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Three Kapplemans in New York

On the road again... Hardly arrived on the new continent in his new life, Peter is sent right away to a business trip to Philadelphia/USA. Even before his first official working day on May 1st, once again Peter sits in an aircraft, this time to deal with 14 hours of time difference – and for the first time a flight over the date border. Thus: departure on Tuesday afternoon at 2 pm and arrival 23 hours later on Tuesday at 11 pm. But apart from the strenuous flight, Peter has a lot of fun. Philadelphia produces a lovely spring sunshine and nice colleagues. Even more, Peter's parents could not be stopped from driving all the way up from Florida to visiting "junior". And a week-end in New York (see picture) is included as well.

Sunrise

In our new home. Meanwhile, Claudia settles down in Sydney step by step. We still stay in Milsons Point, but we have decided for our future home: On May 10 we will move to Water Street in Birchgrove/Balmain, with waterviews on the Inner Harbour, and just next to the Balmain Sailing Club. As of the bed, we have the view shown in the adjascent picture – at 6:30 am at sunrise.

Our house is located in a complex of relatively similar houses which together build a nice ensemble. On the back side of the house, next to the entrance door, there is an extended pond. When the windows are open so that the noise of the sprinkling water enters our property, we are reminded of the river Alb in Karlsruhe. A swimming pool belongs as well to the complex. On the other hand, little things are basic: we don't have a bell; you need to knock on the door. And the mail boxes are located in a central place, not next to each entrance door.

Interim solutions. Due to our removal from Milsons Point into Water Street, we have to come over without some of the beloved "luxury goods" until the arrival of our household by the end of May: bed, table, chairs, washing machine, plates, cutlery, ... The new house has a built-in kitchen according to Australian standard including stove, microwave, and dish washer – but no fridge. Thus, we start assembling our survival kit at garage sales: a pan, a pot, a sharp knive, plates and bowls, cutlery and glasses. And while Peter is still in Philadelphia, Claudia – who doesn't like shopping – orders a fridge and a bed (our old one will become the guests' bed), and buys sheets, pillows, terrasse chairs (which are our only sitting facilities), bath mats, a salad bowl, ...

Our friends Eric and Sabine (www.eric-bine.de) have less starting-luck with their home search than we. Therefore, our guest room is occupied right by the first day in the new home – when Peter is back "home" to Australia for one day only. We tender them both asylum on our carpet where they put their sleeping bags. You might imagine a situation like on a camping site with a luxury bath room. The house is totally empty apart from the kitchen cupboards, and four people live in it of whom two depart for work in the mornings. Scarcity produces inventions: water is boiled in the microwave, and coffee is put off the list in favour of tea. Who ever has tried coffee-bags or instant coffee, understands why ;-)

Yard and ponts

It's getting cosy. On May 11 we fetch our fridge. The luxury increases, the feeling of camping remains. Every morning, Eric gets up at 6:00 am. Presumably in order to enjoy the dawning day from the balcony. Or is it because his arms ache after a night on the carpet?

After one week, Eric and Sabine have found a nice house and leave our guest room. They stay only three blocks away, and since they buy a BBQ at the second day, we are culinarically spoiled every once and a while in the evening ;-)

The next increase of living quality comes on May 23: We get a washing machine. Claudia has cris-crossed Sydney for three days, has gathered information about the washing machine-market, and can now quote a dozen different washing strategies. She has decided in favour of a second-hand model with stainless steel tub. If in the last two weeks we have tried to exchange our clothes as seldomly as possible (honi soit qui mal y pense), we now can wash as much as we like. And just one day later the next improvement: We get the telephone connection! Until now, we have used Australian mobile phones which were a good and necessary investment to speak to one another, to organise the hand-over of the keys, to plan the deliveries of bed and washing machine, and for hundreds of other little things. For phone calls to overseas, however, mobile phones are too expensive. From now on, we are connected to the communication network at least half ("half", since we still don't have Internet access).

First weekend activities. Equipped with bed, fridge, and washing machine, there is nothing left which urgently has to be purchased on the week-ends. Thus, we enjoy our first week-end off.

We shop over the fish market and buy fresh salmon and king prawns, sit in a street Café (hmmm, delicious coffee; hopefully our container with our coffee machine will soon arrive), walk through the Botanical Gardens and observe the more than 8000 flying foxes at their departure into the night shortly after sunset. We go to the Sydney beaches where we have Danish ice cream. In the evening, we do some laps in our swimming pool and then have a pumpkin, prawn, and rocket salad. In short: we really enjoy ourselves.