lifes little greats

[Langslave]

Youve confused me Raelene, 'Sledge Hammer' was a solo Peter Gabriel song, 'Dont Give Up', or whatever the title was, WAS a collaboration with Kate Bush, but theyre two different songs

[sirwanksalot]

Just looked up my old tube amp on ebay and there's one just like it going for $1200.

[Wage Slave]

Doesn't surprise me. All vintage audio gear has risen sharply in price over the last 5 years and valve kit is especially in demand.

[steki47]

Second half of this week, my Ebay business got real busy. Every morning I have been waking up to see that someone has bought something. In fact, I have been selling 3-4 items the past 2-3 days. Hardly complaining, but I'm wondering what happened.

[Raelene]

You've confused me Raelene

Why do men always say that?

[sos]

In a way it is sad I can't say this in real life but
my son placed 2nd in his practice test for elementary entrance exam among the boys (about 80 of them)
and 5th overall (about 155 students in his age group)!!

Just to think 2 years ago, he was at the international kindergarten and didn't know the names of color in Japanese. He has come a long way!!!

[Raelene]

my son placed 2nd in his practice test for elementary entrance exam among the boys (about 80 of them)
and 5th overall (about 155 students in his age group)!!

Yay! Well done!

[SamhainP8]

Anyone seen the new kids show on kid's station where the resdient evil dude who the others always make fun of looks just like a Kiss version of the Statue of Liberty?

[allblacks]

In 3 weeks Im taking a trip out of Japan for just under a week. Then in July another one to Busan. These little escapes do me wonders. Hang the damn expense! Lol

[MacGyver]

Off to Shanghai tomorrow with the wife for 3 days! Couldn't come at a better time sanity-wise! (Mostly relating to my job rather than gripes with Japan.)

[allblacks]

Hope you enjoyed yourself Mac. This weekend I spent at home. Got home Friday night about midnight after drinking. Did not leave the house until this morning for work. Did not answer the door nor the phone. Total escape from society. LOL!

[Langslave]

I went to the local English Volunteer desk at city hall this morning to get some info on 2 things. I ended up spending over two hours there while two very nice, helpful women tried to help solve my other problems for me too! Nice to meet people who are helpful because thats their nature, instead of those fake nice-to-your-face fuckers who end up not helping you at all anyway.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

Amen to that! And hope they can actually help you out with everything!

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

Another great - I took the time to remove all my thread subscriptions, re-subscribe to the ones I still follow, and changed my registered email address. And, hooray!, I'm getting email notifications again!!

[MacGyver]

Hope you enjoyed yourself Mac. This weekend I spent at home. Got home Friday night about midnight after drinking. Did not leave the house until this morning for work. Did not answer the door nor the phone. Total escape from society. LOL!

Cheers mate, yeah I did. Shanghai was an interesting place and had a pretty good time. I've done the shut myself off from society thing too. Sometimes its an absolute necessity, especially in the big city.

[Langslave]

Thanks ex, they said because they werent there to help me find a job they couldnt directly tell me where there was work, but they made it clear they knew people who were looking for English teachers. Sounded like groups of retirees who wanted to study but had no real teacher and would be happy to pay. I have a feeling it might at least lead to some privates for cash in hand anyway. It was just nice to have someone with sympathetic ears to talk to about everything too. I mean, I met up with my old Nova mates a cuppla weeks ago, and we talked about it all, and that helped to get things off my chest, but theres not a lot they can do to help me concretely.
I didnt do what you did re notifications though I tried it some time ago (except changing e mail address, that was gunna be my next tactic), but today they seem to have been flooding in! Well, maybe 6 or so, but thats much better than the recent past.

[sirwanksalot]

I have a lot on my plate now and have little time or inclination to mindlessly surf the internet. Being busy keeps the devil away.

[SamhainP8]

At the local playground with son 1 this morning and there was 2 other dads with young kids having fun (no mums around). Good to see

[allblacks]

Getting rid of loud arsehole. Thank fuck. 20th of June is his last day. I wont be here for it. HAHA!

[sirwanksalot]

Typhoon just south of us making for some good surf.

[allblacks]

Ive been doing push ups at work to relieve the stress of "the singer/talker to himself." Started off doing like 10 and struggling. But now Im up to being maxed out at 35. Pretty soon 40 I hope.

Only another 5 days of working with this guy to go.

[angryboy]

Costco are selling their artisan bread again this weekend.
Real wholegrain bread for brekki today.Ham salad sangers for lunch.
Will get into the rosemary and olive oil one next week.
REAL FUCKING BREAD!!!

[Langslave]

This morning I went back to see the ladies that helped at me at City Hall 2 weeks ago. Went to take them some mini-Anzacs I baked for them and to ask something about pension. They were happy to see me because they needed some help working out some communication from their sister-city in Queensland. They called them earlier but its a holiday there today apparently so naturally no-one was in the office. So I spent about an hour and a half helping them and the liason officer figure out what they wanted to know. Felt good to be doing something useful. Only downside was...I was in such a hurry getting the Anzacs ready before I left...I completely forgot the pension papers, so Ill have to go back with them next week

[allblacks]

Today is the last day that I have to sit near this guy at work who is SUCH a loud prick! He was moved over here because he ANNOYED the brass when he was close to them and they could take no more. Its just really annoying and counter productive to have to be near someone like this.

