As you all are very aware by now, our days in the land down under are numbered. Six to be exact. And I'm working twleve hour shifts for two of those. We have to be packed and out of the flat in five days. You'd think we'd be at least a little prepared but we are far from it. I am anyway. Gary might say he's ready. It only ever takes him 2 minutes to pack though, no matter what he's packing, where he's going or how long he's going for. What is it with some men ? I'm not as bad as some women though either. I met my friend Michelle in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and she packed a bigger suitcase for those four days than I did for my entire year in Oz.
Well, for those of you living in a hole (or in Canada where we don't follow any sport that's not played with sticks), the Socceroos are out of the World Cup. To hear Australians tell it, the Socceroos were unfairly "robbed" of the cup after Italy scored a penalty kick. They figure the refs made a poor call in calling the foul in the first place, but Australians are very, very poor losers. Many Aussies I've spoken to will admit this but I suppose they will do what it takes to ease the pain. They are considering having a heros welcome home parade for the team who has just got back from Germany, but apparently the team isn't really up for it considering they didn't even make it into the quarter finals. Ahhh... I'll miss Australia. I really will.
In other sports related news I bought Gary and I tickets to see Australian rules football this Saturday where the Sydney Swans will take on the Fremantle (a perth suburb) Dockers. As a West Coast Eagles fan (Perth's other team), I will have a hard time cheering for either of those two teams but it is the last game playing here in Sydney before we leave and even though all year I have wanted to see a game, I left it til the last minute to actually go. I might still wear my West Coast scarf to show my loyalty but I don't know if that's in poor taste.
Hopefully we can take photos in the Oval to post for you all on flickr.
Showing posts with label perth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label perth. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
Crossing Australia By Train
Tracie and I bought a six month rail pass to ride the train all over the country. It worked out to be a savings for us, but that's mainly because we used it to go from Perth to Adelaide twice, to Alice Springs and then to Sydney.
If you aren't planning on riding the train pretty much every where it goes, it is cheaper to just buy regular tickets. But unless you really like trains, just fly. It is better than the train.
The train takes a very long time and for a major portion of that time, it is flatter than a pancake. I'm from the prairies and I know flat. The several thousand miles between Perth and Adelaide is flat.
There isn't much to do on the train, so you have to entertain yourselves. We played a lot of cards and visited with people we met on the Train. I really recommend going to the lounge car asap because it is much more comfortable than the regular seats.
We met a lot of fellow travellers on the train. People from northern Europe biking around the country. A French girl backpacking and lots of other interesting people.
I don't know why but the first leg of the trip to Kalgoorlie seems to take a disproportionately long time. There is a stop in Kalgoorlie for a longer than necessary amount of time and then you get back on and the train goes to the edge of town and sits for several hours. I guess it just has a lot to do with train scheduling. It seems as if you cover a lot more miles toward the end of the trip rather than the start.
Most maps of Australia show eight or nine dots along the track between the start and finish. Only one of those dots actually represents a town. Another represents a fuelling station. The rest represent structures along the track. Those structures are signposts with names that match the dots on the map. To be fair there are gravel tracks that cross the train tracks every so often, but take it from me there is no reason to be out there.
On our second trip across, the train stopped to drop off supplies for a couple of families. Their kids looked like they enjoyed seeing all the people on the train. I get the feeling that going to get supplies from the train is a pretty major outing for those kids.
You can tell when you are getting closer to Adelaide because there starts to be a little grass. Then the grass turns a little greener, then there are bushes then trees and so on until you pull into town.
Most Australians say there there is nothing to do in Adelaide. Often people not from Australia will tell you that too. I was only there for a couple of days, but I thought that it was a very beautiful town. There are lots of old buildings and lots of churches.
We went to the museum while we were there. Actually I think we sort of snuck into it by accident. We went into a part that was free and as we were looking around we found a corridor that joined to another part of the museum and so we just went over. When we were done looking at the stuff, we left through the most obvious exit and there were people at a desk charging admission. I guess we got lucky and didn't have to pay.
After a short while we realized that we were just sort of killing time in Adelaide so we moved on to Melbourne, although I would have liked to see a little more of Adelaide we didn't have the time, money or motivation.
-Gary Milner
If you aren't planning on riding the train pretty much every where it goes, it is cheaper to just buy regular tickets. But unless you really like trains, just fly. It is better than the train.
The train takes a very long time and for a major portion of that time, it is flatter than a pancake. I'm from the prairies and I know flat. The several thousand miles between Perth and Adelaide is flat.
There isn't much to do on the train, so you have to entertain yourselves. We played a lot of cards and visited with people we met on the Train. I really recommend going to the lounge car asap because it is much more comfortable than the regular seats.
We met a lot of fellow travellers on the train. People from northern Europe biking around the country. A French girl backpacking and lots of other interesting people.
I don't know why but the first leg of the trip to Kalgoorlie seems to take a disproportionately long time. There is a stop in Kalgoorlie for a longer than necessary amount of time and then you get back on and the train goes to the edge of town and sits for several hours. I guess it just has a lot to do with train scheduling. It seems as if you cover a lot more miles toward the end of the trip rather than the start.
Most maps of Australia show eight or nine dots along the track between the start and finish. Only one of those dots actually represents a town. Another represents a fuelling station. The rest represent structures along the track. Those structures are signposts with names that match the dots on the map. To be fair there are gravel tracks that cross the train tracks every so often, but take it from me there is no reason to be out there.
On our second trip across, the train stopped to drop off supplies for a couple of families. Their kids looked like they enjoyed seeing all the people on the train. I get the feeling that going to get supplies from the train is a pretty major outing for those kids.
You can tell when you are getting closer to Adelaide because there starts to be a little grass. Then the grass turns a little greener, then there are bushes then trees and so on until you pull into town.
Most Australians say there there is nothing to do in Adelaide. Often people not from Australia will tell you that too. I was only there for a couple of days, but I thought that it was a very beautiful town. There are lots of old buildings and lots of churches.
We went to the museum while we were there. Actually I think we sort of snuck into it by accident. We went into a part that was free and as we were looking around we found a corridor that joined to another part of the museum and so we just went over. When we were done looking at the stuff, we left through the most obvious exit and there were people at a desk charging admission. I guess we got lucky and didn't have to pay.
After a short while we realized that we were just sort of killing time in Adelaide so we moved on to Melbourne, although I would have liked to see a little more of Adelaide we didn't have the time, money or motivation.
-Gary Milner
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Perth finished
Perth is a really nice town. It is probably the only city in the world with a population of 1.47 million that feels as if it only has 250,000. Perth is growing a break neck speed. It is a city that is heavily reliant on natural resources and the mining industry plays a huge role.
There are a lot of engineers and consultants and consultant engineers in Perth, just like in Calgary.
While I like Perth it does have the reputation of being a boring place. I would have to say that there are no boring places, just boring people. A place is as fun as you make it. That being said everything is closed by 6:00PM. Most things are closed on Sunday. They do have late night shopping on Thursday in the suburbs (it ends at 9:00pm) and Friday's in the CBD (it also ends at 9:00). Forget about getting a bus anywhere after that.
