Jobs, cars, and bikes.

We've just realised that it's the end of the financial year here which may account for why it's so slow in the job market at the moment. When we came over in January there were tons of opportunities but I've hardly seen any this month. I'm just hoping it will pick up in July with the start of a new financial year and new budgets for IT departments.

In fact, the end of financial year is quite significant here as most of the shops have 'end of financial year sales' on.

Rach went for her first interview yesterday. She says it went well although in total they were interviewing 20 people for the role so she's not holding her breath. It would be great if she got it though as it's a marina and shipyard - she might be able to get us discounting mooring fees for our future yacht (I suppose I ought to get a job first - little details!).

We've also sussed out the car market. We extended our hire car for another two weeks hoping that I maybe able to start work so we can afford something better. We originally decided to budget £2k for a run-around until I started work. The plan being I'd get a good job with perhaps a company car, or we'd buy something decent, and Rach could use the run-around. The problem is you can't get anything here for £2k. Because of the climate, cars aren't prone to rust and other types of deterioration like they are in the UK so don't depreciate as much.

It looks like we're going to have to increase our budget as it doesn't make financial sense to extend the hire car much longer. The hire car is due back next Wednesday so we're going to look around at a few cars over the next few days.

We bought Lauren her first bike today. Pink, of course! Where we live now in a gated community is the perfect place for her to learn to ride. It has got stabilisers on for now (although it still didn't stop her from falling off and banging her knee). I'll give her a few days to get used to it with them on before I take them off and teach her to ride properly.