Mundane Details

By Popular Request:


Since our arrival, we have been staying in a hotel located directly adjacent to Kevin’s new job, which couldn’t be more convenient. He started work last Monday, and the initial reports are very favorable. He is working for a New Zealand based company called Fusion5, with about 70 employees worldwide. The Sydney office currently has 8 consultants (counting Kevin) and they all sit around one giant table in the same room, thus promoting camaraderie and discouraging slacking. Everyone has been very friendly and eager to help us get established. Kevin is excited about being back at work and is looking forward to learning some new systems.

I have been in contact with several recruiters and am exploring my employment prospects. My best shot at making decent money lies in sales, but I confess my enthusiasm for that line of work is rather bruised from my recent failure. There is a lot of basic and applied research in the area, with a considerable demand for molecular biologists. I am considering returning to the lab bench to rebuild my confidence (and simply to get used to going to work on a daily basis again), but I am also nervous about how much I have forgotten since leaving the lab. Aussies have a reputation for being slackers, so I hold out hope that by relative measures, I may actually be considered a productive and capable employee.

We got the keys to our new apartment on Saturday and found some unattractive but very comfortable furniture at a second hand store. We lashed out and bought a new mattress, because there is something decidedly yucky about buying a used bed (which may be silly, since you are sleeping on a used bed every time you stay in a hotel, but I try not to dwell on that). I bought some kitchenware from the Salvation Army Store, and the rest of the apartment will be furnished slowly over time, mostly from discarded items set curbside for council pick-up (yesterday we scored a frying pan, some picture frames, and a “U.S. Mail Box”, which both pleased me and made me a touch homesick.

Overall impressions of the move and of our host country have been favorable, but I would be lying if I said it has been all wine and roses (though at A$2 a bottle, there has been quite a bit of wine). I have had a few fits of depression and sadness, mostly fueled by financial issues and the ridiculousness of buying items of which I already own two or more and which are collecting dust several thousand miles away. But also, I feel some pangs of loneliness and isolation, which are both alleviated and enhanced by the pace of modern communications. In some ways, I’m no farther away than I was in Shingletown, but at night, the Southern Cross and the absence of the Man in the Moon remind me of the fact that I am on the other side of the planet from those I love.

Never mind the fact that I had to get up at 5 am this morning to watch the playoffs…