Be prepared to wait for an hour any other time you want a bus. Hopefully you don't have to be there at 8:00 because it just ain't going to happen if you don't have a car. Perth is very car dependant, more so that Calgary by a long shot.
There are lots of fun things to do in and around Perth. I already talked about the beach, but I forgot to mention kite boarding. It's a lot like snow boarding only you have a parachute and you skim across the water instead of snow. It looks like it would cost about $1500 to get set up. I wish I would have found out about it a lot sooner to give me some time to save up some money. It looks spectacularly fun.
Another fun thing is boating. You can rent these catamarans down at the river. Tracie and I went one afternoon for an hour. I thought that we would need some instruction other than, "aim for the convention centre and turn away from the wind on your way back for the best ride." or at least mandatory life jackets. It turns out that that I could be an admiral and Tracie would make a pretty good ordinary sailor. Sailing is pretty fun, but with the boat we rented you do get pretty wet, even if you are careful.
Before I leave Perth, I'll tell you this fact. Perth is considered to be the world's most isolated city. That is to say that it is the city farthest away from any other city with over one million people.
-Gary Milner
There are a lot of engineers and consultants and consultant engineers in Perth, just like in Calgary.
While I like Perth it does have the reputation of being a boring place. I would have to say that there are no boring places, just boring people. A place is as fun as you make it. That being said everything is closed by 6:00PM. Most things are closed on Sunday. They do have late night shopping on Thursday in the suburbs (it ends at 9:00pm) and Friday's in the CBD (it also ends at 9:00). Forget about getting a bus anywhere after that.
Be prepared to wait for an hour any other time you want a bus. Hopefully you don't have to be there at 8:00 because it just ain't going to happen if you don't have a car. Perth is very car dependant, more so that Calgary by a long shot.
There are lots of fun things to do in and around Perth. I already talked about the beach, but I forgot to mention kite boarding. It's a lot like snow boarding only you have a parachute and you skim across the water instead of snow. It looks like it would cost about $1500 to get set up. I wish I would have found out about it a lot sooner to give me some time to save up some money. It looks spectacularly fun.
Another fun thing is boating. You can rent these catamarans down at the river. Tracie and I went one afternoon for an hour. I thought that we would need some instruction other than, "aim for the convention centre and turn away from the wind on your way back for the best ride." or at least mandatory life jackets. It turns out that that I could be an admiral and Tracie would make a pretty good ordinary sailor. Sailing is pretty fun, but with the boat we rented you do get pretty wet, even if you are careful.
Before I leave Perth, I'll tell you this fact. Perth is considered to be the world's most isolated city. That is to say that it is the city farthest away from any other city with over one million people.
-Gary Milner
Friday, June 23, 2006
People in Perth
This is Nick. He is tied with a very good friend of mine for being the nicest person I have ever met. He was my boss at the fruit shop. We stayed with him and his wife for a week or so before we left for Melbourne and I stayed with him for a while when I got back to Perth from the east coast.
Nick invited me to join him in his new shop to learn how to run it and eventually take it over. It would have been a very lucrative deal and would probably have made me a millionaire over the next 10 years. The situation wasn't exactly right and I had to turn him down, unfortunately.
Paul, our first landlord was a very interesting fellow. He is a very tall guy with huge dreadlocks. He ran a hostel in the past, but says that running a hostel doesn't pay very much and you have to do it because you love the hostel lifestyle. It takes all your time and you don't have a life outside of it. Paul got out of the hostel business and now rents furnished apartments and sets up tourists with all sorts of tours. It seems to be a very profitable venture. On the weekends he is a DJ in a local park and he uses copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. His looks and drug use don't really go along with his business sense. Paul is quite a character.
Tim is a barrister or maybe a solicitor. I'm not sure which. He seems like a barrister though. He is an interesting person that must measure his days in six-minute increments. (It will be a sad day when they start per-second billing like the telephone companies). He was called to be the Elders quorum president when we first arrived in Perth and then to be the Bishop a few weeks before we left. He organized an Australia Day cricket grudge match between the Elders and the Priests to give the priests a chance to heal their pride after they lost a few weeks before.
Justin is Nick's son. He is a carpenter that specializes in finishing kitchens. Like many sons he doesn't seem to want to work in the family business with his dad, but was very happy to build all the shelving units for the new shop. Justin is a great guy. I worked in the old shop with his wife. They took a trip to Italy around the same time Tracie and I were in Melbourne and Tasmania. Justin's wife stayed a few weeks longer in Italy to learn Italian a little bit better. Justin speaks Italian because he served his mission there. His dad, Nick, emigrated to Australia from Italy when he was 11 and so Justin feels strong ties to Italy even though he was born in Australia.
Dermot is a carpenter from Ireland. After living and finding a girlfriend in New York for a couple of years, has decided to live and work in Perth. He is a great guy. He is very fun and can be summed up by the phrase, "Yes let's". He is up for everything and really enjoys going to the ocean for early morning body boarding or fishing. He got Tracie and me hooked on fishing. Having never really fished by myself before, I can really appreciate how calming it can be. He wants to get a motorbike but is being strongly discouraged by Michele.
Michele is Dermot's girlfriend and Tracie's best friend. She is also from Ireland but emigrated to New York when she was 12. She has a strong New York accent, but it turns Irish when she gets a little drunk. Like Tracie Michele is a nurse working for a nursing agency. She is wants to be sponsored for a working visa and eventually get permanent residency here in Australia. She has a lot of stress and is a bit of a worrier. Tracie calms her down a lot. I am jealous of Tracie and Michele's friendship.
Gerry is one of our current flat mates here in Sydney. He works for a company rents properties from people, furnishes them and then sublets them to all types of people. Gerry shows the properties to prospective renters. He is also an aspiring actor. He was in a show called, 'tick, tick, boom' and is in a new show called, 'Rent'. Rent was recently made into a movie because of the success of other musical movies. He is from Scotland and is supporting England in the world cup, sort of, because he has an English girlfriend.
Cedric is French. He is a great guy. Very fun. When Tracie had her second rental car accident and I told her not to worry, "It's only money". He really liked the phrase a lot and co-opted it into his meagre English vocabulary. He uses a bit differently than I do, he says it to mean spend your money having the time of your life. Money comes and go but the memories last until you get the mad cow disease. We had a really good time on his birthday with him and two of his French friends.
Sarah is a writer for an advertorial home magazine. It seems like a job I would love. Her magazine is owned by a Singaporean publisher who has a small portfolio of 10-12 magazines. Her magazine publishes four times per year. It looks very good. She asked me if I had any photos of Perth the magazine could use. They approved one and will pay me $100 when I invoice them. Sarah is Gerry's girlfriend and suppose his acting aspirations.
Liam was my boss at the restaurant. I like him a lot, but could hardly understand a word he said. He is from Thailand and has a thick accent. To make matters worse he learned English in Australia and so he actually has two accents for the price of one. I'm told that he is a very good boss compared to a lot of chefs who are real jerk-faces. I found Liam to be very nice.
