Ok so I'm not ready yet to stop blogging in Australia... I just needed to write these dreams down before I forget them.
The first dream happened when I was Esther and Mark's house. I couldn't sleep because I had a bad stomach ache (which I had on and off the whole 2 weeks I was in Adelaide). I was tossing and turning in the bed and finally found a position to sleep in. But then the dream occured. Basically these tentacle-like metalic arms started to spring forth from beneath the bed. There were maybe ten to fifteen arms, all different lengths, sort of robotic arms. Instead of arms at the end, they had saucers with coffee in them. All of them were slowly whirling and extending and retracting around me, offering me the coffee. But I had had so much coffee in Adelaide that I was sick of it. I screamed and flailed pushing the arms and cups away from me, and so the cups and saucers smashed as they hit the floor. But the arms kept persisting, producing forth new coffee with new saucers and cups. "NO MORE NO MORE" I yelled, and then I woke up.
The second dream I had a few days ago. This one was a bit gruesome. It is twilight. I am out in a farmer's field, playing my PSP. The farmer's son keeps being distracted from this work to come watch me play. It is nearing the end of the workday so he instists he wants to watch me, but his father keeps pulling him back. They are working on skinning a cow. The odd thing is though that it is still alive. It has no head, and the legs are shopped off. So it looks like a big hunk of meat, but it is still alive because it is breathing. The meat on the bones heaves up and down and a weird sound is coming from the skinned animal. Suddenly it runs towards me. They are about 200 meters away but this hunk of meat is running at me. So the farmer and his son shoot it full of arrows right before it gets to me. The bloodied pulp has stopped advancing but it it's still breathing somehow. I beat it to submission with a large club until it stops moving entirely, all the while it's making these awful noises, like a strange mooing sound. I awoke from this dream at this point at about 3am.
The last dream I had was last night. I am back in Waterloo near my dad's work. It's sort of rainy and foggy out. I am circling around outside Conestoga Mall, near King Street. I have two large wagon wheels from an old Conestoga Wagon slung around one shoulder. The other shoulder I have nothing on. No idea why I'm not spreading the weight out, but I digress. People make fun of me for this strange, random task I am performing. I am also crossing the street from one end to the other and cars pass by me and honk their horns. On one of these rounds I pass a man that looks vaguelly familiar. He speaks Czech to me, so he must know that I can understand the language a bit. Perhaps he is an associate of my father's. He tells me that he'll see me soon and that him and my father are going to have steak at the restaurant in the mall. This is all I can remember from this dream, but I'm pretty sure I didn't know the man at all.
So that's basically all I have to write this time. I am slowly starting to come to grips with the fact I am only at this job for 3 more days. I am starting to think of places to go at the Sunshine Coast. Perhaps Frasier Island.
So it keep it REALS ya'lls, and maybe lay down some interpretations or suggestions.
Ciao
_J
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jobless, carless, homeless, loveless, careless, brainless, christless...
Well it's over. Last night I got the call that they wouldn't be needing me here anymore. It's kind of fitting though because I was getting frustrated here. The warm weather and beaches and so on is nice and all, but it means nothing to me if I can't come home to something good. Of course the argument can be made that I should just be outside all the time and only come home to eat and sleep. But I'm just not that sort of person.
Next week will be my last week here, and it's a shortened week as well, since it's Australia Day on Monday. I am also going to start doing some touristy things now, starting off with a Harbour Bridge Climb on Saturday. I might go visit some people too but not sure anymore if I want to travel too far anymore. I've had it up to here with it. I just need my movies and videogames and mass-downloading back. 4 months without them is just too long. Deja-vu is setting in now too because this is how I was feeling in my last week in Germany 5+ years ago. Basically what I'm saying is that I'm a computer geek for life, and going to another country isn't going to change anything about me.
Other than that I don't have much else to say. They actually gave me a lot of work to do now but what's the point, right at the end? What's funny is they did this to me in Germany as well, giving me heaps of work in my last 2 weeks there. Funny how the situation just mirrors itself so well. Also, having to take public transport. Even though my car is finished I will get a new one soon and be on my feet (or wheels) before you know it.
The only thing I'm dreading is the knee-high snow and the -20° weather. That will not be fun. Hopefully my friends picking me up at the airport will bring me some proper winter clothing or else it will be quite interesting.
