Ok, so first things first, turns out that Elle McCloud, everyone's favourite person who we would feel sympathy for if she'd just straight up told me what was going on instead of being a sullen, contradictory bitch, has gone and reported my blog's URL as abusive. Good times.
And I quote; "Some content in this message has been reported as abusive by Facebook users. [www.johninthebigcountry.blogspot.com]"
So it's not like she's being petty or anything about the whole issue.
ON TO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS.
Passed the medical with no issues, I'm totally healthy and able to work ridiculous hours with little risk of dying on the spot or collapsing or getting overly fatigued or whatever, which is cool, but that doesn't stop the fact that I'm hating this job already and I havn't even done a proper day's work.
We've had two induction days, which, frankly, are entirely ridiculous. We're gonna be grunts dragging plastic sheets over wheat and that's all. I don't see why we need to know the company's history, their "vision", their policies for executives and board members, how to secure machinery which we wont be allowed near in the first place, etc.
I mean, health and safety and how to do our job, I get that. But come on, a 15 minute talk on why we shouldn't be selling company secrets? How secretive can wheat storage get?
Also, it's a 7am start, considering it's a two hour drive to get there, this means that I have to get up at 4am, to be ready by 5am. The shifts I'm gonna be doing are 8 hours to start off with, so that's not so bad, at least I get back by 5pm, but eventually they extend to 12 hours. I'm hoping to get the fuck out of there before that happens. I mean, 4am 'til 9pm? Fuck that.
Also, Pete, watch Gundam 00. It is the hottest shit ever. go to www.ifyouwas.com , they have the whole series goin' on.
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Work! (maybe)
So through that labour hire firm I signed up with, I've got the (maybe) job of shovelling grain and wheat into bunkers for about 10 hours a day. AU$18 an hour for the first 8 hours of the day and AU$24 for every hour after that. According to my imprecise calculations I could be making roughly an Aussie grand a week if I knuckle down and don't get killed off by the labour intensive work. All the "maybe"s are around because I've got to pass a medical, which hopefully I've passed as long as they don't find illegal drugs in my urine. Which I'm hoping they don't because to be honest it would make my life very confusing, mainly because I wouldn't know where they came from.
So yeah, my medical should have gone ok, godwilling.
Turns out I'm kind of colour blind though, something silly to do with lots of reds and greens being in the same place making 5's look like 2's. I'm not entirely sure how this impacts my everyday life, although apparently it doesn't, so there we go.
ALSO.
If I do get this job and stick with it for three months, that will qualify me for an extra year on my visa. Who knows, depending on how this goes I could stay for another year, if Cardiff will let me defer again.
Crazy days!
So yeah, my medical should have gone ok, godwilling.
Turns out I'm kind of colour blind though, something silly to do with lots of reds and greens being in the same place making 5's look like 2's. I'm not entirely sure how this impacts my everyday life, although apparently it doesn't, so there we go.
ALSO.
If I do get this job and stick with it for three months, that will qualify me for an extra year on my visa. Who knows, depending on how this goes I could stay for another year, if Cardiff will let me defer again.
Crazy days!
Photos 2
Mayu
Me
For all the Americans out there
Mayu and I, that's Glenelg in the background
And that's the main plaza of Glenelg, exactly opposite the beach.
Photos
Photo time, courtesy of Mayu Koyanagi.
Ok, so this here's the summit of Mt Lofty, which is like, as the name suggests, the largest of the Adelaide hills, got this big ol' monument here, that was put there for some reason I read about, but have forgotten.
Haigh's chocolate. Famous, apparently, this is at the entrance to the shopping mall street where I like to waste time and eat. Check out the architecture
Ok, so when Mayu and I took the cycle track to Henley, she started off leading, this very serene looking area is actually nothing to do with the route and is part of a nature conservation area that we rode into, eventually having to dismount as the path turned precarious. I blame Mayu, who was leading at the time.
Henley beach! Lovely place, much nicer than Glenelg, but a lot less touristy. They have this fake pelican, hanging around for some reason.
More of Henley, with more photos to follow.
Ok, so this here's the summit of Mt Lofty, which is like, as the name suggests, the largest of the Adelaide hills, got this big ol' monument here, that was put there for some reason I read about, but have forgotten.