Stephen is the owner of a small internet cafe in Northbridge. Tracie and I were two of his very first customers and he went out of his way to be nice to us. Over the few months we were there we saw his business grow along with the long hours he worked there. He would let us in while keeping others out because he liked us. In fact he gave Tracie his card so that we could call his cellphone if the cafe was closed and he would open for us. Sometime he was closed to have a little quiet time to work on the computers or something.
Tim the security guard is or was the security guard at the State Library of WA. I think he said that he was retiring soon. Hopefully he doesn't get shot on his last day. He gave us lots of great tips on the things to do and see around Perth. He is a very friendly and likable guy.
Narika is a gal that I worked with for a little while at TSA Telco group. When she was introducing me around the office she kept mishearing my name. After about three tries I settle on Jerry as being close enough. I though she would figure it out on her own. While some people did, her and another woman had to be told. Five weeks after I started there. This is one of my funniest and favourite stories from Australia.
I guess this is getting long and I'm having to think harder and harder to find interesting people to talk about. If I think of more tonight, I'll write more about them in the tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise it will be on to the train and Melbourne tomorrow.
-Gary
Nick invited me to join him in his new shop to learn how to run it and eventually take it over. It would have been a very lucrative deal and would probably have made me a millionaire over the next 10 years. The situation wasn't exactly right and I had to turn him down, unfortunately.
Paul, our first landlord was a very interesting fellow. He is a very tall guy with huge dreadlocks. He ran a hostel in the past, but says that running a hostel doesn't pay very much and you have to do it because you love the hostel lifestyle. It takes all your time and you don't have a life outside of it. Paul got out of the hostel business and now rents furnished apartments and sets up tourists with all sorts of tours. It seems to be a very profitable venture. On the weekends he is a DJ in a local park and he uses copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. His looks and drug use don't really go along with his business sense. Paul is quite a character.
Tim is a barrister or maybe a solicitor. I'm not sure which. He seems like a barrister though. He is an interesting person that must measure his days in six-minute increments. (It will be a sad day when they start per-second billing like the telephone companies). He was called to be the Elders quorum president when we first arrived in Perth and then to be the Bishop a few weeks before we left. He organized an Australia Day cricket grudge match between the Elders and the Priests to give the priests a chance to heal their pride after they lost a few weeks before.
Justin is Nick's son. He is a carpenter that specializes in finishing kitchens. Like many sons he doesn't seem to want to work in the family business with his dad, but was very happy to build all the shelving units for the new shop. Justin is a great guy. I worked in the old shop with his wife. They took a trip to Italy around the same time Tracie and I were in Melbourne and Tasmania. Justin's wife stayed a few weeks longer in Italy to learn Italian a little bit better. Justin speaks Italian because he served his mission there. His dad, Nick, emigrated to Australia from Italy when he was 11 and so Justin feels strong ties to Italy even though he was born in Australia.
Dermot is a carpenter from Ireland. After living and finding a girlfriend in New York for a couple of years, has decided to live and work in Perth. He is a great guy. He is very fun and can be summed up by the phrase, "Yes let's". He is up for everything and really enjoys going to the ocean for early morning body boarding or fishing. He got Tracie and me hooked on fishing. Having never really fished by myself before, I can really appreciate how calming it can be. He wants to get a motorbike but is being strongly discouraged by Michele.
Michele is Dermot's girlfriend and Tracie's best friend. She is also from Ireland but emigrated to New York when she was 12. She has a strong New York accent, but it turns Irish when she gets a little drunk. Like Tracie Michele is a nurse working for a nursing agency. She is wants to be sponsored for a working visa and eventually get permanent residency here in Australia. She has a lot of stress and is a bit of a worrier. Tracie calms her down a lot. I am jealous of Tracie and Michele's friendship.
Gerry is one of our current flat mates here in Sydney. He works for a company rents properties from people, furnishes them and then sublets them to all types of people. Gerry shows the properties to prospective renters. He is also an aspiring actor. He was in a show called, 'tick, tick, boom' and is in a new show called, 'Rent'. Rent was recently made into a movie because of the success of other musical movies. He is from Scotland and is supporting England in the world cup, sort of, because he has an English girlfriend.
Cedric is French. He is a great guy. Very fun. When Tracie had her second rental car accident and I told her not to worry, "It's only money". He really liked the phrase a lot and co-opted it into his meagre English vocabulary. He uses a bit differently than I do, he says it to mean spend your money having the time of your life. Money comes and go but the memories last until you get the mad cow disease. We had a really good time on his birthday with him and two of his French friends.
Sarah is a writer for an advertorial home magazine. It seems like a job I would love. Her magazine is owned by a Singaporean publisher who has a small portfolio of 10-12 magazines. Her magazine publishes four times per year. It looks very good. She asked me if I had any photos of Perth the magazine could use. They approved one and will pay me $100 when I invoice them. Sarah is Gerry's girlfriend and suppose his acting aspirations.
Liam was my boss at the restaurant. I like him a lot, but could hardly understand a word he said. He is from Thailand and has a thick accent. To make matters worse he learned English in Australia and so he actually has two accents for the price of one. I'm told that he is a very good boss compared to a lot of chefs who are real jerk-faces. I found Liam to be very nice.
Stephen is the owner of a small internet cafe in Northbridge. Tracie and I were two of his very first customers and he went out of his way to be nice to us. Over the few months we were there we saw his business grow along with the long hours he worked there. He would let us in while keeping others out because he liked us. In fact he gave Tracie his card so that we could call his cellphone if the cafe was closed and he would open for us. Sometime he was closed to have a little quiet time to work on the computers or something.
Tim the security guard is or was the security guard at the State Library of WA. I think he said that he was retiring soon. Hopefully he doesn't get shot on his last day. He gave us lots of great tips on the things to do and see around Perth. He is a very friendly and likable guy.
Narika is a gal that I worked with for a little while at TSA Telco group. When she was introducing me around the office she kept mishearing my name. After about three tries I settle on Jerry as being close enough. I though she would figure it out on her own. While some people did, her and another woman had to be told. Five weeks after I started there. This is one of my funniest and favourite stories from Australia.
I guess this is getting long and I'm having to think harder and harder to find interesting people to talk about. If I think of more tonight, I'll write more about them in the tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise it will be on to the train and Melbourne tomorrow.
-Gary
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Perth Continued
One of the things we really liked to do was go to the beach. We did a little swimming and a little body boarding. There were two main beaches where we went.
Cottesloe was the nicer of the two beaches, and the less touristy of the the two, although at the height of summer they were both very crowded. The train went to Cottesloe but not Scarborough so we went to Cottesloe most often. Tracie's near death experience also happened at the other beach so we tended to avoid that one for that reason as well.
We bought the body boards and wet suits right away when we got to Perth. Aside from a few surfers, we were pretty much the only ones at the beach until the end of September.
Cottesloe is a much prettier spot as well. Tons of people have wedding photos done there and there are a lot more trees and grass near the beach than at Scarborough beach. One other thing that Cottesloe has that the other one doesn't is a rock groyne going out into the ocean. This is a good thing because you can fish from it and it also affects the waves and makes them a little bigger as they approach the beach.
