Back to some normality (if thats possible)
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2007
1
45
69
Trip End
Nov 29, 2008
Where I stayed
2/50 Bedford Avenue
Perth, Australia
Friday, April 18, 2008
Katie bless her had waited up for us, it was gone midnight by the time we got there (and it was a school night!). It was sooo nice to see Katie again, it had been nearly 4 months since we had last been together so we had loads to chat about and lots of cuddles to catch up on!
Our new home is lovely, a three bedroom semi-detached with a kitchen/diner, downstairs toilet, utility room, a good size lounge and a fairly big bathroom. At the front is a drive way and out the back is a paved garden with a table and chair set and a washing line. There are now 6 of us girls living together, me and Aimee in one room, then Hannah and Carly next to us and then Katie and Sharon across the hall.
There was a girl called Audrey who was living in mine and Aimee's room but unfortunately she has turned out to be a bit of a psycho, so she moved out and Aimee and I grabbed the room with both hands! Oh well, her loss.. our gain.
Unfortunately there is only one bed in our room so being the big sister, I took the floor and gave Aimee the bed. Now I am suffering with chronic back ache.. oh well Aimee will have to pay for me to have a back massage or acupuncture!! Katie had put a thick cover on the floor and folded it over so it was soft and a quilt for me so that it wasn't too hard to lay on. She also brought me and Aimee a "welcome to your new home" card and two Kinder Eggs.. mmmm!!! She left them on our bedside table for us.. how sweet xxx
Our first full day in Perth we spend mostly unpacking and sorting our stuff out. We then caught the free city cat bus into the city.. although we stayed on it for a bit too long and ended up in East Perth! Perth isn't huge though so we walked back into the city. We didn't have a map or anything so had no idea where we were going and couldn't find an internet café or anything so in the end we gave up and headed back home.
On Thursday we went to the recruitment agency for interviews and to fill out the paperwork, I had already done typing tests with the recruitment agency in Brisbane so my interview was over pretty quickly, Aimee however has never had an interview so hers took a little longer. In the mean time I went to meet up with Gazz in the city for a bit and then went back and met up with Aimee. When I went back, they told me they had already found me a job and I have an interview lined up first thing Monday morning. I couldn't believe it, my job in Brisbane took me nearly a month to get.. this took me 2 hours!!
Anyway, I interviewed for the position and got it, so I started as an Executive Assistant (aka personal assistant) to Maxine Wardrop, Director of Safety Quality and Performance, Child and Adolescent Health Service, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.
It sounds like a big deal, it's not. I mainly surf the internet and stalk everyone I know on facebook as I have nothing better to do with my days! Maxine doesn't really need a PA to be honest, she likes to do everything herself and her diary isn't very busy. There's not really a lot of general admin duties to keep me busy either... BUT the money is really good so now I am in two minds.
1) Be bored all day but get paid well for it
Or
2) Go back to the recruitment agency and find something more challenging
It's a toughie.
Anyway, as Aimee has never had a job before, the recruitment offered her a days work doing some general admin duties until an office junior came up for her. She took the days work and spent the following 8 hours photocopying. The man in reception couldn't spell her name and so she ended up wearing a bright yellow visitor's sticker with her name spelt AMMY. Everyone kept laughing at her and asking what her name was. Then at lunch she decided to sit in the sun on the grass so she could read her book but ended up sitting in an ants nest!! Then later in the afternoon, after she thought things couldn't get any worse.. she broke the photocopier!! Funnily enough, when they asked her to come back the next day, the words "I have another job already, sorry" just seemed to fall out of her mouth as she legged it out the door.
At the weekend we took full advantage of the 30 degrees sunshine and headed to Cottesloe beach for the day. The beach is very simular to the Gold Coast beach, pure white sand and crystal water. There's a pavilion in the middle with toilets and changing rooms and a hot & cold food counter. Then across the main road are small gift shops, a newsagents and a fish & chip shop.. oh my God, the nicest fish and chips (without the fish and a sausage instead) I have had in ages!
We went for a swim in the sea and watched the fish swim around our feet. The waves started to get a bit too big for my liking and after nearly drowning twice I decided to head back to the sand and work on my tan instead!
After my first full week at work I ended up absolutely shattered so on the Friday night decided to treat myself to a box of Rosé goon.. mmm a whole 4 litres of egg shells and fish. We ended up entertaining ourselves by playing card games which soon turned into drinking games and then that rather quickly turned into the ring of fire and before we knew it, it was midnight and we were fumbling in our wardrobes to try and find something to wear! We ended up in a club called the Red Sea dancing to T Pain with our "apple bottom jeans.. boots with the furrrrrrrrrr" !!!
Saturday night Joe had invited us to a house party at his house before heading out for a few drinks. The girls had already promised him that they would go, so although we were still feeling a bit fragile from the night before, we all got ready to head over to Joe's. In the end Katie and Carly didn't end up joining us, Katie had worked a 62 hour week and so need to sleep and Carly was too hung over from the night before!
After a few drinks at Joe's we jumped a taxi over to Northbridge and headed to a club called Paramount. Upstairs was a funky house room and downstairs had a live band on for a bit and then went back to old skool. We danced to salt and pepper and then headed to meet the lads in a club called Rise. Turned out to be a massive drum and bass rave! The glow sticks came out and we ended up raving the night away. We eventually got home around about 6am. I also managed to fix a road sign on the way home.. someone had knocked it over, so I bent it back to shape and made it stand up right. Ahh "well done" me.
Needless to say Sunday was spent watching TV and eating stodgy food.
Yesterday I applied for my 2nd year visa. I had to play around with some dates so now it looks a bit dodgy.. I hope it goes through ok, otherwise I am screwed! I got an email back to say they have received my application and I am now on a bridging visa until I have completed my medical assessment and have had an x-ray done. Then they will tell me whether I have my 2nd year or not. If they decide not to give it to me, I have to leave the country straight away. Oh dear. Let's hope they accept it!
(To get your 2nd year visa, you have to complete 3 full months of harvesting work which can be fruit picking or farming. I obviously haven't done either. Katie met some guys on the east coast who owned their own tree planting company and have agreed to say that we worked for them so we can gain our 2nd year visas. To make it look like you have been working on a farm you have to have 3 months where you have not been paid for working, therefore you have to have 3 months off work. Since I have pretty much worked everywhere I have been I didn't have a block of 3 months. Thankfully it doesn't have to be consecutive days so I managed to make it up with the time I spent doing the east coast and the great ocean road. Once the application for the 2nd year visa has been put through you wait to hear if you have a bridging visa. Then you have to book into the hospital to have a full medical and also an x-ray which is more like a mammogram. Then they make a decision as to whether you can stay or not when they get the results.)
So anyway, that's that applied for. Will have to wait and see what happens.
It's bank holiday on Friday this weekend and my birthday weekend so I expect it to be quite messy!! Hopefully the weather is picking up as well, in which case we may hit the beach.
Then it would have been a full year since I left home.. it really is scary how time flies. On one hand it feels like I have been away forever but it feels like yesterday I was at home enjoying my birthday party with you all. Oh well, only another 7 months and then I am home again!
Thank you to all of you that have sent birthday cards, they have been confiscated by the girls at the moment as I'm too tempted to open them and I have to wait until my birthday!!
I hope all is well at home. I have a new work email address which is: keli.barnes@health.wa.gov.au if you want to get in touch.
Love you all loads, speak soon.
Keli xxxxxxxx
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