Haigh's chocolate. Famous, apparently, this is at the entrance to the shopping mall street where I like to waste time and eat. Check out the architecture
Ok, so when Mayu and I took the cycle track to Henley, she started off leading, this very serene looking area is actually nothing to do with the route and is part of a nature conservation area that we rode into, eventually having to dismount as the path turned precarious. I blame Mayu, who was leading at the time.
Henley beach! Lovely place, much nicer than Glenelg, but a lot less touristy. They have this fake pelican, hanging around for some reason.
More of Henley, with more photos to follow.
Cheers, Rob
So yeah, essentially, when I came down here, it was for the sake of getting a job at a resort up north. Long story short, they kept me hanging around for two weeks, told me I didn't get the job and that they'd see me later, thank you very much. I've since spammed the city with CVs, only to find that the most recent recruitment cycle was, you guessed it, the past two weeks, so it's a bit annoying at the moment.
On the plus side, I've signed up with this labour hire organisation thing, they throw jobs at you every now and again so I've got work on monday and Tuesday setting up stages and displays for AU$15 an hour, which isn't all that bad.
ALSO
Some photos in the next post, I'd put them in this one, but Blogger has retarded picture formatting.
On the plus side, I've signed up with this labour hire organisation thing, they throw jobs at you every now and again so I've got work on monday and Tuesday setting up stages and displays for AU$15 an hour, which isn't all that bad.
ALSO
Some photos in the next post, I'd put them in this one, but Blogger has retarded picture formatting.
Friday, 3 October 2008
Fucking knew it.
Alright, this isn't anything to do with Australia.
Still
That, Pete, is why I was happy to continue with my shitty, scratched to fuck battery guzzling DS Phat instead of buying a lite. Nintendo do this, this is their thing. 1 reworked peice of portable hardwhere is never enough.
Still
That, Pete, is why I was happy to continue with my shitty, scratched to fuck battery guzzling DS Phat instead of buying a lite. Nintendo do this, this is their thing. 1 reworked peice of portable hardwhere is never enough.
What's with all the hating?
So, right after the crazy racialist events of yesterday, more crazy stuff is going down in the big ol' John/Oz experience. Thankfully, I wasn't within such a proximity of it as yesterday, if I was I would have truely shit bricks.
Long story short, a group of drunk Australians decided to kick a road sign post in half (!), grab the length of it they'd seperated from the ground (!) and then proceeded to put large holes in my hostel's front door (!).
Thankfully, I'm at the other end of the hostel and the only idea I had of it was that a group of three germans charged back into the room all shouting and acting very excitable, I thought they were drunk, so I went back to bed immediately, not that I could've really done much else, in that situation.
So yeah, fun times.
Long story short, a group of drunk Australians decided to kick a road sign post in half (!), grab the length of it they'd seperated from the ground (!) and then proceeded to put large holes in my hostel's front door (!).
Thankfully, I'm at the other end of the hostel and the only idea I had of it was that a group of three germans charged back into the room all shouting and acting very excitable, I thought they were drunk, so I went back to bed immediately, not that I could've really done much else, in that situation.
So yeah, fun times.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Raaaaaaaaaaaaace waaaaaaaaaaaaaar!
So as I previously mentioned, I've found a charming little sushi vendor who sells the stuff at a very reasonable price, so it's become my lunch of choice and going there has become something of a routine, although it must be said it's a bit bizarre that the longer I've been going there the more options for stuff I didn't get a choice about when I first went there from the woman who runs it become available. Such as "would you like chopsticks?" or "Wasabi?". Surely these are the sorts of questions you ask first and get to know the answers to later rather than vice versa?
ANYWAY.
So I've found this little food court nearby in which to eat my little lunch box, I've got a usual seat and everything. It's near the entrance, by a large glass wall thing which is in place to stop people falling 10 feet onto the escalator below. Turns out, this is not where you want to be sitting when racism meets race in a way I didn't even think existed anymore.
So I'm sitting there, and a big fat Aussie woman walks on by, a crowd of black kids is walking towards the entrance and the woman decides to plow straight the fuck through them. One of the girls turns around and goes "hey, watch where you're walking" (fair enough) to which the woman replies "Oh, go back to your own country".
