News for another week

Well what can I say, easter has been pretty good over here, I havent had too much chocolate and I went to church on Sunday :). Now its the Easter Monday holiday and I once again have found time to add to my blog.

I have my official Queensland Drivers License now which will be handy, letting me drive as well as being a form of id so I can get my tax number. The written licensing test was a little difficult --> I failed it the first time due to some inconsistencies in the road rules here compared with New Zealand, but the second time i only got 1 wrong which was a pass.

We are going to take our car to see if we can get a roadworthy certificate (the equivalent of a W.O.F.) this week, so hopefully it passes... they have rather a strange system over here which is that once you get registration you dont need to keep getting roadworthy's every 6months or year, you only need to get one if you are going to sell your car, but you still have to update your registration each year, but that doesnt involve anyone checking over the vehicle.

We have had a few issues with the car, the Air Conditioning makes one of the engine belts start slipping (for all the mechanics out there) and we cant work out why, we've tried tightening the belt... and doing some other things but alas no luck... oh and we managed to blow an 80amp fuse as well because Andy left the alternator lead touching the chassis when he started the car.... which is really not good for it... apart from that some or most of the touch up painting should get done today in order hopefully to get the roadworthy certificate tomorrow.

In other news, I've got two days of work this week at the nursery --> they have a big order going out tomorrow (Tuesday) so they have asked me to come in to help out along with the other girl (Vicki) who i work with on Wednesdays. Also I put a really small ad in the local paper thing just saying "Work Wanted...." and I've had one guy ring up about it, he may need someone to help him tidy up a house that he owns getting it ready to be sold. Apparently this would take about 3-4weeks full time which would be perfect as it would give me a chance to get some savings and maybe a chance to go on a bit of a trip around afterwards.

The people that i've met around here have been so nice, the people from the church we go to are really awesome, i think i quite like the smaller church environment, everyone just seems a lot more friendly (to us new people) and the pastor and his family are really fun to be with.

Other than that there really isnt much news.. i might try and post some more photos if I can find the time but until then I hope everyone is going along well and I'll try and keep in touch with most of you.

Work, driving trips, relaxing

Hello all, this is just a little update to say whats been happening of late. Hmmmm where do I start, had quite a busy weekend, on Saturday Andy and myself went on a trip with some of the youth from the church we attend to Byron Bay. It was really nice down there and i went body boarding for the first time since ive been over here, the waves were AWESOME!! like super compared to Woodend and Waikuku beaches.

We also had a bit of a look around at some of the local shops and things, and the we all went up to the lighthouse and enjoyed the great view of the surrounding area. Lots of laughs and it was good to get to know the people we were with a bit better. The pastor of the church, Tony Llewellyn (i think thats how you spell it) was our driver, so we had some good talks with him --> Him and his wife Allison have 2 children; David (18) who is studying music and the "conservatorium" which is the music branch of the university here. They also have a daugther Manda (21) who is currently workin in an aged care home.

Both Andy and I worked Monday for E.D.S. the display services place, we got paid but were informed that there would not be anymore work for at least 2 weeks which is a bit discouraging because we really need jobs right now :).

On Sunday we went back to church and met a few more people there, its not very big but there seems to be a good amount of people around our age... all we really need is our own transport and then it will all be easy and we wont have to rely on the generosity of others to take us place. Speaking of which, Andy is working on the car that we brought and hopefully it will be in a good roadworthy condition by the end of this week... hopefully.

We may end up going away on a camping trip with some of the guys from EDS where we worked, over easter but that is unconfirmed at the moment. So yeah i like it over here apart from the fact that jobs seem quite hard to come by because according to most people its the "quiet season" and its been pretty dry as well so most outdoor plant places are waiting on rain --> although business is booming for those trucking water to places around about that aren't fortunate enough to be connected to the main Brisbane water supply (like us) except that warren has a 1000l water container in his van which he fills up and pipes to his tanks once or twice a day :).

Anyways i think that this just about covers everything to date, I do miss New Zealand, but only when i think about it :).

