Racism, top drawer spelling, stupid questions, visas, myths and thumbs up friends

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Ok so I know it's been a while, the reason for this is because nothing has really changed and we haven't really done anything too exciting. Some random occurances worthy of note.......I had to remove a kiwi guy who went a bit nuts and pointed a carving knife at me, turns out I'm racist towards Kiwi's, I think he meant Xenophobic but he is just a thick Kiwi, what does he know. I wasn't aware of this side of my character before, so thanks Jeremy for pointing that one out.
I just typed Xenphobic into google to check the spelling, I was expecting the old sarcastic italics "didn't you mean", but obviously I got it right first time......
So the mental Kiwi got his marching orders, not before he's insulted the entire hostel, called us all racists, and threatened to kill me.....twice. As he was led away by the police carying his worldly goods in a cardboard box (and he called us losers!!!) he looked to his left and stared us out, but continued walking, I've never been more desperate to see someone trip over as I was at that moment, sadly it didn't happen.

We get asked some really stupid questions, while we are behind reception, I'm sure people think we are like tourist information or something. Some of my personal favourites being:

Q.How much will it cost me to call an Australian landline on my mobile
A. Depends who your provider is, what plan you are on and how long you talk for

Q. Where is the nearest church and what time does the evening mass start
A. You really have asked the wrong person there mate.

Q. Whats the quickest way to get to Brisbane
A. By plane
Q. No The Brisbane, the bar
A. By Taxi

I sometimes think that people are just too lazy to think for themselves.

Visa update....
Ok so Sunny the owner of the hostel has said he wants to sponsor our visa application, speeding it up to 2 weeks-6 months processing time. Problem is there are certain criteria for employer sponsors and it's looking a bit sketchy. Good news for us is the $2575 application charge is waived as we are already deemed to have paid if we transfer our application from our existing state sponsored visa, only problem is, if this employer sponsored application is declined, then we are right back where we started. Crystal clear?? good! So I've come up with a plan, the process for employer sponsored visas is thus:
Step one, employer nominates a position and a person and applies to be a sponsor.
Step two, Nominated person applies for the visa.
Step 3 visa granted.
Normally step 1 and 2 are done simultaneously (yeah got that one right first time as well....) but I'm going to get Sunny to nominate me first, because this is the sketchy part, if all goes well, then I'll apply and switch visa categorys, it may take a little longer, but it's worth it to hedge out bets a little bit.

Australian living
So we've been here over 3 months now, and I'm sorry to say I have to bust a few myths about Australia.

The phrase "all year round Mediterranean ( three out of three!!) climate" is bollocks. This one, I was prepared for. It has rained on average at least 2 days a week since we arrived, however this is winter, and I'm still happy, cos that's the same as a British summer.

The work/life balance in Australia is much better....... again complete fallacy. Most of the guys in the hostel work for building contractors, and the girls work in offices and call centres, they all work thier socks off, I did wonder if this was just a backpacker thing or not, but from what I've heard guys who work in the mines do 12 hour days 7 days for 2-3 weeks a a time, and employers take the piss out of employee's in much the same way as they do in England, unless you are any kind of health profssional, which as they are so short of them in Australia, they would literally kiss your arse to get you to go to work for them, to the point where i considered, for visa purposes only you understand, training as a male nurse, get that image out of your heads right now........
On a slightly related note, 90%!o(MISSING)f perth train drivers phoned in sick last Friday, I don't know what the issue was, but fair play brothers, for a show of solidarity of that magnitude. The roads were a right bugger though.........

Which brings me to myth number 3, Perth has an amazing public transport system....not last Friday they didn't

Today Verlie had a telephone arguement and then an in person arguement with the manager of another hostel who after we'd told him twice not to do it, persists in posting adverts on our notice board, looking for cleaners to work for free accomodation, thus reducing the number of paying guests in our hostel, a bit cheeky to say the least. Verlie called him today and tore him off a strip, for doing it again. I hung around because I knew he'd come round and have a go, because he's asian and they wont let a woman have the last word in any situation. I waited ages for him, eventually I went for a shower, and what do you know, he turned up....Verlie sent him away with a flea in his ear. I'll be passing his hostel on the way to the bank tommorow, so I might pop in, just to be sociable you understand.......

Croc van update,
Yes we've sold the Croc van, we paid $3600 for it with 4 months registration on it. We sold it for $3000 with no rego on it. Renewal and transfer of ownership of vehicles from another state (in this case Nothern Teritory) is a massive headache, fortunately the 2 french backpackers who bought the Croc van were less clued up than we were when we originally bought it. We had a massive result selling it with no rego for $3000, happy days.

Another exciting development is we've made friends with people outiside of the hostel! yes, against all odds, we have friends who don't stay at the Ozi Inn, Howie and Elise run the Underground backackers up the road! we bumped into them in Old Shanghai (asian food court) the other week and they invited us out to lunch/drinks this weekend just gone, so we spent an amazing afternoon at Hillarys Harbour, the food and company were awesome, it was so good to be away from the hostel for a few hours.....
Speaking of which we have booked our first holiday! We'll be spending our first wedding anniversary staying At this resort in Bali from 15th until 22nd October, neither of us can wait!

Tommorow night, we are out with some friends that we know from the Pom's in Perth forum, who like us have just arrived here, and are going through the same visa hoops as us, so it will be good to compre notes, we are going to The Naked Fig it looks awesome......

On a final note, I am aware that I now say awesome a lot, I do it to be ironic, I definately have not picked up any kind of speech defects from Australians, Gawd Blimey Guvnor, strike a light, Knees up muvva brawn etc etc..........


We'll be bringing you more as soon as we have it.......

M&V
XX

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Comments

[Pat Matson]

Thanks for the update
Miss you both and think of you often. The resort looks fantastic, will be thinking of you. Keep in touch. Pat and Bob