I finally have a GoCard. A GoCard is like NY's MetroCard, it's cheaper to travel with a GoCard then it is if you pay with cash. When you hop onto a bus or enter a train station, you tap your card upon entry and then also when you get off, as you pay the distance that you travel, or should I say within zones. When transferring between buses and/or trains you pay something less than $1. You can set up the card to automatically top up when it gets to a certain balance. It expires after 20 years, so it's not a constant worry. Seniors have a red card, children (5-14 yr olds) have a yellow one. (These expire on the child's 15th birthday.) Blue ones are the general standard ones, and they also have Concession cards which are green. There are four different concession cards: Secondary schools students (full-time) - which is high school. Tertiary students (any education beyond high school). Pensioners - which is confusing to me as they have their own red cards. Defense force veterans.
For my car I have a GoVia account which is like the EZPass, only thing is, you never have to slow down or stop to pay the toll, you keep driving at the regular speed of 60kmh which is about 40mph and it reads it. Then the speed inside the tunnel goes up to 80kmh which is about 50mph. There is no bottlenecking like at the Tappan Zee Bridge or any other major crossings. There are many tunnels running through Brisbane, and it's really cool. They have this one called the Inner-City Bypass and it cuts through the city, and you don't have to pay to use it. There's an Airport Link tunnel that's just up the way from this place and it's great if you need to get to the airport as it cuts down travel time and avoids traffic congestion in the city.
In the 7 months I've been here, I've always thought my resume was somewhere amongst my paperwork or in one of my books down in the garage. It seems I was wrong. I even asked my mom if she could check my old room as I remember it being in a blue folder, but such a folder does not exist. I know it's on my hard-drive but I can't access it from here, so now I need to write up a resume from scratch from the beginning. How does one remember all the certified classes one took years ago regarding banking. I had my resume on Monster.com but they're saying they have no record (bs they deleted it) I know it was there as I had a few bites years ago. Twenty-two years in one company is a lot of years and it's a lot of things I did over those many years. I have to simplify and shorten my wordage as not to bore someone to tears. At least my starting point won't be too tiresome, being the receptionist at the radio station.
So back in New York, since 1997 I have always owned a Volkswagen Jetta, here in Australia the mid-model I can't afford. The model Jetta I had before here goes for almost $40,000. Funny, my dream car has always been a BMW 5 series, and in the US that was a price tag with the options I wanted just under $50k, not including tax and all the other bs involved with buying a car. Here a 5 series would cost over $100k, because of the luxury car tax, any car that costs over $57k is hit with another tax, the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Gas prices here are crazy, Americans boo-hoo about the cost of gas, when in actuality they have the cheapest gas prices in the world. Australia has it at about $5.62 a gallon as of yesterday, Europe pays even more, that's why most people own small 4 cylinder cars that are very fuel efficient. But I digress, we looked at a few cars, we looked at the Subaru XV which is gorgeous but out of my price range. The Nissan Dualis (Rogue in the US), I didn't like the feel of it. I liked the look of the Holden (Chevy) Cruze but the deal breaker in any of the cars we looked at was the availability of a sunroof, the Cruze doesn't have one factory installed and the guy suggested they have a guy. I put a stop to that the minute he even hinted at it, if it's not factory installed I don't want it. Honda's a pretty expensive here too, there's no such an Acura, but in actuality it's a Honda. For example, the Acura MDX here is the Honda MDX, go figure. I've always known that the two had the same engine, parts and other things. We even looked at the Ford Territory, but I'm not willing to pay $38k for an SUV, and do I really need one.
So with much thought and consideration, we went for a test drive with a Toyota Corolla Conquest, and I loved driving it, it was fun and smooth even though it's on the other side of the road and I'm sitting in where to me should be the passenger seat. We sat down with the salesperson and we threw numbers around until both parties were satisfied, they asked what color I wanted, I said white, what's your second choice of color, I said white, and third, again white. I would not be happy in any other color. A few days later the salesperson called and said they've found a white one and it would take a few days, I was in no rush as my money was not in my account yet and my personalized plates hadn't arrived. I got nervous about getting the plates as we're going away for our one year anniversary and I wanted the car by then. I did purchase it on the 29th of September. So I called the PPQ (Personalized Plates of Queensland) on Wednesday and the lady said it was sent out today you should get it in day or two. Next day, around 9:30am the delivery dude showed up, I closed the muppet in the bathroom and signed for my plates. I then texted my husband and called the dealership so they could register my car and I could pick it up Friday at 5:15pm.
Friday my husband came home early from work, he parked his car and we hopped on a bus into the city to go collect my car. When we got there I knew which one was mine, and I was very excited. We did the final paperwork and they handed over the keys and off we went for a drive. It's interesting driving on the other side, I still get confused when signaling as the signal is on the right instead of the left so I find myself hitting the windshield wipers by accident. It feels good being able to get up and go whenever I want and not have to rely on my husband to drive me everywhere, not that he minds. I love the fact that if I want to make something for dinner I can just get into my car and buy a few missing ingredients. The car is lovely but truth be told, I wish it was a Volkswagen Jetta, there are so many features I'm used to having and this car, although lovely does not have all the bells and whistles of the Jetta. But I cannot afford a Jetta here in Australia or the servicing costs of one. With my Corolla I have fixed price servicing for a time at $132 max. The things I miss and don't have with the Corolla are: key-less entry into the trunk, locking glove box, locking anything in the interior. I have a valet key, yay it means nothing when everything can be accessed from the interior at any time. I did buy a sun visor, as it does get pretty hot here in Queensland ( The Sunshine State) it's really cool, it's got pretty pink flowers on it.
So McDonalds here, Maccas to the locals, has a loose change menu. $1 and $2 are gold coins, along with silver currency, .05, .10, .20 & .50. Tax is already included in the price so if something costs $2.00 the tax is already included in that $2. An ice cream cone costs thirty cents, ice cream is included with that price. For $3 you can get a double bacon cheeseburger. For $2 you can have a chicken sandwich, small fries $1, small soda $1. ten- pack chicken McBites $2. So for few loose coins you could have have a meal.
