Christmas Down Under...

So, I'll be celebrating my first Christmas in Australia this year. We have bought ourselves a little 3 foot Christmas tree from Target it's tiny but it serves it's purpose. The malls are packed with people doing their Christmas shopping, last night at my local mall they were going to be open for 36 hours straight and when we left just before midnight, there were still many people coming in. Houses are lit with all kinds of lights, kinda reminds me of Pitkin Avenue in Ozone Park. People here enter contests to see who has the best lights. Fake trees are more popular then real trees as the real trees come up from Victoria, but you can also get them from the Scouts. Food here is plentiful, with seafood being very popular for Christmas lunches. Roasted hams and turkeys are also very popular. Down at the Queens Street Mall Meyer has a Christmas parade, they have kids dancing and singing, there's the nativity with sheep and goats and Mary riding a donkey next to Joseph, followed by the Three Kings literally on camels, which was so cool to see. As with the Macy's day parade this parade ends with Santa Claus  but here they have two real live reindeer. It is funny watching the people with the pooper-scoopers walking behind each set of animals as the parade is not on a street rather the mall which has closed of Queen Street to all traffic for quite a few years. It's kind of like what Bloomberg did in the city with Broadway. 

As Christmas is Tuesday and I'm in the tropics it almost doesn't feel like it, being used to the cold, but it's also cool wearing strappy sandals for Christmas Mass and the lunches and dinners following. I miss my family back home, I'm happy to be with my husband but I miss seeing my friends and hanging out with them. I'm happy I've spoken to my dad and my brother on Skype and shown my dad our little muppet. I wish I could share my cookies and rum balls with those I shared  with last year. Ahh to win the lottery and be able to see my friends and family whenever I please would be such a wonderful thing. My husband is on vacation starting Monday for two weeks, I see beach time in the near future. I have no idea yet what we're going to do to celebrate the New Year but I know it will be warm and there will be Sparkling drank.  The end of the world did not happen, as I write this it is 4:06pm on the 21st of December in Australia and its 1:06am New York time. Next blog will be in the New Year. I wish all my friends and family a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!  

Snacks in Australia...

There are many different snacks here and instead of writing about them I'll just be snapping photos and posting them. The Burger Rings remind me of Wise Onion Rings. The Doritos are slightly different than the US version. You cannot go into a grocery store and buy nacho cheese, you can buy plenty of salsa but no queso.

Unemployed...

So, coming to Australia and not having to work for a bit seemed so nice. It is nice, but there's one thing I do miss about working.....the MONEY. If my husband brought home over $100k, we could easily afford me not working. I want to buy clothes, I have gained 20lbs since being here and really cannot afford to buy a whole new wardrobe. The summer is almost here, today will be 92F and all I can wear are some dresses that I have that are not fitted. Most of my shorts are tight, or just uncomfortable because it seems I've gained inches in my ass, my thighs, my belly and my boobs (they were big enough already). I feel I have no drive or motivation, it sucks, I have this laziness in me that could easily sit around and just do nothing, then I get angry at myself. Two things I hate most are having to do dishes and an unmade bed. For the bed, it's a joy to do, though a slight pain in the ass with a king, but T "helps" so it's rather fun. The sink here is on the smallish side and when I cook or bake it's a pain to wash things when the pans don't fit in the sink, plus the water is a little on the hard side and I've noticed spots on my glasses and utensils (hate). Having a job would put me in contact with people. I go through days without speaking to anyone verbally other than my husband, I do love him very much, but sometimes you just want to talk to another woman. Once or twice a week I call my mom on Skype, but really what I want is female chit chat, sharing recipes and things I used to do at MFS. I sooo don't miss that place and the silliness of many of their procedures and conduct, but I do miss the people I would speak with on a daily basis. I am determined to find a job and soon as I will have no money to buy my husband a Christmas present or to put gas in my car. I'm waiting for my mom to access my old computer and see if my resume is in there, I thought I had put it on a memory stick, but the only thing on it are photos, and that won't help me find a job here. I pray hard that we win the lotto, so I don't have to worry about working, but I need to get a job for my own sanity. If I don't get a job soon, there will be no money for our trip in July to New York and Croatia, and that would upset me greatly. :(

Transportation...

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. 

Annoyed...

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. 

My new car...

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. 

Loose Change Menu...

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.