16th December 2008

Council living is going as well as can be expected, Grumpy old lady has now turned into Grumpy old avoidance lady. Unfortunately, I have had to temporarily give up on converting her to the lighter side, because if she catches sight of me she dashes for cover. But don’t lose hope – I will carry on fighting the good fight. Haven’t seen China Man much lately, then again I have been low on the washing pile and have not needed to sneak down to the laundry room in the shadows of the night. Have managed to meet (and talk with) Married to PHD Indian lady, she lives at number five, and her husband has been studying for his PHD. She advised me that hanging my washing on the communal line, would not be wise, and to continue using my wash drier on the balcony. I did not see the need to confess that the laundry drier was merely for show and that in fact I had a lovely tumble drier stashed away in my pantry- sized kitchen.

Amanda has been pretty quiet, apart from the other night when she was banging on aging rocker’s window (and doors) to let her inside. And to be honest, we have our TV on so loud at night that I am unable to report on how Hearing Impaired Man is doing. Thankfully he cannot compete with our lovely new 45cm LCD. And I am pleased to announce that we have two new additions to the council flat characters…

Meet Skeletal Man (aka aging rocker number 2), he is about 6ft2, always wears the same faded jeans and long sleeved black shirt, Ray Ban Wayfarer’s (aka Madonna sun glasses) and he’s in his early sixties and skinny as a rake… we are not sure why he is so damn skinny, because every morning he goes for a walk, and then comes back with a packet of food. Perhaps he is the owner of a massive cat or something.

Meet Local Eavngelist and Chinese immigrant , they rocked up one evening to preach the gospel at our door and Bern kept them talking for about half an hour, eventually I think they were so busy trying to compete with Bernard’s theories that the talk of immigration became much easier, and then they were on their merry way.  So you see, you don’t have to ever be rude… put a smile on your dial, and just talk a while.

We celebrated our five year anniversary with a lovely boat ferry trip up the Torrens River.  What a setting, but oh what an amusing trip. The ferry pilot (if that is the correct terminology) had his girlfriend on the ride with him. I kept nudging Bern to say – ‘Did you see her pay the $10, I didn’t’. She was clearly having mobile phone troubles, and required the help of her man. So there we were, about ten of us on this sightseeing ferry, with a tour guide that was more involved in a broken mobile or two than explaining the sights and sounds. Occasionally his concentration from the mobile’s would break and he would mumble some obscure inaudible fact through the loud speaker. The best was yet to come when he pulled to the side, for her to jump off and collect… would you believe ANOTHER mobile phone. So there we wait, girlfriend hops off the ferry… and he explains nothing. She jumps back on, mobile box and packet in hand… and off we go back to the ferry stop.

On the same note about pilots / drivers just stopping for arb reasons, we had a bus driver the other morning that left us all sitting in the bus for 5 minutes. He stopped at one of the Hyde Park regular stops, just outside ‘The Hyde’ (a local pub / tavern). We assumed it was perhaps for a toilet break, but could not help cracking jokes about the driver going for a drink. I mean, imagine this happening in South Africa… someone would have driven the idling bus away, I can just imagine the headlines, ’40 people highjacked whilst bus driver goes for pee break’. Eventually the driver gets back on, and Bernard quips ‘Do you feel a whole lot better?’ and the bus driver remarks… ‘Yeah, that pint did me wonders’…

The silence in the bus was obvious… was he or wasn’t he joking…

We also managed to get the last few decorations for our Christmas tree. We have started a fun tradition this year, everywhere we go we pick up a decoration that would remind us of the visited area. So from Victor Harbour we have a little penguin, from Hahndorf we have a decorative mini cuckoo clock, from Myer we have a metal decoration in the shape of the Aussie continent  and of course, Chinatown is represented by a little red and gold Chinese lantern. One thing I love about being here, is that the Aussies seem so festive, and REALLY geared up for the festive season. In local shops you can buy Christmas hats galore, Christmas T-Shirts (yes, Becca and I both have one),Christmas socks / ties,  Christmas earings, Christmas cutlery and crockey, Christmas EVERYTHING!!! In our area, all the trees that line the streets have huge red bows tied around them, there’s lights on the verandah’s and candy canes in the garden… and do you know what, they don’t disappear…