Scarborough has a few advantages to. It is a much longer beach. The waves are seem to be a little bigger and a little more consistent. I think Cottesloe is leeward of Rottenest Island. The other good thing about Scarborough is that there are a lot more restaurants near the beach and a giant hotel, although for some that is a drawback.
Two of the things that we did that are my favourites of my entire time here in Australia were going to see the Nambung pinnacle and the Wave Rock.
The pinnacle were much better than the wave rock. They are lime stone structures sticking out of the desert ground. It was one of the most interesting landscapes that I have ever seen. We took a lot of pictures. One picture got taken that I specifically requested not be taken. I had found a semi private bush to use and said to Tracie, "Don't take a picture of me peeing". Apparently in Girl world this means do take a picture of me peeing. At least my back was turned.
We drove around the loop twice. The dirt track they have as a road around the park is lined with rocks about the size of your head to mark the path and the loop is somewhat teardrop shaped. As we were beginning the second lap, Tracie was taking the corner a little wide. I thought to myself, "Tracie is might hit that rock. I won't say anything though because it really bugs her when I critique her driving and she must know it is there anyway."
Sure enough a scraping sound ensued. Luckily the rock was short enough that the paint transferred from the car to the top of the rock was from bottom of the car where it was not noticeable.
The Wave Rock trip was good because we got to see different parts of the Australian landscape. We got to see a much more farming oriented landscape vs a mostly desert scrub landscape on the way to the pinnacles.
The Wave Rock itself was significantly smaller than I expected it to be. But it was very interesting. The rock is used as a rain catcher and supplies the nearby town of about 3000 people with a huge proportion of their water. I saw a small snake almost catch a lizard which was the most exciting thing of all.
I guess the thing I like most about both those trips was that I had time to have long conversations with Tracie. That's one thing I love about road trips with her. That's something I haven't had enough of with Tracie since mid September. And it has been very hard on me. Tracie doesn't understand why I don't like flat mates much even though they are very nice and very good people and why I don't like travelling companions.
Another nice part of Perth is King's Park. The parking inspectors there are jerks but the park itself is very nice. Lots of people get wedding photos done there. King's Park is HUGE! There is a large area of natural fauna and a large area of manicured areas. The entire park over looks the Swan River and the Perth CBD. The view is very good and there are lots of walking paths to explore. It is a must see if you go to Perth.
Well, I guess more about Perth tomorrow. I guess I'm going to talk about the people I met there and maybe the Train ride to Melbourne.
-Gary Milner
Cottesloe was the nicer of the two beaches, and the less touristy of the the two, although at the height of summer they were both very crowded. The train went to Cottesloe but not Scarborough so we went to Cottesloe most often. Tracie's near death experience also happened at the other beach so we tended to avoid that one for that reason as well.
We bought the body boards and wet suits right away when we got to Perth. Aside from a few surfers, we were pretty much the only ones at the beach until the end of September.
Cottesloe is a much prettier spot as well. Tons of people have wedding photos done there and there are a lot more trees and grass near the beach than at Scarborough beach. One other thing that Cottesloe has that the other one doesn't is a rock groyne going out into the ocean. This is a good thing because you can fish from it and it also affects the waves and makes them a little bigger as they approach the beach.
Scarborough has a few advantages to. It is a much longer beach. The waves are seem to be a little bigger and a little more consistent. I think Cottesloe is leeward of Rottenest Island. The other good thing about Scarborough is that there are a lot more restaurants near the beach and a giant hotel, although for some that is a drawback.
Two of the things that we did that are my favourites of my entire time here in Australia were going to see the Nambung pinnacle and the Wave Rock.
The pinnacle were much better than the wave rock. They are lime stone structures sticking out of the desert ground. It was one of the most interesting landscapes that I have ever seen. We took a lot of pictures. One picture got taken that I specifically requested not be taken. I had found a semi private bush to use and said to Tracie, "Don't take a picture of me peeing". Apparently in Girl world this means do take a picture of me peeing. At least my back was turned.
We drove around the loop twice. The dirt track they have as a road around the park is lined with rocks about the size of your head to mark the path and the loop is somewhat teardrop shaped. As we were beginning the second lap, Tracie was taking the corner a little wide. I thought to myself, "Tracie is might hit that rock. I won't say anything though because it really bugs her when I critique her driving and she must know it is there anyway."
Sure enough a scraping sound ensued. Luckily the rock was short enough that the paint transferred from the car to the top of the rock was from bottom of the car where it was not noticeable.
The Wave Rock trip was good because we got to see different parts of the Australian landscape. We got to see a much more farming oriented landscape vs a mostly desert scrub landscape on the way to the pinnacles.
The Wave Rock itself was significantly smaller than I expected it to be. But it was very interesting. The rock is used as a rain catcher and supplies the nearby town of about 3000 people with a huge proportion of their water. I saw a small snake almost catch a lizard which was the most exciting thing of all.
I guess the thing I like most about both those trips was that I had time to have long conversations with Tracie. That's one thing I love about road trips with her. That's something I haven't had enough of with Tracie since mid September. And it has been very hard on me. Tracie doesn't understand why I don't like flat mates much even though they are very nice and very good people and why I don't like travelling companions.
Another nice part of Perth is King's Park. The parking inspectors there are jerks but the park itself is very nice. Lots of people get wedding photos done there. King's Park is HUGE! There is a large area of natural fauna and a large area of manicured areas. The entire park over looks the Swan River and the Perth CBD. The view is very good and there are lots of walking paths to explore. It is a must see if you go to Perth.
Well, I guess more about Perth tomorrow. I guess I'm going to talk about the people I met there and maybe the Train ride to Melbourne.
-Gary Milner
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Perth Review
When we arrived in Perth, we had no idea what we were going to do. We didn't have a place to stay, we didn't know anyone there. Luckily we had a number for a hostel in Northbridge on Money street and were able to call them from a pay phone.
Chance was on our side because the girl who answered the phone was on her way to work at the hostel and agreed to pick us up at the airport and bring us to the hostel for free. We didn't even know what direction the city was in.
Outside the airport, it was the coldest day that I have seen in the entire time we have been in Australia. We could see our breath! It hasn't been that cold since. It was a big shock considering that it was 30+ degrees in Singapore.
One of us tried to get into the drivers side by mistake, I can't remember who but I'm sure Tracie does, me would be safe bet, but I might have taken the back to be nice to Tracie. The hostel girl ask if we wanted to drive and thought it was pretty funny.
We were in the Hostel for a couple of nights but soon moved onto the apartment in Highgate. The hostel was OK, not many people were there at the time which for any hostel is a big plus.
The new apartment was nice and we had a couple of weeks alone there before our roommate showed up. This apartment was a little cheaper than a private one would have been, but looking back, I would get the private one next time.
The flat had single beds pushed together and no heater. We made do with pushing the beds together (which is what we have been doing for pretty much the entire time we have been in Australia) and by buying our own space heater. Luckily it was the end of winter clearance time and we were able to pick up an electric heater for only 12 dollars. There were a lot of cold nights even with the heater.
