What’s Up

You might have been wondering what’s going on with that settler Aleks and his wife Kate. Well, a lot.

A week ago our friends showed us the oceanic surf beach where we spent a lovely Saturday. My boogie board and I didn’t get out of water for at least 4 hours. Later, two and a half friends joined us and we all enjoyed a lovely conversation with a mellon, grapes and fresh pine-apple (that I cut right there on the beach). Wonderful day. If you wonder, the beach was Gunnamatta (Photos, Forecast).

Last month I was busy looking for a team to join locally, but haven’t found anything suitable yet. Some offices are inconveniently far and some looking for people with different skills (mainly Java which I don’t want to touch as a little kid who ate candy before dinner; my dinner is spoiled by Ruby). So I decided to take a break and keep my independent contractor chair warm for a little longer. These days however, I focus more on contributing to OSS and working with different projects just for the benefit of all Earthlings. During the last week I contributed a patch to Cucumber, worked days a nights on adapting Cucumber Rails generators to Rails 3, added a nice feature to pass custom tags into assets URL and path to Thoughtbot’s Paperclip, created and deployed Family Hut application for photo-sharing and discussions inside the family (yes, I know about Picasa, Flickr and alike which come all with their downsides; mainly in the form of pricing pages). As you can see, it was a very fun week and my life hasn’t stopped here at all. Quite to the contrary, I’m building up steam.

Also, I was thinking of starting another blog for purely coding topics on a different engine. Current best candidate is Enki but I haven’t reviewed it thoroughly enough. My main concerns with Wordpress are that (a) I still can’t make it show the source code beautifully, (b) I get a lot of spam, (c) I’m tired of PHP and (d) tired of WYSIWYG / plain HTML editor (where’s Textile or Markdown?).

That’s all, folks. If you have any comments / questions, welcome. I’ll let you know if I deploy another blog.

Coding news

Finally, I had some quality time with my laptop and got up to speed with recent developments in the Ruby / Rails world.

Many of you know how to use and do use several Ruby versions on the same machine, but for those who doesn’t, there are a couple of nice solutions. The first one is ruby_switcher and here’s a good post on how to install and use it. It’s really nice, easy to install and simple in use. The second (that I discovered) is RVM. It does all the same, but in a more organized and generalized way. The biggest advantage over the Ruby Switcher is that you can have multiple unconnected named Gem sets in every Ruby version. Say, you have several applications that you work on and to keep it all organized and to avoid Gem version collisions, you can use a named space for each of these projects. Very nice idea.

Last week I had an interview with one local agile team (you know I’m a freelancing type, but sometimes I feel we miss all the fun confining ourselves to home offices). The interview went well, in case you wonder, yet the office is inconveniently remote, so I back-pedaled a bit. During the meeting we accidentally taught one another a couple of tricks. I shared a thing or two about RSpec, and got some insights on HAML / SASS in return. It appears, there’s a project {less} which does what SASS does, but in a slightly different, more elegant fashion. It bases on top of the regular CSS and adds some cool new features, like variables, mix-ins, nested rules and operations. If you plan to use it, the first step would be the easiest. You grab your existing CSS files and start adding new features. It has a compiler to turn your files into legit CSS, and a plug-in that takes all the load for those who use Rails.

Yesterday I played with Rails 3 pre-release, but stumbled upon block after block. Partially, that’s because I used the all new Ruby 1.9.1, and partially because many plug-ins (especially for user authentication) still don’t work in Rails 3. Finally, I couldn’t make a single test run in Rails 3 + Ruby 1.9.1 combo due to TMail incompatibility with Ruby 1.9.1. Today I’m planning to try Ruby 1.8.7 and see how well that works. Rails 3 has so many great features and enhancements that it would be a shame to give up on them so quickly.

Until next time.

Our Toyota

Yee-hah, today we had our Toyota Yaris 5-door hatchback delivered! Here are just a couple of pictures of it in front of the house. (Click on the images to see a bigger version.)

