Thursday, August 28, 2008

Quarters

I realized today that I miss quarters. They don't have quarters here, in that they don't have a 25 cent monetary denomination; not to mean that you cannot cut things into fours. Our pizza tonight was $20.50 and as I fumbled for a fifty cent piece, I longed for two easy, shiny quarters. Fifty cent coins are ok, but they're way larger than all the other coins, even the $1 and $2 coins, which is obnoxious. Then I got to thinking that I like our change in the US better than Australian change. We keep it simple with 1, 5, 10, 25 while they go through the trouble of 5, 10, 20, 50, $1, $2. And we have a neat name for each coin: penny, nickel, dime, quarter - fun! You're weighed down with change here; women carry bowling ball-sized purses filled with all the change they get. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but there's something annoying about change being worth so much. Got any change? is like asking someone to hand over their watch; it's worth something.

But then I got to thinking about the penny. They don't use pennies here. It's excellent. Pennies are useless, annoying little bits of tin. They insist on edging their way into every amount of change returned to you upon a purchase. They weigh down your pocket, not worth anything at all. With the sense and logic that only seems to exist in a country with a population still in the low tens of millions, Australia has banished the one cent piece. The only change floating around is actually useful. I thought, "gee, America should do this", but then I realized, that's never going to happen. We are the most nostalgic, sentimental group of folks ever (possibly with the exception of the Brits). We won't switch, no matter how much sense (or cents!) it makes. That's also why we're one of only three countries in the world who still hasn't officially adopted the metric system. Yep, just us, Liberia, and Burma (Myanmar), see map. What a trio, eh? Good old Liberia (proceed to look it up on Google Maps, it's actually in Africa). Lord forbid logic and sense pry their way into our red-taped, consumerist lifestyles.


America is great, but for some things, let's face it, we're slow to adapt, difficult to change, and hard to motivate, like Homer Simpson or my cat. Although food is a good motivator for both of them, and probably for most of America too. Ok, my rant is over. Until next time.


Saturday, August 23, 2008

Driver's License


Thursday I finally got my Victoria driver's license, refer above. We have put it off until this point due to laziness and not wanting to try to figure out how their system works over here. It was actually a rather simple process, however, and I feel kind of silly not doing it before. I just had to make an appointment at Vic Roads (DMV) and go there with something that proves I live here (a bill addressed to me), my California driver's license, an ATM card, and $45. It was easy and there wasn't even a line. You read correctly, no waiting. Plus, the people at the counter spoke English, albeit Australian English, but that is to be expected. It was great compared to the nightmare in CA that I'm used to avoiding at all costs.

The only hiccup was that you need to have had your license in your home country for 3 years to get a normal license here. Which, is fine, I've had mine for 10 (yep, getting up there). However, the only way they can tell how long you've had your license is from the issue date printed at the bottom of your license. I renewed mine in May last year. Therefore, I could not prove that I have had a license for over 3 years in California. Drat. So, they gave me a provisional license (like I'm 15) that actually only restricts me by not allowing me to drive cars with V8 engines and putting a zero tolerance on blood alcohol levels while driving. The only embarrassing thing is that I am supposed to put these little placards in the front a rear windows that have a big P on them for probationary (or perfectly incompetent, or pending adulthood, or possible a danger on the road; whatever you want to say it stands for) which, of course, I refuse to do.

I don't even have a car to drive so it's not really a worry. I just wanted a cool "look, I lived in Australia" souvenir. So, now I have one. All I have to do to get upgraded to a real, normal person, grown-up license is bring in an old license of mine (yes I have all my old ones, and yes I have them here, in Australia - don't ask) and show them that I've been a licensed driver for just short of an eternity. But, they're only open the exact hours that I work, so I'll wait a while before taking an hour and a half off work again to haul myself up to the stupid DMV to finish the deed. Whew! At least I can show a form of identification that doesn't make people say, wait, what? People get so confused at the CA ID for some reason, it's rather funny.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Down Under

Yep, that's where we are. Just sitting here, way down here. I actually recently read a book by Bill Bryson by this name (Amazon will sell it to you or at least tell you way too much information about it) which was rather amusing. He's a funny guy and though some of it was a bit boring, other parts had me laughing out loud on the tram and it provided a bunch of good info about Australia. I digress. The most recent book that my book club read was Rebecca, apparently a classic novel written in 1938. It was heavy, but I was glad I read it. Very reminiscent of English class in high school. I double digress.

