Bottle Refunds and Wastage...

November 1st, Queensland started a bottle refund scheme. You return your bottles, cans and glass and receive 10 cents for each return. This gave us an idea, go to the local mall and start digging for dimes, in my head 10 cents will always be a dime. The coffee drinks are the most popular, second are Coke products and various flavoured milks. What we've noticed in almost a month of collecting is the amount of wastage out there. People will pay between $3-$6 for some of these drinks and they will toss them in the trash half empty. We found a bottle of diet Coke 3/4 full, if that was mine it would have been fully drank. I can't afford to throw out that much liquid gold, it is my favorite drink after all.We've found half drunk orange juices, waters, teas, sodas, even those ready to drink alcoholic beverages, like rum and coke in a can. If we see a can or bottle on the side of the road, we will stop the car if it's safe and pick it up, hey you don't find 10 cents lying on the ground everywhere now do you? All drink companies have raised their prices but not just the ten cents, some have gone up 20, which I think is utterly ridiculous!

There are a few options to return your recyclables, the one I love is the reverse vending machine. I'm used to this as NY has had them for years, but these are better! They also have places you can drop it off and they'll count it for you, um, no I want to do the counting.  One machine takes only glass, the other machine takes plastic, cans and flavoured milk cartons and juice boxes. This is a great idea compared to what I'm used to with plastic, glass and cans having to be put into separate machines.  Also unlike NY reverse vending machines, you can get a cash voucher or you can set up a PayPal account and have the money transferred into your bank account almost the same day except on weekends where you need to wait till Monday. The cash vouchers can only be used at one supermarket which kind of sucks if you don't have one nearby. The Tomra reverse vending machines are very popular, we stopped by the other week and there wasn't a parking spot to be found. It's fairly clean inside with people always coming in. This is a great way to clean up the streets and earn some spare money, boy do we need it.

The Other Day I Became an Australian Citizen!...

After living in Australia for 6 1/2 years, the other  day I  became an Aussie Citizen! I am now required to vote in all elections, serve jury duty and get my Aussie passport. It's been a decently long journey, 11 months to be exact. The test I took in January was fairly easy, I got a 100%, but that's because the government here is very similar to that of the US. The things I had to really memorise were the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags and the dates the Constitution were formed and so on. Before taking the test I had to be a Permanent Resident for 4 years before applying for citizenship. I applied in October 2017, received notice to take the test in January 2018, received my acceptance letter in May 2018 and had my official ceremony in September 17, 2018, so all up almost a year to become a citizen. The Ceremony was cool, I sat in front with all the other soon to be citizens, there were 93 of us. Quite a few were families, most were well dressed and some wore jeans and sneakers, one girl wore leggings that had holes in them.  The ceremony began with the Town Cryer (that's funny Toowoomba has one). Mayor Paul Antonio began the formal proceedings. Some of us stood and recited the Australian Citizenship Pledge: From this time forward, under God, I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.  The others stood after us and recited: As an Australian citizen, I affirm my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I uphold and obey. Hubby noticed most people stood for the first one.We then got called up alphabetically by name, received our Citizenship certificates in a sealed envelope and a grevillea (yay another addition to our collection) and our photos taken with the Mayor. Those photos will be sent to our homes in a few weeks, how cool! After everyone received their certificates everyone stood and sang Australia's National Anthem. Afterwards we had refreshments of lamingtons and 2 types of sandwiches.

Volunteering at an Op Shop....

Since I can't seem to find a job, volunteering is the next avenue to somehow get out of my funk. At least this way I'm somehow contributing to society and talking to people, the cat cannot talk back to me, so sometimes I need a little more company. I'm volunteering at a Red Cross Op Shop for about a month now and it's really cool. I thought op shops were just places people donated their old clothes and other people bought them cheap. It seems stores donate too, so technically it's brand new clothes, in a recognised brand that's never been worn, at a considerably reduced price. For example yesterday a box came in and I opened it, tagged the items and priced them. I saw a lovely black cardigan from a brand I love and can no longer afford. As a volunteer (unpaid employee) we get a 20% discount on any purchase, so I paid $12 for my cardigan. When I got home I googled my cardigan and full retail price is $80! I could not believe it! I need to rethink how I purchase clothes from now on. Some of the donated brands are from Myer and some are from K-Mart and Target and other stores I'm not too familiar with, both high and low end brands. Also by volunteering here I've learned which brands are low, mid or high end. Some I already knew, like Calvin Klein is high end, it's high end in the US so of course here too. R.M.Williams is an Aussie high end (knew this - bloody expensive even when it's on sale).  Someone donated a dress from Banana Republic and it made me smile, there is no Banana Republic here so a little bit of nostalgia for me. I did see an I.N.C. blouse the other day, I miss that Macy's brand. No one there had ever heard of INC and therefore priced it as a low end blouse $7. I laughed in my head as INC is definitely a mid.

Op Shops sell women's clothing, all sorts of tops, from summer tank tops to heavy sweaters, dresses, skirts,  jeans, slacks and shoes and jackets of all sort. They have men's clothing  and some kids clothing too. There's a store in Brisbane that sells wedding gowns, why pay thousands? They sell homewares, tea and coffee cups, some are antique and crystal. Brand new, never used blankets, candles, costume jewelry, hats, gloves and even watches. Discounted books anyone? They sell them too, along with CD's and DVD's. Donated bags, some Coach and other leather no name bags. They sell scarves, summery ones and thick wintery ones that we need right now. Belts and sunglasses too, it's amazing what you can find for a bargain in an op shop. Here's a photo of my little coffee cup set I got for just $8.00.