Yokohama sport tires and the spare one from Dunlop. Dealers were awesome enough to replace old tires with this new set, even though they didn’t have to.

Here’s Kate behind the wheel.

And just another view from the front.

Love it!

By the way, the dealers were kind enough to replace the scratched mirror and paint up minor imperfections — everything on their own and free of charge. On top of that they filled the tank fully upon delivery. That’s what I call a New Year present! Thanks guys!

Updates on December 27

Christmas and Boxing Day went just fine. Yesterday we moved to our new house and purchased a ton of kitchen stuff (toaster, kettle, tableware …). Today new round is coming. We still need some essential furniture — a couple of bar stools, living room sofa, TV set table and a coffee table, folding chairs and a table for our veranda — don’t get me started.

On Thursday, we found a very nice place with quality and still affordable furniture (Snooze). Not only did we ordered a bed with all linen, but also the bedsides, a tallboy and a couple of stylish bedside lamps. Unfortunately they were able to deliver it in a week because of all the holidays, but after my explaining our situation with the move the manager generously offered a new queen-size luxury aerobed as a temporary solution free of charge. Now how’s that!?

In the house, we discovered that the window blinds aren’t yet installed. It’s Sunday today, so I’ll talk to our agent tomorrow. Here they fill the Condition Report on moving in to document all scratches, stains etc. If the condition is worse when we move out, the price of patching is subtracted from the bond (that’s usually one month’s payment being held by a third party).

Finally, we’ll start looking for a car next week. Originally we wanted something old and inexpensive, but slowly leaning towards newer models 2-3 year old or even brand new. Toyota Yaris 5-door hatchback, Mitsubishi Colt, Nissan Pulsar 5-door hatchback just to name a few. We need a compact (but not squashed), economical car for short-to-average distance trips. Since there’s no one around who could help inspecting older models, we aren’t sure we want to take risks purchasing them. Still considering options though …

OK folks, this is all news I had this morning. See you all soon!

First House

Just got the approval and signed all documents today to move into this great new house in Carrum, Melbourne. It’s 1 hour away (on Metro) from the City, but it doesn’t really matter since we don’t need to commute there regularly.

Inside the main living room. To the right is the dinning area, and right ahead is a fully equipped kitchen. Further into the house, is the master bedroom with the wardrobe and bathroom. The bathroom is a gem on its own with a shower cabin with spa (feet and body), radio and phone. No excuse for not taking that call, hah.

Upstairs is the guests room / study (deeper into the house) with the same bathroom and a free area for a dressing room or anything else. Above the kitchen is a retreat with a cool roof window. Not sure how to use this space yet, but will find it a good application.

That’s the outside view. Behind the back is the stylish steel fence with the door opened remotely and a video-phone. In the far left corner is the storage building and a gray water 2000 liter tank for toilets flushing.

The house is quipped with 4 split systems for greater comfort and energy saving (no need to make all the open spaces warm if you need just bedroom now). The only thing is that it comes unfurnished, so everything that you see in the pictures isn’t there today. We’ve purchased a decent bed with all bells and whistles today and plan some further shopping tomorrow. Hope to get nice fridge, washing machine, living room sofa and table etc. Plenty of expenses!

Oh yes, and it’s all 5 minutes away from the beautiful white sand beach.

Moved

Yay! We’ve finally moved. I know it’s been a while since my last update and a while since the arrival (Dec 14), but believe me, we were busy. I’ll be posting interesting bits of info to this blog a bit more often after we resolve the question with the house to rent and the broadband. I promise. At the moment, we are taking pictures and making notes for the future posts.

Australia is awesome!

Driving licenses

Finally, after the month and a half of sheer hell with early rising and spending daylight hours at school I can cross out my next to-do list item — “Get the driving licenses”. Done. Period.

It was  fun, useful and everything, but boy, I’m exhausted. Kate can speak for herself, but it’s been a long time since I felt the relief like the one when I got my shiny new plastic license through a tiny window in a wall yesterday night.

