We've arrived!!

Hi all,

This is Ingrid and my blog, and is where we'll hopefully be keeping everyone up to date on what we're up to and where we are.

Firstly if you don't know what a blog is, well it's a kind of an web-based diary that we can write in, and you can read our latest posts by using the http://deanandingrid.blogspot.com link. Normally you'll have to visit the link every so often to see if we've posted anything new, but if you're using a clever bit of software called a blog reader it will automatically notify you.

There are thousands of blog readers out there - I use RSS Reader (http://www.rssreader.com) to read other peoples blogs, but you'll have to install onto your computer. Otherwise there's online blog readers like www.bloglines.com where you can arrange all the blogs that you like to read.

But failing that, or you don't want to be bothered, just remember to visit the http://deanandingrid.blogspot.com every now and then and see what we've been up to.

Now that we've got that clear, I thought I'd post a quick update about where we've been, where we're at, and where we're going.

Ing and I got into London last Sunday 8th May 2005, and have been staying with an old school friend of Ingrid called Jen. She's been an absolute life saver by allowing us to sleep on a foldout bed in her living room while we get our own life here setup.

We've signed a lease application for a lovely 2 bedroom waterfront unit in Canary Wharf, which is only 15minutes train ride from the centre of London (where I'll hopefully be working). Canary Wharf itself is very modern with lots of high-rise office blocks, clean footpaths and very modern shopping centers. A few people have commented that we won't be "...experiencing the London life..", but from what we've seen so far that includes older style apartments and a long tube ride to get anywhere.
Ing and I have agreed that an easy commute to work is worth a few extra pounds per month, and we're only 5 minutes walk from the Jubilie tube line if we need to get to the rest of London quickly, so we're happy :-)

I'm in the process of looking for work, and have been shortlisted for an awesome job with a Microsoft consultancy in "The City" [that's the name for the part of town where all the banks and insurance companies are located].
Failing that there are a lot of jobs going within an hours commute of London, so I'm confident that I'll be working soon.
Ingrid has been an absolute legend over the past week supporting me, and I love her for it. Now that I've almost got my stuff (training, job, bank account etc) organised, she's started to apply for professional roles now too. Hopefully within the next few weeks we'll both be working and earning £ pounds. I can tell you the Australian cash supply dwindles very quickly when you're paying AUS$6 for coffee and AUS$250 for warm winter jackets (that was on sale!).

Anyway, I've got lots to say but as usual time is running short. Hopefully either Ingrid or I will post to this site at least once or twice a week so there should be no shortage of stories from the land of the warm beer and the drizzling rain :-)

Love to all.

Deano