This may be my last post from Australia because I don't have much access to the internet outside of work. But anyway thanks to those that listened and responded and I suppose I'll see you all again soon.
Cheers
_Joram
Next week will be my last week here, and it's a shortened week as well, since it's Australia Day on Monday. I am also going to start doing some touristy things now, starting off with a Harbour Bridge Climb on Saturday. I might go visit some people too but not sure anymore if I want to travel too far anymore. I've had it up to here with it. I just need my movies and videogames and mass-downloading back. 4 months without them is just too long. Deja-vu is setting in now too because this is how I was feeling in my last week in Germany 5+ years ago. Basically what I'm saying is that I'm a computer geek for life, and going to another country isn't going to change anything about me.
Other than that I don't have much else to say. They actually gave me a lot of work to do now but what's the point, right at the end? What's funny is they did this to me in Germany as well, giving me heaps of work in my last 2 weeks there. Funny how the situation just mirrors itself so well. Also, having to take public transport. Even though my car is finished I will get a new one soon and be on my feet (or wheels) before you know it.
The only thing I'm dreading is the knee-high snow and the -20° weather. That will not be fun. Hopefully my friends picking me up at the airport will bring me some proper winter clothing or else it will be quite interesting.
This may be my last post from Australia because I don't have much access to the internet outside of work. But anyway thanks to those that listened and responded and I suppose I'll see you all again soon.
Cheers
_Joram
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
soldergast
we always had work
but the hours were long
and the pay was low
looking back we had it good
Oh to be in that wonderful
place again where life had
M E A N I N G and everything
had its place
but the hours were long
and the pay was low
looking back we had it good
Oh to be in that wonderful
place again where life had
M E A N I N G and everything
had its place
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Home and without a computer
Ach du lieber! That's pretty much how I can sum everything up right now. December 30th I went up to Mt. Barker in the Adelaide hills region. My cousin Esther lives there with her husband Mark. This was the first time I met her since she was a child. Now they have a child of their own that is about the age that I last saw her at... between 1 and 2 years old. She is a pretty exploratory child, and babbles to herself a lot. She will go up to random people and just want to meet them. Pretty funny to see.
I finally got to go to a wildlife park after all this time in Australia, the next day. I was pretty amazed to be so up close to koalas and kangaroos, and I finally got to see wombats. It was a much more intimate experience than the Sydney Wildlife World. I actually got to touch the koala and get my picture taken. Esther had a camera with her and they burned me a CD after I left, so I have at least that.
The next day was New Years and I went to the church there the first time. It wasn't so bad, it reminded me of the church I grew up in in Kitchener. Very similar conservative sort of church. The only difference is that there are a lot more young people and children here, instead of just senior citizens. After that we went to a barbecue at Ruth (cousin) & Albert's house. They have 5 kids, and then my cousin Miriam lives close by and she has 3 kids. So a lot of kids all over the place again like last month, only in a different house. We had some schnitzel and good times. My uncle also had a heart to heart talk with me and he told me about his testimony, how he was saved, and also about the dangers of the Internet. He also told me to stop being addicted to the computer. I wonder who told him about that.
The next day we went to Port Adelaide for a dolphin adventure cruise. It only cost $4 so I had a feeling there were no guaranteed sightings. And there weren't... except at the very end when we came back to port we saw a baby dolphin going out to see. Oh well.
All this time though ever since I came to Mt. Barker, I realized my computer had broken down. The LCD screen just didn't come up, and it rebooted itself after a while. Now I've been in touch with HP support via email but it's such a slow process I want to just call them instead. I'm not even sure this thing is covered under warranty anymore, since it was purchased in April 2007.
Also, when I got home on Saturday, my landlord was renovating my room. So I had to move out to another suburb until he finishes it up, which will be about mid-February. The new place is actually not so bad, but the shopping centre was burned down by hooligans in August so it is currently undergoing renovations. So I have to find other places with supermarkets. There is one 20 minutes down the road though, but I'm not sure I want to walk so far with heavy bags.
And when I got back to work naturally there was no work for me to do. So I'm just busying myself with made-up tasks. I did manage to get a bit of work to do but it's not looking so great. What was once a promise of 'heaps of work to do' is now looking like nothing at all! So I should either find new work or get out of Australia back into the cold winters of Canada. We'll see.
