We've been in Canberra for a little over two months now and wow, does time fly!
The house is still standing and the cats are behaving as good as can be expected. They cannot really understand that they left the cold and rain, came here in comfortable warmth and now the cold and rain seem to have followed them here. Our autumn is still warmer than the Holland spring, but try and explain that to a cat. The furniture we ordered (bedroom, dining table and cabinet) that was supposed to arrive two weeks ago will now be delivered Monday or Tuesday, so we will no longer sleep on a matress on the floor and have some storage space. Our ocean shipment is also supposed to arrive next week, but with customs, you never really know. The grass keeps growing, despite Gil's efforts to nuke the garden with industrial strength weedkiller. Not one to give up, he is now in the market for depleted uranium, which has the added side effect that everything will glow in the dark!
We thought to have some really cool furniture made, but that required 2,000 dollars more than what we thought was a generous budget. Oh well, next time then, off to Fyshwick (Bataviastad but then really, really big) once again today for a coffee table, tv cabinet and book case. We'll also be shopping for lamps (found exact copies of what we had in Holland) because our football stadium strength lights'that come with the house are not exactly 'çosy' and require wearing your shades inside.
Yuum now has a job offer from Aspen and I was so cheerful that she was about to make a decision, but then another party (National Disability Service) came back faster than expected and ofcourse they want to talk to her.....aaaaaaaaand we're back to indecision 1-on-1. God forbid that another company approaches her, we'll have to get outside help to actually make the decision. I suggested flipping a coin, a turtle race, making a wheel of fortune, going with your gut and drawing straws, but Yuum insists on dragging it out and making it as complicated as possible for fear of making the wrong decision (it's a job for life, you see....). Thank goodness she is not in charge of garden maintenance, we'd have weeds 1 meter high by now. Oh well, if everyone would be like me...Hey, wait up, that is not such a bad idea now is it?!
My job is turning out to be pretty great. Aside from what must have been one of the most akward moments in my life where my 100 pound lady-boss really went to town on one her reports, basically tearing him apart in under 60 seconds. I am sure that if that ever happened to me, I'd either kung-fu the crap out of her right there and leave to never come back.....or start crying. There's all sorts change things going on and people are ready to make a change, but let's wait and see what they say when they hear the plans. Also, what I found to be true about public servants in NL is true for public servants in OZ, they make pretty long days, me included. Might be the level I am at, but emails at 2200or 0500 are fairly common and people really put in the time. They do of course take 1 hour lunches, but who can blame them when you're surrounded by 100 restaurants?! And then there's the lady colleague who confided in me after two days that she had no problem with foreign people, but those Asians(!), not speaking the language and being smelly, well... OMG, really?! Probably never left the ACT in yer life didya, hmm? But wait, let me introduce you to my wife.... Being a communications and change manager is quite the challenge, especially within government where everyone covers their own behinds first, feels they need to have their say and deadlines only apply to the last guy in line (that would be me....) However, reporting to the second in command in the building has its advantages and I am perfecting the age old skill of name-dropping like a boss! To Jelle, Sjoerd and Mieke (ex-Conclusion Communications guys) if you're reading this, thanks for the ProRail experience, so helpful right now!
The bus experience is....educational. People are very well-behaved and mind each other, quite a difference from my limited RTD experiences. (there were good reasons why I hate public transport!)In the morning the bus is so quiet you can actually hear people breathe, kind of spooky. Unless we have the lady that plays classical music on speaker volume 90, than its sort of like being at the movies...music....breathing...shuffling.....music. I have so far identified four types of drivers. The best one is The Entertainer, who plays music, makes comments over the intercom, greets everyone with cheer and is just a really happy person (gets a lot of hate in the morning). Then there's the Brake Tester, who likes to be safe at close distances and thinks that motion sickness only happens to pussies anyway. Hold on when you're with the Failed F1 Driver, who dreamt of a racing career and ended up on a bus, but fails to see the difference (does get you home real fast though). And fourth and final, the Hollywood Waitress, who thought this was only going to be temporary, but has been driving the bus since they invented sliced bread and is sort of indifferent to everything around them. (gets a lot of love in the morning). As long as Yuum does not decide on a job and hogs the car, I am confined to the bus, so you can expect more observations later on.
The change of the season is a remarkable experience as well. To us, we feel like spring should be coming, but being on the other side of the equator makes this autumn and we are on winter time. Good thing is that we're only 8 instead of 10 hours ahead now, so communications with the NL are a bit less challenging timewise. Skype is great for warding off 'heimwee', but it's not a time machine.
It is also somewhat weird experience to go from one of the best English speakers on the block to being 'not quite a native speaker' and because of my years at Rockwell and SkyChannel education, I sound quite American/Canadian, so everyone just assumes I get it. Yuum has the advantage that she's Asian looking, so aside from being smelly, expectations are much lower. There were some challenging momenst last week when I had to make sure wording and grammar were correct because only 1,100 people would read my text, gulp...Good thing my boss is a detail manager who likes to take things into her own hand and has some wicked synonym skills! And then there's Easter holidays, which is like Sinterklaas over here. They've been ramping up to it ever since we got here, with food, holiday deals, really annoying tv commercials, equally annoying kids entertainment and lots and lots of chocolate in all shapes and sizes. Quite the experience, but Yuum and I will be unpacking boxes (hopefully) by then, so we'll take advantage of those days off. We've also got Anzac day, which is sort of a 4/5 May thing, but here's it's a national holiday every year. Living the good life!