- Daniel

Heres Andy and some of the guys that we met from church wandering along the south bank of the Brisbane river. They are cool :) 

Just in case you get any ideas... i dont want you feeding any of the ibis around where you live....... --> this sign was found on the south bank of the Brisbane river.... it amused me 

Another update... wow are you bored yet?

5minutes drive from Mooloolaba.

We met some nice guys working for this company and one of them was selling a Mazda 626 for 400$ so currently we are in the business of determining whether or not we should buy it, hopefully we can get it into roadworthy condition and then we'll have our own transport!

Today I spent working on a nursery about 25km from where I'm staying, it was interesting work operation a "potting machine" and just potting plants, mainly agapanthus and strelitzia's. Again I met some nice people working there, the couple who owned the nursery were originally from South Africa and they used to be Computer Programmers, so I got on very well with them, currently they are offering me one day a weeks work but hopfully they will call me in a bit more often because im really wanting to earn a bit of money.

A little hiccup I have had is that because i was once an Australian citizen i cant get the easy "NZ work holiday Tax File Number" which just involves filling in an application on the internet. Im going to have to go to the tax office tomorrow and try and do it the hard way... which means im going to need ID --> lucky that i brought my Australian Citizenship certificate, but i also need 2 forms of secondary ID which will be harder to procure seeing as i dont have most of what usual Australians have ie. Australian Drivers License.... etc.

Hopefully that will go ok, the wages here are really good compared to NZ standards which is nice... but the hard part is actually finding the jobs... most people either want full time staff (NZ'ers are not really liked for these positions because the have a habit of unexpectedly leaving and touring the country or going back home) or just on call causal work. This suits us a little better although we have no guarantee from week to week exactly how much we are going to get.

Anyways I hope this has been informative, right now the big projects are car, getting more work, and getting me a tax number. I hope everything is going well back home in the land of New Zealand, it looks like I might be staying a little longer than 2weeks now, im getting a bit settled in.

Send my regards to everyone
God Bless you all
- Daniel

Sunday Today

Today we acutally managed to get to a church, some nice ladies from the area picked us up from where we are and took us the the Samford branc of the "Christian Life Centre" of which my great uncle Trevor was one of the main founders. It was a really nice smallish gathering, everyone was really friendly, met up with some cool people around about our age so that was great.

After a shared lunch they took us to see some of the sights in Brisbane including wandering around the south bank area. This was really nice, with the river on one side and markets and paths and all manner of other things along the way (including an artificial beach). I got some interesting photo's, if i get the time i might put some more on this page, cause photo's are fun.

I got some more memory for my digital camera which is handy, so I can store a lot more photos, and I put my USB memory stick through the wash... which as with most electronic devices was not good for it, but after an intensive drying session last night it seems to be working well again, yay :)

Doing a bit of work for the next 3 days in the area which should be good seeing as money is a bit of an issue at the moment especially if we want to get a car. Hopefully it will all work out good, once we have a car we can pretty much go anywhere and do anything which will mean a lot more freedom... and probably a lot less posts on this blog as I wont be stuck in a house with internet, with no car.

Anyways things are going good, just a few more things slotting into place and it will all be great :)
byebye

This is the spider Andy found in his room.... Ahh the joys of being in Australia :). Apparently its just a baby, notice the lovely bus timetable in the background. And the red square emphasising the evilness of the spider of doom. 

For all those telecom users

if you want to txt me from a telecom phone apparently you have to take the + off the start of the number


full credit for this information goes to Lance

Another day another hypocrite

Hey my friends out there in the big wide world

Today is another day in the life of Dan. Nothing much has happened lately, me and Andy have just been travelling around with the guy we are staying with (warren) who is a sign writer and has jobs all over the place. Its a win win situation, we help him with setting up scaffolding and stuff for reaching high up signs and we get to see lots of cool places around Brisbane.