Anyway, that's my story so far. Hope you enjoy.
Later
_J
I finally got to go to a wildlife park after all this time in Australia, the next day. I was pretty amazed to be so up close to koalas and kangaroos, and I finally got to see wombats. It was a much more intimate experience than the Sydney Wildlife World. I actually got to touch the koala and get my picture taken. Esther had a camera with her and they burned me a CD after I left, so I have at least that.
The next day was New Years and I went to the church there the first time. It wasn't so bad, it reminded me of the church I grew up in in Kitchener. Very similar conservative sort of church. The only difference is that there are a lot more young people and children here, instead of just senior citizens. After that we went to a barbecue at Ruth (cousin) & Albert's house. They have 5 kids, and then my cousin Miriam lives close by and she has 3 kids. So a lot of kids all over the place again like last month, only in a different house. We had some schnitzel and good times. My uncle also had a heart to heart talk with me and he told me about his testimony, how he was saved, and also about the dangers of the Internet. He also told me to stop being addicted to the computer. I wonder who told him about that.
The next day we went to Port Adelaide for a dolphin adventure cruise. It only cost $4 so I had a feeling there were no guaranteed sightings. And there weren't... except at the very end when we came back to port we saw a baby dolphin going out to see. Oh well.
All this time though ever since I came to Mt. Barker, I realized my computer had broken down. The LCD screen just didn't come up, and it rebooted itself after a while. Now I've been in touch with HP support via email but it's such a slow process I want to just call them instead. I'm not even sure this thing is covered under warranty anymore, since it was purchased in April 2007.
Also, when I got home on Saturday, my landlord was renovating my room. So I had to move out to another suburb until he finishes it up, which will be about mid-February. The new place is actually not so bad, but the shopping centre was burned down by hooligans in August so it is currently undergoing renovations. So I have to find other places with supermarkets. There is one 20 minutes down the road though, but I'm not sure I want to walk so far with heavy bags.
And when I got back to work naturally there was no work for me to do. So I'm just busying myself with made-up tasks. I did manage to get a bit of work to do but it's not looking so great. What was once a promise of 'heaps of work to do' is now looking like nothing at all! So I should either find new work or get out of Australia back into the cold winters of Canada. We'll see.
Anyway, that's my story so far. Hope you enjoy.
Later
_J
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Adelaide again
Well I'm here again and I'm so damn bored. Dave and Jodie are nice enough people, there just isn't enough for a bloke like me to do around here! One of Dave's friends is offering to take me out one night to a club but that isn't just my scene at all. I will try to avoid it. I have mostly been sitting at home while Dave's at work, surfing the internet. Unfortunately I sucked all his bandwidth dry by downloading an hd version of Tropic Thunder. The movie's not so great and I fell asleep while watching it, so it wasn't really worth the download. Argh! Shoulda done my research a bit before I got it. Hopefully Dave won't be upset that he can only download at 64kbps now. Good thing it's near the end of the month now, and he should be up to his 1.2Mbps in January.
I am trying not to take advantage of the situation and just freeload here, but I keep getting offered candy and coffee and all sorts of snacks so who am I to refuse it? And when we go out Dave always pays for me, so I say hey why not. Today though i'm going to my other cousin's. My aunt & uncle will pick me up around 7pm tonight and then I will stay there for the remaining time. It shouldn't be too bad. They're nice people I'm told. It will be nice to have a change of environment. This hills of Adelaide are pretty nice, they remind me of the hills in Germany a bit. Twisty roads galore!
Christmas was ok here as well. The kids got a trambopoline and inspired me to download the trampoline episode of Simpsons. Back when it was a good show. His son got a Simpsons game too, and we played it and I knew none of the answers to the trivia questions because they were being pulled from mostly newer episodes. I haven't really been following Simpsons for the 20th century at all. When will someone finally pull the plug on it??? Seriously!
I was almost tempted to buy some $100 headphones. The current ones I have are pretty tinny and i want to hear the bass when I'm listening to my chunes. It's just the only way! My sister may be coming here soon, as she is running out of money in Sydney. It's too bad we weren't together here at once.
