This is Banksy. He is a yabbie. We looked after him whilst Emma and Adrian were on holidays. He's got spunk.
Tuesday 11 December 2007
Our invertebrate friends
This is Banksy. He is a yabbie. We looked after him whilst Emma and Adrian were on holidays. He's got spunk.
Thursday 6 December 2007
One step forward...
...two steps backward.
I'm currently 'between jobs' and so, my new found leisure time allows me the chance to give you all an update on where we are now. It's been really frustrating for me, employment wise, up here. I've been given about 6 completely inappropriate jobs for someone of my background and qualifications, and all of the appropriate jobs I have applied for, I'm still waiting to hear back about them. It's driving me crazy.
Brisbane's a weird town. Beautiful ferns and palms burst through the pavement and line the train tracks. I think the vigor of tropical growth is reflected in the economy up here. The resources boom has made this town fat with wealth. The average wage seems higher up here, and it's a full employment town if you're looking in the right sector (ie: if you happen to want to be a corporate receptionist). There's fantastic shopping up here. Designer outlets, a big fat DFO near the airport, and the monster that is the kilometre long stretch of mall at Chermside. Pity I'm broke, I could really sign up for some of the material possessions around here. But poverty keeps me honest, and I've thought it a better idea to stay at home and practice yoga and play facebook than to wander about with no money in a consumer paradise. I'm waiting for the phone to ring, but it never seems to ring. I call people and remind them to call me, but no one ever calls me. It's so frustrating. I reckon if I hadn't been practicing the yoga I would have spazzed out and killed someone by now.
Since arriving here we have celebrated my little cousin Jack's birthday and Tom's cousin Sue's birthday. Both of these events have allowed us to catch up with the sprawling clans that we both have up here. It is particularly pleasant for me, and I don't have any contact with my family usually, and so, bonds are forged, similarities noticed, differences acknowledged, smiles shared.
The nature of happiness isn't always that life is kind to you and it then bubbles up from within. It's sometimes that you force a smile and then pretending to be happy becomes happiness.
On the Japan front: we have put in applications for ECC and JET for 2008. We have an interview arranged for ECC in February. We haven't heard back from JET yet, but it shouldn't be too long before we'll know if we've been successful in getting through to the interview round.
Brisbane will never be a long term home for me. The weather is too awful. Humid, humid, humid, damp, mouldy, damp, not to mention hot. My wardrobe consists of long slacks, woolen suits, fluffy coats, thick socks, cardigans, hats, gloves and scarves. I don't have any clothes for this kind of heat! I have had to buy a couple of cheap cotton bits to adapt - but I don't think I will ever feel at home in a pair of shorts and a boob tube. I just wasn't brought up that way!
And so, like most new comers in a foreign land, and believe me, Brisbane is foreign - we have been swinging violently between love and hate with our new home.
I love the animals - so big and they seem to be everywhere. I hate the animals - cockroaches and cane toads!
I love the weather - booming lightning storms and gentle evenings. I hate the weather - too hot! Too wet!
I love the family life - it's nice to get to know these cousins and uncles. I hate the family life - I'm just not used to living with oldies.
I love it. I hate it. I don't know. It's not forever, I keep telling myself, and sometimes I think that's all that keeps me from going completely bananas. Hopefully my ship comes in and I'll get some work that is appropriate for me, and I'll get a new perspective on the place.
I miss my friends a lot - Laurel, Rachel, Andrew, Pip, Maddy, Michelle, David... amongst so many others. I haven't met any people from Brisbane yet. I've only hung out with some ex-pats like Monte and Emma. It would be good to be able to get out a bit more and meet some new people, but I haven't seen anyone who looks like my kind of fun yet. Everyone looks a bit white bread to me, so far. Maybe I need to find a bigger paddling pool to find some more fun people? Well, we'll see. We're going to be house sitting this weekend in near the city, so we might actually get the opportunity to get out and about a bit.