The best thing about the apartment was that it had a washing machine in the bathroom. I haven't been in a place without one since I left Argentina seven years ago and not having one is a real pain. Although there was no clothes dryer, that isn't as big a problem as it seems especially in places where there is no below freezing weather. I don't really like to hand the clothes to dry because they end up crunchy (especially sock and jeans) and get bleached by the sun much more quickly than I would have thought.
The best thing about the being in the building was that we had two really good neighbours and Michele has turned out to be Tracie's best friend in Australia.
The location was also really good because it was only a 15 minute walk downtown which meant that we did a lot of walking and didn't really need a car. In fact finding parking, and having to pay for parking along with buying gasoline made not having a car somewhat of a blessing. We were also about an hours walk away from Blockbuster so I could still rent as many movies as I wanted.
Did I ever tell you that I met a guy living in Argentina who liked to go to Blockbuster there because, "It smells like America"?
Tracie started working pretty much right away for WANA, a nursing agency in Perth. I think she got her first shift with in the first two weeks.
It took me a little while longer. Eventually I got a job doing dishes in a Restaurant. It paid $14 per hour which wasn't bad and by the end I was working five nights a week. I think they liked me a lot there. I didn't do any screwing around and got the job done well enough. Knowing your place is an important part of being on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Once one of the sous-chefs made one of the steak parmas too small and it made the head chef really mad. The head chef wouldn't let the underling have it to eat and said it was for me. I think it was a little bit because he was mad and a little because he liked me. They would make me special meals all the time. The dish washer before me got in trouble several times by asking the owner for cervesa even though he knew that was against the proper protocol. I think it caused the head chef a real hassle. You must always be offered and never as for a beer. The offered me several bottles of coke at the end of every shift. By the end though I was ready to quit. Dish washing can be fun, but really I'm too old to be doing it. I had another job at the fruit shop during the same time for a morning job, and I liked it too. It was my job to unload the truck. It was pretty much the same thing I was doing at sears only with more fruit and refrigeration.
My hands are cramping up so I will continue tomorrow.
-Gary
Chance was on our side because the girl who answered the phone was on her way to work at the hostel and agreed to pick us up at the airport and bring us to the hostel for free. We didn't even know what direction the city was in.
Outside the airport, it was the coldest day that I have seen in the entire time we have been in Australia. We could see our breath! It hasn't been that cold since. It was a big shock considering that it was 30+ degrees in Singapore.
One of us tried to get into the drivers side by mistake, I can't remember who but I'm sure Tracie does, me would be safe bet, but I might have taken the back to be nice to Tracie. The hostel girl ask if we wanted to drive and thought it was pretty funny.
We were in the Hostel for a couple of nights but soon moved onto the apartment in Highgate. The hostel was OK, not many people were there at the time which for any hostel is a big plus.
The new apartment was nice and we had a couple of weeks alone there before our roommate showed up. This apartment was a little cheaper than a private one would have been, but looking back, I would get the private one next time.
The flat had single beds pushed together and no heater. We made do with pushing the beds together (which is what we have been doing for pretty much the entire time we have been in Australia) and by buying our own space heater. Luckily it was the end of winter clearance time and we were able to pick up an electric heater for only 12 dollars. There were a lot of cold nights even with the heater.
The best thing about the apartment was that it had a washing machine in the bathroom. I haven't been in a place without one since I left Argentina seven years ago and not having one is a real pain. Although there was no clothes dryer, that isn't as big a problem as it seems especially in places where there is no below freezing weather. I don't really like to hand the clothes to dry because they end up crunchy (especially sock and jeans) and get bleached by the sun much more quickly than I would have thought.
The best thing about the being in the building was that we had two really good neighbours and Michele has turned out to be Tracie's best friend in Australia.
The location was also really good because it was only a 15 minute walk downtown which meant that we did a lot of walking and didn't really need a car. In fact finding parking, and having to pay for parking along with buying gasoline made not having a car somewhat of a blessing. We were also about an hours walk away from Blockbuster so I could still rent as many movies as I wanted.
Did I ever tell you that I met a guy living in Argentina who liked to go to Blockbuster there because, "It smells like America"?
Tracie started working pretty much right away for WANA, a nursing agency in Perth. I think she got her first shift with in the first two weeks.
It took me a little while longer. Eventually I got a job doing dishes in a Restaurant. It paid $14 per hour which wasn't bad and by the end I was working five nights a week. I think they liked me a lot there. I didn't do any screwing around and got the job done well enough. Knowing your place is an important part of being on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Once one of the sous-chefs made one of the steak parmas too small and it made the head chef really mad. The head chef wouldn't let the underling have it to eat and said it was for me. I think it was a little bit because he was mad and a little because he liked me. They would make me special meals all the time. The dish washer before me got in trouble several times by asking the owner for cervesa even though he knew that was against the proper protocol. I think it caused the head chef a real hassle. You must always be offered and never as for a beer. The offered me several bottles of coke at the end of every shift. By the end though I was ready to quit. Dish washing can be fun, but really I'm too old to be doing it. I had another job at the fruit shop during the same time for a morning job, and I liked it too. It was my job to unload the truck. It was pretty much the same thing I was doing at sears only with more fruit and refrigeration.
My hands are cramping up so I will continue tomorrow.
-Gary
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Two Weeks
Well, we'll be out of our apartment in two weeks, and the day after that we'll be in Tokyo. It is hard to believe that our time here is virtually over. Eight working days left, thank goodness. I just about fell asleep several times today, but that being said I can use the money.
I'm going to work on a review of the last year here in Australia. It might take a while and I'll probably have to publish is in instalments. I'll be starting with Perth and obviously end in Sydney.
I think that I'll give my impressions of the places and the people we've met. There have been quite a few experiences some good and some bad and I've learned a lot of things. Lots of things about both Tracie and myself. I don't think things will every be the same.
This is a photo from the walk that we took down to Luna Park. You don't see this view of the Sydney harbour bridge very often because they prohibit commercial photography in/of Luna Park without a property release which costs a fortune. There is a big sign at the front gates proclaiming that any photos you can take can only be used for your own personal enjoyment.
I hope that you are personally enjoying this photo of Luna Park and the bridge.
-Gary
I'm going to work on a review of the last year here in Australia. It might take a while and I'll probably have to publish is in instalments. I'll be starting with Perth and obviously end in Sydney.
I think that I'll give my impressions of the places and the people we've met. There have been quite a few experiences some good and some bad and I've learned a lot of things. Lots of things about both Tracie and myself. I don't think things will every be the same.
This is a photo from the walk that we took down to Luna Park. You don't see this view of the Sydney harbour bridge very often because they prohibit commercial photography in/of Luna Park without a property release which costs a fortune. There is a big sign at the front gates proclaiming that any photos you can take can only be used for your own personal enjoyment.
I hope that you are personally enjoying this photo of Luna Park and the bridge.
-Gary
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Nursing in Oz
I though I'd post one of the pictures of Tracie in one of her nursing uniforms. She looks good doesn't she? Adding the stethoscope was my idea. It is always good to have a prop.
We were watching Scrubs a couple of weeks ago and she said that she thought that is was very funny that the chief resident of the hospital in the show had a $10 stethoscope. In fact everyone on that show has a $10 stethoscope. The one in this picture cost $200. They all look the same to me, to be honest. On the set of the show they probably just grab a different one out of a big bin every time they are about to do any shooting.