On Sunday we went to the River Murray about an hour from Adelaide. There I tried some kneeboarding and it was epic fail!! I fell so many times and I've been sore the past two days after. This is the river where Adelaide gets all its drinking water from. The whole road leading up to it has a big pipeline going along it. We had to get to the other side of the river and there is a free ferry that does that for you. Apparently it's cheaper for them to do that than to build a bridge.
Anyway that's my boring life so far. I spent the entire day importing my 2003 and 2007 blogs into blogspot. It was heaps fun! I just want to have a centralized place where I can find everything. I just hope I don't have another EMO moment and erase it all again, because I don't have anymore backups and I enjoy reading through old posts sometimes to see home much I have or haven't learned over the years.
Well that's it.
_Joram
I am trying not to take advantage of the situation and just freeload here, but I keep getting offered candy and coffee and all sorts of snacks so who am I to refuse it? And when we go out Dave always pays for me, so I say hey why not. Today though i'm going to my other cousin's. My aunt & uncle will pick me up around 7pm tonight and then I will stay there for the remaining time. It shouldn't be too bad. They're nice people I'm told. It will be nice to have a change of environment. This hills of Adelaide are pretty nice, they remind me of the hills in Germany a bit. Twisty roads galore!
Christmas was ok here as well. The kids got a trambopoline and inspired me to download the trampoline episode of Simpsons. Back when it was a good show. His son got a Simpsons game too, and we played it and I knew none of the answers to the trivia questions because they were being pulled from mostly newer episodes. I haven't really been following Simpsons for the 20th century at all. When will someone finally pull the plug on it??? Seriously!
I was almost tempted to buy some $100 headphones. The current ones I have are pretty tinny and i want to hear the bass when I'm listening to my chunes. It's just the only way! My sister may be coming here soon, as she is running out of money in Sydney. It's too bad we weren't together here at once.
On Sunday we went to the River Murray about an hour from Adelaide. There I tried some kneeboarding and it was epic fail!! I fell so many times and I've been sore the past two days after. This is the river where Adelaide gets all its drinking water from. The whole road leading up to it has a big pipeline going along it. We had to get to the other side of the river and there is a free ferry that does that for you. Apparently it's cheaper for them to do that than to build a bridge.
Anyway that's my boring life so far. I spent the entire day importing my 2003 and 2007 blogs into blogspot. It was heaps fun! I just want to have a centralized place where I can find everything. I just hope I don't have another EMO moment and erase it all again, because I don't have anymore backups and I enjoy reading through old posts sometimes to see home much I have or haven't learned over the years.
Well that's it.
_Joram
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Australia isn't for me
I know I've established this in previous blog posts, but this place just isn't for me. Namely, because I am a mass-downloader and a videogamer. Australia just doesn't cater to these demographics. Games are outrageously expensive and so is bandwidth. I read a great article on the bandwidth issue:
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/32769-reason-australia-lacks-unlimited-internet-plans.html
Very interesting read if you have 10-15 minutes to spare. Basically the long and short of it is that I'm screwed if I want to find some place with unlimited downloading. I will basically just have to pay for bandwidth from now on, there is no way around it. So I will either have to curb my habits or start buying things legit if I want to stay in this country. Sad thing is that other countries may follow suit sooner or later. Imagine paying for bandwidth like paying for gas or hydro... a travesty!
So don't worry all those who care: I will be back. Of course, my beloved eggplant probably won't be there to meet me, but I had a feeling I would be seeing her for the last time. May she rest in pieces.
Just trying to count down the days until I go to Adelaide again. 'Twill be soon. I have to eat all the perishables in my fridge before I go, that will be a laugh and a half.
_St. Joram
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/20/32769-reason-australia-lacks-unlimited-internet-plans.html
Very interesting read if you have 10-15 minutes to spare. Basically the long and short of it is that I'm screwed if I want to find some place with unlimited downloading. I will basically just have to pay for bandwidth from now on, there is no way around it. So I will either have to curb my habits or start buying things legit if I want to stay in this country. Sad thing is that other countries may follow suit sooner or later. Imagine paying for bandwidth like paying for gas or hydro... a travesty!
So don't worry all those who care: I will be back. Of course, my beloved eggplant probably won't be there to meet me, but I had a feeling I would be seeing her for the last time. May she rest in pieces.
Just trying to count down the days until I go to Adelaide again. 'Twill be soon. I have to eat all the perishables in my fridge before I go, that will be a laugh and a half.