One step forward... hopefully one of many...
I'm currently 'between jobs' and so, my new found leisure time allows me the chance to give you all an update on where we are now. It's been really frustrating for me, employment wise, up here. I've been given about 6 completely inappropriate jobs for someone of my background and qualifications, and all of the appropriate jobs I have applied for, I'm still waiting to hear back about them. It's driving me crazy.
Brisbane's a weird town. Beautiful ferns and palms burst through the pavement and line the train tracks. I think the vigor of tropical growth is reflected in the economy up here. The resources boom has made this town fat with wealth. The average wage seems higher up here, and it's a full employment town if you're looking in the right sector (ie: if you happen to want to be a corporate receptionist). There's fantastic shopping up here. Designer outlets, a big fat DFO near the airport, and the monster that is the kilometre long stretch of mall at Chermside. Pity I'm broke, I could really sign up for some of the material possessions around here. But poverty keeps me honest, and I've thought it a better idea to stay at home and practice yoga and play facebook than to wander about with no money in a consumer paradise. I'm waiting for the phone to ring, but it never seems to ring. I call people and remind them to call me, but no one ever calls me. It's so frustrating. I reckon if I hadn't been practicing the yoga I would have spazzed out and killed someone by now.
Since arriving here we have celebrated my little cousin Jack's birthday and Tom's cousin Sue's birthday. Both of these events have allowed us to catch up with the sprawling clans that we both have up here. It is particularly pleasant for me, and I don't have any contact with my family usually, and so, bonds are forged, similarities noticed, differences acknowledged, smiles shared.
The nature of happiness isn't always that life is kind to you and it then bubbles up from within. It's sometimes that you force a smile and then pretending to be happy becomes happiness.
On the Japan front: we have put in applications for ECC and JET for 2008. We have an interview arranged for ECC in February. We haven't heard back from JET yet, but it shouldn't be too long before we'll know if we've been successful in getting through to the interview round.
Brisbane will never be a long term home for me. The weather is too awful. Humid, humid, humid, damp, mouldy, damp, not to mention hot. My wardrobe consists of long slacks, woolen suits, fluffy coats, thick socks, cardigans, hats, gloves and scarves. I don't have any clothes for this kind of heat! I have had to buy a couple of cheap cotton bits to adapt - but I don't think I will ever feel at home in a pair of shorts and a boob tube. I just wasn't brought up that way!
And so, like most new comers in a foreign land, and believe me, Brisbane is foreign - we have been swinging violently between love and hate with our new home.
I love the animals - so big and they seem to be everywhere. I hate the animals - cockroaches and cane toads!
I love the weather - booming lightning storms and gentle evenings. I hate the weather - too hot! Too wet!
I love the family life - it's nice to get to know these cousins and uncles. I hate the family life - I'm just not used to living with oldies.
I love it. I hate it. I don't know. It's not forever, I keep telling myself, and sometimes I think that's all that keeps me from going completely bananas. Hopefully my ship comes in and I'll get some work that is appropriate for me, and I'll get a new perspective on the place.
I miss my friends a lot - Laurel, Rachel, Andrew, Pip, Maddy, Michelle, David... amongst so many others. I haven't met any people from Brisbane yet. I've only hung out with some ex-pats like Monte and Emma. It would be good to be able to get out a bit more and meet some new people, but I haven't seen anyone who looks like my kind of fun yet. Everyone looks a bit white bread to me, so far. Maybe I need to find a bigger paddling pool to find some more fun people? Well, we'll see. We're going to be house sitting this weekend in near the city, so we might actually get the opportunity to get out and about a bit.
One step forward... hopefully one of many...
Saturday 24 November 2007
Tuesday 30 October 2007
Sunday 21 October 2007
Death and Taxes
So - update number one.
The plan has already changed, and somehow Japan feels further away than ever.
