Yvonne and I are setting well in our new place. We are close to almost everything. Toowong is only 25 min walk away, and UQ (University of Queensland) is just 10 min away. Grocery shopping can be done in Toowong, which we mostly prefer, because there is more selection, and we can also shop for other things not available closer to home. If we only want, say, eggs, butter, milk, bread, we can buy it from the grocery store just 10 min from home, but it has less selection, so we only visit a few times for quick and small things.

Now that we have an address and a phone, the next step for any geek is to get — the Internet! We decided to setup with aaNet with their $39/mth 40GiB Download package. Australian internet is more expensive that what we are used to in Canada or USA. They have major download restrictions (40GiB in my case) and you are penalised for going over your limit. aaNet charges just $3/GiB over the limit (charged per MiB, $0.003/MiB over limit, 3 tenths of one cent). This is not a bad rate, considering some ISPs charge $0.15/MiB, which is $150.00/GiB over limit!

We’ve also signup with with phone services with them. We get $10 off the internet, plus 50% discount on connection charge (flag fall fee) on all outgoing calls. We were paying $0.35/call, aaNet charges just $0.15/call.

I met a young Indian student while waiting for the bus. He was very kind, and a little shy about his English abilities. He asked me what I thought of his English, and I told him that I understood everything he was telling me.

He also mentioned a cheaper place near where I am currently staying, about $100/week, which saves me $80/week or $346/mth. Is it better? Is it clean, with ample space? How many people will I be sharing it with? Answers yet aquired, but we are getting there.