_St. Joram
Monday, December 15, 2008
All alone
I was thinking today... why am I so alone. Why do I not to invite anyone into my life, yet I blog so open and free inviting complete strangers (sometimes) into my life. The people I should let into my life I keep away, and the ones that should have no business with my life I let in. It makes absolutely no sense. That is why I have come to the conclusion that I am an anomaly. I am enjoying watching the show "Big Bang Theory". It somehow hits close to home.
The stores in Australia usually close at around 5pm. It's ridiculous! I can't go and buy things at the huge mall at the Parramatta train station because people want to go home by 5. It's only on Thursdays that stores are open 'late', till around 8. So funny! When will the Aussies learn and have retail stores open until late every day. Only now, during Chrissy, they will have the stores open to reasonable hours when us working stiffs can actually take advantage.
Well this is the last week I am working in 2008. Good times! Fair Dinkum! Good on ya matey! Tomorrow is Tuesday and hopefully my noisy neighbour/flatmate will move out. He drinks like no tomorrow and then complains to me that he has health problems! I have to wear headphones so that I don't hear his noisy rants into the wee hours of the morning. Him and his brother sit outside and drink drink drink as many Australians do. But this is too much for me. I need my beauty sleep.
I am slowly starting to recover my missing collection of goodies. Of course my connection is only 256kbps so it will take a while, but I already managed to grab all the Office episodes I missed, some H264 movies, and lots and lots of mp3s. Life is starting to go back to normal. Friends? I have none here. They have all left already. And going to church well... that has almost died completely within me. I just don't want to hear about it anymore. I have become cold to the whole thing. Even though I live closer to Hillsong I don't want anything to do with it. I really have no idea what's wrong with me. Why can't I be like everyone else and be a normal social functioning adult human being?
Next week I am going to Adelaide again. It will hopefully be fun times again. Dave is a cool guy and very hospitable. I hope I can return the favour when he comes to visit me in Canada someday. I will also hopefully spend time with his siblings, my other cousins, up in the hills of Adelaide. There is a bakery there where I just have to try the German Pretzels. Oh yes I went there and CAPITALIZED that word, lulz.
Well sorry to all those that were following the blog, I promise to keep it up now. I will just have to avoid being so personal and be more general. That way I can avoid being outed by my next potential employer as a loser whom they would never want to hire.
Later all, thanks for listening to my rants.
Joramininee
The stores in Australia usually close at around 5pm. It's ridiculous! I can't go and buy things at the huge mall at the Parramatta train station because people want to go home by 5. It's only on Thursdays that stores are open 'late', till around 8. So funny! When will the Aussies learn and have retail stores open until late every day. Only now, during Chrissy, they will have the stores open to reasonable hours when us working stiffs can actually take advantage.
Well this is the last week I am working in 2008. Good times! Fair Dinkum! Good on ya matey! Tomorrow is Tuesday and hopefully my noisy neighbour/flatmate will move out. He drinks like no tomorrow and then complains to me that he has health problems! I have to wear headphones so that I don't hear his noisy rants into the wee hours of the morning. Him and his brother sit outside and drink drink drink as many Australians do. But this is too much for me. I need my beauty sleep.
I am slowly starting to recover my missing collection of goodies. Of course my connection is only 256kbps so it will take a while, but I already managed to grab all the Office episodes I missed, some H264 movies, and lots and lots of mp3s. Life is starting to go back to normal. Friends? I have none here. They have all left already. And going to church well... that has almost died completely within me. I just don't want to hear about it anymore. I have become cold to the whole thing. Even though I live closer to Hillsong I don't want anything to do with it. I really have no idea what's wrong with me. Why can't I be like everyone else and be a normal social functioning adult human being?
Next week I am going to Adelaide again. It will hopefully be fun times again. Dave is a cool guy and very hospitable. I hope I can return the favour when he comes to visit me in Canada someday. I will also hopefully spend time with his siblings, my other cousins, up in the hills of Adelaide. There is a bakery there where I just have to try the German Pretzels. Oh yes I went there and CAPITALIZED that word, lulz.
Well sorry to all those that were following the blog, I promise to keep it up now. I will just have to avoid being so personal and be more general. That way I can avoid being outed by my next potential employer as a loser whom they would never want to hire.
Later all, thanks for listening to my rants.
Joramininee
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