When this blog was opened, we were quite comfortable with our plan to return to Japan with the English conversation school that I had previously worked with, NOVA Corporation. When I had gone with NOVA before, I had been recruited through the Melbourne sub-contractor office, AACE - who charge a $500 administraiton fee per person that no other branch of NOVA recruitment charges. So we thought, rather than spend our $500 on an administration fee, we would spend it coming up to Brisbane and be recruited through a different office. Airfares from Queensland to Japan are substantially cheaper, and so, we booked our tickets to Brisbane and thought that we would be exiting Australia pretty promptly after that.
But then there were some major changes that no one could have foreseen.
NOVA has been quite famous in Japan for it's dodgy business practices. The joke was that NO-VA stands for NO VAcations - and they had the lowest number of paid holidays for their international teaching staff of any of the big English conversation schools. They have been sued many times by ex-employees for unfair dismissals, and they had a 'non-association' policy that bought them several appearances in human rights courts in Japan. They recently lost a case regarding their refund practices - previously NOVA had a 'no refunds' policy - which although it was unpopular, meant that the company made a profit whether the student attended their lessons or not. Due to NOVA losing this case, it meant that billions of yen worth of refunds were required to be paid out. NOVA's share price plumetted 16% in one day, and reports of teachers and branch staff not being paid on time began to creep across the internet. According to The Japan Times (an English language Japanese newspaper) staff have been paid late for the last 2 months - the first stage in the downward spiral that has marked the end of many big English teaching companies in Japan. The trend is to pull resources out of staffing to meet operational costs and try to keep the business afloat long enough for the company to be bought out, re-financed, and saved from bankruptcy. More often than not the company goes belly-up before a buyer can be found. NOVA have 5,000 foreign language teachers working for them, all recruited from overseas. If NOVA collapses, there will be a flood of unqualified English speakers looking for jobs to make enough money to get them home.
Our plans to go to Japan had been largely based on the idea that we wanted a stable job. We've been surviving on casual and contract employment for the last 2-3 years and it's left us stressed out and exhausted. We've had no leave so we've had bugger all time off. Every day we don't work is a day we don't get paid, and it's difficult to relax and enjoy a holiday when you know that you're setting yourself up for a deficit that will take weeks, if not months, to recoup. Either way, with NOVA displaying death wobbles, we weren't willing to commit to more insecurity, given that was the major reason for wanting to teach English in Japan was security. With the huge number of employees from NOVA threatening to spill onto the market, it is more important than ever to have a secure job before hitting Japanese shores.
Anyway - we found out about all of this NOVA Corporation stuff after we had booked our flights to Brisbane, and so we decided to pursue the original plan. Come to Brisbane, and sort out our recruitment for Japan from here. I'm staying with my Uncle John in a far flung Northern suburb (and when I say far flung, I'm talking 25 minutes to walk to the bus stop, 10 minutes on the bus and then 40 minutes on the train to get to the CBD). John and his wife Tracey have been very hospitable and have allowed us to set up shop in one of the numerous spare bedrooms in this big house of theirs. It is lovely to feel so welcomed.
We've begun to put together our applications for ECC, which is the second largest English teaching company in Japan. The major drawback is that earliest that ECC will send us to Japan is in May 2008, and they require that we pass a grammar test (as opposed to a pulse test - NOVA do not require that you know anything, merely that you are alive and have a degree of some description). We are looking to enrol in a TOIEC instruction course in November with a grammar component to ensure that we are on top of our game when it comes to the big day.
In the meantime, we have arrived - unemployed, nearly dead broke, and exhausted - in Brisbane; and now we need to find employment. There's lots of jobs around up here, as opposed to in Tasmania where jobs are scarce. I have a temp placement on Monday for one day, but I really need to get something a bit more substantial than that before I can feel comfortable about our future. To find employment, we need to get a car, to get a car we need money, to get money we need a job... Or we could move closer to the city to find employment, bypassing the need for a car - but then we still need money to get the house, and for that we need the job! Either way, nothing is simple... ever.
