scemo chi resta: March 2008

Hello, how is everyone?
Here the weather is horrible (18 degrees AND clouds!) so no more beach.
I still can't find a job so Yvonne is supporting me and I'm thinking of applying for government support too. But thanks to a few intercontinental email I got references and maybe got accepted in a job. Ayway even if I start working I'll have to pay 45% of my income taxes because I still don't have a Tax File Number, that allows me to pay less taxes. I'll probably be ablo to get it in about 4 weeks, because being an Australian citizen with only my passport I am a very sfigat Australian citizen. To get any sort of document I need 3 forms of ID, while I have only one. after anout 1,5 months I managed to get a certificate of citizenship, that allowed me to get a bank account, after about 10 days (easter holiday included) I'll be able to get a bank statement, so that I will finally have 3 proofs of existence, but then the application process for a Tax File Number takes about 4 weeks. I'll probably be on my way back when I receive it...

Anyway the house situation is kinda improving: one day, walking the door eater dog, which the landlord as you can imagine loves, we found a lady who was moving out and getting rid of all her houseware, so we took everything we could carry with us, and now we have real pots and pans and plates and forks and knives, and it feels so good. That same day, our housemate that subrents our room to us, decided that for more or less the first time, he wanted to talk to us: we were very excited, but at the same time a little bit scared, thinking that maybe there was a scary reason for it. And right we were: he has been offered a real job in a real soccer team, only in Queensland (about 1 day drive from here), so that he is moving out in less than a month, and unless the people who will take over the lease of our lovely furnished house would want to take it with a european couple in one of the rooms (us), we'll be on the street by the middle of April. (happy birthday Yvonne). The day after, finally, someone took the dog away, so that now we can actually use the backyard (backjungle I should say) without worrying that a dog might sneak in and eat a kitten, and live without the constant sight of a starving dog.

So here we are: the house is finally nice and cosy, but we'll only have it for 3 more weeks.

But we do have a plan for then: (a) we'll rent another room so we can continue with our jobs and actually make some money instead of just spending savings. (b) we'll move to the Gold Coast in Queensland, where Tony, old friend of Yvonne's family has offered us shelter, and try to find jobs there (me being pretty quick with job hunting as you know). (c) find some people who wanna take over the lease of this lovely house with a fountain in the lounge and 2 europeans in one of the bedrooms.

Yesterday we had a painful encounter with reality, while planning recreational activity for the Easter holidays. I saw on the internet that here in New South Wales (the state of Australia we're in) there was a lovely alternative lifestyles bush festival, full of old hippies and new children of old hippies, which sounded like a wonderful getaway from everyday worries. A brief check of transport options made us realise we're not in tuscany or in Reykjavik
's metropolitan area anymore. The options were:
-train: 17 hours. 240 dollars per person each way (our weekly wage is 400$)
-plane+train: forget it, ever tried to book a flight two days in advance?
so the most likely option was: hitch hike. ONLY 12 hours drive...

We could have tried, but I finally have a first day of work on tuesday, and I didn't really feel like missing it for being lost in some deserted bush road, plus the weather turned out to be pretty bad, and that's why we're spending our Easter saturday at home, writing on our blog...
The options for short (say 3 hours away) day excursions are still there, but every morning we wake at 8, look out of the window, see the clouds, and then sleep until twelve.

Don't worry for us, anyway, we can still go to the Royal Easter Show, where they have giant pumpkins, guinea pig competitions, and tiny women squeezing into even tinier boxes. And we are not going to feel lonely now that the neglected dog left, we still have the wasps over the front door, the ant infested walls, and the cockroaches in the attic...

Easter is in autumn!
bye to everyone
Peter and Yvonne

P.s. qui hanno l'easter bunny che porta le uova di cioccolato a pasqua ai bambini buoni...e noi che ce li mangiamo in umido i conigli per pasqua, che ingrati!