I wrote before that I uploaded a series of these nursing type photos and some photos of Tracie in the apartment complex pool to the micro stock photo site. Let me just tell you that I have sold more photos in the last week than in the last month! Tracie is fast becoming my most popular subject.
We're planning of doing more photos of her down in our apartment complex's fitness club and maybe a few more nursing uniform shots. It seems like it would't take an extremely large library of photos to make a nice amount of money selling these photos online. It gets a little bit easier once you develop a little bit of an eye for stock photography too. I think I'm getting a lot better at it already.
Having pictures of a person's face sure makes a big difference! Hopefully it will be easy to find more models once we get back home to Canada.
I have a large potential sale coming up, although I don't like to count my chickens before they're hatched. One of my flat mates is a writer for a large realestate "style" magazine, and she is doing a story about Perth, and her magazine may buy one of my photos. The money from the sale would go a long way towards buying a flash for my camera.
-Gary Milner
We were watching Scrubs a couple of weeks ago and she said that she thought that is was very funny that the chief resident of the hospital in the show had a $10 stethoscope. In fact everyone on that show has a $10 stethoscope. The one in this picture cost $200. They all look the same to me, to be honest. On the set of the show they probably just grab a different one out of a big bin every time they are about to do any shooting.
I wrote before that I uploaded a series of these nursing type photos and some photos of Tracie in the apartment complex pool to the micro stock photo site. Let me just tell you that I have sold more photos in the last week than in the last month! Tracie is fast becoming my most popular subject.
We're planning of doing more photos of her down in our apartment complex's fitness club and maybe a few more nursing uniform shots. It seems like it would't take an extremely large library of photos to make a nice amount of money selling these photos online. It gets a little bit easier once you develop a little bit of an eye for stock photography too. I think I'm getting a lot better at it already.
Having pictures of a person's face sure makes a big difference! Hopefully it will be easy to find more models once we get back home to Canada.
I have a large potential sale coming up, although I don't like to count my chickens before they're hatched. One of my flat mates is a writer for a large realestate "style" magazine, and she is doing a story about Perth, and her magazine may buy one of my photos. The money from the sale would go a long way towards buying a flash for my camera.
-Gary Milner
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Riding The Rails
We left Perth on the train again. Both thinking, "Why are we doing this to ourselves?" The last ride across the Nullarbore Plain was long, boring, and uninteresting. Though somehow we lived and decided to do it again.
Really it isn't as bad as I'm making it sound. You can meet some interesting people on the train, and actually have fun if you can make your own.
This ride didn't seem nearly as long as the last because I was able to sleep both nights and because it was 15 or more degrees cooler outside of the train.
As we're pulling out of Perth, who do we see but Alex, the frenchman we left in Perth running alongside the train the last time. By some sheer galactic coincidence, we book our tickets for the same day and destination as him.
Either we're lucky, or I'm being punished with french. It turned out for the best because it meant that we had a friend for the three day ride to Alice Springs. I imagine it was better for Tracie than for me though, because they spent the entire time speaking french.
The ride from Adelaide to Alice Springs is more interesting than from Perth to Adelaide. It is here where you get to enter the actual outback, where the dirt turns red.
-Gary
Really it isn't as bad as I'm making it sound. You can meet some interesting people on the train, and actually have fun if you can make your own.
This ride didn't seem nearly as long as the last because I was able to sleep both nights and because it was 15 or more degrees cooler outside of the train.
As we're pulling out of Perth, who do we see but Alex, the frenchman we left in Perth running alongside the train the last time. By some sheer galactic coincidence, we book our tickets for the same day and destination as him.
Either we're lucky, or I'm being punished with french. It turned out for the best because it meant that we had a friend for the three day ride to Alice Springs. I imagine it was better for Tracie than for me though, because they spent the entire time speaking french.
The ride from Adelaide to Alice Springs is more interesting than from Perth to Adelaide. It is here where you get to enter the actual outback, where the dirt turns red.
-Gary
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Catamaran Rental
Tracie and I rented a catamaran for an hour on the river today. We both had a really good time.
It was a lot easier than I imagined.
We gave the guy 38 bucks, he said, "do you have much experience?" We said, "No" He said, "Head towards the conventions center and then back here. That will give you th e best ride with the least problems."
That's what we did and it was really fun. I took the rudder for the first round trip and then traded with Tracie for the second and then I got to drive again for the third. We were almost out of time by then and so we did a small circle about a third of a trip across the river and then came back to shore.
If you are in Perth, I recommend hiring a surfcat for an hour or two. Your bum gets wet, so wear somthing that doesn't matter if you get it wet.
You do sort of have to watch out for the boom hitting you in the head when you turn. Neither of us got hit, but Tracie friend did when they rented them a couple of months ago. It did swing across pretty hard once and I could see how it would have been a pretty serious thing to be hit in the head by it.
-Gary
It was a lot easier than I imagined.
We gave the guy 38 bucks, he said, "do you have much experience?" We said, "No" He said, "Head towards the conventions center and then back here. That will give you th e best ride with the least problems."
That's what we did and it was really fun. I took the rudder for the first round trip and then traded with Tracie for the second and then I got to drive again for the third. We were almost out of time by then and so we did a small circle about a third of a trip across the river and then came back to shore.
If you are in Perth, I recommend hiring a surfcat for an hour or two. Your bum gets wet, so wear somthing that doesn't matter if you get it wet.
You do sort of have to watch out for the boom hitting you in the head when you turn. Neither of us got hit, but Tracie friend did when they rented them a couple of months ago. It did swing across pretty hard once and I could see how it would have been a pretty serious thing to be hit in the head by it.
-Gary
Friday, April 14, 2006
My Sister Jackie
This photo makes me very homesick. I don't know why. I've seen Jackie maybe 10 times in the last 10 years. She called me the other day and we talked for an hour. That's one thing I want to change about myself. I really should call people more often. I guess I just feel like I don't really have anything to say except the same old boring stuff.
When I went to Edmonton to take pictures of my cousin's son's wedding it struck me how different she looks from what I remember.
I guess I'll probably always remember her as a 14 year old. I have to admit that if I saw her walking in a mall in a place where I wasn't already expecting her I probably wouldn't even recognize her and that make me really sad.
We won't be coming home until mid-July. Right now our tickets are set to have us leaving on July 10th, but we will be changing them so that we can leave from the east coast now.
We think we want to make a stop over on the way home, but our tickets expire on the 17th so we'll be back in Canada at least by then.
We moved out of the flat and into a backpacker hostel this morning. It is a private room with ensuite toilet and shower. All and all, even though it is only one room and a toilet, it isn't that much smaller than the flat was. It is a lot newer though and way nicer.
I had my last day of work in Perth yesterday. They bought me a box of Lindor chocolates as a going away present. I've eaten most of them already.
When I went to Edmonton to take pictures of my cousin's son's wedding it struck me how different she looks from what I remember.
I guess I'll probably always remember her as a 14 year old. I have to admit that if I saw her walking in a mall in a place where I wasn't already expecting her I probably wouldn't even recognize her and that make me really sad.
