Tim Bull

Insatiably curious.

Resettleus

Hop to it. Task Rabbit, a San Francisco company

By Karina Rook I run errands for people for money. I am a TaskRabbit. TaskRabbit is an online service for freelancers who bid on completing tasks for people. Many of these tasks are in your local area, but some are virtual tasks too, with clients anywhere in the world. Anyone

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We call it Fall not Autumn

By Karina Rook The feeling of Fall is everywhere, oranges and browns, cute decorations on porches, harvest-time flags and pumpkin patches along the roadside. Most townships have a stall selling pumpkins for decorating for Fall, Thanksgiving and Halloween. As you drive down the main road you see they have erected

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Getting credit history in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook When you rent a house in the Silicon Valley, your application needs to include a credit report. This is a document issued by a credit agency that looks up your public records using your Social Security Number (SSN) and assesses your repayment history on bills, store cards

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Finding your community in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook There’s an interesting new social network called Nextdoor that recently launched in our area – it’s all about getting to know your neighbors. There are defined neighborhoods which you can join once you verify your address, and you can view a map of the area labeling

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Leaf blowers constantly buzzing

By Karina Rook Boy they love their leaf blowers in California – I hear them all day long. The Mexican gardeners look after everyone’s gardens in our neighborhood. I don’t how much they charge as our landlord pays for them to look after our place. They arrive in a

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The best toy ever... the Ezy Roller

By Karina Rook Thanks to a generous ‘bon voyage’ gift from my son’s grandparents, he bought the best toy ever soon after we arrived in California. The EzyRoller is like to a self-propelling go-kart which uses a swiveling leg motion to move forwards. It rolls beautifully down hills and

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Recycling and reusing made easy in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook I am pretty darn impressed. I had an SUV full to the top with furniture packaging and I managed to make sure none of it ended up in landfill. In Australia this would involve driving to the rubbish tip and recycling what was possible, and then having

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Rent Vs Buy in Silicon Valley

By Karina Rook This is a debate we’re having at the moment, well, more like a friendly discussion to help us decide what to do for housing here on the Peninsula. We arrived seven months ago when renting was the only logical choice due to time factors, financial factors

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Navigating the US medical system

By Karina Rook We have private health insurance in California through a salary package, so already I knew we would be ‘taken care of’. I learned this through watching years of Grey’s Anatomy on TV, where the poor un-insured people get slow medical help, if any. Before moving to

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I just want bread that isn't sweet

By Karina Rook Shopping for loaves of bread has been a very frustrating task due to the fact that most US bread has a sweet taste. Apparently this is because sugar/high fructose corn syrup is used as a preservative in the bread, rather than the chemical preservatives we are

Theme park skeletons

Theme park skeletons

Theme park skeletons

Belmont

Theme park skeletons

Theme park skeleton decorations

Theme park skeleton decorations

Theme park skeleton decorations

Belmont

Theme park skeleton decorations

Foam pit fun for Halloween

Foam pit fun for Halloween

Foam pit fun for Halloween

Belmont

Foam pit fun for Halloween

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The moving notebook lives on

By Karina Rook My faithful notebook that was so essential in helping me to get organized before we made the move proved to be very handy once we arrived in San Francisco. I just started using the last pages of the book to record research and lists, with topics like

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The joys of getting a work permit

As the spouse of an E3 visa holder, I am entitled to work in the USA, but I needed to get an EAD (Employment Authorization Document) issued before I could start earning any money. It all starts with the form, the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Pretty simple form in

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Tips for getting your Californian licence quickly

By Karina Rook Yep, it’s like the DMV office in The Simpsons that Pattie and Selma work at. It’s a weird environment where you feel out-of-place, you don’t know the rules and angry people shout at you. I have spent several hours at my local DMV office