It's Official.

Brizvegas, here we come!

Yes, it's now official: we are moving away from the beaches of Gold Coast for the greener pastures (?!) of Brisbane.

It was a hard choice, and a busy couple of weeks apartment hunting, but all signs are pointing to a move to the city (which, by the way, is less than 1 hour by car and 2 hours by public transit to Gold Coast). Adrian's soon to be starting an internship with superstar software company Red Hat, in Brisbane, and has got a few of his classes at the South Bank campus in the city, Dayle will soon be finishing up her job in Surfers, and we've got some cool new flatmates -- our old pals Megan & Justin from Melbourne -- who have made it back to Brisbane just in time for us to get a place together! Not to mention, we've been craving a little bit of that city buzz -- the cafes, the non-overpriced, non-tourist restaurants, the museums and art galleries, the markets, and all that good cultural stuff we've been feeling a lack of since moving into Surfers.

So while we'll miss being next to the beach, we'll definitely make it back there from time to time. We're looking forward to hanging out in the city's many parks, and strolling along the river, too. We're also making an effort to do all of our favourite Gold Coast things before our move... which we'll be sure to tell you all about. And if you ever feel like sending us a postcard (or Tim Horton's coffee!) just email us at thebigquestionmark[at]gmail.com and we'll be sure to send you our new address, pronto! Talk to you soon, xx D&A

A Little Freecycling Never Hurts

A very wise man once said to us: "If it's free, it's for me!" As long-term travellers who were constantly in flux of settling in and packing up, it's not a bad philosophy to live by-- and also not bad for two people returning to Toronto with minimal furnishings for their new and snazzy (and empty) apartment, either.

We moved into our new place near Trinity-Bellwoods Park in Toronto on Friday, taking as much of our old gear as we could find in our families' houses, as well as whatever discarded/left behind items we could scrounge from siblings, etc. After a weekend of crazy wedding fun (congrats, Paula and Sean!) we returned to our lovely apartment to begin the unpacking, the cleaning, and the organizing. And that's when we realized -- whoa-- that while we were well suited up with clothing, appliances, and kitchen supplies, we were almost completely furnitureless. And after checking out what was on offer in places like Sears, Ikea, and even Canadian Tire, we realized how much setting up a one-bedroom apartment might actually cost.

So we started searching a bit on Craigslist, a fantastic free classifieds website we're sure you all know about. It's the same site where we found our apartment; the same site where we've bought other people's old patio furniture, a couch, and random other things; it's also the same site on which we've subletted our apartments and sold our old stuff on as well. It's absolutely great, as was the Aussie/UK equivalent site Gumtree for us along the way. (Though these free classifieds sites aren't so great for the plight of the newspaper! But that's another story.)

But since we're all for recycling and don't really care all that much about having matching furniture, we found lots of goodies to be bought for great prices. And then we checked the "free" section on a whim (usually it's just "clean fill" and kittens on offer there) and found an ad titled "Free Furniture." Too good to be true?? Well, maybe. But definitely worth an email, we thought. Turned out the place with the free furniture was a short walk from our apartment-- and thanks to a lovely landlord, who was cleaning out the contents of one of his rental properties, we returned home with a great desk, bookshelf, table, and the perfect cupboard for the microwave. All for free. Hooray!

We're definitely not the only people into free stuff either. There's the Freecycle network, where people exchange used goods for free, keeping more useful items out of landfills. USA Today did a story on the culture of getting things for free; Freebie-Man (aka. Mike Essex) wrote a book on how to get anything for free after the success of his Blagman blog, in which companies would send him free items in return for him reviewing them online. Not to mention his book is downloadable for free as well! And we just stumbled upon FreeStuffToronto.com, a handy website where you can learn about free stuff in the city, as well as post listings for free things to help out others. Not a bad idea at all! Now back to unpacking... and possibly a little more perusing too.
Bonus! We found this in our free desk's drawer today...

New Homestead

It was a grueling 6 or so days, but we've finally come out with a great apartment in Little Portugal - Toronto. The weird thing is how we actually got the place.

We were both running around all over the city, Yonge/Eglinton (North), Cabbagetown (East), and Ossington/College (West). The problem for us was that we'd lived in central Toronto before, and though we loved it, we were looking for a new adventure -- as a way of extending our old adventure. Unfortunately the area that was supplying us with the most leads was the downtown core.