We won't be coming home until mid-July. Right now our tickets are set to have us leaving on July 10th, but we will be changing them so that we can leave from the east coast now.
We think we want to make a stop over on the way home, but our tickets expire on the 17th so we'll be back in Canada at least by then.
We moved out of the flat and into a backpacker hostel this morning. It is a private room with ensuite toilet and shower. All and all, even though it is only one room and a toilet, it isn't that much smaller than the flat was. It is a lot newer though and way nicer.
I had my last day of work in Perth yesterday. They bought me a box of Lindor chocolates as a going away present. I've eaten most of them already.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Perth Zoo
The one thing I would have done differently would be to have viewing platforms for visitors to be able to look down into the holding areas along with being able to look through the fence/glass of the various animal's pens.
My second would have to be the crocodile. They had a 700Lbs + crocodile. There was only one though because it was donated to the zoo by a crocodile farm where it had killed two female crocodiles. Previously to that it was captured in a populated area where it was a nusiance. Whoever captured it must have had nerves of steel because that thing was huge! If it got the chance to eat you it wouldn't even need to chomp you once to get you into its somache.
The Perth Zoo is definately worth a visit. I only regret that I never went to the Calgary Zoo while I was living there!
-Gary Milner, the most dangerous animal at the zoo.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Surfers in Margaret river
They are having a pro-surfing contest in Margaret River, about four hours South of Perth.
200+ pro-surfers will be coming to compete. While I am interested in going to see the contest. I'm not intrested enough to rent a car for a couple of hundred bucks to go down there.
I'm sure some of the tricks would be pretty amazing, especially considering the size of some of the waves, but it just isn't worth it.
When we went down there a couple of weeks ago, I bodyboarded on some of the waves like the one in this photo and let me tell you that a six to eight foot wave is a lot faster and more powerful than you might imagine.
It takes a real effort just to get out to the wave and then you have to be really careful when you are riding to not catch an edge and get tumbled really hard.
Even dropping the nose just enough to cause water to spray into your face is pretty bad when you are moving that fast. It seems to spray right into your nose just about every time. Almost always a second before you get crushed by the wave and so you don't even have time to prepare for it.
-Gary Milner
200+ pro-surfers will be coming to compete. While I am interested in going to see the contest. I'm not intrested enough to rent a car for a couple of hundred bucks to go down there.
I'm sure some of the tricks would be pretty amazing, especially considering the size of some of the waves, but it just isn't worth it.
When we went down there a couple of weeks ago, I bodyboarded on some of the waves like the one in this photo and let me tell you that a six to eight foot wave is a lot faster and more powerful than you might imagine.
It takes a real effort just to get out to the wave and then you have to be really careful when you are riding to not catch an edge and get tumbled really hard.
Even dropping the nose just enough to cause water to spray into your face is pretty bad when you are moving that fast. It seems to spray right into your nose just about every time. Almost always a second before you get crushed by the wave and so you don't even have time to prepare for it.
-Gary Milner
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Perth Transit
Here in Perth, some of the bus drivers drive busses that are fitted with a cage around the driver's seat. Other busses don't have the cage fitted around the driver's seat.
Although I have only gone on 50-60 rides and am no expert on the matter, I have noticed that the bus drivers who don't have to drive around in over sized pet carriers are signifcantly nicer than the drivers that do.
I can't help but wonder if the jerky drivers are being punished for being jerks, or if they need to be protected from the people they are jerks to.
It isn't as if some routes are more dangerous than others, because both types are available on all the routes I have ridden.
House Prices In Calgary
I haven't checked house prices in Calgary for a long time. Today I look at mls.ca as well as welist.com.
I regret it. A lot.
The cheapest house for sale in our old neighbourhood is $280,000 on MLS.CA and $260,000 on WELIST.COM. Presumably the extra $20,000 goes to the realtor. Although sold houses are taken down from mls.ca right away, welist.com tells you how long it took to sell the house. Most of the listings said between one and five days.
I'm not saying that I regret selling the house and coming to Australia, but had we waited one more year, we could have paid off our student loans and come to Australia and we probably wouldn't have had to work while we were here.
-Gary Milner
Although I have only gone on 50-60 rides and am no expert on the matter, I have noticed that the bus drivers who don't have to drive around in over sized pet carriers are signifcantly nicer than the drivers that do.
I can't help but wonder if the jerky drivers are being punished for being jerks, or if they need to be protected from the people they are jerks to.
It isn't as if some routes are more dangerous than others, because both types are available on all the routes I have ridden.
House Prices In Calgary
I haven't checked house prices in Calgary for a long time. Today I look at mls.ca as well as welist.com.
I regret it. A lot.
The cheapest house for sale in our old neighbourhood is $280,000 on MLS.CA and $260,000 on WELIST.COM. Presumably the extra $20,000 goes to the realtor. Although sold houses are taken down from mls.ca right away, welist.com tells you how long it took to sell the house. Most of the listings said between one and five days.
I'm not saying that I regret selling the house and coming to Australia, but had we waited one more year, we could have paid off our student loans and come to Australia and we probably wouldn't have had to work while we were here.
-Gary Milner
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Cool Grapes and Cold Feet
I'm getting cold feet about working in the shop. It seems like our trip to Australia has been all messed up. We have four months left, and we only spent one month in Melbourne (we had planned three), I only spent a weekend in Sydney (The plan was three months) and it looks like we won't make it to Brisbane for the three months we had planned to be there.
Ayer's Rock is pretty much out at this point. It looks like we won't have the money to go there now. I guess we could charge it, but spending money we don't have rubs us the wrong way a little anyway.
We had planned to be sending a little money home by this point, but we are now living cheque to cheque. It looks like we will need our tax returns to make our student loan payments.
To tell you the truth, I've been having way less fun since we left Perth in November than I was having in the first five months of the trip. I'm including the fun I'm having right now and fun I perceive myself having for the next four months.
I'm a pretty happy guy 99% of the time, so I'm self diagnosing mild self pity.
This is going to be all over the place, but I think the reason I'm getting cold feet about doing the shop is because I don't really know or understand my motivations for wanting to do it in the first place.
I can't be certain if I want to do it because I actually want to do it or if I'm ok with doing it and I think Tracie wants to stay here in Australia. I'm worried that Tracie is actually only willing to stay in Australia and doing mainly so that I can work in the shop. She says she wants to stay in Australia, but that more importantly than that she doesn't really want to go back to Canada (or only go to visit ocasionally).
It could turn out that I am just homesick.
I feel lost.
-Gary
Ayer's Rock is pretty much out at this point. It looks like we won't have the money to go there now. I guess we could charge it, but spending money we don't have rubs us the wrong way a little anyway.
We had planned to be sending a little money home by this point, but we are now living cheque to cheque. It looks like we will need our tax returns to make our student loan payments.
To tell you the truth, I've been having way less fun since we left Perth in November than I was having in the first five months of the trip. I'm including the fun I'm having right now and fun I perceive myself having for the next four months.
I'm a pretty happy guy 99% of the time, so I'm self diagnosing mild self pity.