All these changes in plan... we were hoping to be on a plane to Japan by now, but it looks like we're going to have to be patient and wait our turn - it reminds me of the essential truth about plans for the future - that there is nothing certain in life - except death and taxes.
Not that all is gloom and doom. Queensland is presenting a welcome little diversion. As far a place to relax and re-focus our efforts for our assault on Japan, this is ideal. The vegetation is lush, green, tropical and foreign to our Tasmanian sensibilities. There are huge lizards that live in the pond down the road – water dragons, I’m told. Ibis and cranes wander about in the parks. There’s rosellas, galahs, cockatoos – and last night we saw a mating pair of king parrots – rainforest birds that have been driven into suburbia due to the drought. I'd never seen anything like it. Even the replacement of wattlebirds with magpies and top-knot pigeons is exotic and foreign. There's a koala that lives in the neighbours garden that we hear at night. We both love plants and animals, and we've been greatly entertained by the abundance of natural distraction here.
Brisbane itself is bustling and prosperous compared to the Dresden-like eeriness of the streets of Hobart in the wake of the Myers fire. Tom and I have really enjoyed eating some tropical fruits. We plan to visit the botanical gardens before too long, and there's also the Asia-Pacific Trienial on as well. It's different. And I think part of the reason that Hobart was getting on my nerves so much is that it all felt so same-ish.
A change in plans is not necessarily a bad thing. I’m quietly hoping that this will mean that we will arrive in Japan better prepared than we would have if we had left earlier. Either way, Japan will happen. It might just happen a little later than we had hoped.
The plan has already changed, and somehow Japan feels further away than ever.
When this blog was opened, we were quite comfortable with our plan to return to Japan with the English conversation school that I had previously worked with, NOVA Corporation. When I had gone with NOVA before, I had been recruited through the Melbourne sub-contractor office, AACE - who charge a $500 administraiton fee per person that no other branch of NOVA recruitment charges. So we thought, rather than spend our $500 on an administration fee, we would spend it coming up to Brisbane and be recruited through a different office. Airfares from Queensland to Japan are substantially cheaper, and so, we booked our tickets to Brisbane and thought that we would be exiting Australia pretty promptly after that.
But then there were some major changes that no one could have foreseen.
NOVA has been quite famous in Japan for it's dodgy business practices. The joke was that NO-VA stands for NO VAcations - and they had the lowest number of paid holidays for their international teaching staff of any of the big English conversation schools. They have been sued many times by ex-employees for unfair dismissals, and they had a 'non-association' policy that bought them several appearances in human rights courts in Japan. They recently lost a case regarding their refund practices - previously NOVA had a 'no refunds' policy - which although it was unpopular, meant that the company made a profit whether the student attended their lessons or not. Due to NOVA losing this case, it meant that billions of yen worth of refunds were required to be paid out. NOVA's share price plumetted 16% in one day, and reports of teachers and branch staff not being paid on time began to creep across the internet. According to The Japan Times (an English language Japanese newspaper) staff have been paid late for the last 2 months - the first stage in the downward spiral that has marked the end of many big English teaching companies in Japan. The trend is to pull resources out of staffing to meet operational costs and try to keep the business afloat long enough for the company to be bought out, re-financed, and saved from bankruptcy. More often than not the company goes belly-up before a buyer can be found. NOVA have 5,000 foreign language teachers working for them, all recruited from overseas. If NOVA collapses, there will be a flood of unqualified English speakers looking for jobs to make enough money to get them home.
Our plans to go to Japan had been largely based on the idea that we wanted a stable job. We've been surviving on casual and contract employment for the last 2-3 years and it's left us stressed out and exhausted. We've had no leave so we've had bugger all time off. Every day we don't work is a day we don't get paid, and it's difficult to relax and enjoy a holiday when you know that you're setting yourself up for a deficit that will take weeks, if not months, to recoup. Either way, with NOVA displaying death wobbles, we weren't willing to commit to more insecurity, given that was the major reason for wanting to teach English in Japan was security. With the huge number of employees from NOVA threatening to spill onto the market, it is more important than ever to have a secure job before hitting Japanese shores.