Work is going well for us both, Kane is settling in nicely to BHS. One of my bosses told me that Kane is doing well - good work Kane. Now we can eat lunch, ride the tram, and go to the gym at lunch together again - weee! And, the best part of course, we can talk about work people and work things all day every day. We are immersed. So, that's our life Down Under. We work, we play, it's cold. I can't wait for this stupid winter to be over, it's quite oppressive. I don't think it's much worse than a California winter, but when you don't have a car, leaving the house inevitably means being assaulted by the cold, and even worse, by the wind. Wind that penetrates any type of warm clothing; living by the water has its down sides.

But when Christmas time rolls around, we'll be soaking up the sun. From our apartment. With the air conditioning on. No, we're never satisfied. Still, Australia is treating us well. I even get my driver's license on Thursday, wish me luck!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Homeward Bound

We did it. We booked tickets for a visit back to Cali. Late November. Be there.

And, if you're still feeling generous after my Woods fundraiser, feel free to donate to the Flights-From-Australia-to-the-USA-are-Ridiculously-Expensive Fund. Perhaps not as philanthropic, but equally as appreciated. And $1700 each was the cheapest by $300 for the surrounding 6 months, and about $400 cheaper than any other airline/website that I could find. Apparently moving to the other side of the world is ridiculous. Who knew? Checks accepted care of Jim Sommer =). See you then.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Together Again

Monday was Kane's first day at my work! He put in his 2 weeks notice at his work 3 weeks ago (duh) and this was his first week at BHS with me. Thank goodness, we are together again 24/7 and can talk about work people and work things. Ahhhh. I thought maybe we should try working apart, but his job wasn't what he hoped it would be and my job was looking for more help since we're super busy. So, he works 15 feet away from me and is getting settled to the new standards and people and everything else.

In related news, we joined the gym that's right next to our work and have started working out at lunch. We had been doing virtually nothing since we started our jobs 3 months ago. So now my legs are way too sore and we'll be slowly getting back into shape. The down side is that the gym is freaking expensive. We seriously debated joining for like 20 mins sitting in the little foyer/interrogation area at the gym. It costs about $117 per month each. Yep, you read correctly. I believe my dad pays somewhere on the order of $20 a month in Hayward. We used to pay about $40 per month each in SLO. Anyway, now that we've come to terms with them basically stealing from us, Kane has found out that they don't provide towels. He wanted to shower after his workout on Friday and went to ask for a towel only to find that they don't offer them. He's been very pissed about it ever since, mentioning it multiple times outside of the gym. It's just ridiculous. But hopefully we'll stop being so lazy which is basically the goal.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

New Shoes

As Paolo Nutini so lovingly put it, "Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything's right" (incidentally, I thought this song was by John Mayer or someone similarly and equally singular and mediocre; who is Paolo anyway?) . Indeed everything is right. Except that these shoes are Converse and are hence about as comfortable as walking with two wooden slats under your feet, or, conversely (haha) no shoes on at all. But, while other girls will suffer the sorrows of high heels to look cute and trendy, I will endure the plight of the adorable Converse All Stars to blend in with the 15 year olds.

Last weekend Marc and Alana buggered off (translation: left) to Thailand for 2 weeks and graciously left us the use of their car. We took the opportunity to go clothes shopping - a mutually hated activity that we've both neglected to the obvious detriment of our pathetic wardrobes. It was a successful trip, another rarity, whereby Kane bought a jacket (yes, Kane actually willingly purchased an item of clothing) and a hat and I got my neat shoes, a shirt, and a pretty scarf (half off!). Progress at last.

This week, sadly, we didn't make much use of Little Red (nickname for tiny red hatchback) and I only have used it this weekend to go into work on Saturday. Boo. I would just like to note that it's a stick shift - which is fine, I can drive one - but the stick shift sits on your left since the driver seat is on the right side of the car. It's not actually as hard as I thought it would be to shift the opposite way to what you're used to, but it was still intimidating to me. At the very least it's made grocery shopping way more enjoyable (the car, not the stick shifter).

Today we hope to go somewhere - anywhere - in an attempt to utilize this rare car-having opportunity. We'll see what we can dig up. My shoes are pretty cute though, huh?