On Thursday Morning we decided to pluck up the courage and book for our learners licenses. I mean, really, why we can’t just convert our old ones… So off we go to Services SA, rather confidently, ready to book. Only, when we get there, and explain that we want to book, the kind gentleman says (like most Aussies do) ‘No worries, no need to book, you wanna write it now’? No worries, had he gone mad?!? And rather unconfidently with sweat dripping off the brows, we have to explain that we feel we might like to learn for the test. So we sheepishly walk out the office with our $5 learners book, to learn from… perhaps there’s a reason why we can’t JUST convert, after all, there are a few differences here and there. Thursday afternoon, we had to go back into the city for an appointment with a Commissioner of Oaths. Boy oh boy, I thought getting a document signed by a commissioner was part of someone’s civic duty. No way!! We had to pay this lawyer $75… for … wait for it… every fifteen minutes. She must have thought were were the rudest people, because we just wanted to sign and get out of there. We ended up paying $110 and then when we got home… dumbass (that would be me) realized that we hadn’t given her all the documents to sign. And all I could do was cry… and I know, crying doesn’t help. But to pay someone $75 for literally one signature and a Charlie chat is gut wrenching, especially when you aren’t yet earning dollars, and are spending these pathetic Rands buy the thousand. Kindly she agreed to only charge us $25 for the second document, and then after signing it the next day, she decided not to charge us anything extra. (Phew!)

On Friday we bussed our way to Manny and Lee’s office, the highlight of Becca’s morning I am sure, and ours too as we were given very yummy koeksisters. The only problem was that two minutes into the bus ride, I couldn’t quite remember if I had switched my hair straightner off… and as every women who has used (or attempted to use) one, you will know just how hot they can actually get! And let’s just remember that you can’t just say ‘hey Mister bus driver, can you just take me back home, just want to make sure our rented flat doesn’t burn down’. So for two hours I debated whether I had actually turned it off, and eventually was very relieved when Bern suggested we go check… so we bussed it back home… it was actually off… but still, I felt a whole lot better. The great thing about the bus rides is that we buy a Day Trip ticket – we each pay $8, and for the whole day you can catch the bus, train and tram as much as you wish. The even better part is that on holidays and weekends kids go free…

Bern received a call from a recruitment company whilst we were on our way to check the straightner’s on/off status, and he has an interview with the recruiter on Monday. Tuesday, if all goes well, Bernard will have his interview with the company. Let’s hope we have some good news for you soon.

After the exciting news, Bernard and I got chatting about where we would then live, and what school Becca could probably go to… and Rebecca butts in and says… ‘yes, I need a stable house’… we think she meant  that she needed a stable environment, but anyway it was definitely a classic remark that left us in hysterics, and her feeling a bit red-cheeked. She’s obviously overheard our chats about making sure she feels secure and has a sense of stability.

We’ve been going around to many shopping centres / malls/ plaza’s / markets, and there are sales galore. BUT we have been told to hold off for the sales that happen on the 26^th and 27^th of December. I will report back to tell you if there is any truth to these rumours. But I am really hoping g to collect some bargains… remember we have to stock up all over again. Another thing, I find surprising, is that before we left  many people warned us that the clothing in Australia wasn’t up to the South African standards. But, I have to begin to wonder where they are living. The shopping here in Adelaide is beyond anyone’s wildest dreams and I am talking for Men, Women, Overweight, Underweight… etc etc… I could easily bankrupt us, just on clothing purchases (ah yes, and Christmas décor).

I am still getting used to the TV News over here, it’s really different (it’s more like watching Carte Blanche with a weather report), for example Wednesday’s main highlights on the seven o’clock news were:

·         Stay at home mother seeks answers from Vodafone, reason:  she cannot get a contract because they don’t see housewife as an occupation… (I think she missed the point she has no credit history… so, duh)

·         Tenant in tears because the house she rents has pigeons nesting in a large tree, causing disease and her sick daughter cannot play outside.

·         1000 pensioners able to have a free flight with tiger airlines, all they have to do to qualify is log onto Tiger airlines website…

·         Bicycle bandit, he has robbed a bank/s on his bicycle.

·         Cancellation fees for mortgage loans, and how people are mad with the astronomical charges on their mortgage’s.

·         Certain thinkers wanting unemployment benefits only for a period of say six months, as opposed to an ongoing thing. They even showed how easy it was for a young unskilled male to get a job, that would potentially earn him about $500 a week.

We have still been doing the whole park thing, like the rest of Adelaide. The parks are always full of life… Bern bought us a badminton set for us to ‘jol’ around with whilst Becca rides, and that has been such a blast. We must have looked really stupid whilst we were trying to get the hang of the sport, but all ended well, apart from the battered shuttlecock… and Becca’s grazed legs. She’s learning the hard way about speed, sand and bicycles… but it’s all good… everything…

… we’ve just learnt a sense of adventure goes a long way….