New job!

Today I feel important as I have accepted a job offer at the University of Sydney. It’s a research only position, and although I would have taught, I've only ever researched and it’s what motivates me, and I'm happy doing it. The other position I interviewed for was an odd situation - they have been trying to fill the position for a while (some say that it’s cursed - a lot has gone awry with the project), and begging all sorts of overqualified people to do it. They interviewed me for the position last Friday, but apparently the day before one of the overqualified people they have been begging to take the project on succumbed. So they didn't offer me the position, although they would have, and I'm not sad at all about it. I understand how people get themselves into a sticky situation in terms of pissing people off (these people do it regularly to everyone, although I am not pissed off at all, but everyone I've told is). I'm just glad that I get to accept the other good offer I had. So my new boss at the Uni has just had a baby girl - yesterday in fact, 9lbs (a bit overcooked - 8 days over, but this is typical for the first one I am told). I'm quite excited about starting and looking forward to a short holiday beforehand where I don't actually have to worry about which country I'll be living in, etc etc. Sure, I'll have to find a job again in a few years or if the money runs out (a genuine concern at Australian Universities), but the things that I am uncomfortable with often lead to my best growth and development, and spur me to do good things. And the things I'm happy with, well, they are super anyway. My boss is very nice (always a plus), the campus is just wonderful; there are great people at the uni, and lots of resources as far as I can tell.

So we had a place lined up to rent in leafy Earlwood (borderline Inner West suburb), which was as far out as we were happy to live and still reduce travel time out to the job I didn't get. So now we have to find another place to rent, somewhere closer in to Sydney (although its all pretty close, the traffic can be a bit nightmarish), and our investigations yesterday revealed that we will be spending a little bit more, or living in a apartment. I spent all day yesterday going from house to house, mostly cycling around bwteen suburbs on my new bike, which was a lot of fun actually, but quite hot. I saw some OK places, and have two more I'll look at today. There is one place we looked at the outside of leats night that looks great, and I'll call the agent today and hope to get a squiz inside.

I miss all my friends in the states. As I was riding around yesterday I kept seeing things that certain people would love and thought it was such a shame they were in the wrong country. Yes, I'm sad to say that the US is the wrong country.

Last night we went to Andrew's place for dinner, with his girlfriend Nicole (aka Spinky Nickers) and our friend Kev was there too. Drank too much wine. Well, it was the gin and tonic that did it. Anyway, it was bad as we got in the car and I said to Mikl how much had he drunk, and he said about 10 glasses of wine. So I said I'd drive, even though I was well pissed (drunk). We probably should come up with a better plan for the future. I did have the good sense to cram a whole bunch of vitamins in my gob before falling into a stupor though.