You know what that means? I can check several things off my list!

However, I have been forced to leave Contours gym, meaning there are a couple of goals I will need to change, as they are no longer viable. I’ll blog more about that a little later.

Sadly, I’m using mobile broadband to post this, as we are waiting for our phone and internet to be connected. It’s going to be hard. This stick is S L O W as all hell much of the time. Still, at least I had the foresight to buy the prepaid stick a few weeks ago.

Anyway, see you later. I’m off to organise my bedroom.

It’s a bit famous on the internet, for being on lists with funny business names. It’s a shame they hardly do rentals, because it would have been nice to tell people I paid my rent to Dick Payne.

Instead, Allyson and I were forced to settle for something marginally less funny.

They didn’t phail us, so we are happy with them.

Mangerton is such an ugly word. With other suburbs in Wollongong having names such as Fairy Meadow and Figtree, Mangerton is a pretty unappealing name for a place to live. But, really it’s a lovely area.

Which is just as well, since we’re moving there on the 12th of February.

Yes, we were offered the Mangerton house. And the Figtree place, too. But, they wanted us in there too soon.  We were pleased as punch today, after two harrowing inspections that turned out to be a waste of time, to be called by the real estate agent and told our application was accepted.

We are going to have a dishwasher. Is that not incredible?

It is to me… I detest washing the dishes, at least during summer where I am drenched with sweat by the end.

On the date we sign the lease, I will be able to tick off #69 on my 101 things list.

Best of all, we’re going to have more space… and a dining room. And we get to take a month to pack up rather than a week.

See, we signed a 6 month lease, which runs out on that date. The owner, who had just bought the home, used her First Home Buyer’s Grant, which has a catch: you must live in the home for 6 months in the first year of ownership, or else you lose the grant. Hence why we’re getting kicked out.

We are going to miss that place.

But it’s not all bad news. This time, we are going to move away from Warilla, to somewhere closer to Wollongong, so that if either of us get a job in Sydney it will take significantly less time to commute.

Looks like 2010 is going to be a year full of change. Just like last year was. And the year before. And… the year before that. Yes.

Anyway, we’ve spent the past 5 days or so going crazy with looking at places and submitting applications. The earliest response we’re going to get is this afternoon. If it’s good news that would be awesome. For that place, in Figtree, right near Westfield, would be a really good place to live.

We can also expect a response on Wednesday for a place in Mangerton. It is an average location, but the house itself is FAB. I’m talking dishwasher, lots of space, split level and quiet as. If we were to be offered both, we’d take Mangerton, even though it’s 2 bedroom and the other one is 3 bedroom. However, should we be offered Figtree but not Mangerton, we’d still be very pleased.

Those are our two top ones. There is another terrific one in Unanderra, but there were too many people at the inspection – it wouldn’t be likely we’d be offered it.

The units we looked at were all very so-so. There was one in Wollongong that had absolutely amazing ocean views and was only $260/week… but the apartment was filthy and not very big, and the doors were all unpainted and ugly. Also there wasn’t any storage space.

We have a bit of time, but obviously we don’t want the 17th to creep up on us, as time likes to do when I’m in a hurry.