Sofia's workplace at Swan river.
Enjoying the environment (click picture for original size)
Perth Skyline:
Monday, 27 February 2012
Work
After sending over 100 resumes I got called while I was driving...here goes the conversation:
Mr X: Hello this is … from … (… = didn’t understand)
Me: Hello I’m currently driving do you have a second.
Mr X: What was your previous experience
Me: I worked as a project manager
Mr X: Would you like to come for an interview tomorrow?
Me: No problem I will pass the phone to my girlfriend who will write down the hour and location
Me: Hello I’m currently driving do you have a second.
Mr X: What was your previous experience
Me: I worked as a project manager
Mr X: Would you like to come for an interview tomorrow?
Me: No problem I will pass the phone to my girlfriend who will write down the hour and location
….
Sofie: So what was it about?
Me: Not the faintest idea
Me: Not the faintest idea
…(Next day 10:30 at location)
I set down near the reception were I got some papers to fill in about myself. While I filled them out I looked around and saw some awards with the company name OzShut. Thank god for the existing technology. I looked up the company and figured out they sold window shutters. Great!! (I thought) I will be assembling windows shutters or installing them. I went through the interview while saying nearly nothing, but the main points of the conversation were Shopping Center and training now. I guess you are starting to get the point…
...(Next day 8:30 at Shopping Center)
Me (holding a flyer): one for you today?
Me (holding a flyer): one for you today?
Me (holding a flyer): one for you today?
Me (holding a flyer): one for you today?
Me (holding a flyer): one for you today?
I'm a promo-boy for window shutters, how cool is that. I receive on top of my salary a commission for each appointment I can make for my advertisement manager with a client.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Meanwhile....
As Sofie is currently making dishes as a kitchen hand in a seafood restaurant I had a haircut and bought a car (beast).
Saturday, 18 February 2012
No Worries
You cannot imagine a better Welcome then at “Hostel Joe”. Joe is the man we are couch surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) with (actually the couch is a king size bed ;-)). He welcomed us with; Hi guys, how are you? You are visitor’s number 301 and 302 (in 4 years). Really: his name should be written after the word “hospitality” in a dictionary. William or “Guillaume” is our house mate. A special guy, but we like his sense of humor! After a day of work, in our case job hunting, we talk about the small and the big things in life on the terrace with an Australian beer.
 |
| From the left to right; me, Federico (Italian), William, Phil, Joe and Karen (Joe’s girlfriend). Julie (French) is taking the picture. We met Julie and Frederico in the city because we were interested in their campervan. We didn’t end up buying it, but we’re gonna save you that story J. |
- - The sun always shines
- - The city itself is quiet small and has the most relaxed atmosphere you can imagine (don’t hurry and again; no worries).
- - People are extremely friendly and interested
- - The busses and trains are always on time
- - Everything is expensive; One Dr Oetker pizza costs about 7,50 dollar!! But don’t worry mom; we are eating healthy… Joe told us that one reason of this giant inflation the last years is because of the people that are working in the mines. They are earning loads of money in a few months and afterwards, they spend it all mostly on beers. Too bad for us, “poor” tourists!
The first weekend, there was the opening of Perth Festival. The streets were full of people watching a spectacular show in the air that ended with millions of feathers coming out of the air.
8
To summaries our job search; Australians are really not fond of working holiday visa’s because a lot of backpackers say they’ll stay for half a year and just leave after a few weeks. It gets even worse as Perth/Western Australia is one of the best paid regions of the country at this moment. A lot of people from the East coast try to get a job here and recruitment agencies are getting a lot of responses, even for boring order entry or simple administrative jobs.
But after ten days, I (Sofie) can say; I HAVE A JOB!!!!!!!! Yesterday I went on a trial and Monday I can begin working in a kitchen of a seafood restaurant (Making salads, entrees,…). This means I will be the slave of the chef shouting all day: “Yes Chef”! I can go to work by the Ferry every day (the restaurant is on the other side of Swan River)à how fancy is that!.
Friday, 10 February 2012
Brussels - Perth
DAY 1
On Sunday we, quoted from Madagascar, ‘smiled and waved’ for the last time our closed ones. We got our luggage checked-in and waited for the plane to departure.
Until the captain, on the moment we should leave, stood amongst us and said magical phrases such as:
“The reason that I’m standing here is not a good sign”
”Only 1 lane is open for landing, oversea connections have priority”
“40% of flights in London are cancelled”
Anyway “no worries” with a delay of 2 hours we left the Belgian surface and told each other “bye bye Belgium, see you in a year”.
When the screen above our seat noted 100Km to destination I noticed that on the map where you can see the course of the flight that we were making circles. In which we had the privilege to hear the voice of the captain again going “London didn’t get the landing space as clean as they expected; all other airports are full; we are returning to Brussels”.
