Friday September 6th 2002 at 14:15 - Naomi and Edwin sign the lease
contract for their new house! It is a two bedroom apartment in
South-Cronulla on the first floor. Bedroom windows to the east
(where the beach is) and livingroom windows to the north (where the
sun is). Here are some pictures:
Cronulla is a suburb on a isthymus (dutch: schier-eiland), a piece
of land connected to the mainland but for the rest surrounded by
water, in Southern Sydney.
The is the driveway, the apartment still has the "For lease" ads
on the windows (but not for long). The garage on the left is ours.
Why doesn't the person living below us not have two windows to the
beach?
Naomi is carrying a doona (dutch: dekbed). We have finally a bed big
enough for for the 190 centimeters tall dutchman. If you turn around
you have a view to the sea.
The grass is Shelly Park, directly connected to the sea. Palm trees
and pine trees surround the park. Electricity-poles in streets are
common in Australia (scary but true). Yes, the blue above the street
and below the sky is the sea.
The living room has access to a balcony (big enough for a chair,
but not big enough to walk past the chair) and the fence on the
balcony is not high enough to prevent people from falling. The
previous owner left us some flowerpots, so our balcony will be green
(and yellow and brown if we don't take care of them).
The bathroom has a bath with a anti-morning-grumpiness shower
curtain. Of course the showerhead is not high enough for the dutchman,
maybe we can replace it. If I say not high enough: In Australia
showerheads are stuck at a certain height on the wall, while in the
Netherlands the height can be varied (very handy for tall people).
One of the bedrooms has builtin shelves. At the corner you see the
former ad boards. It's ours! OURS!
This is the view to the east in the bedroom. Waking up early in the
morning with the sound of the waves, what more do you want?
The kitchen, with free stove (dutch: fornuis). It's a electrical
and they're awful to use. Normally when you turn off the heat-source
on a stove I expect the heat-source to go away, so the water stops
boiling, the soup stops overflowing out of the pan, the meat will
stop getting burned etc. But not with an electrical stove, if you
turn off the heat the element will stay warm. So your water keeps
boiling, the soup keeps overflowing and the meat will get more black
than it already was. The horror. And the bad news is that everybody
in Australia has an electric stove....
The is the driveway, the apartment still has the "For lease" ads
on the windows (but not for long). The garage on the left is ours.
Why doesn't the person living below us not have two windows to the
beach?
The grass is Shelly Park, directly connected to the sea. Palm trees
and pine trees surround the park. Electricity-poles in streets are
common in Australia (scary but true). Yes, the blue above the street
and below the sky is the sea.
The living room has access to a balcony (big enough for a chair,
but not big enough to walk past the chair) and the fence on the
balcony is not high enough to prevent people from falling. The
previous owner left us some flowerpots, so our balcony will be green
(and yellow and brown if we don't take care of them).
The bathroom has a bath with a anti-morning-grumpiness shower
curtain. Of course the showerhead is not high enough for the dutchman,
maybe we can replace it. If I say not high enough: In Australia
showerheads are stuck at a certain height on the wall, while in the
Netherlands the height can be varied (very handy for tall people).
One of the bedrooms has builtin shelves. At the corner you see the
former ad boards. It's ours! OURS!
This is the view to the east in the bedroom. Waking up early in the
morning with the sound of the waves, what more do you want?
The kitchen, with free stove (dutch: fornuis). It's a electrical
and they're awful to use. Normally when you turn off the heat-source
on a stove I expect the heat-source to go away, so the water stops
boiling, the soup stops overflowing out of the pan, the meat will
stop getting burned etc. But not with an electrical stove, if you
turn off the heat the element will stay warm. So your water keeps
boiling, the soup keeps overflowing and the meat will get more black
than it already was. The horror. And the bad news is that everybody
in Australia has an electric stove....