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Tag: january

  • Link of Links – Living in Australia

    If you are new to Australia, planning on living in Australia, researching on Australia, been here for a while and just want to catch up on stuff, this might be a good place to look at. I intend to build this post as a repository of links for all things Australia

    My posts on Migration to Australia (apologies about this shameless promotion, however I know that a lot of friends have benefited from this brain dump about planning and then living in Australia)

    # 1 Reasons to move to Australia

    # 2 Getting a job in Australia

    # 3 Costs of Living in Australia

    And others here.

    Good Reads
    Popular Daily needs stores (You should definitely sign up for their weekly catalogues; Intelligent buying saves money)
    • Coles
    • Woolworths
    • Aldi – Is slightly cheaper that Coles or Woolies, and has specials every Wednesday.
    • Costco – A good option if you are keen on buying branded stuff in bulk. Their in-house brand Kirkland is available at competitive prices too. Excellent Dry fruits!
    Electronics
    • JB Hi-Fi
    • Harvey Norman
    • The Good Guys
    • 2nds World – Factory damaged or refurbished goods. Expect good deals, but keep looking every now and then. Update on 10.01.17 – I bought two new appliances from Second’s World at a good deal. One is a Run-out model of Electrolux 9Kg Front Load Washer, and a 2016 release Fisher & Paykel Bottom Mount Fridge. Realised that Seconds World has decent offers on most of the popular brands in Australia
    Home Improvement
    • Bunnings – THE go to place for everything about homes. Fixing stuff, changing globes (or bulbs like we call them in India), buy light or heavy toolkits, paint, accessories, and what not
    • Ikea – Fancy stuff at reasonable prices, however not something that will last long. You get what you pay for

    Popular Handyman websites

    Housing (Renting and otherwise)

    Public Transport

    Mobile and Home Broadband

    • Vodafone
    • Optus
    • Telstra
    • Amaysim
    • Aldi
    • Lebara
    • Lyca – A favourite with Indian community along with Lebara. Has one of the cheapest International calling rates
    • TPG – One of the cheapest home broadband services. However customer care is pathetic, and is completely dependent on Telstra technicians for technical support or home visits (which translates into a very high resolution time more often than now)
    • iiNet
    • Dodo
    Car and Home Insurance (NSW Focus)
    • NRMA – One of the most reliable (and expensive) insurance options. Other cheaper options are Progressive, Budget Direct etc.
    • iSelect – Helps you select from a wide range of options like Compare the Market
    • Compare the Market

  • Hello Sunny!

    Bringing happiness and joy to our little garden now 🙂 

  • This week’s forecast…

    Fruity with a lot of color!!!

  • Road Signs…

    Following all road signs could be injurious to health!!!

    Road Signs Sydney

  • First Bite!

    My son had his first solid food yesterday! We were wondering if he would know how to eat from the spoon, and pretend to chew and swallow! Pretty amazing how he took to it 🙂 Good boy!

  • Parenting…

    You know you are going crazy when you stop in the mall with a shopping cart, you start rocking it while singing your child’s favourite song!

  • …

    #iphone

  • Lazy Sunday

    An absolutely gorgeous Sunday yesterday… spent time staring at the sky under a tree with family! Perfect!

  • Investments…

    There is one thing that I haven’t yet understood is when is someone really upset or just saying it assertively here in Australia. Its confusing. There are times when in a meeting folks would be after each other’s lives, and right after the meeting are best friends forever! 🙂 I am learning for sure!

    Anyway.. So I was browsing for mattresses last week, and walked past this very interesting high volume conversation 🙂 I would call it conversation because it did seem that the volumes were high, and a bit of assertiveness to it, but this was more of an advise which was being passed on!

    February 21, 2008 - Daurala-1545A Harvey Norman employee (must be atleast 70, because he did look old, and not many 60+ plus folks look that old here), another one in his 50s, and a third one in his 20s were in the middle of a discussion. And the old man was saying out loud to the youngest one that “his generation does not invest well! This generation does not invest in themselves, but in more materialistic needs! How you look, how the world sees you, what you have, and so on.. Instead of how you would be when you are old, how your life would be when you have lived it enough“, and so on!

    I am not 100% of how true it is for the folks in their 20s, but I am sure that people at my age group (35-40) are lost at this concept of investing in ourselves! Not all of us, but most of us! We don’t eat well, we don’t work well! We are all after something, which will probably wouldn’t matter in the long run!

    Investing in peace, and happiness, and life comes way lower in our priorities! We tend to put an investment in the house, buying a car, and such before the things that matter!

    Can this change? May be! Maybe not…

  • Office Desk – POCO

    I was in the market to buy an office desk for myself for a while now… Though Gumtree is usually my go-to website to find things that I need and I don’t, this time around I couldn’t really make up my mind for a few reasons..

    1. I was not sure of the age of a lot of tables advertised on Gumtree
    2. I did not want plastic/metal or glass tables
    3. The wood tables were very expensive even on Gumtree
    4. I would need to rent a van to get one home, as most of these were not flatpacked anymore (Which is how new ones can be picked up), and hence additional cost for transport

    I finally decided to buy a new one from POCO… A wood finish Monte Office Desk, originally priced at $199, however available for $120 till stocks lasted, and I managed to get a further $25 off by signing up for the membership… So final price $95, which isn’t too bad considering all decent office desks on Gumtree were also in the same range.

    Another advantage with POCO was that they let you use their van for free, for the first one hour if your purchase does not fit into the car. Mine did, as it was flat packed, and I was able to fit it in by laying the rear seat flat… Getting the 48kg pack from my garage to the the 2nd floor apartment is a whole different story, but I managed it alone in about 15 minutes without killing myself or breaking any bones or rupturing any muscles in the process!

    The box stayed near the door because I was too lazy to open it and assemble (which I assumed would be amazingly simple) because I was told that all the tools required (basically a hex-key) are inside the packing! Also that this was hard wood and hence this heavy (NO its not wood, it just has a wood finish). I finally opened it a few days ago, and took out a 10 page manual with all the assembly instructions, a time estimate of 2 hours, and that I need a few tools like a measuring tape, a hammer, and a Philips screwdriver to assemble. Now thankfully I had everything but the hammer, but think of someone who would buy this based on the salesman’s comment! Its practically lying to the customer!

    I took out all the pieces, sorted them along with the screws etc, and got to work… About 2.5 hours later the desk was ready for use! First I messed up with some screws for the top, and also realised that I had put in the drawers wrong way during the final assembly. This is a good desk, and I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a new office or working desk 🙂

    However I would still want Poco to stick a note about an estimated assembly time, and the tools needed next to all display furniture in the showroom. Also the weight of boxes (I know they don’t do this because it would scare away customers, but still)

    Photos below (Oh and because I didn’t have a hammer handy, a plumbing wrench was used)

    Its usually good to separate out these things from the packet, and then pick up only what you need for a step while doing DIY projects

    Yup.. that Wrench did help 🙂
    My little helper giving it the final touches 🙂 and assembly instructions on top
    There we go! All set!