We managed after a few hours to find a flight through Munich – Singapore – Perth the same evening in which we should spend the night in Singapore.
Spending hours in pizza hut, tax free shops, playing OXO, … we sat at the gate and met with others from our London flight. Until I went to the information display where I saw that our flight had already a delay of 1h20min.
Our flight to Munich left the Belgian surface with a delay of 1h45min and arrived half an hour after the departure of our transfer flight to Singapore. A new meeting with the service center this time Lufthansa resulted in an extra stopover in Istanbul the next day. As the delay this time was due to a technical problem they also paid a NH hotel for the night in Munich.
DAY 2
Returning to Munich airport after spending food, taxi, hotel, shuttle vouchers we prayed for our flight to not be delayed and we were lucky this time! Arriving in Istanbul we went to the Singapore Airlines service center where about 14 persons where sitting and 1 was working.
DAY 3
Without any sleep from day 2, 10 hours flight to Singapore, 3 hours waiting in transit and 5 hours flight to Perth we finally arrived in Australia. We took a cab to Joe who Sofia met through the Couch Surfing website and he told us we were number 301 and 302 of visitors he had staid over. After some small chat we went to the shop to buy ourselves a new phone number and food. Sofia cooked for the 3 of us and later in the evening another French guy and an Estonian couple joined.
Conclusion; we were looking for adventure and we received it!!
P.S: Bart J, you have a full year to try to beat me to fly before me with A380 since we had to switch flights
On Sunday we, quoted from Madagascar, ‘smiled and waved’ for the last time our closed ones. We got our luggage checked-in and waited for the plane to departure.
Until the captain, on the moment we should leave, stood amongst us and said magical phrases such as:
“The reason that I’m standing here is not a good sign”
”Only 1 lane is open for landing, oversea connections have priority”
“40% of flights in London are cancelled”
Anyway “no worries” with a delay of 2 hours we left the Belgian surface and told each other “bye bye Belgium, see you in a year”.
When the screen above our seat noted 100Km to destination I noticed that on the map where you can see the course of the flight that we were making circles. In which we had the privilege to hear the voice of the captain again going “London didn’t get the landing space as clean as they expected; all other airports are full; we are returning to Brussels”.
We managed after a few hours to find a flight through Munich – Singapore – Perth the same evening in which we should spend the night in Singapore.
Spending hours in pizza hut, tax free shops, playing OXO, … we sat at the gate and met with others from our London flight. Until I went to the information display where I saw that our flight had already a delay of 1h20min.
Our flight to Munich left the Belgian surface with a delay of 1h45min and arrived half an hour after the departure of our transfer flight to Singapore. A new meeting with the service center this time Lufthansa resulted in an extra stopover in Istanbul the next day. As the delay this time was due to a technical problem they also paid a NH hotel for the night in Munich.
DAY 2
Returning to Munich airport after spending food, taxi, hotel, shuttle vouchers we prayed for our flight to not be delayed and we were lucky this time! Arriving in Istanbul we went to the Singapore Airlines service center where about 14 persons where sitting and 1 was working.
DAY 3
Without any sleep from day 2, 10 hours flight to Singapore, 3 hours waiting in transit and 5 hours flight to Perth we finally arrived in Australia. We took a cab to Joe who Sofia met through the Couch Surfing website and he told us we were number 301 and 302 of visitors he had staid over. After some small chat we went to the shop to buy ourselves a new phone number and food. Sofia cooked for the 3 of us and later in the evening another French guy and an Estonian couple joined.
Conclusion; we were looking for adventure and we received it!!
P.S: Bart J, you have a full year to try to beat me to fly before me with A380 since we had to switch flights
Saturday, 4 February 2012
The journey begins…
After:
- Giving goodbye parties, lunches, dinners, …
- Reading Down Under (bill Bryson) and the rough guide of Australia
- Checking our flight safety online
- Reading about Australians traveling
- Reading about how Australians live with the local animals
- Getting some survival tips
- Visiting daily this blog watching the counter going down
- Our bags are packed (finally) and ready to join our way to Perth.
After all the other things that we both have done we are ready to start our journey towards the far south Australia.
The country which, as we have been told, of extraordinary animals, nature and undiscovered places. The country where we will see the Southern Cross (part of the national flag), Christmas in the summertime, days of no-man’s-land, …
The country where we need a full year for visiting starting in the west in a city called Perth.
The country which, as we have been told, of extraordinary animals, nature and undiscovered places. The country where we will see the Southern Cross (part of the national flag), Christmas in the summertime, days of no-man’s-land, …
The country where we need a full year for visiting starting in the west in a city called Perth.
Tomorrow we fly Brussels – London – Singapore – Perth in 24 hours and we will meet our Couch Surfing contact named Joe, to start our adventure! See you all “soon”!
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