Nearly choked on my prawn, I saw where this was going and my efforts for a speedy getaway were foiled by the fact that suddenly I've got about 7 black kids all going mad, some angry Oz woman, some inherently racist guy with a walkie talkie who instantly started on the black kids surrounding my table, having a shouting match with eachother. They're going mad and they were literally all inches away from me, I couldn't have gotten out even if I wanted to. This goes on for a few minutes, long enough for me to finish my sushi as I really had no other option as getting the fuck out of there would mean jumping the glass wall. So some managers come out of the stores, try to seperate the groups. The black kids, much to the annoyance of the woman, are the ones who drop it and walk off, although she makes a few more comments which restarts the whole thing. Thankfully, by this time, I was able to stroll off as my escape route was now open and so the last thing I saw the big screaming match.
Good times!
ANYWAY.
So I've found this little food court nearby in which to eat my little lunch box, I've got a usual seat and everything. It's near the entrance, by a large glass wall thing which is in place to stop people falling 10 feet onto the escalator below. Turns out, this is not where you want to be sitting when racism meets race in a way I didn't even think existed anymore.
So I'm sitting there, and a big fat Aussie woman walks on by, a crowd of black kids is walking towards the entrance and the woman decides to plow straight the fuck through them. One of the girls turns around and goes "hey, watch where you're walking" (fair enough) to which the woman replies "Oh, go back to your own country".
Nearly choked on my prawn, I saw where this was going and my efforts for a speedy getaway were foiled by the fact that suddenly I've got about 7 black kids all going mad, some angry Oz woman, some inherently racist guy with a walkie talkie who instantly started on the black kids surrounding my table, having a shouting match with eachother. They're going mad and they were literally all inches away from me, I couldn't have gotten out even if I wanted to. This goes on for a few minutes, long enough for me to finish my sushi as I really had no other option as getting the fuck out of there would mean jumping the glass wall. So some managers come out of the stores, try to seperate the groups. The black kids, much to the annoyance of the woman, are the ones who drop it and walk off, although she makes a few more comments which restarts the whole thing. Thankfully, by this time, I was able to stroll off as my escape route was now open and so the last thing I saw the big screaming match.
Good times!
Owowowowow...
Look at this, actual events to report! Golly!
So today, at the big communal breakfast thing my hostel hosts, I got to talking to a Japanese teacher called Mayu (a teacher from Japan, who incidentally teaches the langauge. I comend her on fufilling both interpretations of the term), about Pancakes, no less. Conversation soon turned to how she was going for a bike ride down to Glenelg, which is the area's shit hot amazing beach. I'd been looking for an excuse to go down there, so we decided to hire some bikes and go on the ride to Glenelg. A lovely, scenic 12km ride along the river torres (or something).
It was pretty awesome, lots of great scenery, the weather was fantastic and the beach itself was great. We didn't get the chance to stick around for too long however, as we had to return the bikes by 4:30 or face a hefty charge.
However, I apparently rented a bike with no gears, which, although it meant that downhill freewheeling was an absolute blast, also meant that going uphill required me to summon forth my supreme effort and ego.
In short, one 24km ride later, my thighs hurt, my right arm (?) hurts and my bony, bony ass also hurts.
Fun times though.
Once again, camera's still broken, Mayu took a bunch of pictures which hopefully she should be emailed to me. I'll post them up when I get them.
So today, at the big communal breakfast thing my hostel hosts, I got to talking to a Japanese teacher called Mayu (a teacher from Japan, who incidentally teaches the langauge. I comend her on fufilling both interpretations of the term), about Pancakes, no less. Conversation soon turned to how she was going for a bike ride down to Glenelg, which is the area's shit hot amazing beach. I'd been looking for an excuse to go down there, so we decided to hire some bikes and go on the ride to Glenelg. A lovely, scenic 12km ride along the river torres (or something).
It was pretty awesome, lots of great scenery, the weather was fantastic and the beach itself was great. We didn't get the chance to stick around for too long however, as we had to return the bikes by 4:30 or face a hefty charge.
However, I apparently rented a bike with no gears, which, although it meant that downhill freewheeling was an absolute blast, also meant that going uphill required me to summon forth my supreme effort and ego.
In short, one 24km ride later, my thighs hurt, my right arm (?) hurts and my bony, bony ass also hurts.
Fun times though.
Once again, camera's still broken, Mayu took a bunch of pictures which hopefully she should be emailed to me. I'll post them up when I get them.
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