The moving (Part 2)

Now that I had an empty apartment to myself, first step was to get some basic furniture there. It’s very common here to use Facebook Marketplace for getting second-hand furniture and appliances. There is also a local version of Tori.fi (Finnish marketplace site) here called Gumtree. I browsed both sites even before getting the apartment but of course I started really use them after it. The problem with getting an apartment from a tall apartment buildings or skyscraper is the fact that you must book a time slot for moving in advance. That is because you can lock one of the elevators exclusively for moving the furniture in. In my apartment building the usual time slot is two hours and here the one elevator car used for that purpose has always protection in the walls. When I called the reception to make the booking, my original idea was to use Saturday for moving since I didn’t want to use a vacation day and yearly one paid moving day I used when arriving to the country.

The reception responded that there is only one 30 minutes time slot available for Saturday. I knew it would be impossible to get my furniture from several locations and get them up to my apartment in that time. Also, the reception said that the building policy is very strict about moving any furniture outside of that booked time. Especially Sundays and public holidays were forbidden with hefty fine looming. I had no choice but to try to organize the moving to the next Monday. I just had to ensure I have somebody to help me carry the stuff on Monday. Luckily my Airbnb host was very helpful and promised to help the first part of the day. In addition, my colleague could come and help me in the afternoon. I got the last time slot for Monday for the elevator and I also managed to arrange the pickup for the furniture I found. It wasn’t so easy as it was normal workday after all. One of the sellers who was at work was even kind enough to leave the bed I was buying in her garage and just said that leave the cash on the shelf there.

In the end the good about having the move on Monday is that I could spend the weekend by going shopping and cleaning the apartment. When renting an apartment here it’s customed for the real estate agency to hand over a condition report where they have gone through the whole apartment and checking any flaws. Then the tenant must go through the report and either agree the statements or make comments on issues not mentioned. Even if this is smallish apartment, it took me a while to go through many pages of the report and take pictures of all the flaws. In addition to all the furniture, all the household items had to be bought as I started from scratch. The mentioned shopping meant a trip to a local Ikea.

Unfurnished view out of the living room / kitchen

Then came Monday and the first thing I had to do, is go and pickup the van I rented for the furniture pickups. Yes, it was time to boldly go and drive on the wrong side of the road (here they call it the other side). Also, the steering wheel is on the other side here, so I had to ensure I get a van with automatic gearbox. It’s enough work to concentrate on the traffic so I leave gear shifting to the car. When I got in the van, I realised that I can’t get all the stuff in at once, which meant I had to move the first things in the apartment and get one extra run during the two hours’ time slot. First pickup run went smoothly as my Airbnb host even had a hand truck that he borrowed. My colleague came to help in the afternoon when the time slot had started and after quickly emptied the van to my apartment, we headed to get the final two items. When we were standing in the afternoon rush hour, it was clear that we won’t make it before the time slot ends. I called the reception and luckily, they flexed half an hour extra time for me. After we got them carried in, I went with the van for a second Ikea shopping. The problem with the van was that most indoor car parks have 2,1 meters height limit and I wasn’t sure that was this model little over or little less than that. It was a problem in the mall where the Ikea was and in my apartment buildings garage. Every apartment has one car park in the building, but I didn’t want to risk the rental van if it hits the bar telling the height limit. I finally found a street parking a few hundred meters away as my returning of the car was the next morning.

In the end, I survived the driving experience here. I got no dents in the car and only a few honks from other cars, so I guess I did well. I figured that the hardest part with it was to estimate the left side of the van and to stay in my lane. After all the perspective is a little different looking from the right side of the car.

Now after almost two weeks of living here, I can say I found a good place. Also, the furniture I found for the most parts are very nice. The place is quiet, and the air condition is very efficient to get the apartment cool when needed. For the near future I’ll also work from home considering the corona issue. It’s not yet bad here, since the official number now is about 280 cases in whole Australia and 57 in this state. The public transportation here is crowded often so when it starts to spread here, those are one likely place to get it. That’s it for now and stay safe out there.