Anyway - we found out about all of this NOVA Corporation stuff after we had booked our flights to Brisbane, and so we decided to pursue the original plan. Come to Brisbane, and sort out our recruitment for Japan from here. I'm staying with my Uncle John in a far flung Northern suburb (and when I say far flung, I'm talking 25 minutes to walk to the bus stop, 10 minutes on the bus and then 40 minutes on the train to get to the CBD). John and his wife Tracey have been very hospitable and have allowed us to set up shop in one of the numerous spare bedrooms in this big house of theirs. It is lovely to feel so welcomed.
We've begun to put together our applications for ECC, which is the second largest English teaching company in Japan. The major drawback is that earliest that ECC will send us to Japan is in May 2008, and they require that we pass a grammar test (as opposed to a pulse test - NOVA do not require that you know anything, merely that you are alive and have a degree of some description). We are looking to enrol in a TOIEC instruction course in November with a grammar component to ensure that we are on top of our game when it comes to the big day.
In the meantime, we have arrived - unemployed, nearly dead broke, and exhausted - in Brisbane; and now we need to find employment. There's lots of jobs around up here, as opposed to in Tasmania where jobs are scarce. I have a temp placement on Monday for one day, but I really need to get something a bit more substantial than that before I can feel comfortable about our future. To find employment, we need to get a car, to get a car we need money, to get money we need a job... Or we could move closer to the city to find employment, bypassing the need for a car - but then we still need money to get the house, and for that we need the job! Either way, nothing is simple... ever.
All these changes in plan... we were hoping to be on a plane to Japan by now, but it looks like we're going to have to be patient and wait our turn - it reminds me of the essential truth about plans for the future - that there is nothing certain in life - except death and taxes.
Not that all is gloom and doom. Queensland is presenting a welcome little diversion. As far a place to relax and re-focus our efforts for our assault on Japan, this is ideal. The vegetation is lush, green, tropical and foreign to our Tasmanian sensibilities. There are huge lizards that live in the pond down the road – water dragons, I’m told. Ibis and cranes wander about in the parks. There’s rosellas, galahs, cockatoos – and last night we saw a mating pair of king parrots – rainforest birds that have been driven into suburbia due to the drought. I'd never seen anything like it. Even the replacement of wattlebirds with magpies and top-knot pigeons is exotic and foreign. There's a koala that lives in the neighbours garden that we hear at night. We both love plants and animals, and we've been greatly entertained by the abundance of natural distraction here.
Brisbane itself is bustling and prosperous compared to the Dresden-like eeriness of the streets of Hobart in the wake of the Myers fire. Tom and I have really enjoyed eating some tropical fruits. We plan to visit the botanical gardens before too long, and there's also the Asia-Pacific Trienial on as well. It's different. And I think part of the reason that Hobart was getting on my nerves so much is that it all felt so same-ish.
A change in plans is not necessarily a bad thing. I’m quietly hoping that this will mean that we will arrive in Japan better prepared than we would have if we had left earlier. Either way, Japan will happen. It might just happen a little later than we had hoped.
Sunday 14 October 2007
Friday 5 October 2007
Friday 20 July 2007
Purpose of this blog:
1. To serve as convenient source of information for those who wish to know where in the world we are and what we are up to.
2. To show off our mad photography skillz.
3. To inspire you to come and visit us.
4. To make you green with envy at the mad adventures we have.
5. To track the demise of Western civilisation as we know it.
Count down to exit Australia: Approximately 6 months and counting down.
2. To show off our mad photography skillz.
3. To inspire you to come and visit us.
4. To make you green with envy at the mad adventures we have.
5. To track the demise of Western civilisation as we know it.
Count down to exit Australia: Approximately 6 months and counting down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
