bank to sort out my pin and get some money. By that time, the day was pretty much a write-off.

Day 3: Awake at 5:00am
This started out as a good day. My bike was back in working order (something was wrong with the rims, maybe? ...again, I couldn't really understand what the guy was on about). I met with my thesis advisors, and got some feedback for some upcoming ethics review boards I have to submit an application to. All was good. I was back on track.

When I got home, I picked up our mail from our neighbour and found a letter from the property manager indicating that the owner of our apartment was planning to move back into our apartment and that we had 4 weeks to vacate. The letter had been sent two weeks before, meaning we now had two weeks to find a new place to live. Yikes!

Day 4: Awake at 4:30am (because stress and crossing the international date line will do that to you)
Instead of working on ethics submissions, as I had planned, I spent the day begging our property manager for an extra two weeks to vacate (which we got, thank god!), and looking for a new place to live. In order to stay on budget, it seems we may need to make a choice between picking another small apartment within a few blocks of the beach (as we are now), or getting a slightly bigger and better apartment a little farther away - 1-1.5 km from the beach. It will be a tough decision, because I want both: a bigger place that is close to the beach.

Day 5: Awake at 6:30am...yay, I'm finally back to a normal sleeping pattern.
We looked at four places this morning, one of which we all quite liked, then off to a bbq, cause that's what you do in Sydney. Things are looking up. Fingers are crossed!