The show must go on, and we decided to take extra practical driving classes to stay in good shape until the landing on the other side. There’s nothing worse than forgetting all that hardly earned. I believe it’s a good thing. It isn’t expensive, fun and streams more and more confidence into us each time.

Love driving!

Moving progress update

It looks like a great time for some updates. All looks good so far. We spend almost all our time at driving school. Answering a reasonable question why on Earth would we need Ukrainian driving licenses if we move to Australia, it is somewhat complicated, but long story short, it would give us serious benefits on the other side of the pond. Instead of walking the license acquisition road from the Learner permit to the Full permit through years of probation, we cut a couple of corners and get through much faster. Final tests are scheduled on December 3, so we have plenty of time to become professional drivers.

By the way, we already have our plane tickets. On December 12 we fly to Moscow to stay there through the night at our friends’ and continue our journey the next day. From Moscow we fly to Abu-Dhabi on December 13 and then to Melbourne — our final destination. The journey takes about 30 hours, which is our personal record so far.

In Melbourne we plan to stay at Formule 1 Hotel on (97-103 Elizabeth Street). Just today Kate’s booked 12 days there online for a very reasonable price given the location – CBD – and room configuration.

There’s plenty of work to do ahead in Melbourne, but we hope to find a nice apartment relatively fast and move there within those two weeks. Our vacation will last for a couple of months. We plan to spend it exploring the area and making ourselves comfortable with our new Home.

Visa Granted

The wait is finally over. We now have our visas officially GRANTED!

It was a long and nerve-racking road, but now it’s over. I’m flying to Moscow soon to stamp our visas into passports and we start packing. While packing we plan on getting our driving licenses to simplify the process of acquiring them in AU afterwards. It’s much easier this way.

Visa progress update

It’s time for another update on our Australian Visa progress. It’s been a long way and we managed to pass through the last phase after which we just have to passively wait for the final verdict.

As you know from my previous post, we had our medical examinations and police clearance pending. Police clearance for both of us was ready last Friday without any hitches, while medical exams that we scheduled on September 1 were quite a trip.

To start with, Kate got sick 3 weeks before the tests, swallowed antibiotics, yogurts, and a ton of other pills days after days for a week and a half. Now can you imagine that right after she recovered, I got started with the same thing, and that’s a week and a half away from final tests that we can’t reschedule. (28 short days for everything.) I started on heavier antibiotics and cured myself, but killed my microflora which turned my tongue acid yellow by heavy dysbacteriosis. No way a doctor could say I’m in good shape should I open my mouth. But that was far from the only problem as it appeared.

We booked the checks for 11:45 AM in Kiev, and had to fly there on the first plane from Simferopol at 7:15 AM. To make that happen, we needed to get up at 2 AM and head out at 4 AM. Thanks to Kate’s parents, who picked us and drove to the airport, we made it in time, yet only to find our flight delayed until 10:40 AM. That’s three and a half hours, for Christ sakes! It meant we are going to miss all the fun and there’s nothing else we can do. Air company refused to look for any options and said that the only way is to wait.

Kate negotiated with the medical center and managed to carve out 45 minutes more, and thanks to the taxi driver, who stayed in the 130 km/hr lane all the way from the airport to the city center, we made it there in time and took all the necessary tests in the next 3 hours. All checks were impressively thorough and now it’s clear why it’s the only authorized center in the whole country that is trusted by Australian, American and Canadian immigration offices. It’s well equipped and top notch in every respect.

So, we passed the tests almost perfectly. There were slight deviations from the norm I guess. My blood tests and some Kate’s tests were still pending when we left. They promised to call should there be something wrong, but no one ever came back to us, so we happily assume it’s all chocolate.

Now we have to wait again. The results will be forwarded to the Health Operations Centre (Sydney) for the review. They will contact our officer to let him make the final decision. I personally don’t see a single reason why wouldn’t they grant a visa, but let’s wait and see. There’s no fixed time frame for this phase, but usually it takes 7 to 40 days. In the meantime the work is boiling around us, so we aren’t bored.