Today we had the pleasure of going up the Sunshine coast (North of Brisbane) as opposed to the Gold Coast (South of Brisbane), It was rather nice up there, almost tropical forests with palm trees and stuff.... well just a few, but it was really weird to see like pine forests in the same area as almost tropical forests. The highways up there are long and straight but the beach looked really nice (i would have gone for a swim but i didnt hav my togs) its like perfect for a winter holiday destination (prolly a bit hot in the summer). Weather has been absolutely amazing around here its like warm the whole time and not too hot which is good.

Apparently theres a tropical cyclone at the northern border of Queensland at the moment and all the locals are hoping that it will bring some rain down south here because the wet season hasn't been wet at all so far.

In other news i have found myself a temporary cellphone, its a spare from the people that I am staying with, its on the Telstra network but I think that people can still send me texts if they want, i wont guarantee a reply because it costs like 25c per text (more than NZ) but if you really beg i just might :P --> Im really slow at txting and cellphones sux anyways

CELLPHONES ARE DUMB

just in case anyone thought that i might be changin my mind about such things, and im glad that im unable to use this temporary one in NZ anyways not that i would ever think of getting such an evil device :P.... Now you see what the title of this post means.

Anyways thats about all the news that i have for tonight ill leave my number at the end of this post so all those phone stalkers out there can stalk me -0-> its

+61 400675445

haha
- You are all awesome
- Dan

Feel free to leave comments

I changed the options so anyone can leave comments now just click on the comments link and write whatever you feel like :)

The place where we are at sorta 

Hmmmm what to do next

Ahhh well i think its time for the next little update. We've spent the last few days staying with a lovely family in the outskirts of north Brisbane. We are quite nearby the Samford valley in a small rural suburb called Draper. The weather has been really great.... just a little hot during midday but mornings evenings and nights have been really fun.

We have spent the last few days looking through papers and places for job positions.... its really strange there are heaps of jobs here but most of them "require own transport" which alas is not a luxury which we have at the moment. I am going to visit some nearby nurseries to see if they need some workers of sorts.

If we are unable to actually get jobs I may just spend the rest of my meagre savings on a bit of a holiday, perhaps go and visit some of my relations to catch up (no no not for free accomodation honestly). Its a bit annoying staying in a rural area because we dont have much opportunity to get out and meet people for ourselves especially with no form of transport.

If i do manage to get a job the first thing Andy and me will do is get a car.... and the save some money and hopefully be able to do a bit of travel before coming back to NZ.

Anyways this little update is now officially over. But seeing as noone is going to read it i might as well have finished it before i even started it.

-- HAHA
oh and theres a picture of where we are staying if i can manage to get it to work :)

Im here!

Hiya

I thought id write a little reply seeing as i finally have internet access :). Yeah everything has been going alright so far, the plane and stuff all went pretty smoothly we just wandered out of the airport at Coolongatta and went straight to the beach for a swim (@ 8am in the morning). Its really nice and warm... although a little hot in the noontime sun.

We went hunting for jobs along the gold coast, went into a few employment agencies and stuff, checked out the local papers, but it seems that we are here at just the wrong time as its the tourist "off season" so most of the places (big huuuge hotels like 40stories up and the like) have already hired all the staff that they need.

So after staying our first night in a really nice backpackers --> for 24$ we continued North from Surfers Paradise to Southport, did a bit more job hunting and then decided to go to Brisbane because Andy knew some people there --> whose house I am at at the moment using their internet. It seems like there might be more opportunities around here for work so we are probably going to go for a drive around to scope out the different places this afternoon.

Went on the train as well, as we are staying in the outskirts of Brisbane --> took the train to Ferny Grove and drove about 15mins to here. This is like the nicest house i've ever seen... its just amazing, only two years old, 3 stories all up and just really nice. We dont plan to stay here for too long though or else we might overstay our welcome. Anyways hope all is going well back home and if i dont find work in the next 2 weeks i might come back, but if i do then ill probably stay over there for the full two months, it really depends on how my money holds out.

Noone is going to read this anyways but who cares ill put it here because I can