What a day for a Daydream

This past weekend the girls here in the office organized a surprise birthday party for our Managing Director (Susan) who recently turned 40. We whisked her away early on Friday afternoon to Daydream Island for a girly evening get-away.

Daydream Island is the second habitable Whitsunday island I've visited so far and after staying in the posh 5-star resorts of Hamilton Island, Daydream Island was a refreshing change. After a brief ferry ride on the Cruise Whitsundays catamaran we arrived on Daydream and were instantly lei ed with shell necklaces by the staff. For six of us we had three double rooms and there was a bottle of bubbly and some Ferrero Rocher waiting for us when we arrived. Our rooms faced out to the ocean and we had spectacular views of the ferries coming and going as well as all the other islands. (That's my co-worker Naomi with me below)

We started Friday evening with some light drinking in our hotel room. We eventually moved downstairs to Mermaids Restaurant for some seafood, cocktails and wine. We were entertained by an Indonesian mariachi band (does that sound wrong to you too?), and Susan really got into entertaining as she was the birthday girl!

We eventually went to the hotel bar for a drink or two before bed and ended up falling in with a group of boys that were on a stag, the night before the groom's wedding. Now I can understand why they don't do bachelor parties the night before weddings in Canada anymore - these boys were looking pretty rough the next morning.

Saturday dawned bright and hot, so I shook off my hangover and grabbed Naomi and Cathy for some greasy breakfast buffet. We watched the hotel staff feed the fish in the simulated ocean reef on site. We took a stroll over to the retail shops and looked at cheap swim wear. We sunbathed on the beach and when we were feeling more adventurous we had our photos taken with mermaids, took a catamaran out for a sail and did some kayaking. It was exactly what the doctor had ordered. Because the weekend was so fun and affordable, Will and I will now be looking for great local deals so when we feel the need for a breather from Airlie Beach, we can do so without breaking the bank account.

Cyclonic conditions?

It is now Day 4 of "unseasonable" weather here in Airlie/Cannonvale. Monday and Tuesday just started of grey and rainy. Wednesday and Thursday have brought us gale-force winds that nearly ripped our roof off last night (or so it felt like). Will and I made for humourous characters last night trying to get to the grocery store. We were sopping before we'd even reached the bottom of our hill, and we were squooshing by the time we hit the Coles. And the wind is cold while its blowing you around; our house was so cold last night we debated saving up for a space heater. Fun, fun, fun!

Welcome to Graphic House

Admittedly I have been extremely delinquent in writing blogs since we moved to the Whitsunday's. I am sorry. It seems that once I had a steady life, there just wasn't much to say.

I guess the daily routine of getting up, going to work, working, going home, eating, and going to bed just isn't exciting. Sorry. I will try and be entertaining, since this is why you all keep me around, for the entertainment. Right?

 

Anyways. 

 

Graphic House is a small printing company in Cannonvale that has been around for a long time. How long? I don't know. Graphic House does the majority of the printing in the area, and some jobs for clients as far south as Brisbane. Given the volume of work that goes through here, you would think it would have a staff compliment of at least 20 or more. Yet Graphic House only employs eight people. Only four people run the print side of things, and there are three full time people up front - me included.

 

The design side of Graphic House is very new, and has only existed for about a year. The owners hope to expand the design business to four people in the next year or two. Right now there are only two, Steve and myself. This means that some days we get extremely busy. I have to manage both design jobs and pre-press work. Steve looks after print design and the development of the new website.

 

Graphic House is a fun place to work. The staff is light hearted, the office is comfortable, and the hours are flexible. Monday mornings the owner lights up the BBQ and makes bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast. Mmm... bacon ... mmm :P . The work life balance is very good here, but then what would be the point of stressing over everything and working 10 hour days 7 days a week, when you live in a tropical paradise? I don't know. Still thinking of bacon. 

 

The photos below are a quick tour of the front part of Graphic House. Not much point to show the back, its just paper and printers.  Yes, it’s basically a gigantic shed, a shed with carpet and a kitchen. mmm... bacon...

 

  The front desk.

 

The front lounge

  Up stairs. Looks a bit empty, but its comfortable. It will eventually have more decorations and more desks.  My desk is the one on the left. I get the big monitor. Which I just realized is hiding behind my chair.

  The drums. What to say? Just part of the quirkiness. 

Well, that's a brief tour of Graphic House. Part house, part shed, part office, lots of fun.

My rant against banks

Here it is. I don't like to rant too much when I travel because I realize that each country and culture is different, so I should open my mind and embrace each unique situation. Unfortunately, after a rude awakening from my banking institution this past weekend, I'm feeling less open-minded to them than before.

I've tried to be extremely careful with my money now that I've got full-time employment and bills to pay (plus student loan payments to send home). I had budgeted last week for our weekly rent payment and the security deposit for our energy to come out of my account and I should've still had money left over. Imagine the near heart attack I had on Friday when I saw I was over $200 in the red and they had charged a further $30 for being in overdraft (a concept I don't really understand - charge the person who's in debt even more for being in debt). As I speed-dialled the customer help line with my bank I wondered if I'd been the victim of card skimming; someone was having a lark at my expense.

 

Alas, it isn't quite the whole story. Apparently there are occasions when customers use their bank cards and the bank's "system" might be down. That doesn't stop you from being able to take out money or swipe your card for debit purchases. They just force through the transaction and eventually when the bank gets its system back up and running it will just deduct the money from your account. Usually the bank can tell you exactly where and when you made the transaction if you call up with a dispute (like I did). This time though the bank couldn't tell me when or where the transaction happened, so they filed a dispute for me and I'm still sitting in limbo waiting to hear if they'll refund me the money or if their claim that I spent it somewhere is legitimate.

 

I guess the thing that irks me with banking in Australia is how long it takes for them to process transacations and have it reflected on your electronic bank statement. Even if you withdraw money from the bank's ATM, it will take days for that transaction to appear on-line (as well as the printed receipts you get after cash withdrawals). I'm starting to feel like the money I have in my account is virtually held hostage as transactions from three months ago could come out at any time. Maybe it's safer for me to keep it in a jar under the bed for now!

Welcome Infront Communications

Welcome to where we work. We thought you'd like to get a feel for where we spend most of our time (including this weekend as we pirate the Internet to post this)! While I get to walk down the hill to my job each morning, Will has to hop public transit to get to his. He on the other hand gets to be close to the major shopping centre in town. I think it's a blessing in disguise!

Work for me has been interesting and great. I'm happy to get back into communications as I've noticed my writing skills have slipped a little. So what does work entail for me? Well for starters Hamilton Island is one of our biggest clients and most days I'm working on marketing/communications materials for them (brochures, business cards, posters, indemnity forms, etc). I never thought I'd use my graphic design skills as much as I'm here (big thanks to Caddyshack for those)! We also put together our own luxury tourism and lifestyle magazine for the Whitsunday area. One hundred pages of super-glossy, high class magazine that is pretty much 89% written and produced by the five of us in the office. Wild! I'm definitely picking up new skills as I go. Anyway, here are some photos from work (I know my sister will at least love the colour scheme)!