This is going to be all over the place, but I think the reason I'm getting cold feet about doing the shop is because I don't really know or understand my motivations for wanting to do it in the first place.
I can't be certain if I want to do it because I actually want to do it or if I'm ok with doing it and I think Tracie wants to stay here in Australia. I'm worried that Tracie is actually only willing to stay in Australia and doing mainly so that I can work in the shop. She says she wants to stay in Australia, but that more importantly than that she doesn't really want to go back to Canada (or only go to visit ocasionally).
It could turn out that I am just homesick.
I feel lost.
-Gary
Monday, February 20, 2006
Good News
After a week off, I'm back at work, temping in Perth. I'm working in the same office as I was before, another person is off on holiday's.
I'm not sure if they requested me by name, because I had asked my rep at the temp agency to call my previous employers back to ask about working in the evening. It took her a few days, but when she did eventually get around to calling, they had a day job for me that will last at least a week, maybe more.
My new supervisor said she is in the process of hiring a full time person, so she could have need of a temp for an entire month.
I could have done without the week off though. I'm down to about $40 for the next ten days. Hopefully Tracie get paid tomorrow so that I can make the rent on friday with out using the credit card.
I'm invited to Nick's for dinner to night so there's a meal saved, and Tracie learned a cheap pasta meal from the italians in Sydney that costs about $1.50 - $2.00 to make, so if I don't waste all my money on candy, I'll be fine.
-Gary Milner
I'm not sure if they requested me by name, because I had asked my rep at the temp agency to call my previous employers back to ask about working in the evening. It took her a few days, but when she did eventually get around to calling, they had a day job for me that will last at least a week, maybe more.
My new supervisor said she is in the process of hiring a full time person, so she could have need of a temp for an entire month.
I could have done without the week off though. I'm down to about $40 for the next ten days. Hopefully Tracie get paid tomorrow so that I can make the rent on friday with out using the credit card.
I'm invited to Nick's for dinner to night so there's a meal saved, and Tracie learned a cheap pasta meal from the italians in Sydney that costs about $1.50 - $2.00 to make, so if I don't waste all my money on candy, I'll be fine.
-Gary Milner
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Attacked by Sharks
Tracie and I were at a beach towards the north end of the Perth suburbs when were were viciously attacked by a pair of sharks hiding in the waves. They looked just like this only, bigger with more teeth and hiding in the waves.
I was about waist deep in the water when I saw them about 30 feet away. I shouted to Tracie, "Look at that!"
She was only about knee deep, and we both high tailed it out of the water. It turns out that they weren't really sharks, only a pair of dolphins, but it gave us a little scare especially since there is a beach on the south end of town that has been closed because of a herd of about six sharks that have been hanging around.
The police have been patroling down there to make sure no one goes into the water. It's not a popular tourist beach down there, they use it mostly as an exercise beach for horses to go in the water and for people to walk their dogs.
The thought of sharks in the area has been in the back of my mind for the last few days.
-Gary
I was about waist deep in the water when I saw them about 30 feet away. I shouted to Tracie, "Look at that!"
She was only about knee deep, and we both high tailed it out of the water. It turns out that they weren't really sharks, only a pair of dolphins, but it gave us a little scare especially since there is a beach on the south end of town that has been closed because of a herd of about six sharks that have been hanging around.
The police have been patroling down there to make sure no one goes into the water. It's not a popular tourist beach down there, they use it mostly as an exercise beach for horses to go in the water and for people to walk their dogs.
The thought of sharks in the area has been in the back of my mind for the last few days.
-Gary
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Four Things
Four jobs I’ve had
Used Golf Ball Seller
Photographer
Bank Teller
Office Temp
Four movies I can watch over and over
Clueless
A League of Their Own
Back to the Future
Office Space
Four places I have lived
Medicine Hat, Canada
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Perth, Australia
Calgary, Canada
Four TV shows I love to watch
Boston Legal
Prison Break
Deal or No Deal (Gameshow in Australia)
The Simpsons
Four places I have been on vacation
Tasmania
Hong Kong
Singapore
Australia
Four of my favorite dishes
Pizza
Balsamic Chicken
Steak
Tandori Chicken
Four websites I visit daily
jeffmilner.com
Flickr
Slashdot
BoingBoing
Four places I would rather be right now
Medicine Hat, Canada
Calgary, Canada
Any dinner table eating
In bed
-Gary Milner
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The Shop
I did a bunch of photos for the shop the other day and made a set on flickr. If you would like to see them, here they are.
I think it may have given the impression that the shop is ready to go, but it isn't yet. Some of the photos were taken at a friend's vineyard in the Swan Valley, and the rest were taken at the wholesale market in Canningvale, in southern Perth.
All in all, the photos turned out well, but I need to edit them a little before we get them printed. We are getting 13 or so printed for the wall at the shop, about 4 feet by 6 feet. They will be the biggest enlargements I have ever had done.
It looks like the temping job is going to last a little longer than I expected, maybe two more weeks or so. they seem a little back logged.
-Gary Milner
I think it may have given the impression that the shop is ready to go, but it isn't yet. Some of the photos were taken at a friend's vineyard in the Swan Valley, and the rest were taken at the wholesale market in Canningvale, in southern Perth.
All in all, the photos turned out well, but I need to edit them a little before we get them printed. We are getting 13 or so printed for the wall at the shop, about 4 feet by 6 feet. They will be the biggest enlargements I have ever had done.
It looks like the temping job is going to last a little longer than I expected, maybe two more weeks or so. they seem a little back logged.
-Gary Milner
Friday, January 20, 2006
Flight to Perth
Tracie's flight to Perth arrived 20 minutes early, which was nice because she must have been landing at just about the same time I was arriving at the airport. I was very excited to see her and it has been very nice having her back with me after two weeks.
I found a flat to rent, although I don't know how long we will be staying there. It is pretty small and doesn't have a washing machine. We might be able to share with the landlords but I never discussed it. It is pretty nice and pretty cheap at $120 per week. I guess we'll be looking for another place soon though.
Things are getting done for the shop bit by bit.
Working as a temp has been good. The place where I am now sells telecomunications services and cable tv. There are telemarketers in the backroom, but I do report checking until 3:00pm or so and then data entry.
From what I have seen it seems to me that a lot of problems that people encounter with signing up for broadband internet could be solved by having the paperwork more clearly organized and with more straight forward questions.
In any case I am getting very good at finding short stings of numbers in the middle of long strings of numbers.
-Gary Milner
I found a flat to rent, although I don't know how long we will be staying there. It is pretty small and doesn't have a washing machine. We might be able to share with the landlords but I never discussed it. It is pretty nice and pretty cheap at $120 per week. I guess we'll be looking for another place soon though.
Things are getting done for the shop bit by bit.
Working as a temp has been good. The place where I am now sells telecomunications services and cable tv. There are telemarketers in the backroom, but I do report checking until 3:00pm or so and then data entry.
From what I have seen it seems to me that a lot of problems that people encounter with signing up for broadband internet could be solved by having the paperwork more clearly organized and with more straight forward questions.
In any case I am getting very good at finding short stings of numbers in the middle of long strings of numbers.
-Gary Milner
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