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)!

Our house

My first day in the Infront office, a co-worker mentioned her sister had a fully-furnished townhouse with a local rental agency and it had been sitting vacant for a while. On my lunch break I popped over and took a look and Will and I decided to move immediately on putting together our paperwork for a 6 month lease. Renting in Australia is almost as rigorous as buying a home for the paperwork you need to go through. Will and I had to have personal, professional and former landlord references, copies of passports, bank statements and drivers' licenses just to get "approval" to rent.

We thought we'd lost out on the opportunity for the townhouse as I couldn't get my bank statements into a PDF format. There was also someone else interested in renting the property so we felt we were really under the gun. Running of to Hamilton Island last week I had totally forgotten about our rental application until I got a phone call this Monday morning saying we had been approved to rent the property. So now we have to sign the papers and post a full months rent plus two weeks and then the home is ours. Here's a shot of the complex, we'll update with photos inside as soon as we move in.

Things are working out for us more and more each week. I feel a lot more close to normal. It's about time!

2008 Hamilton Cup

- See more photos of the Hamilton Island Outrigger Races -

 

Well it's already been a hectic first week at Infront Communications. I have been out on Hamilton Island since Wednesday as our office is the organizer for the Hamilton Cup, one of the largest outrigger canoe regattas in the world. Teams from all over Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti, Singapore and Hong Kong are gathered here for most of the week.

Will and I have checked out of our gungy backpackers and have been living in 5 star heaven on the 16th floor of the Reef View hotel on the island. When they say Reef View they mean it as our balcony opens right out over the beach where the canoe races are being held. The main form of transportation around the resort is by golf car which has been a lot of fun for me! Super-charged golf carts with headlights, signal lights and driving with the steering wheel on the proper side (for me anyway) but on the wrong side of the road. Cool!

 

My days have typically started at 5 a.m. to be prepared for the first canoe races at 7 a.m. The day shuts down early because of the tides but we still put in hours until suppertime. Then we head down to the main street at the marina where they've blocked off the streets for picnic tables, a dance floor, a stage for live music and food tents. It definitely has a small town country fair feel to it.

 

Being in Airlie Beach/Cannonvale finally doing PR work makes me finally feel like I've found what I was looking for when I started this trip. Suddenly thinking of doing a couple of years up here doesn't sound so bad. But we will take it a day at a time.  

 

Enjoy some of the pictures that Will and I took today. No matter what time of day it is we love it here.

Rock Bottom and Back Up

We're finally here! Will and I arrived in Airlie Beach/Cannonvale Sunday afternoon and it wasn't easy. First, we were prepared to pay for an extra piece of luggage as domestic airlines aren't as accommodating as international carriers. We learned, the hard way, not to fly Jetstar as an air carrier. They charge $10 per kilo over the weight limits, and as such we ended up paying $270 to get all our luggage up to Airlie (the price of a return flight for a whole other person).

When we arrived in Airlie and went to check-in at the backpackers we had booked at we realized we didn't have enough money to cover the week we had booked (having drained our accounts to get the extra luggage here). So we paid for a roof over our head until Tuesday, promising to pay the rest when payday arrived. When we took a look at our room we decided maybe we wouldn't come back to pay the remaining balance. Although functional our room is not at all nice, so we've been trying to find another place to stay.

 

In the meantime we both started our jobs yesterday. I was dumped right into the chaos at Infront Communications. This coming weekend is the big Outrigger event on Hamilton Island where canoe paddlers from around the world come to compete for the title and $60,000. As part of my support role in the office I will have to be on hand for the event all this week and into the weekend. But that does mean that I will be put up in a hotel room on Hamilton Island at their 5-star resort. And I can bring Will too! So bye bye icky backpackers and hello posh island living for the rest of the week! We'll send photos soon.

Coldest before the warm? - Day 83

It seems fitting that on the night before our departure from Brisbane, it is the coldest night we have experienced. One might think Brisbane is saying, "get the hell outta' here!" and giving us a little kick in the pants to send us on our way to Australia's tropical playground. 

Actually, we've been very lucky with the weather to date. Living in a Queenslander home could have been much worse. But for some reason the weather has been very kind and we've really only seen nightly temperatures about 15 degrees Celsius. Tonight though, its a chilly 8 degrees. Not exactly what you would envision when thinking of Australia. Even though we did our research before leaving, it is still shocking when we have to stay warm by huddling under the covers with a bottle of wine. Just as a review, Queenslanders are not much more than a roof. With windows and doors that barely keep large rodents out. 