Keep to the left, see you soon.
The house is still standing and the cats are behaving as good as can be expected. They cannot really understand that they left the cold and rain, came here in comfortable warmth and now the cold and rain seem to have followed them here. Our autumn is still warmer than the Holland spring, but try and explain that to a cat. The furniture we ordered (bedroom, dining table and cabinet) that was supposed to arrive two weeks ago will now be delivered Monday or Tuesday, so we will no longer sleep on a matress on the floor and have some storage space. Our ocean shipment is also supposed to arrive next week, but with customs, you never really know. The grass keeps growing, despite Gil's efforts to nuke the garden with industrial strength weedkiller. Not one to give up, he is now in the market for depleted uranium, which has the added side effect that everything will glow in the dark!
We thought to have some really cool furniture made, but that required 2,000 dollars more than what we thought was a generous budget. Oh well, next time then, off to Fyshwick (Bataviastad but then really, really big) once again today for a coffee table, tv cabinet and book case. We'll also be shopping for lamps (found exact copies of what we had in Holland) because our football stadium strength lights'that come with the house are not exactly 'çosy' and require wearing your shades inside.
Yuum now has a job offer from Aspen and I was so cheerful that she was about to make a decision, but then another party (National Disability Service) came back faster than expected and ofcourse they want to talk to her.....aaaaaaaaand we're back to indecision 1-on-1. God forbid that another company approaches her, we'll have to get outside help to actually make the decision. I suggested flipping a coin, a turtle race, making a wheel of fortune, going with your gut and drawing straws, but Yuum insists on dragging it out and making it as complicated as possible for fear of making the wrong decision (it's a job for life, you see....). Thank goodness she is not in charge of garden maintenance, we'd have weeds 1 meter high by now. Oh well, if everyone would be like me...Hey, wait up, that is not such a bad idea now is it?!
My job is turning out to be pretty great. Aside from what must have been one of the most akward moments in my life where my 100 pound lady-boss really went to town on one her reports, basically tearing him apart in under 60 seconds. I am sure that if that ever happened to me, I'd either kung-fu the crap out of her right there and leave to never come back.....or start crying. There's all sorts change things going on and people are ready to make a change, but let's wait and see what they say when they hear the plans. Also, what I found to be true about public servants in NL is true for public servants in OZ, they make pretty long days, me included. Might be the level I am at, but emails at 2200or 0500 are fairly common and people really put in the time. They do of course take 1 hour lunches, but who can blame them when you're surrounded by 100 restaurants?! And then there's the lady colleague who confided in me after two days that she had no problem with foreign people, but those Asians(!), not speaking the language and being smelly, well... OMG, really?! Probably never left the ACT in yer life didya, hmm? But wait, let me introduce you to my wife.... Being a communications and change manager is quite the challenge, especially within government where everyone covers their own behinds first, feels they need to have their say and deadlines only apply to the last guy in line (that would be me....) However, reporting to the second in command in the building has its advantages and I am perfecting the age old skill of name-dropping like a boss! To Jelle, Sjoerd and Mieke (ex-Conclusion Communications guys) if you're reading this, thanks for the ProRail experience, so helpful right now!
The bus experience is....educational. People are very well-behaved and mind each other, quite a difference from my limited RTD experiences. (there were good reasons why I hate public transport!)In the morning the bus is so quiet you can actually hear people breathe, kind of spooky. Unless we have the lady that plays classical music on speaker volume 90, than its sort of like being at the movies...music....breathing...shuffling.....music. I have so far identified four types of drivers. The best one is The Entertainer, who plays music, makes comments over the intercom, greets everyone with cheer and is just a really happy person (gets a lot of hate in the morning). Then there's the Brake Tester, who likes to be safe at close distances and thinks that motion sickness only happens to pussies anyway. Hold on when you're with the Failed F1 Driver, who dreamt of a racing career and ended up on a bus, but fails to see the difference (does get you home real fast though). And fourth and final, the Hollywood Waitress, who thought this was only going to be temporary, but has been driving the bus since they invented sliced bread and is sort of indifferent to everything around them. (gets a lot of love in the morning). As long as Yuum does not decide on a job and hogs the car, I am confined to the bus, so you can expect more observations later on.
The change of the season is a remarkable experience as well. To us, we feel like spring should be coming, but being on the other side of the equator makes this autumn and we are on winter time. Good thing is that we're only 8 instead of 10 hours ahead now, so communications with the NL are a bit less challenging timewise. Skype is great for warding off 'heimwee', but it's not a time machine.
It is also somewhat weird experience to go from one of the best English speakers on the block to being 'not quite a native speaker' and because of my years at Rockwell and SkyChannel education, I sound quite American/Canadian, so everyone just assumes I get it. Yuum has the advantage that she's Asian looking, so aside from being smelly, expectations are much lower. There were some challenging momenst last week when I had to make sure wording and grammar were correct because only 1,100 people would read my text, gulp...Good thing my boss is a detail manager who likes to take things into her own hand and has some wicked synonym skills! And then there's Easter holidays, which is like Sinterklaas over here. They've been ramping up to it ever since we got here, with food, holiday deals, really annoying tv commercials, equally annoying kids entertainment and lots and lots of chocolate in all shapes and sizes. Quite the experience, but Yuum and I will be unpacking boxes (hopefully) by then, so we'll take advantage of those days off. We've also got Anzac day, which is sort of a 4/5 May thing, but here's it's a national holiday every year. Living the good life!
Keep to the left, see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment