Thursday 30 June 2011

And now I've moved into my flat

Today I had a trip to Curtin to sort out my medicard which required presentation of my  passport and paper copy of my visa to the Medicare officer.  As the visa is electronically attached to the passport, it was worthwhile having printed the paper copy as this was needed by the Medicare officer. Because I had the hard copy, this was dealt with quickly and easily.  Had I not had it, I think the process would have been more fraught.

It was raining by the time I returned on the bus.  The bus fares for student concessions appear very generous.  It is a zonal charging system but the concessions appear to be c25% of the full fare.  This includes the smartrider discount (pre-pay card).  I think one zone costs about 85c (c50p)!  Much cheaper than where I come from. 

Two sides of the same room.

About midday I got a cab to take me and my luggage to my new flat.  It is immaculately presented and very clean.  I checked the inventory and discovered I had more utensils than listed, so added them to the list.  By this time it was about 4pm.  I wondered about walking to the local parade of shops, but it was threatening rain so I decided to go into Perth on the 30 bus - this is the opposite direction to Curtin.  I wanted to see how long it took and to identify where the bus station was in relation to the train station.  Journey time 35 minutes all around the houses, and bus/railstations next to each other.  But I keep forgetting it is winter here, so by the time I had done some food shopping it was nearly dark.  This meant I needed to follow the route on the bus map carefully, so I could get off at the right stop - all the roads looked similar in the dark.  But I found it ok, and remembered the 15 minute walk back to the flat perfectly well. 

I'm glad I'm home now.  Tired.  Cup of tea in front of the weather forecast and bed.  And there is a gale warning for tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment