Just like that! We are one month old here in “The Land Down Under”. We were forced to get acclimated quickly with a lot of things while also eagerly learning new stuff which for me, includes creating a web site or in this case, a blog site, this blog site. Welcome to Ang Batang Gala’s first blog post.
Heads-up: Lots of buttons and navigation menus are in a work in-progress status. I just want to publish this 1st blog fitting to our 1st month experience keeping the memories as fresh as I could remember.
I can still remember how quickly things turned out in our last few days in the Philippines before our flight. There were no despedidas, just some opportunistic get together and meet-up with friends and family. Most of our time were spent cleaning up the house and preparing for the things to bring but it is impossible to pack your entire life in a 40kg luggage as they say.
Mikelle has the most things we had to bring – clothes, blankets, toys, milks, medicines, etc. – all of which consumed two balikbayan boxes excluding the stroller (pram) and the carry on. Abby and I just brought the basics we need and even forgot a lot of small things.
Nothing could have prepared us for a movie-like scene when we were parting our goodbyes in the airport terminal. Hugs, kisses and tighter hugs were all excess baggages we are willing to pay for.
We were hours early for check-in but we’re already the 20th on the line. There was a minor hiccup when we’re paying for the additional luggages using our credit card but everything else went smoothly.
We can’t get anymore excited for Mikelle’s 1st plane ride experience. We had a game plan as well for his safety especially during take-off. We brought sugar-free lollipops to keep him busy while also reducing pressure in the ears during take off. A bottle of milk is also ready just in case the lollipop won’t work. We’re glad that both worked well.
This whole Australia opportunity is a blessing by itself but didn’t I mention that the blessings and surprises just keeps on coming?
1st surprise: Our seats were moved to where a bassinet is. Mikelle fit well and was comfortable sleeping in it, allowing Abby and I to get a good sleep during the flight.
The whole 8-hour flight up to the landing was seamless. It took a while for us to complete our luggages since we were not aware that the boxes will come out on a different carousel.
We headed out to the exit as soon as we completed our baggages and here comes
2nd surprise: Abby’s colleague was waiving at us and ready to pick us up. It made our travel much comfortable going to Riz’s house, Abby’s friend, who offered one of their room for us to stay in while looking for a rental house. This offer is an advance blessing even before we settled our flight going to AU.
We wasted no time searching for a rental house for which I think would be a good blog on its own to share my experiences and my learnings.
3rd surprise: What are the odds of having the house right in front of Riz’s house becomes available for lease while we are right there searching for a rental house? Yes, just across the street, the renter of the house is moving to their newly bought house. We were also allowed by the owners to take a look around while they are cleaning up so we had a head start on the inspection even before it went live on-line for lease.
Searching and getting approval for house lease is not easy so we believe that it is blessing #4 when in exactly a week, we received a lease approval e-mail from the real state and that we can move in another week after.
With this happening, we were table to focus on planning how to get the basics we need in the house. Pinoy AU Sydney FB page and the Pinoys in it are our blessing #5. I joined Pinoy AU Sydney group to learn quickly about the lifestyle here in Sydney. Since we are “testing the waters” here in AU, it would be impractical to get brand new stuff for the house especially the appliances so I posted a query regarding cheap items for sale or even for free to be picked-up. Pinoys are truly amazing in helping proven with a lot of PMs/DMs i received offering their used appliances, sofa, kitchenwares and a lot more.
We’re still overwhelmed until now thinking that we got a fridge, washing machine, microwave oven and kitchenwares and even delivered in our house for free, all courtesy of Christopher who’s doing this for a long time now, helping out people who’s starting their AU journey. Shout out to you bro. Keep it up!
Even winter jackets and ironing board came courtesy of Angie and Wilson who after minutes of chit chatting, we found out to be a common colleague of Abby from the company she’s currently in.
Sofa, TV, lampshade and more kitchenwares came in the following day courtesy of Ep and Anna.
We also got a brand new knife set and cooking utensils from our good friend Lyndsey. All of these combined with the other stuff we bought from Woolies, K-mart and Target completed our daily needs.
And oh, I haven’t mentioned John, a Pinoy Uber driver who offered that we get back to pick up Abby and Mikelle after we drop off our groceries in the house since his car doesn’t have a booster (child car seat) — for free. His generosity and inspiring stories along the way will serve as an inspiration for us to be successful here in AU.
We can never repay these good-hearted people who helped us to settle for our first month, paying it forward is the only certain way to keep this good deeds on-going.
We are so thankful to God for all the blessings and for making all the people as an instrument to help us settle in. As the song goes, God moves in mysterious ways.
Looking forward for more AU adventure and see you on the upcoming blogs.
