Australia Day

Well I managed to survive my first Australia day weekend without being dunked into a pool of crocodiles or being fed to the sharks. For those that don't know what Australia Day is, it's a day to celebrate the landing of Captain Cook on this green and pleasant land although now it's more to do with celebrating everything Australian especially barbys, booze and backyard cricket.

We went to to one barby on Sunday where I proved that english backyard cricket can hold its own on the international stage with a fabulous display of catching, but another barby yesterday with more of the 3B's and a pool, complete with volleyball net, has left me feeling a tad jaded today.

Bel has broken our work drought (although there seems to be no cake drought) and starts tomorrow in a meatpacker warehouse and I finish my forklift truck course on Saturday so hopefully we can get more work till we head off to Tasmania in March.

Reality sets in

I finally bit the bullet this week and registered with centrelink as a jobseeker. My initial 'appointment' with an employment services agency was today and I optimistically expected to actually have an appointment with someone ...but all I got was a form thrust in my direction from which the receptionist will upload my details onto a jobseekers website, one that I had already registered with online. Hmm... confidence inspiring? I think not! I now have to wait 2 weeks to receive my registration paperwork before I can go in to centrelink to see if I am able to claim anything. Good thing we're not completely out of money yet. I wonder how people with higher living expenses cope in this situation.

Work is proving to be harder to come by than we expected. After a solid week of hassling various employment agencies for temp work in Brisbane, we still both have zero job prospects. Also, the main agency in Stanthorpe, where we hope to be working from Feb to May, has 250 job seekers on their books with no current work and grim reports of incoming harvest crops due to hailstorms and colder than usual weather. I'm guessing a lot of it is related to time of year and economic climate but I really did believe that finding some basic admin/cleaning/labour/anything job would be easy in any circumstance. Oh well, it's only a temporary setback, I'm sure!

Bel :0)

One giant step

Finally we have a moment to rest from our first great sojourn of our new life and a chance to update everyone on our adventures so far.

We are now the proud owners of a van/motorhome which is a 1985 Toaster Coaster with dual fuel (petrol & gas) 2.4litre engine with a professional fit out inside which includes fridge, microwave, reverse cycle aircon, gas cooker, a very large bed plus lots of storage and a kitchen sink. It has 2 80watt solar panels which charge a deep cell battery, running the fridge and the 12volt lights and we also have a 240 volt connection for when we are in caravan parks or like right now parked outside a friend’s house. It also has two awnings for shade.
Our little Jim weighs in at just under 4 tonnes and drives like a dream except up big hills where he slows to a snails pace to the annoyance of all those behind us.




















We saw some really bad vans before Jim came along; completely illogical fit outs, oodles of rust, smoky motors, ...so we were hugely relieved to find him, and near to Brisbane. We had begun contemplating travelling to various towns in other parts of the country, at great expense, to look at other vans that seemed to fit the bill, as nothing local seemed to be good enough.

Unable to contain our excitement, we took Jim out for a test run the day after we bought him, driving from Brisbane to Melbourne and back again. Along the way we met up with friends who have been fruit picking for the last 2 years for some valuable advice and encouragement, got a trusted mechanic friend to check Jim over and alleviate a few little worries, kitted him out from stuff in storage and mum’s surplus bits and bobs and went to an entheogenic symposium.

After a short sojurn in Brisbane doing all those things you have to do when changing countries - drivers' licences, medicare, tax file number, insurance, roadside assistance, changes of name and address, bank accounts.. blardy blah... we set off south again for the christmas/new year trip.

We are now back in Brisbane waiting for the stuff we sent over from the UK in October to be released by customs before we head to Stanthorpe for our first harvest job. We don't actually have a job lined up yet but have been reassured that pester power goes a long way with employment agencies, so we will keep hassling until they get sick of us turning up every day!

I know once we start working, it's going to be tough for the first while as we get used to it, but it's a necessary hurdle and i'll be much fitter (and hopefully lighter) for it, so i'm trying not to worry about it too much. Also, the transition from two healthy incomes to zero has been interesting but useful to help us see how much money you can piss up the wall without really noticing.

Now that we've finally set up a blog, hopefully the updates won't be too few and far between but it's all going to be dependent on a number of factors so it will no doubt be sporadic. In the meantime, any suggestions for a slogan to replace the cheezier than thou 'just coasting' on the front of Jim will be warmly received.