Before coming back, we'd heard about all the new trendy and up-and-coming places out in the west end. The problem was that anywhere in Toronto can turn from 'trendy' to 'sketchy' in a matter of a block -- plus we forgot all the major intersections of Toronto, so it was a geography/neighbourhood location lesson all together.

Anyways, back to the story:
"The place" was the first viewing we had on Thursday, and when we saw it we knew it was "The Place"; big rooms, new wood floors, big park down the street, quiet block, central to all trendy hotspots. Unfortunately, the landlord Louis told us that we were the second people to see it, and that the first viewer had put in a bid and was currently off to the ATM to withdraw money as a deposit.
We mentioned that we'd call back later, just in case the deal fell through.
Well the deal did fall through, and the jerk landlord for our second viewing of the day (around Davisville) never showed up! So we quickly slapped down a deposit and now the place is ours!
Oct 1st is the big day! More to come -- like a Google map or something.

Good Riddance (not really the Time of Our Life)

Call us nomads, if you will, but... WE'RE MOVING! (Yes, again.)

As you've probably already gathered, we've been itching to get out of our apartment. One day last week, we stopped by the noticeboard on our local bookshop to check out apartment ads, jotted down a few, and liked one of the ads enough to send the tenants a text (that's how ya do it in Australia- no worries!). A day or two later, we went to check the place out and it was AMAZING. As Adrian says, "There's moving up, and then there's a rocketship to the moon." Apparently the moon was within reach after all--just a few streets away from us, actually--and now we're moving into a spacious two-storey, carpeted house with a patio, two living rooms, a big kitchen, nice new furniture, a legitimate parking spot and more windows than we could ask for! Not to mention the girls living there right now are very cool-- two New Zealanders who loved having the house to themselves but are now trying to save up for a trip to Europe. There's just us and one other girl moving in (a far cry from 13 people, like our current place). It's a bit pricier, and it doesn't have internet (we'll still try to blog as much as we can!) but it's worlds better, and the peace of mind it will bring is worth every penny.

We started what we've thought was the big packing job today (Saturday) since we move Sunday morning, but we're now done way ahead of schedule, realizing we've gotten this whole pack-and-leave thing down to a fine art. So for our last 15 hours on Powell Lane, we'll just download everything imaginable, and write a short memoir of our time here. Please share with us in remembering...

Goodbye, brick wall in our room! We really will miss you for your artsy charm, despite the many times we've bashed our elbows on you when turning over in our sleep. Goodbye, free unlimited internet! You will be missed terribly. Goodbye, cute stray cats who live around our house... maybe we'll come back for a visit. Mrrow!

And good riddance to you, roommate who is still pissing on the bathroom floor! Good riddance to everyone who helps the flies breed faster by never bothering to take out the trash. Good riddance to the "visiting" mom-from-China who leaves our front door wide open at all hours of the day. Good riddance to the alcoholic Tasmanian who gets stupidly drunk and takes his car out for a spin late at night (and won't listen to reason about this dumbassery). Good riddance to an apartment where no one cares enough to keep it tidy, where there is no lounge to relax in, where there is a severe shortage of windows, where a parking lot serves as our 'backyard patio' (see photo above entitled: "Adrian Soaks Up Some Rays in the Garden"). And good riddance to a landlord who manipulates his tenants at any occasion, even proposing a bribe to get his handyman tenant to stay (ie. Adrian drops the bomb- we're leaving. Ernie: "Wait. Who's not happy? Is it you? I'll bet it's Dayle. Take her out for dinner... on my tab!" Adrian: "Uhhhhhh...I don't think you get it. We're leaving.")

OK, our place on Powell Lane wasn't the worst place in the world (a few of our flatmates were actually pretty awesome), but it sure took us back to our student housing days. It was an urgency to get out of the hostel, and the location which sold us, anyway. And our standards for a home have drastically lowered over the past year since living in a hostel, a tent, a van, a caravan, and a really rustic cottage. But we're ready to get comfy for the autumn and winter which are quickly approaching!

Check out our world on a Google map here!

And send us mail (pretty please) here:

139 Canning Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
Australia

... or just come visit us already-- Melbourne rocks! xoxoxo, The Big "?"