Finally though after a couple of months of this he is going! Relieved!

[RandyDickson]

Looks like Mr Dickson will finally get his spouse Visa.
We've been living in different countries for more than a year and a half.

[MacGyver]

Looks like Mr Dickson will finally get his spouse Visa.
We've been living in different countries for more than a year and a half.

I'm confused. I've had a number of mates move to Oz with their J spouses over the past 2 to 3 years and as far as I know they all got PR before they left. In fact I signed paper work for 2 of them. This was not possible in your case? Compared to Japan getting PR for Oz is exceedingly easy, although far more expensive.

[SamhainP8]

Bumped 2 big paper wasp nests while putting all the outdoor blinds and shade cloths back up and despite getting surrounded by wasps on two separate occasions I didn't get stung once.

That means I also avoided getting stung while pulling everything down in preparation for the typhoon but I didnt even notice them at that stage.

Australian paper wasps would have nailed me relentlessly and I'd be a screaming red mess in the shower about now

[Kuronama]

Bumped 2 big paper wasp nests while putting all the outdoor blinds and shade cloths back up and despite getting surrounded by wasps on two separate occasions I didn't get stung once.

That's because your gaijin blood is too hot for them - 37 C is boiling dude!

I'm confused. I've had a number of mates move to Oz with their J spouses over the past 2 to 3 years and as far as I know they all got PR before they left. In fact I signed paper work for 2 of them. This was not possible in your case? Compared to Japan getting PR for Oz is exceedingly easy, although far more expensive.

I'd have to agree. Ive been looking - just as a possible career option - at skilled migration to Western Australia/Perth. Seems theyre screaming out for people with skills in certain fields - one being geologists, my area. The requirements for State Sponsorship/immigration now seem to be that you have at least one year of experience within the last 24 months in your particular field, and that you pass the points test (where the benchmark seems to have decreased from 100 to 65 - which I have, in so long as I can get that one year experience, pass an IELTS test with a score of 8 or higher and move before I turn 33). As long as you satisfy those requirements, and u agree to live in the sponsoring territory/state for two years, one qualifies for Skilled Migration Visa 176, a permanent visa. Queensland, not surprisingly, was 5 years relevant work experience - and the SOL (Skilled Occupation List) was shorter.


As for Canada, it was pretty straightforward when it came to getting my wife's PR. The hard part was collecting all the evidence, which we had luckily accumulated over the course of a couple years. I was accepted as a sponsor after only like 3 weeks from the time we mailed in the application; she had some medical tests done, and we waited. I think in total in took about six months, and there were no glitches. We were both quite surprised, to be honest.

And just an aside: My great for today is thinking back about how easy it was/still is somewhat to get an ok paying english teaching gig in Japan. Sure, salaries and conditions have worsened, no doubt about it, but having been back in Canada now since November, it's been quite a shock with respect to how difficult it's been landing work. I was, however, just offered a job yesterday as an entry level "industrial hygienist", whereby I would have learned the ropes about inspecting buildings for asbestos, lead and mould. Let me tell you, it was a tough decision. Being offered a full-time job at $14/hour starting (around 1200 or 1300 yen), with primarily eikaiwa experience post-uni, was hard to turn down. The reason I did though was partly due to the nature of the work. I could have seen doing it short-term, but not long-term. And I felt that once I got in to it, it would have been able to move on from it and get into work that is more of my interest. The main reason I didnt take it, however, was knowing that Id have to visit derelict, boarded up and abandoned buildings. During the interview, I was told by the guy who interviewed me that he's been in buildings with homeless people and druggies. And that if I was offered the job, Id be going into buildings alone, and likely encountering similar situations at some point. And if you guys know anything about Vancouver, you'll know that there's an area called "east hastings" downtown, which is apparently the worst place in North America, not just Canada. It's apparently got the highest hiv/aids rate in N.America. Not to mention the number of boarded up buildings down there, and god knows what's lying around (ie. needles, etc..). I remember living about a 5-10 minute drive from there back in uni, and one evening finding a needle next to my car. That freaked me out. So yah, english teaching in Japan, as bad as it can be in terms of all the petty shit and degrading conditions, still aint the worst thing in the world, in my books... Oh, I do have a couple other potential job prospects in the coming days/weeks; that's another reason I turned this offer down. I basically gambled... and am crossing my fingers right now

[MacGyver]

Off to Sri Lanka tomorrow for 5 days! And with my annual review tonight, it couldn't come at a better time!

[SamhainP8]

I really like that I can walk home half cut from the train station at half past a mother fucker in complete safety. Back home my senses would be on high alert from the moment I got in the line for the train until I locked my front door. All stupid bullshit aside, that speaks volumes to me about the place.