 

Many of the readers to this blog will find this amusing; I think that it's actually warmer in Canada. Yes, I said it, warmer. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but living in Brisbane, and possibly many places south of here, you put up with more cold than in Canada. With homes that are not insulated, probably don't have central heating (or heating at all), if you have windows that seal they more than likely are not thermally broken. Which means that the homes and buildings here are colder than at home. Even though we Canadians have to live through snow and -30 winters, our homes, cars, places of work, and more importantly bedrooms are toasty warm all year long.

 

It is comical because we actually find the cold conditions the night before our departure, reaffirming, that we have made the correct choice to move. (You Chose.....Wisely) Sorry for the Indiana humour. 

 

We look forward to our time in the sun. We have made many friends here in Brisbane that are all welcome to visit, and we have told them all. Actually, if any wants to come visit. please give us a call or email, we'd love to see you.

 

Our next posts will be more lively with photos of Airlie and Cannonvale. 

Packing, again, and again, and again ....

It would seem that this trip is a lesson in packing. Every time something new happens it seems were packing. Whether it be small bags, big boxes, or everything back into our suitcases, we are constantly packing. Even trips to work require us to pack. Life is very different when you don't have transportation and limited budget; you need to take more with you than you might otherwise. 

A good example of packing for work is the other day. It has been unusually wet here and that means extra planning when on foot. A simple trip to work now requires wet weather gear or a change of clothes, in addition to things like computers, lunches, the regular change of shirt in case of an accident at work (if you know Will, you know what he means by this), glasses, coffee cups, and other items required for a simple day at work. My case is worse than Andrea's because I often need to bring a laptop and need to dress well for the office environment (Note on office attire in Brisbane: read previous blogs).

 

When you have a vehicle and more disposable money, thing are a lot simpler. The first thing being you don't need to pack more than an umbrella just because it’s raining; that makes a big difference. Two, lunch can be an outing. You don't need to pack your lunch every day if you can afford to buy your lunch, and with a car you have greater opportunity to find a lunch.

 

Don't forget that I am a temporary employee; this makes it difficult as well because I can't keep things at the office. All of you with a full time job can keep small things at work. You can keep a back up shirt hanging on your door or coat rack. You can even keep a change of clothes at work. We've all done it in Canada. You know, the office shoes you change into when you take off those massive winter boots!? :)

 

Regardless of any of the above, it has been a great trip. Yes the constant packing is a bit annoying, but it’s all part of the package. Besides, every thing is changing, for I do have a full time job now. The move to the Whitsundays is going to be very interesting. I don't want to say it will be great, because I don't know that. What it will be is an adventure. Having a stable job and income will allow Andrea and I to do more. 

 

Yes that sounds odd, but its true. With steady income and steady accommodation we will be able to SPEND. Without the money you can't do much. Even in Brisbane it’s difficult to go and look at something with out money. Sites are spread out and transit is expensive. A typical train ride one way is usually $2.50 to $3.50. This depends on when and where you are going. Short trips downtown are often more expensive than the long treks to the end of the line, but even those can cost a small fortune. Andrea and I wanted to see the Australia Zoo, made famous by the late Steve Irwin, before leaving Brisbane. But the 40 - 60 min train ride north would cost about $50.00 each plus a $52.00 entrance fee each. Needless to say that a $200.00 plus outing just is not going to happen right now. Not when you compare it to airline prices.

 

Flights in OZ have been shocking. It is amazing how inexpensive air travel is here. Yes it cost a pretty penny to get to Australia, but when your here, you can hop around for very little. Considering most things are more expensive than Canada, air travel is at par. A trip from Sydney to Brisbane is about $200 round trip. That’s about the same trip and cost to go from Calgary to Vancouver. 

 

As I mentioned I hope this is the last time I need to pack for a major move in a while. Andrea and I have secured jobs in Cannonvale for the next five months. Graphic House would love to have me longer, but we decided not to commit longer at this time. Five months is when our legal ability to work in Queensland is up. At that time we either need to be sponsored or move on. A move from there would be fine, because by that time we will have a car and saved some money. We are thinking that if we don't stay there longer, we would travel back down the coast by car; head to Melbourne or Adelaide for the summer months. Follow the sun I say!

 

I am going to miss Brisbane, we've barely scratched to surface here, but there are good jobs waiting in the Whitsundays. There are also friends we've made, sailing, scuba diving, and who knows what else. We leave on Sunday, towards the sun and hopefully a better life than Brisbane.

 

It is true that I hate packing, but I think this will be that last big one for a while.